Little Detective

Chapter 15: The Monkey Terrier

Jihwan and I had gone on all the rides so now we were playing all the games. At the moment, I was watching Jihwan attempt to throw tiny rings onto bottles. And he was failing miserably. I couldn't help but laugh as he continued to fail.

After he threw the last ring, I put my hand on his bicep to stop him from getting another set of rings from the poor man working the game.

"I think that's enough," I said to the man. I turned to Jihwan and said, "You're clearly bad at this."

"Why don't you try?" Jihwan asked angrily.

"Because I'm as equally bad, if not worse," I said. "Let's try something that we might be good at."

"Fine," Jihwan said rolling his eyes. He turned away from the game and began to walk away. I rushed up to him and took his hand in mine. I swung it between our bodies, trying to take his mind off loosing the game.

"Why don't you play that one game where you swing the mallet down?" I asked. "Show me how strong you are."

He didn't look at me, instead he looked to the games that lined the walkways. I couldn't help but notice him emotionally shutting down. Something was very wrong, I could tell.

"Come on, Jihwan." I stopped walking and tugged his hand to stop him as well. He didn't turn to look at me. "Jihwan look at me." He didn't do it. "I don't care that you can't win a stupid game. That game is rigged, everyone knows that. I just want the two of us to have fun. So why don't we play a game that's a bit easier?"

Jihwan nodded before he pulled me over to water gun game. The first one to reach the top got a prize. And it ended up being Jihwan who won.

"Good job, Handsome," I said as the man in the booth handed him a small stuffed animal.

Jihwan handed me the stuffed animal. I took it from him with a smile. He turned to the man running the game and said, "Leave for a minute."

The man rushed off through the back and left me alone with Jihwan. I looked around for JJ, who was playing the ring toss game thirty feet away. He wasn't even paying attention to Jihwan and I.

"Ana, can you promise me something?" Jihwan asked still not looking at me.

"Depends on what it is," I shrugged.

"Can you promise to do that whenever I feel like that?" Jihwan asked.

"Do what?" I asked.

"Take my mind off feeling upset," Jihwan said. "I've never had anyone do that for me."

That couldn't be true. He had to have had someone who cared for him. Someone who helped him like I just did. But then again I knew almost nothing about Jihwan.

"Jihwan, why don't you tell me more about yourself?" I asked. I turned my body completely to face him. "You know so much about me, but I barely know anything about you."

"Not here, Ana," Jihwan said. "Not in public. Why don't I go to your place after we're done here and I'll talk about it then? Promise."

"Then I promise to always make you feel better," I said.

"Good. Let's go play another game," Jihwan took my hand. The two of us stood up and we began to walk to another game. Before we were two feet from the water gun game, my phone rang from in my purse which Jihwan scowled at.

"Don't answer it," Jihwan ordered.

"It might be for work," I said.

"It's your day off." I rolled my eyes and answered the call anyway. "Anastasia Barnes."