Saturday, April 3, 2010

Passenger Seat


The track inspiration is obvious on this one. The idea to write this came to mind when I heard this old, favorite song while I was dining out with a friend. And the fanfic craze that I am, I immediately thought of JGS-PSH and yeah, the infamous SUV that is set to stage its debut in, if i my sources are right, a month or so? I loved writing this because I love intimate moments. Happy Easter, my chingus! 

Passenger Seat

Expensive and unnecessary. That’s what your omma said when you first brought up the subject of buying a new car.

“You already have a car. A foreign-made, expensive car, if you ask me. And it is still working well, right? So why buy another one? Your money doesn’t grow on trees, Keun Suk. Remember that,” she quips, sternly cutting carrots in the kitchen while you hover around her like a kid asking for a toy balloon.

You roll your eyes behind her back for the second time and heave a deflated sigh, loud enough to let her hear it. For her, a car is a car, big or small. She doesn’t know the difference between a Porsche Cayenne and a Hyundai Genesis. Or a sedan and an SUV. And she doesn’t care. As long as it transports her to church or to the supermarket, it is a car by her definition, period. And omma knows best. As always.

“I heard that sigh loud and clear.” The carrots are sliced into cubes, the knife deftly manuevered by her hands. But to your trained ears, each thump of the knife on the board sounds like a ‘no.’

You pour yourself a glass of milk. “Omma, I really need a bigger car this time. I can’t cram all my stuff in that little car anymore. And this is not just a whim. I have been saving for this model since last year. I’ve been working hard. I deserve a reward.”

You hear her cluck her tongue. “But a car that costs more than fifty million won? That is just insanely outrageous! Why not buy a house and lot instead? Or invest in business.”

This conversation is getting futile, you tell yourself as you put back the milk carton in the refrigerator and you walk to her side. “Omma, I know what you’re thinking. I am not wasting away my hard-earned money. You know that. I just need a bigger car. I need it for work and for my hobbies. It’s not a sports car for showing off. It’s an SUV,” you try to explain, putting your arms around her shoulders.

“A what?” she asks, quite confused at the foreign-sounding word.

You give a light chuckle. “It’s a car suited for big boys like me. I’m a big boy now, omma. So just trust me on this. Please,” you try to coo, wanting to appease her and just put a stop to the issue.

It’s her turn to heave a sigh. “Ahrasso. Do whatever you want with your money. Just don’t come crying to me to rescue you when you wake up one morning without a single cent in your bank account!” She threatens, wagging her finger at you.

Triumphant, you plant a kiss on her forehead, thanking her. “You’re the best, Omma! You know that, right?” You hear her grunt as you make your exit swiftly from the kitchen afraid that she would give another one of her tirades.


~0o0~

You count the rings of her phone before she picks up. Three. She has always been constant about that since the very beginning. She lets the phone ring three times before she answers your calls. You don’t know if she really does that to anyone but it’s one of those quirky things you love about her. She is constant, even with her quirkiness. To anyone it may mean nothing but to you, this gives you a feeling of stability. That she will never change towards you --- that she will forever be constant in your life.

“Oppa,” her soft, lyrical voice quickly wakes you up from your reverie.

“Twenty questions,” you tell her immediately, referring to a game you both love to play.

Bo?” she asks, a little perplexed.

“Nineteen questions to go.”

“Arrgghh,” she exclaims softly. “Ok, are we talking about someone?”

“Nope. Next question.”

“A thing?”

“Yes!”

“Hmm…a new project?”

You laugh. “No. A project is not a thing. It’s an event,” you correct her.

“Right. A thing, a thing…is it something you want?”

“Yes. You’re getting close,” you egg her on.

“Am I?” she says excitedly.

“Yes. Fourteen questions more.”

“Hey, that’s not fair. You shouldn’t include my last question, oppa!” she protests.

“But you asked a question, right? I answered. That’s included in the game. 13th question, please.”

“Can it be bought?”

“Yes.”

You hear her murmur to herself. “It’s something you want that can be bought with money… What do you want, oppa?”

“If I say it now, then you lose the game.”

“Aissh! Ahrasso, ahrasso. Is it expensive?”

“You can say that. It is.”

“Is it small?”

“No.”

“Aha! If it isn’t small, then it must be big. And the only big thing I know you want so badly right now is… Don’t tell me you finally bought that SUV you’ve been telling me about?”

“That’s another question but I guess I have to answer that one and let you win. Yes, I finally bought it! Finally!”

“Aja! That was quick and easy,” she teases you. You really don’t know why you feel giddy each time you hear her soft voice teasing you. You are not turning into a sappy and wimpy kid now, are you?

“Listen, when I finally have it delivered to me in maybe… uh, let’s see, a few weeks time, would you like to go on a drive with me, out in the countryside, perhaps?” Say yes, please, you grit your teeth in anticipation.

