Serendipity 奇缘 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: My Fave Shooting Booth

"KIKI!!!! Is that you!!!"

A loud scream gave us a shock, and we snapped out of the moment to stare in the direction where the voice came from.

And there we saw trying to squeeze out from amongst the crowd, my friend Theo.

"OH MY GOSH!!! THEO!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??"

"FIFI!!! I WAS JUST ABOUT TO ASK YOU WHY ARE YOU HERE??"

The two of them jumped up and down and screamed in excitement.

Having been interrupted by Theo's sudden scream, Jaejoong helped me up to standing position, and I adjusted myself before walking forward towards the screaming Theo and Fifi, while Jaejoong went over to join the guys.

"Hi Theo, hi Fifi...."

Theo glanced over at the guys when I greeted her, then she turned back to me.

"Hey girl... How are you? Haven't seen you in a bit... Erm... May I ask... Who are they??" Theo nodded her head towards the guys.

"THEO!!! You don't know who they are??? They're 东方神起，or TVXQ, or DBSK, or Tohoshinki! They're like the hottest group in Korea now... No I correct myself... in ASIA..." Fifi exclaimed excitedly.

"Oh... so THEY are TVXQ... Hmmm... But WHAT are YOU girls doing together with THEM??" Theo probed.

"Oh... You see Jaejoong... erm... the one who was holding Kiki just now, asked us if we wanted to be their tour guides for the day... so here we are..." Fifi explained.

"FIFI!!!" I shoke my head in disbelief.

I can't believe Fifi just said that in front of EVERYONE! I mean even if it was a fact, she didn't have to REPEAT IT OUT LOUD! I just wanted to dig a hole and bury myself in it now!

"Oh... yeah... I saw... He's your fave right?? *nudge nudge*" Theo teased.

"Please gals... can we stop this discussion now... I'm sure there are other better things to do then stand around here in the middle of the carnival... Let's go and check out the other "less life-threatening" rides and games..."

I started walking away from them towards the shooting booth. All of them stared at me as I walked away, not knowing what to do.

"Come on guys, let's go check out the shooting booth!!!" I signalled for everyone to follow me.

"Wait up nuna!!!" Max shouted back, and turned to the guys, "come on, let's go try some shooting!!!", and he tugged Micky along.

"Hi! I'm Xiah Junsu. That's Max Changmin tugging Micky Yoochun, and this is U-Know Yunho. And I guess you know that that's Hero Jaejoong. Nice to meet you." Xiah introduced himself to Theo. Xiah and U-Know shoke hands with Theo.

"Hi, nice to meet you too. Xiah and U-Know." Theo replied.

"So shall we join them? Ladies?" U-Know asked Fifi and Theo.

"Yes of cos, let's go." Fifi replied and started walking along with Xiah, while U-Know and Theo tagged along behind.

Jaejoong looked on in amusement as the group struggled to catch up with me. He smiled when he saw Max tugging me to make me stop and wait for the rest to catch up.

"*sign* another untimely interruption..." he thought to himself, as he shoke his head and started walking towards us sheepishly.

"Jaejoong-hyung, hurry up! Or we'll start without you!" Micky shouted, waving frantically at Jaejoong to ask him to hurry over.

"Orh.... You guys go ahead first... I don't wanna run too much, my leg just recovered..." Jaejoong replied.

I was happily distributing the rifles to the rest of bickering group, unable to decide who should go first, when I heard Jaejoong's reply.

"Oh no... I totally forgot about his injured leg... No wonder he was sitting down just now on the road... It must have hurt..." I thought to myself.

I looked up and saw Jaejoong stopping to rest at a park bench.

"Guys, you go ahead first... I'll go fetch Jaejoong over." I murmured and started running over to Jaejoong.

Engrossed in the game, and with the noisy shooting, they hardly heard me or noticed that I had left the booth.

He seemed to be in deep thoughts when I reached the park bench, as he didn't realise that I was there.

"Jaejoong... Are you feeling okay?"

He looked over at me and smiled.

"Oh... I'm taking a rest from all the walking and standing today. Why are you here? I just need to sit here for a while. I'll be alright alone. Why don't you join them?"

