58

Jennie dropped her head from looking at the brightly colored sky to look at Sol, who was walking down the road.

"The weather seems to have gotten hot lately, right? Should we get some shaved ice?" She asked.

"I'm just going it head home." Sol replied.

"That's too sad. I can't eat it all by myself." She said and Sol turned to her.

"Do you still not remember anything from the other night?" She asked and Jennie frowned. It would be the second time she was asking personally.

"I don't." She replied and Sol looked disappointed as she tore her eyes off her.

"I should really stop drinking. Did I do something bad to you that day?"

"Yeah."

"Really? I'm really sorry, Sol." She said and Sol threw her a fake smile, as if her apology would solve things.

"I'm just kidding." She lied and Jennie heaved a sigh of relief. She didn't seem to trust herself either.

"You startled me." She said, smacking her on the shoulder and Sol smiled with her for a moment, before she returned to hand her bags, which she'd helped her carry from the trunk earlier.

"I'm tired. I'm going home now."

"Alright. Be careful on the way home." She called after her.

It was like the world was against her that very day. Derek had confirmed their relationship has come to an end, and now she'd lost for the fifth time, since she got to the play station, that afternoon.

A hand touched her shoulder and she raised her head to see a strangely familiar face behind her. She wasn't the type who memorized the names of her men friends, so she couldn't recollect who he was until he smiled, revealing his dimples.

"Oh, dimples."

"Hey, why were you ignoring me?" He asked and she frowned.

"When?" Came her question and she soon recalled why. "Oh, I was with my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend? You had a boyfriend?" He asked and she could hear the surprise in his voice. Did he expect her not to be in a serious relationship?

"I did. But not anymore...I got dumped." She announced and it was his time to frown.

"You? Why did you get dumped?"

"I don't know." She shrugged and turned to look at him. "Can I ask you something? What do you think relationships are?"

"Relationships?" He asked and April was looking forward to some cool answer from him, just like the way she thought.

"Spending time with someone you love, eating, drinking and watching movies with the person. Talking on phone with..."

She rolled her eyes, starting to get bored with his definition of what a relationship was. "What's wrong with everyone?"

"What do you think it is, then?"

"Kissing and having sex with one person." She replied and Dimps was dumbstruck.

"April, don't tell me you said that to your boyfriend?"

"I didn't..." She was saying, when she recalled she'd indirectly said something like that, once. "No, I guess I kinda did."

He clicked his tongue in pity. "Now, I see why you got dumped...I should leave you to moo over it some more, while playing games." He said and she turned to glare at him, as he left her.

Tahti returned back to drawing, the moment she arrived home in Los Angeles. The thrill of Santa Barbara had been great, and she was glad to have taken a break, but duty called now.

She'd seemed pensive since she'd gotten home earlier, and on seeing the sun catcher, the memories of the Thursday's night seemed to flood her head.

Things seemed to get worse, even as she was drawing that night. She couldn't help but glance down at the screen of her phone from time to time, expecting Demir to call to ask if she'd arrived, but some inner instinct told her he would not. She had rejected him already at Santa Barbara, and the offer had been withdrawn.

She dropped her drawing book with a loud sigh and picked up her phone to throw a text at him.

If he wasn't going to contact her, she make him do so then.

During the days they'd spent nights together, he'd gradually moved his textbooks and a couple of his stuff over to her place and hadn't come to fetch them. That would be the perfect bait.

"I'm throwing away all of your stuffs." She texted and barely a few minutes later, her phone rang.

A mischievous smile crossed her lips as she thought her plan had worked, but she was disappointed when she raised her phone to see it was Josh.

"Hey, Josh." She faked a smile, on answering the call. It wouldn't be nice if her to sound disappointed on the call.

"Hi, Tahti. Did you arrive home?"

"Yeah. I was about to call you." She lied. "Thanks for the brownies. They were delicious." She said, referring to what had been inside the small gift bag, he'd given her earlier.

"Thank God. It was my first time making them." He said and her smile widened.

"I guess you're good at everything. The cake you made me on my birthday was great too."

"I did my best to learn how to make that since you loved chocolate. I even thought of becoming a pastry chef because of you." He said and she could tell he was joking.

"You're lying, right?"

"Was it that obvious?" He asked and she laughed, a sincere one at that.

"It's really nice to hear your voice. The whole neighborhood feels empty without you."

