Ben did the same thing.
Of course she saw them leave. Over the years, Vivian had learned to look out for silver Jaguars pulling up in front of the school, since Ben was the only guy who was enough of an ass to use it every day. Vivian saw him pull some girl into his car, actually smiling as they drove off somewhere. Her heart told her to rage, unleash the fury that she felt for her supposed fiancée. But her rational mind told her that there was a better, cleverer solution at hand, and he was standing right beside her.
"Waiting for someone?" She asked Henry. The poor guy looked so forlorn and slightly pathetic as he watched the car leave. Vivian noted his slumper shoulders, his shuffling feet. She knew Henry as a cool, suave playboy who has the world on a string. Now he was just a lovesick little puppy who just got his favorite plaything taken away from him.
People were just so predictable sometimes.
"Not anymore," he sighed, tucking his phone into his pocket. She wasn't picking up her phone. Vivian grinned (it was more of a sneer, really) and pat the spot beside her, to indicate that he should sit. Henry seemed to snap back to his old demeanor, grinning at Vivian’s invitation.
“What can I do for you, gorgeous?” He asked. Vivian noted the twelve inch distance he kept between them.
"I'm going to give you some advice, and then I'm going to that Statistics class we're about to be late for," she said, tossing her hair to the side. "Do you want it or not?"
In school, Vivian's reputation far exceeded Ben's. She had topped the national exams one year before she was supposed to take them and had been accepted into Seoul National University before the rest of her class. But her genius was veiled by a thick layer of cold bossiness that intimidated every soul that came her way. Henry knew that she wasn’t there to flirt with him.
“Girls don’t know anything about love,” she said, her voice sharp as she avoided Henry's gaze. "Really, they're just as clueless about their feelings as guys. Sure we act like everything’s fine, everything’s normal, that we don’t think about you or care more than we should, but inside…we think of you so much that it shouldn’t make any sense.” She paused, like she just said something she hadn’t meant to. Vivian shook her head and went back on track. “Take it from Minami Shineyo. Feelings create interpretations that are always misread. So be a guy and tell her how you feel. Call her into a room alone, take her into your arms and confess."
"Er...what?" Henry asked, not sure if he should be taking advice from the girl who was supposedly engaged to the guy his girl had just run off with.
"Watch a Korean drama sometime," she said in a snippy English accent. "Think about it, chingoo. What do you have to lose?"
With another flip of her hair and a chuckle, Vivian walked away. Henry sincerely doubted her labeling him as a same-aged friend. She did, however, have a point.
The landscape of Seoul reminded Celia how out of shape she was. Stairs, stairs everywhere. While she wasn’t exactly the most unhealthy person in the world, she wasn’t ready for hiking at the drop of a hat either. She couldn't imagine coming to Namsan without the aid of Ben's car pulling up to the cable car entrance. She and Ben ascended three floors to get to the cable car and, despite the very scenic ride up, Celia gave up at the steps going up to the tower base.
"Why, Korea, why?" She asked nobody in particular. "Tourists are not built for this kind of thing, especially in ballet flats!" She didn’t bother to get boots since she would never use them in Manila. She thought her sneakers and her flats would be more than enough. Apparently she was wrong.
"Oh come on, don't be lazy," Ben chided, laughing at her from three steps above. He didn’t even look like he was putting much of an effort, which was unfair. "Everyone does this."
"But it's so steep, and so far away," Celia groaned, pouting and pointing to the summit like a five-year old. "Couldn't they have just put the cable car a little bit higher?"
"You are such a baby," Ben laughed. He walked back down to where she was standing. He took her hand in his and pulled slightly. As they began the trek up, Ben had to laugh when he heard Celia curse (in Korean no less, he was so proud) and follow begrudgingly behind him, yelling at him to hold the hand rail and be careful. When they finally made it to the plaza at the base of the tower, they stopped and she could say nothing but “wow.”
