Hanji gets home pretty late. He uses his spare key to pass through the locked door. There, just as he enters, he sees his mom sleeping on the couch. He approaches her and notices the dried tears on her cheeks. She immediately got up when she felt soft lips against her forehead.
"You are back?" she says while caressing his hair. "Yes mom" he smiles.
Her heart brimmed with bliss when she notices how genuinely he smiled at her. He was different today.
"Where did you go today?" she asked.
"I was hanging out at my friends house." He replies.
"I would like to meet them one day." she says clearly convinced that they were the reason behind his beaming face.
"I assume you have eaten dinner as well. Now go freshen up, I will make you hot milk."
She then puts in the refrigerator the food she made with love and great effort to cheer up her depressed son. The dishes comprised mostly of his favorites.
Slowly, carrying the tray in her tiny feeble hands, she climbed the staircase to his room.
She takes out his pajamas which he wears after coming out from the bathroom, dries his hair, gives him the milk, and massages his hair with sesame oil releaving all his stress and exhaustion.
The day he had thought would end up being his worst day as it always had been ended up being his best day. He couldn't have been more grateful.
It was finally Friday and like any other group of friends of teenagers, the three, Hanji Chaerry Eugene, began discussions of what to do during the weekend.
"I will be busy, might not make it." hanji replies to Eugene's suggestion to hang out at her house again.
"Oh well, how about you guys join me instead?" he proposed.
"Where?" the two friends ask in unison. "To the mall. I've got some shopping to do." he says.
"I would love to" Eugene.
"Count me in if there is 'coffee'" Chaerry says. Confused at first, Hanji soon catches the hint and gives her an OK sign.
"So deal! See you tomorrow." he says and goes back to his seat.
"Dude! Would you like to come to the mall with us tomorrow?" Hanji asks Chris who came to collect his homework. "Us?" he asks. " Chaerry, Eugene and I" he tells. Chris leaves without hanji handing in his homework - he obviously hasn't completed or even started it- after uttering a muffled sure.
That simple four-lettered word that came out from Chris mouth had the girl sitting in front of Hanji exhilarated. She turns and high-fives Hanji. "Dumbo" he says while smiling at her.
"Your smile makes it less offensive" she smiles back.
At the mall, all had arrived except for the man of the plan. "Hurry up!" They yelled at the lad who jogged towards them.
Hanji skims around to see if there is another big man dressed in all black along with matching mask similar to the one he had caught tailing him on his way. His suspicions were confirmed when he noticed at least one from each direction standing at a distance.
He decides to ignore for he knew what they were after and on whose behalf.
In the mall, Hanji suggests to spilt up into a group of two.
"Eugene, I believe you have excellent choice. So could you do mom's shopping?" he hands her a card.
"Take the nerd along." he adds
"And you, well, you are coming with me since I know your taste sucks and I just happened to be in need of that today. " he says dragging away the reluctant Chaerry by the wrist. "Let's meet at that restaurant later" he points at a restaurant with a name board that read "falxia fries"
"So I need a lot of trendy stuff. First a pink wig, as many accessories as possible, rowdy hats, and yeah, we will see the rest. " he instructs Chaerry.
Chaerry picks all the stuff asked for and dumps them into the trolley.
"You choice! Amazing! Just as ugly as I wanted. It about to bring the attention I want." he exclaims following it with a cackle.
"Just where are you planning to go with this? Hope it's not a club." she asks
"Worry not sweetheart! You are going to find out soon." he winks at her
"Eww!!!" she rolls her eyes at him and proceeds to push the trolley to the
payment counter. Their shopping lasts over an hour.
On the other hand, Chris and Eugene, took less than an hour and were already at the restaurant waiting for them. Eugene decided to order food as they waited hence joined the queue.
Chris sat still, rolled up the sleeves on his white shirt exposing his thick veiny arms that had scarce hair. He swept his fingers through his brown orbs messing up his neatly done hair. He felt hot - and oh well, did he look too.
He had no clue of the amount of pain he was causing to the fragile hearts of the girls that sat at the table next to his. They squaled and let out soft giggles as they approached him and asked for his number.
He stared at them for seconds and to clear the air that was growing tensed the girls ask if he had a girlfriend. He replies with a quick no causing the expressions of the girls to lit up immediately.
He then takes the phone they handed him and writes down his phone number. They walk away happy again while giggling.
THUD!
He hears and looks up to see Eugene angrily placing the tray on the table.
Still standing while clutching on both sides of the tray she starts her lecture.
"So you had fun, I see! You gave out your number. Those bony figures that resemble a broom are now your type. So what do I prepare for your next breakup?" she stares right into his eyes.
"No! It's not like that. They probably just want to be friends." he tries to justify.
"Oh yeah! They sure had expressions of someone who wants to be "just friends" Like come on! You are going to get hurt again. You barely have time for yourself , you think you can give someone else. I thought we had agreed that you are never dating again until university." Her voice was filled with worry and laced with a hint of jealousy.
"Calm down." he says
It was clearly not that big of a deal like she had reacted. She didn't know either why she did that. She just knew she was worried. But was it just that?
"How should I when you..... Oh my God? Do I have to keep worrying and taking care of you all the time?" she pouts and glares at him.
Chris stands up from his chair, unable to control his urge anymore and pulls Eugene by the neck gently causing his lips to land on hers naturally.
The handful customers in the restaurant clapped and cheered them as if Chris had done something heroic.
He sure was finally brave -deserved-.
Hanji and Chaerry now done with their shopping walk towards the restaurant.
"Wait!" Hanji stops Eugene who carried eight shopping bags with her thin pale arms. She feels relieved when stopped by him as she thinks he was finally going to offer carry some.
"Don't dream. I am just counting the bags to see if anything is missing." he says evily.
Chaerry's pleas fell on deaf ears as she suffered her punishment- a payback according to Hanji - for asking him to bring Chris along.
Hanji walked ahead and she trudged behind him like his carrier.
"Evilness must be his surname!" Chaerry says as she squats to rest before moving on. Creating a gap of a few metres between them.
They were almost near the restaurant from where thunder of applauses could be heard. Hanji walks in first just to see what he knew Chaerry shouldn't see.
He deceives her. "I think we lost the way. This is the wrong place. Let's go there" he points at somewhere in the air.
" I am sure it was here. Look it says falxia. Come on let me in." she struggles against his broad shoulders that barred her passage.
They flip a coin and the winner chooses whether to go in and confirm if its the place they were to meet up as suggested by Chaerry. With that Hanji hopes to buy time and throws the coin as high as possible. They flip another coin and with the rule of three, Chaerry wins.
The commotion had died. They walk in to a Chris who sat alone. Chaerry queries about Eugene's whereabouts just to find out that she had gone to the washroom.
"You must have started eating already. Your lips are red." Chaerry says.
"Oh yeah! Just the sauce." Chris lets out an awkward chuckle while taking a lick of the chilli sauce in the small container.
Eugene returns back from the washroom.
"Took you long enough." Chaerry says.
The whole atmosphere is filled with awkwardness which only Chaerry isn't aware of its cause. She decides to break the ice and starts talking about how the descendant of Hitler had tortured her life in a span of an hour.
With that Hanji starts another fight with her which loosens up the tension in the air and for a while, all who are aware, forget about the incident earlier.
They eat, talk and head back home.