AUTHOR'S NOTE: This fic is not finished. Though the names in this fic are those of Shinhwa, the characters may not reflect them. In many ways, it's like an original story written with their names... besides that, this fic will be updated frequently, promise. IF YOU ARE VIEWING THIS PAGE, and it turns out to be BRIGHT PINK everywhere, turn off Korean or Chinese or whatever other encryptions because it will effect the codes... sorry! Please leave a Comment if you do read this so I can get some feedback. :)
�But I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be�
- Matchbox 20 � �Unwell�
Chapter 1: September 4th � Beginning of school year
I walked in through the high school doors, and I knew that my future would have to start fresh here. Looking around, I didn�t see a single face that I recognized, but yet there were groups of people standing together, laughing away at anything and everything. I felt like a loner, lost in the big school that I�ve never stepped foot in before. Standing there in front of my supposing science class, I saw people chat away, while I simply waited for the bell to ring. I never liked being alone, made me feel insecure and well� alone. �A new beginning�, I thought to myself� this is what it was all about. My second chance at life, can�t let it go.
�Welcome everyone into Biology for grade 12. If there is anyone that should not be in this class, please leave now,� the teacher said slowly, making the same speech that she did every single new semester. I watched as she took one look across the classroom, waving at people she taught before, and registering the faces she had never seen before in her mind. �My name is Mrs. Lee, and I will be assisting you as we explore the wonders of biology! First of all, I would like to take an attendance just to see whose here and whose not,� she said happily. In my mind, I thought that she seemed to be an outgoing teacher, and that immediately lessened about half my worries.
Mrs. Lee took another look across the classroom, and a bright idea seemed to come to her head. �To add a twist to the normal boring attendance, I�ve decided to do something different. I can see that most people are sitting in groups, and I�m going to assume that you�re with your friends. I�m giving you all 5 minutes, and I want you to talk to everyone, find out the names of new students if there are any, and tell me one thing about your group of friends there!�
The class roared with conversations and happy laughter, as it was like 5 minutes given to them to talk about their summer stories. I was the first into the class, since I didn�t have anyone to talk to outside. When I sat down, 3 boys had sat down at the same group, spotting it as a chance to sit together. I had to admit that they were intimidating me, because they looked so cool, so� popular. Sunglasses on their head and their hair dyed blonde at the tips, they were waving and talking to a bunch of girls a table away from us. I looked at the girls and then at myself. They were beautiful. Long black hair, tall, and eyes that sparkled when someone looked into them. Makeup was present on all their faces, and it made them seem even more perfect. Me? Ha. I was a joke compared to them. My hair was short, right above my shoulders. My features were dull, and nothing attracted anyone to look at me.
�Yo, stop daydreaming! We asked you what your name was,� said one of the three boys, seeming impatient and looking at me with cold eyes.
�Uh� my name is Joo-Eun, and you?� I asked in a soft voice, slightly scared of their response. I had never expected them to talk to me.
�Never heard of us? Haha, you must be new,� he replied me, once again looking at me with coldness. I wonder what I had done that made him hate me so much.
�Hah, don�t worry, he�s always like that. Name�s Andy, that�s Hyesung and that�s Minwoo, who doesn�t seem to be very nice to new students,� Andy said to me with a slight smile on his face. I took one look at all three of them, and then smiled a bit at Andy�s comment. Of the three of them, he seemed like the nicest. Hyesung�s facial characteristics were gentle, and he waved at me when he realized that Andy had introduced us. Minwoo on the other hand, gave me yet another cold stare, and seemed to decide in his own mind that I was not worth his time. Not knowing what to do, I simply went back to writing the letter to my parents. Since I�ve gotten here a month ago, I have not talked to them, so I figured that writing a letter to them may be a good idea.
Before I knew it, the five minutes were up. I slightly panicked, not knowing what to say when Mrs. Lee would reach our table, but then looking up at Andy told me that he would knew what to say when he winked at me. �Why don�t we start off with Andy�s group over here,� Mrs. Lee said with a smile. She had obviously taught Andy before, and she seemed happy to be teaching him again.
�Well, everyone knows us right? It�s Andy, Hyesung and Minwoo. We also have a new student in our group, and her name is Joo-Eun, so everyone be nice to her, okay?! Haha, I really don�t know what else to say, so yeaaaaaah, that�s it,� Andy said full of energy. He sure seemed like a nice person to be around. I also noticed some of the girls around the class glaring at me. I didn�t understand why, but maybe it was because I had the attention of the three guys in front of me. Once again, I just went back to writing my letter. Mrs. Lee went around the entire room, and I tried to remember all the names for future reference, but I soon felt a strong pain in my stomach. I held it back and didn�t say a word, didn�t want to make a scene on my first day at school. My attention left the classroom and I spent the whole class trying to make myself feel better. Before I knew it, the bell rang and I was off to my next class.
The first half of the day went by quite uneventful, after I went to biology, I was off to math and then English. The one thing that surprised me was that no matter what class I went to, Minwoo was in all of them. Though I was glad at least I saw one person I recognized, he did not seem to appreciate me being there, so I sat as far away from him as possible. Maybe he was embarrassed to even recognize me at all; he never once glanced my way. What did I expect though? I really was a nobody.
Chapter 2:
My stomach continued to bother me, and when lunch came around, I immediately bought a drink and sat down to take a pain-reliever pill. It seemed to calm me down, so I was relieved that it was only something small. I decided to sit with some people I had met that day in my other classes. Yumi was a girl that I had met in my math class, and she was incredibly nice, introducing me to many people at lunch. She too, like most of the girls I have seen here, was really pretty. Besides that, she was also amazingly smart. I felt happy that I knew someone like her in this large school. Just then, I noticed 6 guys walk into the cafeteria, and immediately I recognized 3 of them from my biology class. It was weird, because it seemed like half the cafeteria all of a sudden had all their eyes on them. Status to me was always a stupid thing in high school, but if it was something that mattered, these 6 guys were definitely right at the top. Surprisingly, Yumi sitting beside me all of a sudden smiled and looked really ecstatic to see them. She waved at one of the particular guys that I did not know, but I guess I was going to find out.
�Yumi!� the guy she waved at yelled out.
�Junjin, how�s your first day back going?!� she asked him looking into his eyes with love. I all of a sudden understood why she was so happy to see them come in.
�It was alright, but now it�s better because I get to see you,� Junjin said with a happy smile on his face before they hugged each other tightly.
�Ugh, the two of you never stop this, do you?� Andy said, whining as he looked at them. I had a feeling that Yumi and Junjin were always this close. Andy made me laugh out loud at his comment. That�s when all seven of them looked at me and I turned bright red. All of a sudden, I felt like I didn�t belong there.
�Heeeeey� you�re the girl in my biology class� Joo-Eun, right?� Andy asked me, questioning his own memory.
�Hehe, yes, hi Andy,� I said quietly. I looked at the other guys, and Andy seemed to understand why I was feeling so out of place.
�Oh! This is Dongwan and Eric. I�m sure you know the rest of us now. This is Joo-Eun, she�s new here,�
I smiled lightly and said hi to all of them. All of a sudden, I noticed Minwoo�s cold glace at me again. Every time he looked at me, I felt shivers go down my body. I never knew why he had to look at me like that, but it didn�t seem like it was going to change anytime soon.
�Andy, why do you waste time on her? I�m hungry, let�s go get lunch,� Minwoo said quietly to him, but loud enough so the rest of us could hear it. His eyes never left me the entire time. I was hurt by what he had to say, but it was true to a degree, I suppose. Minwoo and everyone else left except for Junjin, who stayed around to talk to Yumi. They looked so close, so in love, I had to smile at how cute they were. I stood up to go so that they could be alone, but that seemed to alarm Yumi.
�Where are you going, Joo-Eun?�
�I think I�m going to go to the library and take a look around the school,� I answered in a soft voice.
�Oh, would you like me to take you around then?� Yumi offered with a sweet smile.
�That�s okay, you should stay here with Junjin. I�ll figure my way around. Thanks for introducing me to your friends!� I said happily as I turned around to leave.
�Hey, don�t mind Minwoo, he�s had a tough summer,� Junjin all of a sudden blurted out to me. I turned around and faced him to see his concerned face for his friend. Though a part of me wanted to ask why, I realized that I really was still just a stranger. I told him thanks and to not to worry about it, gave the two of them a smile and left.
Chapter 3:
As Andy, Minwoo, Dongwan, Eric, and Hyesung walked into the cafeteria, Andy finally couldn�t hold it in anymore. The tension between Minwoo and Joo-Eun was strong, and every single one of the guys had felt it. Andy being the carefree, easy-going guy, simply had to ask for the truth.
�Hey Minwoo, what�s wrong with you? Joo-Eun never did anything wrong to you�� Andy said quietly, feeling a bit of concern for Minwoo. Andy and the rest of them were already in the cafeteria by now, picking some stuff off the walls of the cafeteria for lunch.
�Nothing�s wrong with me. I just don�t like her. She�s not pretty, she�s not cool, she�s shy, and worst yet, she�s boring,� Minwoo replied, not once looking at Andy or any of the other guys.
�Wow, that�s harsh,� Dongwan replied lightly.
�Hey, I agree that she doesn�t stand out of the crowd, but how would you know she�s boring? You never gave her a chance,� Andy asked Minwoo.
�Yeah, and it�s her first day here, I don�t blame her for being shy�� Eric added to the list.
�Why are you guys so concerned about her anyways?!� Minwoo asked, starting to get mad at his friends for continuously bringing her up.
�It�s not her that we�re concerned about�� Eric started off, before being cut of my Minwoo.
�What is it then?!� Minwoo practically shouted, obviously annoyed by the topic.
�� We�re worried about you. It�s not like you to just hate someone for nothing, not to mention for their appearance�� Hyesung all of a sudden said, after not adding a comment to the entire conversation. He was always caring of other people, and he probably understood Minwoo the most out of all of them.
But there was silence. No one knew what to say, only waited for Minwoo to reply.
�� I can�t help it,� Minwoo all of a sudden said with sadness in his voice.
�If this has anything to do with-,� Dongwan was all of sudden cut off by Minwoo with a death glare his way. Dongwan nodded and stopped before saying anything more. �You know we�re always here for you right?�
�I know� thanks. Let�s just get lunch, she�s really not someone worth all of our attention,� Minwoo finally said ending the conversation. Inside, he wanted to avoid talking about Joo-Eun, and everyone knew that he had his reasons, so they backed off. After paying for their lunch, everyone left and went outside to eat. The topic wasn�t brought up again.
�Hey, I heard there�s going to be a basketball tournament one month after the end of the school year eh?� Andy said trying to lighten up the mood.
�Jeez, why are they planning so ahead, that�s a lonnnnnng time from now,� Dongwan asked suspiciously.
�It�s not just any tournament� it was a challenge between gangs, giving them the entire year to pick their perfect teams,� Junjin said as he walked towards the group that had settled down outside.
�How does that concern us? We�re not a gang�� Minwoo said, asking very suspiciously.
�We were invited� Don�t ask me why,� Andy said, thinking that one of the group members had signed up, but when everyone looked confused, he too wondered what had happened.
�What�? Oh well, guess we�ll find out soon enough, right? Actually, when you mention basketball, I�m going to go shoot some hoops, anyone coming?� Dongwan asked the group as he got up to leave. Soon, Eric, Andy, and Junjin followed him and disappeared to behind the school where the court was. This left Minwoo and Hyesung behind, still sitting there. Minwoo was in no mood to play basketball, and Hyesung decided to stick around to find out what really was wrong.
�Hey Minwoo� besides all the things that you�ve listed, what really is wrong with Joo-Eun� Hyesung asked lightly.
�Do we really have to bring this back up?� Minwoo answered. Anyone else, he would have been mad, but he knew that Hyesung really cared about him as a friend.
�Yes, I have to ask because whatever the reason, it�s hurting you. Every time you see Joo-Eun, you give her cold glares. I�ve seen them. Not only are you hurting yourself, but you�re probably hurting her too� what�s wrong?�
�� It�s just�,� he hesitated. �She� she looks just like her.�
Chapter 4: April 10th � One month before final exams and end of school
The school year had slowly gone by and I had gotten a lot closer to a lot of people, but especially Yumi. Her and I had become best friends, and she told me everything that I had ever wanted to know about this school. She continued to introduce me to new people, and it didn�t take long before I had felt more comfortable around the school. Andy and I had also become good friends as well. Maybe it was his outgoing nature that made him everyone�s friend. Hyesung and I were put into a biology project group together before, and through that, I got to know him better. He really was a caring person, and my frequent stomach pains seemed to worry him. Junjin was always looking out for me as well, but I knew it was because I was Yumi�s best friend. Whenever they had fights, I was always the one to help them patch up their relationship. They rarely fought, but whenever they did, everyone always knew that it would not stop them from being together. Eric and Dongwan were always distant from me; we never really were given a chance to get closer. No classes together, and I never went out with Yumi and her friends, so we just remained acquaintances. Minwoo however, seemed to hate me more and more. He disliked the fact that I was close to Yumi, Andy, Hyesung, and Junjin. I never knew why he hated me so much, yet I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I tried to ask Andy what was wrong with him once, only to be told that it wasn�t something that I should know about so I should just let it slide. Andy and Yumi were always people that never hid things from me, except for this one fact about Minwoo. Knowing that, it was probably something extremely personal, so I never asked again. The poor guy was probably dumped by someone he loved� Haha, honestly though, I never felt sorry for him. From the way he treated me, any girl would leave him.
* * * * *
�Well, as everyone knows, the school year is slowly coming to an end, and in one month�s time, you will be writing your exams. This is grade 12, meaning the grade you receive now will highly affect your choices for post-secondary education. Your exam will be worth about 20% of your final grade, but there is one more project that we must complete. This final project will be worth 10% of your grade, and therefore it must be done well, especially if you are getting a low mark in this class at the moment. Normally you would be able to choose your own partner for this assignment, but because of it�s long involvement, you have all been placed into groups of two already!� Mrs. Lee announced happily to the class. Many of us groaned at the thought that we would have to place the possibility of our future marks in the hands of someone we may not trust. Furthermore, we didn�t even know what our assignment was. �I am going to hand out a small booklet for every one of you, and in it will be your directions to help guide you to the completion of this important project. On the front page is your name as well as your partner�s name. Once you get your package, please go sit with them and discuss what you will have to do. If anyone has any more questions, please come to me,� Mrs. Lee finished before she started to hand out the packages. Some people smiled at being able to work with their best friends while others started to cry in their heads.
When Mrs.Lee walked towards me, she gave me a smile. She had always liked me because I tried hard in school. For that reason, I thought I would have been paired up with Andy, because of the fact that she knew we were good friends. But when she handed out the package to me, I nearly cried. This wasn�t possible� no way!
�Joo-Eun, you�re working with Minwoo. Good luck on this project! I know you�ll do great!� Mrs. Lee said as she handed us our packages. Minwoo and I exchanged horrified glances, before he started to look at me coldly again. Andy and Hyesung immediately noticed our tension, and they looked even more scared than I did.
�You�re the teacher�s pet. Make her change it!� Minwoo yelled at me never taking his eyes off me.
�Heeeeey, it�s not going to be that bad! Minwoo you have a car so you can drive her around and she�s smart, you�ll get a good grade for sure! I wanted to work with Joo-Eun�� Andy said with a slight pout on his face. He wanted to ease up the atmosphere between Minwoo and I, but it wasn�t working.
�I don�t want to work with her. If you want to so much, tell Mrs. Lee. I don�t want to be anywhere near her.�
�It�s not that bad Minwoo, Andy�s right. You guys are perfect to work with each other, she�ll help you push your mark up higher in preparation for the exams,� Hyesung said, worried that Minwoo was going to punch me.
�Go talk to Mrs. Lee. I don�t want to work with you. I don�t care what anyone else says. If you don�t want to be hurt, talk to her,� Minwoo said to me in a threatening voice that scared me beyond belief.
�I� I� I will, after school today,� I said hesitantly.
�No, not after school, on your lunch. Understand?!�
�Stop scaring her Minwoo,� Hyesung said lightly when he noticed the tears in my eyes that were forming in fear. Minwoo stood up and left the group as he headed over to talk to someone else. When he was gone, Andy and Hyesung came over to me and gave me a light hug asking if I was okay. I simply nodded and thanked them for their care. I had never had a problem with Minwoo before. Even though he hated me, we never had to interact with each other directly, and I was always relieved. But it happened now, in the last month of school. I was scared.
* * * * *
I paced around the entrance to the science office, thinking in my head what to say to Mrs. Lee. I was scared out of my mind. Of my entire year here, Minwoo had always hated me, but he showed his hate in terms of ignoring me. Today, Mrs. Lee had changed all that with one assignment. Not only would he not be able to ignore me, but he and I were placed into a research project that would take a long time to complete. But how could I explain this to my teacher? Even I didn�t know why Minwoo hated me so much.
�Joo-Eun, what�s wrong? You�ve been pacing around here for at least 10 minutes. Something I can help you with?� Mrs. Lee asked me, looking concerned at my blank expression.
�It�s about the assignment. Can I please be rearranged into another group? I can�t work with Minwoo� we don�t get along very well.�
�I�ve noticed that, and because of that, I placed you into a group with him. Furthermore, you two fit each other perfectly. Think about it, you can�t get anywhere on your own and with Minwoo�s car, you can easily gather the information that you need. I think you should take this chance to build your friendship with Minwoo as well as grasp the opportunity to make a good final project.�
�But� but it won�t work out,� I said, hiding my scared eyes from Mrs. Lee.
�I believe in you Joo-Eun. The true reason why I put you two together is because Minwoo isn�t doing that great in this class, and he needs someone that can guide him and help him get a good mark in this class or else he won�t pass� please help him Joo-Eun. I know he�ll help you too.�
In my mind, all I had to say was �yeah right�, but what could I do?! Mrs. Lee had obviously given me no choice whatsoever. I nodded and walked away slowly with my head down. Now what was I going to do? Minwoo�s going to kill me� I just knew it.
Chapter 5:
Yumi was patiently waiting for me outside with Junjin by her side. I had asked them to come with me while I talk to Mrs. Lee, being the scared person that I am. They were just talking to themselves when I came walking out with my head down.
�Well!? How�d it go??� Yumi asked, expecting that I would be giving her a good answer. When I didn�t look up, Junjin nudged Yumi and told her to look carefully at me. �Oh� well, that�s okay, I�m sure Minwoo and you will make a great project! I�ve known him for a while now, he�s a hard worker!� Yumi replied trying to make me feel better, but it wasn�t working.
�Yeah, don�t worry bout it Joo-Eun, it won�t be that bad. Minwoo isn�t a bad guy. Smile, don�t worry about it,� Junjin told me with a smile.
�The problem is� it�s not me that doesn�t want to be in this group. Minwoo�s going to kill me this time,� I said with fear in my voice.
�He�s just tough on the outside� inside he�s a nice guy. Here, we�ll go with you to tell him, okay?� Yumi grabbed my arm while holding onto Junjin on the other side and ran towards the doors leading to the park where the rest of the guys were eating lunch. My heart was beating a mile a minute, I didn�t know what to tell him, or rather, I didn�t know how to tell him.
* * * * *
Minwoo was sitting there impatient. He was expecting Joo-Eun to come out and tell him what Mrs. Lee said, therefore tuning out of the conversations that the group was having. Everyone looked over at Minwoo, and only Andy and Hyesung knew why he was so out of it. Both of them shooked their head, and so the group started to talk about something else.
�Hey, remember that basketball tournament? It�s starting 2 months from now,� Dongwan reminded the group.
�Oh yeah� I forgot all about it. I still don�t know why we�re invited�� said Eric.
�I don�t know either� but do you guys actually plan on going? Those guys play rough: no rules, no restrictions, and lots of fights,� Hyesung said remembering their last competition there.
�Honestly, I don�t want to go� but if we ever find out who put us into this whole thing to begin with, then my opinion might change, hah�� Andy added into the conversation. They weren�t really a gang, but they had a reputation amongst the city, being some of the richest kids in the area. Many hated them, and they�ve been in many fights before. This basketball competition was like a way for rival gangs to prove themselves to each other.
�What are you guys talking about?� Yumi asked skipping towards the group. Behind her, Junjin and I slowly walked towards the group. When Minwoo saw me coming, he immediately got up after not saying a word the entire time and grabbed me by the shoulders. Everyone�s eyes almost fell out, surprised at his actions. Yumi, Junjin, Hyesung, and Andy were fearful for my life.
�What�d she say?!� Minwoo asked me with harshness in his voice. I winced in pain when I felt his hard grip on my shoulders as his fingers sank into my flesh.
�Minwoo, let go of her! You�re hurting her!� Yumi yelled at him, but he didn�t loosen his grip at all.
�Oww� please let go Minwoo,� I pleaded in a soft voice.
�TELL ME!�
�She won�t let us change groups! I asked and begged, but she says we�re stuck alright?!� I said, finally screaming back at him.
�You are so useless!! I bet you didn�t even want to change groups! You think you�re so good, well I don�t want to see you! You better get Mrs. Lee to change her mind!� Minwoo screamed at me again, as he let go in frustration. His eyes were burning with fire.
�Too good for you?! Hardly! You want to know why you�re stuck with me?! Think about your mark in that class! Mrs. Lee has us together because you�ll fail without me!�
�Minwoo, you�re failing biology?!� Andy and Hyesung said together, surprised at that news.
�I�m doing fine! My marks are low, but they�re not anything that I can�t pull back up after the exam! I don�t need her help to do so!�
�Yeahhhh right. You�ve missed over 1000000 assignments, failed all your tests, and you skipped half the classes. When are you going to be responsible for your own mistakes and stop blaming other people?!� I yelled in his face before turning around in anger and walking away. Everyone was stunned, including Minwoo. Every time he had yelled at me over the year, I always just took it in and shut up. But today, I didn�t� and it was because it was his fault that we were working together. Not mine.
�Minwoo, get a grip! She did nothing wrong to you, EVER,� Yumi said as she ran after me. Everyone�s jaw�s were on the ground as they watched the scene unravel right in front of them. As Yumi and I disappeared into the school, suddenly, all eyes turned towards Minwoo who was still breathing fire. However, at the same time, there was also sadness in his eyes. Something Joo-Eun had said had struck a nerve.
�What?! I hate her to hell and back!� Minwoo said as he gritted his teeth, grabbed his bag and walked off to the opposite direction. Everyone was speechless and that was when all eyes were turned to Hyesung.
�Argh, I didn�t want to tell you guys but� when you look at Joo-Eun, who does she look like?� Hyesung asked.
������������� Silence.
�She looks like MinHee�� Dongwan finally said, realizing why Minwoo had hated Joo-Eun this whole time.
�When he looks at her, that�s all he sees. I guess that�s why he always wanted Joo-Eun as far away from him as possible�� Hyesung explained. Everyone seemed to understand and decided to change the topic. It wasn�t brought up again for a long time to come.
Chapter 6:
�Alright everyone, you now have this class and next class to work on your project. Use your time wisely and remember that this is worth 10% of your final grade!� Mrs. Lee shouted at us before leaving us to work. When she walked by Minwoo and I, I raised my hand to ask the same question, only to be turned down by a firm �NO� even before my question was asked. For the last few days, I had been continuously asking her the same question, to the point where even she was tired of hearing from me. We were down to the last 3 weeks before the project was due, yet Minwoo and I were still completely unaccomplished. We never even said one word to each other. Hyesung and Andy were way ahead, and had already gathered their research from a real pond surrounding. How I wished I were working with them�
�Hey you two, you should probably get started. This stupid project is sooooOOooo long!� Andy whined to us when he noticed that we had absolutely nothing done.
�Yeah, you have to gather live research from a real surrounding, gather book research so that what you find is backed up by evidence, write a detailed long report about the lifestyles of biology and how everything interacts with each other, AAANNNND declare all the reasons and theories as to how they apply to everything you�ve found AND FURTHERMORE, create a synthetic ecosystem of your own and justify why everything works with each other. Oh, and I�m not done yet� give a visual representation of your entire research analysis on a computer website to teach others about your theories,� Hyesung told us with a blue face from barely being able to breathe at the long list of things he described.
I gulped. All this time I was worrying about how to work with Minwoo, I never even looked at the package or the assignment at all. Now that I�ve wasted a whole week, what am I going to do?! I grabbed my package out of my bag and looked through everything. Oh�. My� God. I�m messed.
�Hehehe, Joo-Eun, you have a really cute look of panic on your face,� Andy said teasing me.
�Waaaaiiiiiii�.. I�m deaaaaadddd,� I whined back.
�Haha, it�s okay, don�t worry. We�ll help you,� Hyesung said, once again being the caring one.
�Meet me after school by your locker. We�ll go to the pond around here,� Minwoo all of a sudden said in a monotone voice before getting up to talk to some other girls. I just sat there stunned. That was the first time he ever said something to me that wasn�t meant to yell or insult me. Andy and Hyesung both didn�t say a word, but they saw the shock on my face. I had never expected him to actually work with me, and that we would just split it up and do it separately� but now. Was he volunteering to spend time with me?
* * * * *
�Yay! School�s finally over for this week! I had 2 tests today, and I�m exhausted! I need a break! Thank god Junjin is taking me out tonight to dinner. He makes me feel so much better and takes away all the stress,� Yumi said before letting out a sigh of love. But when I didn�t reply and just kept walking, she pouted and said, �Hey, were you listening to me at all?!�
I wasn�t. I didn�t pay attention to anything else that entire day, I was still suffering from the shock that Minwoo had told me to meet him after school to do the project. Now that I was away from everyone including Yumi and Hyesung, who was going to protect me?! What if he murders me right at the pond and throws my body into the water?? Will anyone ever find out that I died?!
�OOF!� cried out a voice above me.
�What the�?! AHHHHH!� I screamed when I noticed that I had walked right into someone that was running down the halls and he had toppled right over me. �Get off!!� I screamed once again.
�What the hell is your problem girl?! Don�t you use those eyes of yours when you�re walking down the halls?! Now you made me drop all of my work and they�re all messed up in order. It will take eternity to put them all back!� the guy screamed at me as he got off me and started to rearrange all the paper in front of him.
�I�m sorry. I didn�t see you, I was too busy thinking� let me help you,� I said in an apologetic tone.
�Don�t touch my stuff. You must think you�re so good just because you hang out with Minwoo and his friends. Well I don�t care how popular or pretty or cool you think you are, you�re just a stupid girl to me. Open your eyes when you walk. No one�s going to move for you,� the person said gritting his teeth as he picked things up. I was so stunned at what he had said to me that I just backed off. All of a sudden, I saw Minwoo approach me, and then stand right in front of me. What was he doing?!
�Apologize to her now,� Minwoo said in his harsh voice. Chills went down my spine. Why was he defending me?
�Why?! She was the one that ran into me. You all think you�re soooooooOOoo goo-,� he was cut off by Minwoo, who had grabbed the collar of his shirt. A lot of people had surrounded us by now, and I was scared. It was my fault that this entire thing started.
�Apologize!�
�NO!� he screamed and Minwoo pushed him into the lockers, making the pain sting from his head all the way down to his toes. He winced in pain and then looked into Minwoo�s fiery eyes.
�She did it by accident, apologized, and then you decide to be a stupid idiot and not only not accept her apology, but make a scene in front of all these people. What, are you a whiny little baby who would rather see a girl on her knees begging for your forgiveness?! Grow up,� Minwoo said with extreme anger while he tightened his grip on his collar. The guy�s feet were still off the ground, hanging in thin air.
�Minwoo, let him go, it�s okay. It was my fault to begin with,� I said, slightly scared at the scene in front of me. This really was all my fault.
�Shut up Joo-Eun. I�m not letting him go before he apologizes to you.�
�Alright! I�m sorry Joo-Eun!� the guy shouted before Minwoo just let go of him and he fell to the floor with a loud *THUD*. Minwoo turned around, grabbed my hand and told Yumi to go. She followed Minwoo as he dragged me away from the scene. As I left, I heard what scared me for days to come�
�Joo-Eun, you can�t hide behind Minwoo forever, I swear by my name, SungWook� I�ll get you back for this humiliation you�ve done to me��
Chapter 7:
�Wow�� Andy, Hyesung, Junjin, Eric, and Dongwan said together as they witnessed what had happened right in front of their eyes. When Minwoo, Joo-Eun, and Yumi pushed through the crowd, the guys joined them and walked away from the audience. �Minwoo? Of all people defended Joo-Eun? What was going on?� Hyesung thought to himself.
�Minwoo! What was all that about?� Andy asked him in excitement once they were all outside and were in the park alone.
�He was being excessively rude and giving Joo-Eun a hard time,� Minwoo replied quietly. Yumi and I had sat in a corner, not knowing what to say about the entire situation.
�Since when do you defend Joo-Eun?!� Eric asked. He had never known me well, but he knew of the tensions that were between us.
�Well, you would have too, even if you didn�t know her�� Minwoo replied, starting to get annoyed at all the attention and questions that were thrown his way. Before someone else had started to ask another question, I decided to say my first word since the entire incident.
�� Thank you.�
�� I didn�t save you, I just need to do well on this project so you best be in good healthy condition,� Minwoo said, throwing me slightly cold eyes. I just looked down and tried to hide my emotions. I was scared of what SungWook had said to me, stunned that Minwoo had helped me, confused as to why he cared, and stressed out to witness all that.
�I�m glad you helped her, but I�m worried that SungWook isn�t going to leave Joo-Eun alone from now on�� Hyesung finally said, causing everyone to look at him with confused eyes. �We�ve crossed paths with him and the Dragons before. They�re a nasty gang, and their reputation always comes first. Today, Minwoo you took away his rep in front of all those people�� Hyesung trailed off as he lifted his eyes from the ground and looked at everyone with concern.
�It�s alright. SungWook can�t do much to Joo-Eun in school, and we�re always around her. We�ll just keep an eye on her. She doesn�t go out much, it�s okay� we can handle them,� Junjin said with confidence.
�Yeah� he�s always been scared of us, we�ll be fine,� Dongwan added to the conversation.
�I�m sorry for causing you all so much trouble� I�ll be fine. Thank you,� I said looking up from the ground when my safety became a concern for all of them.
�Awww, don�t worry, you�re not causing us trouble,� Andy said as he came over and put his arms around me. He was always the little kid in the group, but he treated me like I was even more of a kid than he was. I had to smile at his friendly gesture.
�Yeah, as long as you don�t go out, it should be okay. Minwoo will be with you when you�re doing the project with him anyways, and SungWook is a big wimp, no worries about that there,� Hyesung said looking up at Minwoo to see if he was willing to help me again. He looked away, but made no protest, and Hyesung knew that Minwoo would protect me to his best ability.
�Alright, now that that�s settled, it�s Friday. What�s the plans?� Andy said changing the topic. What a goofy kid.
�I�m going out with Yumi tonight. Our reservation at the restaurant is finally here!� Junjin said as he came over to Yumi and held her hand.
�Alright� the rest of us are going to play some basketball, correct?� Andy asked as most people nodded at him.
