Chapter 7

"Hyung," Dong Gun called as he walked back to the group. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Intrigued, Jong Won followed him to a corner. "What's up?" he asked, grinning impishly. Even though freezing Da Hae out had been difficult, it had also been a little fun.

Dong Gun folded his arms and frowned. "What the hell are you doing? She's ready to give up."

"So?"

He moved closer to him and whispered, "Da Hae is ready to give up," he repeated.

Pleased, Jong Won smiled and patted himself on his shoulder. "Damn, I'm good."

But the frown didn't leave Dong Gun's face. "Don't you understand? She's about to give up."

"Wasn't that the whole plan?"

Dong Gun averted his eyes and shook his head. "No, this is too easy." Then he looked back at him. "She's supposed to be tortured. You're supposed to crush her pride. Her pride is not crushed." It just didn't feel right. Wasn't he supposed to be satisfied? Instead, all he felt was disappointment. "It happened too quickly."

Jong Won smirked. "You're confused. Aren't we doing this just so she bids on you at the auction? Isn't that all we were trying to accomplish?"

Maybe it had started off that way but it had turned into something else. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but he wasn't ready for her to give up. She had to understand what it meant to be the butt of all jokes. He looked into his cousin's eyes. "Hyung, just fix it, okay?"

He chuckled. "How?"

"Just call her up and sound interested. She thinks there's no hope that you're ever going to ask her out so just call her up and string her along."

Jong Won rolled his eyes. What had he gotten himself into? "What do you want me to say?"

Dong Gun walked over to the counter and asked the cashier for some paper and a pen. He gestured for Jong Won to join him. "I'll write it down."



***



Da Hae tiptoed around her house and opened the back door. The good thing about have a single mother, or well, a widowed mother was she sometimes went out on dates. And when she did, Da Hae knew that she could get home late without any problems. It also helped that on those days, she usually forwarded the landline to her cell phone on the off chance that her mother would feel the need to check up on her.

She tiptoed through the kitchen and up the stairs and then to her mother's bedroom door and gently placed her ear on it. Her parents had been apart longer than they'd been together, but she still sometimes heard her mother's stifled sobs on those rare times she was up late. Her mother had been dating her current boyfriend for almost two years and Da Hae hoped he'd be the one to finally help her get over her father. Wasn't love supposed to bring you joy? So why had it left her mother in a permanent state of grief? She smiled then walked to her room when she couldn't hear anything because it either meant that her mother was already sleeping soundly or she was still out with her boyfriend.

She pushed off the pillows she'd arranged to make it look like she'd been in bed, kicked her shoes off and jumped on her bed and reflected on her day. Okay, so what was she doing? Sane people didn't risk getting grounded just so that they could attract some guy they didn't even like? Right?

Her lids were already beginning to feel heavy so she jumped off the bed and changed into her pyjamas then ran to the bathroom to wash her make-up off. She'd just turned the tap on when her phone rang.

She ran back and looked at the caller id but didn't recognize the number. She threw her phone down and went back to the bathroom, but the caller was persistent so she finally answered it. "Hello?" she asked gruffly. If the person started speaking Japanese she was going to curse him out.

"Hi, is this Nam Da Hae?"

"Yes," she replied cautiously.

"Hi, it's Jong Won," he said warmly.

She pinched herself. Was she dreaming? "Yes?"

"Hey, how's it going? I hope I'm not calling too late."

"No." She was still in a state of shock and hoped that it would wear off so that she could stop giving one word answers.

" Da Hae ssi, why did you leave so early? You should have stayed longer so that we could talk."

"What?" He wanted to talk to her? Or a different Nam Da Hae?

"Anyway, let me get to the point since it's so late," he continued cheerfully.

"Okay."

"I got your number from Dong Gun because I wanted to know if you were free tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes, tomorrow. Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Anyway, we're going to see the basketball game so I was wondering if you wanted to come. You can bring anyone you like, even your… boyfriend."

The way he hesitated and said the word 'boyfriend' snapped her out of her trance. She smiled. So he wanted to know if she had a boyfriend, huh? "I don't have a boyfriend."

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed. So will you come?"

Talk about a U-turn. She suddenly pictured herself at a shoe store. "Definitely."



***

"Hey…," Soo Hyun said to Hee Chul as she passed by him. They'd arrived at the basketball game and as luck would have it, they were sitting in the same row. When she was seated, he asked if it was okay to sit next to her and when she agreed, he switched seats. After his cold response the previous night, Soo Hyun was a little taken aback by his friendliness.

Hee Chul offered her some potato chips but she refused them. "I've never seen you at a game before," he said before he bit into a chip.

"Yeah." She studied his face and tried to read him but she just drew a blank. He seemed to be back to his old self. Maybe he's not a night person, she thought. "I've never been to a game but Da Hae begged me to come with her."

"I see. How is she doing?" he whispered. "I heard about her break-up."

