CHAPTER 5: INCIDENTS

What unbelievable luck. With what probability would Bin be the son of my aunt’s boss? I just stood still and stared at the boy, which I later regretted because a part of me would have wanted me to keep up my cool image, especially after the incident we had at the cafeteria. Well, here we were. Bin’s reaction wasn’t much better than mine. He stared at me for a moment, but his stare wasn’t surprised like mine, it was pure displeasure.

“Bin, meet my secretary and her niece”, president Moon broke the awkward silence.

Bin bowed politely at my aunt but continued glaring at me. “Nice to meet you.”

“Well, should we sit down?” aunt suggested, clearly sensing the awkward atmosphere. She gave me a reason to turn around and look at her. She looked a little bit confused but cheerful as ever.

“Yes, please sit”, the president said and motioned for us to sit down.

“Actually”, Bin said suddenly. “My apologies but I have an appointment. I’ll need to leave.”

I didn’t dare to turn around to look at him again, but I couldn’t hold back my stone-faced expression changing into an shocked one. He surely had the guts! Would he actually leave because of me? His father seemed like a scary person. I wouldn’t want to see him get pissed off. Suddenly I remembered Youngmi’s words from my first day at school. There are rumours his father has underground connections. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised now that I saw him standing in front of me.

Bin didn’t give his father time to say a word and walked out of the room before his father’s expression got to darken a little bit. I glanced at him and I realized I felt super tensed up and nervous. Anyhow, the man’s expression softened quickly and he flashed us an apologetic smile. I relaxed a little bit.

“I’m sorry on the behalf of my son”, he said. “He has quite the temper sometimes. You’re in the same school, right, Minji?”

I nodded quickly. “Yes.” I didn’t bother mentioning we were actually in the same class because I really didn’t want to talk about him.

We finally got to sit down. The food arrived surprisingly quickly – probably the plus sides of expensive restaurants. I stared at the huge plate full of food, seafood, to be more specific, and felt my stomach growl; it really wanted to taste all these familiar tastes again. I hadn’t eaten seafood since leaving Jeju, and living in a fisher village I had pretty much grown up eating seafood. I didn’t dare to start eating before president Moon though, so I kept glancing at him until I saw him starting to eat. I started stuffing my face with a good pace. The food was delicious; like it was melting in my mouth! I almost forgot the awkward meeting with Bin while enjoying the food.

When we all had empty plates in front of us, I started eyeing at the clock. It was coming closer to 9pm and I wanted to do my homework before sleeping.

“Look at the time fly!” president Moon said, apparently noticing my glances. “My wife must be waiting for me already. But now that we are celebrating, wouldn’t a few drinks sound good?”

Aunt looked a bit flustered. Her tolerance of alcohol wasn’t exactly the best so she must’ve been nervous. Anyhow, she didn’t seem to dare refusing so she nodded and then turned to look at me.

“You have your bus card with you, right?” she asked. “Would it be alright for you to go home by bus?”

I nodded quickly. I had started feeling really awkward so aunt’s suggestion sounded like music to my ears. I slowly got up, picked up my bag and bowed at president Moon. “It was nice meeting you. I’ll make my leave, then.”

And then I rushed out of the room, and out of the restaurant. It was super dark already, and there were some raindrops falling from the sky. The weather wasn’t as warm as it had been earlier and the short skirt made me feel chilly without any stockings. I looked around trying to locate myself and then started walking. The restaurant was actually quite near to Minhyuk’s home where I had visited once or twice. I knew some shortcuts and decided to go the way I always went.

I crossed to road and then took a shortcut through an alley. I picked my phone up from my coat’s pocket to text Minhyuk I was at his area, when I heard footsteps. My first reaction was to stop and listen whether the footsteps continued. They did. I felt my muscles tense up and I took a few slow steps just to see an elderly man walking pass me and continuing his way until he disappeared around a corner. I sighed. How paranoid could I be?

And at that moment I heard someone whistling. I turned around startled and saw a man walking towards me. I squinted my eyes, trying to see if he was someone I knew, wishing he would be – but he wasn’t. He was a complete stranger. And he had this really dangerous glimmer in his eyes. He was walking towards me; he was already too close for me to run away.