�What are you doing, Joo-Eun?� Hyesung asked me, as if he was going to tell me to go with the rest of the guys. I looked up to see if Minwoo and I were still going to go to the park, and he nodded at me as if he knew what I was thinking. �I�m going with Minwoo to do some of the research for our project�� I said lightly. Everyone gasped with surprised that Minwoo and I would actually be going somewhere alone together. First he saved me, and now we were going to a park alone� no wonder they were snickering under their breath. I looked back down at the ground and blushed.
�Uhhh� Minwoo, you won�t kill her even before SungWook shows up, right?� Eric asked laughing. Everyone else laughed with him, and Minwoo gave them a death glare before they started to quiet down again.
�Hahhaa, alright, well that�s it then�. We�re separating for now! See you all later!� Junjin yelled to everyone before running off with Yumi. Everyone left slowly after saying goodbye, leaving Minwoo and I sitting there, far away from each other. Oh boy, this was going to be a lonnnng night.
* * * * *
We arrived at the park at about 5pm, while there was still a bright sun shining down on us. The entire car ride here, Minwoo had not said a word to me. Sitting in his black BMW reminded me of my dad back home. I had sent a letter to my parents, but still received no response. Maybe the address was written wrong? Maybe they were too busy� yeah, that must have been it.
�Joo-Eun, get out of the car. We have a couple of hours to do some research� I don�t want to come back here again,� Minwoo said to me harshly. I immediately followed his instructions and got out of the car. For some reason, I thought that Minwoo was being a lot nicer to me, and was trying his best to not to fight with me. I smiled inside knowing that he wasn�t that bad a person.
�Did you bring a camera?� I asked when I looked into the pond and spotted some tadpole swimming around. Minwoo handed me an expensive digital camera, so I shot pictures of the pond everywhere from every angle. I made sure I captured every single living form there. �It�s amazing� just taking pictures, I can picture how the entire ecosystem works here,� I said with a smile and a slight bit of happiness in my voice. There was perfect lighting and perfect atmosphere. These pictures were going to come out amazing and look great on our website.
�Haha, you actually find all this interesting?! You�re such a nerd,� Minwoo said to me with a teasing voice. Ah well, even though it was still insulting, at least it wasn�t in his cold voice.
�Well then, this nerd is going to get you a gooooood mar- AHHH!� I screamed.
�What is it?! Are you okay?!� Minwoo ran over to me with a completely worried tone. When he got there, he let out a sigh of relief and sat down beside me. �You scared me!�
�Eh?! Sorry! Look! This frog is sooooo cute! Hahaha, it�s saying hi to you!� I laughed as I picked the frog up and brought it close up to Minwoo�s face. With all the slime all over the frog, Minwoo backed FAR away from me. I laughed and pointed at him before letting the frog go again.
�Joo-Eun, that was NOT funny. I thought you saw SungWook or something. God, you�re such a kid. Why do you have to make me worry about you all the time?!� Minwoo shouted at me. Damn it. This had been the first day that we had no argued, why was he starting this now?
�Me� make you worry?! HOW?! I don�t even need you to worry about me!� I screamed back at him. Minwoo looked at me with his fiery eyes again. I can�t believe that I actually thought we could be normal friends.
�Everything you do makes me worry! You don�t care who you befriend at all. You�re just a na�ve little girl, not knowing a single thing about this world!� Minwoo angrily yelled at me.
�Since when did you care?! You�ve always hated me. Don�t pretend you care for one minute about my safety,� I replied him coldly looking into his eyes with icy glares. Minwoo seemed to have exploded, and he sat there for about 2 minutes not saying a word. Somehow, it seemed like I struck a nerve, and his fiery eyes were replaced with pain. Then he nodded at me in anger, got up and went into his car.
Just before he closed his door, Minwoo screamed, �Fine. You know what, if you don�t want my care, I�m not offering it. I don�t care who gets you. I don�t care how you get home. I don�t care about you, PERIOD.� He then slammed his car door shut and drove off.
And I just sat there, watching his car disappear. Then my tears came. Why?! Why were they falling? Because he hurt me. Of all the things he said to me this past year, this was the one time he hurt me. Why? Because I wanted his care�
I truly did.
Chapter 8:
I sat there for about 10 more minutes, and then I decided that I should probably leave. It was stupid to sit there and cry to myself. I took a look around, and I realized that I was far from home, nowhere within walking distance. Wiping the tears off my face, I thought of what I could do now, and one person immediately came to mind: Hyesung. I picked up my cell phone, and dialed his number. After 3 dial tones, he picked up.
�Hello, Hyesung here.�
�Hyesung? It�s Joo-Eun. You sound out of breathe,� I said with a slightly sad voice. I slapped myself for not realizing that my voice would be different after crying for 10 whole minutes.
�Yeah, it�s cause I�m playing basketball� but Joo-Eun, you sound like you�ve been crying� what happened?! Are you hurt?!� Hyesung asked in a very worried voice.
�No, nothing like that� could you come pick me up? I�m at Haneul park��
�Sure, that�s really close to where I am, I�ll be there in 5 minutes. What happened to Minwoo though? Shouldn�t he be there with you working on the project?�
�������.�
�Okay okay, explain to me later. I�ll be right there. Stay on guard and make sure no one�s watching you or whatever� I�m still worried about SungWook, okay?�
�Okay. Thanks a lot Hyesung,�
�No problem� bye!� Hyesung said as he hung up. I sat still looking up at the sky. It was starting to get dark, and the moon was slowly becoming visible. It had been a full moon� so beautiful. I sighed as my tears slowly started to flow again. It wasn�t just Minwoo, but thoughts of my old life came rushing back to me� I left America on a night just like this with a full moon�
* * * * * flashback to last summer, August 6th, in America
�Happy birthday to you Joo-Eun!� my mother shouted at me with a smile on her face.
�Thank you mommy. I�m so happy that you remembered. This is the best birthday I�ve ever had. Even daddy is here with me,� I said happily, smiling at my family sitting in front of me as I blew out the candles on the cake.
�Of course we remember your birthday dear� this is the year you turn 18! Guess what we got you for your birthday?� My dad said to me before handing me an envelope. I took it happily and opened it with a smile on my face�
A smile that just started to fade with each inch of the envelope I removed from the �present�.
�Why� why are you giving me plane tickets for my birthday to Korea?!� I asked as tears filled my eyes. I turned my head over to my parents, they were still smiling, but with a slight hint of evil in their eyes.
�We waited 18 years to get rid of you. By law now, you are an adult fully capable of living on your own. There�s a ONE WAY plane ticket for you to Korea. You will be living with your grandmother. From the day you were born, you haunted our family. We started to lose more and more money in the stock market, our business plans failed. You were not wanted. And you still aren�t,� my dad said to me harshly, slight bit of anger present in his voice.
�Your bags have been packed. You will be leaving on the late night plane tonight. Don�t die over there, don�t cause trouble,� my mother said as they both got up from the table and left me there, staring at the cake that had not yet been cut.
It was an image too perfect. I had never deserved a cake from my parents. All my other birthdays, they had never been home. Their care for me was too perfect on this one day� even for those 2 minutes, their smile was as fake as my life had been.
* * * * *
� I cried and I cried. With no one with me, I let the tears out. They stung me, and I felt like an idiot, but I didn�t care. Just then, someone puts their arms around me and pulls me into a deep hug. I looked up to see who it was, and saw the worry in the eyes of none other than Hyesung. I really had to be thankful for a friend like Hyesung� he was always there for me whenever I needed him, always one call away. I hugged him back and cried all my tears out onto his shoulder while he just brushed the back of my head lightly.
�What�s wrong Joo-Eun?� Hyesung asked me lightly, as he pulled away from me and looked into my eyes.
�I just� I just remembered something about my family,� I told Hyesung. He nodded his head lightly, and then told me that he was always here for me.
All of a sudden, I felt the urge to just tell everything about my family to him. So I spilled it out. From when I was 1 to 18, I told him my entire life, and how I tried to be everything a perfect daughter was. I told him how it was never enough, and how I lied to myself that they were just too busy. I told him every painful moment, as well as every lie that I lived throughout those years.
�Joo-Eun, no matter how painful those memories are, erase them. We�ll help you make bright new memories here. You have a family with us, don�t forget that, okay?� Hyesung said with a smile before giving me another light hug. He then helped me stand up as my legs were numb from sitting there for about half an hour now. Just then, I saw a shadow behind the tree where Hyesung and I were sitting close to.
�Whose there?� I asked, slightly scared. Both Hyesung and I looked at the shadow that seemed like it was fighting with itself as to whether they should show their face.
�� Minwoo, I know it�s you,� Hyesung said as he recognized the shadow of his best friend. Minwoo? He was here with me the whole time?! He heard my entire conversation?!
�I was just staying here to make sure you were okay. Well, Hyesung�s with you now� I�m going,� Minwoo said turning around and walking away. Both Hyesung and I screamed his name, but he just kept walking away. Hyesung shook his head and then led me to his car, where he opened the door for me and I sat inside.
�The guys are still waiting for us over at the court. It�s about 7:00pm now. Do you wanna come with me and the guys to play for a while longer and then eat dinner, or would you rather me drive you home?� Hyesung asked me, always considerate of what others felt.
�What�s easier for you?� I asked lightly.
�Both are fine. But I don�t want to leave you alone tonight. I�d rather you come with us,� Hyesung said smiling.
�Okay, I�ll come then,� I said returning his smile. I picked up my cell phone and called home to tell my grandma that I wasn�t coming home for dinner. She was a bit worried at first, but was alright with it after I promised that I would be careful and to go home before 11. At that point, Hyesung started his car and began driving to the court where they were playing at.
Along the way, Hyesung had handed me a tissue so that I could wipe the tearstains off my face. I flipped the car mirror open from above my head and stared at my reflection. From the girl that stepped into the new school not knowing a single person to now, I had changed a lot. My hair had grown a lot longer, and it was now just above my chest. Yumi had taught me how to use makeup without exaggerating my features, so I now put on a slight amount, making sure that I still looked natural. Compared to the scared girl that walked into school, I definitely looked a lot better now, even with my red puffy eyes, but I still wasn�t what anyone would call a pretty girl. That didn�t matter to me though, I liked what I saw in the mirror now at least. Have to admit that since I came, not only did my physical appearance change, but inside, I had grown up a lot as well. I wiped my face clean, then I flipped the mirror back and sat back into my chair, tired enough to fall asleep right there, but I could feel Hyesung�s eyes on me� meaning he wanted to ask me something.
�Haha, Hyesung, just ask me, don�t have to hesitate,� I said slightly laughing at him. He had a habit of always checking on the person to see if they were in any emotional status to answer his questions. They were always hard to answer; therefore I guess he picked up on the habit of looking at people when he wanted to ask people something.
He chuckled at my statement, then said, �Dammit, you know me too well Joo-Eun. I wanted to ask you� why were you alone there? Why wasn�t Minwoo with you? I mean, he obviously was, but he wasn�t really� argh, I can�t describe it.�
�Haha� well, knowing us, we had another fight. When I think back, I guess it was kind of my fault. But I don�t understand Hyesung� I don�t understand him at all. He confuses me in every way possible, to the point where I don�t know what to say to him. Everything I say seems to set him off. Nothing I do is ever right�� I sighed.
�Joo-Eun, know that this is not your fault, nor is it Minwoo�s. I would explain to you, but it really isn�t my business or my place to tell you at all. You�re a brave girl, you�ve been pretty upfront with him before� Next time you see him, ask him why he does this to you. He�ll tell you, I know it.�
Chapter 9:
The rest of the car ride over to the basketball court, I didn�t say a word, it was just silence. There was a reason so personal that even Hyesung couldn�t tell me? I always thought he hated me just because it was me... just because I wasn�t cool enough or pretty enough for his friends. But now�? I just stared out the window the entire time, having a fight with myself in my head. Hyesung tried to leave me alone, but it was a short car ride, so we got there pretty fast.
�Joo-Eun, we�re here now. Are you sure you don�t want me to drive you home first?�
�No, I�m fine. I wanna see the guys anyways,� I said with a smile, erasing Minwoo from my thoughts completely. Hyesung nodded happily and got out of the car, as did I. We walked onto the court, and they all immediately ran over to me.
�Joo-Eun! We�re so glad to see you!� Andy said like a little kid who saw his mother.
�Hahaha, we were worried bout you� being alone over there,� Eric said. I laughed at all of them and asked who was winning. They were playing 2 on 2� Andy and Hyesung versus Dongwan and Eric. Apparently, Dongwan�s team was winning 10-2� ouch, that�s quite a lead. I rubbed my hands together, and painted a very competitive smile on my face.
�Uh� what�s wrong Joo-Eun?! You look very creepy�� Andy said hiding behind Hyesung. I laughed out loud, and that�s when they ALL hid behind Hyesung, who was also slowly backing away from me as well.
�Hahaha, sorry sorry. I�m just itching to play some basketball� mind if I join Andy and Hyesung?!� I asked laughing away my creepiness.
�But but, we�re already losing�� Andy whined coming out from hiding behind Hyesung.
�Hey! I don�t suck! I�ll help you win!� I screamed before EVERYONE laughed out at me. At that point, I pouted and told them to hand over the ball. I was far away from the net at that point, near the stands, took one aim, and threw the ball.
�Swoooooosh,� the ball went RIGHT through. Everyone�s jaws dropped. I winked at all of them and showed them a cocky smile. Their eyes went from the ball, to me, and back to the ball.
�SHE�S ON OUR TEAM!� Andy yelled out loud and everyone started to run to the court to play. One thing they never knew about me: I was the star basketball player on my school team back in America. I laughed at how fast Andy changed his opinion as I slowly walked towards the court. They always made me smile again, even on the toughest nights.
And so we played. From slam dunks to lay-ups, to embarrassing air balls and fouls from tickling each other, we played till 8:00pm before we were all exhausted and just lied down on the court surface. Huffing and puffing, we were all still laughing at each other. Damn, we were so close to catching up, a final score of 8-11. Dongwan was good and I had to admit it. Of course, playing with them was hardly about winning. All those laughs that I had that night, I would never forget it.
*clap clap clap*
The hollow sounds of the single man clapping still haunts me now, and I remember turning around and looking right into my nightmare. When I saw SungWook and 4 other guys just like him, I started to tremble. We all got up and as if by instinct, Hyesung, Andy, Eric, and Dongwan came and stood right in front of me, protecting me. I had never been in a situation like this before, it looked like a scene right out of a gang movie, when 2 gangs were right about to face off. Why was I in the middle of all this?! In my mind, I remembered what Hyesung had said earlier. This must have been the Dragons, and the guy clapping most likely was the leader. SungWook stood there with a cocky smile on his face, glaring at me with eyes that wanted to kill.
�What do you want?� Hyesung asked with coldness in his voice.
�Calm down. We just came here to watch a good game of basketball. Miss Joo-Eun there isn�t bad� will she be coming to the basketball tournament?� the leader asked with intent.
�Jae-sung, whatever the problem you have with us, leave Joo-Eun out of it,� Andy said in the toughest voice I had ever heard him speak in.
�Sshh Andy, I just asked if she was going to play, heck she plays a lot better than you,� Jae-sung, the leader said with evil eyes glaring at Andy. �Oh, and if you want to talk about problems, I have a huge problem with �Joo-Eun�, so I suggest all 4 of you back away. Is she really worth your lives?� Jae-sung said with a certain bit of evil and threat in his voice that scared me more than Minwoo had ever. The four guys that Jae-sung had brought with him including SungWook, all of a sudden seemed to walk forward and gave death glares to all of us. I flinched when I saw the anger and the possibility of evil in their eyes.
Dongwan seemed to have spotted my fear, and he whispered to me, �Don�t worry Joo-Eun, we�re here for you. All you have to do is stay on guard okay?� Dongwan was not one of my closer friends, but even he was willing to protect me, it made me want to kill SungWook for bringing the Dragons here. I took all the bravery I had in me, and I pushed through between Hyesung and Andy to stand in the front.
�What did I do to you? My life isn�t worth anything, so I doubt you would want to take it� what do you want from me?� I asked, slightly quivering, yet slightly strong. I couldn�t believe those words came out of my mouth, and it was then that I felt Hyesung�s hand on my left arm and Andy�s on my right. They tugged at me lightly in attempt to tell me to back off. I guess it was indeed dangerous. When Jae-sung walked towards me, Hyesung and Andy immediately walked right in front of me again. This caused Jae-sung to let a chuckle out, as he lit a cigarette and started to smoke it.
�What does this girl give you guys to have all of you defend her like this? Even Minwoo looks after her according to SungWook. Where is he now huh? But you know what? I like your guts Joo-Eun. You have the bravery to say that to me, just be careful what the consequences are. You not only caused SungWook to be embarrassed, but you also damaged the reputation of the Dragons, and for that, I am not going to let you go easy. But you know what? For now, I am very interested in seeing you play at the tournament. You better be there, or else you�ll be dead by the next day,� Jae-sung said, glaring his eyes at me and threatening me with his low voice.
�Why would you want to see me there?� I asked, confused at why I was even wanted to show up there.
�Just be there. Let�s go,� Jae-sung said to his followers and turned around to leave. SungWook looked stunned and disappointed.
�That�s it?! Why would you-,�
�SHUT UP. We�ve disturbed their game long enough, it�s time to leave,� Jae-Sung said to SungWook with an administrative voice that seemed to echo throughout the entire basketball court.
SungWook not only looked disappointed, but he was furious. He started darts at me and mouthed the words �I�ll get you, don�t you worry�, before turning around and leaving with the rest of the Dragons. Once they left the scene, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but I was in deep pain. My frequent stomachaches attacked me ever since SungWook showed up, and now that they were gone, I didn�t have to hold it in anymore. I fell to my knees, straining my entire body to fight the pain in me� I wanted to scream, but instead I bit my lip until it drew blood. I heard all of the guys ask me frantic questions, yet I couldn�t make out what any of them were saying. I felt Andy arms around me just before�
I blacked out.
* * * * *
�Why would you let them go so easily?! We could have taken her right then and there!� SungWook shouted at Jae-Sung when they had left the scene. Jae-Sung ignored SungWook�s childish comments and continued to smoke his cigarette. However, SungWook didn�t stop and he continued ranting and raving but Jae-Sung had had enough of him.
*SMACK*, and SungWook had fallen to the floor with Jae-Sung towering over him after he had thrown a punch right into his face. SungWook looked up with confused yet fiery eyes as he wiped away the blood that had resulted from his lip being cut.
�Don�t be such a child. I�ve had enough of your whining. Think about it. There is no better way to get Minwoo and the other guys over to that competition besides threatening to kill Joo-Eun if she didn�t show up there. If she has to come, then they�ll be there to protect her for whatever reason. When will you learn to open your eyes and focus on the BIG plan?!� Jae-Sung shouted at SungWook angrily.
The fire in SungWook�s eyes was quickly replaced with shame. He had once again failed to put the important things first and let his emotions get in the way. He got up, bowed before Jae-Sung and apologized. Jae-Sung laughed at his pathetic form as he blew the smoke from his cigarette into the face of SungWook. He then glared at SungWook and warned him that this best be his last outburst, before signaling for the rest of the Dragons to leave. SungWook stood there for a minute or so feeling embarrassed before following the rest of the Dragons and left.
Chapter 10:
�Shoot, what happened to her?! Why did she just faint!?� Eric yelled as they all rushed me to Hyesung�s car. I was starting to recover my senses at that time, but no matter how hard I tried to open my eyes or to talk with my mouth, no part of my body would respond to my instructions. I realized that I was still in Andy�s arms, but that was about all that I understood about the situation.
What was happening? Did I faint? All I knew was that I heard the sense of panic in all of their voices, but I had no power whatsoever to tell them not to worry about me.
�Arghs, where�s the doctor-to-be when we need him?! I have absolutely no idea what to do!� Eric screamed as he ran over to Andy and checked my temperature with his hand. When he found that all was normal, he gave up and left my side. I heard someone open the door to a car and felt that I was being carried in. I heard all of them get into the car and someone started the car and sped off immediately.
�How is she? Is she okay?� I finally heard Hyesung�s voice. For some reason when I hear him, I always seem to calm down� maybe it was just his friendly nature; it always made me feel better.
�She�s fine� it�s almost like she�s just sleeping,� Andy said as he brushed my hair away from my face. I was regaining more and more control over my own body with every second that went by. I had never found it that hard to open my eyes before, but with every single muscle and strength in me, I pushed and pushed until my eyelids seemed to give way and my eyes fluttered open.
�Mmm�� I grunted from the pain that swarmed all over my body. I felt the weight of all their eyes on me, but it seemed to lighten as they grew to be less worried about me.
�Oh my� thank goodness you�re up. What happened to you Joo-Eun?!� Andy asked as he checked my facial expression to make sure that I was okay. Hyesung�s driving slowed down dramatically until he stopped by the curb to turn around and look at me. I was still lying on my back, with my head on Andy�s lap. Eric was sitting on the far right in the back with the two of us, while Dongwan was in the front with Hyesung driving. They were all looking at me, so I decided to try to sit up, but as I leaned upwards, my head felt heavier, and I fell right back down onto Andy.
�Don�t try to get up Joo-Eun, you just fainted and woke up� I think your body is still suffering from the shock,� Dongwan said lightly to me. He took a lot of swimming courses since he was a great athlete, so he must have learned some life saving routines. I nodded lightly and agreed to stay down.
�Joo-Eun, does this have anything to do with your constant stomachaches?� Hyesung asked me, worried that there was something that I had not told him� and indeed I didn�t.
�Yes� but it�s nothing serious. I�ve seen the doctors before; they tell me it�s nothing. I just have to take some painkillers every time I have them. It�s been getting pretty rare lately, I haven�t had them in a while,� I explained to all of them in a quiet voice, still traumatized that I had fainted. There was part truth in what I explained to them, I just left out some of the facts. They were all so caring of me that I could literally see the worry in all their eyes. Even Dongwan and Eric seemed to be concerned, and honestly, I barely knew them. It was moments like this why I wondered why I still had these pains.
�But you�,� Eric started before deciding that he should just go with what I told them. I could still feel the worry in the atmosphere, and I had to smile at how much they cared. �I�m fine, I�ve never fainted from something like this before� maybe I was just too scared by the Dragons and the fact that I still haven�t had dinner,� I said jokingly, yet wanting them to get off the topic. Bringing up dinner was probably the best idea I had all night.
�Ahhh� she�s right, it�s almost 9:00, and we still haven�t had dinner, that can�t be good for someone that�s been through so much stuff in one day,� Hyesung said lightly. That�s when they all turned their eyes on him, and I almost wanted to glare at him, even though it was a completely innocent statement. �You know� SungWook incident after school, working with Minwoo at the park and whatever happened that caused him to run off, then�� he hesitated to bring up the fact that I had cried about my parents. Looking over at me and seeing the hurt in my eyes, he decided to just forget about that. �Then� then coming over with us, playing basketball, and then meeting the Dragons� damn, it�s been a long day for Joo-Eun�� Hyesung said lightly as he realized how much drama I had faced in one little day. Everyone seemed to notice that too.
�Maybe she�s just tired and hungry! Let�s go get some food!� Andy said happily, sensing that I no longer wanted to be on this topic.
�Yeah, I�d like some food right about now, but Andy, can you go into my jacket pocket and get my painkillers?� I asked him with a slight smile. I felt him reposition himself in the seat as he leaned onto the ground and picked up my jacket. He searched around all the pockets and couldn�t find the pills anywhere. Dammit. I must have dropped them in Minwoo�s car.
�Idiot, idiot, idiot,� I chanted underneath my breath. The car was silent, as everyone just listened to me chanting �idiot� quietly. I thought that no one was listening to me, but when I realized that no one was saying anything and were all trying to hold in their laughter, I turned bright red and quieted down. �I think I dropped them in Minwoo�s car,� I said softly after a while. They all laughed at me, and I couldn�t help but laugh with them. I was slowly regaining my energy, and that�s when Hyesung started to drive away again. �Where are we going?�
�Well, you have to be home by 11, and it�s only 9 now, so I�m going to take you to my house, where you can just relax a bit while I go out with the guys to get us all something to eat. How�s that?� Hyesung asked me lightly while glancing at all the other guys to make sure they were okay with it, and when no objections were made, we were on our way to his house.
* * * * *
�We�re he-,� Hyesung was cut off when he saw Andy putting a finger to his mouth.
�Ssshhhh,� Andy said lightly with a smile on his face. The rest of the guys were smiling lightly as well as they saw that I was sleeping soundly on Andy�s lap. Hyesung smiled too, as he unbuckled his seat belt, as did everyone else. Andy tried to reposition me and he soon picked me up with ease. Everyone got out of the car, and Hyesung walked up the steps to his house. When he opened the door, he was greeted by his maid, who quickly noticed that I was sleeping in Andy�s arm. Hyesung whispered a few small comments and the maid was off to get me some pillows and blankets. I had started to stir at that time, and Andy placed me down onto the couch where I shifted my position lightly. When I realized that I was in a LARGE house, I slightly woke up.
�Mm.. where are we?!�
�You�re at my house. Just keep sleeping, the maid is bringing you some pillows and a blanket. We�re gonna go out to get some food, be right back,� Hyesung said as he, Andy, Dongwan and Eric left through the main doors. As Andy walked out, I saw him massaging his own legs. I had to smile at his cuteness. Note to self: thank Andy for letting me borrow his legs for so long. When the maid arrived, I thanked her and quickly snuggled in for some rest. My stomach was still greatly hurting me and like Hyesung had said, it had been an extremely long day.
* * * * *
�Hehe, Joo-Eun is so cute sometimes,� Dongwan spoke lightly as soon as they were outside. Everyone else smiled at his comment, except for Andy who was still fumbling with his legs.
�Aww, guys, can we just sit down for a while? My legs are so numb,� Andy whined as he made a pouty face.
That was when Eric came over and pinched Andy on the cheeks. �But she�s not even slightly as cute as Andy here,� Eric teased him before calling him a baby. �Don�t worry child, you can rest your legs in the car while we go get the food, alright?� Andy stuck his tongue out at them before rushing to the car to sit down. That was when a black BMW came rushing in through the open gates and parked right beside Hyesung�s car. Out stepped a very worried Minwoo, with his hair completely wet. Hyesung had called him when he was still in the shower, and upon hearing that Joo-Eun had fainted, he ran out and got dressed, leaving his hair wet.
�How is she?!�
�She�s better now, woke up from fainting. I think you have her painkillers. When she gets up, you might want to give them to her to ease her pains,� Hyesung explained. He pulled Minwoo aside and started to briefly explain what had happened with the Dragons to Minwoo. A face full of guilt started to spread across his face. In his left hand, he was gripping the pills tightly, and if he pressed it any harder, the bottle would have burst. Hyesung handed him the key to the house before driving off with the guys to get some dinner. Minwoo just stood outside, not knowing what he should do. After hesitating for about 2 minutes, he immediately ran up the steps and opened the doors, only to see Joo-Eun sleeping soundly on the couch.
Chapter 11:
Minwoo walked over slowly to where I had been sleeping, and in his presence and his eyes on me, I woke up a little, but I never once moved. Why was he here?! I was always uneasy around him, and even in my sleep, I found myself becoming more aware with every movement he made. I soon felt him sitting on a couch facing mine, as he placed my painkillers on the glass table in front of me. I wanted to just give up pretending and get up to eat the painkillers, but a part of me told me to just stay put and not to move.
The surrounding was tense. It always was when it was just Minwoo and I. What was he doing just staring at me? Was I really pale from fainting?
�I�m sorry Joo-Eun. I wasn�t there for you when you needed me. You don�t understand how much I can�t stand to see you in danger. I don�t ever want to see you hurt, emotionally or physically. I always seem to fail you, and I always seem to be the one that�s giving you the emotional pain� but it�s just the fact that every time I see you, I still think of her. I still see Minhee� and when I fail you, I feel like I�m failing her. I wanted you as far away from me as possible, but then when you�re not here, I always worry about you� please be okay Joo-Eun,� Minwoo said to me in the lightest voice I had ever heard him speak in. It was haunting me. Every word he said stabbed at me. He worried about me? Minwoo, the idiot that I�ve known for a while now, the same person that always wanted me to leave his friends� cared about me? And who was Minhee? I was so confused, the pain in my stomach and the pain in my heart mixed together, and I had to shift my body away from him, so that he couldn�t see my face. I had a feeling that my face was giving me away.
Minwoo was stunned at my movements, and he had to ask, �Are you awake? Were you listening to me?� There was panic in his voice, but when I didn�t reply and seemed like I was just moving in my sleep, he seemed to calm down� but not for long.
�Oh my god� why, why is there� what?!� Minwoo asked startled and in a loud voice, so loud that I would have woken up even if I was really sleeping. He stuttered on his words as if he saw a big monster appear behind me�
But it was then that I realized what he was screaming about. I felt cold air, brush against my skin, and I realized that when I moved away from Minwoo, my shirt had lifted a bit above my stomach. A cold rush of reality was knocked into me, and I immediately sat up and pulled my shirt down, staring at him with cold and startled eyes.
�You, you have a-,� Minwoo started before he was harshly cut off by me.
�Don�t say a word,� I said to him with the toughest voice I had used in a long time. I continued to stare at him, but I couldn�t hide the hurt in my eyes. When I felt like I was going to explode, I got up and ran deep into Hyesung�s house and hid behind the wall of the next room. Minwoo was so stunned, he couldn�t move a muscle, and his eyes were opened so wide that they looked like they could have dropped out at any moment. Behind the wall, I cried. I really did. Lee Minwoo, the one person that I didn�t want to know about my dark secrets, had overheard my conversation with Hyesung earlier and now he saw it� he saw my nightmare, my pain, my anguish� the monster that haunted my every day.
Minwoo had seen the scar that was slashed right across the side of my stomach. I just stayed there, not having the bravery to face Minwoo at that time. I knew he was still there; I didn�t even have to look to know that. To other people, a small scar might have been nothing for me to freak out about, but then they never knew my story. My scar wasn�t small. It was about the length of a normal pencil, and hidden within it was a secret that I could never let go of. Five minutes later, the guys seemed to have returned when I heard their laughter outside. How I wished I could have been out there laughing with them.
Hyesung knocked on the door after remembering that he had given the keys to Minwoo before he had left. From where I was, I heard Minwoo get up slowly from the couch and proceeded to the door, where he opened it to 5 very cheerful guys. Junjin must have returned from dinner with Yumi.
�Hey Minwoo! How�s Joo-Eun?� Junjin asked happily. Obviously, he had had a wonderful night with Yumi.
Minwoo remained silent and walked back over to the couch and sat down, putting his head on his hands. All five guys stopped laughing and walked over too, noticing that I wasn�t sleeping within the heaps of blankets and pillows. I sat there not knowing what to do. I couldn�t let the others know anything about the scar, and if I didn�t go out, Minwoo would be left with a lot of explaining to do� what to do, what to do?
�Where�s Joo-Eun?� Andy asked slowly.
�Minwoo� can�t you guys go 2 minutes without fighting?� Hyesung asked kind of angrily. �You know she�s been through a lot, why couldn�t you just-,�
�Hey guys? Finally back?! I�m staarrviiing!� I yelled out loud in the happiest voice I could bring up. I had wiped my face clean and made sure my voice sounded normal before I came back out. Everyone look stunned to see me so happy. Minwoo was just baffled, and Hyesung looked embarrassed for yelling at him earlier.
