Page 43 of A World of our Own

“I actually meant with no friends?” She tilted her head, looking at me in a way I could have read as slightly pitying, if I chose to accept that kind of negativity. But not today. I had woken up in a fantastic mood.

My Harlow Harris article had been published, and no matter how many times I saw my name in print, the novelty never wore off.

“Yes, Sihyeon, just me. No mates.”

“Oh. Why?” She frowned, like this honestly made no sense to her, which was either a compliment or insulting. With Sihyeon, I had noticed it could go either way.

“I’m going to explore,” I said, only a touch defensively. “Easier to do when I don’t need to obey majority rule for what to do or where to go. Or get dragged into shopping centres,” I said, looking at her pointedly.

“Uh huh.” She raised her eyebrows. “Well, have fun.”

“You could come with me,” I offered. “If you promise not to pull me into every clothing store in the city again.”

Sihyeon huffed. “It definitely wasn’t ‘every clothing store’. But no. Not today. I want to make sure I’m up to date on editing the footage from this stop before we head to Jakarta tomorrow.”

I nodded. “Fair enough. See you later.”

She waved me off, and I headed towards the massive, rotating front doors just as a large group of people came in. Out of the dozen or so people filing in through the rotating doors, I saw Jihoon first. His eyes locked with mine for only a brief moment. Long enough for warmth to bloom in my chest. Long enough for me to realise that I was biting my lip.

Dammit.

I looked down, stepping back to get out of the way, only to look back up at the sound of a quiet scuffle.

I heard Jihoon mutter an apology, holding up his hands to the manager walking ahead of him who had turned around to stare at him. I saw Ace laughing.

“Do I look like the floor to you, Jihoon-ah?” The manager protested, rubbing his elbow. “Why must you try to walk over me? Aish,” he grumbled, turning back around.

I discreetly looked up through my lashes, seeing Jihoon rub the back of his neck, his cheeks red as his eyes darted everywhere except me. I fought back a smile as I pulled my rucksack higher on my shoulder. I muttered polite greetings to the group as they passed, waiting until they’d cleared the doors before heading through the rotating glass. I looked back as I was almost through, meeting his eyes once more before the door opened out into the dry heat of Manila.

I spent a few hours wandering happily around the city, following the map on my phone to a few nearby points of interest, and as the afternoon wore on, I began to heavily regret not having more time to explore, because the city was brilliant. I mentally added it to the list of places I wanted to return to.

I had just decided to sit at a table outside a coffee shop when my phone chimed with an incoming message. I pulled it out and almost dropped it when I saw the name on the screen.

Joon

Where are you?

[Sent 17:11]