Our Scented Garden (JoongNine AU)

Chapter 5

Joong, 8

"Kitty...kitty....", I whispered quietly, to not alert anyone else in the mansion. My parents already told me, to never go beyond the boundaries of the staff's quarters, but my cat was lost, I had searched the whole quarters, and the only place left was the mansion.

"You mean this kitty?", suddenly a voice was heard behind me. I was startled and turned around. A boy, no taller than me, fair skinned, sweet face that didn't looked like a boy at all was smiling, looking at me while holding my cat. I nodded happily and reached out to take hold of the cat.

But, it was refused. "Give back. My cat", I said petulantly. The boy just smiled and said, "What's your name?"

"Joong".

"Alright Joong. I'm hungry, your house got food?". I nodded vigorously, "Mom food is the best!".

"Then, I'll give back the cat, for the food".

That was the start of the unlikely friendship.

Nine 13

"Joong, today I started high school. My classmates are way, way taller. I don't look like them at all".

"It's okay, better than me who is way,way taller than my classmates. They thought I will be a bully".

"Huh! You, a bully? The cat is more ferocious than you. Don't worry, if anybody said bad things about you, just tell me, I'll go to your school and protect you".

Joong, 16

"Oh, Nai, you're here early?", I said to the smiling face that was lying on my bed. I got extra classes at school and just managed to come back at 7. The rain didn't help at all to make my journey home easier. I was drenched, from head to toe, and shivering.

Nine immediately raised from the bed, went to my locker and took a towel. He asked me to bent a little, so that he could reach my head and rub the hair dry. Then he unbuttoned my school shirt and was about to pull my shirt off, but I was too shy and asked him to stop.

"That's alright, I..I'll manage", I said and took the towel from him and went into the bathroom. My heart was racing. And this was not the first time it had happened. If Nine knew this, I didn't know how to explain to him, when I was so confused myself. Must be the teenage hormone messing up my mind.

I dismissed it with a cold shower.

Nine 20

Today marked Joong's 18th birthday. The time that I'd been waiting for so many years, keeping all my feeling inside, would end now. I knew my feeling since I was 18, but Joong was still 16, and I didn't want to mess with him still exploring his feeling. I did realize the changes in our relationship. Thing that we used to do so comfortably, like sleep hugging and wrestled down with each other while playing around, became too intense to be ignored. That's why, I rarely came to sleep at his room since entering the University. I used every excuse to rarely be at home and mostly spent my time outside, but still, I couldn't help it, and when the need to see him became unbearable, I would visit his room again.

I went to his school and waited in the car, parked on the side of the road opposite from the front gate; to surprise him with the cake that was specially ordered, and bring him to eat dinner somewhere posh. I saw him came out from the school gate, I almost went out from the car, until I saw him turned around and someone came running and grabbed his arm. The girl looked decent and sweet. And the way Joong smiled at her, causing me to feel a burn inside my heart. Jealousy? I was jealous. I watched them walked together, until they were out of my sight.

I didn't want to return home. If I did, I would crash his room and asked for explanation, when I didn't have the right to do so. I called my friends and spent the night trashing around in the club, a place where I did go but never went over the board. It continued for two nights, of me wasting away, woke up in the hotel, slept the day away and went drinking again the night after. On the third night, I saw many missed calls as soon as I opened my phone. Only one voice mail, and the moment I listened to it, I felt the urge to come home. But, my stubborn self continued to drink to the brink, until my mom's bodyguard found me inside the club and brought me home.