Sweet Pineapple

Chapter 14

Jae's POV

It was finally my day off and I woke up determined to have an honest talk to Nyan. It's time to man up to my actions, as Berta says. Gosh, why is this so hard? I put on my favorite white hoodie and baggy jeans. I didn't bother to comb my hair, so I just put on the hood and let the long fringe down my face. I looked at my reflection in the mirror, checking my looks. I think the lack of sunlight is making my skin even paler, contrasting with the dark tone of my hair. I contorted my face into an exaggerated wink. "You can do it!"

I left home and headed to the company's building. Practicing my speech in the back seat of the taxi. I had to kindly end this nonsense between us. I didn't want to be rude and we needed to keep the professionalism in our relationship.

Arriving at the reception area, I saw Monica, the assistant of Ms. Fallon. "Hi Monica!" I said with a smile.

"Oh, hi Jae-Eun. Are you working today? I thought you had a day off."

"I have a day off." I said, a bit embarrassed. "Hm, actually, I am looking for Nyan, do you know where he is?"

"Hum, let me check his schedule." She checked the app on her phone, looking for Nyan's name on it. "Oh, he has the day off too."

"Oh." I sighed. "Thanks anyways, Monica!"

"Did you try to call him?"

"Actually I did, but his phone was off. I thought he would be working, but now I don't know what to do."

"I can give you his address..." She said with a smile. "It's against the rules, but you're friends, right? Nobody's gonna know."

I couldn't hold back a smile. She wrote down Nyan's address on a piece of paper and lent it to me. "Thank you so much, Monica!"

"Not at all. See you, then."

"Bye, see you." I waved goodbye and left the building

I haven't taken into account the possibility of Nyan having a day off on the same day as me. Fortunately, my trip to KSE wasn't all lost because of Monica. I'll find a way to pay her back. It wasn't very far from the company building, so I decided to walk there, enjoying the cool breeze and the sunlight. But if I could have foreseen what would happen next, I would have taken a taxi instead.

I was absentmindedly walking along the sidewalk next to the KSE building when I heard screams. "That's him! That's Exy!" They were yelling. I stopped and started looking around. Exy? Where? My heart raced inside my chest. I can't believe I'm finally meeting him! But instead of the idol, I saw a large group of girls running towards me. Some of them grabbed my hoodie and were pulling at it. Some other girls were grabbing my hair. Why the hell were these freaks grabbing me? I'm not Exy!

"Stop it! I'm not Exy!" I yelled. "Stop it!" I kept telling them desperately I wasn't him. But I was still getting hugged, kissed... my hoodie was ripping on the sleeves and my hair was being pulled. What the hell?!

I wrenched myself away from them and started running, as fast as I could. I turned around and saw them still running after me. Scared, I ran for my life. After a few blocks I ran between parked cars, down an alley that led to Nyan's apartment and I ran in that direction.

There was someone going out of the entrance door and I took the chance to go in. Trying to catch my breath and holding together my hoodie with the ripped sleeve, I looked out the glass door of the building. I didn't see them. I lost them. I was safe! I took a deep breath trying to calm myself down. It was seriously one of the most frightening experiences of my life, and I've had a few of them.

The thing is, I do look like Exy sometimes. Especially because we both came from Korea, same height, same hair color... People often mistake me for him. Although I still think we have absolutely nothing in common, there was a time I couldn't walk around in public without anyone saying, "Hey, you look just like Exy." Or, "Are you that famous idol from tv? You look exactly like him!"