CHAPTER 9: BUTTERFLIES

It was 9am when I slowly opened my eyes. It seemed to be a sunny morning, as I saw beams of sunlight traveling into the room’s walls from behind the window’s paper surface. I felt well rested, and I actually couldn’t believe I had slept for over 10 hours. I was about to slowly sit up on the mattress as I finally noticed that Bin had wrapped his arm around my shoulders while sleeping. Suddenly I was wide awake and I tried to carefully turn around so that I’d get the arm off me quickly and without waking him up. I wanted to get off the mattress as fast as possible.

I was slowly turning to lay on my stomach to free myself from Bin’s grip, when he suddenly pulled me closer to him. I got startled and brought my hand against my mouth to prevent myself from letting out any sounds. I was now facing him, who was still fully asleep, lying on his side and basically cuddling me, as our bodies were pressed against each other. I stared at him for a while, trying to figure out what to do to get away from the situation. I carefully grabbed his hand and tried to remove it from my shoulder, when Bin’s suddenly woke up from the touch. He stared at me for a short moment, as well as I stared at him.

“What are you doing?” he asked with a raspy morning voice that got my stomach twisting the same way it did yesterday.

“Well, I thought I’d get up but then you did this and…” I tried to explain but didn’t really know what to say and just got silent, trying to look somewhere else but his face, which was pretty hard, taking into consideration our faces were just inches away from each other.

“Oh”, he said when he realized the situation, looking embarrassed, and pulled his arm away from me. He sat up on the bed and stretched like he just woke up from the best sleep he had ever had. I sat up too, thinking whether I’d get up or just sit there for a bit longer.

Bin got up from the mattress and while he locked up into the bathroom, I turned around and fell on my stomach into the bed. What the hell was wrong with me? I wasn’t this easy, why did the mere presence of Bin make me feel weird? I didn’t like him. I surely didn’t. I didn’t like people easily. I hadn’t had any crushes since I left middle school, not that I had any time to think about boys taking care of my mom. And falling for someone who had expressed he didn’t like me at all? Not like me at all. As I tried to gather my thoughts, I came to the conclusion that anyone would get flustered sharing a bed with someone who would play around like that. I nodded at myself. It was a natural reaction, I had nothing to worry about.

“Are you going to lay down for the rest of the day?” I heard Bin ask behind me and turned around quickly.

“No”, I replied and got up, forgetting about my injured ankle and starting to walk normally. The aching appeared to have toned down a lot, but I still let out a surprised yelp when I felt it pulsing in my ankle. “Ah… I forgot.”

“I guess we should clean up and ask if we could call Mr. Song again”, Bin said. “I have something to do today so I want to be home before afternoon.”

I nodded and grabbed the pillows and the blanket, folding them cleanly, and watched Bin do the same with the mattress. We left them in a pile in front of the closet and silently got out of the room. As we walked through the hallway towards the main hall and the owners’ part of the house, we walked pass the patio and I could see the clothes we had worn yesterday, hanging on a line, apparently drying after a wash. I blinked my eyes. When did the lady get the clothes from our room?

Right then the elderly lady stepped out of one of the rooms, carrying a laundry basket full of wet clothes in her hands.

We bowed at her. “Good morning!”

“Good morning! Did you sleep well?” she asked while walking to the patio. We walked behind her, following her outside.

“Yes we did”, Bin answered for the both of us. “Thank you for letting us stay the night.”

The lady laughed. “You’re welcome! Ah, here are your clothes, I got them from the room last evening. I was about to ask if you want an another blanket but you were already fast asleep!”

As I felt the rosy red colour rise on my cheeks, Bin smiled and thanked the lady, and after taking our clothes from the line, asked if he could use the phone again. After getting a positive reply, he gave the clothe pile for me and told me to change my clothes first. I nodded, still blushing, and rushed back to the room.

