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I can’t believe it.
Ella’s dad stands before me, right in the flesh, someone I haven’t seen in ten years, yet he remembers me as Ella’s friend.
Does he know that we haven’t spoken since high school? And that we are no longer friends?
Does he know that he is part of the reason why we are homeless?
“Uh, yeah, I guess so,” I say instead, laughing nervously.
“Yeah, you girls were very close, I remember, you always came over,” he continues brightly. But the smile slowly melts off his face as he says, “However, it’s been a while…”
“With all due respect, Mr Armstrong, we are not here to catch up on old memories, but to discuss business, specifically, what you are doing with our business, or at least, what’s left of it,” I glance over at the workers who carry empty shelves out from the shop, dumping them into the back of the truck.
“Oh, yes! Well, you see this entire shopping mall strip?” he gestures broadly with his hands at the shops. “I bought it.”
“All of it?” my mother’s jaw drops as the man nods.
“Yep. Of course, since it’s a public property, I basically paid the government for it, so if you’re here for the money…I’m not your guy,” he shrugs.
“Wait, so it’s not just our shop that’s being taken away? It’s all the shops next to it as well?” my mother inquires.
“Uh-huh. I’m gonna build an apartment complex,” he grins. “It’s gonna be huge.“
I cringe slightly. Why is he impersonating Trump?
“And so all these businesses…where are they supposed to go? What’s going to happen to them?” I demand.
“Like I said, I’m not your guy,” he shrugs again.
And that’s when I notice that all the adjacent shops, which include a book shop, a florist and a coin laundry, are all…empty. Closed. Locked up.
“Well, then, thanks anyway,” it comes out a little harsher than I intended, and Eomma lets me know by pinching me. Ow.
“Sorry, there’s nothing I can do for you.”
“Actually, there is something you can do,” my mother pipes up, and when I glance at her I notice she has her business face on.
Ella’s father folds his arms, raising his eyebrows. “Oh?”
“You said you are building apartments, right?”
“Yes…”
“Give us one.”
He bursts out laughing. “Excuse me? You want me to just give you one of the apartments for free?”
“I never said for free, unless that’s what you’re offering,” my mother folds her arms, arching an eyebrow, and I have to stifle a laugh at the scene before me. I miss seeing this side of my mum.
“Well, when we’ve finished building, we’ll talk then, how about that?” Ella’s dad continues to chuckle, but my mother is dead serious.
“It’s only fair to give us the first choice of apartment, since you stole our land from us.”
Okay, Eomma, no need to bring colonialism into this. But her words successfully make Ella’s father feel uncomfortable, and perhaps a little guilty.
“Of course, here’s my card, and my name’s Gary, by the way,” he hands out his card, and my mother basically snatches it from him, instantly stashing it into her pocket without a glance toward it.
“We’ll be in touch,” she enunciates, and the look on his face is priceless as we walk back to our car.
“He’s definitely going to talk about us to his daughter,” I say once we have driven away.
“Let him talk,” my mother shrugs, and this time I laugh out heartily.
“Eomma, he didn’t even get your name.”
“Even better,” she flicks her short hair sassily while keeping one hand on the wheel.
I cackle. “I love you so much.”
“Love you more, hun.”
【★】
“Aria!”
Taehyung attacks me with a bear hug as soon as I stumble across him in the corridor, and I am hit with a wave of his warmth and boyish scent as I am squeezed until I can barely breathe.
“Taehyung, you’re suffocating me!” I grunt, and he pulls away, giggling sheepishly.
“Sorry, I’m just so excited to see you.”
Aw. “If you hug me that tight again, there won’t be a next time,” I snap, causing Taehyung to gasp.
“Don’t say that!” he clamps a hand over my mouth. “If you say things like that out loud, it could come true.”
“No, it won’t,” I mumble through his palm, and he yanks his hand away, clutching it and laughing.
“That tickled.”
I snort, my heart doing a little thing as I regard this precious boy. “Well, anyway, I need to go to my –”
“No, wait, come with me,” Taehyung grabs my hand, tugging me back in the direction I came from – the front door.
“What, where are we going?” but he doesn’t answer me as he slips into his shoes, and then forces me to do the same.
“Taehyung, wh –” he is still silent as he opens the door, dragging me into the blinding daylight.
Finally, he turns to me, the sun highlighting his hair and the wind blowing it across his forehead. “We’re going on a date.”
I almost choke on my spit. “A d-date? Now?”
He nods, and it’s in that moment that I am thankful I didn’t dress like a total slob today. I have my denim jacket over a white t-shirt and black jeans, which I realize I’ve worn before with Taehyung. And thankfully, I have my mobile phone in my pocket, as well as an extra pad and ibuprofen.
“Where are we going exactly?”
He winks – winks – and just replies with, “You’ll see.”
