Free Second Chance by Ong Xiong

broad
shoulders and his tall frame, but he seemed to take over the bench. Sue
slightly shifted her body away from him to allow room between them.
    “Gee, thanks.
I’ll keep that in mind the next time I make a fool of myself,” she replied. She
remembered he hadn’t answered her questions and turned to face him, bringing
her right leg and bending it on the bench to support the guitar before
extending her right hand. “Hi, I’m Sue. And you are?”
    “Jae,” he
answered, raising his own hand to shake hers.
    “Nice to meet
you, Jay,” she said shaking his hand. “You were very good. How did you learn to
dance like that?” she asked letting go of his hand.
    “Practice,” Jae
said as he reached for a towel from his backpack.
    “I can see that.
Where did you learn to dance like that?”
    He shrugged. “You
play?” He nodded toward the guitar.
    “I do. Would you like
to hear?” Before he could give her an answer, she began to play Remember Me by Hope Madison. When she was finished, she had a small audience and they
clapped. She blushed, said “Thank you,” and then returned the guitar to Jae.
“Thank you,” she said to him.
    “For what?”
    “For letting me
play your guitar.”
    “Anytime.”
    Jae leaned the
guitar next to him and reached into his backpack. He took out a bottle of water
and opened it, took a sip then offered the bottle to her.
    Sue took the
bottled water and took a sip, not realizing how thirsty she was until now. “Do
you perform here often?” she asked.
    “Sometimes.”
    “Meaning?” she
prodded.
    “Meaning
sometimes,” he replied, getting another bottled water from his backpack.
    “Which would
be…?”
    “Are you always
this nosy?” he asked, taking a sip of his water.
    “Nosy?” Sue
gasped. She was only curious but didn’t mean to be “nosy.” She had been told
countless times she asked too many questions but she had never been called
“nosy.” To her, nosy meant she was prying, intruding, snooping, and she didn’t
think she was doing that by merely asking him about his dancing. “If a fan were
to ask you where you were performing next, are you going to tell them they are
being nosy as well? If so, then I must say, you are in need of a great
PR rep.”
    Jae grinned.
“Does that mean you are a fan then?”
    “Yes, well, was
anyways,” Sue answered getting up from the bench and brushing her pants.
    Jae’s grin
immediately disappeared. “Did I offend you?”
    “No, no you
didn’t. I’m still a fan,” she assured him.
    “Then why are you
leaving?”
    “It’s getting
late. I need to get back to campus before dinner is over; otherwise, I’ll go
hungry tonight.”
    “University?”
    “Yes. Well, it
was very nice to meet you Jay. Now, I do hope I’m not being nosy , but
may I ask, is that Jay with a Y or an E? I’m guessing it’s an E, but I’m not
quite sure. ”
    “E,” Jae
answered. He said nothing more. He acted indifferently, but he was still
watching her with interest.
    “Thank you. I was
just curious,” Sue explained as she picked up her plastic bag. “It was nice
meeting you, Jae,” she said again before she turned and started to walk away.
She abruptly stopped and turned back to him. She held up the bottled water.
“Thank you for the water,” she said smiling before she turned and proceeded to
walk away again.
    “Sue!” he
hollered after her. She turned back to him. “I’ll be here again tomorrow,
around noon.”
    Sue smiled as she
replied, “Maybe I’ll come see you again.”

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER
10
     
    Oh, why did she
even bother? Making plans with Angela was like making curry noodles. Sometimes
it turned out but most of the time it didn’t. They were supposed to meet at the
park an hour ago so that they could get something to eat before Jae’s
performance.
    Like the previous
day, Angela had decided a day at the park to watch street performances was not
as important as another opportunity to meet a Korean guy. Sue was so