I threw the clothes to the floor and leaned against a wall, almost crying from embarrassment. I didn’t want to think about last night, but now that I knew the lady had seen us sleeping together, I just wanted to throw myself out of the window. I sighed and quickly locked myself into the bathroom to change my clothes. My jeans’ condition was alright, they looked a little bit worn on the knees, but it didn’t matter. The shirt, anyhow… Well, apart from the sleeves, it was completely alright. Another one of the sleeves had a few big holes, the another one had been just ripped a little bit. After rolling up the sleeves it looked fine.

I got out of the bathroom and found a pleasant surprise as the lady was just entering the room with some porridge and kimchi. I thanked her once again for her kindness, but she just shook her head smiling. How lucky we were – without this lady we would have slept in the forest or something… As Bin came back to the room and changed his clothes too, we started eating our breakfast.

“I called Mr. Song”, he said. “He said he’ll be here by 11.”

I sighed in relief. “Alright.”

We ate in complete silence, as I felt extremely awkward around Bin after the night – I wasn’t sure if he felt the same, but at least he didn’t even try to glance at me. After finishing the breakfast, we decided to get out of the guesthouse and start going down the path so that Mr. Song wouldn’t have to wait for us.

“Thank you once again”, I thanked the lady as we stood on the main entrance of the building.

“Stop thanking me”, she chuckled. “I’m just happy that I could help you.”

We bowed and told her goodbye, and then started our journey down from the mountain. We didn’t even get to walk for ten minutes as Bin suddenly kneeled down. He must’ve noticed I still limped while walking. This time I didn’t protest but just wrapped my hands around his neck and hopped on. He had been carrying me around for a lot already, so what would one more piggy pack ride matter?

I couldn’t describe the feeling of relief I experienced once I sat down on Mr. Song’s car’s backseat and I could finally relax without worrying about anything. I closed my eyes, not from tiredness but pure comfortableness. The car ride felt awkward and very long because it was awfully silent – Mr. Song wasn’t exactly the type to chat around and because of his presence, it felt too awkward to start talking with Bin, so we ended up just sitting in silence for one and half hours.

At some point Mr. Song remembered he had our backpacks with him, as he was the last one to get out of the bus yesterday. As I got my phone in my hand I could just let out a quiet chuckle – there were nine missed calls. Five from Youngmi, three from Eunwoo and one from Minhyuk. I immediately texted all three of them, telling them I was alright and on my way to Seoul. I was absolutely sure Mr. Song had informed our families about the situation, as there were no missed calls from my aunt. I texted her too, anyway, just to tell her I was just fine.

I also sent an another text to Minhyuk. Whose text seemed very worried.

I’m in Seoul soon, would you mind grabbing some food together? I’m really sorry about yesterday.

The answer came in seconds.

I’ll make us lunchboxes. Text me when you’re closer so I’ll know where to come.

I smiled. He was such a good friend.

“What are you smiling at?” Bin asked quietly.

“At my friends”, I replied shortly.

He snorted. “Don’t try to brag! I have friends too, you know.”

I turned to look at him and smirked. “You do?”

“I do!” Bin burst out like his life was depending on this conversation. He took his phone out of his backpack and started searching pictures from his gallery. “Look away, I really do!”

Laughing I looked at the picture he showed at me. In the picture he was posing with two other boys, and all three were smiling cheerfully. It felt weird to see Bin smile this happily, even in a picture – I had never seen him having that kind of expression. All I had seen was the stone-face, the frown and the infamous smirk that meant something bad was about to happen. But now that I thought about it, Bin was always alone at school. But being alone in school didn’t mean he didn’t have friends outside of school. I chuckled. They were probably sons of other rich families, judging from their fancy clothing. Bin was a son of a big company’s CEO, after all.

When we arrived in Seoul and Mr. Song dropped me and Bin off the car, he apologized once again for the inconvenience had to experience and promised to send letters of apology to our guardians as soon as he could. Bin seemed to find the situation almost amusing, and he was smirking in his normal way as the teacher drove off.

“Where are you going to?” Bin asked me.

“I’m waiting for my friend – Minhyuk!” I shouted out as I saw Minhyuk appearing from behind a corner. Ignoring the slight aching on my ankle, I ran towards him and even for my own surprise, wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly. “It’s so nice to see you.”

