Our Story | Han Ji Pyeong (Under Maintenance)

Chapter 17: Ballerina With Questions

UNEDITED 

Kim Hara

About 15 minutes into the drive to coffee-nim's place, I noticed that his house was the complete opposite of my hotel. It was the moment when I looked around our surroundings that I noticed it was an area I've never been before, but I recalled the first time he dropped me off that his house was 'on the way'. If he lied then that means he travelled all the way back every time which is kind of far. I couldn't help the heavy feeling in my gut from forming, if I knew I never would've asked him to drop me off the second time. 

Storing the feeling away for now, I made sure to focus on driving instead. Thankfully his home was in a close distance to SandBox compared to my hotel which was a 30 minute drive. When we reached the apartment complex, I parked my car in the garage and switched off the engine. I checked the message that Dal Mi's mom sent and it said that his house was on the 5th floor. I stashed my phone back in the pocket of my jeans and got off the car going over to his side. 

This man was sleeping soundly in my car and honestly I don't know if I should be happy he feels comfortable or scared that he can't recognise his surroundings since I could easily be kidnapping him and he wont notice. However, I couldn't help the smile on my face every time I see him weirdly. His sleeping state was so relaxed and free of stress that was really obvious during the meetings and even earlier when I found him in his office. 

I slowly shook him and poked him to wake him up but the only response I got was soft mutters and shifting in his seated position. I stifled a chuckle and leaned over to unbuckle his seat beat. 

"What are you doing?", he spoke softly, his breath hitting the top of my ear and my neck making me stiffen. I managed to unbuckle his seatbelt somehow and shifted enough to look at him properly and answer him, but to my surprise, his eyes looked wide awake. 

I struggled away from him and stuttered trying to explain the situation. "Ah-... you see.... I didn't i mean - it's like-.... ummmm", I tried to come up with some type of explanation. When I looked over to him he didn't move his head but faced forward and he looked as if he was squinting at something. 

"You shouldn't throw my plant away like that officer!", he suddenly said pointing his sluggish hand over to the rubbish bins. I scoffed in surprise when I realised that this man was still no sober even after all that sleep.

"Yes yes, you should get up and scold him Han Directornim!", I slowly said, pulling his arm so he can fully stand up and get out the car. And like that we had a pretty weird conversation of how to recycle plants the proper way while I struggled to move him over to the elevator. He stumbled a few times over but I managed to catch him every time. We managed to reach the elevator and when we went in, I kept holding on to him and pressed the 5th floor button. I would have to quickly memorise the layout later since I need to bring over his stuff which was still inside the car, I mentally noted. 

Once we reached his apartment I stood near his padlock door and that was when I realised I forgot to ask his password from Dal Mi's mom. I groaned out loud and  checked my phone which showed the time to be around 1:30 am already and I knew I shouldn't disturb them at this time. So me with my intelligence, I turned to the drunk man and shook him front and back, and grabbed his face near me and asked one question hoping he would answer. 

"What's your birthday?", I asked seriously. 

He didn't answer immediately and seemed to ponder over that question before he smiled and said, "I don't have one~". I sighed and let him go watching him struggle to stay in one position. I waited and waited and just watched him while he was twirling around with his hands like some sort of ballerina. In the midst of all that I prayed that when I got back to Silicon Valley, that I would not go to any party no will I drink.