You hear her breathe before she answers, “That would be great, oppa.”

~0o0~

“You like it?” you ask in anticipation as she greets you with a smile, her eyes busily scanning the length of the vehicle parked behind you.

She nods, her eyes glancing back at you. “It definitely suits you. It looks fierce, menacing…but –

“I look menacing to you?” you ask her, a little smile playing on your lips.

Aniya. We are talking about the vehicle, right? It’s cool. It’s big but it sure has attitude. Like you,” she teases, grinning.

You laugh at her audacity to tease you like that, while sharing such close proximity to you. This girl will have to learn that sometimes there are consequences on teasing a grown-up guy like you. Consequences like…you scrap the thought immediately. Stop thinking about her like that when she’s in front of you, man, you berate yourself. Shame on you.

“Come on, hop in and let’s hit the road. Let my new best friend show you how fierce and menacing he can really be,” you tease her back, opening the passenger door for her. You smell a whiff of her hair as she walks past you and fight the urge to turn her around and bury your face into her hair. How can a shampoo smell so darn fine like this?

This is the first time you will be spending a whole day with her, without any one tailing you or any camera watching your every move. Fine, you have been tempted to ask Manager Kim to tag along but only out of habit and you quickly dismissed the thought the minute you realized what a dopey idea it was. This is the first time you will have Shin Hye for yourself and you want it to be special in any possible way. You have waited a month for this and you have pestered your staff and hers to create a free day for the both of you. So that is what exactly you are going to do today -- to make beautiful memories with her. And if that means keeping your hands off her at a decent level and to keep reign on your own feelings while trying to behave nicely which means no groping, no sleazy thoughts and no awkward intimacy unless she allows it, then hell, yes, you will abide all by the above self-imposed rules. Yes sir, you will. May the gods help you.

“So where are we heading, oppa?” the unsuspecting girl of your daydreams ask you.

“Hmm, where ever the road leads us, I guess. Maybe Busan?” you joke. You love how she looks today. Wearing a simple green hoodie jacket, a white shirt and black pants and absolutely no make-up, she looks like the average girl on the street except for that pretty face. That pretty face that has been haunting your every dream these days.

She giggles. “Busan? That far? Are you serious? Her chin dimple dances in the morning sunlight. “That’s okay with me. I love long-drives, anyway.”

“Really? Me, too. I love driving out in the countryside. Away from the city. It gives me peace to see the lush greeneries and the long stretch of road ahead. It soothes me.”

She smiles, nodding her head in agreement. “I know. I feel that, too. It peels away the stress from you, makes you breathe.”

You steal a glance at her and smile. You really share a lot in common and it is fun learning one similarity at a time.

~0o0~

“Shin Hye, do you remember when we first met?” You ask her thirty minutes later, as you drive along the outskirts of Seoul. The windows are down and the breezy air somehow has both lulled you to silence and it is making you drowsy so you pop the first question that comes to your mind just to make a conversation.

She turns to you and straightens up from her slouch. “Etude CF?”

 You shake your head. You don’t really expect her to remember because you both were too young then. But you remember it because you just recently show a clip of the old video online. “Earlier than that,” you give her a hint.

“Have we worked together before that?” she asks, her mind busily searching for an answer, you can tell.

You clutch your heart in a mock gesture of feeling hurt. “Ouch, so you didn’t take note of the very day you first met me? You didn’t write it in your diary? I’m hurt!”

She smirks at your silliness. “I’m sorry, oppa. I only take note of eventful things in my diary.”

You pretend to look hurt some more, pouting. “Come on, try to remember. I couldn’t be that so easy to brush off on first meetings!”

She mimics your pout, forehead creasing. “Awards night? Party?”

You shake your head and sigh in exasperation. “Nonstop 4.”

She tilts her head towards you, a smile plastered on her face. “With MC Mong. That was 2005, right?”

You look at her with accusing eyes. “You knew it. You remember!”

Her hearty laugh fills the interior of the car as you focus on the road ahead, suddenly relieve that she remembers your first meeting, too. “You really love doing this to me, don’t you?”

“What, oppa?” she asks, her voice and face full of innocence.

“Fooling me. Didn’t you know that no one gets away unscathed from teasing Jang Geun Suk?” you threaten her, your mind already listing the possible things you can do to get even with her.

“Oppa, I just learned this from you. Aren’t you proud I’m getting the hang of it? Look, I’m getting better, I can even fool you now.” Her voice is full with mirth.

Aishh, sinchia,” you mutter under your breath. “So, is that the only thing you like about me? You like me because I taught you how to fool and tease people effortlessly?”

You feel her turn a little rigid at your question. Ah, sweet revenge. Nothing can make Shin Hye fluster more than you asking her how she feels about you. She always gets embarrassed about it. And you love it.

“I like you? Says who, oppa? I never said that,” she quips in a small voice, recovering quickly from your question.