We take a bus to the middle of the city, and walk a few blocks. The entire time, his hand grips mine, a constant force pulling me forward in a crowd of confusion and noise. A lot of people turn to look at us as we pass through, and I don’t blame them, because a) Taehyung is tall and intimidating and b) he’s practically kidnapping me.
We finally enter Bourke Street Mall, where the biggest brands in fashion are located, and that’s when Taehyung lets go of my hand, instead resting his arm around my shoulders as we walk.
“You see all this, Aria?” he sweeps his hand through the air, gesturing to all the shop names. “This is our playground. And today, we play.”
“We’re going shopping?”
He grins down at me. “I’m gonna buy you whatever you like, okay?”
“Why?” I blurt, and our walking speed comes to a halt as he faces me.
“Because you’ve been down lately, and I want to see you smile again, for real,” he pokes my cheek, and I glance at the floor.
“You don’t have to do this…”
He lifts my chin up to look at him, and the look in his eyes makes my heart skip. “But I want to, Aria. Come on,” he pulls me to his side again and we join the flow of moving shoppers.
At first, I don’t know what I want, because shopping has never been a luxury for me, only a necessity, and usually I was accompanied by my mother who would be holding a list of all the things we needed. Of course, my mother also had a credit card, and sometimes she would come home with extra bags of stuff we didn’t even need, such as fancy clothes and extra kitchen supplies just in case.
But then I spot something that catches my interest, and I stop.
“I’m just gonna have a look,” I wander into the store with Taehyung at my heels. It’s a dress shop, and although I don’t wear nor care for dresses, this particular one looks so…pretty.
“You should try it on,” Taehyung suggests as I trail my fingers over the soft black fabric.
“Nah, I couldn’t,” I let go of it, shaking my head, but Taehyung suddenly leans in so that I can hear the rush of his breath.
“But I want to see you in it,” he whispers, and I almost swoon, feeling light-headed.
“O-okay, I think maybe I could quickly t-try it,” I unhook it from the rack, in a daze as I drift over to the fitting rooms at the back of the shop. I don’t even spare a glance at the retail worker, who stares at me with an odd expression.
Once I get into the fitting room, I lean against the wall, catching my breath. Why does he always do that? I swear Taehyung needs to stop speaking so close to my ear, or that area in general.
I avoid my reflection as much as possible as I change, but once I finish, I gasp. The girl in the reflection has transformed into a sexy black vixen with curves that are accentuated by the way the dress clings to my skin in all the right places. Paired with the French braid that my hair is still twisted into, I look like I am ready to go out.
However, I am not ready to go out just yet from this change-room. Why is this dress so short?
“Are ya ready, Ari-yaaah?” Taehyung booms from outside, and I take one last attempt at tugging the hem of the dress down my thigh. I should’ve just kept my jeans on dammit. But Taehyung is getting impatient, going as far as knocking on the door, causing me to almost trip over my shoes in fear.
“Okay, I’m coming out, stand back,” I fling the curtain aside with a flourish, and my eyes land on Taehyung, who is completely paralyzed on the spot, jaw unhinged and eyes staring unabashedly.
“Aria, you…you…” I watch his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he blinks profusely, and I can’t help but smirk. He’s speechless. I made him speechless.
I find myself unconsciously twirling the end of my braid and biting my lip as his eyes continue to graze over me, and for some wild reason, I’m enjoying it.
“What’s wrong with you?” I tease, and he licks his lips.
“That dress…I’m gonna buy it for you,” his lips curve into a half-smile as he finally awakes from the spell.
“Really?” I can’t hide my joy, and his smile widens at the tone of my voice.
“Really,” he steps forward, sliding his arms around my waist. “But first…”
I stumble backwards into the change room as his lips lock with mine, hungrily and dangerously. My back hits the mirror and I break from him for just a second to catch my breath, for he surely stole it away before it was even mine. In that moment, I catch his eyes that bore into me with an intensity that surpasses all other levels I have witnessed, and it scares – no, thrills me.
This time I am the one to draw him in, curling my fingers over the nape of his neck while his fingers dig into my back, and the kiss feels like fire on my lips, a fire that cannot be extinguished.
We’ve kissed before, but there’s something about this one that’s way more passionate and desperate than all the others. And it is for that very reason that we don’t realize where we are, or who could be watching, since we stupidly left the curtain open, until it is too late.
“Excuse me, you two, but you’re not allowed to do that in there.”
We both turn, cheeks flushed and hearts beating madly, and for some reason this feels even worse than all those times my mother caught us cuddling, because one) we were kissing and two) this isn’t my mother.
Taehyung is the first to exit the change-room, apologizing to the retail assistant while raking his fingers through the back of his hair as if he has an itch. I remain in the change-room, breathing heavily as I make brief eye contact with the girl, and I stiffen, recognizing her immediately.
No.
It can’t be.
Ella.
【★】
double update because I felt like it *dabs ironically*
dedicated to seokjinslut92 for being my 500th comment
next milestone will be 2,000 reads 😉
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