The Elephant Between Us || SKZ

chapter ten

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TRUTH ALWAYS COMES TO LIGHT

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"A cup of tea and a slice of lemon cake, please." A woman asked Jeongmin, smiling once she left to head over to the counter, the request noted on the small notebook Jeongmin had in her hand.

"Good morning, sunshine," Hyunjin said, coming out of nowhere, which caused her to chuckle while cutting the lemon cake.

"You here? At this time? Weren't you supposed to be having those new classes you talked about?" She didn't even need to look at him to know he had his elbows on the counter.

"The computing ones? Yep, I was."

"What are you doing here then? It's not even your shift yet." 

"My friend wanted to see you."

Friend?

"What friend?" Jeongmin asked, confused, as she turned around to look at Hyunjin for the first time that day. 

The cup she had in her hands suddenly crashed on the floor.

"I didn't know you guys knew each other."

Changbin.

After weeks, he was standing just right in front of her, a few centimetres away from her, behind the counter she saw every day. Changbin stood there, slightly behind Hyunjin who smiled, clearly unaware of the content shared by Jeongmin and his friend's eyes.

"Hey, Jeongmin, is everything alright?" Hyunjin asked, referring to the cup on the floor. "What was that-?"

"Hello, Jeongmin." Changbin interrupted him, his gaze stuck on hers. "Long time, right?"

Jeongmin paralyzed. She just stood there looking at Changbin as if the whole world had stopped, as if nobody looked at her, as if Hyunjin was not talking to her. Everything in her head froze, and Jeongmin could swear she didn't feel her heartbeat for more than four seconds.

The noises and smells and movements came back to Jeongmin only when Hyunjin touched her forearm. 

"Jeongmin? Is everything okay?"

"Y-Yeah." She said, blinking multiple times as a way to come back to reality. 

Yet she couldn't believe what her eyes saw.

How. Just how did that happen? How in the world were Hyunjin and Changbin friends? How on earth was that possible?

"I'm just surprised to see Changin again after all this time." She said against her throat's will, forcing her lips to smile. "It's been a long, long time. I really wasn't expecting this surprise."

Hyunjin smiled, and that calmed her for a while.

He didn't know anything. Thank God.

"I'll leave you guys alone. You probably have plenty of things to chat about and I gotta attend my classes anyway." Hyunjin tapped the counter twice before leaving. "See you later, Jeongmin."

The hell started the moment Changbin's smile faded away, getting replaced by a dead-serious face. He even bent a little over the counter, which was enough to scare her.

"I'm working." It cost her more than she could have ever imagined, yet she still managed to pretend to be calmer than a buda, like she did nothing wrong, like she had no clue why Changbin had come to her. Jeongmin played innocent, continuing her work.

"I know you have something that belongs to me." He started, yet she just took the previously requested cup of tea and slice of lemon cake to the table the woman occupied.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, frowning as she looked up and down at him, coming back to the counter.

"We both know what I'm talking about."

"Look, if you're mad I left you without saying anything-"

"I want my watch back." He interrupted her, widening his eyes.

Okay. This is bad.

She was about to continue her narrative when, suddenly, something inside her told her not to. Her conscience, probably.

Gulping, Jeongmin looked at the clients behind Changbin before signalling him to accompany her to the break room.

Changbin had no second to waste, so he started making himself clear the moment she closed the door.

"I won't even ask the reasons why you did what you did. I just want my watch back. Now."

She laughed.

"What? You must be kidding me."

"I'm not, Jeongmin, I really am not. Where is it?"

F.ck my lemons.

"Not here, as you might imagine," Jeongmin said, serving herself a glass of water.

She just wanted him out of there. Immediately. 

The truth was that Jeongmin was not ready to face Changbin. She had no idea he'd come to her after so much time, let alone in her workplace, in broad light.

"I'll give you one hour, then."

"For what?" She asked, turning around to look at him.

"For you to give me back my watch." 

Jeongmin's world ended, right there. Her breath failed her twice, and that was enough to make all her organs fail right away. In seconds, her whole body froze up and her heart had to give first-aids to itself. Panic, that was what she felt. A lot of panic.

"I'll come back later." With that, Changbin went over to the door and rested his hand on the doorknob, looking at her again, as if he had just remembered he didn't say something. "You look good, by the way."

The silence made Changbin grimace in displeasure. Ungrateful, he probably thought.

He was already leaving when Jeongmin spoke, her voice trembling in the first vowels.

"I don't have it."

Changbin stopped, laughing and turning to look at her once again, the door half open.

"Oh, come on. Stop playing-"

"I did, but I no longer do."

His smile faded in less than one second.

"You what?"

"I sold it."

"You must be kidding me." He smiled again, but no longer in a prideful way. Changbin closed the door and walked over to her, grabbing her wrist. "You're not fooling me again, Jeongmin. YOU'RE NOT FOOLING ME-"

"I DID SELL IT!" She shouted, her eyes shut as well as her fists.

By that moment, Jeongmin could hear his breath and, by its speed, she knew she had screwed up badly. Very badly.

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