FILTHY || J.JK

39| Mutual feelings

"I'm proud of you," Wonpil cracks a smile, seemingly pleased at my happiness. I step back and show him the papers the staffs gave to me, "these are what I need to read, in order to understand the terms and conditions of the workplace."

"Ah, cool. I thought you'd fail." Back to being a jerk, he gets a kick in his calf from me, "I wish I didn't tell you to meet me today."

I turns around and decide to leave, but that's when I see a familiar car. It's mister Jeon's. And he's right next to it.

"You're so mean, I-" He follows me but comes across the other one as well, "wait, this is that teacher you have a crush on, ri-" I hold his hand but stick close to him, hoping he'd shut his mouth more often, "Wonpil, I need to talk to him...go."

"But I-" I swallow some nervousness but force him to do so, "I'll talk to you tomorrow. Please." He stares into my eyes but finally turns around, "take care."

He goes to his bike and straps on his helmet, and leaves. I inhale a good amount of air, turning around, hoping to not wobble as I make my way to the one I haven't seen for a whole weekend that felt like three months. "Hello." I force myself to smile, seeing his sharp eyes land on mine and then down on the papers in my hand. "Hey..."

Mister Jeon's inspecting eyes follow my movements as I hand him the papers, "I passed the interview. Did you come here for me?." I smile at the sight of his sharp features softening as he realises it. "Hmm. You did?" His fingers touch mine as he takes the papers, "I knew it."

A soft smile curves his soft lips as he takes a quick observation of the papers, he steps closer to see me better, "how are you doing now?" His perfume that I missed getting lost in, stirs my mind and I incline my neck to face him, my shyness making me vulnerable, "I- fine, I'm doing okay. How are you?"

"I'm okay as well, is your flu gone?" I nod, knowing very well that it's a lie, but I really had a bad heartache, so I was indeed sick in a way. "good to know."

His eyes travelling down to my lips, he smiles and exhales out a low breath, "so you'll start working from next week, I suppose." I think and answer, "I could, but they suggested that I start tomorrow itself." He raises a brow, curious, "and what suits you better?"

"Tomorrow." I reveal, "I think I can start from tomorrow. six to twelve a.m. and off on Sundays." He listens to everything I say, carefully, "that's amazing."

I just smile, feeling quite grateful for the man whose eyes I'm looking into. "I missed you." He whispers, his brown eyes lowering at my neck and lower, "Hoshi did too. He was near the door all the time, waiting for you."

This is too much for me to handle, I break the eye-contact and with a lot of courage, pronounce the same, "I did too."

He doesn't let the silence turn awkward. Mister Jeon steps forward but pulls me in his embrace, and once my nose touches his shirt, I smell cigarettes. This is not good for me, but it's too hard to not let this happen, so I raise my arms but hug him back.

My face buried in his chest, his warm hands pass down my waist and he presses a kiss on the back of my head before pulling away. Our eyes meet but too cowardly, I avert mine.

"Will you come to the class tomorrow?" Unsure, I take some time to respond, "I will." It's very hard to stay away from him, and no matter the consequences of it, I don't think I can stop my emotions and what I feel for him.

"Hmm," he turns his eyes to his car, removing his coat, "do you go home now?" Nodding, I look down at the metallic chain dangling around his neck. "I'll give you a ride home."

 We walk to his car, and he opens the door for me. I sit inside but the heavy smell of air-freshener and tobacco tells me that he sprayed his car with the fragrance after it got filled with the odour of cigarettes. It hurts to know that he's smoking too actively.

"Shall I turn the heater on?" He licks his lips, closing the door and putting on his seatbelt. "Yes, please." He probably noticed the goosebumps covering my neck, so I can't even lie.

He turns the heater on and starts driving, "he was that same guy from your school, right? Wonpil, if I'm not wrong?" I watch out the window, seeing the rain starting to drizzle, "yes. He's my friend and classmate."

"Hmm..." Not saying anything, he takes a left and then we wait for the traffic. Both of us now staying quiet, I focus only on the sound of his breathing, but once he rolls his sleeves, I notice a bandage covering his wrist, some splotch of blood visible to me. I feel my heartbeat increasing as I pay attention to the particular body part, "how'd this happen?"

He passes his eyes down to his hand, "oh, this? It's nothing, I hurt myself with the knife. I was hurrying and it accidentally cut my skin." I straighten up and his eyes meet mine, "don't worry, the cut didn't reach till the vein."

Mister Jeon reads my eyes, and he smiles, calming me by saying some things which I really wish are true and not a falsehood.

"Do you wanna get some hot chocolate?" He looks out my window, and I do the same, and we see a café. "N-" He makes a sharp turn, slowly, and stops the car. "I'll be back in a moment." He grabs his coat and gets off, rushing to get into the café.

15 minutes later...

"Here, I'm sorry it took so long." He hands me a large paper cup full of creamy hot chocolate inside and marshmallows on top. "It's okay. Don't you want to have one too?"

I ask him when he sits inside as I don't see anything that he has got for himself. Mister Jeon shakes his head while keeping a small box inside the glove compartment, his pale cold face but pink cheekbones and nose concerning me a little, "I drank coffee in the morning, so I'm full."

He brushes his hand over mine to check for the warmth of the drink by touching the cup, but once he is assured that it's perfectly hot, his face exudes relief. I take a sip from the corner, loving the feeling of the warm drink running down my throat. He's so kind to be doing this all for me. How I wish I could help not falling for him even more, but he's making it hard. "Do I start driving or would you wish to end your drink first?"

"You can drive, I have no problem." He puts on his belt, glancing down at his phone as it vibrates. I hold my cup down, trying to steady my grasp so that I don't spill the drink even though mister Jeon is driving very patiently and carefully, not racing up.

"Do you want a sip?" I lean to his side and he puts his eyes on mine for a second before focusing on the road again, "I told you it's alright..." His words ending as he smiles through his nose when I put the cup to his lips, he shoots a glimpse down at me before taking a small sip of the hot chocolate.

"Thank you, sweetheart." He licks his lips, wiping off any remaining chocolate left. I smile, not finding anything else to say so I sit back and drink the rest of the hot chocolate, looking outside.

. . .

"Wait," he stops me, getting off his car as I headed to the apartment. I turn to mister Jeon but see that he's holding the same box in his veiny hands which seem cold, "this is for Haerin."

He hands it to me, his drying lips curving up faintly like he didn't need to show a lot of emotions for me to understand that he's not faking his actions, "there's a pastry for her and some bonbons for you."

I catch hold of it, bowing, "thanks a lot, we'll enjoy it." He tilts his head but glances down at me once more before he puts his hands into his pockets, his body language differing than the usual. "No problem. You're coming to the Halloween carnival after tomorrow, am I right?" He suddenly brings this up and reminds me of what really slipped out my mind, "oh, that...I will, will you be there too?"

"I will, I need to be assisting the ones who would put up stalls and that kind of stuff." He takes a step forth as I move back but feel someone's presence behind me. "Cherry..."

My step-father's voice shivering my skin, I whirl around and see him step out a Chevrolet corvette which is of course not his. "Is he your step-father?" The thing I hated to witness finally happening, mister Jeon steps further and gazes at me.

I nod, looking at the other man's eyes and seeing anger in them as he walks to us.

---