Catch up: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

I’ve been ignoring him, maybe that wasn’t so nice of me. SZ’s been going over DJ’s unread texts over the past two years. SY also reminded her on a call that DJ never forgot her, sending gifts for every occasion despite being flat broke.

After all, he hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s been nice to me from the start. This mental dialogue was driving her nuts. Let’s say she didn’t feel too justified; did a broken heart due to a one-sided love warrant acting like an ingrate?

After lots of consideration, SZ takes it upon herself to text DJ an invite for dinner as a thank you for taking her home. The text sounds rather professional, and respectful and you bet it’s proofread to remove any sort of casualness.

DJ is on the way home from work when his phone beeps. He reads the text and disbelief settles on his face, “When you might be free?”, is she serious? How formal; he calls her on the spot.

“I’m free next weekend but not sure about the time,” DJ skips niceties.

“It’s ok, we can accommodate your schedule,” is SZ’s formal reply. Her response makes him smile.

“I’ll take you to a phone repair shop as well,” he tells her. SZ is confused, what’s wrong with her phone?

“I thought it must be broken,” DJ tells her, “your texts are so formal. Where did that come from? You were never formal with me. Your words are so polite”.

SZ rolls her eyes at his typical wise-ass remarks. “My father told me to be respectful to anyone older than me by five years or more. If I remember correctly, you’re five years older. You sound young but you can’t fool anyone, you’re not young anymore,” SZ says in all seriousness.

He’s about to hang up but SZ has something else to say. “I didn’t mean to ignore you by not replying or calling you back. I was living on campus and didn’t have my phone with me”.

“I know” he admits “your brother to me that”. She hangs up. Letting out a breath, there she did it, her consciousness should be relieved.

Where are you? I’ll come over, just wait for me

DJ is hard at work since being a talented game developer in charge of the hottest mobile game of the year doesn’t come about easily.

His phone rings with the caller ID displaying the name NJ, the girl who visited him at home when he first moved back home. He doesn’t pick up though, in fact, he ignores the call. Yet again, there’s no like in his expression when reminded of this person.

DJ’s colleague walks in astonished to see most of the food still lying on his desk untouched. He shakes his head as he brings yet another meal for the man.

Alone again, DJ gets a sudden discomfort but shakes it off as he heads toward a meeting. Finally catching up with food, he gets another wave of the earlier discomfort though this time it’s intensified so much it’s downright painful. Trying to hold it together as others are asking for his input, DJ barely makes it to his desk before he collapses clasping his stomach.

Meanwhile, SZ calls him while standing outside the dinner spot where they were to meet. Is the man late yet again?

“I’m sorry SZ, I don’t think I can make it today,” comes his reply.

SZ is quiet. “Are you working overtime?” she asks.

“Yes. Get something to eat for yourself,” he tells her, trying and miserably failing, to sound ok.

SZ is attuned to him no matter how much she’d like to deny it. “Your voice sounds off, aren’t you feeling well?”

He’s about to deny her suspicions but a bout of pain stops him as soon as he starts talking.

Worried SZ finally gets him to admit he’s not well. DJ tells her he has a little stomach pain, it’ll be fine. Way past conversing on the phone, SZ is already fetching a taxi and asking for his work address. A rather surprised DJ tells her the place.

A little later, SZ runs into the building’s lobby where DJ had managed to wait for her. She forces him to lean on her while heading outside to hail a taxi bound for the hospital. DJ, in pain yet still being himself, throws out a painful joke, “Are you helping an old man, kiddo?”

SZ looks at him in disbelief, is he serious? “I’m not calling you a kid,” he says, remembering their past conversation.

As she tries to get a taxi, a rather immobile DJ can’t do much other than stand on the sidewalk where she tells him to stand all the while asking her to be careful.

Unsuccessful, SZ pulls out her phone to book a ride and asks DJ for the address as she backs away from the side of the road. Suddenly turning, she smacks against the standing DJ, his lips lightly pressing on her forehead from the impact.

The two momentarily stand in a frozen embrace before parting. They both didn’t mean to do that, it’s nothing, it’s ok.

No matter how many times you tell me not to worry, I still do

It’s acute appendicitis, he needs to go into surgery. As they’re rolling him inside, DJ tells SZ she should head back because it’s late and it’ll be unsafe later.

“I’ll wait for you outside,” her concerned voice informs him with certainty. DJ tries to convince her it’s not a serious surgery; she tells him to stop talking. Hell if she leaves him alone.

