Why me, why her why us?

This self-talk of a very useless question keeps repeating itself in Hyomin’s head like there is nothing better to do then to doubt in her fate and wonders what she has done in her past life to deserve so much trouble in this life. Hyomin, consoles herself and comes with a conclusion that she is not the only unlucky one when people around her now are facing the same destination.   

From a corner of where she is seated, Hyomin’s gaze falls upon an old couple who evacuated from the same building as the same time as her and Jiyeon. The reason why her attention was drawn to them because they took it too well, calm and compose as if they were just out here to get the fresh air like nothing bad occurred, despite of what is actually going on, their hands are holding on to each other as though nothing could take them part. Hyomin adores the sight of them, she guesses they have lived so long to have seen a lot so they don’t seem to fear about anything now. Afterward, she turns her attention to the sound of crying baby, being held in the arm of a young woman, seemingly a mother of a child with the way she protectively holds a baby. Her stare lingers on until it gets caught by a woman who by chance, turns to her way, Hyomin sends her a friendly smile when their eyes meet, which a same smile is returned. Hyomin can’t help but ponders where her husband could be at this time, the woman seems to be all alone with her kid, a bit anxious and worried. A apart of her can’t help but feels empathy, then she imagines how she would feel if she happened to be here all alone, and encountering all of these wreck by herself without another person by her side just like it is now.

A present existence of a particular someone gets Hyomin to have a side glance at a person seating wearily next to her, she is not sure if Jiyeon is still mad over something that Hyomin couldn’t bring herself to talk about it. It seems to Hyomin that since they evacuated from the building, Jiyeon hasn’t talked much at all, and just like Hyomin, Jiyeon is deep in thought, probably trying to figure out what to do with all of this, when it has already been hours since they’ve been patiently sitting in the assembly area, and anxiously waiting for the confirmation when it would be safe for them to return into the building, but nothing is advised to them yet.

Apart from an old couple and a lady with a baby, Hyomin casts her gaze upon a scene of a family with two daughters, around the age of 8 and 10, they are chatting away and even laughing as if their happiness and smile can’t be ripped away by the unfortunate event, for a moment, their positive vibe gives Hyomin an inner peace, it’s something to keep her heart warm in such a hopeless circumstance, and it reminds her of her family back home.

Fumbling through her sling bag, the only thing she has with her apart from the clothes and slippers which she is wearing, Hyomin is digging for her phone to make a call to her family, to let them know that she is okay.

Uneasy shifting next to Jiyeon makes her slide her glance at a woman besides her – Hyomin has trouble find the connection on her phone, obviously frustrated with it, she keeps shaking her phone as if it would help to get the signal, turning in and off over and over. Judging by the way she frowns , Jiyeon understands how distressed she is.

“It is not gonna work, neither mine is connected”, Jiyeon reminds flatly,” It won’t fix, until it is fixed”  

“This is so frustrating!” Hyomin complains out of annoyance

“Believe me, I know how it feels, but what you are doing now is futile, and you will only end up breaking your phone, under this circumstance, I assume it’s normal for us to lose most digital connection”, Jiyeon says, with a neutral tone.

Heavy sigh escapes Hyomin’s mouth, she inattentively drops her phone into her bag, she gives up.  

“I am just worried that my family might find out and tried to contact us” Hyomin reasons, pouring out her worry.

“Considered how the ground isn’t moving now, it’s probably not that bad, look like a minimal earthquake though, I suppose the news might not reach them yet” Jiyeon reasons,” Let’s wait a bit longer, connection shall be fixed soon”

With what’s said, Hyomin calms down a bit, she really has no idea how she would be coping with this without Jiyeon.

She is sure if Jiyeon has her way or she just acts different from her, so Hyomin lets out a question “Are you not worried?”

It may sound silly to ask so, Jiyeon turns away, she looks ahead of her

“Don’t I look like I am worried?”  

Hyomin opens to talk back but her second thought keeps her from doing so, she realizes arguing back and forth is not doing them any good, more than that it’s not a right time or place for them to bicker, and Hyomin knows better than to cause meaningless argument, she understands that Jiyeon may be stressful too, so ignoring Jiyeon’s sarcasm to save them a further useless talk seems to be an easy choice that Hyomin finds appropriate at the moment. She wants to reconcile with the other anyway.

“Excuse me, are you from Korea?”

Hyomin glances upward to find a guy with his perfect smile, his look tells where he is from but the way he spoke with a broken Korean makes Hyomin doubt if he is truly Korean.

“Yeah” Jiyeon replies when a question was directed to her.

