Meteor

Three

"I...I...just..." He stammered.

"Put that down!" She trotted over and retrieved the tablet pack from his hand, "Can you at least respect my privacy please?"

"I am sorry...I was just curious...I..."

"That's a really stupid excuse, Yu Jin," Eun Chae angrily scolded him, "Don't be so nosy like that again ever again."

"Eun Chae, I am really sor..."

She grimaced, scurried into her room and closed the door before Yu Jin could even finish his sentence.

Yu Jin could do nothing but helplessly gaze at Eun Chae as she was running away. He had never seen her this hysterically mad. She was normally a really nice and friendly girl. Despite racking his brain to think about it, he could not decipher what was going on? But no matter what the reason behind her outrage was, there was one thing he could be sure of: he had just made a huge mistake.

Her anger showed no sign of softening even until the next morning. She did not have breakfast with him, which they had always been doing since he came to her house. And she did not speak to him anything when she left the house either.

Yu Jin did not know how to appease Eun Chae, he had never been put in such a situation before and thus, even had to call and ask his sister what he should do to soothe his angry friend. Finally, he decided to buy her an astronaut keychain, which he hoped that she would like, and hung it on her room's door, along with a memo saying "I am sorry! I didn't mean to be overly meddlesome and pry into your life. Can you forgive me please?"

That evening, Yu Jin came back home as usual, but he did not see Eun Chae anywhere.

"She should have been home already?" He took out his phone and wrote a message to her to ask her if she was on the way home. But then, he deleted it right away.

Yu Jin quickly made some instant noodles for dinner and came to his room to read a book. But he could not focus as he felt unsettled and kept stopping to open the door and check whether she was home or not. After a while, she finally arrived home. Yu Jin and Eun Chae saw each other, but this time they did not greet one another as how they should be doing. He felt awkward, while she was perhaps still angry.

Yu Jin finished writing his write-up for a scholarship in the US at about nearly one in the morning. Completely exhausted after endless hours locking his face on the screen, all he wanted was just to toss himself on his cushy bed. He was lying restfully in his cosy blanket, hugging his bolster tightly until he heard a knock on his door. Getting up to open the door, he saw Eun Chae standing right in front of him.

"Am I...disturbing your sleep?"

"Ah...no, I haven't slept yet."

"Yu Jin, I..." She clasped her hands and looked down at her feet. Her lips puckered and she remained silent for a few seconds. "I am sorry, I was a little emotional yesterday. I really didn't mean to be mad at you," she grabbed his wrist, "Can we still be friends?"

"Don't feel bad...I am also sorry for being so meddlesome. I won't do that again, I...I promise!" he shyly said.

Yu Jin told her to come into his room and they talked to each other for a while. Having been sure that Eun Chae had retrieved all of her calmness again, he directly asked her a question. It was a question which he was afraid that it might hurt her, but he felt the urgent need to spit it out.