Jiyong

Late afternoon sunlight trickles through gaps in the brick as Dara and I climb the stairs towards our apartment. Quiet murmurings of the residents around us as we pass door after door on the way, interrupted by squeals of laughter.

“Got you!” The twins from two doors down are bolting towards us, heading for the stairs.

“Nah, you didn’t! Race you downstairs?” They stop for a bare second, only to take off again. Dara and I shift over to one side of the walkway as they run past. Black pigtails flying, the girl is in the lead, with her brother a half step behind.

As we reach the door and I search my pocket for the keys, Dara smiles. “Did we ever have that much energy?”

“Maybe. I do remember lots of sitting in trees hiding from your mother though.” I open the door to see boxes and boxes stacked up and lining the hallway.

“Is Bom moving in or are we having a garage sale?” I chuckle as I head down the short hallway. Dara is removing her shoes and jacket as I come across a sweaty, singlet wearing Seunghyun. My best friends face is calm, but anger is swirling beneath the surface.

“What’s up Seunghyun?” I empty the contents of my pockets on the sideboard.

“You’re moving out Jiyong.” Seunghyun enters my room, and then returns carrying yet another box, which I can now assume, is full of my belongings.

“Um, why?” I pull out a chair and sit down. “What’ve I done now? Broken a rule, obviously but which one this time.”

“The only one.” Seunghyun’s face is blank as his sister walks in the room.

“So, I’m assuming there is a really good reason for why all of Jiyong’s stuff is packed into boxes.” Dara dumps her bag on the hook and takes a seat beside me.

“Get away from my sister Jiyong.” Seunghyun almost growls the words and I obey, standing and leaning against a wall, far enough away from both Seunghyun and Dara.

“What the hell Seunghyun?” Dara stands to face off against her brother, toe to toe and eye to, well, chin. Dara is, rather unfortunately, shorter than her brother and so her icy look has no effect.

“Jiyong broke the rule and so he is moving out. Simple as that.” Seunghyun crosses his arms and looks at Dara.

“What rule is this? Have I broken it too, cause I’d rather live with Ji, than live with an apparently insane you!” Dara marches over to the spare boxes and grabs several, “Get ed Seunghyun!” Dara has tears of frustration and anger in her eyes.

“Hey, calm D. It’s not an issue, I’ll go live at Seungri’s for a while, till Seung calms down.” I reach out to give her a one armed hug and as I do, I am ripped away.

“I SAID DON’T TOUCH HER!” Seunghyun slams me against the wall. Seunghyun’s taller than me, and so has that advantage but I have a much higher pain tolerance than him, and can take the hits I know are coming.

A fist slams into my face, throwing my head to the side. My vision blurs for a few seconds and then I roll my head back around and smile. Adrenalin starts to run through my veins and I feel the familiar ‘fight or flight’ reflex kick in. Shame my ‘flight’ reflex doesn’t work too well.

“That was a free one. If you throw another, I’ll come back at you.” I slide out of Seunghyun’s hold against the wall and put my back to the doorway.

We are both blurring out Dara’s shrieks of “STOP IT! STOP IT NOW! PLEASE!!”

Seunghyun goes in for another punch, this time an uppercut to the left. I dodge and throw a punch at his stomach, planning to disable him before this goes too far. It hits but Seunghyun keeps fighting, throwing himself at me, hoping his superior height and therefore weight, will pin me to the ground. I go down, just as Seunghyun lands on top of me, pinning my hips and wildly aiming for my face with his fists.

“GET OFF HIM SEUNGHYUN! STOP IT!” Dara is screaming now, but I know this has been in the barrel for too long to stop now. Friends fight just like enemies, but you know each other too well to give up. We know each other’s weaknesses and strengths, hard hits and soft spots. Seunghyun knows that if I get up, I’ve got him. I have better footwork and if I get my legs into play, I can take him down. I know that if I let him pin me for too much longer, I’m in trouble. I have one jawbone slightly weaker than the other, after a break several years ago. If he hits it right then I’m out of the game.