�Hey Joo-Eun� you alright? Where did you go?� Dongwan asked me suspiciously.
�I just went to the washroom, parents always told me to wash my hands before I eat, right?� I said winking to everyone there. I watched as Hyesung patted Minwoo on the back to apologize, but I avoided looking into his eyes. I wasn�t hungry anymore and the pain in my stomach wasn�t even bothering me� all I wanted was to go home. Minwoo must have caught on with my act, and he started to make jokes and laugh with the rest of the guys again. Honestly, I never felt as left out as I did that night ever, not even when I first met them�
After dinner, Junjin drove me home as he lived closest to me. Minwoo had pulled me aside and offered, but I turned it down as he was the last person that I wanted to see out of the 6 of them. The entire ride over, all Junjin could talk about was his dinner with Yumi, and although I hadn�t heard a single word he spoke to me, I had to smile for how happy he was. I guess he took my smile for an answer, because I don�t think he realized that I wasn�t listening to him. I just looked up at the moon and wondered if my parents would be looking up too. Though they never loved me, I never missed home this much before. I think I was finally starting to understand and accept that no matter what I do, they were not going to care� it took 18 long years, I wonder why. My hand was continuously stroking my scar through my shirt as Junjin rambled on and on. Minwoo was the first person besides my parents to know about the scar. But him finding out about it seemed to awaken in me, the reason why I had that scar to begin with. When he found out, I thought of the events that led to me being permanently marked, and why I had it to begin with. I thought of every excuse in the world, but I couldn�t find one that could mask my story. But it also made me realize that except for that one night, my parents had forgotten about my scar completely.
Maybe Minwoo finding out about my scar wasn�t a bad thing� but I don�t know what to say about it.
�Lee Minwoo� I hate you, yet I want your care. My relationship with you reminds me of my parents. I want you to care, but when you do, I find myself believing that it�s fake� that I�m a replacement for Minhee. When will you leave me alone?�
Chapter 12:
Friday had been a long day for me, but at least it gave me 2 days to make up for it. Saturday and Sunday, I did absolutely nothing but sit at home and do a lot of research for the project. I didn�t pick up any calls, but when I went to check my messages, I found that Minwoo had left multiple text messages on my cell phone, all of which were to ask me to go over to his house to do the project. I guess even he finally realized that we had less than 3 weeks to catch up and finish our project. For some reason though, I had no intention of working with him on this project anymore. Every time we were alone, something always goes wrong. I ignored all his messages and went back onto the computer to do more research, only to be interrupted by an incoming e-mail.
�Hey Joo-Eun, it�s Andy! I�m over at Hyesung�s house along with Minwoo and we�re just kinda working on the project together. You should come over, better than being cooped up at home doing the project all alone. Actually, we�re doing the website part at the moment, should come over and give us some opinion. We�ll make both sites today, and then you guys can just upload information to it once you�re done� so yeah! If you can, give me a call or reply this e-mail and we�ll come over to pick you up� sounds good?! Alright, back to work we go. I swear we�re working, no worries =]�
Andy�s e-mail brought a smile to my face, simply because I could picture him saying every single word. I sat there and thought about whether I should go or not. Andy was AMAZING at web designing, and for that reason, I should be thanking him for helping out with Minwoo and my website. I guess it would be easier for them to do both sites at once, when they had the ideas going. In my mind, I wanted to go, but I kept telling myself I shouldn�t. It must have been 5 minutes before I got off my seat, grabbed my cell phone, stuffed all my research notes into a backpack and went out the door. I told my grandma that I was going out to do a project, and all she said was that it was a Sunday night so I best be home before dark. I picked up my cell phone and called Andy, telling him I would be there soon. Although Hyesung did not live really close to me, it was just about a half hour walk. Andy and Hyesung protested and volunteered to drive me over, but I figured I wanted to walk anyway, so I turned down their offer. It gave me time to think after all.
All the time I was walking, I couldn't think of anything else besides what to do or say when I got there. Should I act as if I was mad at Minwoo? Or should I just pretend nothing had ever happened? Part of me knew I should just ignore my feelings, for the fact that Hyesung and Andy would be there as well... but then how can I tell myself to not think about it? My scar was right there on my stomach, taunting me, so that I could never forget. Ugh, this was all too complicated. I just stared down at my foot and kept walking. It was a straight path to Hyesung's house, now that I had taken the short cut. Not close, but definitely not far.
*OOOOOFF*
"Damn girl, do you NEVER watch where you're walking?!" someone yelled angrily at me. But his voice, I knew it... it had been the same voice that kept repeating threatening words to me in my head... SungWook.
"I'm... I'm sorry, I was thinking, wasn't watching. Sorry..." I said, stumbling on my words. I didn't dare look up at him, especially when I realized that he was not alone. It was like they were waiting for me, but why?
"Joo-Eun, you have some serious problems. No one walks into my twice, embarrasses me then gets away with it. I don't know why Jae-Sung let you go that day, but now that HE is not here, I can do as I wish. Where are your friends now? Finally all alone now I see..." SungWook said to me in his taunting voice. The two guys that came with him came up from behind, tore my backpack off and grabbed me by my arms and held them behind my back. I was so scared, I didn't even know how to react, not to mention defend myself. Why had I taken the short cut here!? Note to self: I am NOT street-smart.
"What do you want SungWook? You wanna kill me? Go ahead. We're all alone here, no one will know, right?" I replied to him in the toughest voice I could bring up. Sometimes, I don't know how I do it, but I sound like I'm not worried at all.
"Feisty there, see, that's why I like you. But too bad you had to be Minwoo's friend. You see, I can't kill you now because Jae-Sung really wants to see you play in the tournament for whatever reason... If I were you though, I wouldn't come alone. All six of your friends best be there... especially Minwoo. I have some unsettled problems with that guy," SungWook said as he came closer to me, within inches of my face.
"What makes you think that I would let him come with me then, knowing that you're going to give him trouble?" I fired back at him, trying to use my head to make a greater separation between us. SungWook backed up a little and took one look at me.
"You two have never got along before, the whole school knows that. Then he comes out and saves you that day after school... you must have fallen in love with him then huh?" SungWook said, teasing me knowing that he couldn't hurt me with his threats.
Proves how much SungWook knew about me. Fall in love with Minwoo, you have ought to be joking me... More importantly though, how was I going to get myself out of this? If I keep talking back to him, he *will* kill me, I knew that. With my hands held behind my back, I was able to easily reach into my back pocket and grab a hold of my cell phone. Feeling around on my cell, I pressed a couple of buttons skillfully, hoping that I had pressed redial. The last call I made was to Andy's cell phone, telling them not to come pick me up. If I did it correctly, they would be able to hear my conversation with SungWook, and might come to find me. I wasn't too far from Hyesung�s house, maybe 5 minutes away.
"SungWook... you know nothing about me, stop guessing. I don't know what I did to you that made you come after me like this, but who do you think I am? Do you really think they would risk their lives for mine? Both you and Jae-Sung should wake up, but maybe you�re just not smart enough to realize that," I said as I spat at him. He dodged it easily, but when he looked up from the ground, he had fiery eyes. The two guys behind me tightened their grip on me while SungWook walked up in front of me and slapped me right across the face.
"I would watch what I do if I were you. You are not in the most compromising position here," SungWook said to me between gritted teeth. He then pushed me into the fence behind me, where a couple of loose wires had sprung up. I felt them scratch my back and leave a couple of open wounds as I screamed in pain. SungWook could only laugh at my terrible state. The two guys turned me around harshly to see what I was crying about when they saw the wires from the fence drip with blood. They pushed me to the floor strongly, where I then scrapped my knees. Worst yet, I was kneeling right in front of SungWook. He took one look at the blood dripping from the fence, to the blood on the floor from the scrape, then one look at me trying to hold back my tears. "You're pretty strong... beg, and I'll let you go," he said with a malicious smile.
To die or to beg... to give up my pride or my life� The choice was probably very obvious, but I refused to make the right one. I got up onto my legs, and walked right to his face, just to realize that the two guys were following my every action closely. "Never."
SungWook's face reddened with anger, as I felt his arms go back and build up momentum to hit me in the face. I closed my eyes awaiting the impact, and then...
and then... it never came.
I opened my eyes, and I saw Minwoo standing right beside me, holding onto SungWook's grip right before it hit my face. When I turned around, I saw Andy and Hyesung each protecting me from the other two guys. I breathed a sigh of relief, but when I noticed that Andy and Hyesung's normal friendly expressions were replaced with those of threat, I realized that it was not time to be relieved yet.
"Leave her alone. Whatever problems you have, they're with me and it has nothing to do with Joo-Eun. If I see you near her again, we will NOT let you go easily," Minwoo said with eyes that reflected the evil in SungWook's. Like Hyesung had mentioned before, SungWook was obviously scared of Minwoo. He was just a wimp that wanted to be all-powerful, only capable of threatening people like me. The two guys that came with SungWook were now back behind him, while Hyesung and Andy had come up behind Minwoo. In terms of people, we were in the lead 4 to 3. In terms of strength, I was sure we were more powerful as well. SungWook seemed to notice this, and backed up slowly.
"Just be there at the tournament Joo-Eun, otherwise we'll come get you afterwards," SungWook said to me with threatening eyes as he backed away with the other two guys, turned around and left. I stood there, terrified, and the pain in my back and legs started to come back to me. All of them took a look around the scene, and noticed the blood everywhere, especially the blood on the back of my white tank top and the scraps on my legs underneath my shorts. I felt Minwoo's arms behind my back and legs as he picked me up just before I fell.
"Let's go in case they come back," Minwoo said lightly as Hyesung and Andy nodded at his comment. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I was finally able to relax. In Minwoo�s arms and with Andy and Hyesung behind us, I felt so safe there with them.
�Thank you,� I said in a quiet voice as I held back my tears. I wasn�t going to cry from pain or from fear, I was just getting really emotional that they had come to save me.
Chapter 13:
�OOOOWWWWWW!!� I screamed as Minwoo used rubbing alcohol on my knees to make sure I wouldn�t get any infections. He was the doctor-to-be, or at least that�s what he wanted to be, so I was not surprised when he practically forced me to let him clean up my wounds.
�Hahahha, calm down Joo-Eun, all your cuts have to be treated, especially because that alley isn�t exactly the most clean place on earth,� Andy said to me lightly as I gripped onto his arm tightly with each cotton swab full of alcohol dipped onto my legs.
I took one look across the room. We were once again back at Hyesung�s huge house, where I was sitting on the same couch that I had fallen asleep on two nights ago. Hyesung and Andy both had a smile on their face as they watched my reaction, but Minwoo didn�t seem to have any expression whatsoever. It was like he was mad at me, but didn�t want to show that at all. I quieted down when I saw that he wasn�t exactly happy, and simply flinched whenever he was cleaning up the cuts.
�Haha, we�ll get you something to drink while Minwoo cleans up your cuts there,� Hyesung said with a laugh in his voice. I tossed him a joke evil-glare for leaving me there all alone to handle all the pain myself. He laughed and patted me on the shoulders as he and Andy got up and left the room into the kitchen.
� Silence. Minwoo looked like he had something to say, but refused to say it.
�Turn around so that I can disinfect your back,� Minwoo said to me in a monotone voice. I didn�t want to fight with him, so I moved slowly on the couch and turned around. I felt embarrassed, but I slowly lifted my shirt a little bit so that he could wipe the cuts on the back. They were all on my lower back, thank god. Each time the alcohol touched my skin, I flinched in pain and gripped the leather on the couch in front of me. If I was someone that kept my nails long, I would have broken right through it. Suddenly, I felt Minwoo�s fingers tracing the scar on my stomach that extended very lightly onto my back. I felt my face burn up, but worst yet, I didn�t want to discuss it. I sat up after he finished putting bandaids on my back and pulled my shirt back down.
�Thank you,�
Dead silence again.
�� Why do you have that scar?� Minwoo finally asked avoiding looking in my eyes. He had to ask that question, didn�t he? I didn�t want to answer him, so I just sat there, looking up into the ceiling, not know what to say. A couple of long minutes went by and still I couldn�t think of what to do. I heard a sigh from Minwoo, and watched as he got up to leave, but I pulled onto his arm just as he stood up. He looked down at me with his deep dark eyes, and I searched in them for what he was feeling at the time, but I couldn�t find anything. They looked as lost as I felt. I didn�t understand why I wanted to tell him, but I also didn�t understand why I was holding back. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, I trusted Minwoo. He had been there to save me twice now, and tried to protect me many times, but I�ve always turned down his help� yet still he cared.
�This scar� I�ve had it since I was 15� it�s been quite a few years now when I look back. I remember the day, my parents were yelling at me in the kitchen for being a failure. I had attended a ball with them the day before, and made a scene when I spilled juice all over their business partner�s wife. The couple got so mad that they left the ball immediately, swearing to never work with my parents again� I didn�t mean to, it was an accident� am I really that big of a failure?� I asked looking up to see Minwoo�s response with teary eyes. This was the one story that I had hidden from everyone my entire life. He was still standing in front of me while I was sitting down. From my position, I realized how much taller Minwoo was to me, even though he was short compared to the rest of them. He looked down at me with caring eyes as he knelt down. He started to pull me into a hug, and I let him, as I let my tears out at the same time.
�You�re not� definitely not.�
�Heh, my parents would never agree. My entire life, they told me that I was the bad charm that brought down all their business plans. I caused them to start failing ever since I was born. I stood there for about 10 minutes listening to them insult me over and over again. Inside me, I was doubting that they ever cared about me, but yet I still wanted them to be concerned for my feelings. And� that�s when I did the stupidest thing I�ve ever done in my life�
I picked up the knife beside me and cut myself right from the right side of my stomach all the way to the back. It was all within one swift motion, it probably took no longer than 2 seconds, but the pain that followed still haunts me now. I remember the look on my parents� faces clearly. The face they had on was of shock and most of all� concern. I remember smiling before I fell to my knees, and all I said was �You do care��. I woke up apparently 2 days later, inside a hospital room. I expected to see my parents there, but instead, I saw a man I�d never seen before in front of me. He came up to me, and warned me to never mention this incident again for fear that it would ruin my parents reputation of being the perfect parents in the news. He then left too, leaving me in the coldness of the room, without a single person. The doctor�s told me that I missed important organs by a couple of centimeters, if I cut any deeper, I would have died. When I asked him whether my parents had come� all he said was that I was brought in by an ambulance, and no one else came� no one else came. I came into the hospital barely saving my life because of blood loss, and they didn�t even bother to show up. They didn�t even-,� I said with all the energy left in me before I couldn�t take it anymore and just let it out all. With every tear that came out of me, I felt like a part of my heavy past was coming out as well. I had never told anyone else this story for fear of the guy that came to visit me that day. Now, in Minwoo�s arms, I felt safe, and I just told him everything. The tears never stopped, but the weight on me was lightening. His arms around me never let me go as he held me harder and stronger.
�Ssshh, it�s okay now. You�re away from them. You don�t need their care, you�re strong, you�re beautiful, and you�re a wonderful person. They never saw the person that you were, only cared about themselves. They say you brought them bad luck, I say you brought happiness into my life. You are in no way a failure,� Minwoo said beside my ear quietly as he stroked my hair lightly. I slowly stopped crying, but I never moved away. Minwoo had never been this nice to me before, and even though what he said was probably fake, it did make me feel better. �Promise me one thing: Never cut yourself again.�
I lifted my head from his shoulders and pulled slightly away to look into his eyes. These were the same eyes that once looked at me with anger, coldness and even pain� but now, they showed something else. Something that I didn�t understand because they looked so much like�
Love.
�I promise.�
Chapter 14:
�What do you think Joo-Eun would like to drink?� Andy asked in a happy tone as he walked into the kitchen with Hyesung. He bounced up and down, hardly seeming concerned about the day at all. Nothing ever seemed to bother him, he was always happy. �Milk? Orange juice? Coke?�
�She doesn�t like any of that, haven�t you ever noticed that at lunch, she always asks to have some of what you and I drink?� Hyesung asked with a smile. Andy scratched his head and thought back a little, then nodded slightly. �I have sprite every lunch, you have coke� she always has a cup. She mixes the two of our drinks and that�s what she likes� coke and sprite MIXED,� Hyesung laughed as if he had a medical breakthrough. Andy stood there looking at Hyesung, not knowing what to say, jaw on the floor that Hyesung would even notice something so little.
�You know a lot about her, don�t you?� Andy said as he noticed that his comment had wiped the smile off Hyesung�s face.
�I just notice things about her that no one else seems to, that�s all�� Hyesung said as his voice trailed off.
�Do you like her?�
�� I don�t know,� Hyesung said hesitantly before he lifted his eyes from the ground. They were almost filled with sadness. �It doesn�t matter though, she refuses to admit it, but I know she cares about Minwoo in a way more than friends do. His every action affects her, when he�s nice to her, she�s taken aback for the entire day. When he�s avoiding her or say things that hurt her, she�s sad for the entire day as well.�
�� Maybe it�s just that she�s surprised when he�s nice to her, cause you and I both know how rare it is, right?� Andy said as he nudged Hyesung on the back. He looked up at Andy, and gave him the fakest smile he had ever come up with.
�Heh, in any case, it doesn�t bother me that much. Minwoo�s a great friend, and a great person� I�m just worried that Joo-Eun might be hurt when she finds out who Minhee is, she�s asked me a couple of times before already�� Hyesung stated as he poured a can of coke and a can of sprite into a large cup before heading to the fridge to get some ice. �Hand me the straw behind you there, Andy�
Andy sighed as he watched his friend think about others even when he himself was unhappy. He handed Hyesung the straw then just leaned back onto the cupboards behind him. �She�s lucky to have you both. Let them deal with their problems I guess. I�m more worried about you than I am of them. You always help others with their problems, but you never let others help you.�
�I�m fine. Let�s go, I�m worried they�re going to fight again, hahaha,� Hyesung laughed with a bit of sadness mixed in. Andy watched as Hyesung walked out of the room with the cup in his hand. He just shook his head in dismay before following Hyesung.
�You know, she trusts you a lot, maybe she-,� Andy was cut off when both Hyesung and him looked into the living room.
�Haha, don�t bother. I think you can still see out of those eyes,� Hyesung said as he handed Andy the cup and turned around to head for the computer room. Andy shook his head again before deciding to break up the scene in front of him.
�Hey you two, stop hugging each other like you�re lovers already,� Andy said with a smirk in his voice. He wasn�t sure if he should be happy to see Joo-Eun and Minwoo so close together, or to be sad that Hyesung was going to be deeply hurt.
* * * * *
Minwoo quickly let me go when he noticed Andy standing there holding in his laughter. I backed away and wiped the tears away from my face with my hand, and managed to come up with a slight smile.
�Is that my drink there, Andy?� I said lightly, changing the topic.
�Haha, yes, it is. Drink this and tell me if you like it,� Andy said as he handed it to me. I took a sip out of the straw, and my face immediately burned a fiery red.
�How did you know... that I mix coke and sprite together?� I asked, very embarrassed.
�Hahaha, you actually do?! I thought Hyesung was being a nut when he told me you�d like it. Go thank him, not me. I think it�s time for us to go back to the project now that you�re all bandaged up,� Andy laughed as he turned around expecting Minwoo and I to follow him. I got up to leave, but now it was Minwoo�s turn to tug onto my arm just as I left. I turned around to see what it was, only to see that Minwoo was still on the floor knelt down.
�Are you okay?� Minwoo asked me quietly. �Sorry, I didn�t know it was that extreme� I thought it was just a surgery, and it frustrated me that you wouldn�t even trust me with something so little��
I looked at his face carefully for the first time. He reminded me of a little kid at times, his features were so� cute, almost. I looked away when I realized I had been staring at him. �It�s okay. I�m fine� actually it feels a lot better to let it all out. I just need help walking because my knees are stinging,� I said smiling for the first time in a long time truly from the inside. Minwoo returned my smile before getting up and taking the arm that he was still holding onto and swinging it over his shoulders. I limped with his help as a balance to the computer room where Andy and Hyesung were waiting for us.
�Jeez, you two are awfully close today,� Andy said in a joking tone before he headed over to Hyesung. �That�s okay, I have Hyesung right?! You�ll still be my best friend, right?!�
Hyesung then brushed Andy�s arm off him and said, �Never. Hahah, Joo-Eun, come back over to me and let me show you what we have so far,� Hyesung said laughing when he saw Andy�s pouty face. We all laughed at Andy being rejected as I limped over to Hyesung�s side.
�Minwoo! Hyesung just stole Joo-Eun, you won�t leave me will you?!� Andy said with a puppy face before Minwoo slapped him lightly on the head.
�No one wants you kid!� Minwoo then walked over to the computer as well. Andy sat there with his arms crossed in front of his chest and pouted. The environment was rarely this light and funny when Minwoo was here with us. Andy, Hyesung and I had a lot of jokes like this, but when he was around, we usually changed topics, but for some reason, not today.
They had a lot done on the project before I came, and my eyes almost fell out of my sockets when I saw the graphics that Andy had prepared for both websites. They were purely amazing, and beautiful. Their website used a lot of abstract designs that represented the cycles of biology, whereas Minwoo and mine had a collage of the pictures I had taken on Friday with him. The look of both website were very different, yet they had the same professional style to them. If we did the rest of our project well, I was sure we would get A+ on this final report. I was feeling lucky.
�Whoa� no worries Andy, if they don�t want you, you still have me!� I said playfully as I slapped him across the arm. �Thanks a lot, it looks amazing!�
* * * * *
By 6:00pm, I knew I had to be home soon. We had a lot done on the project that day. With all the research I had done on that weekend that I brought with me, we split up for a while since Hyesung had 3 computers in the room. Andy was on one computer updating and coding the layouts, while Hyesung was on another doing the research for their project. Minwoo and I were on another while I typed out what I had done, and he was guiding me with what he thought I should write. He was an amazing English student after all. I had a really simple and old computer at home, and didn�t have the programs capable of handling all the website material, therefore Minwoo and I planned to work over at his house one day after school so that I could use his computer. He was in charge of doing the synthetic model of an ecosystem while I would do all the book research.
In a way, I was glad that the relationship between Minwoo and I had lightened, but it felt weird to be on such a friendly basis with him. Maybe it was the beginning of a friendship I thought never existed, I honestly didn�t know. Junjin was on his way to pick me up after he heard of what happened earlier today, since he was on his way to pick up Yumi anyways, who lived a street from me. When the doorbell rang, I grabbed all my stuff, bowed, and thanked them for all the help today. I limped over to the door and stepped out with Hyesung behind me to lock them.
�Thanks for everything Hyesung. Sorry to cause you all the trouble today, and most of all, thanks for the best drink in the world,� I said as I winked at him and ran out the door into Junjin�s car.
�Any day Joo-Eun, any day,� Hyesung said quietly to himself.
Chapter 15:
The next week seemed to fly by quickly, and everyone was focused on school given that exams were coming up. All final projects were due within the next week. It was the last weekend that we had to work on anything, and the biology project was due in 5 days, given that, I was rushing beyond belief. Minwoo however, seemed like he could hardly care what was going on. Because of that, we constantly fought over who would do what.
Our good �friendship� was short lived, maybe by the third day after I told him about my scar, we were back to our old fighting selves. I had had enough of his mood swings. One day, he would be completely nice to me and treated me with respect, but the next day, he would push me aside as if I was the last person on the face of the planet that he would talk to. Not a part of me understood him, nor did I want to when he was back to the person that pushed all the work onto me. I ended up not sleeping for many days in a row staying up to work in order to make up for Minwoo�s inept to cooperate. Seeing this, even Dongwan and Eric offered to help, but I knew they had their own work to do. They would drive me to the library or the pond though, in order to help me to their best ability, and I was very grateful. I knew that when I was not around, Junjin, Hyesung, and Andy had yelled at Minwoo, but when nothing changed, I knew that it hadn�t worked. I fell sick a couple of days due to lack of sleep, and started to skip lunches in order to work in the school library. Some days, I would see the guilt in Minwoo�s eyes, but still he did nothing to help. My patience with him was quickly running out.
It was Sunday, and I was standing in front of an apartment building. On Friday, Mrs. Lee had pulled me outside the classroom to ask me on the progression of the project. Even she had noticed that I was doing all the work and my health was deteriorating. I told her I was fine, since I didn�t want to make it into a big issue. When we went back into the classroom, she pulled Minwoo aside and warned him to help me more, and at that time, his acting skills were brought out. He looked completely innocent and said that he had been doing a lot at home, and that I was going to meet on him Sunday at his house to finish the project. What a liar, but when I felt his cold eyes on me, I played along and told Mrs. Lee that I had forgotten about the arrangement. She shook her head and left, but not before giving us a long warning.
And now, here I was, standing in front of a large apartment building, not knowing what to do. Minwoo tossed the address to me harshly before he left the classroom that day. I knew that Minwoo was part of a very rich family with a successful medical pharmaceutical company, why would they be living in an apartment building? I always thought his house would be no smaller than Hyesung�s, but I was very wrong. When I stepped into the lobby, many security officers and workers greeted me, and although it was very extravagantly decorated, it was still nothing compared to Hyesung�s house. However, it was huge and beautiful, nothing that I could afford to live in.
�Hi there Miss, what is your name and who are you looking for today?� asked the clerk sitting in the reception desk. Wow, he must have recognized and knew every one of the tenants by name to know that I was just a visitor by appearance.
�Uhh� my name is Kim Joo-Eun, I�m here for Lee Minwoo in 903 please,� I said in a quiet voice as I checked the number carefully on the small piece of paper.
�Ahh, a friend of Mr. Lee I see,� the clerk smiled at me before he picked up the phone and asked Minwoo for permission to let me up. When he hung up, he looked up at me and once again flashed me a friendly smile. �Take the elevator up to the top level and you will arrive at Mr. Lee�s level. Have a nice day,� he said to me as he pointed towards the elevator where another man was standing there, waiting to escort me up to the top level. I was stunned by the type of �high-class service� provided, and I must have looked like someone that had never seen such things before. I stepped in, and the attendant immediately pressed the highest number, and with a ding, we were rising to the top. I stepped as far away from him as possible, because admittedly, he was scaring me a bit. He just stood there facing me, and well, smiled at me. Most people might not find that odd, but it was very uncomforting to me.
When I got to the top floor, I realized that Minwoo did not live in one small apartment, but he lived in the penthouse, and it was about the size of half the floor. He stood there awaiting me outside the main door, and when he saw the elevator door open, he just walked into his house, turning his back on me. I thanked the attendant, and followed Minwoo into his house. Nope, he was not in a good mood, still ignoring me. Oh well.
�Hi� nice house you have, it�s so beautiful,� I said to him truthfully, admiring all the interior designs that obviously took a lot of planning. His house was neat, and sported a very unique sense of style. Very attractive. �Are your parents home?�
I watched him flinch a little at that comment, and I immediately knew I had said the wrong thing. �I don�t live with my parents. You�re not exactly welcome here, but since you have a useless computer, you can finish your work here. Just to let you know, I�m not staying here. Good luck,� Minwoo said to me harshly before turning his back on me again and pointed to the computer room. I wanted to walk up to him and slap him across his face to knock out his cocky behavior, but I just sucked it in. I stuck my tongue out at him behind his back and headed towards the room. Oh, he best be joking about going out, or I�m going to throw a BIG fit.
I walked into the computer room, sat down in front of a computer, and loaded my files from my diskette. What a waste of my time. To come here I already had to bother Dongwan to drive me, and now, it was worthless. I could have spent the time to get here at home more productively. What an act. Minwoo planned all this so that I couldn�t deny going to his house in front of Mrs. Lee. The nerve that guy has to play with my emotions. One day, he makes me feel like the happiest person in the world, and the next, he treats me like dirt. He had problems, but I had a bigger one at the moment: finishing this all on time.
So I started working and working. In terms of research and the report, I was done. Now I was making up for what Minwoo hadn�t done, and writing up a report on his synthetic ecosystem that he never did build. Tomorrow I was going to start building that. Today, I have to learn and use a bit of HTML to finish our website. Ugh, so much work, but since I�m sitting in front of a powerful, top of the line computer, I might as well take advantage of it.
That�s when I heard the front door slam shut. You have ought to be joking me, he really was leaving?! I ran after the door and before he got to the elevator, I was outside his house.
�Lee Minwoo! What is your problem?! This is your project too! You have already completely deserted me and now I have to finish it on my own, but you have the nerve to call me here and waste my time here while you go out!?� I screamed at him at the top of my lungs. Oh, I was MAD. The last time I screamed at him was at the pond, which seemed like eternity ago in my mind, why did our friendship rotten so fast again?
�What�s your problem? All my neighbours can hear you damn it. I told you I was going out. I told Mrs. Lee you were coming to my house to work on the project, I never once said I was working with you on it. Get a grip. If you can�t finish it, fine, I don�t care. We�ll fail together, alright?� Minwoo said to me harshly with angry eyes, but though they flared with fire, there was also something else in them that I couldn�t make out.
I laughed out loud. He doesn�t feel responsible for this� at all?! �I won�t fail, you will. I don�t intend to do all the work and let you have the credit. I�m tired of all your mood swings. I�m not a toy you can play with,� I said as I walked up to him and faced him. �No wonder you don�t live with your parents, they probably can�t stand a jerk like you.� I taunted him.
I felt a swift motion and in 2 seconds later, I was pinned up against the wall behind me with Minwoo�s strong hands on my shoulders. I felt intense pain run through my entire body, and I looked up at him and saw his angry expression. �You are NO ONE to mention my parents or my family. If I hear you talk about them again, you will be sorry. When I come back, I�ll drive you home. I don�t intend on giving you the key to my house, so you best not leave or you will be responsible for any theft of my property.� Minwoo said to me as he loosened his grip and went into the elevator. Before the doors closed, he threw me angry eyes, and I was so stunned, I couldn�t do anything except watch the doors close right before me.
I slowly sank down onto my knees before I was kneeling right before the elevator. I was so stunned, my eyes hardly blinked, and my mouth was still wide open. I lifted one arm up to my shoulders to massage it lightly, but the pain from Minwoo�s grip still leered around. I was starting to think that Minwoo had split personality� how could a person be so nice to me yet be so evil at the same time? When I felt the curious eyes on me, I turned around to look right into the eyes of Minwoo�s neighbours. Hah, we must have made such a scene. I decided to get up and go back into his house. Even if he wasn�t around, I still couldn�t waste time.
* * * * *
9PM, same day.
I stretched out my arms over the computer, amazed with what I had accomplished. From someone that didn�t know anything about building web pages, I had now finished coding that entire part of the project. I smiled as I browsed through our uploaded site, and it not only looked professional, but also contained very detailed information as well. My English was without a doubt stronger than Minwoo because of the fact that I grew up in America, but for some reason, he knew how to word things better than I did. I looked over the first part of our website, only to find that that was the part that we had done together. It was definitely the best-written part of the entire project, and I had to sigh at that. If we were able to do everything together, our project would have been ten times better. Oh well, at least this part was done, now onto editing my report. The remaining 4 days would have to be used to cover up what Minwoo didn�t do as well as preparation for the presentation.