"Everyone living there, will laugh at that if they heard you."

"I'm sure, they'll understand if they knew how I'm feeling right now."

"Josh Daniels, aren't you going extreme with your words?" She asked, with a smile and he laughed again. His laughter seemed to do wonders of taking her worries away.

"What were your doing, by the way?"

"I was preparing for my exhibition. I rested for the past few days, so I have a lot to do."

"Okay. I think I'll be coming down to L.A soon. Do you want us to meet up?" He asked and she considered it. It wouldn't be bad.

"Sure."

59

Tahti resumed work in full force the next morning. Her course mates were happy to see her and she was happy to see them too, but her mood somehow changed, when she spotted Demir, from afar, talking to some Asians, who looked like they were looking at his recent piece.

Tearing her eyes off him, she turned to head towards the department's office to get signed up for the late night work, that night.

"Hi, Tahti." Jennie greeted when she walked in and she threw her a smile.

"I assume the workshop was a success. Everyone of you is glowing." Michelle smiled.

"By the way, how's your piece going? I'm looking forward to it." Andre cheered.

"Demir volunteered to be her assistant, so it's going to be fine. Thank God, I'm not exhibiting next month. It would have been a serious disaster for me."

"Why did you say that?" Andre asked.

"Didn't you see what she made the last time? Professor Lee almost fainted at the sight." Michelle said and they laughed.

It was true though. Jennie had created something so different from what she'd presented. The professors had been bewildered ok seeing she'd made a sculpture of Sol instead of a half naked man, and two of the professors had given her an F in their courses.

"Speaking of Demir, I saw him talking to some Asians earlier."

"They are from the VCU. They saw his work and wanted to talk to him." Michelle answered.

"Are they trying to scout him?"

"I think so. They probably want to do it, while they're here for the symposium."

"I heard they specifically wanted Demir."

"Yeah. His works are top-notch and he speaks their language." Andre said.

Tahti, who was done signing up the night's work, busied herself by going through a couple of past questions on the desk nearby. Although she wasn't engaged in their conversation, Demir's abilities awed her. For starters, she was still struggling to get approval for her piece and she didn't even know how to speak in Korean. Anyway, it was no fault of hers.

"Andre, can I have this?" She asked, raising the past questions.

"Sure. I was thinking if discarding them, anyway."

"Thanks." She replied and turned for the door.

"Leaving already?" Jennie asked and she turned to throw a nod, her way.

"I heard you guys will be getting the exchange program results this week. Are you preparing your portfolio?" Michelle asked and she gnawed on her lower lip. She'd totally forgotten about it.

"Well...I'm preparing for the exhibition for now."

"For now? What do you want to do, then?" Andre asked.

"Well...I'm not...I'm not sure, if I'd get accepted..." Her voice trailed off in confusion. Her head had been too occupied with the thoughts of Demir, from the time she'd left Los Angeles, so she'd forgotten about the exchange program.

"What you want is more important, you know. Why do you want to go to Paris?" Andre asked and Jennie and Michelle exchanged looks before they turned to look at Andre.

"Hey, what are you doing? Is this an interview or what?" Michelle asked and turned back to her.

"Working hard is normal, of course, but you should focus on one thing. It's a critical time now."

"Don't worry, everyone feels the same, even us graduate students. But keep asking yourself what you like, okay?" Andre said and she smiled.

"I will."

What she wanted...

She kept repeating the question in her head as she walked out of the office, to head back to the studio. She had thought she had found what she liked, which was working while having Demir around her, but she doubted it now.

"Tahti."

Someone called on her way into the studio and she turned to see it was Demir. Talk of the devil, she thought.

She gulped as she took a step back as he neared, to avoid unnecessary close up with him.

"Hey." She replied, coolly.

"Where are you going? I was looking for you."

"To the studio." She replied. He was looking for her? "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Are you free tomorrow?" He asked and she looked over her schedule for the next day, which she had imprinted in her mind.

She only had a few chores to do, the next day.

She was about to reply, when a sudden thought struck her.

"Wait...Why are you asking?"

He couldn't be so ridiculous as to ask her to sleep with him, just because they'd kissed on Thursday night. It had been a mistake and things had ended between them, she was sure she had made things clear, the morning he came over to her aunt's place. And there was no way he was asking for a date.

