Page 61 of A World Apart
“Hi,” his clear, accented voice now so familiar to me filled the space of my tiny room, only adding to the surreal feeling.
“Hi,” I breathed, finally able to respond.
“Are you ok? I know it’s very late there now,” he said, his eyes seeming to dart around his screen, taking in my surroundings. I chanced a look at the smaller image from my camera in the bottom of the screen and took in the details he must be seeing; curtains closed, bedside lamp on, me sitting on my bed wearing a robe with wet hair.
“It’s fine,” I said quickly, “Becka and I went out, we only got back an hour ago.”
Jihoon made a noise of understanding before we both lapsed into silence again. I glanced up at the top of my phone screen where I have two time zones displayed. I saw that for him, it was just after 6:00pm.
“Are you done for the day?” I asked, trying to sound as casual as I was trying to look, even though my back was starting to hurt from the position I was holding.
He frowned and then puffed out his lips in a weary sigh, a hand rising up to run through his hair. That’s when I noticed how tired he looks.
“We had a lot of meetings; scheduling meetings, and project meetings, just meetings and meetings,” he grumbled, and I suddenly felt bad for thinking he was ghosting me, when he’d probably not had a moment to himself after being on a plane for half a day.
“Kaiya,” he said, snapping my attention back to him, “I’m sorry I didn’t call you.”
I tried to wave it away, but he continued. “I fell asleep on the plane, and I didn’t know my battery had died. We drove straight to the company. I didn’t have a chance to charge my phone.”
“Honestly, it’s fine,” I tried again to wave his explanation away, but he ploughed on, talking over me.
“And then I fell asleep at the company until it was too late to even call you, and today I’ve been −”
“In meetings, I know.” I cut him off this time, and he fell silent. “Jihoon, it’s fine, really.”
He chewed on his lip for a moment, his expression unreadable. “Was it your friend who sent that message?”
I sighed, loudly. “Yes. I didn’t know she was going to do that, I’m sorry.”
Jihoon nodded. “But you were worried it was true?”
I wanted to brush it aside, but I was too tired to put up a front. I was too tired, full stop. I fell back on pillows, finally comfortable, but as my head settled downagainst the soft pillows, I was reminded of how inebriated I still was, as the pleasant tingles swept over my face and down my arms.
“Worry isn’t the word,” I said, my mouth involuntarily smiling at the buzz, “I was just kind of expecting the brush off, and preparing myself for it.” Definitely still buzzed. Sober people are not this honest.
“Why would I brush you off?” His face grew larger in the screen, as if he had pulled it closer towards him.
I giggled. “Because you’re… you and I’m-” I gestured at myself.
“Are you drunk, Kaiya?” He smiled and I couldn’t help but smile back. God he’s pretty.
“Yes,” I sighed, “many drinks were drunk, and now, so am I.”
“I see. Perhaps we should talk about this later, once you’ve had some rest.”
Absurdly, I didn’t want our call to end, I just wanted to look at him and hear him speak, but my inner people-pleaser was also desperate to not ‘be that girl,’ which made inner-me cringe in outrage at the female stereotyping I was doing.
“Look,” I said, in what I thought was a perfectly reasonable tone, “you don’t have to. We don’t have to do this.”
“Do what?” Uh oh, he’s frowning again, and even though it is absurdly sexy, the way that his dark hair falls across his furrowed brow, I feel I might not have made myself clear. It seemed the momentary clarity from the shower has ebbed away.
“You don’t have to call me. You must have so many more important people to talk to than me.”
He was silent for so long, I thought the phone might have frozen, but then when he did speak, I had to strain to hear him, because his voice sounded weirdly distorted.
“You don’t want me to call you?”
“No, I’m just saying you don’t have to. Don’t feel obligated to, y’know?”