“Good evening, miss”, he greeted me, smiling. I didn’t dare to answer. The man smirked at me. “Did a cat catch your tongue, miss?”

I took a few steps backwards, only to realize I was backing out towards a brick wall. I felt my heart beat so hard I thought it would explode. I was scared. Super scared.

“It’s already autumn”, the man stated, still smirking at me. “Why are you wearing such revealing clothes? Not that I complain though…”

My back hit the wall and the man started to invade my personal space, that’s how close he was. If I’d try to run away, he’d just grab me immediately. I had no way out.

“Would you like to go with me?” the man asked, breathing the smell of alcohol into my face. I wanted to close my eyes and put my hands over my ears. I was frozen, literally. I couldn’t move, not to mention scream, even though that seemed like the logical thing to do. The man leaned in even closer and I looked down, like that would have saved me. I shut my eyes tightly and hoped I would wake up from a nightmare.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

A familiar voice broke the scary tension between us and the man turned to look behind him. He didn’t have time to say anything as he was kicked against the wall. The man fell to the ground, out of breath. The attacker, whose voice I immediately recognized as Bin’s, grabbed the man by his collar and punched him once, letting him fall down on his back. “Don’t you have anything better to do but to pester teenage girls in dark alleys, mister?” he asked, and surprisingly the man didn’t say a word but got to his feet and stumbled away from the alley.

Bin sighed. “Are you alright- you!” His expression became surprised as he actually saw my face. He must’ve just seen the situation and saved me without knowing who I actually was. I stared at his face. Was he regretting he saved me?

“W- What?” I asked, my heart still beating from the shock. “Wouldn’t you have saved me if you knew who I was?”

“What?” he replied, looking a bit offended. “What do you think of me? All I saw was a bastard harrassing a girl in an alley – who wouldn’t help? I’m not an idiot!”

With those words being said, he turned around and walked away. The moment he disappeared from the alley, I started shaking like crazy. I looked around me, making it sure I really was alone, and rushed forward, towards the bus stop I was going to in the first place. Only when I sat down in the warm bus, I could feel somewhat comfortable.

I managed to keep myself in control until I pressed the code into our door lock and stepped inside. I collapsed down and started crying. I wasn’t exactly traumatized or anything, it was just the bad luck and incidents I had gone through lately piling up and now coming down in a rush of tears because of the shock. Eunwoo had probably heard me sobbing as he came out of his room, staring at me with a worried expression.

“Minji!” he exlaimed and squatted down. “Are you alright, what happened?”

I slowly raised my hands and grabbed my cousin by his collar just to pull him closer and wrap my hands around his neck and hug him. I kept on crying, unable to say anything or moreover, explain. Eunwoo seemed very surprised of the sudden intimacy but didn’t move, he stayed in his place until my sobs became quieter and tears dried to my cheeks.

“Can you tell me what happened?” he asked quietly.

My face was buried in his neck so my words came out muffled. “Some man tried to harrass me.”

“What did you say?” Eunwoo asked, his voice was serious and deep.

“But Bin saved me”, I continued. “He chased the man away.”

“What? Bin?” Eunwoo sounded confused and grabbed my shoulders so he could look at my eyes.

“He happened to be there”, I said quietly. “Did you know his father is aunt’s new boss?”

Eunwoo’s eyes enlarged. “Really?”

I nodded and hugged him again. “But I’m really alright now. I was just startled. And it's not like my life has been very peaceful lately anyway.”

My cousin seemed to get a little bit awkward now that I was returning to my normal self yet I was still hugging him. We weren’t usually very intimate – I think this was our first hug ever.

“Can you please not tell aunt?” I asked. “She’d be super worried.”

“For a good reason!” Eunwoo stated. “But if that’s what you want.”

I nodded and patted his shoulder. “I’m going to shower now.”

After a hot shower and homework, I felt almost completely calmed down. I laid on my bed, dressed in my pyjamas and with a towel tied up in my hair. I yawned. Today had been a very long day. Surprisingly, despite all the stress from today’s incidents I was able to fall asleep faster than any other night during my time in Seoul.

