Chapter 24: Allies
When Life Began
A nagging noise grows louder and louder until Haneul’s eyes opened to an unfamiliar setting. Turning over, she feels soft comforters under her fingertips with the same soft shuffling still in the background that woke her up in the first place. Sitting up, she sees the back view of Mino as he is in the midst of his unknown task while also ignoring the sudden throb that travels across her forehead.
Observing him, she realizes he was putting her clothes away in the drawers.
“You’re finally awake?”
Disregarding his question, she jumps out of bed and takes her folded shirt out of his hand. “I can do this myself.” She says gently as she turns back to her luggage on the floor, slightly taken aback by the sight of the neat shirt and the mess she saw.
He was folding her clothes for her.
Mino watches her before eyeing bag. “Your messiness was an eyesore.” He comments with the view of her crumpled clothing still sitting in that bag. “Worried I’ll see the undergarments? Something I think you didn’t grab enough of.”
“You were rushing me.” She says in excuse as she shifts her body to block his view.
“You didn’t even try.”
Turning around, she looked at him and spoke her words without any particular annoyance or anger. “Why are you picking on something like this?”
Well, she had a point. He ends up dropping the subject. “Does your body hurt anywhere?”
Upon registering his question – now that he mentioned it. “My neck feels a bit sore.”
“Go to Seunghoon.”
“I think I’ll be fine with not having it checked.” Turning away from him. Haneul takes in the sight of the bedroom and walks towards the window. Pulling aside the curtain, she was met with the starry night sky. It was too dark to really see anything. “We’re in Busan?” The travel took the whole day.
“Mhm.”
Hearing the sound of cluttering, Haneul turned back towards Mino. In his hands, he held up the chess box.
“I said ‘necessities’, didn’t I?” He questioned.
“It’s a matter of opinion.” She responds.
“Who is going to have time to play with you.”
Why did Mino have so much to say? Walking over, Haneul takes the box from his hands. “I can play by myself.” Haneul mutters as she stuffs the box into the luggage along with the clothes already in it.
“See, I don’t understand why you did that.” Mino comments. “The mess just gets bigger.”
“You nag more than my parents.”
The accusation leaves Mino blank. He watches her turn back around to take over his task from before. Stepping back, he leaned against the drawers as she folded her clothes neatly, leaving them in piles upon the bed.
“So, how do you do that?”
“Do what?” Mino asked in response.
“Earlier, when you made me…unconscious.” Is that the right term? “You can do what Jeeun can do too?” Haneul looked over her shoulder to meet his eyes.
He shakes his head. “Not everyone can do what she does. And I – “ He didn’t know how to explain it…he never needed to. “If I meddle with your memories enough, it’ll tire out your mind.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?”
“That’s why I don’t feel so good.” She whispered quietly to herself while Min
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