It being autumn, all the trees at the base of the tower were glowing with bright yellow leaves. Sections of trees with blazing red leaves framed the scene. Grandparents and young mothers were simply sitting around, watching the kids play amongst the giant love lock trees and the pavilion. There was even a group of preschoolers falling in line near the pavilion. They were all twittering excitedly, their yellow windbreakers making them look like a flock of ducklings. Tourists were all pointing and exclaiming at the tower. Some were even on the ground just to get the perfect shot of Namsan against the trees.
"Wow," Celia said again, looking up at the tower from underneath a yellow tree. Ben spotted something from inside and made Celia wait for a moment, only to emerge with a strawberry ice cream sundae with two giant, warm churros sticking out of it like antennae. The smile on Ben's face was priceless when he saw Celia's reaction. Obviously ice cream and churros were not the best snack just weeks before winter, but he couldn't resist. He loved this stuff as a kid, and wanted to share it with her.
"I only had enough money to buy one," he shrugged, handing her a spoon. The churro was crunchy and warm, the cinnamon added just the right touch of spice. Combined with the cool ice cream and the sweet strawberry sauce, it was perfect.
The plaza was flanked on the sides by tall, triangle-shaped trees made up entirely of locks in every shape, size and form. Almost every couple in Seoul (and the world) flocked Namsan Tower and left a lock to commemorate their love. Celia saw a lot of couple’s names in the locks, but there were also inspiring words between friends (‘Smile!’ and ‘Fighting!’ were the most common) and parents celebrating the birth of a child. There was something to be said about this physical proof of love and affection that made Celia’s heart swell. She wondered if she and Henry would leave a lock here. Would she and Ben?
Ben and Celia sat underneath the love locks, eating their ice cream. They talked about whatever it was on their minds, mostly about Star Wars, Ben defending the presence of the Ewoks (“They're teddy bears that can kill!”) and Celia tearing down the bad dialogue of episode three ("Anakin, you're breaking my heart! You're going down a path I can't follow!”). She knew the series well enough to keep up when Ben was starting to spout rants against Jar Jar Binks and exclaim how excited he was about the upcoming seventh movie.
Celia described how she managed to nab her scholarship to Yonsei, and talked about her dream of visiting New York someday. She told him how she wanted to have a band of her own, maybe even find a job that actually paid well. She talked about maybe going to grad school. Ben smiled and told her how he had no idea why he was taking up business in Yonsei. He talked about how he was going to take over the family business, how his future was in his parents’ hands. He talked about how much he hated it.
"I have to admit, I'm a little jealous of you," Ben said, chewing thoughtfully on his churro. "You know exactly what you want, and have no idea what your future's going to be like. You can go anywhere, be anyone. While I...my life has been planned out from the day I was born until the day I die. My last name has bound me to this...this future. I don't know if I want to own a company, but I don't see what else I could be? I'm just a fanboy who really loves Star Wars."
Celia bit her lip. As much as she wanted to feel sorry for Ben, she wondered if she should dignify his whining with a response. Poor little rich boy, she thought to herself, but she knew it was best not to make him feel worse. Besides, she liked this side of him. Open, honest, and just a little lost. Not at all the Ben that she had first bumped into.
"I wish I was someone else, somewhere or some-when else," he said, finishing off the last of the churro. Celia felt something pull at her for
a second, but ignored it as she tossed their ice cream into the trash. "Maybe you and I could have had a better first meeting. Maybe you would never hate me."
"Aigoo. What makes you think I hate you, laser breath?" Celia teased, tucking her hands into her pockets. Ben took the opportunity to lean against her, his forehead on her shoulder as he folded his body against her. It surprised Celia that physical displays of affection were apparently no issue in public. People were walking right past them. Ben smiled.
"I don't," he said. "I just wanted to see if you....liked me."
Then he looked up at her, his big, puppy dog eyes melting right through her, her immense affection for him surging inside her. She remembered that stolen kiss from the other day, and it made her smile.
"Oppa," she said seriously, pulling away to make him sit up and look right into her eyes. “I do.”