The next morning, I had to go to school alone as Eunwoo had an appointment early in the morning. It felt weird, I hadn’t got out of the apartment alone for school even once. Idea of walking alone outside felt a little bit nerve wrecking after what happened yesterday, but I tried to calm myself down thinking about the facts that in broad daylight, on a road were many people walked, there probably wouldn’t be any problems. And Minhyuk would be in the bus anyway so I wouldn’t need to be alone all the time. As I hopped to the bus Minhyuk threw his hand up and smiled at me as a sign to go sit next to him. I flashed him a smile and sat down.

“Morning!” I greeted him.

“Good morning”, he replied back. “How did the dinner go?”

Oh. I had completely forgot I had texted him about the dinner before leaving home yesterday. So he didn’t know anything yet.

“It was horrible”, I said. “And turns out Bin is the son of my aunt’s boss.”

“No way!” Minhyuk said and looked at me with a surprised expression. “Was he there too?”

“Yes, for two minutes”, I stated. “Then he left. But we met later too, he saved me from a molester.”

This time Minhyuk’s voice got lower. “What? Are you alright?”

I sighed and nodded. “I am. He saved me, even though he didn’t recognize me at first.”

“Good”, he said quietly. “I guess.”

I smiled at him and patted his shoulder. “But I’m really alright now.”

He nodded and replied to my grin with a small smile.

“I’m not sure whether I should tell Youngmi or not”, I said. “She would immediately rush to Bin and start disturbing him.”

“That’s very true”, Minhyuk replied while nodding his head.

I shrugged my shoulders and leaned towards the window to rest my head against the cool surface.

I did end up telling Youngmi, right before our first lesson, that was PE. She didn’t seem as shocked as she was disgusted. She kept saying eww and resenting the man in case. Maybe good that way, I was really alright now so I didn’t need any other people asking if I needed help or if I was okay. I did feel a bit nervous as I saw Bin walking to the gym. Luckily though, Youngmi didn't even glance at him. But now that Bin had started to actually talk from time to time, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he’d tell someone about the incident last night – and I didn’t exactly want that to happen. Anyhow, he just walked into the row we had formed as the teacher was checking our attendance.

“Moon Bin”, the teacher called out. Bin raised his hand but the teacher glanced at him. “You came in late.”

Bin rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, not replying anything. The teacher continued calling names and I couldn’t help but to glance at Bin. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to even notice me standing there, not to mention speaking to someone; he just looked at the floor, not paying any attention to anyone. Youngmi noticed me glancing at him and poked my side.

“Are you worried he’ll tell someone?” she asked.

“Well”, I started and squinted my eyes a bit. “I don’t know. I don’t think he’ll open his mouth. He doesn’t talk a lot, you know.”

Youngmi nodded before replying with a bright yes to the teacher who called her name. We were told to run one lap before the actual lesson would start, and we started running side by side, amusedly looking at Eunwoo whose pace was a lot faster than us. This wasn’t a competition but he had been really trying to improve his grades lately, so apparently he wanted to please the PE teacher too, even though it wouldn’t have any influence on him getting to a university later on.

“You look so tired”, Youngmi stated suddenly. “Did you get to sleep last night?”

“I slept very well!” I replied, smiling at her. “I guess it’s just because it’s the first lesson.”

Suddenly Youngmi went silent and curiously stared at someone running from behind us. It was Bin, and he looked like he was very immersed in his thoughts. He was going past us but he didn’t seem to pay any attention to his surroundings. Suddenly I felt a foot collide with mine, and shortly I noticed myself falling down, hitting my elbow on the gym floor. Lying on the floor, I let out a startled whimper and quickly sat up, massaging my elbow and looking around, extremely embarrassed. Bin, who had fallen down right next to me, let out a frustrated grunt and glared at me.

“You’re quite pitiful, aren’t you?” he asked with a loud voice, like he was making it sure everybody would hear.

I stared at him, my eyes enlarged, for a short moment. “Is it my fault you tripped?”

“I tripped because of your foot!”

“Well you weren’t paying attention!”

“Silence!” The teacher’s voice broke down our little argument as he walked towards us, arms crossed and eyes forming two narrow lines. “What do I always say? You are one class, so you’re a team. I don’t want to see any fighting in a team, alright?”

I got up on my feet and bowed at him, Bin following shortly after.

The teacher sighed. “Well, then. Bin, Minji. Two build up you teamwork, you two clean up the gym after the lesson is over.”