While waiting for the surgery to end, SZ can’t stop thinking that if they hadn’t made dinner plans, he’d have held it and never gone to the hospital. Scavenging the net for what he should or shouldn’t do, she gets her daily mom call. She tells her mom DJ’s ill and she’s taken him to the hospital.

“Poor thing,” her mom says, “he doesn’t have a family”. SZ is confused, isn’t this his hometown?

But her mom reveals part of DJ’s background SZ never knew. They (she and her husband) had helped DJ financially to deal with his mom’s passing while he was an 18-year-old college freshman. They’d been surprised when soon after the funeral, he’d paid a big portion of it back and promised to pay the rest as soon as he got a job. He’d been filled with grief but trying to put himself together to deal with everything.

SZ is quiet as she hangs up, devastated at hearing this about him.

When DJ is out of surgery, SZ brings him some liquid foods that are doctor-approved. She tells him she’ll be coming by tomorrow; she’s not a kid, she knows what she’s capable of doing.

DJ wonders if she’s upset about the accidental forehead kiss that happened on their way to the hospital. He recalls the moment, two fingers lightly resting on his lips seemingly of their own mind. He doesn’t know what to make of it, she probably minds what happened.

A sound in the doorway makes him look up. SZ slowly walks in with a plastic bag.

“I gave it some thought, I should stay and look after you. If I were to fall sick and have no one by my side, you’d do the same for me right?”

She sits by his hospital bed, pulls out some bread from the plastic bag, and proceeds to eat her “dinner”. DJ looks in ridicule at her meal ready to call for take out but she stops him. She tries to make him understand she’s not hungry; if she were, she’d call and order something because she’s not a kid anymore. She doesn’t need him to worry.

SZ notices DJ watching her as she stuffs her mouth with bread. Suddenly conscious she asks what’s so funny since he started smiling. She gets up and heads to the bathroom, probably a great time to freshen up.

Then it hits her, he can’t get up from the bed so he can’t freshen up, she probably should help. Grabbing a cloth from one of the hospital’s ready packets, she wets it and heads over to DJ who’s on his phone probably answering work emails. SZ insists on helping him, he acquiesces, and she gently starts dabbing on his face.

Looking at him this close with his probing eyes finally closed she can’t help but admire his features. She’s so engrossed in her gentle ministrations, her face unguarded from emotions, a smile pulling on her lips. When he opens his eyes she freezes, her eyes looking right at his so very close.

Marriage is not something to joke about

“Are you done?” DJ asks while looking straight at her.

SZ pulls back telling him she needs to rinse the towel then hurries off to the bathroom. She lets out a low exhale. Why didn’t he give her a warning before opening his eyes? He could’ve said something and then opened them. But he opened them out of nowhere, what the heck!

Low-key scary moment.

Pulling out a makeshift hospital guest bed, SZ settles down next to DJ for the night. She starts catching up on the day’s text messages. First come her roommates who’d grown concerned at her absence; next is JM who was waiting to see a movie with her but she bailed.

Accidentally she clicks on his voice message then quickly shuts it off fearing it’ll wake the sleeping DJ. Seeing him undisturbed she turns prepping to close her eyes when DJ’s voice comes from the other side.

“What’s the matter, can’t sleep?” There’s no reply from SZ.

“Do you need to finish listening to the voice message?”

Why did he pretend to sleep? She accuses him of eavesdropping. SZ tells him to go to sleep but DJ seems to be the one unable to sleep.

“Finish playing the voice message,” he tells her. “Let me see who wants to take you out to a movie”.

He wants to know more about this boy because he’s scared SZ is too naive and might get played. Clearly, the ordeal of the past lingers in his memory.

SZ responds to his continued prying by telling him she’s pretty so she has many admirers, and it’ll take the whole night talking about all the guys. Truth be told, she expects one of his familiar counters but silence greets her instead. Why isn’t he saying anything?

They should end this pointless conversation before it gets more awkward. DJ should just stop prying into the lives of younger people.

・❥・

The next day SZ makes it to class and then heads to DJ’s house to pick up his work laptop and other stuff. As she exits the place, another young woman is making her way to DJ’s door. It’s JY, the young woman who keeps trying to get in touch with him yet he appears to avoid.

Back at the hospital, DJ opens up the bag SZ brought. He sees underwear and pauses for a bit before covertly stuffing it at the bottom. She was rather thoughtful.

SZ starts placing things in the room cabinet when an old man heads to the bed adjacent to DJ’s.

“Boy, is this your wife?” the old man yells out as SZ nags at DJ for nagging her about eating all the time.