I took one look at the time, and nearly fell of my chair. It�s 9:00pm already?! Where�s Minwoo? I can�t leave the house because I don�t have keys to lock the door. Ugh, what�s with him these days? If I couldn't leave, then I guess I should at least tell my grandma that I won�t be home for a while. She wasn�t very happy with the idea that I was staying over at a guy�s house for the night, but then when I explained my situation, she understood after hearing stress in my voice. She told me to come home as soon as possible, even if it was late in the night. I agreed and told her to get some rest and to not wait up for me.
I took a deep breath and sat there wondering what I should do. Then my stomach grumbled. Ack, I forgot about dinner completely. Though I didn�t mean to be rude, if Minwoo wasn�t coming home soon, I might as well go make myself some dinner. His house was huge, I almost got lost a couple of times. Walking over to the kitchen made me think�
Why did Minwoo live alone when he obviously respected his family so much?
Chapter 16:
�Ahh� what to eat, what to eat?� I said to myself as I peeked into Minwoo�s fridge. This was probably the only place that made his house look like he lived alone. There was absolutely nothing in there besides a can of coke, some soybean milk, and random vegetables lying around. Coming from America, I was still not accustomed to what my grandma cooked at home. That�s when I noticed some bread in the back with a can of peanut butter. Mmm, I didn�t know that they had this here, but good enough for me. I took the two things out and started to make myself the dinner that I hadn�t had in the longest time.
That�s when I heard a midi version of �In the End� by Linkin Park play. I started to hum to it while I spread the peanut butter around, and then I remembered: that�s my cell phone ring tone! I gasped, dropped the bread back onto the plate and ran through Minwoo�s large house to where my cell phone was placed in his computer room. Along the way, I ran into a lot of furniture, including the bookcase in the room. I cursed to myself when I noticed a few books and files had fallen from the shelf, but picked up my cell phone first.
�Hello?!� I said, out of breath, gasping for air.
�Joo-Eun?! Whoa, are you okay? You sound like you just ran a marathon,� joked the person on the other line. From the voice, I guessed that it was Dongwan.
�Dongwan? Is that you? Haha, how can I help you?�
�Yup, it�s me. I just called to check on you. Dropped you off at Minwoo�s earlier, but for some reason, he�s here with us now, so I guess you�re not exactly the happy little girl back at his place. Want me to come by to pick you up? I don�t think Minwoo�s going to be able to move for a while�� Dongwan said to me with sincerity in his voice. Lately, I had gotten a lot closer to him and Eric, especially because they were always trying to help me. What did he mean that Minwoo won�t be able to move for a while?! My heart jumped, for fear that something happened to him.
�Why?! Is Minwoo okay?!�
�No no no no, nothing like that, don�t worry. We�ll probably bring him home later,� he said laughing at my reaction.
�Oh, hehe, it�s okay then, don�t worry about me, I�ll just keep working till you guys drop him off. Thanks for calling to check on me!�
�No probs, as long as you�re okay! I�m gonna go back to check on them! See you later then!� Dongwan shouted into the phone before he hung up.
I chuckled then hung up too, but as I turned around, I groaned. In my rush to come over, I knocked down so many files; it�s going to take a while to clean it all up. I bent down onto my knees to rearrange the files. The cuts on them from the incident with SungWook had pretty much healed by now, only a few scabs remained. I could feel a bruise developing on my arm however from running into all those furniture. Wow, my health sure has been horrible lately. I pushed my hair behind my ear and started to look through the files. The folders were labeled as �bills� and �receipts�, so it was easy for me to set them all back since they were all dated. Though it took time, at least it wasn�t hard. I placed both files back onto the shelf and started to pick up the remaining items that had fallen, but a small picture stuck between two books caught my attention.
It was the cutest thing I had seen in a long time. Inside the picture were two people standing very closely together with their arms around each other. I recognized one as Minwoo, but the girl I had never seen before. She looked familiar and a bit younger than him, but I don�t think I�d ever seen her around school before. They looked so happy, I had never seen Minwoo smile like that before. In fact, I rarely saw him smile at all. I smiled a bit at how happy they looked, but at the same time, I felt a little jealous of the girl. I turned it around, and written on the back in neat writing was �Minwoo and Minhee 05/21/02�. The picture was taken just last year, how did Minwoo change so much in such little time? I took a closer look at the picture, and I thought I was going crazy, but I saw water stains on the picture in the front� it almost looked like someone had been crying while looking at the picture. So this was Minhee, the girl that obviously meant a lot to Minwoo. My heart cringed when I realized that he must have loved her a lot, and whatever happened between them, they must have been separated. I sighed, what right did I have to feel sad at all?
Wait. Why did I care at all?! Ugh, Minwoo kept creeping back into my thoughts lately, and every time I went to bed, the last face I pictured was his. Whether it was out of hate or love, I never did figure that out. They say it�s a thin line between love and hate, I guess they were right. I had to admit it though, I was slowly starting to care about him, because I thought a saw a side of him that he never showed me before. The way he protected me and cared for me when I told him about the scar, it made my heart jump. Lee Minwoo, stop making me feel things for you when you have every intention of changing back to the jerk that hated me before.
I sighed a bit as I continued to stare at the perfect picture placed in front of me. I finally decided to put it back between the two books and piled them along with the other books back onto the shelf. I sat down on the couch beside the shelf and just stared at where the picture was located. It was hidden from the rest of the world, but easily accessed. The picture almost looked old because it was so crumbled, but it made me realize that Minwoo must have hidden it to stop the pain, but taken it out often to just stare at it. The picture didn�t look old because he had treated it badly, but because he had handled it so much from always looking at it. I shook my head in sadness before I realized that it was 10pm already. I got up from my position and walked back to the kitchen with my head down and started to eat the sandwich that I had made an hour ago. For some reason, my much-anticipated sandwich was no longer delicious and I barely wanted to eat at all.
I ended up eating half of it and placing the rest of it back into the fridge in case I got hungry later on, though I seriously doubted the chance of that. I headed back into the computer room, and on my way, I noticed there was a door closed. Must have been Minwoo�s room. I wanted to go in and see what it looked like, but I felt like I had intruded on his privacy enough for one day. When I got to the computer room again, I dreaded it, but I sat down and started to work again. I had purposely made sure I had finished all my other projects, knowing that this one would take the longest. With each word I typed, I felt my eyes getting heavier and heavier, before I fell asleep right on the keyboard�
* * * * *
�You useless girl, stop crying and look at me when I�m talking to you!� screamed a woman at the top of her lungs.
�Have you no brains? Are you so dense that you don�t even know what to say when we take you to a party?!� yelled a man as he stabbed his fingers onto my forehead.
I just stood there, looking down at the ground and crying endlessly. In my father�s hand gripped with anger was a leather belt and he was whipping it against furniture as he and my mother continued to abuse me with their words. Every time the belt came in contact with something, I shrieked and cried more imagining the pain of the belt on my body of only 8 years old.
�When kids ask you what you got for your birthday, you don�t say �nothing�, you say you got whatever you wanted or whatever all the kids would want! You�re useless enough, the least you could do is tell a lie properly!� my mother yelled as she came over to me and pushed me into the wall.
�Everyone else�s daughters are beautiful and talented in playing instruments, but what about you? You�re dull and boring, and slow at learning anything and everything! The only thing that you could do is make us look like good parents in front of the media, but you fail at that too!� my father said cracking the belt right beside my foot. I screamed and crawled into the corner, hiding from them, only to be pulled out harshly by my arm. Inside, I knew that my father would never actually hit me with the belt, because if I had any injuries whatsoever, the press would be all over it faster than the speed of light, but what difference did it make? The fear was still there just because there are always exceptions in life. Just like I was born into a semi-rich family, but suffered more than anyone with no money at all could.
�Look at me. The next time you screw up, we will not only hurt you, but we will send you far away, so that you can live on your own and hopefully die,� my mom threatened me before my father dropped the belt beside me and walked away with my mom. They slammed the closet door shut, and locked it before cursing and leaving me there in the darkness. Over the years this had become my room for many nights, and I had learned that I knew they would soon forget about me being in here at all.
I cried and I cried sitting in there, not knowing what I was supposed to do at all. I was eight years old, didn�t have a single toy, nor was I even fed 2 times a day. Worst of all, I was afraid of the dark.
�Mommy, Mommy! Let me out! I�m scared! Let me out! I�ll do anything!� I screamed as I banged on the doors with all my might.
�JOO-EUN! WAKE UP!�
I shot up from my position on the keyboard, head full of sweat and completely scared, only to see the look of concern on Eric�s face. I started to shake, but I used my sleeve and wiped the sweat off my face first before hugging myself.
�You were having a nightmare, are you okay?!� Eric asked me with a worried tone before coming over and putting his jacket over me to calm me down.
It was no nightmare� that was my life that I lived every single day for eighteen years. Even away from it, I was still haunted by it.
Chapter 17:
�I�m sorry Eric, I�m fine. Yeah, fine�� I said still trembling from fear. I had that dream quite often, and every time, it felt more and more real.
�Are you sure? You�re still shaking, what�d you dream about?�
�Nothing, don�t worry. Just some monster,� I said before flashing him a slight smile. Eric looked just as worried as he did earlier, but he seemed like he was in a rush to leave, so he dropped the topic. �Where are the rest of the guys? Weren�t you all together? Wait, what are you doing here anyways?�
�Haha, Joo-Eun, look at the time, it�s 2am already, they�re not all going to be here. We were at some club, but I swear, Hyesung and Minwoo seemed to have a lot on their mind. They got really drunk for whatever reasons, and Junjin joined in just for the fun of it, so we ended up with a mess. Andy drove Hyesung home, and Dongwan got an emergency call from home so he left quickly, leaving me with a drunk Minwoo and Junjin. I can�t stay up here for long because I still have to take Junjin home and clean him up. I would drive you home, but I�m a little worried about Minwoo and I don�t know what time it would be by the time I�m done with Junjin. If you don�t mind, can you stay here tonight with Minwoo and just make sure he�s all right? If you don�t want to, I can drive you home, I�m a little worried about you too anyways,� Eric said smiling a bit sincerely, obviously still bothered by my nightmare situation. From what he had told me, it seemed like he had enough to deal with, I didn�t need to add to the mess, so I decided to stay with Minwoo so that he had two less people to worry about.
�I�ll stay here with Minwoo, should be okay. So late anyways, no sense in going home. You better go check on Junjin. Thanks Eric for checking on me too, I�m alright,� I said before handing him his jacket. Eric looked me over to make sure I really was okay before leaving, but not before telling me to keep the jacket on and to lock the door behind him. Sitting on the couch in the computer room was indeed, a very drunk Minwoo. I shook my head at the scene, and left for a while to go lock the door.
*THUMP*
What the heck?! What was that?! I ran back into the computer room to find that Minwoo had rolled off the couch and landed flat on his face on the floor, with his arms and legs spread apart. I laughed a little bit, because he looked like a murder victim that had been trying to crawl away from the scene. When I saw Minwoo shift a little on the ground, I decided that it was time to move him onto his bed so that he could at least get a good night sleep, after all, we all had school tomorrow. I kneeled down onto the ground and put one of Minwoo�s arms around my shoulders as I took his other arm and pulled him up from the ground. He must have done a lot of exercise in his spare time, because Minwoo was hardly scrawny. All his muscles made him feel even heavier, and it must have taken me 5 minutes before I picked him off the ground and started to walk him towards the mysterious door that I didn�t dare open earlier.
Slowly, I turned the knob a little, and swung the door open. Minwoo�s room was really neat and clean as well, just like the rest of the house. It had a large bed in the middle, and a desk with a laptop on it where I guess he did a lot of his work. He had his own bathroom and two walk-in closets as well. It truly was a large and professionally designed room. I stared in awe at the scene, before remembering that I still had a heavy weight on my back. I carried him over to the bed, where I pulled the blankets over a little then dumped Minwoo onto the bed. He cringed a little at the impact, before rolling onto this side facing the opposite direction from me. I shook my head again as I stared at the big baby in front of me. I wondered what made him get so drunk?
I then went into his bathroom to look for a small towel, and when I found it, I put it under hot water from the tap. When it was the right temperature, I ringed the towel dry and went back over to Minwoo�s side and placed it onto his forehead, just before he grabbed a hold of my hand. I was stunned, but I didn�t move and just watched as he turned back around and stared me in the eyes. I didn�t know what to do, and just stood there with a look of surprise on my face.
�Minhee� you, you came back,� I heard Minwoo say lightly before watching his eyes twinkle with happiness. Did Minhee really make him that happy? �You, you�re actually here. I missed you so much��
I still didn�t know what to do. Inside, I knew I should have told him that I wasn�t Minhee, but the curiosity in me was eating me away. Maybe it was really selfish and ignorant to find out someone�s deep dark secrets by pretending to be the girl that they missed the most, but I deserved it after all he�s done to me, right? Right?
�I� I missed you too,� I found the words so hard to say because it simply wasn�t me speaking. I wanted to sound like Minhee, but I knew nothing of their history, what could I do?
�� I�m sorry I failed you Minhee. I should have been there for you, I shouldn�t have ran out on you that day. I�m sorry for anything and everything. I�ll take all the responsibility, and all the blame, just don�t leave again� just stay here,� Minwoo said as tears started rolling down his cheeks and his grip on my hand tightened. Minwoo was� crying? I suddenly felt so much at fault, and so guilty. This was clearly none of my business. I had found the weak point of Minwoo not through a way of trust, but by a rather horrible way.
�I� I won�t ever leave you,� I said as I just stared at him. I found myself not saying what Minhee might have, but what I truly wanted to say inside. I didn�t know what else to do, so I just stared at him, while his eyes looked back at me. I saw them slowly close, and I felt his grip on my hand loosening. The drunkenness must have been getting back to him, especially with such an emotional moment going through his mind. I took his hand off me and placed it by his side before covering his body with the blanket. I saw tears drop out of his eyes even though they were closed, and my heart really stung as I looked at him. I felt so sorry for him, even though I didn�t really find out what happened. I wasn�t going to sit there and pretend to be someone he obviously cared about more than anything else, it would have hurt him a lot.
I turned my back on him and left the room quietly, closing the door behind me. Part of me told me to stay by his side, but I suddenly felt sadness wash over me, for whatever reason. I leaned my back against the door, and just stood there, mind racing with a million thoughts. I must have stood there for at least 20 minutes to make sure that there continued to be silence in the room before I got up and went back into the computer room. I picked up Eric�s jacket from the ground and climbed onto the couch to sleep, placing the jacket over me. It was now 2:40am, and with a long day behind me and as well ahead, I closed my eyes shut and tried to sleep, but the fear that washed over me earlier was now replaced by a type of unspeakable sadness.
I found that by 3:00am, I was still awake and couldn�t fall asleep. I walked back over to the shelf and took out the picture that was hidden between the two books, and that�s when it hit me. No wonder Minhee looked familiar, she looked just like me. Not a younger version, not an older me, she looked exactly like me. No, we were not identical, but there definitely was a similarity. This was probably why Minwoo had thought I was Minhee, especially since he was drunk.
If he was so sad to see Minhee�s picture, what did he feel when he saw me everyday, right in front of his face?
� Was this why he always pushed me away?
Chapter 18:
I heard some noise coming from Minwoo�s room and immediately placed the picture back in between the books, then crawled onto the couch. I have never been up so late on a school night before, my grandma always made sure I was asleep before 12:00am, and that seemed so early to me now. Minwoo was probably taking a shower since I heard the water running. I guess he had woken up and the drunkenness had worn off. I closed my eyes tight but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn�t get myself to sleep. I was starting to get mad, so I got up. I decided to go downstairs into the park behind the apartment for a short walk. Maybe that would calm me down.
The second I walked out of the computer room, as if we had planned this, Minwoo�s door opened and stood there stunned to see me, but he just continued to stare. I felt awkward underneath his gaze, and I knew he was thinking about Minhee. I couldn�t stand his intimidating eyes on me, so I started to walk past him towards the front door.
�Why are you still here?�
I stood still with my back still turned to him. Why was I still here? Haha, this was the last place I wanted to be tonight, and he asked me why? �You left me here, told me you would come back to drive me home tonight. Forgot about me, didn�t you?� I asked with coldness in my voice, back still facing him.
�I� I�m sorry. Did I by any chance talk to you as if you were� Minhee?� Minwoo asked me quietly, hesitating on his every word. I heard the sadness in his voice, and I all of a sudden felt guilty all over again for pretending to be her. �I swear I talked to her, I remember seeing her, but I can�t find her anymore. I looked all over my room, but she really isn�t here, yet you are� did I?� He asked again as I turned around to look at him. I had never seen Minwoo look like this before. I�ve seen him mad, I�ve seen him joke with his friends, I�ve even seen him cry from happiness when he thought he saw Minhee, but I�ve never seen him sad. His whole face was drowned out with his eyes filled with tears. Whoever Minhee was, she had an impact on him so large that must have made him happy beyond belief, but also sad beyond words. I choked on my words, not knowing what I should have said, but I knew I couldn�t lie to him anymore.
�Yes� when I carried you into your room, you were drunk, you called me Minhee�� I said quietly, avoiding telling him the rest of the story.
�And�?� Minwoo asked with interrogating eyes. That was enough to tell me that I couldn�t hide anymore, that he knew everything that had happened.
�And� I� answered.�
�WHY?! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO PRETEND TO BE HER?!� Minwoo screamed at me with so much anger in his voice that I shook with fear and looked down at the floor. When I found the bravery to look up at him again, I watched him lean against the wall and slide down on it until he was sitting on the ground with his head thrown back, crying with so much sadness in him. I felt my own tears come with guilt in every drop, and I just stood there not knowing what to do, crying with him. It hurt me so much to watch Minwoo cry. He wasn�t just letting out a teardrop or two, but he was literally crying, and his voice rang throughout the entire apartment. But, but what could I do?!
�I�m sorry, I didn�t know, I did it on impulse. Everyone tells me you had a rough summer, I heard you say things when you thought I was sleeping� who is Minhee?! I didn�t know, and I still don�t, but I wanted to know. I couldn�t take you being mean to me one day and care the other day, and I know somehow it has EVERYTHING to do with Minhee. Some people tell me not to ask you, while others tell me to find out myself. I� I didn�t know what to do, I�m sorry!� I screamed as I looked over at him, tears streaming out of my own eyes now.
�ARGH!� Minwoo screamed as he punched the wall behind him with all his might. He almost punctured a hole with his fist, and all the paintings on the wall dropped to the floor from the strong impact. I winced as I witnessed one painting fall right onto his hand, but he seemed so mad that he barely felt the pain. �Don�t tell me you�re sorry. Don�t make excuses for yourself!�
I turned my head to the opposite side of him, feeling his accusing eyes on me. I gripped onto my stomach with intense pressure in order to stop myself from trembling because I was literally scared out of my life. I didn�t know what I could do, but all I could come to terms with in my head was that my presence in that apartment was dangerous to both Minwoo and my own health, so I decided to leave. I bent down to pick up Eric�s jacket off the ground that I had dropped from trembling so much. Suddenly, I felt Minwoo�s eyes shift from my head. He practically jumped up from sitting on the ground, ripped the coat from my hands and threw it down the hall with so much force that it knocked down a large array of pictures and glass decorations off a side table. As the glass shattered on the ground, each sharp echo down the hall rang its high pitch noise right through my head. Tears flowed endlessly down my cheeks as small drops of blood from my grip on my stomach seeped into my nails and the fear and pain in my head screamed. Minwoo seemed completely unaware of my situation, but he backed off and continued to talk as I dropped to my knees slowly.
�You, you don�t understand. You look enough like her, and every time I see you, I want to push you away. Then you had to talk as if you were her, and and� I miss her, I really do. But I hate you Joo-Eun. You make me happy when I�m with you, and then I feel guilty that I�m happy when she�s gone, FOREVER. I want you gone, but then when you�re not around me, you always get into trouble. When you get hurt, I feel like I�m hurting Minhee. Why must you be around, why did you come into my life?!�
�I don�t know�� I said as I just sat there. The tears stopped streaming, my heart stopped shaking, and my face went blank. I always knew he hated me, but when I heard it from him, I felt like my world shattered. Everything I do, it�s as a replacement for the Minhee that left him. Everything that I am hurts him. Nothing I do is right; I failed him, just like I failed my parents. I couldn�t be what they wanted me to be, and I will never be the person that Minwoo wished I would be as well. I nodded my head softly, with the light from my eyes completely vanished. I stood up onto my shaking knees, fearing I would fall right back down at any minute, and started to walk towards the computer room to grab my things and leave.
�Joo-Eun, I-,� Minwoo said before I cut him off when I extended my hand to tell him to stop. I didn�t need to hear more about how annoying I was. I didn�t want to hear his pity and him apologize for his true opinion. I just wanted to get out of there. Walking into the computer room, my head spun at 100 miles per minute, as past memories and scenes kept playing themselves over and over again. I grabbed my bag and my cell phone, and left everything else there. When I walked out of the room, Minwoo was still sitting on the floor, but now he was the one with guilt written over his face. I didn�t want to see it.
�The project is just about done. I left everything on your table, please take a look over it. I�ll do your part too if you want me to. I�m going to go now, sorry about everything��
�Joo-Eun-.�
�DON�T! I don�t want to hear you anymore! I don�t want to be Minhee�s replacement because I know I�m nothing compared to her. I don�t want you to apologize for finally telling me what you wanted to say since you first saw me. I don�t want to hear anything!� I said with all the energy left in me as I ran with all my strength to the front door. When I got there, I had one hand on my mouth to stop myself from crying as I reached for the main door and stepped out of it.
�Joo-Eun! Minhee died last year today!�
I froze in my position, with half my body out his door and my hand still on the doorknob, ready to shut the door. Minhee� died?! I thought she had just broken up with him, or left to go to school somewhere, but she� she died?! This was none of my business. It was getting beyond some relationship, and something in me told me that I was just starting to scratch the surface of his nightmare. I turned around slowly to face Minwoo, who had followed me as I ran out of his house. He was now sitting on the chair that was placed near the front door for people to place their coats. His head was in his hands as he spoke; making it look like he was being forced to say things he didn�t want to.
�You can�t replace her, and I would never ask or want you to. I�m sorry, I know I�ve been really negative to you lately, but it�s been a year since she�s left. I couldn�t make myself happy no matter how hard I tried the whole summer last year, but when I saw you, I thought Minhee came back even though I knew it wasn�t possible, that�s why I pushed you away. You�re so much like her though, you make everyone around you happier and a better person, so much that I couldn�t push you away anymore even though I wanted to. I wanted you to just be here forever, so that I could be happy again, but then, I remembered Minhee, and when I look at you, I see her, and maybe it was around this date in particular, I didn�t want to see you, I didn�t want to feel guilty for being happy.�
I tore my eyes away from Minwoo and just stared at the ground, finding myself wanting to say things that I thought I never would. �I�m sorry, I didn�t know. If I knew that seeing me hurts you, bothers you� I would have left. I wouldn�t have sat around taunting your everyday. I� I�m going to go now, then you won�t have to see me, right?� I said, laughing at how pathetic I was sounding. �Then you can be happier, and you won�t have the pain of me being around,� I said as I felt my tears building up in my eyes again. No matter how many times my parents threatened to send me away, I never once said that I would leave on my own will, because I hate leaving those I care about, even if they never loved me back. I spun around and my hair followed me in one swift motion before I left through his front door once again. Why is it everyone that I ever cared for, they never want to see me around? Why do they always want to send me away? � Why am I always the person that hurts but yet the person that causes pain to others?!
I felt myself getting weaker, and no blood seemed to reach my head. I started to fall backwards, and I smiled at how I had to finally give into the pain of my stomach. For once when I was voluntarily leaving on my own will, my health got in the way, I had to laugh at how stupid this was. I felt my eyes closing, awaiting the impact of the floor�
But I fell into someone�s arms. I looked up at the face, but my dizziness was getting to me and my vision was blurred. Inside I knew it was Minwoo, but I couldn�t see him at all, everything in front of me was blank. I heard sound, but didn�t hear what any of it meant. I felt movement, but I had no idea where I was going. I knew I hadn�t faint, but I was definitely losing consciousness. Water was brought to my lips and rushed down my throats, immediately making myself more aware. I gripped my stomach to cause pain in order to awake my own senses and I slowly seemed to become more aware. I opened my eyes and stared into the concerned expression plastered on Minwoo's face, and slowly forced myself to smile.
Chapter 19:
�I need more water please,� I said in a weak voice when I was sure that I had regained my consciousness. I heard him rush to his feet to run to the kitchen, and I sat there staring at the ceiling. I guess many days of no lunch, delayed dinners plus no sleep can really kill someone�s health. I heard Minwoo�s footsteps approaching the computer room again, and I knew that I would have a lot of explaining to do.
�Here�s your water. You�re not getting out of it this time� tell me why you are always fainting, have constant stomachaches and take painkillers to hide the pain.�
I hesitated at first, but I knew I would eventually tell him anyways. �It�s this scar,� I said quietly as I rubbed it through my shirt. �Ever since I�ve had it, it has haunted my everyday. Whenever I am in times of trouble, or sadness, or just extreme emotions, it�s almost like I cut myself all over again, and the pain returns. It�s like a reminder to me, telling me that pain still exists in this world. My parents forced me to see a psychiatrist when I had constant pains around them and family doctors couldn�t explain it. However, they wouldn�t let me say anything about my situation back home, for fear of their reputation, so the psychiatrist could never do anything to help me besides subscribe me painkillers. I guess it works because I am the person giving myself these stomachaches. I tell myself that I should be hurting, and then the pain comes, so taking painkillers is like telling my head that it�s time to stop the pain� I must sound like a lunatic.�
I turned my head to see Minwoo rummaging through my backpack and coming up with my bottle of painkillers. He handed me one pill along with the glass of water, and I hastily took them happily and gulped down. Within a couple of minutes, the pain in my stomach stopped, and I took a deep breath.
�You don�t sound like a lunatic, but you can�t hide from your sickness. It has to be treated since you can�t just keep taking painkillers your entire life. I�m sorry for causing your stomach to hurt tonight. I realize I shouldn�t have yelled at you to begin with� I never was honest with you,� Minwoo said to me with concern in his voice. I missed this tone of speech he used, for the last week; it had been nothing but anger.
�I�m working on it. Could you take me home now? I know it�s late, but I know you don�t want to see me and-.�
�Please stay with me tonight Joo-Eun. Don�t leave. I don�t want to be alone in this house, hearing her voice and her laughter. I don�t want to runaway anymore, because I want you around me,� Minwoo said as he sat down on the ground, leaning on the edge of the couch that I was lying down on. I was stunned at what he said, and just stayed there.
I think, it was then that I finally understood why I was so tense around him, yet I trusted him with all my deepest secrets with a certain type of comfort. I was scarred on my body, forever feeling the pain physically to hide from the emotions. Minwoo was scarred in his heart and soul, forever feeling the pain emotionally. I chuckled a bit at the sad fact that sometimes knowing that there�s someone else feeling pain too in your life makes you feel better yourself. The things that I would never tell anyone else, I didn�t even hesitate to tell Minwoo anymore. It was a kind of bond we had� two people suffering in silence.
You see, scars never leave. Though the wound has already healed, the mark always remains in order to remind you of the constant pain. You can�t hide it, but you can learn to ignore it, learn to believe that it�s not there. I think it was that particular night that I started to for the first time in years, ignore the scar. Without the mental burden, I felt so much lighter. I smiled a bit to myself as I repositioned on the couch and slowly closed my eyes softly. I felt the warmth of Minwoo beside me, who was still sitting on the floor against the couch, but had his head thrown back, positioning it right beside mine. The feeling of security reoccurred to me once again, and I found myself staring at Minwoo again, who had his eyes closed, but had obviously not fallen asleep. I found myself holding back the urge inside me to kiss his forehead lightly, but I knew that this was neither the right person, time or place to do something on impulse like so. For the first time that night, I was finally able to go to bed without a load of stress on me. My eyes closed and my mind floated off elsewhere, out of my control.
� Call me insane, or a detailed dreamer, I recall someone planting their soft lips on my cheeks lightly and whispering,
�Good night Joo-Eun, I love you just like I loved Minhee.�
* * * * *
I woke up that morning to the chatter of someone�s voices, and I realized that Minwoo was no longer sleeping on the floor. I sat up slowly and started to rub my eyes with my sleeves, looking up into the unfamiliar surroundings. For some reason, I knew I was at Minwoo�s apartment, but waking up at someone else�s home makes you feel so lost. I was still half asleep when I started to get up onto my feet before almost falling right back down. I laughed at my weakness, but when I saw the time, 6:00am, I understood why. That night, I had so little sleep mentally, and now I was up ahead a whole day of school� this was going to be one long day.
I walked towards the door to the computer room, before spotting that down the hall, Dongwan had arrived and was talking to Minwoo by the doorway. I knew it was not good to eavesdrop on someone else�s conversation, but I honestly wasn�t trying to. I was more focused on thinking about how to run into the bathroom without being noticed. Inevitably, I picked up on parts of their conversation.
�Where�s Joo-Eun? Is she okay? I heard from Eric that she was looking pretty bad when he dropped you off. I felt so bad last night just leaving her here with you, but my parents rushed me home immediately because of something important��
�Don�t worry, she�s fine, she slept beside me all night, safe and sound,� Minwoo whispered quietly, perhaps for fear of waking me.
�� She� slept beside you?!??!?!� Dongwan practically screamed with his eyes almost popping out.
�SSSSSSSHHH!! Not like that, you idiot! She was on the couch, I was just sleeping on the floor!� Minwoo said before he slapped Dongwan across the head. I heard Dongwan�s slight embarrassed laughter before Minwoo pulled him in and shut the door quickly but quietly. I giggled a little bit before deciding not to disrupt their conversation and crawled back onto the couch to get some more sleep, after all, I barely had enough energy to stand up straight.
I hadn�t shut my eyes for long before I felt someone tug at my arm, and I groaned a little bit. I wanted to sleep, stop waking me up!
�Joo-Eun, get up� it�s 6am,� I heard Minwoo�s soothing voice beside me. I was so tempted to smile, but I was more interested in sleeping at the time.
�6am is early. The sun has barely risen, time for sleepy weepy�� I said, barely realizing what I said. When I heard Dongwan laugh out loud, I shot up from my position with my face as red as a tomato. �Sorry� I was dreaming,� I said, trying to cover up for my embarrassing comment.
�Awww, it�s okay Joo-Eun, but sleepy weepy time�s over, time to get you home to take a shower and change before school,� Dongwan said imitating my voice before he pinched my cheeks. I glared at him, while smiling at the same time, because it was just too cute to hear him in that voice. �You�re not one of those girls that take forever to get ready, are you?� he asked with eyes that seemed to dread the answer, and I laughed again before shaking my head to say no. He seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. �Good then, I�m going to take you home now, so you can get ready while Minwoo can clean himself up too. When you�re both getting ready, I�m gonna go get us some breakfast and meet you back at Joo-Eun�s house?�
Minwoo and I both nodded with the plan, while Dongwan seemed to be extremely proud of his idea. I got up and grabbed everything I needed, except for the project that I left on Minwoo�s computer table. I pointed to it and watched as he sadly nodded, before winking and leaving with Dongwan. I took one last look at the house before the door closed, and I almost felt sad to leave. So much had happened ever since I stepped in there. Minwoo�s attitude towards me changed once again, I discovered that my resemblance to Minhee was extraordinary and that sadly, she had died already. At least now Minwoo had nothing to hide from me. What I heard before I fell asleep last night was still somewhat bothering me, but I didn�t really want to think about it at the time. What a long night, stressful, but it almost felt good to just have everything out in the open. I felt Dongwan�s arm around my shoulder as he led me out of the apartment onto the elevator, and I almost fell asleep in his arms as I walked. He chuckled at me and started to hum lightly, making me even drowsier.