“I knew it, by the way, I am Paul Kim, my mother is from Korea too”, He introduces himself to the extend, and it is easy to see how hard he tries to impress Jiyeon with his imperfect Korean, “ I am here with the team to assist the people affected by the earthquake, then I noticed you”, he continues.

So it seems like he only notices Jiyeon, and isn’t aware of the presence of another Korea sitting there.

Jiyeon nods to show that she got what he said

“May I have your name please?” He asks

“Park Jiyeon” Jiyeon stands up, she only slightly bows.

“It’s nice to meet you Park Jiyeon”

From there, Hyomin is totally forgotten, eye rolling at them conversing like she is not there. She doesn’t care though, but she listens enough to know that he is originally from Korea, his family moved here when he was only 7, besides his mom and he barely speaks Korean to anyone, but he visited Korea last year and realized that he likes everything about his motherland, especially people.

What’s an obvious move?  Hyomin thinks to herself, and she wouldn’t feel so much annoyed if Jiyeon isn’t being all friendly to him, it’s not like Jiyeon to talk to stranger like that, but now she even finds his broken Korean laughable in an adorable way, and to the extend, she tries to help correcting his words.

Being completely ignored, Hyomin, for the first time, starts to feel uneasy when someone else is actually getting Jiyeon’s attention. Is it because she has been around Jiyeon so much that she becomes possessive over her? With an attempt to distract herself from hearing their conversation that she is not even a part of it, Hyomin averts her attention to people around her once again, where her eyes finally follow a man, who is holding the warning tape in his hand, seemingly talking to his team; he then starts unwind the tape and marks the region outside the building, she frowns at what he is doing, and her curious wins when she abruptly gets on her feet, and walks her toward a guy. 

Hyomin is approaching him where he alertly tells her to step backward, but Hyomin wouldn’t comply until she satisfies her curiosity, so she tries to communicate with him to find out what is going on.

“This place is announced as danger zone now” He says “ many part of the building construction cracked due to the earthquake affect, it is estimated that it could collapse so no one is allowed to go back in” A guy in his protective suit explains, “it has been announced as a danger zone”, he adds sternly.   

“Until when?” Jiyeon asks

“Until further notice, which I am not sure how long?”

“Can’t I even go in to collect my stuff?” Hyomin asks in nervous because she is afraid of the answer

“As I have said, no one is allowed to go inside from this very minute, so no, you can’t” He answers

“So where do we stay now, we have nowhere to go?” Hyomin protests, “and our stuff are in there”

“If you may need help, there is a supporting team over there, I’m sure they could assist you with this matter. please contact them” He suggests

“Now, would you please back away?” His hand was blocking her away then he swiftly resumes what he was doing.

Hyomin feels like a whole mess of this trip just starts now, and the worst is yet to come. All kind of unnamed emotions start to kick in and they make her tired to every bone. Hyomin just doesn’t know how to think anymore, she just stands there staring at the building, thinking about her belonging. Shortly after her, the voice of the crowd is buzzing in the air, people groaning and protesting.   

Racing against the voice in the crowd is the voice in her head, when many thoughts drive in and one of them is how they are going to do from now, she loses in her thought once again until a gentle tug at the hem of her shirt breaks a train of her thought. Hyomin slowly turns to her side, and she meets with a soft gaze which she doesn’t remember since when she starts to fall for them.

 “Let’s go, it’s not safe here”

“But my stuff is inside there, I need them”

“Do I have to remind you that my stuff is there too,? You don’t want to be burden inside the collapse building, don’t you?”

“I don’t wanna lose them” Hyomin whines

“Not else matter than you’re standing here, alive now” Jiyeon reminds

Hyomin heaves a giving up sigh, she lingers her gaze on a building a bit longer

“The room was locked when we left, don’t you worry that they might get stolen” Jiyeon says as if she could read Hyomin’s thought.

At some point, Hyomin feels reassured, still it’s not enough to bring her a smile that Jiyeon starts to miss seeing so Jiyeon tries harder to bring it back.

“Let’s get you some new clothes, those make-up set, skin care product, or even painting kits if that’s what you want, everything is on me” , she further offers.

Not that Hyomin is a materialistic girl, but there is something in the way that Jiyeon does, it shows her effort to lift up her mood which means more than any materials   

“Will you really?”

“Have I ever lied to you?”

Hyomin shakes her head as the answer.

“Let’s go then”

Jiyeon slides her fingers into Hyomin’s, the warmth is the first feeling Hyomin could feel from the touch of her hand, it’s that sort of comfort that casts her worry away, and gives her disturbed mind at ease, with a feeling of secure. It doesn’t take her long until her fingers respond to the touch by tightening their intertwined hands, like they were made to fit in each other, smiles grace up on their face when they step forward.