Soo Hyun glanced at Da Hae who was sitting next to her. "She's alright."

"I guess she's made new friends," he observed.

If you could call them that. She smiled at him. "Yeah."

After a few moments of silence, Hee Chul said, "I think I might have come off a little cold last night," he said, looking down sheepishly, "but I just wanted you to know that you could ask me anything. Even if it's about Sung Joo."

"Don't worry about that. Forget it."

He shook his head. "No. We're friends, right? You wanted to ask me something. Ask."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "So ask."

Soo Hyun sat up straight. Well, he didn't need to ask twice. "So… have any other girls come to see him? I mean, not like the ones who just come to ogle him." She made a disgusted face. "I mean girls he knows. Girls he invited."

He laughed. "Invited? You make it sound like it's his house. I don't know who he's invited or not invited. It's not like I ask them."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, is there anyone in particular he pays attention to?"

He shrugged. "It's not like I pay that much attention to him."

"Wow, you're really being helpful."

He laughed for a few seconds. "I haven't seen anyone special. But can I ask you a question?

She nodded. "Sure."

"Why do you even like him?"

Other than the fact that he could cause global warming? She pursed her lips and thought about it. "I guess I'll let you know after our date tonight."

He gave her a sidelong look. "A date, huh?"

"Yep," she said dreamily. "We're going to the movies."



***

"I'm really glad you could make it," Jong Won said from beside her.

"Really?" Da Hae said, looking around him and at Yuri who was sitting about three people away from them. From what she could see, the other girl didn't seem the least bit bothered that he was talking to her so maybe Dong Gun was being honest when he said that they were just friends.

"Yeah. Even though I've seen you around, we really haven't had the chance to talk," he said, grinning widely.

She smiled back at him. But whose fault was that? It wasn't like she hadn't tried.

"So," he continued, "I'm glad you came. Oh, the players are getting on the court."

Da Hae looked over and watched them walk on in a single file. In the past, Chang Min normally waved at her the second he walked through the doors but this time, he waved at someone else. Da Hae followed the direction of his smile and saw a girl she didn't recognize sitting amongst her former friends. The girl waved back.

Da Hae looked away and rested into her chair. That boy sure didn't waste any time. It wasn't like she'd expected him to pine for her forever but wasn't it a little quick to already have a new girl? And she didn't even look like she attended their school.

"So do you like basketball?" Jong Won asked, cutting into her thoughts.

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. My boyfriend…." She started to point at Chang Min then quickly put her hand back down. "I mean my ex is on the team so I usually watch all their games. But even before that, when I was younger, my older brother was on the team so I guess I've always been around it."

He chuckled. "But it seems like you've been around it because of other people. What about you? Do you like it?"

She paused to think about it. It was true that she'd started watching it because of her brother but she did enjoy it. On the surface it appeared to be very simple, after all, it was all about throwing a ball in a net but she'd learned that that was just a façade that hid the complexities that went into playing such a beautiful sport. "I guess I like it." She nodded. "I do like it."

The referee blew the whistle.

"The game is starting," Jong Won said as he turned his attention to the players. "Let's watch."



***



Dong Gun knew that he should have been paying attention to the game so why had he spent almost the entire time trying to discreetly look to the left of him? He gritted his teeth. As far as he understood, neither Jong Won nor Da Hae were comedians so why in the world had they spent so much time laughing and smiling? The last he'd heard, torturing someone didn't include making them laugh. Had he made a mistake by trusting Jong Won?

"Dong Gun, are you listening?" Da Hae asked.

The game had ended with their school beating their opponents by 12 points and they were all filing out of the gym.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said," she inched closer to him, "if something happens between Jong Won and me, you're not going say anything about the bet, right?"

"Something like what? What do you mean?"

"I mean," she said, nodding and smiling, "he seems pretty nice and you did talk about two birds with one stone and all that. I am just saying that just in case I like him, if--" She was interrupted by the sound of her cousin calling her. She turned around and mouthed something to her cousin then turned back to him. "Hey, I have to go now. See you."

A few minutes later, Jong Won and his friends had decided to stop at a fast food restaurant after the game so just as they were about to walk into it, Dong Gun pulled him aside.

"What?" he asked as he watched his friends line up at the counter.

"Hyung, what are you doing? I said you should be nice but that doesn't mean you should marry her!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Da Hae. She actually thinks she can win now."

Jong Won groaned. "Wasn't that the plan? To make her think she can win so she doesn't quit?"

"B-But…" Dong Gun frowned. Okay, so he'd got him there. That had been the plan. He put his hands in his pockets and stared at his cousin. "But…."

"But what?"

Dong Gun shrugged. What was wrong with him? Everything was going as planned, yet nothing seemed to be going right. "Forget it."

Jong Won shook his head. "Dude, you need to figure out what you want."

He wanted her to suffer. What more was there for him to figure out?