Minhyuk’s hands were carefully laying on my waist, like he was afraid I’d get broken from the contact. I stepped away from the hug and smiled at him.

“What happened to your arms?” were Minhyuk’s first words. He was staring at the gauzes with large eyes.

“I rolled down a hill. I also hurt my ankle a little bit.”

“What? Are you alright?” His eyes grew even larger.

“Yes, it’s not a big deal”, I replied, and there was a relieved smile on Minhyuk’s cheeks. “Bin helped me back to the mountain and we slept at a guesthouse, the owner was very sweet and let us stay the night even though the guesthouse was closed.”

Minhyuk’s smile withered a little bit. “You spent the night together?”

I looked down. “We did… but we really just slept, don’t worry!”

I felt Minhyuk staring past me and I turned around to glance at Bin who had almost disappeared from the sight, turning to another street and disappearing into the crowd. I turned back to Minhyuk and smiled at him. “Do you have the lunch boxes?”

In a few minutes we found a nice spot on the park nearby and sat down to eat. Minhyuk had packed the lunch boxes cutely, making little animals and faces out of the food, and that just added more to the delicious taste. How lucky I was to have a friend who was such a good cook!

“Did you wait for me a long time yesterday?” I asked.

Minhyuk shook his head. “Only for about half an hour. Then Youngmi called me and told me. You won’t believe how worried I was!”

“Half an hour! That’s pretty long…” I sighed. “I’m really sorry. I actually got locked into a toilet stall…”

Minhyuk chuckled. “I’m not even surprised! You always lock yourself into places.”

I messed his hair playfully and took another bite of the food. After a while we were ready, but since it was Saturday and neither of us had any plans, we just decided to hang out for a while. We found ourselves walking around Hongdae and enjoying the free day. We played around in arcades and tried on funny accessories, then went to eat some bingsu. At some point I actually forgot I was wearing ripped clothes and I had my arms wrapped in gauze and bandages. People might have stared at me, but I ignored them – I was having fun now.

After a couple of hours hanging around, Minhyuk got a call from his father and he had to make his leave. We stood outside a shopping mall for a while, chatting a little more before he’d leave.

“Make sure to take care of your wounds”, he said while eyeing my arms.

“It’s not as serious as it looks”, I smiled. “They’re just scratches.”

“Is that a bruise on your forehead?” he asked, and gently brushed my hair off to see better. “It is! Make sure to put something on this too.”

I chuckled. “You really don’t have to worry so much. I’m alright.”

Minhyuk smiled at me. “You’re the one who makes me worry, you’re always hurt”, he said while patting my head.

I smirked. “I do tend to get hurt easily, that’s true.”

Letting out a playful sigh, Minhyuk grabbed my waist and hugged me. At first I was surprised because Minhyuk wasn’t exactly the touchy-feely type, but then I just smiled and wrapped my hands around his neck. He really must’ve been worried. How much he had changed since the first days I had seen him! From the silent, shy and timid boy into this warm, affectionate and bright person. His posture was better; he didn’t hide his face behind his fringe – he felt so much more confident altogether.

“Didn’t you say you have to go?” I asked as I backed away from the hug.

“Ah, right…” he seemed to remember just now. “Dad has a day off the first time since I started high school. I think I’ll better go now. I’ll text you later! See you!”

Waiving at me, Minhyuk walked away. “See you!” I said, waving back at him.

After a little while, I was heading back home as well. As I got off the bus in front of the building our apartment was in, I felt super relieved. As I was about to start pressing the door code to the lock, the door flew open and Eunwoo stood in front of me, staring at me with large eyes, eyeing me from head to toes.

“Are you alright?”

“I’ve heard that so many times today”, I sighed and was about to walk pass him, but he grabbed my hand, clearly avoiding my arms, and stopped me. After seeing his serious expression, I flashed him a small smile. “Yes. I’m ok.”

Eunwoo let go of my hand and closed to door behind us. After throwing my back into my room, I walked straight to the kitchen to drink some water. Eunwoo was walking in my footsteps like a puppy, following me wherever I went.