Between hundred other things, this is something Hyomin has never imagined would happen to her. No one has told Hyomin that she was going to be on her forced honey moon trip just only to be stuck in a foreign country that she ended up facing a dread situation of pandemic, and all that followed. It was the least thing she ever imagined going through in her 30s, as if life wasn’t challenging her enough, when the natural disaster teamed up with pandemic to leave her with no choice but to stick around with someone she never thought she would ever depend on.  

Does she know where they are going? No, Hyomin has no idea, not that she has any plan either, she simply goes blank. But there is one thing she can be sure of, is the woman besides her now is going with her, and she will not be alone.   

-

-

-

 “I am sorry M’am but our hotel is fully booked”

“Not even one?”

“That’s right M’am, we are so sorry but we have no single room available at the moment”

Disappointment is written all over their face while weight on their shoulders get heavier each time they exit the hotel with no success, they’ve been walking around and to the third hotel, yet answer is still the same, and Hyomin starts to feel like giving up. She studies her feet as her legs are getting tired from all the walk, and walking on slippers don’t help much.

“Bet we won’t end up sleeping on the street tonight”

Sounds as funny as it may seem, but Hyomin says with the certain nervousness in her voice, Jiyeon can detect it and wish she could say something to make it better, but it’s not that easy right now.

“Let’s try the next one, I hope there is a room for us” Jiyeon is not good at words, she just doesn’t know what to say to cheer Hyomin up, and nothing will make her happy until she is guaranteed to have a place to cover her head tonight.

“Jiyeon?”

“Huh?”

“Have you ever stayed out all night?” Hyomin asks with a certain hesitation in her voice, while subtle fear lives in her eyes when Jiyeon looks at them, something that Jiyeon wants to take them away.

“I haven’t”

“I used to think it would be fun to be wandering around at night, but not anymore”

With everything the world is throwing at them,  Jiyeon feels the hardest part is to deal with the emotion, and it makes her mad at herself for not be able to find the right words to make Hyomin feel better. 

“It won’t happen”  , Neither is a promise nor assuring words, but Jiyeon is determined to do each and everything just to make Hyomin feel better, Jiyeon  tries so hard to think about all possible way that they won’t have to experience sleeping on the street or wandering out all night. And the last thing Jiyeon should be doing now is to ask for help from a person she barely knows for a day.  Looking Hyomin for one last time, Jiyeon decides to contact a guy who offered to help earlier, Jiyeon thinks that he may know places around for he is a local here. 

The day came to an end when darkness was replacing the daylight, leaving Hyomin and Jiyeon with no choice when they haven’t found a place to stay after being taken everywhere that Paul could ever think of, exchanging the last look at each other, Jiyeon and Hyomin timidly accepted Paul’s offer, he persistently invited them to stay over at his parent’s house which has a spare guest room.

In there, they met Paul’s mother, and his sister, ones of the nicest people they’ve ever met, they don’t only offer them a place to stay but the warm hospitality that Jiyeon and Hyomin could ever ask for.

They all assumed that Jiyeon and Hyomin were friends, so to save them from awkwardness for their wrong assumption, the married couple can just smile and let it slip,  besides, Jiyeon isn’t sure if Hyomin is comfortable to tell strangers about them, it’s not like they would stay longer than tonight anyway.  

“So you collect motorbike?” Jiyeon asks when she notices

“Kind of, as you have seen, I have a few more in basement garage” Paul proudly tells

“Paul oppa is a great biker” His sister, Cheryl joins the conversation

“Wow, that’s impressive” Jiyeon says

“Do you bikes ?”

“I’m interested in it, and thinking about getting one” Jiyeon says

“Do you wanna try?”

“Can I?”

“Sure, how about tomorrow”   

Hyomin learns other things that she doesn’t know about Jiyeon through the conversation shared with other people, when they have the talk, and Hyomin realizes that she doesn’t know everything about Jiyeon. But they don’t keep them long, but let them go and rest after a nice talk.

The very first night at Kim Family, Jiyeon and Hyomin can’t thank them enough for a heart-warming  reception, the generosity they didn’t ever imagine receiving from strangers that Hyomin reminds herself to make a mental note to send them thank-you gift later.  

Hyomin finds Jiyeon playing game at the other side of the bed when she steps out of bathroom, she couldn’t believe that Jiyeon bothered to take a Nintendo with her while they were hurriedly escaping the building but who is she to criticize Jiyeon when Hyomin even carried a computer and camera on her sling bag with her in such a dread time.

Sitting at the e