"We have somewhere to be, remember?"

"Where?" She asked, unable to recall they had discussed such.

"You wanted to check out an artist's work for reference, didn't you?" He asked, with a smile.

She finally remembered she'd said so, the other night they had been working on her piece.

"Oh, that's right. I totally forgot about that." She muttered.

"When will you be free tomorrow?"

She slowly angled her head. "I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know."

Since it was about her piece, a day with him wouldn't hurt. He was more knowledgeable than her when he came to sculpture stuffs anyway.

"Okay..."

He was about to leave, and she was a little upset he hadn't asked anything further.

"Did you get my text?" She asked, before he left and he turned back to her.

"Yeah...It's a surprise you still have them."

"I'll throw them out today."

He loved asking her to throw things out, anyway.

"Don't..." He said. "I'll come for them soon."

Jennie sighed as she lowered her head to look down at her phone, where she was seated a couple of metres from Sol's place, to look at the unread messages she had sent Sol, in recent days. Her relationship with Sol had turned sour overnight, and she was puzzled as she didn't know the reason why. Sol, who loved hanging out with her, now avoided her at every single chance and it was scaring her out of her wits, that she was losing Sol.

She raised her eyes, to look at the time. It read 10:45 p.m and she raised her head with a sigh. Sol was the one who nagged at her, whenever she walked home late but now, she was the one who was staying out late.

She spotted a figure nearing in the darkness and she sprang to her feet immediately, on catching sight of Sol's favorite T-shirt.

Sol didn't look too happy to see her as she wore a frown on her face, the moment she spotted her nearing and Jennie kept reassuring herself that things were going to be fine, no matter how scary Sol's expression was.

"Sol..."

"What are you doing here?" came her reply.

"I came to see you." She said, and Sol sighed as she tore her eyes off her.

"I'm meeting up with someone. Let's talk later." She said and made to walk in, when Jennie raised a hand to obstruct her.

"Don't worry. I won't take long."

Jennie lowered her eyes to look down at her wiggling fingers, which were shaking in nervousness as Sol turned to look at her.

"Well...the thing is..I've been thinking about...why you've been acting like this, all day and...I think you've changed since we got back from the workshop...So..."

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Sol asked.

"I...um...I remember what happened the night I got drunk." She said and Sol's eyes widened in surprise, but only for a moment.

"So?" She asked and Jennie's head jerked up. That wasn't the reason she was upset?

"I...um...well..."

"Do you want to apologise for what you did?" She asked and Jennie thinned her lips. Well, if that was what she wanted.

"I guess I should apologise then..."

"Did you say that with no meaning?" Sol suddenly asked and Jennie was starting to get confused.

"What?"

Sol raked her fingers through her hair, with a loud sigh.

"If you said all those things without meaning a single word of what you said...you're hurting me, because..." Her voice broke off and Jennie watched her clench a fist. "I like you."

Jennie sighed in relief, although she was yet to get a proper understanding of what Sol was actually saying. "I like you too, Sol..."

"Not as friends..."

Jennie's heart started racing in her ears as she started back at Sol, unable to believe the bombshell. Sol had feelings for her?

"Sol... what's going on?" She asked, reaching forward to take her arm, but Sol avoided her touch.

She'd thought Sol was always straight z even when she'd never seen her with a guy, but she'd never imagined in her wildest dreams that Sol liked her.

"I'm not saying I'll do anything...and I know very well, that you don't have feelings for me either." She said, breaking off to gaze into something she couldn't place. "Honestly, I thought I'll be able to pretend like nothing happened, but I just couldn't."

"Sol..."

Sol dragged in a ragged breath and turned back to face her. "I guess I'm the one who should apologise here. I'm sorry...for having feelings for you..."

Sol walked past her, to head in and Jennie tried to fight back the tears that has started welling in her eyes.

Without having an idea she was about to do it, she raced over to hug Sol and she felt her stiffen as she wrapped her arms around her from behind.

"Jennie..."

"It wasn't a mistake..." She replied and when Sol turned to slant her eyes over her shoulder to look at her, she tightened her hold around her. "But, I don't know how I feel yet, so can you please give me some time to think about it?"

The question didn't seem like one as Jennie already spun to leave, before Sol could shoot her a reply. Sol slowly turned to her receeding back, glad she'd finally got the chance to confess her feelings.