“This is my sister, not my wife,” DJ tells the man.

“I know your wife is pretty,” the man replies smiling at SZ who’s feeling extremely uncomfortable.

The man’s son apologizes on his behalf letting them know his dad is hard of hearing.

“Dad that’s his SISTER, not his WIFE. A brother can’t marry his sister,” the man says in a loud voice to the old man.

“Are you two not married yet?” the old man yells back at them. “Boy you don’t look young anymore, don’t keep the young lady waiting,” the man continues growing concerned for this young couple.

SZ is about to interject, this is getting out of hand. The old man goes on to lecture DJ for being too slow but DJ tells SZ to treat this as a joke and not let it concern her.

What does he mean by a joke? You shouldn’t joke about such things.

“Sir, he’s not my partner, he’s too old. He’s old enough to be my father,” SZ loudly addresses the man.

If he wants a joke, let it be one.

“It’s great to be a dad!” the old man says in excitement. “Once you two get married hurry up and have kids,” he lets out a happy laugh. Oh, dear, this got even more out of hand. DJ and SZ give up on reasoning with this new hospital roommate.

Are we never going to be anything more than brother and sister?

The next morning SZ wakes up to find DJ typing furiously on his laptop. She can’t believe this man, he’s hospitalized yet here he stayed up all night working.

“Are you two having a lover’s spat this early in the morning?” the old man comes out of the bathroom. “When is the wedding?”

“Sir, we’re not like that, we’re not getting married,” DJ attempts to tell the man.

“You’re not getting married? That won’t do! She’s a beautiful girl taking care of you, how can you do this to her?” the astonished man tries to reason his own reason with DJ.

“Fine, we’ll do as you say,” DJ gives up.

“That’s more like it! You two are a perfect match, you’ll live happily together”.

“Sir, she’s too young, she’s not of legal marriage age yet,” DJ starts up again.

SZ goes to get water and escape this joke. It’s not even funny, it honestly kind of hurts.

A few days later, as she helps DJ pack up to leave the hospital, he wishes the old man a good rest and recovery. Likewise, the old man wishes them a happy marriage.

Not this again. “Sir, we’ll get married soon. Get well soon!” SZ surprises DJ with her sudden proclamation.

Walking outside, DJ asks her what the “married soon” was about. She doesn’t feel her response deserves an explanation. He was the one who started the joke so she ignores his question and keeps walking.

DJ knows something’s off but can’t tell if the marriage talks upset her or if something else is bothering her.

“Don’t make jokes like that anymore,” she tells him. Being bored is not a good enough reason to warrant making jokes at her expense.

Put in place, DJ apologizes. He didn’t mean to hurt or upset her.

When they reach DJ’s house, SZ is assailed by her thoughts. The feelings she’s been hiding for the past two years probably don’t mean anything to him. Maybe in his heart, they’ll never be more than just brother and sister, that’s why he can make jokes like that.

She suddenly can’t stay for dinner, her emotions are overwhelming. Taking out her cute little bear sticky notes, SZ writes small reminders for the food, sleep hours, and medicine for DJ to have around the house before leaving.

He doesn’t mind them. In fact, he fondly glances at each one later that night when he’s alone.

・❥・

Back at work, DJ asks for some advice because he thinks SZ might be upset with the jokes he pulled about the whole marriage thing at the hospital.

However, there’s a part of him that doesn’t believe the jokes are the full reason for SZ’s behavior.

His female boss (and a good friend) listens along with his other colleague (her husband, also a good friend). She explains that SZ is a young girl, of course, she’d be sensitive to her relationship status.

“You even said she had a boy she liked, that would surely make her even angrier!”

Lady Boss accuses him of being an accomplice when he argues it was the old man who started the damn thing. He was lucky SZ took care of him until he was discharged, yet, what does he do but indulge the old man?

“Find some time to take her out for a meal,” Lady Boss advises, “talk things through with her and be more careful! She’s an adult now, you can’t joke about everything like you did before”.

Meanwhile, JM finally got SZ to see a movie with him. A horror film that thoroughly terrified him (who knew SZ was a horror lover).

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were afraid of chickens,” SZ apologizes after the movie.

JM is good-natured and doesn’t mind. He’s not afraid of many things but animals with beaks terrify him. While he heads to the restroom, SZ sees a claw machine filled with a bear like the one DJ won for her many years ago.

That bear plushie was one she valued and sealed forever (along with her feelings) in a box two years ago. Looking wistfully she can’t help but remember.