Gayoon's Story (6)
Gayoon's Story (6)
"Are you stalking me?" she demanded.
"N-n-no!" he exclaimed. "I'm not-"
"I saw you last night standing outside my window!" Gayoon accused. "Don't lie Seungjo! I know you're stalking me. Ever since I rejected that picture you drew for me, you've been following me everywhere!"
Seungjo looked guilty and averted his eyes. He did some quick thinking and took out a piece of cloth from his pocket. It was Gayoon's handkerchief.
"Where did you get that?" she asked. "Did you steal it?"
"What? No!" Seungjo claimed. "I found it lying on the library's floor and I saw your name on it."
He showed her the handkerchief where her name was stitched on. Gayoon pursed her lips and snatched it from his hands.
"You could have returned it at school," she said curtly.
"I thought after what those bullies did to you, you'd avoid me," he said in a small tone. He looked so shy and awkward that Gayoon was feeling bad for yelling at him. But he did follow her stealthily to her house and that was not normal behavior.
"You could have given it to me at school," she repeated. "Those bullies don't scare me but this behavior of yours is not normal. You shouldn't be following girls to their homes that too in the middle of the night!"
"I'm sorry!" he apologized. "I'm sorry! I really am!"
"It's fine," she replied. "Don't do it again. Now go home."
With that, she got on her bike and rode off, leaving him behind. Seungjo watched her leave, his hands clenched into a fist as he stared at her back. She did not glance at him even once and went on her merry way while he suffered for her.
In her anger, Gayoon failed to notice that he was wearing the same clothes from last night. Seungjo had been standing outside her house, staring at her window all night long in the hopes that she would see him. But she did not see him while he only waited for her and her only.
"Why won't she look at me?" he whispered. His mind was repeating the same phrase over and over again. She refused to even glance at him and it was all Yoo's fault. If Yoo had not interfered the other day to make fun of the picture he drew for her, Gayoon would have been impressed. She would have accepted his feelings for her and they could have been in a relationship by now.
But Yoo and Minjung ruined his plans, making Gayoon detest him. What was so wrong in drawing a picture of hers while she slept? She was his future wife after all! What was his fault? She loved him anyway.
"We'll be together, Gayoon," he swore. His heart was filled with a burning obsession and his eyes fixed on his target. He would trap her in his love spell even if it was the last thing he did.
...
Gayoon parked her bike in the mall's parking lot. She hummed a song as she entered the mall to look for clothes. Passing by the expensive branded stores, she opted towards the ones having a sale.
"What should I buy?" She wondered. "My t-shirts are fine but I guess I'll need new pants…"
She scavenged through the pants which were on sale, looking for her favorite shade of pink. Despite the darkness in her life, she really liked the color pink and most of her stuff were of that shade. Her grandmother was driven nuts by the amount of pink clothes Gayoon owned but the girl could not help it. She just naturally gravitated towards that color.
"Aha!" she exclaimed as she picked up a pair of baby pink pants. "Perfect!"
She walked towards the counter to pay for it when a middle aged man stood in line behind her. He was well dressed and looked like a lawyer. The man was talking on the phone to someone.
"Surrogate?" the guy frowned. "You're looking for a surrogate?"
Someone was telling him something from the other end and the man replied, "But that's insane! Why don't you just get married and get a child, you know, naturally?"
The man paused as he listened to the caller and groaned.
"You don't wanna get married because it costs money?" he gritted. "Kid, that's just a dumb excuse! This surrogacy will cost more money if you're gonna pay the birth mother."
He paused again, listening to the caller.
"That's your excuse?" the lawyer sighed. "That you'll be paying the birth mother just once while you'll be paying the expenses for a wife for the rest of your life? THAT IS YOUR REASON? WHY HAVE A KID THEN?"
The lawyer looked as if he had given up all hope in the world as he listened to his boss. Meanwhile, Gayoon was listening to the conversation and held in a giggle. It seemed that the person on the other end of the line was a miser. The conversation highly amused her and she could not control her laughter anymore.
"Damn that money lover," the lawyer gritted as he hung up the phone. Noticing the teenager staring at him, he snapped at her, "What are you looking at, kid?"
"Nothing!" Gayoon said at once, turning away to hide her laughter. She pitied the poor lawyer who had to deal with such a pain-in-the-butt boss. Do people like him really exist? She wondered as she paid for her pants. When she turned around, the lawyer was gone but she noticed that a card had fallen out.
She bent over to pick it up. Lawyer Lee? Gayoon frowned. The lawyer was nowhere to be found and she assumed he left so she pocketed the card. She picked up her shopping bag and wandered around the mall a while longer, looking at the products on display.
"So expensive," she lamented as she stared at a glass vase. It was reflecting the colors of the rainbow from all angles, making her marvel at it. The glass was transparent but she was sure that whoever designed it used some sort of material to make that kind of reflection. The surface was so clear that she could see her own face in it.
"So pretty," she murmured as she stared at her reflection on it. She leaned in closer to take a clear look at it when a shadow popped up on the glass, making her yelp in shock.
"AH!" she screamed and fell back. The people around her were startled and turned around to see the skinny teenager flat on her back. But Gayoon did not care for their stares. Instead, her eyes were fixed on the glass vase.
Because on it, was the face of a pale man with a burnt face.