Chapter 25

We were driving back to Seogwipo and there's been so much silence for both of us while on the ride tonight. I'm still shocked that it happened. Parang naiwan ang kaluluwa ko sa spot na 'yon. I never thought that he would do that lalo na't nasa harap ng mga paparazzi na 'yon. I don't know how they received what they saw, but surely, that does stop them from asking and following us.

Tahimik lang ako sa biyahe and Jin-hyeong's focus himself on driving. I didn't raise the topic right after it happened. We just left the place and then we drive back to Seogwipo as if nothing happened. Obviously, it's already creating issues over social media, but we never tried to look at our phones to keep our thoughts away from it.

But deep down, we know Chini must be furious as hell as now. We're dodging her calls and messages. Just to keep us sane for the rest of the night.

Before we head home, Jin-hyeong decided to stop at a convenience store. We wore some disguises before we jumped out of the car. Ipinahiram sa akin ni BJH ang hoodie na dala niya na nakatupi sa passenger seat. He just wore a cap para kahit yumuko siya ay matatakpan ang mukha nito, though his height would tell it, but there's a lot of people naman who stood tall like him kaya no worries.

He opened the door for me and let me walked inside first. Bumalot naman sa katawan ko ang lamig ng temperatura sa loob ng convenience na 'to.

"Do you want something?" he asked. Hindi agad ako nakasagot dahil naglibot agad ang mata ko sa shelves pero mas umagaw ng atensyon ko ay ang aromang nanggagaling sa coffee station. "Do you want some coffee?"

Tumango ako. "Yup... I really felt cold."

"Then we should get yours," he insisted.

Hindi pa man ako nakasasagot sa kanya, he immediately grabbed my hand and we both went to the coffee station and he just grab the cup and let me pick what coffee I would get. While I was waiting for my cup to get filled, he excused himself na may hahanapin lang siya at magkita na lang daw kami sa counter.

When my cup is finally filled, I also grabbed some sandwiches—I thought of getting some noodles, but I feel like the sandwich is already enough. Para kasing hindi ako nabusog kanina sa kinain namin sa Mint. Nagmamadali kami so we could avoid and maybe this is the reason why we stopped here for a moment.

I decided to go to the counter. Sakto namang dumating do'n si BJH na may dalang basket at ang daming lamang foods no'n. Natawa ako nang makalapit ako sa kanya. He's chuckling when he saw my reaction.

"Why are you laughing?" he asked.

"I thought you're just gonna get something," I guessed. He squinted his eyes as if he doesn't know what I was talking about. "Akala ko kasi banana milk lang kukunin mo, e. May pa-noodles ka na riyan bigla."

He smirked. "Aren't you hungry?" he asked.

"Slight... ikaw ba?"

Tumango siya sa tanong ko. "That's why I bought this. Is that all you got?"

"Yup."

"Is that already enough for you?"

I nodded. "This is enough for me."

He pressed his lips together and nodded. "Okay. Then I'll pay for it."

Nilagay ko sa basket 'yong sandwich at isinama na niya sa babayaran niya, of course he also paid for my coffee. After paying all of it, he decided not to go back to his back and spend our time just outside of the store and eat what we bought at one of the vacant tables there. Good thing, there wasn't around to snoop on us and we comfortably got our time here.

Jin-hyeong went back inside to put some hot water on his noodles and then he went back slowly walking towards the table, trying not to drop the cup. As soon as he seated with me, he prepared everything and we just started eating our food.

"I thought it'll be good if we stay here kasi ang lamig sa loob. Mas malamig pa rin pala rito," aniko.

"Maybe the coffee will help you," he said. I nodded and started sipping on it pero napaso ang dila ko. He chuckled as he saw my reaction. "Hope that didn't burn your tongue."

Ha handed his cold water to me and it helps cool down the burn a little.

"I have something to say—" aniko.

"No, I think I should be the one telling something," Jin-hyeong said. My forehead creased and waiting for him to say it. "I'm sorry for the kiss earlier. I should've ask a permission to you before doing such thing. My bad, Raijine. I won't ever do that and I hope you'll forgive me."

I reached his shoulder and lightly caressed it. "That's what I was going to say. I was just surprised. But you know what? It doesn't matter. That made them stop following us though."

"Right... but I feel like I should've asked you first because it's..."

"Don't you worry about it, Jin-hyeong. It's over now."

He nodded his head. Hindi na niya ako matingnan sa mata kung hindi ay tumuloy na lang siya sa pagkain niya. I eat my sandwich and then my coffee which starting to get cold. A little moment, he fished his phone out of his pocket. Napatitig ako sa pag-unlock niya no'n.

"What are you gonna do?" I asked.

"See people's reaction," he said.

"'Wag na kaya?" suhestiyon ko. He slightly looked at me with raising a brow. "I mean, we should just let it go. Alam naman nating walang magandang kalalabasan 'yong mag issue mula sa paparazzi."

"But it's not bad to check their reaction," pamimilit pa nito. "If it's bad or not, I don't care."

Hindi ko napigilan si BJH na buksan ang social media niya and then there were a lot of mentions and tags to him. And then we just discovered that he's on the trending list now and the topic has been moving up from time to time.

Jinhhan yeozichingu. (Jinhyeong's girlfriend.)

"Oooh," I swooned. "Is that bad?"

He shrugged off. "I don't know... let' see what they would say."

Hindi kami nagkamali ni Jin-hyeong na ang nagkalat na kaagad ang photos sa social media's and most of their reaction was surprised and some think that it's just for publicity. Like duh, ang layo no'n sa ginagawa ni Dong-yoon at Mi-sun ngayon.

