Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Joon was friends with Tan? If they were friends where had they been for the past one week since I reported and why didn’t Sarah ever mention a thing about this to me? I needed to avoid Joon if I really wanted a drama free school year. The Tan I used to be friends with was somebody different to the Tan here. Four years ago it was impossible to imagine Tan using any type of cuss word when talking to somebody older than him and yet he did boldly talked to the lecturer like that today. I was disrupted from my train of thinking by the shrill ringing of my phone. I picked it up without checking the caller ID because I assumed it was my mother.

“Hello,”

“Hey Holly. Its Joon,” My attention was suddenly sparked.

“H-How did you get my number?” The stuttering had not been intentional.

“My sister,”

“Of course,” Very predictable.

“You seemed to be in a hurry when you left class this morning,” He said in an easy tone.

“Yeah. I had an emergency that I had to take care of immediately,”

“Oh, okay. So you want to meet up? My sister will kill me if I don’t make sure you enjoy your time here,” Why in the seven wonders of the world did I have to be friends with Sarah?

“I’m not sure. I still have a couple of really important things I need to do,”

“Okay. Now that you have my number, you can call me when you are free. There is so much you need to learn about in RCU and I’m not stopping until you a Pro RCU elite,”

“Of course,”

After he hung up, I lay flat on my back. This day was not just going on well. Sharing a class with Tan was proof enough that I should have just stayed in EWU back in America instead of running off to Roxen city.  Why the hell did I have to run into him now after all these years? I rolled over to reach for my phone that I had carelessly thrown on the fluffy pillow. It was already six forty five in the evening. Alex walked in, her wet raven hair tumbling up to her waist and a white towel tied around her body.

“Don’t tell me you are going to the fighting thing again,” I groaned.

“Nope. It won’t be happening for another couple of days. I just needed a refreshment. You want to grab dinner from that Diner? They have the best black bean ramyeon,” she gushed. Well, she was the pro and definitely the reason why my mother hasn’t blown up my phone constantly checking up on me. Despite her girl, innocent appearance, Alex was someone you could never mess up with.

“Nope. How about you just grab me some doughnuts on your way back?”

“Doughnuts? You want to sleep on doughnuts?” she stared at me like I had just lost my mind.

“I’m not hungry,” I said, pushing a smile on my face. I couldn’t just tell her that I literally afraid of running into Tan. I didn’t want to feel the pain his presence was subjecting me too. It was such a shame that even after four years he still affected me this much. It made me hate myself and hate him more.

“Okay,” she sighed, proceeding to her closet.

She dressed up in a blue jeans and a faded pink blouse that she hid with a Mid-thigh length black coat. She tied up her hair into a loose ponytail which was actually a wet mess.

“Wait, you are not going with that hair like that, are you?” I asked in bewilderment. My mother would never let me step out like that but I guess it came with the fact that I needed to keep my image clean. With my father winning the best drama series director of the year last year and my mother being the proud owner of KIM’S BEAUTY PARLOUR, a very famous beauty parlor for very exclusive K-idols in the heart of Seoul, I had to watch every step I make. Sometimes, this life of having to keep up an image was very exhausting but it did come with its benefits like easy transfers and despite not many people knowing me, I still had to be careful.

“You sound just like my mother,” she replied, laughing.

“Well someone has gotta be the mum here. We can’t all get to be kids,” I smirked.

“Actually, you are forgetting I’m your own personal bodyguard,” Sometimes it was so easy to forget that simple fact.

“Really?” I teased.

She shook her head, the smile on her face clearly stating amusement, before walking out. I took out my notebook meaning to go through my notes but the only thing I seemed to be thinking about was Tan. He was not the same Tan I knew and despite the fact that I was still mad after he stood me up on Winter Formal, I could not deny the fact that he had changed so much. I was disrupted from my thoughts by the knock on the door. Why would Alex knock on the door when this was a room we shared? When the knocking became insistent, I reluctantly stepped off the bed amidst groaning and yanked the door open, ready to release quite a tongue lash but stopped on seeing who was at the door.

“Hey,” The words slipped off his lips.

“W-What are you doing here Tan?” I asked instead, trying not to grind my jaw too hard.

“I came to talk to you,” he replied, pushing his palms into the front pockets of his jeans.

“How did you even find me?” I crossed my arms, hoping to subdue the goose bumps crawling on my skin.

“That is not important. I just want to talk, Holly,”

“I’m busy and hopefully I never I get to see your face ever again, Lee Tan,” I snapped.

“Look, I don’t get why you are mad,” Was he being serious right now?

“Stay away from me Tan while I’m still being nice about it,”

“I will if you give me a chance to talk to you. I know you want to talk too, “He was definitely right. I wanted an explanation so I could understand why he had to hurt me like that. Maybe then I would understand why he did what he did.

“No, thanks. I’d rather continue living my life without having to talk to you. Just go to hell please,” I smiled sardonically, blocking the looming anger rising in my throat.

“Holly-“

“Goodbye Tan,” I slammed the door on his face.

With my back resting on the door and eyes closed, I breathed out deeply to calm myself down. This day was not just going well for me all thanks to the popular and pretty much arrogant Tan. Huffing I settled on my bed. I hated how just the thought of making me all upset. I hated him for making me hate just how mad I was at him.  I tried watching but nothing seemed really interesting enough to grab my attention for long. Giving up I texted Alex to ask her of her whereabouts and within a minute she replied.

Still at the diner. U had a change of mind?

Yes. I’ll be there in ten.

I hit send, grabbed a turquoise hoodie, locked the door and walked out. It was already seven and the dinner was getting pretty crowded when I got there.