CHAPTER 14: REALITY CHECK

I stood at Bin’s door with my heart beating like crazy, eyes enlarged and hands shaking. Was everybody alright? I wanted to rush to see and help if needed, but I couldn’t move. I was horrified. How was Bin able live in a house that had this kind of situations occurring, and apparently very often? I almost jumped into the air as I heard someone hit his or her hands against a piano’s keys. I needed to go and check!

I opened the door carefully, looking around. Then I sneaked into the hallway and followed the sounds I heard. When I reached the living room, the sight made my heart hurt. Sunhee was crying, sitting on the floor, in the middle of shards of broken glass. She had a cut on her cheek and I also could see her fingers bleeding. Bin stood a bit further, leaning onto a piano with his head down, clearly trying to calm down. As he finally raised his head to look at Sunhee, I noticed he had some blood on the corner of his mouth. I frowned. His father even hit him. My thoughts travelled back to the evening Mr. Moon ate dinner with my and aunt. Bin had left the restaurant without eating. Had he hit him back then too?

Bin slowly straightened up and walked to Sunhee. He wrapped his fingers around her arms and helped her up. Seeing him acting gentle like this made me realize that he really had a soft side to him too. He walked Sunhee to the sofa and got her a napkin to wipe the blood off. He turned around and noticed me standing in the hallway. He didn’t say anything, just looked at me with a sad, tired expression. He disappeared from the room for a moment, getting back with a first aid kit.

I looked at him kneeling down in front of the woman and dressing his wounds. Now I understood why he was so eager to dress my wounds back at the mountain – he was used of doing so. I let out a sigh. I felt so bad for these two people. They had to put up with this all the time! Bin had probably grown up being beaten.

I took a few steps ahead, stepping into the room. Sunhee’s eyes met mine and she looked horrified about the fact I had seen this. Bin nodded at her, like assuring her everything was alright, and walked up to me.

“You can talk with her”, he said quietly. “I’m going to clean up the glass.”

And then he disappeared again. I glanced at the woman carefully before walking up to her and sitting next to her on the sofa.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“Do I look alright?” The voice that came out of Sunhee’s mouth was so exhausted it almost scared me.

“No”, I said quietly. “And I understand you. My aunt is badly hurt because of your husband.”

The woman turned to look at me. “What?”

“She works as his secretary”, I explained. “And supposedly she saw something she wasn’t meant to see.”

Sunhee sniffled. “I’m sorry.”

“You shouldn’t be the one apologizing!” I burst out, not thinking about who I was talking to. “You should call the police and tell them that your husband is a criminal.”

She shook her head. “I can’t.”

“I know it might be hard, he is your husband in the end…” I said. “But he’s not a good man. He’s hurting so many people.”

“I said I can’t!” Sunhee shouted out, making me flinch a little bit. She started crying again. “I’m pregnant. If I told the police, both me and the baby would die!”

With enlarged eyes I looked as the woman wiped her tears, got up and rushed out of the room. I sat on the sofa, upset. I couldn’t stop shaking and I buried my head in my hands. This was hopeless. I did believe Sunhee with all my mind and heart. Now I really knew Mr. Moon was a very dangerous man. I sighed and leaned back to rest my head against the sofa’s backrest.

Suddenly I felt someone sit next to me and opened my eyes to look at Bin. He seemed just as exhausted as his mother. He stared in front of him, to somewhere I couldn’t see. I carefully raised my hand and patted his shoulder.

“Now you know”, he sighed. “He is a bad person.”

“I knew already”, I whispered. “Now I just saw it by myself.”

He sighed and turned to look at me. “You don’t want to stay here, right?”

“No”, I said, looking into his eyes. “I want to stay. I don’t want to leave you alone now.”

His eyes widened and he slowly moved closer to me, then closing his eyes and resting his head on my shoulder. I looked at him. With his eyes closed, he looked very peaceful and like a little boy.

“Are you tired?” I asked. “You could just sleep in your bed.”

“No”, he replied quickly. “I’m just trying to calm down.”

Oh. He was probably boiling inside even though he looked calm. Who wouldn’t in his position? At this moment, I pitied him. Usually he was always so proud and confident. Now the boy I saw was just troubled and helpless. I was about to gently pat his hair but put my hand down immediately. I’d just let him be for a moment.

