I Will Hide Your Face

Jaemin's face looked a little pained when he witnessed Annabelle's sudden change. He walked a little closer to her and bent down to her height. She wasn't that short to be exact, but Jaemin was on the taller side. If she was in a good mood like she was back then, she would have nagged about his height and whined to give her the formula to be this tall.

"Why are you crying?" Jaemin said gently, seeing the long-awaited suppressed tears fall from her eyes.

This time, he really gave up on this hide and seek game. Anna left them on her own at that time. So, this time, he wanted her to come to find him first. But his impulsiveness surprised him, as he really couldn't handle pretending to not know her anymore when he is so desperate to talk to her like before again.

Jaemin was always there, following her like a shadow, noticing every single thing she did. There was a time that he didn't know what to do in future. It's not because he couldn't decide, it was because he was good at almost everything. So, he was always confused whenever he thought about his future.

Just like Vincent and George, Anna was a little princess to him. She was the light who made him believe in his life a little more. He was there, shattered into pieces, as his mother passed away and his father lost all his might to love someone else, even if it was his one and only son. Jaemin's father wasn't a perfect one, but it was Annabelle who made him believe that a father didn't need to be perfect to be an amazing one. That girl, who always spread happiness to people around them was herself drowning in her own sorrows. She had her own share of sadness, never disclosing them to anybody. That was the reason he wanted to protect her and be a part of her life like protecting armour forever.

Jaemin was jealous of Vincent. The only reason for it was that he got to see so many of Anna's as they were best friends from childhood. He was also grateful to him because he was there when she had no one. Anna lived for her friends, that was the very first fact of knowing her.

Still, a time came when she herself chose to distance herself from her dear friends. There was a time when she chose to believe in a complete outsider and separate herself from them. After that, they couldn't make the distance go away. Soon after graduation came, Anna moved to California leaving Jaemin and others behind. Jaemin watched her from far away. Somehow, he became a journalist and also moved to California. But their path never crossed, not even for a single time. He would always listen to her songs but never tried to go to any of her concerts.

Coincidentally, he befriended Yujun but never actually knew that Yujun was somehow related to her, never guessed Anna to be his friend. After meeting her that day abruptly, he was quite taken aback. It was his professional skill so that he could hide the excitement and shock to see her. Though he acted quite nonchalant, he was not that calm inside. Meeting her again like this, it was throwing him with excitement upside down. He was also a little annoyed. Why did she choose to live such a difficult life when she could always have an easier one? She wasn't happy, to be honest. Living a life hiding all the time, was it that good to lead? Why didn't she at least try to contact them again? Leading a hard life alone wouldn't make her achieve anything.

Then why? He wanted to know and for this reason, he thought to stop this pretence. Now, he wants to confront her, be by her side so that she doesn't have to go through all these things alone.

Anna was still there standing still, she didn't actually know how to react right now.

"Mr. He, why you…."

"Not that, I am your Jaemin Ge. Call me that, little pie," Jaemin said softly.

Annabelle could no longer hold herself. She burst into tears. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would get to call him 'Jaemin Ge' again. He would always scrawl when she called her 'Ge' before. But right now, he himself was allowing her to call him that, which was really something unexpectedly new to her.

"That's enough. Don't cry like this in the middle of the street. They will think that I am bullying you."

Anna rubbed her face to wipe her tears though it wouldn't stop flowing. Why is she acting like such a crybaby? Thank God, Kiera didn't do any excessive makeup on her, or else she would look like a witch right now with her tears rolling off from her eyes continuously.

"I thought you would ignore me for the rest of my life… hngh… gahh… why won't they stop?" she was already getting angry for not being able to hold her tears. It was embarrassing to cry like this in the middle of the footpath.

In an instant, Jaemin pulled her into his arms, taking her by surprise.

"It's okay, cry now. I will hide your face," Jaemin said slowly as he was hurting seeing her cry like this.

At first, Annabelle was surprised by this sudden action, but later she calmed down. She used to hug him so much back then, hug him, Vincent and George. They were like siblings, messing around here and there, protecting each other. Suddenly she didn't feel like crying anymore. She was happy to meet and make up with him. What she did was unforgivable, but still, when he decided to talk with her again, that means he forgave her, right? It would have been nice if the other two were here too.

No, she can't act greedy right now. After all, Jaemin Ge forgave her didn't mean they will also forgive her.

Anna pulled out from his embrace all of a sudden. She was curious about so many things. She can't just hear about all the things standing here on the footpath. She looked here and there to find a restaurant or sitting place nearby.

Soon they found a small food court with a bench for customers not too far from where they were standing. They ordered two wrap burritos. Back then, she liked to eat chicken burritos so much, seeing those again, she remembered she didn't eat those for a long time.

"It's tasty," Anna said.

"Yeah, it is," Jaemin said while watching her eat happily.

There were so many things to talk about but Anna didn't know where to start. How was he doing? How come he is a journalist now? Where does he live right now? Did he always know about her being here?

But these questions just stopped at the exact moment of coming out of her mouth each and every time she tried to say those. Jaemin also got the idea that Anna was feeling a bit hesitant to ask anything. To think the girl who used to talk so much and forcefully throw tons of questions whenever she saw him has become so hesitant to even start a conversation with him was really something kind of funny and unexpected. Time made this ridiculous distance more pathetic. He wants to fix it right away, but can't just do that overnight. So he thought he should be patient, more patient than he was about her for the past few years.

Anna tried to hold all her courage together to ask him the things which were bothering her enough not to enjoy her burrito and opened her mouth but then, a phone call interrupted her. It was her phone which was ringing.

The caller was none other than Kiera. Her family dinner is over already?

"Kiera?"

"Hello?" A male voice came from the other side.

Anna twitched her eyebrows in confusion. Who is this? This is surely Kiera's number. Then who is this man calling her through Kiera's phone? Suddenly, Annabelle felt a bit wary.

"Umm… hello? Can you hear me?" the guy from the other side asked again as he got no response from Anna.

"Who are you?" Anna finally asked, keeping her voice in check.

"I am just a passer-by. I found this lady drunk in the street, please come to the Greenlife Medical Centre."

The moment Anna heard that guy, she jerked up from the bench she was sitting on.

"Jaemin Ge, I have to go!"

Jaemin looked a bit confused. She was okay a while ago. What happened to her all of a sudden?

"Where?"

"My friend is in the hospital, I have to go. We will talk later."

Annabelle already started to tremble thinking what might happen to Kiera. She shouldn't have let her go to that shitty family dinner. This was always like this, whenever Kiera visited her parents home, she would always return like a broken doll, losing all her might. She shouldn't have let her go alone.

"Let me drive you there, Anna," Jaemin said as he also stood up from the bench too.

"No, it's okay. I will…."

"Come with me. My car is parked nearby."

"Okay, then drop me to the Greenline Medical."

Jaemin walked hurriedly to where his car was parked in a quiet alley. There were so many questions in his mind right now. Who was this new friend of hers for whom she is so worked up? Come to think of it, Jaemin never got the chance to ask her decently about that scandal. Who was the boy in the picture? As far as he knew her before, she would never involve herself with any random guy that easily. That was the reason she never had any relationship even after entering the music industry. But according to her nature, she is able to have good friends by her side, whether he is there in her life or not. She can always find her comfort zone through others. Maybe that's why when he coincidentally saw her coming out with a guy from the restaurant he was attending a meeting today, he couldn't help but follow her. Though he said it casually as he just wanted to talk to her, it happened to be true, she really was on a date today.