Tattooed Boy. || ENG

|09|

After dinner I offer to clean the table in order to escape the weird behavior of my family and Jisung's presence. All of them are sitting on our huge couch and I hear them talking and laughing while doing the dishes.

"Do you need help?" Mom asks sticking her head through the door frame.

I shake my head. "I'm almost done."

"Oh okay" she leaves but I hear her giggling.

A minute later, after even the last plate is at its place, I make my way upstairs. Nothing would make me to walk into the living room once again. Nothing.

"Zoe?"

I cringe for the hundredth time this evening. Jisung. Damn. Slowly I turn around, forcing a smile onto my face. "Can I help you?" I didn't even hear him behind me,

He furrows his brows and groans. "No." Then he takes some quick steps towards me, grabs my arm fiercely but careful at the same time and drags me into my own room.

"What the-?" I can't even finish my sentence.

He lets go of my arm and turns towards me. "Stop it."

"Stop what?" I ask in confusion.

"Stop playing dumb. I know what you're up to."

Nervousness creeps up on me. First of all because I have no idea what he wants from me right now and also because he's too close. Way too close.

"I don't know what you're talking about" I reply and can't help but let him hear a bit of my stubbornness. How am I supposed to stop something when I don't know what? Can't he be more clear?

He takes another step towards me, so that he's standing only a few inches away from me. I need to look up to be able to meet his piercing dark eyes comfortably.

He puts both hands onto my shoulders and shakes me a little bit. "Stop trying to make everyone satisfied. That's fucking impossible and totally not worth it."

My eyes widen. Kelsey sometimes tells me something similar but never ever before did she or someone else do it in such a ... cruel way. I literally don't know this guy so how dare he speak to me like that?

This ... this makes me completely speechless. Not a word is in my head which could be able to defend me. I can't think straight. I can't escape either. This situation is asking too much of me. He's just ... I suppress a groan: Jisung is just too close.

"W-why do you even care?" I'm finally able to stutter.

"I just don't fucking understand. Why would you do that? Why can't you just not give a fuck and live properly? People won't ever notice your effort or even appreciate it. All you're doing is giving yourself a hard time. I can't even endure watching. Don't ask me why, I just can't." He lets out a deep groan. His piercing glance finally leaves mine and I'm able to breathe again. Still I'm not able to explain any of this. Neither his nor my reaction.

"Please do me a favor and stop this bullshit."

I gulp down the lump in my throat and let a weak breath escape my mouth. But I can't find any words to reply. Do I even have to answer? He's nothing to me but a friend of my sister who literally is this girl in school who meets up with everyone and doesn't care about their story. But that doesn't mean I need to be okay with them, right? He's disturbing my privacy, he entered my room once again without allowance and his rudeness isn't excusable with cheekiness anymore.

He lowers his eyes and sighs when I don't answer. "You can't tell how surprised I was when you actually came to the studio to pick up your phone." A small smirk brightens up his faces, but my mood doesn't lighten at all.

"Can you ..." I start in anger and take a step back before continuing, "please stop judging me?"

Jisung looks up, surprised. "I don't judge you. I try to understand you."

I take another deep breath. "Then please get that I'm not some mainstream girl and neither a copy of my sister. I'm who I am. You may be right, that I try to fit in and not to make problems but there are limits, okay? Don't think you can just treat me any way you want to."

His surprise gets displaced by an impressed expression. "I like your attitude when you're honest."

"What?"

He shoots me a smile. "There is no need to fit in. You don't need to fit my expectations. Just always be honest like this."

I snort. "Why would I try to fit into your expectations?"

"I may not look like the cleverest, but I'm not dumb."

"You don't say" I mumble under my breath, not getting what his words are supposed to mean. I sit down on my office chair since his intensive glare is starting to make me feel uncomfortable again. Can he stop that for once?

"Kelsey is worried as well" he continues. As well? What does that mean now? "She didn't say it just once or twice. And I observed something according to her words and agree with her. You really should change your behavior in order to survive in this world."

"And become a rude fucker like you? No thanks." I snort and turn some inches to the right and then back to the left with the chair.

Jisung laughs humorlessly. "No, but this sass won't harm if you'll use it more often."

The situation starts to annoy me more and more. All my efforts to try to accept him the way he is put to the side: Who does he think he is trying to change me?

"Why do you even care?" I repeat my words from earlier.

He folds his arms in front of his chest and looks down on me. Why did I sit down again? Ah, yes, because standing was uncomfortable. But down here it isn't any better.

"Kelsey didn't mention trust issues" Jisung says speculative, ignoring my question. His expression is unreadable. If I had to guess, I'd say he's judging me again.

"Trust issues?" I hiss and get up to face him directly. Excuse me? "You're too much, honestly. If you want to keep criticizing me without the right to, then leave. I don't need this."

He shrugs, his face suddenly more like that of a sculpture. "Maybe you're right: Why do I even care? You're not willing to listen anyways."

He makes his leave, not revealing any thoughts through his expression. He doesn't even look ashamed or apologetic.

"Let's not see each other again" I say, not sure if he still heard it. At least he was friendly enough to close the door.

I let myself fall back down onto the chair. I'm not willing to listen? Who is he to judge then? Just because he's one of the periodical friends of my sister doesn't give him the right to do so. Not even if Kelsey asked him to.

She wouldn't do that, though. But apparently she did talk about the topic with him. Are they that close?