boomerang

Chapter 10

"Ms. Park!"

Chaeyoung stopped walking, turning around to see the security guard running up to her.

"I almost forgot," the guard took a deep breath and Chaeyoung furrowed her brows when he raised a paper bag. "Here, someone left this for you."

"Who is it from?"

"I'm not sure, miss," he scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.

She took the paper bag from his hand and peeked inside, an upsetting knot formed in her stomach when she saw a box of donuts. Then, when she looked up, her eyes caught the sight of Mr. Lee. He was watching her just as he was walking to his car and gave her that very familiar wolfish grin. Chaeyoung looked away immediately, quickly thanking the guard before she speed-walked to her car.

When she was finally seated and locked the door, she mentally cursed herself when she realized she had brought the donuts with her instead of passing them to the guard. With Mr. Lee watching, maybe that would tell him that no matter what, she would never be swayed. Chaeyoung thought of going back to the guard but Mr. Lee had already pulled out of the parking space and left, leaving her to sigh heavily in her car. She wished to put an invisibility cloak around her every time he was around.

Chaeyoung took the paper bag to her lap and noticed a small card inside. Her brows drawn with her lips pressed together. So Mr. Lee wanted to leave notes now? She scoffed but took the card out nonetheless and flipped to see what was written.

The flowers are lovely.

Her lips parted and she inhaled shakily as she carefully placed the card back into the bag. Chaeyoung stayed still in her car before she put the donuts in the passenger seat, staring at them for a few moments. The note somehow made its way into her head, recited on a loop. Not with her voice, but a certain someone's voice.

Then, she remembered how upset she was when her gift was regarded as unnecessary. Chaeyoung huffed, side-eyeing the bag of donuts on the passenger seat and grabbed her phone, punching her thumb against the name that had annoyed her constantly, sometimes, without any reason at all.

She heard her name being uttered after a single ring.

"What's this for?" she immediately asked.

Jungkook didn't answer right away and she was surprised that she actually waited for an answer when she thought she would just end the call so she didn't have to listen to him. She heard the sound of a car door opening and Chaeyoung tried to deafen her ears when she registered the sound of him grunting softly as he, she assumed, was taking a seat in the car. As soon as the car door closed, then only he responded to her.

"What?"

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes. "These donuts... Are you the one who gave me these donuts?"

"Yeah. Why'd you ask?" A short pause, then she heard a chuckle. "Did you think it was your fanboy who gave it to you?"

"Yes," she admitted, recalling how Mr. Lee had watched her from far and gave her his signature creepy smile that, somehow, was only reserved for her. "Because he was smiling at me from afar and couldn't keep his eyes off me."

The pause that came after was longer to the point that she thought he was ignoring her. "What else did he do?"

Chaeyoung exhaled. "Thankfully, nothing. He just kept looking and smiling before he left."

She could hear Jungkook taking a deep breath so clearly before he let out a seemingly forced hum.

"Why'd you send me these?" she prodded, not even sure why it was necessary. He probably wanted to apologize for what he said about her gift. But whatever reason he had, why was it so important for her to know?