After a while he finally opened his eyes. “Let’s go back to my room. I’ll prepare something to eat.”

I nodded. Now he seemed entirely calm. I followed him as he went to the kitchen and from the back of a cupboard he pulled out two packages of ramyeon. My eyes widened. He actually had ramyeon in this fancy house?

“They’re my secret”, he said and smiled at me.

“Your secrets are so big”, I said jokingly and shook my head.

After a while we sat in Bin’s room, slurping and eating the ramyeon like it was the most delicious meal he had ever had. The setting was so weird. Us, eating together, in his room. We had only eaten together once or twice before, never voluntarily. I almost smiled at the thought. I was still a bit shaken from the scene I had witnessed earlier but I was calm enough to joke around now.

“This reminds me of the time we ate together at the mountains”, I said.

Bin smirked. “The food was better there, though.”

“Any food tastes delicious in good company”, I said half-consciously and I only realized my words as I noticed Bin was staring at me.

I blinked before trying to come up with something. “Well, you’re not bad company, right?”

“I guess so”, Bin replied, slowly continuing to eat but still eyeing me.

“What’s up with the guessing again”, I snorted. “I think I’ve said about this before too. But you always say you guess.”

He smiled. “Well, I guess it’s just a habit”, he said, smirking at me.

I shook my head and ate the last strand of ramyeon, falling on my back on the soft mat we were sitting on. I was so full I didn’t think I’d need to eat anything at home today. I sighed and closed my eyes. I heard Bin laying on his back next to me and opened my eyes slightly to glance at him. He looked so calm and he acted like nothing had happened, but I was sure he still felt bad about it. Thinking about it, my reason to come into this house was to try to get Bin help me. Seeing her mother’s situation, I started to feel a bit desperate. If Bin betrayed his father, it would probably affect Sunhee too. And now that I knew she was pregnant, I felt hesitant to even ask for help anymore. I looked as Bin’s face changed into a frown, probably unintentionally.

“Are you alright?” I asked quietly.

He opened his eyes. “You’re worried about me?”

“Well, isn’t it just natural to worry about people I care for, and he seemed to hit you too…” I sighed, probably looking very puzzled.

He turned to look at me. “How much do you care for me, Minji?” His voice gave me the chills, it was low and raspy again. I stared at him, realizing what he was aiming to. I blinked and turned my eyes away from his. I swallowed and took a deep breath, feeling the butterflies in my stomach remind of their existence again.

“Well, I guess…” I started, stopping as he suddenly turned to lay on his side, resting his head against his head and staring intensely at me. He was closer than I had realized and I almost wanted to move a bit further, but I couldn’t. I was captivated by his stare.

“What did you say?” he asked with a quiet, low voice, moving even closer to me. The tension between us was killing me and I couldn’t control the butterflies anymore. I felt weak but somehow still very energetic. My eyes wandered from Bin’s dark hair to his face, all the way down to his lips.

“I guess I… I like you too.”

“You took your time”, he whispered before he rushed closer to me, placed his hand behind my neck and pulled me into a kiss. The moment our lips pressed together, my eyes widened, my mind went blank and the butterflies took control of my whole body. As I got over the shock I felt my eyes slowly close and my body relaxing. Without even realizing, my hands wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer. Our lips moved together in perfect sync for a moment before I had to pull off to catch my breath. I stared at Bin, who was hovering over me, breathing heavily and looking just as surprised by his own actions as I was. He blinked once before he flashed his trademark smirk at me and gently slid his thumb over my lower lip. I felt the embarrassment hit me and my cheeks probably got a beautiful rosy red colour on them. I had to turn my head away to look somewhere else than his face. He, anyhow, turned my head back to him, still smirking.

“Don’t do that”, he said. “Don’t turn away from me anymore.”

Blushing hard, I looked into his eyes, unable to answer anything. I thought about the situation and positon we were in. If someone was to walk in from the door… It would’ve been so embarrassing. We were lying on the floor, Bin basically pinning my body to the floor with his own, and our faces were just inches away.

“Understood?” he asked me.

Still blushing, I nodded at him. He chuckled. “You’re cute when you’re embarrassed.”