Ben hadn't smiled this much in his entire life, but he couldn't say that it was a bad thing exactly. He took Celia's small face into his hands and kissed her. This time, he actually puckered his lips. This time she actually leaned into it, rubbing a small circle into his hand like they had kissed a million times before. By the time they had run out of breath, he leaned his forehead against hers, and both of them were smiling.
Ben came home that afternoon feeling pretty fantastic. After Namsan, he had dragged her to a far corner of the Hongdae area to catch this band he secretly loved ("it would ruin my reputation if anyone found out")--the Summers, they had called themselves. Much to Celia's surprise, they were right up her K-pop alley, their indie sound and pitch perfect harmonies were just the right tunes for dancing away the evening.
After dancing, Ben took her to a small, shabby-looking restaurant bustling with people sweating over large grill pans. He explained that they were to eat ddak galbi. What Celia thought was a simple, generous portion of rice, grilled chicken, veggies, rice cakes, and cheese turned out to be a heavy, hearty meal of what felt like rice and fire. Soon enough she was sweating into the grill pan like everyone else, their only reprieve was a small apple salad to soothe the tongue.
"What’s in this stuff?" She asked Ben breathlessly, as she poured more water into tiny cups for them. If she was desperate, she would have downed the tiny pitcher in one shot, but a large swallow from her tiny tin cup was all she had. She briefly wondered if she should just carry a glass in her purse everywhere she went just to combat this particular dilemma.
"Gochujang," he said simply, although the word meant absolutely nothing to her. Ben was only mildly sweating. How was he only mildly sweating?
"I love it, and I hate it," Celia cried, raising her hand for more water. "Mul juseyo!!"
By the end of the meal, the two seemed incredibly satisfied. They, however, could not close their mouths, cooling them in the crisp cold air. Hongdae was just starting to get crowded, and street stalls were all beginning to set up shop. There was an artist in the square painting planets and galaxies, which he explained were not for sale. Ben confessed that out of all the districts of Seoul, he loved Hongdae the most.
"If you wanted to disappear, this would be the place," he said, standing very close to her, a few moments shy of holding her hand. "It's loud and crazy, and the exact opposite of who I am."
“We could all stand to be a little crazy," Celia laughed, pulling his hand so he didn't get left behind.
As a reward for finishing her portion of ddak galbi, Celia bought Ben a cone of Softree ice cream. Among the locals, it was popular for its organic origins in Korea, but for Celia, the charm was in the actual honeycomb piece they put in the ice cream. Much better than caramel, in her opinion.
"Eh, it's no Affogato," Ben shrugged upon tasting, licking anyway. She rolled her eyes.
"Your cold coffee addiction makes zero sense to me," she said, chewing her honeycomb. Ben’s ice cream was spilling onto his hands as it melted over the cone, and she passed him a paper napkin.
"Have you not seen the thousands of cafe in Seoul?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her after he quickly licked off the melting treat. "This whole city runs on coffee and soju, Celia. You can smell it in the air. Embrace the coffee." She was smiling, and against the backdrop of his Hongdae, it was perfect.
The pheromones from all that smiling seemed to get to him, and he couldn't help the skip in his step when he walked up the driveway to his house late that evening. He suddenly felt like he could do anything. He was actually singing as he walked.
He entered the house greeting the maids, making them smile and sincerely greet him back. Ben waltzed to the kitchen for a glass of water, still humming when his father's footman came into the kitchen, looking for him.
"Young Master," he bowed slightly. "Miss Vivian has been waiting for you in the conservatory. Should I let her know you have arrived?"
Ben's face turned dark, his hand landing on the table too quickly, breaking the glass he had been drinking out of. The maids screamed and shuffled for a tea towel, Ben taking it without a word.
"Tell her I'll be right down," he said, tossing the towel aside when his wound clotted. The footman bowed and left the room. Ben nodded to the ladies in the kitchen and went upstairs to change his clothes. Not surprisingly, Vivian was sitting on his bed, waiting for him.
"Ya, what's the point of bothering the whole house when you're just going to sneak into my bedroom?" He asked, lifting his shirt over his head. Vivian didn't even flinch. He looked down at his hand, frowning. Vivian rolled her eyes.
