Chapter 8

When I saw that it was Yoo Chun, I immediately passed the phone to Jun Su.

“I think it’s for you,” I said.

“Huh?” Jun Su looked puzzled, but he answered the phone anyway. “Yoboseyo? Yoo Chun? Why are you calling Sierra’s phone? You can’t get through to mine? That’s odd, I didn’t turn mine off.” We started to walk out of the Cineplex towards the car park. “So how’s Europe? Great! Haha! I’ll see you when you get back,” Jun Su ended the call as we reached his car.

“What did Yoo Chun want?” I asked.

“He said that he couldn’t get through to my phone,” Jun Su said as he passed me my mobile phone.

“Weird,” I muttered as I got into the car.

“They’ll be back next week,” he said as he turned on the ignition.

“So soon?”

“Yoo Chun said that Dae In wasn’t feeling well.”

“What? Why?”

“I dunno. Don’t worry. Yoo Chun will take good care of her.”

When they finally got back, I immediately visited Dae In at Yoo Chun’s family home. It was as huge and lavish as Dae In’s, if not more.

“Onni,” Dae In smiled as she walked out onto the patio, where I was sitting, waiting for her.

“I heard you were ill,” I said in a concerned tone.

“Just a little cough,” she smiled. “Come up to my room,” she said as she pulled me into the house. “I’ve got presents for you.”

Her room was decorated in a classic European style. The carvings, the fabric, they all reminded me of the splendor a European aristocrat’s home would have. Dae In handed me a paper bag and inside it were 5 packages.

“Open them,” she smiled. “Oh… but one of them is for Jun Su oppa.”

“Komawo,” said and we sat on the lounge in a corner of the room so that I could open the packages.

She’d bought me a Dior bag, a Hermes scarf, a pair of crystal chandelier earrings and a Chanel wallet.

“Dae In,” I gasped as I unwrapped the gifts. “These are really expensive, I can’t accept them.”

“You’ve always been the onni I never had, this is nothing compared to everything you’ve done for me.”

I felt guilty when she said that. What have I ever done for her? Other than the fact that we’d been there for each other for the past year, as room mates, there was nothing I’d done for her.

“I can’t,” I said as I put the gifts back into the paper bag and handed it to her.

“Take them, onni,” she said. “I have no one else to give them to and you are the closest friend I have. I can’t return them, and I don’t want someone else to have them.”

“But…” I started, then sighed. She was right. Who was she going to give them to? The Salvation Army? “Komawo,” I said.

“No problem,” she smiled brightly.

We heard a knock on the door and we turned around to find Yoo Chun standing there.

“Having fun?” he asked as he walked in.

“I just gave onni the gifts I brought back for her,” Dae In said.

“Sierra, you’d better appreciate every single one of those gifts. I’d to endure all those shopping trips just so she could choose them for you.”

“Araso,” I smiled.

I left about half an hour later, feeling rather relieved that Dae In and Yoo Chun were finally getting along. As I walked out towards the gates, I heard footsteps behind me. Before I could react, Yoo Chun dragged me by the hand so that we were concealed by some hedges.

“What were you trying to pull the other day?” he hissed.

“Oww,” I pulled my hand away from Yoo Chun. “What are you talking about?” I frowned at him.

“Why didn’t you answer your own phone?” he asked.