�Waiiiii� Dongwan, if you keep doing that, I�m going to fall asleep right now, and you�re going to have a hard time getting me into the car with all this fat I�m putting on!� I joked with him as I stuck my tongue out at him. Dongwan laughed as we heard the *ding* of the elevator and another man in it escorted us down. Again, we were greeted by many attendants as well as the clerk that was at the desk the night before. It seemed to take so long to get out of the building that I nearly collapsed when we finally got to Dongwan�s car. Once in, he started the car almost immediately and we were on our way.
�So where did you go yesterday in such a rush?� I asked, remembering Eric telling me that Dongwan had received an emergency call from his parents, therefore hadn�t come to pick me up.
�Uh� it wasn�t anything really. Some business partners of my parents came over and they wanted me to meet them since they want me to start paying attention to our business affairs, that�s all. Nothing special in particular.� Dongwan said as he focused on the road ahead him. I nodded and just turned my head to look outside the window. I was so tired, I really didn�t want to go to school. In my head, I started to go over the remaining things that I still had to do for my projects as I heard the music in the car slowly turn up.
�I can�t see the end
But is the road that I'm on,
Really the road that I want?
I have countless difficulties
And things that must be fought in my reality
I probably wont be able to win over all of them�
As the car headed closer and closer towards my street, three tall images standing outside my house started to come within eyesight. I squinted at the scene, trying to make out who was visiting my grandma, but it all seemed too blurry at first. However, the closer we got, the faster my heart beat. �No� it can�t be, it�s not possible�� I kept thinking to myself, but no matter how much I denied it, there they were standing on the deck with their malicious smiles.
My parents.
�But I must go on
I have nothing, I believe in nothing
But I have friends that believe me
Help me to get up�
- - - - -
(Author�s note: The song that�s playing in the car are the translated lyrics of Shinhwa- HIWAY(Ride With Me) thanks to gyoolyrics)
Chapter 20:
�Dongwan, do we have to go home? I don�t think I need a shower, I�ll go with you to buy the food!� I said quietly with my quivering voice.
�What? Ewwww� Joo-Eun, that�s nasty! Go home!� Dongwan said as he made a disgusted face and turned around the corner onto my street. I shook my head from side to side, looking for a way to leave without being noticed by my parents and my entire body was trembling. Why? Why are they here?!
�Joo-Eun� are you okay? I was just joking� you don�t have to look so panicky.�
�Stop the car.�
�What?!�
�PLEASE!� I screamed as I continued to twist my head all over the place surveying the area. Dongwan immediately stepped on the breaks to the car and turned to look at me, still full of questions in his head. I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed that the car had come to a full stop, just five houses away from mine. Everything was going through my head so fast that I wasn�t aware of anything but the fact that my parents were there. What do I do? Do I go home and pretend nothing has happened? Jump at them in happiness that they had come to visit me?! Learn to grow up and not care about their existence? I didn�t know what to do at all, so I just sat there, going crazy in my own mind.
�JOO-EUN! Snap out of it! What�s going on?!� Dongwan asked me as he placed his strong hand on my shoulder. Accompanied by his loud voice, I shook off my thoughts and turned to face him slowly, seeing the worry in his eyes. I took a deep breath, and remembered that Dongwan knew just about nothing about me. I don�t know why, but I had no intention of explaining to him. I knew there was no way out of it, because no matter what, I was going to have to go home. If I made it any bigger of a deal, it would have just caused even more problems. �Calm down Joo-Eun�, I kept repeating to myself in my head.
�Uhh, it�s nothing! Sorry, I saw my parents on my deck, and I didn�t know that they had come here. I was just taken aback and wanted to think of someway to surprise them when I walked into the house. I haven�t seen them in SO long!� I yelled out in the most ecstatic voice I could get myself to bring up. Dongwan kept his eyes on me for about ten seconds, seemingly confused. I was worried that he didn�t buy my story, but when he lifted his hand off my shoulder and reached over to poke my nose, I knew it was okay.
�You silly girl, always so caring of others. Let�s go home and see your parents,� Dongwan said with a laugh in his voice before he started the car again. I forced myself to give a very fake smile, but inside, I was fighting a war with myself as to what to do. I felt the car go over the small bump and onto the driveway as I held in every desire to just runaway. I glanced over at Dongwan who was unbuckling his seat belt, and decided that I had to just get this over with. It can�t be that bad, right? After all, he was here with me, as well as my grandma. Yeah� I got out of the car slowly, lightly shutting the door behind me as I stepped out of Dongwan�s car, and approached my parents. After hearing the car come up the driveway, they had turned around slowly, and I watched their bored faces bring up the more pathetic excuse for a sincere smile I had ever seen.
�Joo-Eun! You�re finally home! We got over here late last night, and when we called your grandma, she told us you were out. I�m so glad to see you! I was so worried! My little baby�s all grown up and staying out late at night!� My mom said with what sounded like a loving tone, but through these years, I�ve learned that she never meant it. I watched as she ran over to me and placed her arms around my shoulders, pulling me in for a long hug. Oh how I wished this were out of real love. I was still so stunned to see them here, that I didn�t say anything, and just looked at them with blank eyes. I woke up from my dream when I felt sharp nails dig into my back. �Say something� have you lost your voice?!� my mother whisper into my ear quietly to ensure that no one else would hear her as she continued to dig her fingers into my back. I flinched a bit before hesitantly playing along.
�Mother! Father! It is so good to see you here! Why have you come to Korea?!� I asked as happily as I could. When I glanced over to Dongwan, I saw that he was smiling, but it had a bit of confusion mixed into it. Was my acting really that bad?!
�� Mr. and Mrs. Kim�? Excuse me for interrupting your family moment, but� do you remember me?! It�s Dongwan, I met you last night when my parents called me home to deal with business affairs!� Dongwan said with a tone of excitement in his voice. My jaw nearly dropped to the floor when I heard what he had said. What? My parents were working with Dongwan�s parents? They were the ones that he mentioned to me in the car�? No wonder my parents were putting on such a big act, they had recognized Dongwan from the moment we stepped out from the car and had already decided to look like the perfect parents in front of him. I felt so disgusted to be helping them lie to one of my few friends.
�Oh my� Dongwan, sorry! I was so ecstatic to see my daughter; I didn�t even notice you there! Thanks for driving her home, I�m so glad she has friends like you over here, makes me less worried,� my dad said with such a real tone, that if I didn�t know him inside out, I would have thought he was the most caring person in the world. It�s funny though, I used to be happy whenever my parents said things like this to other people, because no matter how fake it was, it gave me the dream relationship with my parents that I never had. But for some odd reason, I wasn�t drifting in happiness, and instead was drowning in disgust. Have I really changed this much since I�ve arrived in Korea? I still craved for their love, but for some reason, I didn�t believe in it anymore� I didn�t hope that the things they said were true. I� I guess I grew up.
�Haha, you�re welcome Mr. Kim� I�m going to go now and get some breakfast for Joo-Eun. Would you like some too while I�m at it?� Dongwan asked politely to my parents. He had such a charming personality that it was no wonder all adults have always loved him. I needed him here with me though, for I knew that the moment he left, I would be faced with the intimidating questions and demands my parents would have for me. I pulled onto Dongwan�s shirt slightly, wanting him to take me with him, but when my parents threw me a look that could kill, I stopped and hung my head low.
�Dongwan, you�re so sweet. No wonder your parents love you. It�s okay, we�ve already had breakfast and we�ll be returning to our hotel soon anyways. You run along,� my mom said to him while walking over to give him a hug. In the process, she had pushed me aside towards my father. I felt my dad place his strong arms around my shoulders, and I shivered with coldness in my heart from the contact. Dongwan waved to me and left me there, standing with the people that I trusted least with my life. As his car pulled away and disappeared down the road, I felt him take my security away with him, second by second.
As soon as his car was out of sight, my parents turned around to face me, but their warming eyes were now replaced with those that burned with anger. I watched as my grandma shook her head and went inside the house, my father leaving with her almost immediately without saying a word. My mom then walked past me, but not before grabbing my hair and pulling it, dragging me inside with her. I yelped a little in pain, only to be given an even harder tug. Once inside, I stood near the entrance to the living room, where my parents had sat down on the couch, sipping their coffee slowly.
�Where have your manners gone? Don�t you even dare to give me attitude,� my father said with a new kind of harshness in his voice that I had never heard before. Out of fear, I didn�t dare to disobey, and walked over to kneel right in front of him on the couch, looking down at the floor. I was not allowed to look them in the eyes.
�You dirty girl, what has happened to you? We come over here, and find that you were staying over at a guy�s house last night� it isn�t out of the ordinary, is it? Where have your values gone? What if this gets into the news?!� my mother screamed at me as she pinched my cheeks with her sharp nails, and all I could do was kneel there and not make a sound. �But you know what? You�ve become smarter. I heard you were at some rich kid�s house last night, and now Kim Dongwan drives you home� hahaha� you�re finally learning,� my mother said to me harshly. Each of the degrading words that came out of her mouth stung me, making me feel like a cheap little girl and a tool free for their usage.
�They�re my friends. I never did anything against my morals. I just stayed there because I didn�t have a ride home.�
�Friends?! Hahaha, ever since you were young, you�ve never had friends. What makes you think you�re different now?! Don�t think that you�ve changed, to me, you�re still the same useless girl. Ugly, helpless, and pathetic. Who would want to be friends with you, not to mention Korea�s richest boys? Stop your lying,� my dad said to me as he continued to sip at his coffee. To him, this entire conversation was a joke, but they were joking about the only things that I had hope in these days: the only people that had ever potentially loved me in my life.
�But they are! They�ve helped me more than either of you have-,� I shouted before my mother harshly slapped me across the face. I had bitten myself on my lip since I was in the middle of my sentence, and now had a slight bit of blood trailing out of my mouth. I looked up from the ground with teary eyes, meeting the anger in their eyes.
�DON�T YOU EVER DARE TO RAISE YOUR VOICE AT ME AGAIN,� my father bellowed, as I silently cried in pain. Not from my cut, because I could barely care about anything physical� but rather because things would never change. Suddenly, I heard the footsteps of my grandma scurrying into the hallway, but there was nothing much she could do to help me anyways. However, I heard another set of footsteps behind her, and I knew that he had arrived.
�Lee Minwoo, please save me��
Chapter 21:
�Please wait here,� I heard my grandma�s quiet voice outside in the hallway, directly before the entrance to the living room. Minwoo�s polite response rang through the silence as my parents too realized that someone else had arrived. My grandma walked into the living room, only to find me on the ground crying while my parents were still sipping at their coffee as if nothing had happened. She painted a very disgusted expression across her face for about a second, before wiping it off and turning to my parents.
�Lee Minwoo is here for Joo-Eun, she�s supposed to have been taking a shower and getting dressed for school apparently. There�s a door through this room into the kitchen where she can sneak back into the main hallway and up the stairwell upstairs,� my grandma said trying to help them cover this up. I didn�t blame her though; she was only doing what�s best to ensure that I wouldn�t get hit further in the future. Strangely however, I saw my parents exchange a few weird looks, and then looked at me with confused eyes instead of anger� what the?
�Lee Minwoo� why does that name sound so familiar?� my father asked my mother quietly, almost whispering. I heard my mother whispering something back, barely audible, while I was still kneeled on the ground.
�Go,� was all my father said to me as I was discharged from the room. I quickly got to my feet and ran out of the room, through the kitchen, and out back into the main hall where the stairwell was. I could see Minwoo�s back turned away from me down the hall, so I crept up the stairs quietly and went into my room. Once I was there, I took a deep breath, grabbed all my clothes, and went into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Honestly, I didn�t want to come out, but if I didn�t go through with the act, my parents would only yell at me later. Having water splash down my face stung my cut at first, but I soon grew numb to the pain. About 5 minutes later, I got out of the shower, changed into some new clothes and got out of the washroom. I picked up my schoolbag and went back downstairs, only to find that now Dongwan had arrived too. However, my parents were nowhere to be seen.
�I thought you said you get ready fast?� Dongwan sarcastically stated as he stuck his tongue out at me.
�Sorry I took so long, I fell asleep upstairs for a bit,� I said, making up any random lie that came to my head. �Where are my parents?� I asked hesitantly, unsure if I wanted to know the answer to that question.
�They left already to go back to their hotel or something, didn�t seem to want to stick around for too much longer,� Minwoo said as he shrugged. For some reason, I sense coldness in his voice, but it wasn�t necessarily directed at me. It was almost like he had just finished having a verbal fight with someone. He kept staring at me, as if I was an alien, and intimidated underneath his gaze, I changed the subject.
�Oh� where�s my breakfast?! It�s 7:30am, we gotta hurry,� I said forcing myself to smile. We quickly sat down beneath the stairs and started to gobble away at the food. I ate as fast as I could, but the cut on my mouth was quite an obstacle. By 8:00am, we were on our way out the door.
�Joo-Eun, come here for a second,� I heard my grandma say to me in a quiet voice. I told Minwoo and Dongwan to go outside first and that I�d be there in a jiffy.
�What is it grandma?�
�� Is this how they always were to you?� she asked me hesitantly as she moved her hands onto my mouth to trace the cut. I winced a little in pain, but simply took her hand in mine and patted it lightly.
�It�s okay� I�m used to it. Don�t worry about me, I�ll be fine,� I said with confidence in my voice. I had no idea what I was going to do, nor did I have any intention to do anything really, but I didn�t want my grandma to worry about me. I gave her a quick hug and went out the door, not wanting to get Minwoo and Dongwan late with me.
�Joo-Eun, being friends with Lee Minwoo may bring you problems in the future,� my grandma quietly said to herself, which at the time I had not heard.
* * * * *
Minwoo had gotten into his own car and was ahead of us, since Dongwan was the only one that waited for me when my grandma had called me back inside. There were some light conversations in the car ride over, but Dongwan was really the only person that was interested in talking. He was so excited since finding out that our parents knew each other, but ironically, I was anything but ecstatic about that. I tried to reply all his questions, but inside, I wasn�t really focused on what he was saying. It almost sounded like gibberish to me.
�Hey, we�re here!� Dongwan shouted happily as he unbuckled his seat belt and turned to look at me, only to find that I was staring out my window in a trance. �Joo-Eun��
No answer.
Dongwan pulled at his hair and then got out of his car and went over to my door. He opened it and yanked at my ponytail lightly to get me out of my trance. �Joo-Eun! Are you okay? You seem kind of out of it��
I apologized and got out of the car quickly, not wanting to bother him anymore. I was thinking about a lot of things, but nothing really specifically. It was all just a mess, enough to give me a stabbing headache as we walked to class. Dongwan told me to get some extra sleep tonight to make up for what I apparently lacked.
We split up once inside the school as we took different courses. I found Yumi standing by her locker, and just sat down beside her while she gathered her things. She asked me what happened to me since I looked incredibly tired. All I said was that I had lacked a lot of sleep and that I would explain later. It was then that I saw Hyesung and Minwoo walk in together. I waved to them lightly, still sitting on the ground. They walked up and Hyesung sat down on the ground beside me. I was so tired; I just collapsed onto his shoulder. He laughed and patted me on my head for a bit.
�Poor Joo-Eun, I heard about last night. Sorry, we got kinda drunk,� Hyesung said as he blushed a bit, almost as if he was embarrassed. I smiled and told him it was okay as I continued to lean onto him. Minwoo stood there in front of me, with a look of concern still seemingly plastered on his face.
�Joo-Eun, what happened to your lip?!� Yumi all of a sudden shouted out. I had tried to cover up the cut a bit with makeup, but I guess it was still obvious. I reached up and hid the cut with my hands to stop everyone�s wondering eyes from seeing the cut, but it was too late. Hyesung grabbed my hand and pushed it away to see what Yumi had just screamed out about.
�It�s nothing, I just slipped in my shower and cut my lip a bit. Don�t worry; it�s no big deal! Can�t you guys tell that I was trying to hide it?!� I said with a joking tone. No one laughed though. �Guys, it�s nothing, just a small cut, I didn�t even remember having it.�
�That�s not a small cut Joo-Eun� should probably go see a doctor,� Yumi said as she bent down onto her knees and examined the cut closer. �Strange� it doesn�t seem like it was cut by something, more like you bit on it,� she said as she kept looking it over. I watched as Minwoo started to open his mouth to say something before�
�BOO!�
�AHHH!!� Yumi screamed as Junjin popped out of nowhere and scared her. Note to self: I owe Junjin one for helping me without knowing. Everyone seemed distracted as they witnessed Yumi literally jump up from being so scared and we all started to laugh, even Minwoo. �Junjin! I�m going to get you back for that!� she yelled at him before giving him a big long hug. Hyesung shook his head at how loving the two were as he and I both started to get up from the ground.
�Haha, have fun you two, we�re off to class!� I said to them as I walked off with Minwoo and Hyesung behind me. Somehow, I knew that there were things both of them wanted to ask me, but I wasn�t interested in replying any of them at the moment. I was more than glad to see Andy waiting in front of the science room. Admittedly, It was good to be in school again, away from all the stress at home. I was about to pounce onto Andy who was unsuspectingly looking through his homework when I felt two people pull me back, causing me to fall flat onto my butt as I was halfway into the air jumping.
�Waiii� that hurt!� I whined a bit as I turned around and threw dirty eyes at whoever had done so� Minwoo and Hyesung?!
�Ssssshh, we forgot to tell you, it�s Andy�s birthday today! So when he asks strange questions, pretend you have NO idea okay? We�re going to throw a secret party for him after school,� Hyesung whispered into my ear as my scary eyes disappeared and formed those of happiness again. I loved parties. I have never went to one that didn�t concern my parents, which made the idea seem all the more inviting in my mind. I nodded my head and flashed them an ecstatic smile before I approached Andy.
�ANDY!� I screamed into his ear, almost causing him to drop all his textbooks onto the ground.
�JEEZ! You scared me Joo-Eun! Hehehe, you guys are here already?! I thought I was early� today is such a nice day eh?!� Andy said, winking at me. I painted a very confused look across my face in order to pretend to be clueless.
�Yes� beautiful day?! You�re a weird one, let�s go to class!� I yelled out loud as I dragged him into the classroom, but not before noting his disappointed expression. I turned around and winked at Hyesung and Minwoo, who were trying to hold in their laughter. I was trying my best to sound excited and happy, hoping that that would get Minwoo�s suspicious eyes off me. Inside, I was hurting, I was scared� I didn�t feel secure with my parents around. I didn�t want the guys to be concerned for me though, they had helped me enough, and I was going to solve this on my own for once.
We all sat down at our group, and I watched as Andy twitched in his seat as if he was trying to think of something to say that would lead to us to realizing it was his birthday. It was incredibly cute to witness, and just as I was about to laugh out loud, Minwoo slipped a piece of paper into my hands underneath the table. I looked up at him with confused eyes at first, and all he did was give me a small smile. Slowly, I unfolded the paper and took a quick peek at what was written on it.
�I have to talk to you about something tonight. I think it�s something that I should tell you about as soon as possible, -Minwoo.�
After reading those words, my heart fluttered and immediately flashed back to what he had said to me last night before I had fallen asleep. Maybe life was getting better for me? Maybe it was time to stop being a pessimistic and start living again? Maybe� maybe I will find happiness afterall�
Chapter 22:
After what seemed like a never-ending day at school, the torture was finally over. As I walked from my last class to my locker, I felt some cold stares on me from random girls in the school. I was rather used to it by now. Ever since I got close to Minwoo, Hyesung, Junjin, Andy, Eric and Dongwan, this was the same treatment I got everyday. When they wanted to get closer to them, they were all sweet and nice to me, but the minute I was alone and away from the guys, I felt the coldness of their glares everywhere I went. Truth be told, they envied me and were angered at how such a plain girl like me had all the guys� attention. They were all many times prettier than me, more interesting, and all were more outgoing, but somehow, I was with them and they weren�t. I guess that angered them and I didn�t blame them, since till today; I am still confused as to why they would give me all their attention as well. I�m grateful though� without a doubt. Yumi along with the guys were the only, but best friends I have ever had in my life.
I hastily grabbed all the textbooks that I needed and just carried them in many hands. Ugh, I�ve always failed to understand why they needed to give us these thick textbooks when in reality we only used like half of it. I locked my locker quickly and started to make my way downstairs to meet everyone since we were going over to Andy�s to give him his surprise party. Just as I got to the stairway, I felt someone tap me on my back.
�Joo-Eun, I was going to meet you at your locker, but you�re ahead of me,� Hyesung said to me smiling as I turned around. I have to admit that he was one of the sweetest and most caring guys I have ever met in my life. �Here, give me your textbooks, I�ll carry them.�
�No! They�re so heavy, I�ll hold them myself,� I said as I protested and moved my textbooks to my other arm, but being clumsy me, I ended up dropping them all onto my feet. �Oww oww oww!� I whined slightly. Hyesung laughed at me before bending over and picking them up off the floor.
�You�re such a dork, told you to give them to me,� He said as he stuck his tongue out at me. I blushed a little bit in embarrassment and kneeled down to rub my toes through my shoes. �Haha, are you okay? Want a piggy back ride downstairs?�
�Keke, it�s okay, thanks a lot Hyesung, you�re way too nice. I think I�ll manage,� I said quietly before I got up off the floor, jumped up and down 3 times to work my toes and flashed a peace sign to him. �See?! All better!� I said grinning. Hyesung shook his head in defeat as we started to walk down the stairway together. We could see everyone else at the bottom waiting for us. Andy was jumping up and down trying to get their attention as we had purposely ignored him for most of the day. I felt sorry for him; he almost looked defeated and depressed. Silly guy, you should have seen him at lunch when he kept implying that he wanted cake and was craving for it. It was so funny and near impossible for all of us to keep our laughter in. Eric almost gave it all away when he started saying that he would get some soon, but of course, we all stepped on his toes before he finished his sentence. Eric�s face went completely red in pain as he placed his hand over his mouth to stop from screaming. I loved these guys; they made me laugh so much.
�Hurry up, you guys are taking soooooo long!� whined Andy as he continued to bounce off the walls. Sometimes I wondered where he got all his energy from, it can�t be normal for anyone to be THAT energetic all the time. Hyesung and I laughed at him before we made our way down the stairs as fast as we could. Dongwan, Hyesung, and Minwoo had all driven to school today, hence we all split up as we made our way over to Andy�s house. I had gotten in with Hyesung, Yumi and Junjin, and we immediately started to plan once the car was started.
�Okay, here�s the thing. When we get into his house, I guarantee you Andy will not shut up and continue to imply things the entire time. I say� Joo-Eun, you drag him away by saying you have something to give him or something, and being Andy, he�ll think it�s a present! Just give him some science homework or something, that should annoy him, hahaha,� Junjin said as he started to smile evilly. It was kind of scary, even Yumi started to shift away from him.
�Junjin, you look scary�� Yumi said, but not long after, she too painted a devious smile on her face, obviously having ideas in her head, �but that�s so smart! Haha, while Joo-Eun is keeping him occupied, we�ll look for someplace to hide or take something that will eventually lead him to us� OH! I know I know, let�s meet in the garden!�
I shifted my eyes from Yumi to Junjin, and then back to her. They were both gritting their teeth and playing with their fingers in this extremely weird way and to put it simply, they looked really evil. �Jeez� no wonder you two make such a good couple, you should see what you look like right now,� I stated, a little freaked out by their expressions. Hyesung laughed at me as he looked up at his mirror to see what I was talking about.
�Hahaha, she�s right! Anyways, that�s not a bad plan though, it would work!� Hyesung said before throwing Junjin his cell phone and telling him to call everyone else to inform them of the plan. Sitting there, I smiled to myself as I started to stare out the window once again. I wasn�t used to this kind of love between friends. No one had ever gone to such great depths to make sure I had a happy birthday� in fact; I had the bitterest memories of birthdays. But being part of this plan, made me feel so loved. I was leeching off their love for each other, and that was enough to make me drown in happiness.
* * * * *
Andy�s house was no smaller than Hyesung, and definitely no less artistically designed than Minwoo�s. No wonder my parents had made a big deal about the friends I had, they really were the richest boys in Korea. Being the shallow people that there were, I didn�t want them to know any more of my friends than those that they have already met.
We all got inside and dropped off our bags and coats. I took a peek around the large rooms, the beautiful stairwell, and all the extravagant designs. I was so taken aback, that I nearly forgot the plan. Suddenly, I decided to change it just a little to accommodate my own curiosity.
�Andy! I want to see your room, take me to it please?!� I said as I winked at him. Being Andy, he was more than glad to take me there, as he probably had 100 things to explain to me. He nodded happily, took my arm and dragged me off to his room, leaving everyone else there free to prepare.
�Joo-Eun�s quite smart!� Yumi shouted as she and everyone else started to rush off deep into the house.
Up in Andy�s room, I took a quick look around while I heard Andy�s description of anything I placed my hands on. His room was extremely neat, not a speck of dust was anywhere in sight. By his bedside, he placed a few picture frames there, and I walked up closer to it to look at them. I kneeled down onto the ground and studied each carefully as I felt Andy sit down on his bed behind me. There was a picture of him and his family, and they looked extremely loving. Then there was a picture of him and a girl that fascinated me, so I lifted it off his table and brought it closer to me.
�Whose this?� I found myself asking as I continued to stare at it. She was beautiful, with long flowing black hair while he was looking cute like he always did with sunglasses on his forehead. It looked like they were on a vacation trip somewhere, truly enjoying themselves.
�She�s my girlfriend. Her name is Stella, beautiful isn�t she? I haven�t seen her in so long. She moved to USA in order to further her medical studies and hopes to become a successful doctor. I miss her a lot, but I know this is what she wants. So smart, when I�m with her, I feel like I�m always being taught something,� Andy said with a bit of sadness in his voice. Holding that picture in my hands reminded me of the picture of Minwoo and Minhee that I had found last night. Funny how it seemed like so long ago. I got onto the bed beside Andy as I gave him a hug.
�It�s okay, I�m sure you�re going to see her again!� I said, trying to make him feel better. I felt him hug me back a little before pulling away.
�Thanks Joo-Eun, you always make me feel better. You have a way of making people happy without knowing it,� he said sincerely, and all I could do was smile at him before I turned my attention back to the pictures. There were many of him with the guys, and I picked one up of him and Hyesung, both completely drenched in water. I giggled a bit at how goofy they both looked.
�Ahhh� I�ll never forget that. Hyesung and I were having a little talk by ourselves at the park when they came up behind us and poured buckets of water on our head! Hyesung got soooo mad because they had ruined his perfect hair that day. Haha, it was funny!� Andy said, almost sounding completely happy again. I continued to giggle at how cute that story was as I held the picture in my hands.
�That�s definitely Hyesung, I can picture him checking his hair over and over again afterwards,� I said smiling to myself.
�Haha, you know� Hyesung and you would make such a cute couple,� he said winking at me. I was taken aback by what he had said, and just stared at him for a little bit before placing the picture back on his bedside table. A few uncomfortable seconds went by, and I knew I had to say something.
�Haha, naw� Hyesung is like a brother to me, I could never live without him. I am so thankful to him for the way he looks over me,� I said clearing it up a bit. I thought I saw disappointment written across Andy�s face, and at the time, I didn�t understand it so I just let it go.
Andy continued to stare at me blankly, and I was more than glad when he got up off his bed and broke the silence, �Hehe, alright. That�s just my opinion. Why don�t you go downstairs and find the others, I�m going to change first before I go back down,� Andy said quietly as he lightly pushed me out of his room. I couldn�t make out if he was a bit bothered, or maybe he was just tired, but I figured that I had bought enough time for the guys downstairs. Now the fun begins!
�Ahh, okay� I�ll meet you downstairs then,� I said with a smile as I left and made my way to the staircase.
Andy started to walk back into this room when he suddenly felt wetness soak through his soaks, �what the�?� he said quietly to himself. Looking up at the ceiling and seeing that there was no leak present relieved him for a few seconds before the sad reality washed over him. �Hyesung�� Andy whispered quietly to himself as he shook his head in dismay. With a bit of sadness, he went into his room, closed the door and changed.
When he had come back downstairs, I quickly walked up to him. We looked around and didn�t see anyone, almost as if they had deserted us. �Funny� where�d they go? Oh well, I�m gonna go get something to eat first, I�m starving,� Andy whined as he went into the kitchen. It wasn�t long before I heard a high-pitched scream that almost knocked me out.
�AHHH!! WHERE�S ALL MY FOOD! I�M GONNA KILL YOU ALL!! YOU ATE ALL MY FOOD!� Andy screamed as he went on a mad rampage running through the entire house, ready to kill. Realizing that this was part of their perfect plan, I sneaked away as Andy went crazy and met up with the others who were outside in the garden. It took Andy about 2 minutes before he stormed outside with eyes that were hot with anger. They quickly changed to show confusion when he saw all the food on the table outside.
�SURPRISE!� We all shouted as we came out from the bushes holding a gigantic birthday cake. Andy�s expression was something that I would never forget. It started off as mad, then confused, then surprised, then stunned, then happy, then ecstatic, then finally, conceited! Hahaha! It was like �I knew you guys wouldn�t forget my birthday because I�m the best� kind of look, and it made us laugh so hard as we placed the cake down on the table as well.
�Happy birthday Andy,� I said to him as we all went over and gave him a big group hug. He was beaming with happiness and was ready to cry at any moment. Once again, they made me feel so lucky to be part of it all. Never once in my life did I want to be exactly where I was, but at that very moment, I would give my everything to just stay there with these people. I was happy beyond words just being there, because� I felt like I belonged.
Chapter 23:
It was a Monday afternoon after all, most of us would eventually have to go home. I was dreading the moment, knowing that my parents were there, waiting for me. Since I wasn�t home to sleep yesterday, I had absolutely no choice or excuse to save me from going home and the inevitable was going to occur. Thankfully however, that it was only 6pm, and I didn�t plan on going home till about 9ish.
Sitting around, we were all trying to think of something fun to do, though nothing had come to our minds. However, being dependable Hyesung, he always came up with something.
�I know! Let�s sing some karaoke! It�ll be fun!� Hyesung screamed out loud, sounding completely ecstatic about his idea. While all of us seemed hesitant at first, Andy was more than glad to support him.
�OOH!!! YES YES YES! I want to sing!� Andy jumped up happily running over to his TV set to turn on the karaoke machine. Within minutes, he returned back to his seat with a couple of microphones and a large quantity of CD cases. �All the CDs are already in the CD changer, just tell me what you want to sing and I�ll switch to it!� he said as he beamed at us. Well, he was the birthday boy after all, and we were willing to do anything to ensure that he would have a great time.
