When I got to work the next Monday I told one of my close colleagues what happened and he blamed me for not playing along with her but I knew better than to play along with someone as unstable as Chun jo.
I hardly talked to Chun jo for good two months after the incidence which I thanked her for, and the only time we had to speak was when we met on the lift or on our way to our apartments.
On August 15, the liberation day, I was in my living room relaxing on one of my couches while enjoying one of James Bond series that I had purchased few days ago for this holiday when I heard a knock on my front door. I raised an eyebrow wondering who it could be and without wasting so much time, I concluded it was going to be Micheal.
I opened the door widely, smiling wholeheartedly to my dearest friend but what I saw in front of me wiped away every single smile I had on my face because it was not Micheal but Chun jo. She too was smiling widely but when she saw my reaction, her smile reduced.
"Can I come in?"
"For what?"
"As a friend" and with that I took my leg from the corner of the door because I had unconsciously placed my leg at the door to blocked her from entering. I took another seat which was adjacent to the television but I immediately realized it was a mistake because Chun jo didn't take the one closer to the door which I thought she was going to take but the one facing me.
What the fuck I thought because I do not want Chun jo to be the next thing I will be facing, not with what she did the last time she was here. So I turned my head to face the television but the film looked less interesting.
"Tao seo. How are you?" she said.
As if she cares
"I'm fine" I replied still focusing my gaze on the television but I couldn't helped the silence in the room so l looked at her from the corner of my eyes. Chun jo was looking at me like she was hurt that I didn't asked the same question which made me chuckled but I pretended it was the scene on the screen that caused it.
"What is the film about?"
"It's not your type"
"Okay. Let me just go straight to the point" and that made me took my eyes off the screen and started wondering which point she wanted to straighten.
"I'm listening. Chun jo" I said after almost two minutes silence.
"Okay. Tao seo. I'm going to do it if you are not going too. Tao seo. I love you. I've always love you. I don't know why you haven't seen it all this years because it is always written all over my face"
I don't know what to say. I was speechless because listening to Chun jo sounds annoying. What is she expecting me to say - like I love you too. She gat to be kidding me. After everything she had done all these years with Jeremy, Jason the dancer and so on.
"Tao seo. Why aren't you talking?"
"Oh... Chun jo. Can I ask you a question?" I asked not waiting for her reply before continuing. "If truly you love me as you claim to do. Why did you start dating Jeremy in grade 7?" and with the way she was spoiling her face, I knew she wasn't expecting that question.
"I started dating jeremy because of you" that answer shocked me to the extent that an 'oh' escaped from my mouth and I was doing a very great job in order to close it back but it seems like my mouth had it own life. "It was you I wanted and I thought dating Jeremy will open your eyes. I was expecting you to fight for me but you looked at the other side as if I didn't even exist" she said standing up and coming toward me.
"Chun jo"
"Tao seo. I love you" she said boldly. Why me on the other hand was losing the control because I was still shocked. On no I have to be in control. Chun jo must not force her way into my life. Maybe she thought I was a fool that I don't know a thing about how she messed up herself up and down the city. Almost everyone I knew at work had fucked her.
"Chun jo. I'm sorry but I don't think I feel the same way like you do" or how do you expect me to tell a girl that I don't love her.
"Tao seo. Stop joking. I don't even have a competitor or should I call does colleagues of yours at your office my competitors" she said.
"I'm sorry. Chun jo"
"Tao seo. Are you trying to tell me that you don't love me? And if you don't , who do you love? You don't even have a girlfriend"
"Chun jo, you have no right to judge me"
"Screw it Tao seo. I have every right to judge you because you are my friend"
"That was years ago"
"You were the one who shut me out of your life"
"Because you betrayed someone that loved you. My friend. One of my best friends" I said slightly raising my voice.
"Time with Jeremy was fun Tao seo but I don't love him. It is you I love"
Whore
"Chun jo. I think we should stop here"
"Why? Is it because my love Tao seo loves someone else"
"Chun jo. Stop"
"Oh, I think I'm right about the last statement I made. Tao seo. Who could that be? She asked acting as if she was thinking. " Oh Tao seo, is it that girl? Cynthia" but I neither answered nor denied it because denying it seemed like betraying Cynthia.
"I think I'm right. So it's that black monkey you used to dream about" "Don't you dare call her that again" I said through gritted teeth. "Wow, Tao seo. Wake up. She is just dreams. She does not exist" "My life is non of your business" I said angrily.
"Do you know how much it hurts listening to those stupid dreams of yours?"
"Stop it. Chun jo" I said silently trying to controlled my anger. I always thought I knew Chun jo but this side of her shocked me.
"When we were young the only thing you talked about was that annoying imagination of yours"
"Cynthia is no imagination of mine"
"So where is she now? In your room? Oh, Cynthia darling come out, Tao seo have a visitor. I'm..." but I had started dragging her out of my apartment before she could continue with her madness, which wasn't coping with.
"Tao seo. I don't think you know how handsome you are? You are one of the most handsome guys I've ever set my eyes on. The only problem you have is your ability not to talk to girls, which you are still battling with and which I happily used against you" she said and I dropped her hand because I wanted to know how she had used something like that against me.
"I'm listening Chun jo" I said after almost five minutes of staring at each other.
"Are you that eager to know how I used your fear against you?" she asked smiling but that smile wasn't doing the exact thing smile does but the other way round because the hair at the back of my neck had started rising.
"If you have anything to say, say it now before I throw you out of my apartment"
"Okay. I'm going to spill everything. It all started when we were in the middle school. When your handsome was becoming more brighter. I was in love with you and I wanted you to be mine. I used to joked when I was in the midst of girls how deep in love I was with you and they always thought I was joking. When I was in their midst I always looked out for my competitors and destroyed them before they could even blinked an eye
"What do you mean?"
"So you haven't connected the dots all this years? I always thought you're smart but I think I'm smarter than you. Why do you think all the girls in the school started ignoring the Tao seos in the school. Do you remember Hwang Tao seo? I'm sure you still remember him. Do you know how many times he tried to build up his name? I don't think you do but I do. I knew how hard he was trying to reassured the girls in the school that the Tao seo they were scared of was not him. But no girl wanted that kind of fate. But you didn't even try to assure anyone, it was like you don't care even when your name got ruined. You are this prince that do not care for the comfort of a lady. And since the girls were scared and do not want their fates to be like those girls, they ignored you when you were in their presence and stared at you when you were far away.
"Why should I be reassuring anyone when I knew that the Tao seo they were scared of wasn't me? I asked and I could feel the terror in my voice.
"What if I tell you that the Tao seo they were scared of was you" she said with that lifeless smile of hers.
This can't be real. Chun jo have to be bluffing. So Chun jo had a hand in all those incidents that happened in the school. I still can't believe this. How will I explain that my own childhood friend, Chun jo is a criminal. So she was the one who humiliated those girls like that. Those were the thought that was running through my brain.
"What do you do to them?"
"Stop trying to play smart Tao seo, I know you know what I'm talking about and if you don't, I don't mind refreshing your memory" she said with that lifeless smile still plastered to her face
"You don't have to" I said quietly