Is it Love? (Choi Young Do)

~Chapter 11~

Why won't you just hate me? Why can't I make you go away? Even if I want to...I don't think I could ever bring myself to hate you. No, you make me upset but I still can't hate you. You make me happy. You make me happier than I could have ever thought about.

Part 11~

   I kept looking at the classroom door in hopes that I'd see Young Do, but he wasn't showing up. I remember him saying yesterday that he had business to attend to today, but I still had my rights to worry about a man as reckless as he was. I finally caved in and sent him a text.

_Hey...where are you at?

   I waited until the end of class but there was no reply. I waited until the end of lunch but there was still no reply from him. After the rest of my classes, I heard no reply from him. Even on the way to the hotel, he still hadn't texted me back. By the time I made it to my room, I threw my phone down. I groaned and laid on my bed. "Stupid jerk. He always wonders why I haven't texted him back, yet he doesn't text me back." Then I drifted off to sleep feeling angry. I must've slept for only an hour or two because when I woke up, it was still very bright outside. I looked at the phone to see that I finally had a message from Young Do. However, I was so angry that he took so long to message me back, that I didn't even read his message. In fact, I changed out of my uniform, and headed out to do what I planned to do this weekend. Since it's Friday, I hoped to get all of my job hunting done today so that I could relax for the rest of weekend. The first logical place to apply was the café that Eun Sang works at. She's my connection there, and can put in a good word about me if I apply. Next I'd apply to the little places I pass on the way to school like a little book shop, or the florist. My last result is the noodle place that Young Do goes to, or even worse than that...Hotel Zeus. After spreading my name on apllications at the desirable places I wanted to work for, I finally decided to put in my application at the places I didn't prefer. I ended up going to the noodle place to put in an application, and as soon as I walked through the door..."Lillian!" Young Do approached me with an angry expression. "Where were you?" He immediately questioned me. I glared and pushed past him. I grabbed an application from the front counter and sat down to fill it in. Young Do hovered above me with multiple annoying questions, just like usual. "Where were you? Why didn't you text me back? What is your problem?" I finally became aggravated with him and firmly placed my pen down. "Choi Young Do...I texted you this morning and you didn't even text me back for most of the day. I haven't seen you or heard from all day. But you want to know why I hadn't texted YOU back?" Before I could scold him some more, he flicked my forehead. "I told you the night before that I had business to handle today, didn't I? I also texted you to meet me here so we could eat together?"

   I ignored him and instead replied "Yeah well...what kind of business did you have to handle today? Was it video games? Or was it riding you motorcycle around?" I continued to complain again. Things went silent before he answered me. "I had to see my father in jail." When he said that, I looked up at him with concerned eyes. "Last year, my father was thrown in jail with no bail posted up for tax fraud, embezzlement, and scandal. That's part of the reason why I own the hotel right now instead of later in my life." After he said, I quieted down and continued to fill out my application. "I'm sorry." He uttered quietly. I gasped lightly and looked back up at him. Did Choi Young Do just apologize to me? "What did you say?" I asked him again. He sighed and stood up to hug me while I was sitting down. "I said I was sorry." Young Do apologized again to me. I sighed and finished filing out my application while Young Do kept his arms wrapped around me. Then I went to turn in the application. Before I could walk completely away, Young gripped some of my hair and pulled it. "Aissssh! Why can't you ever leave things nicely?" I rubbed my head and watched him shrug his shoulders. "I wanted to see how you would react." I rolled my eyes and turned in the application. Young Do followed me outside and took a cab with me back to the hotel. He followed me silently, all the way to my room. When we entered the room, I turned on my TV and started watching a random show. Young Do laid back and watched TV as well. There was a peace between us, but just like always...Young Do had to ruin that. "So...you were mad at me earlier because I didn't text you? Seems like you really miss oppa." I looked at his smirk and lightly slapped his chest. He simply started laughing and rolled his eyes. "Stop calling yourself that. You are not my oppa. We aren't nearly close enough for you to dare assume that term." I said angrily and crossed my arms. "That's fine...as long as no one else is your oppa then I'm fine."

   After he said that, it all hit me at once. Did he just say he didn't want anyone to be with me but him? I think he realized this, so he started to be mean again. He snatched the remote away from me and changed the station. I guess he thought it would bother me but it really hadn't. I had gotten used to the way he treated me. I also wanted to lash out at him since I know he couldn't handle me being nice to him. When I had complimented his new hair doo, he seemed to become flustered. Therefore, the only way to fight the monster that is Young Do, would be to be as nice to him as I can. "I like you." As soon as I said this, he started coughing and sat up quickly. He looked at me with wide eyes. "What did you say???" I chuckled and decided to keep it going. "I said I like you. You're probably the best thing that happened to me since I came to Korea. I'm eager each day to see you or to hear from you. I don't care that you are like a cat to me and I am your mouse. I don't even care that I'm entertainment to you because..." At this point, what I was saying to him wasn't just me kidding around to get him flustered. I was actually telling him the truth. "...because I really like you." After I said this, he quickly got up and walked away from me. He left the room and slammed the door behind himself. Did...Did I mess something up just now? I quickly grabbed my phone because I was too shy to go to his room. I dialled his number but it went voicemail. I called again and on the fifth try, he finally answered me. I started talking before he could even answer me. "Are you ok? Why did you leave out of here like that?" I could hear his heavy sighs on the other side of the line. "Because I didn't feel like hearing your lies." I rolled my eyes at his comment and decided that he truly was an idiot. "I wasn't lying to you, stupid. I was telling you the absolute truth. Why not tell you how I feel about you. You're my friend whether you want to be it or not. I like you, Choi Young Do. There isn't anything you can do to change that." Then I hung up on him. He didn't call or text me back so I gave up and settled into bed with a nice horror movie. I was halfway through my bowl of popcorn when there was a gentle knock and someone opened my door. I watched as Young Do slowly rounded the corner and sat on the other side of the bed. He cracked a soda can open and took a sip. Then we ended up watching the movie together. Afterwards, we ended up falling asleep next to each other as well. The big surprise is that I woke up and he was still there. Well...he was still in the room at least. Young Do was sitting up at the edge of the bed watching Pororo and eating cereal from a bowl. I chuckled and rolled my eyes. "Young Do...what the heck are you doing right now?" He didn't turn to look at me, he simply kept his eyes on the screen an answered me. "Saturday morning cartoons and cereal isn't just an American thing. We do it here too." He said. I sighed and shook my head. I headed to the bathroom and hoped in the shower. After getting ready for the day, I came back out to see Young Do already wearing clean clothes with his hair groomed nicely. "Let me guess, you want to follow me around and annoy me?" I smirked at him. He returned my smirk and nodded. "Of course I do. But you said yesterday that you didn't care that I did so. Remember saying so? Let's go." He left out the door and I followed behind him.