"Don't be so dramatic," she said, grabbing the emergency kit from under his bed.
"Sit here," she commanded, patting the empty spot beside her. Ben followed, saying nothing as she sprayed antiseptic on his hand, carefully and precisely cleaning the wounds before putting on bandages.
"You should really be more careful," she told him. "People could get hurt over thoughtless actions."
"If you want to say something---"
"Oppa, be serious," Vivian said, tugging at his hand and glaring. She was acting slightly petulant, but she didn't care. "You and I are getting married--"
"I haven't proposed yet."
"At this point, does that even matter anymore?" Vivian exclaimed, wanting to yell and scream at him. "Ben oppa, I love you, I do. And I understand that it might be...difficult for you to love me back. But don't do this. You and I are trapped in this fate, we just have to accept it."
"And if I don't want to?" Ben challenged, glaring at the stranger now across from him. He didn't know when she turned from being his best friend to one of them. He loved her like a sister, but he hated this.
Vivian's exasperation turned her face hard and cold, her lips pulled into a thin line. "Do you know the only reason why you and I aren't married yet is because of me? For your sake, I have begged, pleaded, and negotiated with my parents to delay this wedding. Not anymore. I'm going to see them tonight and tell them what I have wanted to tell them for the last two years. I want to do this. You and I are getting married."
Then before Ben could react, Vivian stood from his bed and walked out, slamming the door behind her. Ben was slightly flabbergasted, and sank into his bed, the broken Queen Amidala charm still on his desk.
A couple of days later, Celia hopped into the subway in a spectacular mood. Winter had just officially started in Korea, and the cold nipped in a way that only made her more excited to see snow. She even bought boots, scouring the streets in front of Ewha Woman’s University to find a cheap, sturdy pair. She waved happily at the worker behind the glass at the station and ascended the steps to the end of the street.
Not surprisingly, Ben was waiting just outside, sipping his usual icy black poison. This time though, he handed Celia a warm to-go cup from a nearby cafe. She looked up at him curiously before gingerly accepting the gift. He had drawn a sunflower on the cup with a ball point pen. How did he know they were her favorite?
"Poisoning me?" She teased, opening the lid and taking a sniff of the cup. The scent was warm and sweet, slightly thick and earthy.
>
"If you're allergic to goguma, then yes," he said with a sly grin. "Just drink it."
A sweet potato latte is perfectly named. It's a sweet, thick,and warm drink that Celia fell in love with almost at once. It warmed her toes and added a spring to her step. She didn't even notice Ben lagging behind until she turned around.
"Something wrong?" She asked him. The scowl on Ben's face was unmistakable. There was something on his mind, something Celia wasn't sure if she wanted to prod out of him just yet. Ben put his hands in his pockets, about to say something when someone called her from the end of the street.
"Celia!" Henry exclaimed, coming out of a side street and walking towards them. He had apparently been examining the phone cases on sale on the street when he saw Celia standing there. "Where were you the other day?"
Celia blinked at her friend, like it was the first time she had ever set eyes on him. She didn’t know what it was about him that made him look strange. Henry was still Henry, all cool and fun, but there was a despair about him that she didn’t see before. It was like he was pleading with her.
"Oh, uh...Ben-sunbaenim wanted to show me something so..." She said, turning briefly to Ben, whose face was hard as ever. He barely acknowledged his underclassman, his disposition unchanged since Celia first saw him at the station exit.
"Oh, kure," Henry nodded in understanding, throwing Ben a sideways glance that he hoped was mildly threatening. "I actually wanted to give you something. Here," he said, brandishing an arrangement of sunflowers from seemingly nowhere. Celia gasped and accepted the bundle and exclaimed that they were her favorite.
"I know," Henry said with a sly grin. "And I wanted to invite you to finally see Namsan Tower with me later after school. It's a weekday, so not a lot of people will be there. I kind of had a date planned for the both of us."
Cities Page 4
