riki.nishimura → twelve weeks

34

"Wow, you weren't joking, this place is actually so nice." Jinyoung and I walked around the town for a bit, just admiring the architecture and everything here.

He said he was visiting for a week only, which, I had no problem with.

"I know, aren't you hungry? Come on, I have a good restaurant." I smiled, remembering that I said the exact same thing Niki told me when I first came here.

My smile slightly faded, knowing that he was alone with Saeron or something like that.

We walked towards Minjoo's restaurant, the first place I ever ate at in Jeju. It made me feel a little bittersweet, just reminiscing the memories with Niki here.

I stepped inside, Jinyoung following behind quietly. Minjoo walked over to us with a smile, looking at Jinyoung up and down, with quite a confused expression.

"Oh-! Yeojin.. who is.. this?" Minjoo gently crossed her brows, almost as if she looked betrayed or something.

I looked over at Jinyoung, waiting for him to introduce himself.

"Ahn Jinyoung, I'm one of Yeojin's colleagues." He bowed, and I looked at him, ".. ex-colleague."

Minjoo didn't look satisfied with Jinyoung, her facial expression said so much, but with little explanation. What? Did she not approve of one of my friends or something?

I shrugged, brushing it off.

"Niki and Saeron are over there, why don't you go and join them?" She suddenly offered, and I was about to completely walk out and deny, til I realised that I wasn't actually in Seoul, and I would see the same people every time I left the house.

Before I could say anything, Niki himself, realised we were here, and approached us gingerly. He had a light smile on his face, glancing at me and then looking at Jinyoung. His smile faded ever so slightly, something in his face feeling a little cold.

"Oh. Niki." I looked into his eyes for a split second, then looking down to the floor, feeling a little flustered.

Jinyoung looked at me, then looked at Niki. The two just looked at each other for a few seconds, an awkward yet tense atmosphere rising.

"Ahn Jinyoung, nice to meet you." Jinyoung gave a small bow.

Niki glared at him for a while, and I really wanted to tell him to cut it out, his gaze wasn't even one of interest or anything along the lines of that, it was one of pure hatred.

"Niki Nishimura." He replied sternly.

We walked over to the table they were sat at, Niki sat beside Saeron, Jinyoung beside me. God, as if it couldn't get any more awkward.

Oh, but it did.

As food came along, Jinyoung grabbed his chopsticks and occasionally grabbed a side dish, bringing it over to my plate so that I could eat it.

The silence afterwards was even worse. I gave a light chuckle, flashing him an uneasy smile as I swallowed hard.

"Soo, Jinyoung... how'd you meet Yeojin..?" Saeron attempted at some small talk, which actually kinda worked. Thank god for her at this moment.

"Ah, we were good colleagues. Her boss was very tough on her, so we kinda just bonded through insulting him." Jinyoung gave a laugh as I awkwardly chewed slowly, on a piece of food. All of a sudden, I just had zero appetite.

If it just simply couldn't get any worse, Jinyoung suddenly said something that almost made me spit out my water.

"Are you guys dating? You two look very cute together." Jinyoung smiled innocently, Niki furrowed his eyebrows lightly, the corner of his lips upturning in dissatisfaction.

Saeron turned her head to look at Niki, a very cunning smile on her face. But seeing Niki's unamused face, she turned back to face us, clearing her throat and resting her face.

"No. We aren't dating." Niki interject, shutting down any of Saeron's fantasies immediately. The look on her face was pretty comical.

I felt a shudder throughout my body, god, this guy felt so cold and unfeeling. This was a Niki I have never witnessed before.

-

After we finished and ate our meals, the awkwardness finally eased, since we were about to go our separate ways and thankfully, Niki could cool off.

That guy was on smoke throughout the entire meal. Damn, couldn't even act nice for the sake of it.

The second we were about to part ways, Saeron's voice stopped us, I literally internally cursed. Why does she keep on playing these games? Can she not read the room right now?

"Hey, should we go for drinks? It's pretty late, I mean, we should celebrate Jinyoung over here.. right?" Saeron suggested, and I pressed my lips together, looking over at the man who was literally lowering the temperature from his gaze alone.

He was stood there, tall and straight posture, his eyes narrowed and sharp - his gaze resembling somewhat of an eagle. If eyes could kill, it would be his. His lips were pressed gently together, not a single inch of a smile or anything.

He was so annoyed.

"Sure. Fine, let's go for drinks." Niki suddenly said, his tone was so condescending, "Only if Jinyoung can handle them though."