�Okay okay, this song!" Eric said as he pointed to one of the cases in Andy's hands. "There�s some blank time in the beginning that I can rap to!� he stated, he too sounding excited. Eric liked to flaunt his English skills, or at least what he thought he had. To the rest of the guys, his English might have made sense, but I did come from the US after all� I could hear the difference and what he said, was anything but English. As the music started to play, Eric began to rap. �Hold up, Let's take it from the top hot box Booming System Floshin' pure rocks, in the six drop 4, minute on stop see money lookin' alright yeah what up pop plus the girl throwin' signals I'm throwin' em back flowin' cuz I found you like that, p baby boy style hopin' We match she set me crown royal with a note attached!� Eric rapped joyfully to the beat of the music. I admit he had talent, but what the heck was he saying anyways?! Taking a deep breath, he turned to look at me expecting my approval, but I couldn�t help but paint a very confused expression across my face.
�Eric� I don�t get it,� I said quietly before quickly hiding behind Hyesung sitting beside me.
�HAHAHAHAH! Joo-Eun, our English professional here didn�t get a thing you said! Proves how much English you really know, always showing off!� Dongwan teased as he pointed at Eric who was now beaming bright red. He picked up a cushion on the couch and swiftly threw it at me.
�Ahhhh! I�m sorry! But it�s true!� I hastily said before jumping off the couch and running out of the room with a very angry Eric after me.
�You could have at least pretended it made sense!� he screamed behind me. I heard the joking tone in his voice, but I kept running anyways, just for the fun of it.
�Joo-Eun, you�re dead now!� Yumi and Junjin joked as I ran completely out of the room, losing track of where I was. Suddenly, I noticed that I was lost within Andy�s big house, and like any mystery movie, I started walking towards any light source I saw. It didn�t take long, and I soon found myself outside on the balcony. Boy was it a beautiful sight! Off in a corner however, I saw a shadowed figure standing there. Thinking back to the living room, I realized that one person was missing from the scene.
�Minwoo, is that you?� I interrogated the shadow quietly in the darkness.
�Yeah� I�m glad you�re here, I wanted to talk to you,� Minwoo said softly as I witnessed the shadow walk closer towards me. He took my hand in his caringly and guided me over to the banisters overlooking the scenic beauty of Korea. I was a little stunned by how forward his actions had become, almost scaring me enough to have given me a heart attack. It was true though, my heart was literally beating fast enough to just burst through my chest. A thousand possible dialogues ran through my head as I envisioned what he wanted to tell me. The fact that it had to be in secret made me feel an even greater anticipation. Along with the stunning scenery, it made everything seem perfect. I wouldn�t have minded just staying there with him for the rest of the night observing the stars. Though it was just a childish dream, I�ve always wanted to just sit on a blanket with the one I loved, studying the stars that twinkled above our heads as we held each other tightly. Taking a deep breath, I took in our surrounding one last time before slipping back into reality.
�Korea is so beautiful at night,� I spoke calmly, trying to suppress the nervousness inside myself. I kept my eyes on the scene ahead of us, not once looking into Minwoo�s eyes. I suddenly felt two strong hands, one on either side of my body dragging me closer to him. If he had moved me any closer to him, it would be like he was hugging me tightly. What was happening?
�Joo-Eun, I need you to be serious and hear me out, okay?�
�� Of course,� I said hesitantly, slightly scared of his seriousness. I dropped my eyes to the ground, intimidated by the sincerity in his eyes.
�Okay� you know that you�re someone extremely important to me and that I would never want to see you hurt right?� he asked, then stopped expecting an answer from me. I just nodded lightly, hiding a small smile that was starting to form across my lips. �Good. I don�t think I should hide this from you because it has bothered you for a long time now. You deserve to know the truth�� Minwoo vocalized before slightly trailing off as if he had something big to say next. Both his hands were still gripping my arms tightly, as if scared I would run off. �This is about your parents and the fact that you are in no way responsible for their failure in the business world!� Minwoo finally screamed out.
My eyes flew up from the ground and stared him right in his intently. Not only was I surprised about what he was trying to tell me, but what did he know about my parents?! What did he know about our past? �What?!� was all I managed to say with an extremely shaky voice.
I felt Minwoo pull me in even closer to him, till he was literally hugging me. He placed his head on my shoulder and spoke quietly beside my ear. �Your parents used to be a powerful family in Korea, just like Andy's, Hyesung's, Junjin's, Eric's, Dongwan's and mine respectively. However, your family and mine were in direct competition, as we both specialized in the pharmaceutical industry. One day, your parents came up to my dad and made a proposel about a joint project between the two biggest medical companies in Korea. They had brought up a sample of their new drug, one that would heal just about any pains. Taking it into serious consideration, the idea seemed to be a great marketing idea along with a good drug. The day before the signing of the contract however, the extended testing of the drug results came out. My dad found traces of illegal drugs in your parent�s new medicine, enough to make people addicted to it and eat it for the rest of their life,� Minwoo stopped for a while to check on my condition. I had looked down at the floor again, trying to hide my oncoming tears, because honestly, this wasn�t something I wanted to know about. Noting that I seemed okay, he continued, �So my parents took the test results along with the drug to the police. I don�t blame them; this drug could have harmed a lot of people out there. Not to mention that in terms of business pursuits, this would indeed kill off their company, as I am sure that�s what your parents wanted to do to us by selling this drug to us in the first place. Without a doubt, the media was all over it immediately, and your family was suspended from ever working in the medical world again. They could have been persecuted and arrested, but because of the fact that the drug wasn�t released yet to the public, they had no way of proving your parents would have actually went through with it, that it wasn�t just a joke. I guess that�s when they moved to the United States to start a new life there, away from the horrible reputation they had gained here� You see, you can�t be responsible because you weren�t even born yet! I remember distinctively that they didn�t have any children at all!� Minwoo finally finished, still holding me tightly in his arms.
A single teardrop fell from my eyes and rolled down his black jacket before finally dropping to the ground. �Why are you telling me this?�
�I thought you would want to know� I remember you telling Hyesung while I had overheard it, that your parents had been blaming you for their business misadventures all throughout your life. It must be a strong baggage to hold, to feel eternally responsible for your parents� failures,� Minwoo said sincerely to me, but I couldn�t force myself to say �thank you� no matter how hard I tried. My hands were limp and stuck to the side of my body, in no way returning the hug he was giving me.
�� Why?� was all that I was capable of saying in a monotone voice.
Minwoo pulled away from me slightly, once again holding my arms. This was the first time he had noticed I was crying. A sudden look of guilt washed over his face almost instantly. �What�s wrong Joo-Eun? I thought this would make you feel better��
He didn�t understand the thinking going through my head. I recognized his good intentions, but they were not what affected me. Minwoo, in a few short minutes, had taken away everything I believed in. Maybe you would be happy to find out that you were not responsible for your parents� failures, but I sadly was not. Why? �You just took away everything I had hope in. All the years of my life, the only reason I could come up with as to why my parents didn�t love me, was that I had ruined their lives. Now I have nothing, absolutely nothing, to fall back on. Am I just a completely horrible person that they could never love? Am I a monster to them? You see, if I never did anything wrong, then� then they hate me just because I�m me,� I explained quietly before more tears fell from my eyes.
�Joo-Eun, that�s not what I meant to do. I�m so sorry,� He said sincerely.
�I know� forgive me, but I can�t force myself to say �thank you�,� I said, almost whispering before I turned around and walked slowly away from the balcony. I noticed that Minwoo was following me at first, almost as if he wanted to say something, but he soon stopped and just stood there watching me walk away.
I had never felt this hollow before in my life. I had nothing to believe in, no reasons to place myself in my fantasy world anymore. Minwoo�s story kept replaying itself in my head over and over again, and I couldn�t do anything to get it out. I just kept walking, until I was back into the room where the guys were singing karaoke in. They were laughing out loud, having the time of their lives, not even noticing that I had drifted my way back into the room. From here, I could see the main door, with my jacket and bag just lying on the ground. I walked over, picked everything up, unlocked the door, and opened it to leave.
�Joo-Eun!� I heard Minwoo scream out to me, immediately stopping everyone else�s activities and creating complete silence as they all turned to look at us. I didn�t want to stay there, didn�t want to disrupt the happy atmosphere.
�Happy birthday again, Andy,� was all I could bring myself to say before I stepped out and closed the door behind me.
To be honest, I had no idea where I was going. I felt like a drifter, just walking down whatever path was ahead myself. Not like I was really looking at where I was anyways, I kept my head down the entire time. When I found myself before a road crossing, I couldn�t take it anymore and broke down. Standing at the intersection, I just hugged myself and cried out everything I had. I found myself falling onto my knees, with my now long black hair flowing to the front of my face. Every single time my parents had shouted that it was my fault for their failures were now rushing through my mind hastily. The fact that I took a secret happiness in their lie was now coming to realization. I would have never gotten up from sitting there if it weren�t for a bright red car pulling up beside me. The person inside rolled down their window and looked at me for a couple of minutes before saying,
�Hahahaha, Joo-Eun, all your precious friends abandoned you, didn�t they?�
No one else but SungWook would ever say that to me.
Chapter 24:
Watching the door close behind Joo-Eun, Minwoo immediately ran after her, but not before Junjin and Yumi stood before the door with their hands on their waist, as if demanding an explanation. He tried to make his way through them, and it was at that time that Hyesung jumped up from the couch and approached Minwoo with an extremely mad expression written all over his face.
�MINWOO! What did you do to Joo-Eun now?! Why don�t you ever leave her alone?! Every time I see her after she meets you, she is crying! What is your problem?!� Hyesung said as he lunged at Minwoo, placing two strong hands on his shoulder and shaking him trying to get a response. The rest of the guys without hesitation immediately got up as well and pulled Hyesung off Minwoo, obviously concerned that his anger would lead him to hit Minwoo at any given moment.
�Hyesung, calm down! But he�s right Minwoo! You owe us an explanation! What just happened?! You ain�t going nowhere till you explain it to us!� Andy too, screamed at Minwoo as he held onto Hyesung�s arms tightly trying to constrain him. All the others holding onto Hyesung quickly responded with similar demands out of Minwoo, who seemed rather surprised that this much negative energy was directed towards him.
�It�s a long story! I�ll clarify everything later okay?! It�s not what it seems like!� he shouted out loudly before trying to make his way to the door once again. Junjin and Yumi however would not move out of his way, both seemingly unhappy with the response they had gotten out of him. He took one look across the room, at all the cold glares upon him, and the fire within him only grew larger. �GET OUT OF THE WAY!! I don�t have time for this! Joo-Eun just ran out there all alone in the middle of the night! I can�t explain it to you right now, I�ll do it later okay?! Just let me go after her before something happens!� He screamed, reflecting the anger that was once in Hyesung�s eyes. With that, he returned the glares to everyone and pushed Junjin and Yumi aside, running out of the house.
Everyone was stunned by the anger in Minwoo, but they were more taken aback by the concern he had for Joo-Eun. In his haste to leave, he had not shut the door behind him. Everyone watched as he frantically looked all over Andy�s front yard, running from place to place checking if she was hiding. When he realized that she must have left, he shouted Joo-Eun�s name out loud, before panicking and choosing a random path and running down it. Watching his head shift from side to side searching for Joo-Eun, everyone seemed to stay silent and just observe him. The concern he held for her, no one there could have predicted. Standing there in silence, no one moved until Hyesung made the first step and walked over to the door. He looked out at it for a long time, carefully studying his frantic friend, before closing the door in one swift motion and walking back over to the couch and sitting down calmly. No words had to be said, but everyone else soon joined him there. The night was no longer the same. No joyful music rang through the house, nor were there the sounds of laughter shared between friends. Hyesung picked up the microphone and started to sing in attempt to make everything return to it�s normal state, but the pain in his voice was clearly reflected in his singing as well as his choice of songs.
* * * * *
Minwoo ran through the streets like a lunatic, looking everywhere for Joo-Eun. She was seemingly nowhere to be found, and the worry in his heart for her was starting to grow. Seconds flew by, quickly becoming minutes.
�Where are you Joo-Eun? I never meant to hurt you� I�m sorry that I wasn�t considerate, please just come back,� Minwoo said quietly to himself as he continued to wonder through the streets, desperately searching for any trace of her everywhere. Just as he was about to give up and go back to Andy�s, he saw a bright red car that had stopped at the side of the road right before the intersection� not exactly a common place for a halted car to be at, considering it was blocking the traffic of people getting off from work. It was now 7pm, slowly getting darker outside. Minwoo squinted his eyes and studied the car carefully, wondering about the oddness of the situation. A man dressed in baggy jeans and a black jacket closed the passenger door as he quickly trotted over to the driver side, got in, and accelerated slowly. Inside the car, Minwoo thought he saw the outline of a female body as the car started, and instinctively, he ran after it worried that it might have been Joo-Eun. No matter how fast he ran however, he simply did not have the speed to compete with a sports car, and eventually had to stop and just watch it slowly disappear into the night. Somewhere inside Minwoo�s head, he suspected something about the situation as he slowly started to walk back to Andy�s house� but the thought of �Where have I seen this car before?� never did stop lingering around his mind.
On his way back to Andy�s house, he stepped onto the intersection he ran past earlier, and found a small object caught between the indents of his shoes. Kneeling down, he found a simple necklace with a heart-shaped pendant on the end of the chain. Minwoo looked at it for a while before placing it around his own neck, just for safekeeping. It was pretty, and he didn�t want it to go to waste just on the ground of the harsh world... it didn�t match the surrounding. For some odd reason, the second he placed the necklace around himself, a slight warm feeling filled him, making him feel calm and relaxed in comparison to just a couple of minutes ago.
* * * * *
�Hey� hey� WAKE UP!� a man screamed, his voice ringing through my head as I started to become conscious. �Phew� you�re finally up. Didn�t know what to do with you there for a sec,� the man continued. I felt his weight leaned onto the bed that I was apparently sleeping on.
I slowly opened my eyes as I instinctively looked around, and realized that I was nowhere familiar. A sense of fear started to run through my head. I didn�t dare to turn my head a little to see whom the man talking to me was. It certainly wasn�t any of the people I associated with often: their voices were a lot gentler.
�Yo! Snap out of it will you?! I don�t have all night here to sit here and talk to myself! I�m not one of your pathetic friends, I have no desire to look after you!�
Those words quickly led me to realize who it was. SungWook. Where am I and why am I with him!? I sat up quickly the minute I realized I was in his presence and moved far, far away. �Why am I here? No wait� Where am I?!� I demanded, trying to hide the fear in me with a somewhat tough voice. I always have to put an act on in front of him.
�Haha, you�re so stupid. Don�t have to space yourself so far away. If I wanted to do anything harmful to you, I had like an hour to do it already� give me a break. It�s not my fault you�re here. You fainted all of a sudden on that intersection, be glad I didn�t leave you there. As for where you are� what do you think?! See these plain white walls around you? You�re obviously in the hospital,� SungWook said to me in his usual snobby voice. I hated this man, but there was something about him that was different than the people in my past. Unlike all the other people that hated me before, he didn�t have that sense of� negativity in him when he spoke to me. Despite all the things that he had done to me, I couldn�t find hate in him towards me. I couldn�t and didn�t understand it.
I stared at him blankly for a while, not knowing what to say. The atmosphere soon grew to be quite tense within seconds, so without a choice, I was forced to say something. �Oh� Thanks for taking me here then. I appreciate the fact that you chose to help me despite hating me,� I lied, knowing deep inside that he did not really detest me. I wanted to hear what he would say though; it was another one of my curiosity problems.
�� I don�t hate you Joo-Eun.�
His words unexpectedly caught my attention, causing me to lift my head and to look at him closely for once. His features were soft with dyed gold hair gelled up at the top of his head. He seemed harmless if it weren�t for the tough face he always tried to put on. Looking into his eyes, I almost saw warmth in them, as if he was finally letting go of his image.
�In fact, I respect you a lot. Despite the pain and torture I�ve put you through, you are always strong� it�s admirable.�
�Thank you,� I said numbly, rather taken aback by the words he just spoke. I decided to drop the matter, knowing that it wouldn�t lead us anywhere. �Hey, could you hand me my bag so that I can call Minwoo and the-,� I was suddenly cut off by the cold stare of SungWook�s eyes on me. The warm smile and his sweet personality disappeared within seconds of my last statement, and I didn�t even take the time to finish my sentence. I was all of a sudden, scared to be in his presence once again.
�Get your own damn phone. I should have known that you wouldn�t be able to last 10 minutes without bringing up that pathetic excuse of a man. You know what? On second thought, you�re no better than him and the rest of his friends. Screw you. When the doctors come in and give you your report, I hope he tells you you have cancer so that I will never have to see you ever again� I�m so freaking tired of dealing with you all,� SungWook said in such a cunning tone, that I didn�t even know how to reply to it. He got up harshly, grabbing his cell phone off the bed roughly to leave, but not before throwing me a very dirty look and slamming the door behind him.
I sat there, staring at the door that was now slammed shut. Did I say something wrong? Just when I thought he had a human side to him, he exploded on me. Yet somehow, I knew this all had to do with Minwoo, given that the minute I mentioned his name, SungWook completely changed. Their history was deep, yet I knew I had to stop myself from getting too curious about it, much like the whole issue with Minhee.
I climbed off my bed slowly, almost falling down as I tried to stand up on my weak legs. I walked over to the table placed across the room, picked up my bag and quickly made my way back onto the bed. Going through it, I found my cell phone and called home. With my luck, my mom picked up the phone. I explained that I was in the hospital, but they could really care less.
�I won�t be coming home tonight� I fainted.�
�Oh. Why would you bother to tell me? Waste of my time. I could care less. If the media or Dongwan, or anyone special shows up, you best call me then. Don�t bother me now till then,� my mom said monotonously before she hung up on me. I didn�t even get to say bye� not that it would have mattered. Taking a deep breath, I held in the pain in me. They say bottled emotions are bad for your health, but I don�t think crying would have been much better either.
I thought of calling the guys, but decided that it wasn�t necessary. I�m all alone in this world, no matter what illusion I painted around myself that I had friends. What led me to thinking this? Absolutely nothing. But it was too much drama for one night. The words that Minwoo said to me were still stabbing at me, and the realization that there was no other reason for my parents to hate me rather than me just being me, was doubtlessly, painful. Lying down on the bed, I replayed Minwoo�s story through my head countless times.
�You see, you can�t be responsible because you weren�t even born yet! I remember distinctively that they didn�t have any children at all!�
That particular phrase rang through my head continuously, as if it was trying to tell me something. I turned my head to the side as I thought it over, but it didn�t take long before my heart literally skipped a beat.
It didn�t make sense! Minwoo and I were the same age. How is it that he was old enough to remember this entire event distinctively� yet I was apparently not born yet? How is it that he saw this entire incident take place, yet he was so confident that I was not born yet?! How is it possible? Am I not my parent�s child?!
� That�s not possible, is it?
No� it can�t be. My name is Kim Joo-Eun. I was born in the United States with my parents who were known in the media as the best parents in the world. I ruined their business plans when I was born, hence they hate me. Yes. That was my life story, was it not?!
� It was sad, but I realized that there wasn�t one fact in my last attempt to reassure myself that I actually believed in.
Chapter 25:
Minwoo paced around the science classroom, impatiently expecting Joo-Eun to walk in at any moment. After a night of frantic searches and infinite number of phone calls to her cell phone yet receiving no validation that she was safe, Minwoo was starting to become very worried. Hyesung was no different, guilt washing over him every second that went by for stalling Minwoo last night and not letting him follow Joo-Eun. Now he sat there, silently condemning himself with insults in his own head. Andy sat on the table without making a sound, watching as Minwoo scurried around the entire classroom asking about Joo-Eun, while Hyesung sat beside him absorbed in his own little world. He too was worried about Joo-Eun, but he realized early in the day that it was nothing compared to the two.
After Minwoo had returned to the house that night stating that he could not find Joo-Eun anywhere, people started worrying. They called her house almost immediately, but her parents said they knew nothing about her location at the time. Though seemingly concerned, they at the same time expressed more interest in whom they were talking to on the phone rather than their own daughter. The guys found this strange, but wasted little time and simply left the phone on hold. Searched as they did that night, no one found any trace of Joo-Eun while Minwoo spent the whole night trying to remember where he had seen that red car before, knowing that it may somehow be important.
�Guys, do any of you know who drives a red sports car in this school?� Minwoo finally decided that that might have been the last clue he had to finding Joo-Eun. He constantly tugged at the necklace he found last night around his neck, so much that it had started to irritate his skin making it burn a fiery red- not that he had noticed. Hyesung after hearing such a strange question lifted his head from his arms and started to think seriously, scanning his entire memory of cars from the school parking lot.
�I remember one at this school� why?� Andy asked noticing how focused his two friends were on trying to visualize the car.
�Before I came back last night, I watched a red car drive off after stopping at the intersection. I saw a figure of a girl in the car as well. I thought it would have been just any other couple, but now when I think back, it�s likely someone might have picked Joo-Eun up�� Minwoo explained as he tried to remember every little detail to the situation last night.
�Minwoo� WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU TELL US THIS NOW?!� Hyesung�s eyes almost burned with anger as he shouted it out extremely loud, projecting it all the way across the classroom. Everyone turned their eyes to them and Andy was suddenly glad that class hadn�t begun yet.
�I�m sorry! But you were the one that stopped me from running after her!� Minwoo yelled back, once again bringing more attention to them. No one had ever witnessed Minwoo and Hyesung fight before, as they were always presumably the closest of friends. However one had to be blind to not notice them drifting apart as the school year had slowly went by. Though no one questioned or even dared to start rumours about their friendship, many knew that it somehow had to do with that new girl, the one that all of a sudden took the attention of all six of the school�s most popular boys. Even now, people were sulking and making threats in their mind, hoping that Joo-Eun had died or that they would never find her. Evil, but then again, the minds of most teenagers were filled of hate.
Andy sat there shaking his head at his two friends that were starting to glare at each other rudely. He hated to see them fight, but he knew that this would happen from the first day he learned of Hyesung�s feelings for Joo-Eun. He sat there thinking to himself when he suddenly realized, �I KNOW WHO THE RED CAR BELONGS TO!� Andy screamed out loud, once again bringing more eyes to the trio sitting in the corner. When he realized that his two friends had stopped bickering and had turned all their attention to him, he spoke quietly knowing that this was not something everyone else needed to know. �SungWook is the one that drives the red car� I remember it distinctly now. Remember the time it was parked next to my car and we wanted to scratch it all up?� Andy asked, now slightly scared of Joo-Eun�s situation. Before he heard an answer however, he watched as both Minwoo and Hyesung bolted out the door, leaving behind all their possessions just before the teacher walked in.
�What the?! Was that Minwoo and Hyesung?!� Mrs. Lee questioned the class as she walked to the front. By this time, the entire class was dead silent after observing a long incident unravel right before their eyes. From worry, to arguments, to two crazy lunatics almost running over their teacher, they saw it all that morning.
* * * * *
SungWook stood there stylishly leaning against the school building with his friends. From a distance, they were obviously to be feared, representing trouble to even those that did not know them. Reaching into his deep pockets, SungWook retrieved a single cigarette and placed it into his mouth, waiting for others to light it up for him. One of the many boys there, all younger than him, immediately lit it up for him, while SungWook barely acknowledged his help. Inhaling the cigarette into him, he smiled a little to himself when he noticed three guys literally charge over to him.
Innocent bystanders immediately started whispering comments to each other, watching the tension rise as the clash between the Dragons and Minwoo, Hyesung, and Andy as they approached. All of them were definitely at the top of the school status chain, but respected by completely different people. It was like black and white, the Dragons instilled fear whereas Minwoo and the others were known for their kindness and friendship. Like any other clashing groups in society, they were rivals and every time they met, no one expected anything good to happen as a result. A worried Minwoo with an angry Hyesung mixed together with the Dragons was not a scene that Andy wanted to see, yet he knew it was inevitable since SungWook may have been the only person that knew anything about Joo-Eun�s location.
�SungWook! What�d you do with Joo-Eun?!� Minwoo demanded as the three approached them. SungWook could only stand there trying to hold in his laughter.
�Joo-Eun? Hahaha, she�s not of my concern, why would I have anything to do with her?!� he replied calmly without even lifting his eyes up from the ground to talk to Minwoo.
�I saw your car last night, I know you picked her up!�
SungWook harshly threw his cigarette onto the ground before placing his foot over it and grinding it to pieces expressing his hate at the moment. He chuckled to himself before finally staring Minwoo straight in the eyes as he closed the distance between the two. �Funny, I should ask you what you all did to her because she�s fainted when I found her. Tears coming down her eyes as she walked away from Andy�s house,� SungWook continued as he shifted his cold glares to each of the guys, �I�d like to know what you did to the poor girl� a lot of things come to my very imaginative and creative mind,� he finished before turning around and laughing with the rest of his gang members.
As they all continued to laugh stupidly, Hyesung�s anger was quickly growing by the second as his fists gripped together. He pushed Minwoo aside and with one swift motion, viciously hit SungWook across the face, knocking him to the ground as he was unprepared for such an attack. Loud gasps were emitted from the bystanders as they all witnessed the nice and quiet Hyesung take a punch at someone. Of all the people in the school, Hyesung had always been the person least associated with fights, it just wasn�t the image he had built for himself over the years. Younger students immediately started to watch excitedly expecting a fight, whereas older ones started to walk away from the scene knowing that it may turn sour. SungWook was still crouched down on the floor while the rest of the Dragons had stopped laughing and maliciously studied every action Minwoo, Hyesung, and Andy took next. Silence filled the surrounding for what seemed like an endless time.
�I�m not wasting time with you� where is she?� Hyesung finally said to the man on the ground, as calm as ever.
SungWook reached over to his mouth and wiped the blood off his lips, staining his white shirt with the deep red colour of pain. The Dragons started to advance on the guys, but SungWook raised his hand signifying for them to stop. �You have quite some nerve, never knew you had it in you, Hyesung-�
�GUYS! Joo-Eun just called my cell phone, she�s in the hospital!� Yumi cut off SungWook as she ran towards the group there shouting. Intimidated by the scene, she quieted down and recreated what might have happened in her own mind. Sensing the tension, Yumi tugged at Andy�s shirt in attempt to lead them away from the scene.
�If I found out you did anything to Joo-Eun-,�
�Is that a threat?� Sungwook interrupted Minwoo, his tone full of hate. Yumi just grabbed all three of them and started to push them away, leaving the question ultimately unanswered. As they disappeared from the scene and people seemingly stopped observing the situation, SungWook angrily punched the wall that he once leaned casually against, ripping the skin on his knuckles. �Just you all wait,� SungWook said quietly to himself as the sanguine liquid painted on the school�s wall rolled down drop by drop.
* * * * *
I sat there all night, watching the clock on the wall as its hands went in circles repetitively. I concluded that it was much like life itself. No matter how boring that second was when it ticked by, or how sad you might have been, time goes by at the same pace, never stopping. It was an endless cycle, which until the batteries runs out, you would always have to keep going, no matter how hard it got.
In solitude, time passes by incredibly slow, but it gave me time to reflect on everything. I lost all identity on myself and had absolutely no idea who I was by label, but I realized that I knew more about myself now than I had ever in my 18 years of living. Still the pain came to me that everything I had ever believed in was taken away from me all in one night. Throughout that long endless night, I�d cried, I�d dreamed, I�d felt lost, but regardless, I�d become numb to the pain. Somehow, I was hurting, but I didn�t feel it, nor could I explain it. It was at the point where everything goes by so fast that it�s like you�re not moving at all. I was basically, contradicting myself all night. As the darkness of the night faded away into the morning, I had decided to call Yumi and inform her on my location and situation. Realistically, I should have done it last night, but I was too absorbed in my own thoughts to have done so, even turned my cell phone off after I had spoke to my parents.
I took one look across the room, and noticed how bare and lonely it really was. Unlike in movies, my room wasn�t decorated with flower bouquets; I didn�t wake up with a great guy sitting beside my bed who had fallen asleep over the night. Strangely however, I felt at peace with myself. In that little room, I was sheltered from everything. Till I left that room, I would remain hidden from the problems and questions in my mind� as if everything was put on hold.
Chapter 26:
Sitting there being swallowed by the silence, I was just about to go outside for a peaceful morning walk when the door to my room was suddenly violently flung open. In ran seven bodies, and though it all happened so fast that any normal person would not have been able to see their faces, I knew who they�d be. I smiled to myself, realizing that the minute they entered the room, the empty void disappeared immediately.
�JOO-EUN! ARE YOU OKAY?!� Yumi screamed out loud as she ran all the way over to my bed and gave me a tight hug.
�WHOA! You guys are all here?! Haha, I�m fine, thank you,� I replied as I hugged her back before she pulled away and took a look at my condition. Satisfied that I wasn�t missing a leg or an arm, she poked me on the nose before winking at me. �What are you guys all doing here? Don�t you all have class?!� I interrogated them with questioning eyes, just to notice that none of them were smiling back at me.
�Joo-Eun! You should have called us when you got here! We spent the whole night looking for you!� Junjin lectured me as I moved my eyes to the ground and wiped the smile off my face.
�I�m sorry� I was a little caught up in my own affairs last night and I didn�t realize that I worried you all� sorry,� I whispered in a small voice, suddenly feeling guilty for not being more considerate.
�It�s okay, don�t worry about it. Are you okay though?! What happened?! Why were you with SungWook?!� Hyesung shouted as he pushed through everyone else and came to my bedside. I looked up into his warm and concerned eyes, coming to conclusion that this was a man who was not just a great friend, but also a wonderful husband to whoever was lucky enough to share the rest of their life with him.
�It�s a really long story� I left last night hastily because I had something on my mind, but the more I walked, the weaker I felt. When I saw him, I fainted not long after, and the minute I woke up I was already here. I don�t know what happened, but he was very caring and sweet� I never expected that out of him. He basically, took care of me,� I found myself explaining a situation that I barely understood myself. I recalled the incident that took place last night, and how he had been a completely different person, until I mentioned Minwoo. Looking up at Minwoo, he had not said a word since he arrived; yet I saw a sense of relief written all over his face. The name SungWook however, seemed to irritate him just as much.
�Okay, well I�m glad you�re okay Joo-Eun!� Dongwan said as he came by and patted me on the head. �I have to get back to class though, you know, end of the school year is hectic! I�ll swing by after school again,� he said to me along with Andy and Eric before they all embraced me and left. I smiled at their kindness, and without a doubt, felt a lot better.
Off to a corner, Yumi and Junjin were standing there hand in hand, preparing to leave too, but not before she ran over to me and whispered, �Are you sure you�re okay with the two of them here? I can stay if you want me too�� she explained quietly. I smiled and whispered back that I would be fine and to not let me hold her back from what she had to do that day. Hugging me quickly, she waved to everyone before leaving with Junjin, who wished me well too. With them gone, the room was suddenly just Minwoo, Hyesung, and I.
�You guys can go too, I�ll be fine,� I spoke for the first time since everyone left.
