Baek Ha Rim

"agh! that stings!" changkyun quickly moved his head away from me in a flash.

"stay still!" i grabbed his arms to bring him close to me again.

changkyun suddenly scrunched up his face and tilted his head down low so i wouldn't be able to see it.

"stop that! this is a non-sting formula, you're just overdramatic!"

"you're using a heavy hand so it hurts when you apply it!"

changkyun and i bickered as he lost his trust in me. he wouldn't let me touch his face anymore because he was scared it'll hurt more.

"kyun-ah, i'm not done with the cut on your cheek." i tried to hold his face again but he only moved away even more.

"wait, let me calm down first!" he spoke.

i immediately loosened my grip on him and gave him a moment to let the pain subside.

"i'm sorry, i'll be lighter with my hand. if the cut on your cheek really hurts, let me do your lip first." i switched to a cotton swab.

"this is kind of like a paste that will help close the wound on your busted lip. i promise it won't hurt. don't wet your lips for a while so it doesn't come off." i instructed him.

"mmm." changkyun hummed his answer and slowly leaned his face closer to me once again.

i held his chin and focused my eyes on his lips. all of a sudden, i began to inappropriately remember the time he pressed those lips on mine.

i swallowed hard and slightly shook my head to remove the thoughts of changkyun and i sharing a kiss on that day. i then went ahead to start applying the medicine gently.

after evenly coating his wound, i slowly looked into changkyun's eyes and noticed him staring at my face.

i quickly pretended to be unbothered as i held my breath in. finally, i put the cotton swab down and straightened my back.

"done." i spoke.

changkyun moved away from me and stared at his lip in the small mirror i brought. suddenly, his eyes caught sight of my yellow umbrella.

"you've found it?" he pointed to the umbrella.

"ah right, about that.." i suddenly remembered.

"kyun-ah... chae hyungwon knows me." i revealed.

upon hearing my words, he immediately turned to me in surprise.

"he what? how exactly?"

"that day i visited my parents' grave, i encountered a man at the bus stop where i lost my umbrella. unexpectedly, that person was chae hyungwon... out of all people." i slightly frowned and looked down as i spoke about it.

"wah.. that's just really interesting." he smiled at me, looking astonished.

"it really is, isn't it?... anyway, let me do your cheeks now." i motioned him to come closer.

changkyun moved towards me and tilted his head a bit so i could finally apply medicine on his cheek. i carefully focused on getting it done right so that i don't make the mistake of hurting changkyun again.

"ha rim-ah, would you like to go to the mall with me tomorrow?" he suddenly asked.

"the mall? why?" i asked, still concentrating my eyes on treating his face.

"hmm, i need to buy new clothes. i'll also be receiving money from mr. baek tomorrow. after all, i caught the guys who almost tried to run away with his money."

"geez, why are there so many gangs going up against mr. baek recently?" i spoke, finally covering up changkyun's wound with a band aid.

"mr. baek seriously needs to stop associating himself with those people." i added.

changkyun remained silent and moved his face away from me to see himself on the mirror once again.

"alright, all we have left to treat is your nose!" i clapped my hands together.

_______________________________

my work day came by without any trouble. i wasn't able to come across chae hyungwon anymore, assuming that he was actually busy for the day.

right now, changkyun and i were roaming around the mall after getting mr. baek's permission and changkyun's deserved pay. it was evening already, but it was the only time we could go because of my office hours.

"what did you do at work today?" changkyun asked as we walked around.

"nothing much.. my colleagues and i just discussed about the plans of having a small get-together within next week."

"alright.. do you wanna buy anything else you need here?" he asked.

"i'm fine. just focus on the things you wanted to buy." i shook my head.

"alright then. but just incase you find something you like, don't hesitate to tell me."

changkyun and i started entering different stores this time. there were a couple of things he wanted to buy for himself, and he brought me along so i could help him out on deciding.

"i've been searching up these glasses for a while. i really wanted to get them for sometime now." he said as he brought me inside an eyewear store.

we went inside the place and saw the vast array of glasses organized according to their corresponding collections. the place was nicely lit and had full body sized mirrors at every corner.

what's notable to me is also the fact that the sales ladies stay at their counter only observing the customers carefully from afar. they come once you actually call on them for help.

i particularly felt more comfortable with that because i was usually the type to get a bit anxious everytime sales ladies tailed me around before i could pick something.

but maybe that was just me..

"i can't wait to try a lot of these styles on." changkyun smiled and headed to the glasses which were uniquely designed first.

some of them were just weird and hard to pull off which intrigued changkyun the most just like the unusual kid he was.

i went right beside him and started scanning my eyes around the actual decent ones which were just beside the unique collection. suddenly, changkyun picked out retro sunglasses which had tiny circle lenses in mint color.

"how's this?" changkyun faced me and smiled like an idiot.

"absolutely hideous." i rolled my eyes.

changkyun looked at himself in the mirror and laughed a bit before taking it out and trying another one in yellow lens.

"yah, those make your face look bigger." i shook my head in disgust.

"i know that, i'm just trying it out for fun." changkyun spoke before spotting cheetah printed glasses that had a thick cat-eyed frame.

"k-kyun-ah, i think that's women's eyewea--"

"hahaha, how can something be so ugly on me yet so cool?" he laughed at his face again.

to be fair, those glasses he tried on didn't actually look as bad because they seemed to get better the more you looked at it on him.

"hey be careful handling these. i'm scared you might break them, most especially the ones with thin frames."

"sure." he put the glasses away and started heading towards the decent-looking collections. at least to me.

i watched changkyun as he carefully picked out gold thin-framed round glasses and put it on himself.

"how is it?" he turned his head to me and smirked.

i raised my eyebrows at him in acknowledgement.

"i never knew you could look so good in that style. you actually pull off big round glasses so well."

"nice!" he cheered.

"so, let's talk more about your day at work for the meantime." he suddenly remembered as he picked out another one in the same design but black.

"nothing much happened. compared to yesterday, it was ordinary." i shrugged.

changkyun looked at me and pressed his lips in a thin line before calling on the sales lady.

"yes, sir?" the sales lady asked as she approached us.

"can i please ask where i can find these glasses in your store?" changkyun took out his phone and showed the lady.

"oh, new collections are this way, sir." the lady smiled and led the way for us to the other side of their store which probably had more designs displayed.

"their brand has a big area in this mall." i whispered to changkyun as we walked side by side.

"yeah.. anyway, going back to your story, there were no signs of chae hyungwon and his fiancée with attitude problems at all?" he raised a brow.

"not at all." i shrugged.

after a few couple of steps, we reached the other side of the store, and unexpectedly, the first thing changkyun and i saw were hyungwon and eun gyeol together.

the moment i laid my eyes on them, i stood frozen with my lips slightly parted. eventually, chae hyungwon also turned back from looking at the shelves of sunglasses and finally saw me. i noticed his eyebrows raise and his lips curve into a very small smile.

i slowly shifted my eyes to kwon eun gyeol and saw her already glaring at me. as expected, she seemed to be threatened again for the wrong reasons.

"sir, the glasses you were looking for are right here." the sales lady snapped us all out of it the moment she called changkyun's attention.

i quickly looked behind me to see changkyun, and i eventually realized that he had actually been looking at hyungwon and eun gyeol infront of us, too.

"ah, yes. i'll try them on." changkyun nodded and went towards the direction of the sales lady without bothering to take his piercing eyes off the two.

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