“Are you my cousin or are you my puppy?” I asked as I turned around to face him and patted his head.

“I’m someone who was very worried”, he said. “You don’t know how bad I felt when I tried calling you, and we didn’t know if you guys were at the mountain or at the gas station we stopped by. The fact it was you two... Where is Bin? He didn’t try anything?”

“Eunwoo”, I said, finally silencing the boy. I looked up at him. His eyes were dead serious and he stared right back at me. This kind of worrying over me felt so overwhelming. But then again, this proved Eunwoo really cared about me – comparing this behaviour to the days when I just moved into this house… the change was huge. “Everything is alright. Everybody seems to worry about Bin and what he might have tried to do, but he only helped me. He carried me up and down the mountain and dressed my wounds. He did nothing that made me feel uncomfortable or – “, I choked on my words as I came to think about last night and Bin hovering over me in the dark room. I started coughing like crazy and quickly poured another glass of water to drink. Eunwoo patted my back as I drank.

“Alright, I believe you”, he said quietly. “Just promise to keep your phone with you from now on.”

I nodded. “What about aunt? Where’s she?”

“She came home late last night; I didn’t even see her. I guess she’s still sleeping… she’s seemed so tired lately”, Eunwoo replied.

So she had been busy working. That explained why she hadn’t called or texted me even once. I nodded and drank the rest of my water, watching Eunwoo go back to his room. I decided to see if aunt was sleeping. I quietly walked to her bedroom’s door and knocked on it. There was no answer so I very carefully opened the door to see in. The room was dim even in the afternoon, but I could clearly see aunt lying on her back on the bed, and my eyes enlarged as I realized she wasn’t sleeping. Her breathing was deep and looked painful, her eyes were half opened, and her bare arms were covered in bruises. I rushed into the room and sat next to her onto the bed.

“Aunt!” I burst out. “What happened? Are you ok?”

“Just let me sleep”, she whispered. “This is nothing.”

“This is not nothing”, I said. “Eunwoo – “

She blocked my mouth with her hand. “Please, no. Don’t tell Eunwoo. I’m really alright.”

“Who did this to you?” I asked, taking her hand off my face.

“It’s really nothing. I’ll just rest for the weekend and I’ll be fine”, she stated, and her eyes had a desperate look in them.

I frowned a little bit but looked down and sighed. I didn’t want to let go of this but what else could I do? If she didn’t want anyone to know, what could I do?

“I really think you should tell me what happened”, I said quietly. “You’re my aunt and I don’t want to see you like this. But if you’re going to be like this, alright then.”

I got off the bed and went back to my room. I hesitated a little bit while passing Eunwoo’s room. Some small part of me wanted to barge in and tell him what I had just seen, but I didn’t want to betray aunt. Sighing, I fell down to my bed and got my phone out of my back.

For my surprise there was a new message – not from Youngmi, not from Minhyuk – but from Bin. I tilted my head and frowned at the phone. I hadn’t ever texted or called Bin. I had never even gotten his number. How was this possible?

Remember to change the bandages or I’ll chop off your arms at school.

I stared at the text for a good minute before realizing. About a month back Bin had used my phone while we were stuck in the storage room. He must’ve saved his number in my phone back then. But why in the world would he do that? I read the message again and could almost hear his soft voice lecturing me. My thoughts started wandering back to last night and I couldn’t deny that my heartbeat got faster when I thought about our bodies pressed together against the mattress – about his adorably fluffy hair and his handsome face, his dark eyes, his nose, and his lips… lips that were so close to mine I would’ve only needed to pucker my lips a bit and they would have touched…

I got back to my senses as I felt my phone drop from my hands and flustered I slammed my hands against my cheeks. What was wrong with me? I barely knew him! We had only met through trouble. Every time we were together, there was something bad happening. I rolled onto my back and pressed my hand against my chest where my heart was beating faster than normally. I couldn’t seriously have these kind of feelings. Why him? I let out a frustrated groan and pressed my pillow against my face. I truly needed a long bath and something else to think about.