@CriseldaSabs: OMG! I feel like I know this girl! If I'm not mistaken, I've got to get seated with her on the same flight bound to Seoul. Gosh! I thought... but, I'm happy for her! Such a cute couple!

@SeilaverneMercondia: This photo is going everywhere. My friends who are K-pop fans are sharing this post. Kaloka! Umaabot na hanggang Japan!

@CelyAnderson-Carrington: Andrew and Caro kept sharing this post with us. Familiar pala sa kanila si girl kasi siya 'yong nagseller ng mga bargain Korean clothes online! OMG! How small world it is! Ang cute nga nilang dalawa! Such a whirlwind thing to happen.

"It's all over the world now. I know this woman," BJH said, pertaining to the tweet we've read. "This is Devin Carrington's wife and they're living in Vegas. See how social media could erupt this news quickly."

"I think this is still bad for your image," komento ko.

He raised a brow. "Why would you say that? It's not like you're a bad person to associate with me, right?

"I know I'm not... but I'm just your personal assistant. People might think something about that and it won't be good for us, but I'm not blaming you for what you did earlier. It happened and I would probably do the same thing if they want to make something up."

"Yeah... and now I regretted that I've accepted their invitation. They're messed-up wannabe couple. They do this for clout—for attention and basically, I kept shadowing their popularity."

"I agree... they just wanted you out of the spotlight, but the spotlight keeps pulling you back to where you belong. I guess this is the sign we're looking for, right?"

"Maybe." He shrugged off. "Should we go home now?"

I nodded as I'm already finished with my meal. "Yeah, we should..."

We get back to the car and within thirty minutes, we finally reached their house. Nadatnan naming gising pa si Seojun sa sala at nanonood ng tv. BJH asked where his parents is, he told him they're already sleeping so he just ordered Seo-jun to go to his room now and sleep. It's less than an hour before midnight.

"Are you going to take a shower?" he asked.

Umiling naman ako. "Hindi na... magpapalit na lang ako ng damit."

"Okay... I'll be taking a shower quickly. Don't wait for me. You should sleep now."

He just grabbed some clothes from his closet and walked out of the room to go to the bathroom. I changed my clothes quickly then jumped on the bed, lay myself down comfortably.

I swallowed as I stared right into the ceiling. Natawa at napailing na lang din ako nnang maalala ko 'yong nangyari kanina. I was shocked and I think it was so weird. It happened so fast and I couldn't grip the moment—it was too quick. Speed lang si BJH.

As soon as I heard his footsteps coming in, pinikit ko ang mata ko at nagtulog-tulogan. He's already wearing his PJs and joined me on the bed and lay himself down comfortably.

"Jal ja, raijin," he muttered. (Good night, Raijine.)

That brought a smile to my face, but I kept it hidden so he wouldn't notice. I don't know if I can call this day somewhat a good thing, but because of how it ended, this might turn out something bad. But I'm hoping, once we wake up tomorrow, everything stops talking about us.

But that's not what happened.

The next morning, we're on the news and BJH's parents watching it and they showed our photos like nothing, but I felt so embarrassed to his parents kaya hindi ko sila matingnan sa mga mata nila.

BJH didn't even bother to explain to his parents. Nangangati ang dila kong magsalita pero pinili ko na lang din 'wag magsalita or it would just cause something bad. Mananahimik na lang ako. That's the best thing I can do.

Chini's surprised about what she read when she called me. Parang gusto niyang bumalik bigla rito sa Jeju para batukan kami ng sabay. Though what happened was out of my hands.

Looking up online, halos tungkol sa amin ang nilalaman ng mga article. Hindi nila kami tinigilan and for sure, pagbalik namin sa Seoul, they would come at us na para bang racing car at sasagasaan na lang kami ng mga nagraragasang tanong. We're in Jeju and we're trying to avoid that, but because of one post made by BJH, it all completely turned around to something we didn't expect would blow up.

Pero si Dong-yoon at Mi-sun talaga may kasalanan nito, if they didn't show up, the kiss wouldn't even have to happen.

So we just spend the rest of our stay in Jeju like nothing happened. Kahit na nagpunta si Dong-yoon at Mi-sun sa Sunrise Peak and do the same thing to the vendor, it didn't get much of an attention, but only a hundred thousands of likes. Hanggang do'n lang 'yon. Natabunan pa rin ng mga kiss photos namin. They must be so pissed off now na hindi sila ang nagiging center of attraction.

We enjoyed the rest of our stay as much as we could and we didn't mind what people would say to us. We didn't mind them both kahit na papansin sila nang papansin sa mga social media nila. We're just living away from the media and before BJH could go back to work, at least he got to spend his time with his parents and had a little time off from his stressful work.

And on the day we were heading back to Seoul, sa kamalas-malasan ay kasabay namin sina Mi-Sun at Dong-yoon sa flight pabalik ng Seoul. Sa airport pa nga lang ay nang-aagaw na sila ng atensyon kahit iyong iba naman ay walang pakialam sa kanila.

Nananahimik lang kami ni BJH dahil nakatatawa lang silang panoorin. But, Jin-hyeong and I aren't happy about this. Inanunsyo pala nilang dalawa ang oras ng flight nila kaya hanggang sa loob ng aircraft ay may kasabay kaming mga paparazzi at insiders. They're just going after our privacy and they're not respecting it.

So as soon we landed back in Seoul, Dong-yoon and Mi-sun are expecting that the media will come after them, but then they just come after us and Jin-hyeong and I were struggling with how to get away with them.

Bwisit na attention seekers kasi! Nadamay pa kaming dalawa ni BJH!

***

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Let me know your thoughts! I would appreciate it so much!

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