Kaizen (noun)/Origin: Japanese - the change that moves you in a positive direction, closer to clarity, love, respect, and to one another
Choi Areum and Sim Jaeyun decide to enter a contractual relationship, both for their own personal benefits, unde...
Areum was currently sitting in class, running her hands through her perfectly combed hair, cursing herself out for how she treated Jake last night. She didn't know how to face him after all that. She knew what she'd done was wrong but she didn't know how to apologize to him. She just didn't do that kind of stuff. Or maybe she couldn't.
All she knew was that she had to show up to that dinner tonight and act like she was the happiest girl in the world with the most perfect relationship ever. She also knew she had to work on her pointless mood swings but chose to ignore that for now.
Class was about to end and so Areum began packing her stuff up, ready to leave and go home. She got up quickly and exited the lecture hall, making her way to the parking lot, when she bumped into Jisung.
"Hey, Ari!" he said, surprised, "What happened? You look like you're in a rush."
"Yeah, I actually am so it'd be great if you let me go now. Bye!" she replied, all in one breath.
Areum had been avoiding meeting up or even crossing paths with Jisung ever since she saw him with that girl, but acted like she was busy with her 'dating' life.
Before she could get away, he grabbed Areum's wrist which sent tingles all around her body, and turned her around.
"Are you mad at me? I feel like you've been ignoring me these past few days," he questioned.
"I've just been busy, that's all," she lied through her teeth. "Let's try to catch up soon, alright? Bye!"
She quickly zoomed past Jisung to her car before another word left his lips and drove away.
Once at home, the first thing she did was rummage through her closet looking for something nice to wear. She barely owned any dresses or gowns so she wasn't really sure what to pick. She was about to have a breakdown when she remembered that her parents had recently gifted her a white silk dress. After she successfully found it, she put it on and styled her hair in a bun, put on some makeup and wore her heels.
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After accessorizing, she looked at the time and noticed she was 5 minutes early. And so, she decided to scroll through her phone in the meantime.
A few minutes later, the bell rang and she quickly got up to open the door. Her heartbeat kept accelerating for some reason and she tried telling herself that it wasn't an actual 'meeting the boyfriends parents' thing and she should just calm down, but it was of no use.
Swinging the door open, she saw Jake dressed formally in a full black suit. For a solid minute she forgot how to breathe and just admired his good looks.
The way the suit perfectly hugged his figure and complemented it. How his hair was combed and a part of his forehead was exposed. Everything about the way he looked sent the poor girl in a daze.
They both stared and admired the other's looks before Jake finally decided to clear his throat and ease the tension a little bit.
"Are you ready?" he asked while avoiding any further eye contact.
"Y-yeah, let's go," she quickly answered and stepped out of her apartment.
The drive to the restaurant was 35 minutes long and the atmosphere was too awkward. Areum thought that this might be her only opportunity to talk about the previous night and clear things up. Basically, she wanted to apologize to him.
"Uhm, Jake?" she called his name and he only responded with a light hum.
"About yesterday, I didn't mean to snap at you...it's just that I was a little frustrated and-"
"Why are you explaining yourself to me?" he interrupted, "it's not like we're in an actual relationship, and we aren't friends either, so why?"
He didn't look at Areum even once and just kept his eyes on the road.
"I don't know, I just felt the need to," she fidgeted with her hands on her lap. "I wanted to apologize."
He voice came out almost as low as a whisper but Jake managed to catch her words. And just by hearing those last few words, all his anger and sadness just disappeared. But he couldn't let the girl beside him know that, so he just kept quiet and felt all fuzzy inside; a feeling that he wasn't quite familiar with but liked.
