Second Arrangement

CHAPTER 4 - DELIVERY

JACKSON

If I wanted to make us work, then I had to step up my game. It would be harder to do so since we were in Korea now. People could recognize me everywhere, so I had to be more creative with dates. Unfortunately, I couldn't dye my hair back to black yet as I still had my project with Jinyoung, so I would need to put up disguises in public. Even though she agreed to give us another chance, she might bail out again if I pushed her too much so I had to restraint myself. Like tonight. I wanted to do nothing else but to drive to her place and invaded her space with my presence, but I didn't. She said she was exhausted so she needed rest and I would give her that.

[Do you have dinner yet?] I texted her again as I remembered she often skipped her meal when she was busy.

[I'll grab something to eat on my way home] She replied.

[Where's your place? I'll send some food. Text me the address and no, I'm not sending it myself]

I waited for her reply nervously as I was afraid I might push her too much. After waiting anxiously for five minutes, finally my phone buzzed. She agreed to the food and texted me her address.

Good job Jackson! I patted myself. Jackson +1.

[Do you want to video call while you're eating?] I replied when she informed me that she had received the food that I sent to her place.

[Why?] Even though I couldn't see her, I could imagine her frowning at my request.

[So it'll feel less lonely. I'll accompany you eat, and you can tell me your day] I was basically gnawing my fingers with my teeth while waiting for her reply. Did I push my luck too much? I was contemplating and thinking about cancelling my request when my phone buzzed.

[Okay]

I almost jumped around in joy when I read her reply. She agreed to it! I quickly checked myself and made sure I was decent before calling her. After a few ring, she accepted the call and her face filled my screen. For a few second, both of us said nothing and just stared at each other. This was the first time I video called her. When she was in Singapore, she was very busy that we just texted and called a few times. It felt nice to see her face after a year of absence.

I cleared my throat and struck a conversation, "Where's your food? The point of this call is to make sure that you eat," I pointed the empty table in front of her and that broke her reverie and she quickly excused herself and brought the food that I sent her earlier.

"What about you?" she inquired. "You said you'll accompany me eat."

I gestured her to wait for a bit and brought back my salad and showed it to her.

"You're eating salad?" she raised an eyebrow, "While you sent me a whole portion of fried rice?"

"Why not? You need to eat a lot. You'll faint if you don't have the energy," I argued.

"But it's late already and I'm going to sleep after this. Are you trying to make me fat?" she narrowed her eyes and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Nooo...I just remembered that you like fried rice so I bought you that. I'll keep in mind to check the time before picking the dish next time."

"Next time?" she raised an eyebrow at my statement.

"Obviously. Do you think it's just one time only?" I paused to see her blush. Obviously she still hasn't grasped the meaning of being in a relationship.

ELLIE

"You do know that you agreed to be in a relationship with me again, don't you?" I heard him ask and I gulped. I was totally forgot about my own promise for awhile. I forgot how persistent he could be when he has put his mind into something. And right now, I was his target.

I nodded slowly, "I remember."

"I know that you've never been in a relationship before, so let me tell you something," for once he looked calm. Usually he would explode at my ignorance. "When you agreed to be in a relationship with me, that means I'm your boyfriend, and you're my girlfriend," he explained it like I was a grade school student. "And since I'm your boyfriend, it's my duty to take care of you. And by taking care of you, including making sure that you eat well since you have crazy schedule. Now, how can I send food to the hospital?"

I blinked. "Wait a minute, do you seriously plan to send me food to the hospital?"

He nodded.

"Wait a minute, ain't we supposed to keep this a secret?" I frowned.

"No. I don't say anything about keeping this a secret," he shook his head and my eyes widened at his answer.

"What?" I exclaimed, almost dropping my spoon.

"Why? I've told you. My fans are even dying for us to be in a relationship, so I'm just fulfilling their wish. And my family knew about you already, so there won't be a problem if we're in a relationship again. So why should I keep us a secret?"

"Maybe for my sake?" I asked cautiously. I was still wary about the whole relationship situation. I was sure about my feelings for him, but I still wasn't sure whether I could be with him. What would his fans say when they found out about our situation? Yeah sure maybe they would like for him to be in a relationship, but would they accept me when they found out that I had divorced him once? And his family. I felt bad for his mother. She was very kind to me and understood my reason when I told her about our divorce. I didn't want to let her down again if we didn't work out this time.

After staring at me for a good minute, I saw him exhale loudly and agreed to my request. "Okay fine. We'll keep us a secret. But I still want to do everything that other boyfriend do. So, back to my question, how to send food to your hospital?" He was adamant about it, so I told him how to send stuff to my office. We talked for some more until we both finished our meal.

"Okay, for the last time, let me remind you. You agreed to be in a relationship with me and we'll keep it a secret, as you wish, but tell me if you're ready to make it public. I'll be glad to assist," he dared to wink at me. "And you promised to either text or call me whenever you're free and upload a story a day. If you fail, I'll upload our photo to my feed. As for dates, we'll see about it later. Are we clear?"

I nodded and smiled a bit. If I watched him closely, I would say that he looked nervous. That would make the two of us.

The next day, after texting him that I would be busy all day, I totally forgot about him until one of the nurse knocked on my office.

"Excuse me doc," she poked her head into my office. "Someone sent you food." She had this confusion written all over her face. It was understandable. Since I started working here, I had no friends aside from my department fellow doctors. I had no family here as well, so I never had anyone else visited me. Or sent me anything. No wonder she was all confused. "Did you order some food?" she asked again since I usually ate at the cafetaria.

"No, I didn't order any food, but someone did tell me that he would send me some food. I just didn't think that he'd really do it," I received the food and the confusion on her face grew even more. "Thank you," I didn't give her any more details since I knew it would spread around like infection before I knew it. I smiled when I opened the box. He sent me lasagna, another favorite food of mine. Somehow I was impressed that within short span of time, he managed to remember stuff about me.