�I want to stay with you,� Minwoo and Hyesung both said at the same time by coincidence, taking all three of us by surprise. They looked slightly embarrassed, but to me they were both just purely cute.
�Mrs. Lee�s going to kill me for keeping you both here!� I joked as I stuck my tongue out at them. I couldn�t help but feel a little uncomfortable, with both of them standing in front of me, stiff like a tree.
�It�s okay. I finished my biology project, it�s all set to be presented tomorrow� I don�t need to be in class,� Hyesung replied, once again in that monotone voice.
�� Bio�lo�gy� PROJECT?!?! AHHH MINWOO! I FORGOT ALL ABOUT IT!!! When I left your apartment, I still had to do the live ecosystem and parts of the project here and there! We also have no presentation format whatsoever! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!� I panicked. How could I have been so dumb as to forget the project?! My alarmed expression emitted a laugh from both of them, making me feel slightly better, but it in no way calmed me. We had so much work to do, how could they still laugh?!
�Joo-Eun! It�s okay, I�m here, we�ll get it done tonight even if we don�t sleep!� Minwoo said as he ran over and sat down on the edge of my bed, pulling me into his arms while ruffling my hair and keeping my head down as if I was a little kid. I gripped my fist and started to pound him against his chest at a madman�s pace, but in no way using power for fear of hurting him.
�Let me go! Ahh, Minwoo yah! I�m going to kill you if you don�t let go! I have to do this project and you�re not helping me! Waaaiiii!� I whined and laughed at the same time as I continued to pound his chest with all the energy I had in me. He too started to giggle until he was laughing so hard that he had to let me go in order to bend over and grab his stomach to calm himself down. �You stupid dork! Look what you�ve done to my hair!� I pouted before blowing a piece of my hair out of my face. Minwoo just sat there like a stupid fool smiling at me.
�Hehe� you guys are funny to watch. Seems like you have a lot of work to do though, so I�m going to leave you alone� call me if you need anything okay?� Hyesung said quietly, in a voice where I could almost sense sadness in him. I stopped laughing and looked at him seriously, before noticing that he was leaving despite the fact that I hadn�t said bye.
�Hyesung!� He turned around slowly to look at me, his eyes for some reasons seeming slightly blank. �Thank you for always caring and looking after me,� I said with my best attempt to smile, but I was so taken aback by his facial expression that I could barely get the muscles on my face to do as they were told.
�Anytime Joo-Eun, always here for you,� he said softly before closing the door behind him, leaving Minwoo and I in silence. I stared at the door that shut me out from the rest of the world for a long time, almost forgetting that Minwoo was still sitting beside me on the bed.
�Joo-Eun, don�t worry about it. He�s just tired.�
�I know�� I said trailing off, somehow aware of the fact that it was much more than that. I didn�t want to discuss it with Minwoo though, as I allowed my mind to quickly flutter back to the fact that we were alone, just the two of us. �SO! Back to the project! We still have a lot to do eh?!�
�Actually� promise not to kill me, but� I did a lot of it eternity ago, I just wasn�t in the mood to talk to you then� so caught up in avoiding you I didn�t even realize that I put you through so much stress of doing the work then� sorry,� Minwoo said to me with sincerity in his eyes. Somehow, I knew it was still hurting him to be around me, and that he was trying his best to picture me as Joo-Eun rather than Minhee. I was grateful for his attempt� and even more thankful for him being civil with me. Undeniably, I was falling for him more each time I took a look into his deep eyes. Sounds dumb, I know, but I couldn�t help it. I picked my arm up and smacked him across the head.
�IDIOT! You didn�t tell me?! Blahs, oh well, at least now all we have to do is the presentation part,� I said smiling to prove that I was just joking with him. I pulled the blanket off my legs, and moved them off the edge of the bed, but as I tried to stand on them, I felt my body placing all my weight on what seemed like jello, almost falling to the ground before I felt two strong arms go around my back, holding me up. I looked up, surprised and shocked at what just happened, only to see Minwoo looking down at me with concern.
�What do you think you�re doing?! You�re still weak!� Minwoo yelled at me, still holding onto my waist as I tried to stand up and failed continuously.
�I wanted to rehearse with you as to what to say tomorrow� sorry, I didn�t know my legs were so numb,� I replied in a very quiet voice, face slowly burning up as I felt his warm hands on me. It was then that he got off the bed and placed one arm under my legs and the other one firm on my waist, carrying me back onto the bed and placing me down softly. �Thank you�� I said blushing a bright red tint. He let go of me as soon as he noticed that I had an unnatural look plastered on my face, and retracted back to sitting on the edge of the bed with his hands on his lap.
�Puahaha, you look like a cute little kid like that!� I couldn�t resist not saying, watching him sit there as if he was in kindergarten. He stuck his tongue out at me before the door to my room fluttered open, and in walked a man that looked quite professional.
�Hi there Joo-Eun, I�m your doctor. I�m just here to check up on you,� he beamed at me as Minwoo got up to give him room to inspect me. He looked through his clipboard for my information, and then quickly placed it down. �How do you feel?�
�I feel fine, just that I can�t walk�� I said quietly, obviously scared to meet new people. Somehow though, Minwoo�s presence in the room made me feel much more secure.
�Okay, well, that�s probably because your body is still tired and because you haven�t moved them for a while now. Don�t worry about it. No big problems, just that you�ve been really stressed lately and haven�t had enough sleep� Plus you haven�t had a lot of proper meals, have you? Watch your health, and you�ll be fine! I want you to stay for one more day though, and you can check out tomorrow night,� he said to me before turning around to leave. Tomorrow night?! That means I can�t present our project with Minwoo! No, I had to help him! I wanted to tell the doctor to reconsider, but by the time I lifted my head, he was already gone.
�Minwoo� that means� I�m so sorry!�
�Haha! Don�t worry about it! Do I look like I�m nervous to speak in front of the class? Dork,� he grinned at me again, making my heart melt.
We carried on a lot of light conversations for the rest of the day, but before it hit 3pm, we both fell asleep. Somehow though, I felt him stroking my hair as I drifted off to sleep, making up for what I lacked the night before.
* * * * *
SungWook stood there nervously, awaiting Jae-Sung�s arrival. They met often at the back of the school, where a dark alley was located. Most people dared not to step foot in it, knowing that it was property that belonged to the Dragons. Out of the shadows, the darkened surrounding seemed to change even more morbid as the outline of a man in a black suit became apparent.
�I heard of what happened between you and Minwoo�s group today,� Jae-Sung got right to the topic, not wasting a second�s time to even acknowledge SungWook�s existence.
�Sorry boss�� was all he could conjure up to say, looking away as he took his sunglasses off.
�No, I knew you wouldn�t win anyways� but I�m glad he approached you. Now Joo-Eun will be thankful to you for helping her last night, as well as guilty for getting you punched in the face. This is the first smart thing you�ve done in a while,� Jae-Sung spoke, taking down SungWook�s self respect with every word he let out of his mouth.
�Do we really have to involve her in this?�
At this, Jae-Sung turned around with anger and pinned him against the wall. �I�ve had enough of you trying to defend Joo-Eun. She along with her pitiful feelings are nothing but instruments of tool. Know your role, you are not here to defend her. You know we need to get them over to that basketball game in one month�s time. Don�t you even dare think of being her hero, she barely knows you,� Jae-Sung said harshly as he let go of him and started to brush off his shirt.
SungWook knew that there was nothing he could do but obey his every command. He himself wanted to save Joo-Eun, but he knew there was no possible alternative. With a tattoo burned into his skin on his back saying �bad to the bone�, he sometimes questioned it himself, wondering why he would even attempt to defend Joo-Eun� not like they really knew each other. �Joo-Eun, I�m sorry for dragging you into this, but I will never forget what Minwoo did to me, nor will I ever forget how Minhee died,� Sungwook thought to himself all alone in that alley. Anger filled up in him, and it didn�t take long before the small alleyway was full of hate and a sense of vengeance.
Chapter 27:
The sun rose bright and high, looking out at it seemed to weirdly warm my soul. Declaring that it was a good start to the day, I walked back over to my bed and picked up the bag of clothes that the guys had dropped off late last night. Searching through it, I came to the conclusion that none of which were clothes that I normally wore, most probably because I had thrown all my attire into the wash the night before my admittance to the hospital. Knowing my parents well, I knew they would not have done any chores since I was gone; hence my possessions were still in the dryer. Picking up outfit after outfit, I couldn�t find anything decent to wear since they were all old clothing. The only thing that seemed fit was a long denim skirt that went slightly below my knees along with a white t-shirt. I walked into the washroom with the clothes and placed it on, only to stare at my reflection in the mirror. I realized that I had changed a lot since I'd arrived in Korea. It was not even a year ago, but now I was looking at a different me. My hair was really long, flowing to just underneath my chest, yet it was completely straight and shone whenever light brushed by it. I don�t know if it was because I lived a better life here, but I was slowly putting on some weight, making my once bony frame slightly more appealing. I was almost happy with the way I looked, a satisfaction that I had never once experienced before.
Pacing out of the washroom back into my room, I started to contemplate on what I could do for the next 6 hours before I would have been allowed to check out of the hospital. The time remaining was equivalent to when school ends, hence Minwoo said he would come by to pick me up. It was rather amusing to me how the small, lonely room that I was in all of a sudden seemed so much more filled with love ever since they had come to visit me. Reminiscing back, I comprehended the fact that they did not even stay for long, yet their presence seemed to lighten my mood. That in itself was more than I could ever ask from anyone I had ever met previously. Finally giving in and realizing that there wasn�t much I could do to keep myself occupied, I sat back down onto the edge of my bed, pointed the remote at the TV, and demanded that I get a visual. Funny how playing games with yourself can sometimes be amusing. Channel scanning was a secret accomplishment of mine: I could change the channels so fast that no one would even be able to see a frame, yet I would know exactly what the show was. Glancing through the many channels, I suddenly stopped, watching a basketball game being played out shot by shot. I was itching to shoot some hoops, suddenly becoming impatient for the tournament the coming month. Something was suspicious about it though� the fact that all of us were invited by a bunch of gangs that despised our group seemed to be appalling evidence in itself. Why my presence was requested seemed to further my curiosity about the entire situation.
Putting the issue aside, I went into my backpack and retrieved a small package of thin, long paper. Decorated in many different colours that sparkled underneath the sunlight, I started to fold stars out of them. Halfway through the first star, I hastily took it all apart, and decided to inscribe little wishes inside. Writing slowly and carefully, I slowly sketched out the words that I never had the bravery to say to him. It somehow gave me the satisfaction, as if I had said it to him. I knew I would probably never be able to tell him myself, hence writing it down was almost enough for me. Looking over the delicate words, I smiled to myself lightly as I traced the sentence with my fingers:
�I wish you were the destined one to take me out of this tainted world.�
* * * * *
By 4pm, I had already folded 100 stars, all with their own individually hidden secret inside. Smiling at my accomplishment, I stretched a bit on my bed, just before my door slammed open and forced my eyes to see an extremely excited Minwoo.
�JOO-EUN!! GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT?!?!�
�What!? Did something or someone die?! Did you find a lost dog?! Found a whole whack of money on the ground?! WHAT?!� I screamed back at him, my eyes ready to fall out of their sockets after seeing the glow of happiness around him.
�WE GOT PERFECT ON OUR PROJECT!�
�YAHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!� I excitedly jumped off my bed and into his arms on impulse, as he twirled me around in circles. I was so happy inside my heart, not only that I was there with him, but because all the hard work had paid off. We had essentially completed something that both of us thought we were incapable of doing. Continuously spinning and spinning until we were dizzy, we collapsed onto the ground as I leaned against him. �I�m so happy! Thank you for presenting today without me, you must�ve done an amazing job!�
�Hahaha, course not! My presentation was so lame, it was all your hard work,� he whispered to me as he placed his heavy arms around me and pulled me into him for a hug. I without hesitation returned his hug with just as much love. I just wanted to stay like that forever� I didn�t need anything else. But like at any other time in my life, whenever something was perfect, things just had to come and ruin the picture because it was just too perfect. The world is sadly, all about balance.
The sound of high highs cracking against the cold floor led my eyes to a woman and man that I had stared at for all my life, yet they seemed more like a stranger with every glace I took at them.
�Let go of my daughter,� boomed my father�s voice as I watched my mother swiftly shut the door behind her. I quickly got to my feet and moved away from Minwoo, knowing that they would not want me around him ever since he told me their past relationship with his family.
�Daddy-,�
�Don�t daddy me. I have no such daughter that�s a traitor to the family.�
�Mr.Kim� with all due respect, she didn�t do anything to you,� Minwoo spoke quietly, yet I could hear how hard he was trying to hold in his anger. I wanted to run over and just push him out of the room, knowing that this was nothing I wanted him to witness. I wasn�t sure if I was embarrassed, or scared of what it might have become, I just knew that I didn�t want Minwoo there.
�Shut up. I don�t need your fake respect. You and your family were the ones that-.�
�Hey, watch what you say,� my father scolded my mother, reminding me that they were unaware of my knowledge concerning the past.
�I know everything already�� I added in softly. Normally I would have stayed silent, but somehow with Minwoo by my side, I found it easier to vocalize my thoughts.
�You know nothing,� my mother responded with a bit of fear in her voice, as if there was more to the story that I still had to uncover. I had had enough of this however. Whatever their purpose of coming, it wasn�t to do with visiting me.
Taking a deep breath, I fought with myself for what seemed like eternity before I suddenly blurted out everything that had ever been on my mind. �Why do you sound so scared?! What is there to hide from me?! Is there more to me that I should have the right to know since it IS my life?! Guess what mom and dad, I can see right through you. I don�t want to put up with your act of being the perfect parents anymore� know why? I doubt that you�re my true parents anymore. When you left Korea, you had no children� yet Minwoo and I are the same age but he witnessed you leave. How do you explain this? You know what? I know nothing about my identity, but worse yet� I don�t even know who the two of you are!� I screamed at them as tears started to build up in my eyes. The words I spoke indefinitely hurt me more than them, as they made me face reality� that these were not my true birth parents. It led to silence in the room, as my parents were stunned, and Minwoo realized that the story he told me had more to it than what the appearance of it was all about. I sat down on my bed, just filling my eyes with liquid as I watched her trot over to me. Holding in my fear, I prepared for the worst�
A hand slapped me right across my face, releasing all my tears from the pits of my eyes, sending them all the way across the room. The stinging feeling lingered over my face as my eyes replaced the tears it lost with new ones.
�I AM YOUR MOTHER! I RAISED YOU! DON�T YOU DARE DOUBT ME!!!!!!!!� my mother screamed in the sharpest voice I had ever heard as she too collapsed onto the ground with tears. Holding my own hand over the imprint that she had left on my face, I slowly lifted my face from the ground and looked at my parents before I felt Minwoo�s hands go around me and led me to leave, almost as if he was in a rush. Just before I got to the door, I turned around and whispered loud enough for it to be audible, �You never raised me� you left me alone, wishing for death� wondering what love was.�
Chapter 28:
Tearfully, I sat in Minwoo�s car simply replaying all the events that happened in the last few minutes. The things I said, I never pictured myself vocalizing to my parents� yet knowing that I said them did not make me feel any better. I was still the lost child that I was before, still confused having received no answers. The only difference now was that I felt hollow inside, almost guilty for speaking my mind after I saw my mother�s pathetic form on the floor. Instinctively, I reached up to my neck and tried to place my shaking fingers around a small necklace that I had owned since I was a child. Finding that nothing came in contact with my senses, I started to panic and searched all over my body for the precious piece of jewelry. I wiped all the tears off my face as my eyes darted around the interior of the car with a clueless expression, leaving a very concerned Minwoo sitting beside me as he tried his best to focus on the rode ahead of him.
�Joo-Eun, what are you doing? What are looking for?� he asked in a soft tone, yet I could hear the worry in it.
�I need to find it� it has to be here somewhere!� I answered without really paying attention to him, frantically going through my bags that Minwoo had brought out for me. Throwing pieces of clothing everywhere and completely emptying the bag, the delicate piece of jewelry was still nowhere to be found. When I didn�t see it, I unbuckled my seatbelt and started to hunt for it all over the car.
�Hey Joo-Eun! Sit back down and put your seatbelt on! That�s very dangerous!� he screamed at me as he pushed me back down with one hand, trying his best to drive at the same time. But Minwoo did not understand the significance of the necklace. Ever since I could remember, I had that necklace with me everywhere, and it was the one possession that I was able to keep with me no matter how mad my parents got. It also somehow, provided me with a warmth that I found in no other person when I was younger. It compelled me to think that my parents were indeed at one point, very loving people because I could feel the power of the emotions the person that gave it to me had placed into it. It was a small heart necklace, inscribed on it were the letters J.E., which I had always presumed was short for my name. Whenever I had problems letting go of negative feelings and needed to regain my hopes, all I had to do was be assured that my necklace was there, and I knew that the person who gave that necklace to me would guide me through the rough terrains of life. I always thought it was my mother who gave it to me, and I still did� but I didn�t know who my mother was anymore, so try as I did, I couldn�t picture the original owner�s face.
I got back up despite Minwoo�s protest and searched like a maniac, every crevice I saw in the car. Giving up, Minwoo pulled the car over to the side of the road and placed it to a full stop. �What are you looking for Joo-Eun?!� He asked, almost sounding mad as he turned quickly to face me. It was then that I saw a small silver pendant fly out of his shirt that he had unbuttoned at the top. I looked at it for the second, suspecting the fact that it could have been mine. When I saw the small J.E. carved onto it, I suddenly felt at peace. At the time, I completely disregarded the questions I had in me as to how he got it. Such a little fact seemed almost insignificant.
Smiling to myself, I explained to him, �� I found it. It�s right where I want it to be.�
* * * * *
From a distance, I distinguished the six people sitting at the table as the guys and Yumi. We had decided to meet at the park just to relax a bit after most our projects and assignments had been completed. This marked the beginning of the last three weeks of school, quickly approaching the exam dates.
�Hey you guys are so late! We�ve been waiting for eternity now! What were you doing?!� Andy screamed out at us as we neared the group.
�We ran into some difficulties, sorry. It was my fault,� I spoke quietly, remembering the incident with my parents and the fact that Minwoo had to stop the car for me to search for my necklace.
�Joo-Eun, we�re just joking with you. You should have just blamed Minwoo!� Junjin joked as he continued to hug Yumi who sat perfectly in his arms. Sometimes I envied them, other times, I was just more than happy for them to find someone that they could love so deeply.
�Guys, we need to decide whether or not to go to that basketball thing eh?� Dongwan questioned as he twirled a ball around on his fingers, barely focusing on it at all.
�I don�t think we should go�� Hyesung started, sounding a bit worried about the entire situation. I couldn�t agree more with him, but yet a part of me told me that if we didn�t go, there would be even more consequences.
�What about the threats they made to Joo-Eun?� Minwoo asked, all of a sudden pulling me closer to sit down beside him. �To be honest, I don�t understand why they asked her to go at all� she has nothing to do with any of this.�
�I agree� there�s something, a plot of some sort behind all this. I do know that if they asked Joo-Eun to go, they�ll come and kidnap her if they must. Somehow, I feel like we should comply with what they asked� just for the fear of further problems�� Eric stated slowly as he grabbed the ball from Dongwan and started dribbling it on the ground. �Besides, we can beat the crap out of them,� he winked at all of us.
�Okay� so it�s settled, we�re going?� Yumi asked, adding to the conversation.
�I say the girls stay home, we�ll go,� Minwoo answered.
�We�ll see then, okay? Anyways� school�s too stressful, I�m going home to sleep,� Andy yawned in an adorable fashion, enough to make me slightly giggle. �Joo-Eun, stop laughing at me! Do you need a ride? I�ll take you home��
At that comment, I just stared blankly at him. I realized now that I couldn�t really return �home� after the outburst at the hospital, but where could I have gone? �I can�t� go home� I need another place to stay,� I replied quietly, sinking lower and lower into my seat, almost from embarrassment. As if it was on cue, everyone turned their heads to Minwoo, expecting him to know something about the situation, and indeed he did. I watched as he just shook his head to notion for them to stop continuing with the questions.
�It�s okay Joo-Eun, you can stay at my house if you want, I have lots of extra rooms,� Hyesung said as he smiled at me.
�Or mine,� Minwoo stated bluntly beside me. I looked at Hyesung, then Minwoo, and back to Hyesung. Back and forth my eyes dodged, glancing at the both of them. It was funny how caught in the middle I had felt recently around the two.
�Err� guys, she�s a girl, don�t you think it�s strange for her to live with you? I say you come to my house Joo-Eun, I haven�t had a sleepover with you since the beginning of the year!� Yumi asked, swiftly resolving the conflict that had arisen. I nodded at her comment in excitement, silently thanking her. Everyone else seemed to think that that was a good suggestion, and from there, we went out separate ways.
* * * * *
�Okay! So here�s your stuff, hope you don�t mind sleeping on the floor Joo-Eun,� Yumi spoke to me as she handed me my bags along with a sleeping bag and pillow. She unlike the guys, was not rich and simply lived in a little house like I did. Her parents loved her very dearly though, and hence disapproved of her sleeping on the ground. I was thankful for her parents forcing her to sleep on the bed, knowing that I would have felt extremely guilty if she gave me her bed.
�No, this is perfect, thanks!� I replied, setting up my sleeping station on the ground as Yumi started to fluff her pillows on the bed.
�You know, I think Hyesung and Minwoo have a thing for you. They�re ALWAYS fighting for you!� Yumi suddenly asked out of the blue as she stared at me intently with a devious smile painted on her face.
�� What are you getting at?� I asked, returning her smile. �I�m just a plain little girl, why would either of them like me now?� I answered, winking at her.
�Oh, don�t pretend you don�t see how they are around you! You know it too!� she said pointing an accusing finger at me.
I smacked her hand away from my face and replied, �I don�t know anything! I think you�re going crazy, get some sleep!�
�Puahahha, sure sure�� she paused for a second, �So, do you like either of them?� she continued to pursue the topic, making me whine and drop down to pretend to sleep. �Hey! Answer me!� she said as she kicked me with her feet.
�I don�t know, leave me alone!�
�OHHH!!! YOU DO DON�T YOU?!? OH OH OH!! TELL ME!�
�Good night Yumi!� I said while holding in my laughter and hid underneath the blankets. Two seconds later, I felt a pillow hit me over the head.
�JOO-EUN! Tell me now!!!!!!!� she roared at me, while I just ignored it, smiling to myself. After a while, she gave up with a pout and turned the lights off, mumbling to herself as she slowly fell asleep.
Her questions and statements rang loudly through my head, yet I couldn�t come to conclusion for any of them. The conversation continued to preoccupy my thoughts until I heard a strange sound coming from my bag, which I quickly recognized as my cell phone. Digging it out, I left Yumi�s room and picked up the phone.
�Hello?�
�Come home this instant,� a female voice boomed on the other end of the line. Part of me was scared, while another part of me just wanted to hang up.
A debated my options for a long time, before deciding that this was the time to grow up and leave their dreadful world. I replied firmly, �No. Good night mom,� and hung up, ignoring the screeching coming from her. Placing my cell phone on the ground, I sat down beside Yumi�s room and took a deep breath. I had ended my parents� influence on me� and began to move on with my own life.
Chapter 29: End of school year, 3 weeks before tournament
The last few weeks had gone by extremely quickly, finding myself in the care of my best friends seemed to lighten the weight on me. It was our graduating year of high school as well, and I was growing more excited with every day that went by. My parents continued to call my cell phone endlessly for the first week, but their attempts were futile when I hung up harshly every single time. They once got so mad that they literally tried to kidnap me away from Yumi�s house, but the guy�s showed up in time, and to save what little image they had remaining, they left quietly, but not without anger. Dongwan spotted this and went home to tell his parents, trying to cancel the business ties with my parents, only to be yelled at and warned that he best start learning the rules of the business world. Mr. Kim was right though, whatever happened at home really had nothing to do with their business� it simply wasn�t enough reason to break ties in the business world where it was all about the connections you held. It was a dirty world, where people had become numb to all the negative aspects of life. All they saw was money and the benefits they�d receive out of a deal. None of the guys� parents however were without reasoning, and all the guys were loved just like any other parent would love their children. Something to be thankful for I suppose� it was a love I never knew.
I never had the desire to talk to my parents again, feeling like I had cut every connection I had off� except one. Despite how much I tried to stay away from them, they knew there was one thing that would bring me back crawling on my knees to them. Never once in my life did they abuse my definition of love as strongly and disgracefully as when they decided to call me one last time. It was a test that I failed miserably at, crumbling to their expectations and selfish goals once again.
�Don�t hang up,� came a voice on the other end of the line the moment I placed the phone to my ear. I was at Minwoo�s house at the time along with everyone else, but had moved away from the commotion to pick up the call. Once I recognized it as my mother�s deathly voice, I rolled my eyes and was just about to press the �end call� button when the voice spoke again, �or you�ll never find out who your true parents are.�
Stuck in a moment of trance, I didn�t know what to do. There I stood, looking out into the distance, not knowing what I was focusing on exactly. This was where it all ended up in. Their manipulation of me went beyond excuse, and they knew that I would subject to anything to find the true definition of family. �What do you want from me?� came my response in a raspy voice, unable to hide the sadness and anger that had been mixed into one. Years of pain came rushing through my memory, yet nothing seemed to hurt me as much as this. That had stooped to their ultimate low, knowing that they were unable to control me like a chess piece anymore� not without this.
�Come back to America with us� for just two short weeks. One last show for the media,� taunted the demanding voice, painting the image of my mother�s smirking face clearly into my head. In disgust, I dropped my hand to the ground as I sat down slowly, contemplating what little choices I had. Biting on my lips to hold back the anger coming to my head, I picked up the phone again and quietly whispered, �I�m coming home.�
* * * * *
It took me a while to convince the guys to drive me home; Yumi especially would not let me go after seeing how they forcefully tried to take me just a few days ago. They didn�t understand my circumstance however, I really had no choice. With a firm promise that I would explain later, that this was something I had to do, they took me regrettably, home.
Minwoo had driven me home, but not a word was exchanged on the whole ride over, as if he was waiting for me to open my mouth and vocalize what the problem was exactly, but I wasn�t prepared to explain to anyone� not even him. The entire situation was stressing me enough, hence I leaned my head against the window and just let everything fly away, and for that split second, I actually believed my thoughts really had left me in peace.
�Joo-Eun, why are you doing this?� came his hesitating voice. Everything returned to my mind, and I could only evoke a small groan.
�Minwoo� please give me a few moments of silence. I need the time to think about what is happening myself,� I explained as I turned my head to face him just as he stopped in front of my house. �I�ll be fine, and I�ll explain everything soon enough.�
I heard him begin to say something, but I gently covered his mouth with my small hands. I refused to cry because of this, having shed enough tears for my parents in the past. Gritting my teeth to hold back the undeniable urge to break down, I just shook my head lightly and whispered, �I�ll be fine�� as softly as I was able to. Removing my hand, I opened the door and stepped away from my protection and slowly approached the entrance to hell. I heard Minwoo leaving his car as well, and I angrily turned around telling him to stay there. Protesting, he was on his way up to me before I looked at him with genuine eyes and mouthed the word, �Please.� A saddened look painted across his face as he stopped dead in his tracks and slowly backed away, pain written all over his face. I didn�t want to keep him out of my life, but I didn�t want anyone to be dragged into my mess anymore.
Taking a deep breath, I turned my key and entered the house. The dark surrounding was enough to remind me of the lack of love that graced this house. Out of the corner of my eyes, I watched as an elderly woman whom I recognized as my grandmother hastily walk out towards me.
�Joo-Eun! It�s been so long since I�ve seen you!� she yelled as she embraced me into her arms, which brought back a lot of warmth in the otherwise cold house. �Your mother and father have left for the airport already, but they left me with a letter to hand to you. Don�t go with them Joo-Eun, the life they�ve provided for you is not one that you deserve.�
Slowly, I left my grandmother�s arms and stared into her eyes deeply. She was the one person that I had received any family love from what I recall, and I cared for her deeply. Watching her concern for my safety written all across her face made me feel guilty for placing stress on her. �I have to go� there are some things that I need answers to. I love you grandma. Stay safe,� I said to her with a smile on my face as I took the letter from her hands and walked outside again. Skimming the few lines of text written on the letter, I knew what to do. My parents had gone back to US earlier, so that they could pretend to be picking me up at the airport. I was then supposed to go with them to a ball later on that night, meaning I had to get a dress before I took the plane. I guess they had noticed the change in me, and were determined to show me off to the media one last time before I completely disregarded their presence. I honestly lost all will to even compete with them, agreeing to everything they had set out for me. The only thing I regretted was�
I was going to miss my own graduation.
Crumbling up the letter and stuffing it into my pockets, I ran down the steps to my house, wanting to scream out loud and release my anger, but held it all in for the sake of remaining sane. As I trotted down my driveway, I saw Minwoo�s car still waiting there, and at the first glimpse of me, he came running out towards me.
�Are you okay?!�
�I�m perfectly fine� thanks for waiting Minwoo. My parents weren�t even here, don�t worry!� I tried to say with a smile, and I guess I somewhat succeeded at it. I thought about whether or not I should tell him that I would be leaving by tomorrow night, but decided that I could always break the news later. �Minwoo, could you do me a favour and drive me to the mall?� I asked quietly, realizing that I still needed to purchase a ballroom gown.
�Of course! Let�s go!� he said to me ecstatically, as if thinking that everything was okay and everything was going back to normal. How I wish that were true.
* * * * *
We spent many hours at the mall together, walking in and out of shops trying dresses on. Minwoo had left for a while, saying that he needed to search for a tuxedo for himself. The last store I stood before was quite expensive, yet I knew I had to pick just the right dress or I would only bring more hardships for myself. The moment I walked in, I was approached by a quiet, polite woman who was determined to talk me into purchasing the most expensive dress there was. I simply told her that I had something in mind already and sent her away. Glancing at everything, I was about to give up when I noticed a beautiful pink dress that went all the way down to the ground. It was somewhat puffy, but yet not as drastic as those portrayed in fairy tales. It was held up by spaghetti-straps, and the neckline dropped enough so that it wasn�t tight against the neck, yet modest. With floral designs running all throughout the dress emphasized by little white crystals, I knew the dress was perfect. Peeking at the price, I found that it was $900 American, a price that I most definitely could not afford. Sucked into its beauty however, it was as if I was possessed, taking it off the rack and walking into the dressing room to try it on. Idiotically, I stood there looking at the dress in the mirror, and was about to take it back outside without even putting it on when I decided that it was all in the fun. Taking off my clothes, I carefully removed the dress from the elegantly designed hanger and donned the fragile but beautiful piece of silk. Almost scared to open my eyes, I looked at the reflection in the mirror and immediately fell in love with the dress. It must have made me look a hundred times better, and it fit to every crevice and turn in my body as if it was tailored specifically for me. Opening the door, I stepped outside into the store so that I could walk around in it and decide whether it was comfortable. At that exact moment, I saw a man walk out of the men�s changing room and quickly recognized it was Minwoo. Oh the coincidences in the world.
