Elle and the Exchange Student

Chapter 10

Dae-Jung's Point of View:

I fucked up, didn't I?

When it comes to Elle, I can't seem to do anything right. I don't necessarily try to be a jerk, but I haven't tried to be super nice to her either, just kinda been going with a flow.

It seems, I constantly end up hurting or upsetting Elle, and weirdly for me, I don't like that. I've never really cared for other people's feelings nor have I cared what people think of me. For some reason, I want to treat her better, I want to be better. But I'm afraid now it's too late.

What I told Elle about her French project, was a lie. It was meant to be a joke. A joke gone terribly wrong.

I never spoke to our teacher about the assignment. I got her email that morning, saying she was amazed how quickly we were able to complete such a big project, and that the work was extremely well done. So, that's how I got to know she did it all by herself and didn't even claim full credit, as our teacher clearly thought we had done it together. I don't know what I had expected when I told her 'no' about working together, but definitely not this.

I was even more surprised when she showed up to the library, 'willing' to work with me. She tried to hide it, but she felt and looked miserable. Her eyes were red and her face puffy, probably from crying. She even had tiny purple spots under her eyes, results of broken blood vessels.

Seriously, I felt like shit. Even if she hadn't showed up, I would have completed my part of the assignment anyway.

One thing is still tearing me apart, whether or not to tell her the truth.

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Saturday afternoon, I'm waiting for her in the cafe. I had to bribe Fannie to give me Elle's number. They were well aware of my behaviour towards Elle and both of the girls were angry and disappointed. "Your actions are truly an artistic display of letdown" were Fannie's exact words.

The bell on the door rings, and I lift my head up to see if it was Elle. To my disappointment, it wasn't. We agreed to meet at 1 pm, but it was already ten minutes past.

Now that I think about it, she never actually replied to my text. Maybe Fannie purposely gave me a wrong number.

Just as I'm about to curse Fannie to the deepest pits of hell, the door opens again, and in walks Elle. Half of her hair has fallen out of her bun, she's breathing heavily and has a little red on her cheeks, I'd assume she ran here.

Noticing me, she walks over and sits down in front of me.

"Sorry for being late, my uhm.. bus was late" she said, taking off her leather jacket. She's wearing light blue jeans with a belt and simple black t-shirt. "Did you order already?" she added.

"Not yet. What do you want?" I said, getting up to go to the counter.

"I can buy my own coffee" she started to argue.

"Please, let me" I look at her with determination, and she gives up almost instantly.

"Fine" she sighed. "Iced vanilla latte, with three shots of espresso" she said from her heart like she had said it hundreds of times before.

As I wait in the line, she takes her laptop from her bag and starts to type. I guess, she's eager to get this over with. I don't blame her.

For the next few hours we just sat there in silence, sipping our coffees and doing our research. It wasn't awkward, but maybe, that's because we only focused in the work. I had a million questions I wanted to ask her, but it was clear she didn't come here to talk.