Translation of Love

33

Chaos

"Get the hell away from her."

I turn in shock to see Taeyoung glaring at the man. His voice is cold as ice and strained against his clenched teeth. I've never seen him look so angry before. His ears are practically purple.

"What did he say?" The guy turns to ask his friends.

"I think he said he wants to join," one says.

"No, he said go away," another adds.

Taeyoung switches to Korean, "I said get the hell away from her." He moves so that he is in front of me now, his eyes glaring down at the guy.

"Woah, friend, take it easy. We can all share—"

Taeyoung grabs the collar of his shirt and pulls him to his feet. The chair falls back behind him. There's fear in the guy's eyes now as Taeyoung's face is pushed towards his.

His friends just sit silently. Cowards.

"Woah, buddy, what's wrong?" He starts to hold his arms out in defeat, the collar of his shirt still held by Taeyoung.

"You, it's assholes like you that are wrong."

He laughs nervously, looking at his friends for help. They stay seated.

"It's just a waitress, you can calm down. It's not like I've done anything to her yet—"

The sound of bone hitting flesh fills the air. The contact of Taeyoung's fist with his cheek causes it to immediately turn red. Now his friends get up, trying to take Taeyoung's hand off of his shirt.

"Say something again, I dare you." Taeyoung's deep voice, dripping with anger, fights through his clenched teeth. His eyes are open wide, the whites around his irises glowing. I finally wake up from my daze and kick into action by putting a gentle hand on his arm; his muscular and twitching bicep. It felt like it was ready to strike again at any moment.

"Oppa, just let him go," I say softly, knowing that he'll react to me calling him oppa. The tenseness of his bicep relaxes a bit and he's about to turn to me.

"Oppa?" The other guy says exasperatedly. "She's your chick? I should have known." Taeyoung shakes his collar in a threatening manner.

I hear commotion come from the kitchen. Oh god no, please stay in the kitchen.

And then everything happens all at once:

The guy says, "Is she as good in bed as she looks?"

Seulgi's mom asks, "Sohee, what's going on?"

My father walks in behind her.

And Seulgi walks through the restaurant door, finished with cram school.

Right after all of this, the guy gets punched so hard that he falls back onto the hard floor, head bouncing off of the tile. I feel everything slow down drastically. I notice every movement that everyone in the room makes, and I swear I can hear each gasp, each pair of lips parting in shock.

He's on the floor now, not moving. His eyes are still wide open, his mouth doing the same, but he doesn't move. I grab onto Taeyoung in fear, which is strange because he is the one who punched him.

Taeyoung finally wakes up from his trance and turns to me, his eyes full of vulnerability.

The guy's friends come around the injured man, all crouching on the floor. My father and his wife run up to him, asking if he's okay and needs the ambulance.