�Minwoo!� I called to him, watching him swirl around looking for the person that had called his name. It took him a while to catch on to the fact that it was me that yelled his name, surprisingly. He stared at me for what seemed like eternity, and as if it was a medical breakthrough, he all of a sudden realized it was me, Joo-Eun.
�Ohhhhhhhhhh my���.� he trailed on as he walked over to me in a snazzy suit, looking very good I must admit. �Is that YOU, Joo-Eun?!� his jaw dropped to the floor.
�Hahaha, dork! Stop pretending I don�t look like I normally do!� I smiled to him as I poked him on the forehead. �Looking verrrry good there,� I said again, this time winking at him.
�No seriously. I didn�t know it was you. Oh my. You look really good!� he said, suffering to find the right words, almost stuttering.
�Come here!� I said as I grabbed his hand and pulled him to a large mirror at the front of the store. �Look how good you look!�
�It�s not me that looks good,� he said quietly, as I felt his hand snake around and grab me by my waist, pulling me closer. Slightly embarrassed, I blushed a bright red and looked into the mirror. We looked like the perfect couple, comparable to all the prince and princesses in children books. I was not a pretty person, far from it, but yet the innocence in my face seemed to blend in with his cute appearance, and topped with amazing clothes, we were quite something to look at.
�I like the way we look,� he said quietly. �By the way, why did you need a dress?� he asked, still holding onto me. My heart skipped a beat, realizing that this cued my explanation to the fact that I was leaving tomorrow night.
�I� I need this to�� I began, still hesitating.
�Wait, shhsh. I�ve been wanting to ask you. Do you want to go to the dance after graduation next week with me?� he asked sincerely, looking into my eyes through the mirror. His question caught me off guard, nearly making my knees feel like jello. I turned to face him and looked right into his eyes. A glow of happiness was surrounding me, yet I was filled with sadness inside, knowing that I would not be in Korea at the time to attend the event with him. All my dreams were happening, yet it was as if I was woken up right before the climax. Disappointed, I looked down onto the floor and began my delicate answer.
�I� can�t believe you asked me out of all the beautiful girls at school. More than honoured, I�m so happy at the moment, yet I�m sorry, but I won�t be able to go�� I said, looking up from the floor to see the hurt in his eyes as he let go of me. �I�m leaving tomorrow back to the US for two weeks� my parents are demanding my presence there. If I don�t go, I will never get a grip on my own life. I need to separate from them� but for that to happen, I need to fall under their control, this one last time.� I whispered between breaths as I desperately tried to stay composed. I felt strong, built arms surround my shoulders and pulled me close. I was so vulnerable that if at that moment he asked me to stay, I probably would have never mustered up enough willpower to leave.
Minwoo however, was one of the few people that truly understood what I needed to hear, and beside my ear, he quietly said, �At least let me buy you this dress so that when you wear it, I can pretend that you were wearing it for me.�
Chapter 30:
Considering the fact that I had told them I was leaving one night before, there wasn�t much time to make any extravagant plans or goodbye parties. I was rather glad about this however, knowing that it would have made it all the more harder for me if they had done such things. The guys were shocked, but it was almost as if Minwoo had briefed them beforehand, hence none of them asked me to go into detail. Yumi had pulled me aside and handed me a phone card, telling me that there was now no reason for me to hesitate calling her for any reasons at all.
Standing at the airport now, I pulled all of them close to me and we embraced for a long time, making us seem like a football huddle more than a group of friends. Hiding myself in the mess of shoulders between us, I found myself feeling completely warm, both inside and out. Gripping the ticket in my hands tightly, I carefully disassembled our group so that no one was taken by surprise and fall to the ground, something that was very probable considering they were all like little children trapped in adult bodies. With all the energy drawn out of my body credited to all the packing I had to do overnight in order to prepare for the leave, I decided not to stay there for long. Boarding the plane and getting some shuteye was probably smarter than standing there with them for another hour and eventually fainting. One by one, I approached them and gave them a small hug.
�Andy, thanks for always making me laugh, I�ll miss you,� I said quietly as he hugged me softly.
�Call often, okay?� he whispered as he let go of me and gave me a faint smile. Nodding, I walked over to Dongwan and gave him a hug as well.
�Be careful Joo-Eun. Now that I know what your parents are like, know that you can call me anytime for problems okay? I�m sure I hold some sort of power on business transactions,� he said to me as he winked. I couldn�t help but smile, fully understanding that it was said to comfort me more than it being true.
Eric placed an arm on my shoulder, and I too placed a hand on his shoulder, then we nodded at each other approvingly. After we burst out laughing, he placed his arms over me and hugged me as well, making me smile. �Always here Joo-Eun,� he said between giggles yet sincerely.
Walking over to Junjin and Yumi, I knew they were going to give me another group hug, as there wasn�t one thing that they didn�t do together. �You two best be the same when I come back!� I screamed out loud only to be smacked across the head by Junjin.
�OF COURSE WE WILL BE!� he yelled with a grin on his face and I couldn�t help but laugh at the two of them.
Walking over to Hyesung, I saw the sadness on his face, and couldn�t help but wonder if what Yumi had said before was correct. �Hyesung, thanks for everything that you�ve ever done for me. I�ll never forget it,� I spoke as he hesitantly hugged me as well. Lightly, I moved my hands over to him and just stayed like that for a second as I felt his grip on me tightening.
�Please stay safe Joo-Eun. If anything goes wrong, we�re all still here waiting for you,� he spoke with such a serious tone that it slightly scared me, yet I appreciated his care. I simply thanked him and gave him another hug before I walked over to the only person remaining, Minwoo.
�Idiot! Don�t forget my number, yah?� I snickered as I stood stiffly in front of him. Minwoo just looked away for a second before turning back towards me with a smile on his face. Jokingly, he opened his arms as wide as he could and placed on a cocky look, as if I wanted to hug him and he was just doing me a favour by standing there preparing for it. Laughing, I mimicked him and opened my arms as wide as they would go and copied his face, making myself look like an idiot as well. Everyone was laughing at us before we gave in and just approached and embraced each other tightly and caringly. The way he pressed me against his body was as if he wanted to push me into his soul, but undeniably, I liked and wanted to be that close to him. I felt his hand stroking my hair lightly, and it took me a while before I found the right words to say. �Minwoo, don�t forget me okay? Two short weeks� I�ll be back.�
I could feel his lips spread apart as his smile moved the hair on the side of my head. �You best be back in two weeks then, otherwise I�ll pretend I never knew you,� he taunted with a tease in his voice, but that was enough to convince me that I was not to stay a day more in the US. We stayed still for a while, just laughing at each other when I heard the announcer call out the number to my flight.
Unwillingly, I pulled myself away from Minwoo�s arms, and started to back away from the group before I stood right beside my luggage. Bending down to pick it all up, I took one last look at the only group of people that had ever cared about me, and waved lightly, trying my best to hold in the tears. Two weeks was not a long period of time, but for some reason, once you know what love is� you don�t ever want to let it go. Before I knew them, I didn�t know what loneliness was because I grew up with it as my best friend. But now, I was so accustomed to the noise, the laughter, and the jokes, that without it, I grew scared of the path I had to walk alone ahead of me. With one last smile towards everyone, I turned swiftly around, taking a capture of the perfect friends and engraved it into my mind, never to let it fade.
* * * * *
The plane ride over was long, but the silence that filled the entire plane provided me with the optimum opportunity to let my tired eyes rest. It had been a while since I�ve had some good sleep, and knowing that there was going to be little ahead of me, I closed my eyes and let everything that was clouding my thoughts float away at its own leisure, with no desire whatsoever to even force myself to forget certain aspects.
The minute I got off the plane and had claimed my luggage, I was greeted by two strangers that I have come to call �parents� over the last few years of my life with wide open arms. Without a doubt, there the media was, many with cameras on their backs taping every little word my parents and I exchanged. Not that I minded however, considering the fact that there wasn�t anything personal being said; I was just following a secret script that had been constructed in the brains of my parents. Once we reached our old house, they didn�t even bother asking me how the plane ride over was, and simply sent me to my room, demanding that I be ready in about two hours. Walking into my bare room, I noticed now how deprived I was as a child. Instead of the pink walls that surrounded most little girls� rooms, my room was painted a sleek beautiful layer of� white. There was one light in the entire room, casting dark shadows onto my desk whenever I had to sit down and do work. The bed was tiny, one that I had outgrown when I was just seven. Off to a corner, there was a very simple cupboard, which used to store the few pieces of clothing I possessed. In the otherwise large room, there were exactly three pieces of furniture, all off to opposite corners of the room. With a large space in the middle, my room appeared to be bare, abandoned, and desolate. It drove me crazy just standing there looking into the room that I was once glad to be in.
Settling all my luggage down beside me, I sat down onto my small bed, holding onto a large box that was carefully wrapped. Opening it with as much care as possible, it revealed the beautiful dress that Minwoo had bought for me. I was determined to pay him back over time, but at that moment, I simply could not afford it. I was somewhat determined to make my parents regret not raising me well, so that they would actually miss showing me off, unlike in the past when they were literally ashamed to call me theirs. Taking the extravagant dress out of its box, I cautiously hung it on the little peg behind my door. Going into my closet, I found the few pairs of shoes that I had left here when I traveled to Korea, and quickly spotted the pair of light pink heels I had stuffed into the very back years ago. Unpacking the little clothes I bought over, I took out the large makeup box that Yumi had lent me considering the fact that she had plenty.
It took me awhile to get ready, but when I was done, I had a bit of time remaining. Sitting there enveloped in the bareness of my room, I started to think about my true parents, and I wondered if I had actually met them before. I knew for a fact that they were loving; I could feel the love and warmth of my mother whenever I wore my necklace. Now that I�m without it however, I didn�t necessarily feel any less of it though, possibly because with it around Minwoo�s neck, I feel as if both of their love was surrounding and flowing into me.
It didn�t take long before I heard my mother�s screech project all the way upstairs, demanding my presence. Sitting up, I took a deep breath, straightened out my dress, and took one last look at the mirror. I had left my hair down on purpose, and it was all the way down to underneath my chest. Straight and pure black, it reflected the innocence of the dress in many ways. It was just two weeks; I knew I could do it. I was older now; different than the last time I had stepped into the room. I knew I had the ability to stand up to my parents, and given that sudden rush of power, I was confident.
My purpose here was no longer to please them, but to find the past that I so desperately sought for. Given that, I started my way downstairs, walking slowly and carefully, adjusting to the shoes that had been unworn for about a year now. It wasn�t like in fantasies where the minute you walked down the long unraveling staircase, you would find approving parents and your true love drooling at your every movement�
I was walking down a lone staircase in a darkened house, with only the vague movements of servants cleaning the house that the owners had otherwise left abandoned. Sometimes, I had to wonder myself enviously; did the people who wrote those perfect stories live perfect lives?
Chapter 31:
Pushing open the exquisitely engraved double doors, I paced into a scene with beautifully gowned women and men that were dressed in tuxedos holding champagne glasses. Everyone was talking amongst themselves, and I could tell by their fake laughs and lack of actual interest meant that everyone there was talking about themselves. With my hand linked with my father and my mother on the opposite side, all the attention soon turned to us as I realized people started to whisper and gossip, wondering who I was. I had no idea I had changed this much, it was almost as if they questioned whether my parents had adopted a new daughter.
Immediately, a couple with warm smiles approached us and exchanged hugs and kisses with my parents. �Hi David and Karen, its been long since I�ve seen you� and who may I ask is this?� the woman asked as she pointed to me with her gloved hands. Taking a closer look at her, I concluded that she was not someone I had met before, yet judging from her style and confidence, I could tell that she was a powerful woman.
�Why, this is Julia, don�t you remember her?� my mother spoke with grace, gesturing to me. It had been a while since I�ve heard someone refer to me as Julia, my American name. �Remember? I�ve mentioned her to you many times. She�s my daughter that was studying in Korea!� she said almost proudly, and I could only wave to the woman with as much manners as I could possibly.
�Ohh! This is your daughter? My, she�s beautiful!� the woman spoke as she walked in closer to me and pulled her into my arms, a hug that I returned as I donned a fake smile that glowed and seemingly attracted even more curious eyes across the room. I was baffled, and didn�t understand why they kept looking at me, but quickly dismissed it as the fact that maybe I was just sensitive to the attention. I felt the woman pull away from me as she placed her hands on my cheek, taking me by surprise. �Come with me, I�ll introduce you to some people,� she said with a twinkle in her eye, one that I would later become scared of. I took a look at my parents, only to be ushered off by their hands as they pushed me towards her.
As she took me around the room, I listened and learned that others referred to her as �Mrs. Lee�, and tried as hard as I could to keep up with all the people that she introduced me to. It wasn�t until she brought me to a particular man did I suddenly pay attention to all the words she spoke within a minute. Staring at him, I felt myself going crazy, and I thought it was just an illusion at first, that I had missed him too much, but when biting my lip and drawing blood did not make this image leave, I realized that it was real. Standing in front of me was a man that wasn�t identical to Minwoo, but certainly looked enough like him.
�Julia, this is Brian, he�s a really powerful and successful young man!� she shouted into my ear as she introduced me to the Minwoo double. She was soon tapped on her back by others that had arrived to the party, and apologized for having to depart, leaving me with this man that I did not know.
�Hi there. I�ve never seen you before, what was your name again?� the man named Brian asked me, snapping me out of my trance.
�Hi! My name? It�s Joo-Eun� Umm, I mean Julia,� I said as I noticed a strange look appear across his face, as if he was bothered by something in my statement. Thinking that it was my idiocy, I immediately tried to cover it up, �Sorry� I just came back from Korea, forgot that people call me by my American name here.�
As if what I said had caused him great interest, he stepped back a bit and looked at me with intent. Embarrassed, I looked onto the floor instead of at him. �Haha, it�s okay. Sorry if I bothered you. Do you by any chance know someone named Minwoo?� he asked as my eyes immediately darted up to him. My face was of shock, eyes widely opened and mouth dropped to the floor. Minwoo�s name had that effect on me, but furthermore, I did not expect to hear it here in America, especially not from him.
�Minwoo� Lee?� I asked, swallowing my fear, or rather shock.
�Yeah� he�s my brother.�
I remember standing there for the longest time, not saying a word� just observing him. It was no wonder that they so greatly resembled each other, but yet something told me they were not close at all, especially because of the fact that I had never even heard of his name before from Minwoo. In fact, I didn�t even know he had a brother. �Wow� Are you serious? That�s so� wow! I didn�t know he had a brother,� I stated bluntly, confusion written all over my face.
He simply stuck out his hand, a gesture that I took happily; glad to have met someone with connection to the people I strongly missed. �Haha, I�m Brian, president and CEO of Lee Pharmaceuticals,� he declared with a type of confidence in himself, almost snobbery, but I quickly eliminated that thought and scolded myself for jumping to conclusions when I barely knew him.
* * * * *
I spent the remaining part of the night sitting and chatting with Brian, his personality was so outgoing and nice that it didn�t take long before we struck up both intellectual and entertaining conversations. My parents seemed happy enough that I had met him, apparently he was an important person and through him I also met a lot of other people that night. I found it weird though, how negative they were towards Minwoo, yet they seemed more than glad of my interest in Brian.
That brought up another stir in me. Why had Minwoo never mentioned his brother before? Even when I was in his house, I had never seen a picture of Brian before, which was strange because I found his house littered with pictures of his parents everywhere, obviously a person who took great pride over his family. Thinking that I had found his long lost brother or something, I picked up the phone excitedly and immediately dialed Minwoo�s number.
�Hello?� came the voice on the other end that I promptly recognized as his.
�MINWOO!� I screamed into the phone with great energy, �Look how much I love you, you�re the first person I called since I�ve arrived,� I said to him jokingly, though meaning it sincerely in my heart.
�JOO-EUN! FINALLY DECIDE TO CALL ME HUH?! I�ve been waiting for like over 24 hours now!� he screamed at me into the phone, making me laugh out loud, which in turn earned even more scolding from him.
�Hey! It all makes up for the fact that you never told me that you have a brother!� I yelled back at him happily, but the response was not what I expected.
�What brother? I don�t have one.�
�What? I met him today at the ball�� I stated hesitantly, slightly scared of the situation presented at me all of a sudden.
�Hyesung wants to talk to you,� came his short reply as he quickly handed the phone over. Surprised, I shook off the negative conversation and started to talk to Hyesung instead.
�Hey you,� I spoke quietly.
�JOO-EUN! Aish, I miss you already!�
�Hahaaha, it�s been less like a day! But I miss you too. How are things?� I asked politely, half heartily listening to his response. We chatted on the phone for a while, but my mind was not concerned with what Hyesung said, but rather what I must have said to result in such a negative response from Minwoo. Hyesung must have noticed that I wasn�t concentrating on our conversation, and hastily ended it by telling me he had to go. I missed talking to Hyesung like I used to, but part of me was holding back� it was like a type of uncertainty.
* * * * *
Sitting in his executive chair comfortably, Brian looked out his office that was completely encircled by large transparent windows. Twirling the incarnadine liquid around in his tall glass, he placed his legs onto the beautifully crafted wooden table and just sat there, smiling to himself. He wondered to himself, �How could things have gone so well without me planning anything at all?�
Just then, a phone that was situated beside his computer started ringing, breaking the silence that had filled the room. Deciding to let his secretary pick it up, he brought the glass to his lips and took a soft sip, drowning himself in the divine taste of red wine.
Promptly interrupting his enjoyment, a tap came on his door as his secretary waltzed in. Immediately placing on his charming personality, he set his legs down onto the floor and painted a warm smile onto his face.
�Hi, there�s a call for you on line two from a Mr. Lee,� she answered, blushing under his gaze as she tried her best to hide her feelings from him yet not at all succeeding. Brian simply pretended not to notice, but secretly noted her weakness before sending her out so that he could pick up the call. The name �Mr. Lee� greatly interested him, and he maliciously smiled the minute his secretary left.
�Hello? Lee Pharmaceuticals America, this is Brian,� he vocalized, trying his best to remain professional though he fully knew whom he was speaking to.
�Drop the act. Leave Joo-Eun alone,� came the voice on the other line, making Brian even more amused at the situation.
�Minwoo, you never change do you? Learn to be polite when you talk to your big brother before you ever ask me to do anything,� Brian spoke in a cocky tone that would break the impression he had on others if they had heard.
�I don�t have time for you. Leave her alone or I will come to America and make sure you do,� threatened Minwoo in a cold voice that could sting anyone over the phone� but unfortunately, not Brian.
�I�d like to see that. Listen closely Minwoo, because next time I will not pick up your calls. This is my chance to take everything from you, make you hurt, make you feel like you are under MY control. I�m tired of it being the other way around. Now that she�s here, with me, I�d like to see what you can do to stop me,� taunted Brian with the anger in his soul slowly rising as he gritted his teeth, enunciating each word.
Minwoo too, was growing more furious, yet he was worried for Joo-Eun�s safety like he never was. �She never did anything to you.�
�It�s interesting how much you care for her,� Brian spoke, obviously pleased, before he started on his next statement. �She looks just like Minhee, doesn�t she?� he said this time purposely aiming at Minwoo�s scarred soul.
Flinching from the words coming from the opposite side of the world, Minwoo simply sat there for a while. �You-,� he began before Brian quickly cut him off.
�Why, look whose here!� he shouted into the phone as he waved his hands allowing a girl with long hair and small frame walk through the doors. �Joo-Eun, come over here and say hi to my friend all the way from Korea!�
Joo-Eun happily pranced all the way over to the phone, thinking that it would be someone she knew. She picked the phone from Brian�s hands and shyly but excitedly said hi to the other person, but when no one responded, she handed the phone back to Brian with a blank expression across her face.
�The person hung up,� she said quietly, her depressed expression painted all over her face.
Brian simply told her not to worry about it and grabbed his coat off the chair as they had planned to meet for lunch. With a hand on her shoulder, he led Joo-Eun out of his expensive business room, which on the surface appeared to be professional and well kept, but underneath the many layers of paint and furniture, it hid collections of secrets and ulterior motives.
Chapter 32:
Throughout the first week, I spent a lot of time with Brian as he took me to various attractions all over America. It had been less than a year, but things had ultimately changed a lot. Without a doubt, the time I spent with Brian did not come without disapproval from Minwoo. Curiosity was stirring inside me, yet I did not even attempt to ask Brian or Minwoo, knowing that it was just one of those things I should stay out of. Ever since my phone call to Minwoo about his brother, he and I had not attempted to hold another conversation. Part of me was worried about the words that I would have to pick carefully, but another was a guilty conscience knowing that he did not want me spending time with Brian for whatever his reasons, and yet here I was, day in and day out with him. I honestly did not see a problem with Brian however. Every article printed about him in the media only had the most reassuring words to say about his character, and his actions had never proved otherwise. From dinners to just jokes, this man made me laugh, and not a part of me understood why Minwoo would be ashamed to call him his own brother.
Caught in their contradicting opinions however, I pulled back from both Minwoo and Brian. I suppose he had seen the many magazines that centered on both Brian and I, and he called me one day with anger in his voice, but I could tell that he was trying as hard as he could to suppress it. Minwoo tried saying it softly, tried reasoning with me, even almost begged me, but I never did distance myself from Brian. I trusted Minwoo like no other though, and without a doubt, I had my limits when I was with Brian. There were things that I did not trust him with. Perhaps it was through Minwoo�s influence, I was often suspicious of the actions Brian took, analyzing them carefully before I responded to them. Finding nothing wrong with him however, I started to wonder why I listened to Minwoo�s childish hatred towards someone for unknown reasons.
The only thing that irked me about Brian would be the fact that no matter where we went, media was constantly there waiting for us. It wasn�t like they found us; they were literally at the places we meant to go to before we even arrived. Brian never seemed to mind though, almost welcoming them to take pictures when we were together. I couldn�t stop my mind from wondering if he was doing this for the positive publicity for his company� or if he knew these pictures were bothering Minwoo. But beyond that, Brian seemed like the perfect prince, someone that would make any girl happiest in this world.
So there I was, back at the beginning. Minwoo�s words pushed me away from Brian, yet Brian�s actions pulled me to stay. Caught in their vicious battle through me, I felt like a rope in the child�s game, Tug-Of-War. As a result of this, I grew distant from Minwoo, and yet held limits when I was with Brian, almost completely sitting right in the middle, not allowing either Minwoo or Brian to win this fight.
But though everything was generally going well, I was determined to not stay a day more in the US. This gave me one week remaining, and I had still found nothing about my birth parents. Deciding that I had been left in the dark for too long, I started making elaborate plans in my own head as to what I could do to find the answer. I never considered once that the answer was sitting right in front of me.
�Joo-Eun, where do you want to go for dinner tonight,� asked Brian in a sweet tone that made me turn my attention to him immediately. He had the ability to manipulate people with his personality, a skill that I was sure resulted in many girls drooling over his every action.
�Hmm, I don�t know�� I answered rather carelessly, still thinking about what I could do to find my parents.
�What�s wrong, hmm?� he said to me as we took a seat on a bench outside a public park. He placed his arms behind my back as I leaned onto the few pieces of wood that supported my body. Knowing my boundaries, I stopped for a second and thought about what to say, aware that I could not explain to him what was bothering me exactly. I didn�t trust him enough to converse with him about my family problems.
�Nothing. I�m just tired,� I made the words out as I took a deep breath, stood up onto my restless legs and started to walk towards Brian�s parked car. Besides finding an excuse, I was starting to find myself cold, forgetting that although it was summer, it was breezy and slightly chilly once the sun had set. Swiping my hides up and down my arms, I focused on the path ahead me before I felt a suit jacket brush by my arms and placed over my shoulders. Looking over at Brian, I gave him a smile and thanked him, noting that this was a true gentleman, and was quickly losing motivation to keep him out of my life.
* * * * *
Brian�s house, 11pm
�ARRGHH!!� Brian screamed as he walked into his workroom at home. Angered and becoming seriously annoyed, Brian impulsively pushed all the piles of paper and file folders onto the ground.
�Whoa! What�s wrong with you?� spoke a deep voice as the shadow walked into the room stealthily, shutting the door behind him.
�Hwanhee! When�d you get here?! I was just going to call you,� Brian spoke between gritted teeth as he took a drink of water in a desperate attempt to calm himself. Finding the fire within his soul still burn, he knew that it was not going to help and projected the empty glass right across the room, shattering it to pieces as it hit the wall.
�Hah, I grew up with you. I know when you�re gonna be mad. A whole week with this girl and she still hasn�t cracked yet, has she?� Hwanhee smirked, almost laughing at his best friend.
�You think this is funny?! She�s still holding back from me! Ask her a simple question and all she can say is �nothing�,� Brian angrily mimicked Joo-Eun�s expression. �I�m so tired of her! But if I don�t breakthrough to her soon, I�ll never make any use out of her!�
�Well what�d you expect Brian? You knew that Minwoo wasn�t going to just let you become her best friend! Knowing his protective personality, I�m surprised he�s not in America yet!� Hwanhee shouted out to his friend, trying to get him to calm down and look at the situation from the facts.
�Why did she come anyways if she cares about Minwoo so much?! Why didn�t she just stay in Korea and follow his every action?!�
�� That�s why I came to find you,� Hwanhee said confidently, not even bothering to look at Brian�s face. �I talked to SungWook over the phone. Joo-Eun�s here to find her birth parents.�
�What?! Aren�t her parents those good-for-nothing businessmen that suck up to every person with a little power?�
�Nope. They�re her adoptive parents, and she just found out a short while ago,� Hwanhee replied cockily as he just sat there on the comfortable couch, sipping at the wine that was always readily available in Brian�s house.
Seemingly deep in thought, Brian pondered his next move carefully in his head. �Hwanhee, go find me her past please� as soon as possible too,� Brian asked his friend quietly, knowing that Hwanhee was fully capable of completing such a small task. Not only his best friend since youth, Hwanhee was his assistant, and together they ran Lee Pharmaceuticals America. Snickering to himself, Brian thought, �What you�re looking for� I will find before you do. Don�t try to refrain from me� you�ll come running back to me for answers anyways��
* * * * *
I stood there with nothing more than a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, a result of being rushed out the door. Looking up at the darkened sky, I wondered why Brian would ask me to meet him in such a hurry, or as he claimed it, an emergency. I scolded myself for not bringing a coat, and worse yet, an umbrella, noting that the sky was willing to drop its tears onto my skin at any moment now. People who walked by looked at me funny, wondering why I would be such an idiot to stand in the cold at a park, when clearly a storm was approaching. Checking my watch, I was starting to get impatient at the fact that Brian had still not arrived. Just as I turned to leave, a spotted a blue BMW drive up beside me.
�Took you long enough, Brian!� I screamed with a slightly disappointed tone, but not enough to show what I was truly thinking inside. Truthfully, he hadn�t really done anything for me to get upset over, but he had just picked a horrible time to call me out. Rainy days have a way of getting to me and nothing good has ever resulted from them before in the past.
�Sorry Joo-Eun. I tried to get here as fast as I could, but with everyone trying to get home, the traffic was bad� sorry,� Brian apologized as he bowed lightly to me. Realizing that I had used a harsh tone on him for nothing, I too apologized and asked him why he had all of a sudden called me out.
I watched as he seemed to hesitate his answer, adding more reasons for me to become aggravated with the situation. Finally, his mouth opened slightly and tried to make out a sentence. �Joo-Eun� I want to� take you somewhere to show you something. Are you willing to come? But I can tell you now that you might not like what you see, so� I�ll leave the option up to you,� he whispered quietly as I looked into his concerned eyes. Something sincere was shining through, and I knew that this was something that I had to find out about, that it was something important to my life. Nodding ever so slightly, I looked up at him again, showing how scared I really was inside. �Okay. Let�s go� I�ll be there with you the whole time.�
He ushered me into the car, and I sat there quietly, like a doll, completely up straight and looking into one direction, never changing. Brian kept talking to me the entire ride over, but I couldn�t find anything to say� all I knew was that the more he drove, the warmer my heart felt, almost like I was nearing someone that I loved a lot.
But my positive outlook was soon diminished when the car came to a halt outside a cold cemetery. He turned to look at me, and I could only bring my eyes to look in the opposite direction as I pulled all my courage up from inside and pushed the car door open. I heard him lock the car doors as he walked over to me, held my hand and slowly walked me off through the misty location. The rain was slowly starting, and I could feel the periodic liquid drop onto my head as it seeped into my hair. When Brian stopped guiding me, I closed my eyes tightly, unwilling to look at the name engraved across the stone. I wasn�t ready for this. I thought he was taking me to a movie, to dinner, to a party� anything but a cemetery.
�Joo-Eun� we can go if you want,� came Brian�s soothing voice as he tightened his grip on my hand, reassuring me of his presence. I refused to leave aware that this could be what I was looking for, but I was reluctant to open my eyes� out of fear.
So I stood there, never daring to just take a small peek at the scene in front of me. The few droplets of rain continued to fall from the sky, reminding me that it would not wait for me before it would unleash its anger. One stray droplet fell onto my eyelids and slowly made its way into my eye, forcing my eyes wide open. As I rubbed away the irritation, my eyes caught sight of the few words inscribed carefully onto the stone.
Kim Sung Jin and Kim Jae Eun.
I didn�t need to be told who these two people were, my heart answered every question there was when it was filled with a feeling of longing for the two souls that lied there, hopefully in peace. Pulling free from Brian�s grasp, I walked up slowly and placed my small hands over the stone, gracefully tracing every letter that had been marked there over a decade ago. Noting that the death date was the same, I knew that they were killed in an accident. The rain around me started to drizzle, faster and more rapidly. I didn�t even try to hold back my tears as they too came, faster, and more rapidly. Washing off my face with the rain, my tears were carried into the soil, the only gift I could provide my parents. Feeling a pressure being applied to my shoulders, I turned around swiftly and placed my head on Brian�s shoulders, crying at the truth that I would rather have left unfound.
�Joo-Eun, I�m sorry. I shouldn�t have brought you here,� he whispered and said each word with guilt as I felt his hand brush my wet hair that had begun to stick together. I buried my head deeper into his frame, trying to muffle the sounds my body was emitting beyond my desire. Kim Sung Jin, Kim Jae Eun and Kim Joo-Eun. This was my true family. Reaching up for the pendant necklace that was no longer around my neck, I suddenly felt lonely and empty, leaving me with only the memory of it in my head. Filled with a sudden understanding, I realized that the J.E. inscribed on the delicate silver did not represent Joo-Eun, but rather Jae-Eun� my mother. No wonder I always felt a type of warmth resurrect from the necklace, my mother was with me in essence my entire life.
�Thank you Brian,� I said between coughs and conflicts in my throat that held me back from saying anything at all. With those words, I cried harder than I did before, realizing that this ended all my questions� though it wasn�t what I was searching for. He hugged me tightly; holding me closer to his chest as I just let the tears come and disregarded all the noise that came with crying, despite how embarrassing I found it to be. At that moment, I was completely grateful for Brian�s presence� for lending me his shoulder to cry on� for standing with me in the storm, even after lightning brightened the sky and thunder boomed its anger.
But what I didn�t know was that as he stroked my head with love, he smiled a deep malicious smile made only for hate.
* * * * *
To be continued... Please leave a Comment if you do read this so I can get some feedback. :)
