REMEMBER ME?...
The Part 75
Kiara faintly heard someone whispering not far from them. He looked for the source of the voice and saw two young girls dressed in glamour sitting on the sofa just a few meters behind Kiara. The loud sound of music should have prevented Kiara from hearing their conversation, but somehow Kiara could hear it clearly.
“Girls who utilize her connections to get into this industry should not be able to enter even just into a nomination once! Luckily Habyul won, I couldn't see the girl receive the trophy on stage!”
“I too! Such an arrogant girl should never have existed on this earth!”
Kiara clenched her free hand tightly. He was trying to keep his manner from hitting the two women right now. There's a strong misunderstanding here. And he was his victim. The girl also downed a drink that had been neglected next to her hand until it ran out and stored her glass at a nearby table to muffle the fire that was burning in her chest.
All the winners of each nomination have been announced, and all of them took off from the stage together. Vano descends along with Windy and Bang Himsoo. Kiara saw the three smiling and as if talking about something. There was a bad signal that Kiara caught upon seeing the three. The girl is indeed slowly realizing that Vano somehow and somehow, has a special relationship with Windy. That's why Windy apologized to him earlier, for his rude attitude the other day.
Now, by hearing the rumors about him, also by looking at Vano and Windy, like a fire doused in gasoline, various feelings filled his heart and feelings. He can no longer hold it.
“Brian, I'll be in the bathroom for a while.” Kiara said without turning her head and immediately left the stage area.
“O-oh... be careful,” Brian replies while watching Kiara's back walk away.
____
“Mana Kiara?” ask Vano. He had just returned after talking to Bang Himsoo and several other photographers after he stepped off the stage.
Brian glanced at his watch and then sat down. “Dia to bathroom.”
“Oh..,” reply Vano. But Brian was upset to hear it.
“Oh? Only ‘oh’? She already went to the bathroom 45 minutes ago, Vano!”
“What?!”
“I thought there was something strange about the girl,” Brian muttered uneasily. “Shouldn't we just follow up?”
“I'll catch up with—“
“What are you gentlemen?” bang Himsoo's greeting stopped the activities of the two. Bang Himsoo came side by side with Windy.
“Why do you guys look panicked?” ask the girl.
“I have to go somewhere, excuse—“
“Where is the girl?” ask Bang Himsoo again. “Kiara Kusuma, I mean.”
The three turned their heads and focused their attention on Bang Himsoo. It made the middle-aged woman laugh.
Vano frowned. “Aware of places?”
“Yeah... a cheating designer doesn't seem to deserve to be here, does he? I invited him just so you could come here. I heard you never attended a party like this, but because I wanted you to come so I invited—“
“Cheat? Can you explain which part is cheating about Kiara, Bang Himsoo-ssi?” cut Vano.
“Of course he cheated. Use your connections to become a designer. Isn't that cheating?”
“What?! Himsoo-ssi, Kiara never—“
“Kiara Kusuma has never cheated, Himsoo-ssi.” Vano cut Brian's words. “The girl is trying with her own power. Same as me. If your view is that low, then I should be the same as him, right? I come from a family of businessmen like him. Why did you just do that slander to her?”
“A-ah Vano-ssi, you weren't using a—“ connection in the first place
“Where did you know I never used my connection?” Vano cut again the words of Bang Himsoo. The man clenched his arms tightly together, unable to endure the burning emotions on him any longer. “The same question I asked you. How did you know Kiara used her connection?”
Bang Himsoo was silent. Secretly, the woman swallowed her saliva which now tasted bitter in the esophagus. Checkmate.
“Thank you for showing how low your outlook is, Himsoo-ssi. Excuse me.” Pamit Vano who immediately ran away from that place.
Goddamn bum! His feet were in his heart, pointing his feet towards the toilet.
____
Kiara can no longer predict how long she has been here. With an open dress like this is magical for him if his disease has not attacked him until now.
His knuckles had turned white, and he had started to numb his fingertips from the cold. But he doesn't care. The first thing he thought about after coming out of the toilet was to head out into the open. Either the patio, the attic, whatever. Until he found this place. It was located on the second floor, like an attic even though it was not at the highest place of the building, but it was clearly an open space. Kiara actually just wanted to calm herself as well as dry her tears that came out in the bathroom earlier.
The girl again nodded loudly. White steam just came out of his mouth. He doesn't know. If he had not gone to the party, he would never have known the views of others. He did not know that the things that he often saw in the dramas that he always watched—such as slander, envy, spite will happen to him as well. He never knew how creepy and painful it was until he felt it himself.
The girl's head was low, she placed her chin on top of her two arms that were cupped over the iron fence. The girl looked forward, towards the urban landscape this Christmas night. Suddenly he thought of Vano, and remembering him made him remember about Windy anyway. Suddenly, tears flowed down his cheeks and he started sobbing slowly.
The girl no longer cared. His makeup was destroyed earlier, when he washed it to the end in the bathroom. And now, he will make his eyes back swollen by crying here. Gravely. Kiara really does suck at managing her own feelings.
“Kiara Kusuma!”
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