You see a small clearing on the road ahead, a couple of meters away and grin. Signaling to turn left, you deftly steer the car towards the shoulder of the road and pull to a complete stop at the clearing. You turn to her, calmly, “So, you were saying that you don’t like me?”

You see her pupils dilate at the realization that you just parked the car in the middle of nowhere, with just the both of you inside a vehicle and with an expression on your face that you know translates to that of a hunter finally cornering his prey. You can’t help but smile at her reaction. Her eyes are panicking but her smile is still teasing you.

“I—I don’t just like you. I like you a lot!” she tells you, trying to redeem herself from an unknown fate in your hands.

You fake a sneer at her, enjoying the moment. “Too late. You crossed the line. You don’t like me, huh? Why don’t we find out ourselves if you really don’t?” You reach out to brush your hand on her jawline down to her chin.

She instinctively turns her face away, shy and embarrassed. “Oppa, we’re on the road,” she protests in her small voice.

You ignore her protest and search her eyes to lock hers with yours. “My car is tinted and we are in the coutryside.” You press the button to close the windows and locks. “There,” you tell her smugly.

She closes her eyes tightly. “I like you, okay? I like you a lot! I even like your mom, too!”

You chuckle. “I don’t believe you. You just spent the last hour making fun of me so I’m not going to be fooled again.”

She puts out her palm to stop you from getting near her. “Oppa, I’m telling the truth. I—I’m your girlf—I mean, we are going out now, right? I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t like you,” she licks her lips and bites them nervously.

You are definitely enjoying making her squirm in her seat. But seeing her lick her lips like that just sends you a little over the edge. You are no saint, you remind yourself. And well, she is your girlfriend now, right? You have all the right to – “I had this crazy fan-girl crush on you when we did the CF kiss!” She blurts out thwarting your thoughts which she seems to have read easily.

You smile giddily at her confession. “Fan-girl crush, huh? So you liked the kiss, then?”

She turns crimson at your question but nods, shyly. “I did, yes. Who wouldn’t, right? I mean—

You drown the rest of her words with your lips touching hers. Gently, you cup her face with both of your hands to steady her head. You feel her tremble a little so you softly caress her cheeks with your thumb to soothe her nerves. Her lips slowly relax and yield to your deepening kiss. “Mianhe, I just can’t hold myself any longer,” you whisper between kisses. Her lips taste of cherry and mint. You kiss the tip of her nose and her forehead, prying your attention away from her lips before you lose yourself entirely.

You smooth her hair lovingly, running your fingers through her fine locks. “I like the smell of your hair,” you tell her who is still dazed with her lips a little swollen from your kisses. Ah, how could she sit there beside you like this oblivious of the havoc she is wreaking inside you? She drives you insane and she doesn’t know it.

She looks at you with glazed eyes and a shy smile on her lips. “I always feel this way everytime you kiss me, in that CF, in the drama. I feel disoriented and a little lost.”

You give out a nervous laugh, your heart lurching a little. “But it’s different this time, Shin Hye. This is for real,” you remind her, holding her hand and lacing your fingers with hers.

She holds your gaze tenderly, her heart reflected in her eyes. “I know, oppa. But each of those kisses felt real to me. Just like now.”

Your fingers tightened their grip on hers as she speaks. Shin Hye has never verbalized her feelings towards you until now. She has always been cautious about how she feels. Not even when you were pestering her with your own feelings did she ever articulate her emotions to you. She did say she likes you a lot but she never goes beyond that. Until now. And hearing her describe to you how you make her feel is just so surreal you don’t know how to react.

“I never expected that you would like me back someday,” she continues. “So when you said you do, I needed to make sure that it was for real. I’m sorry I made you wait for a while but it was the only thing I knew to see if you are for real.”

You smile. You never liked waiting but she made you appreciate it, a lot. “That’s one of your charms, you know,” you caress her head gently, “you know how to take reign on me.”

She bows her head to hide her blush.

“But sometimes, there are things that can not wait,” you tell her, “like this.” You claim her lips once again, fervently and possessively. Cherry and mint never tasted so good like this on someone else’s lips.


3 comments:

wengwa said...

OH MY GOD! I've been waiting for this Spring date for ages and thanks God u updated jossa just like how i wanted it to be... i'm a little speechless now hehehe.. it was so romantic, cute, loving, whatever u call it as long as it is good hahaha!!! OMO! they had that real kiss now and i'm hoping for some more hehe... really really thank u for posting this today, love it so much and u've got new look on ur blog, love it too. Happy Easter! got to read ur post again coz as always it's nicely written. God Bless You!

jossa said...

Thanks, wengwa! Happy Easter to you, too.

Like my new template? it's called Spring and frogs. so fitting for the season, yeah?

Enjoy the sakuras. :)

Anonymous said...

stunning.............................

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