"... There aren't enough rifles to go around... And... I... I thought... you might... want... some company..."

"..."

"*sign* Well, I guess if you're fine... I'll just... I'll just go on back... and join them then..." I turned to walk back to the booth.

"...erm... actually... I..."

I turned back.

"Yes?"

"Erm... not... nothing..."

"Oh... okay... I'll go on back then..."

Disappointedly, I turned back and walked towards the booth.

"I really don't know what is going on in his mind... I'm so confused... And it's making me rather mad... *sign* What the heck! I'm going to do what I want to do and not what he wants me to do. He can't order me around!" I thought to myself, and I decided to turn and walk back to him.

As I turned around, I saw him sitting at the bench looking at me.

"Breathe my dear... take a deep breath and walk back up... And tell him that you decided that you needed a rest too... Come on... you can do it!" I told myself.

My self-hynopsis worked, and I managed to walk back to the bench, with him looking at me as I walked back to him.

He gave me a look of surprise.

"I thought you wanted to go join them?"

I took a deep breath and replied, "I think I'll take a break, and they're too noisy anyway... It'll interrupt my concentration when I shoot. And I need full concentration when I shoot, otherwise I won't be able to get the prize that I want."

He grinned.

"Full concentration huh... What prize are you eyeing?"

I took the chance and sat down on the bench.

"Well every time in the carnivals here, there's this HUGE teddy bear that is the grand prize, and I've been aiming for it every time I come."

"So you like to come to such carnivals? Did you win the prize before?"

"Yeah these carnivals are fun. And we don't get them a lot here. So when there's one I'll definitely come. But so far, I've only won one before... And it's my prized teddy on my bed now... It'll be nice if I can help it get a companion though, cos it looks kinda lonesome alone on my bed... That is if I'm not on it..."

"On your BED huh....???"

I turned to look at Jaejoong and turned back to look at the booth, and smiled embarrassingly.

"Can't believe I just told him about the teddy on my bed!!! And me on the bed!!! So embarrassing!!!" I thought.

I looked over at the shooting booth. They were still trying at the game.

"*sign* Actually I'm quite good at shooting... Cos I got a badge for Marksmanship before in school... But since I've haven't been practising, the skill kinda deteriorated over time... So that's why I've only won one..."

Jaejoong looked at me as I spoke, "She must really want another teddy..." he thought.

"Let's go..." And he got up.

"Huh??" I turned to look at him.

"Come on, let's go over to join them."

"Join... them??? But your leg..."

"I'm fine... Come... Let's go..."

He extended his hand out to me. I looked at his hand, and then up at him. He was smiling like this morning again. I placed my hand in his and stood up. And we walked slowly over to the booth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Xiah, aim higher, aim higher.... *bam* AHHHHH! You missed again!!!" Fifi exclaimed.

"Sorry... I'm really not very good at shooting... ha ha ha... I'm only good at soccer... ha ha ha...." Xiah replied, scratching his head embarrassingly.

"Let me have a go."

"Jaejoong-hyung..."

I looked at Jaejoong in disbelief, as he walked over to the post with me in toll.

"Pass me the rifle please, Xiah."

"Nei... hyung... here you go..." Xiah passed the rifle to Jaejoong and stepped aside for him to try the game.

"Thanks Xiah."

Jaejoong took the rifle with his free hand, and he turned to me, raising the hand holding mine up to his face.

"You'll bless me with your marksmanship right?"

He looked at me meaningfully. I was too surprised for words. I just nodded my head.

"Great... I'll score a perfect ten then..."

And he kissed my hand before letting it go. My eyes widened when his lips touched my hand.

"Now will you step back to let me try my hand at the game?"

I stepped back to let him have enough space to shoot.

Jaejoong raised the rifle up and took his time to aim at the moving targets. I looked at him, he had a face of complete concentration. It was as if the rest of the world didn't exist, and it was only him and the moving targets...

I've never seen him like this before....

And he looked even more irresistible now then before...

Silently I closed my eyes, and cheered and prayed for him in my heart, for him to get a perfect ten...

I heard a series of shots being fired.

Then there was silence.

I opened my eyes to take a look at the result....