“I’m not embarrassed”, I said and tried to look away again.

Bin placed a kiss on my forehead. “Yes you are. You can stop denying things now.”

Slowly he rolled away from me, laying on his back on the mat. “I guess I got myself a girlfriend.”

Girlfriend. The words sounded so weird. I had never dated anyone. I didn’t know how to exactly be someone’s girlfriend. But the thought of being Bin’s girlfriend didn’t seem uncomfortable at all. Besides, it had been a while since we had started to get closer. A bit shyly I rolled on my side, staring at Bin. Suddenly he looked even better he had looked before. He stared back at me and raised his eyebrows.

“What are you looking at?” he asked.

“You”, I said and flashed him an embarrassed smile. “I was wondering how long has it been.”

“Since what?” he asked with a soft voice.

“Since you started liking me”, I stated after a short silence.

Bin turned to his back again, putting his arms behind his head. “Let me think. I think it was around the time we got stuck in the storage room.”

My eyes widened. “What? It’s been that long? You never showed it in any way!” I was almost embarrassed by my loud voice and reaction but I guess I didn't have anything to lose.

“How about you?” he asked, looking very curious. “How long has it been for you?”

I blinked a few times. Right, when had it been? “I don’t know… I think I felt something at the mountains. But I started realizing something was up that one time in the bus. Ah, this is embarrassing!”

Bin laughed. I think was the first time I heard him laugh like this, freely and with no worries. “It’s getting late. I think Eunwoo will beat me up if I don’t send you home now.”

I glanced at the clock. It was already 8pm. The day had been long but it had felt so shot, the time had fled on wings. I sighed. Bin was right. I had homework to do and I had things to explain to Eunwoo. We got up from the floor and I waited as Bin called the driver to get ready to take me home. It felt like the moment I stepped out of Bin’s room, the reality welcomed me and the scary situation opened in my mind. I had failed. I had nothing that would help with the police investigation. I sighed as I put my shoes on and pouting, stared at Bin.

“See you tomorrow”, he said and gently patted my head.

“See you! Bye”, I replied back a bit awkwardly while I opened the door and waved at him.

As I sat down on the back seat of the Rolls-Royce, I felt like screaming. Not caring about the driver who probably thought I was going crazy, I kept grinning and covering my mouth to hold back a giggle. But then I thought about the situation in another way. I was now basically dating the son of the person who beat up my aunt. Even though I knew it, that Bin would never hurt me or my family, aunt and Eunwoo might not like this. I wouldn’t tell them, but I was sure the rumour would spread soon in school and then Eunwoo would get to know. He was very short tempered and knowing him he might just walk straight up to Bin as start a World War 3 without checking the facts first. I sighed.

At home I ran to Eunwoo immediately, and he grabbed my wrist, pulling me into his room. He sat me on his bend and crossed his arms, giving me a serious stare. I sighed and tilted my head a little bit.

“Why did you go there?” he asked.

“I tried to get help”, I replied. “He hits his wife and Bin too. I thought I’d get some help from them.”

“But you didn’t?” he raised his eyebrows. “And nobody was suspicious of you?”

“His wife is too scared to help us”, I sighed. “And there is not much Bin can do.”

Eunwoo let out a frustrated groan and messed his wet hair. “This is getting desperate. The police won’t believe us until we get proof. A document, a video, anything! I bet he has subordinates in the police too.”

I sighed and nodded at him. “I wouldn’t be surprised. Is aunt alright?”

“She went to sleep already”, Eunwoo said. “She must be very bored at home.”

I nodded, understanding her completely. Spending days stuck in the house would drive me crazy. I wondered how aunt was able to withstand this all yet still show a smiling face to me and Eunwoo. She must’ve been a very strong person.

After trying to calm down both myself and Eunwoo, I locked up in my room and did my homework – with bad results; I was too restless to actually concentrate. I was still feeling a bit flustered about the kiss between me and Bin earlier, but almost all of the positive feelings were drowned down by nervousness and despair. I really was at loss. Without any help from Bin’s side, there was nobody who could help us. What in the world could we do in this situation? At some point I started feeling sleepiness taking over my body and without any objection I felt my head fall down and rest against the paper of my textbook’s pages. Without even realizing, my eyes were closed and I fell asleep.