The Joyride - A JoyRi fanfic

Chapter 7 - Joy's First Impression of Yena

"The first time we met it was at Sungmin's apartment, that's her brother."

"Mhm"

"He and I, we developed a strong friendship over that period and we hung at his place or my place all the time. He was always introducing me to new people, every weekend it was basically a new face."

"Oh, how so?"

"Well, he has a lot of friends living in Gwangju, that's where he is originally from. And then, last August, his sister Yena moved in with him. She came from Gwangju because she turned 18 and she wanted to study in Seoul. She wants to teach preschool. At least that's what she told me when we met, but honestly, she hasn't done much regarding her studies. I think she will be taking her first year classes all over again. I know it's only March and she still has time to turn things around but somehow I don't see it...." Joy then stopped with her monologue and smiled at dr. Kim.

"I'm guessing that's not the information you were looking for."

The doctor leaned in his chair and calmly replied with a smile:

"Everything you want to talk about, we can discuss. Would you like to discuss her school record?"

"No. It's not relevant. I mean, it's more of me saying something about her character. She is able to study, she can do great things but... She gets so easily distracted and manipulated and she easily gives up..."

"Is that something that you mind about her? That she easily gives up?"

"Yeah... Mainly because she gave up on me easily."

"Oh?"

"You know that it took me three weeks just to take her out?"

"Well, I mean, some people need time and courage to ask someone out so..."

"No, I meant... For three weeks she was stalling to go out with me on a date."

"What do you mean?"

"I asked her out and yeah.... Then it took her three weeks to finally go out with me."

"Okay, and tell me why didn't you just tell her that you don't want her to stall for so long?"

"Because I didn't want to scare her... I didn't want her to think I'm a creep who wants her to force her to go out with me. I decided to be patient. " Joy spoke solemnly.

She then added:

"And the only reason why I waited for three weeks was because she never said "Hey, listen Joy, I don't want to go out with you after all"."

"People sometimes don't do that directly, but give clues because they think it will be less awkward if they do so."

"Yeah, I can understand that, but I don't know... I never got a strong vibe from her that said "keep out"... And I was foolish enough because I thought "Well, maybe she's just shy, maybe she needs time to warm up to someone before she goes out with them, maybe I should just be patient".... And also, my ego. My ego never fails to make a fool out of me."

"As in?"

"As in... Ah, something that we've already discussed - I couldn't let myself be hurt again. So I delayed it altogether. I didn't want my ego and my pride to be hurt... I was ready to wait longer because I thought that maybe things would turn around. Maybe she would warm up to me.... But she never did. Not in the way I wanted her to, anyway..."

"What happened on the first date?"

"Well, I took her out to a pancake bar that was near her and Sungmin's apartment. I actually live relatively close to them so it wasn't far for me  either. We met up in front of her building." Joy then sighed as she continued to remember that day.