First Love

Chapter 5

Yoongi couldn't work.

He had been playing around with his keyboard with a tune on the loop.

He was still curious.

He was curious about Jae and how she ended up working there. As a cleaner to boot. He had nothing against cleaner, but knowing her background, he couldn't help but wonder. The thought had been nagging him since the day they bumped into each other at the dance studio.

She was always following him back then.

He couldn't go anywhere without seeing her when she was home for summer holiday that year. It was a year before he landed the audition for Big Hit. He didn't know her well enough but he knew her brother, Ahn Chin-Hwa. They were both orphans and they were born several years apart. They were well off too. He didn't know much, but her brother was doing well with his business. He had some restaurants, cafes and he had just started a music company. Yoongi thought he was quite respectable when he worked for him, until he was conned and ripped off.

Which lead to the accusation.

He knew it was bad reaction. He was just shocked to see her there and there was a mix of emotions, solely towards her brother. It was actually years since he that happened, but it was still raw.

He sighed.

His laptop was safe. There were a lot of songs in there that he hadn't manage to upload to his cloud storage. The first thought that came to his head was, not again. It was kind of like a self-preservation, even though Jae was not the culprit. His beef was with her brother, not her.

About Jae.

She was actually a musical prodigy. He knew she went to an art school in the US but he didn't pay much details as to where. He knew she performed at Carnegie Hall when she was 10 – The whole town was buzzing about her accomplishment. The news was even covered nationally. That was a huge feat for anyone to actually perform there solo. In one of her letters to him, she said she wanted to get into Juilliard.

He wondered if she did.

She said she was already in Seoul since 4 years back.

Some prodigies usually got in Juilliard and were done with the programme before they hit 20s.

If she didn't, what did she do when she stayed in Seoul?

If she did, why did she ended up here, working a menial job?

Shouldn't she be out there playing in a grand show or even have her own solo concerts?

Yoongi gave up working.

He looked at the clock and saw it was 2 a.m. He decided to walk to clear off his head. The streets was practically empty and despite the late hours, it was safe for him to go out. The alleys were equipped with security cameras to ensure the safety of pedestrians.

The night was cold and breezy. Yoongi pulled up his hoodie and began his walk. He went aimlessly for half an hour until he saw a 24 hour convenience store. He had not been there before at night time. Stopping by for a cup of ramyeon would be nice, he thought. The privacy at the late hours is refreshing

He went straight in and headed for the ramyeon aisle with a basket. He took a big bowl of instant noodles, a pack of instant rice, hard-boiled egg, kimchi, a fish cake and a can of beer. He surely missed Korean convenience store when he was away. Not that he could frequent the store that often. The fans would be flocking up on him even if he try to do mundane, day to day business.

"Is that all?" asked the cashier politely.

Yoongi's head went straight up and stopped taking his things from the basket as he heard the question. He thought his eyes or his head was playing around with him as lo and behold, Jae was the one behind the counter.