As this is all running through my head, I’m taking and blocking hits left and right. Just because Seung was outta the game for a coupla years doesn’t mean he let all his tricks go to waste. He has a wicked right hook and it’s coming at me now.  I roll out from under his legs and his fist smashes into the floor.

“Bastard.” Seunghyun shakes his fist twice to try and get back the feeling in it before coming at me again. I feel Dara’s hands on my shoulders, trying to pull me away when I bring my knee up and smash into his solar plexus. He blocks two of my punches before having another go. Too late I notice Dara is still vainly attempted to pull me away and as I duck out of the way of Seunghyun’s hit it ploughs over my shoulder and slams into Dara’s face.

With a sound somewhat similar to a yelp Dara’s legs fold under her and her eyes roll back in her head. She collapses on the floor, nose streaming blood that flows onto once pristine carpet. A clean slice, from Seunghyun’s ring, drips blood above her left eye.

“, no. Dara!” I drop to my knees and roll her into the recovery position, sliding my hand under her neck to support the minor possibility of a spinal injury. I also check the pulse on her wrist, all automatic as my hands deal with the consequences of Seunghyun’s and mine actions. My head is spinning, Seunghyun just punched his beloved baby sister in the face, by accident and it’s entirely my fault.

I look up to see Seunghyun still standing there, face white and hands trembling.

“She’s fine Seung. It was an accident, she got in the way. Help me put her into her bed,” it’s almost shocking, the last time I said those words Seunghyun thought I had slept with his sister and now he knows it’s true. “Grab an icepack and a glass of water. TOP?”

“I can’t Ji, not right now. Please, just deal with her… it for the time being.” Seunghyun spins on his heels and purposefully walks to his room, shutting the door behind him.

I sigh and slowly lift a still unconscious Dara into my arms, supporting her head with my shoulder as blood drips off her face. Clearing a way through the immense amount of stuff on her floor is rather difficult and I shift one arm out from under her as her legs rest on the bed to fold down her doona. Sliding her legs under the blanket, I softly prop her head on the pillow and begin to dab at her wounded nose with tissues. She’ll probably have a black eye in the morning, along with a bruised and swollen nose.

As I walk out her door, watching her as long as I can, before I head to the kitchen, firstly to grab the massive first aid box in the top cupboard and secondly, for a glass of water and an ice pack. Dara’s nose is going to kill when she wakes up, and cold is perfect for bringing swelling down.

I pop the glass on her bedside table, the first aid kit on the other side of her double bed and the ice pack, in a sleeve, on her nose carefully.

I open our expansive first aid kit, knowing immediately what to do. At least I’ve learnt something after years in this job, and starting fights when I was younger. I might’ve been one of the smaller boys, but damn, I could throw a decent punch. Still can in fact, and I bet Seunghyun can attest to that. I’ll be sore tomorrow, from the few hits he landed and some nice bruises on my forearms from blocks and such, but I reckon I’ve come off better- since I didn’t knock my innocent little sister out or anything.

Dabbing at the cut above Dara’s eye with an alcohol wipe, she begins to stir.

“Mmhm. Ouch, that hurts like a .” Her eyes flicker for several seconds before she opens them fully to reveal hazel green eyes. “What the hell happened?” Dara tries to sit up before sliding back down with a hand on her forehead. “Ok, lets not sit up then.”

“You caught a punch to the face, after trying to pull me off Seung. He got you square across the face, and since the hit was meant for me, it was a pretty hard shot too.” I hold several fingers in front of Dara’s face, “How many?”

“Three.”

“Good, means you don’t have to go to the hospital. Follow.” I instruct her to follow my hand as I move it from one side to the other. “All good.”

“Is this really necessary? Oh my god, that hurts.” Dara reaches up to touch her nose and grimaces.

“Yeah, your nose will probably be swollen for a couple of days at least, and you are definitely going to have a black eye, maybe two.” I pull her hand from her face and continue my clean up of the cut. Putting a little Band-Aid on it, I smile. “All better.” Removing the ice pack, I scrutinise Dara’s nose. “Well, at least it’s not broken. Still, if you have a delayed concussion….”

“Please don’t wake me up every two hours. Please.” Dara puts on her pleading face, knowing that it is protocol for a concussion.

“Sorry. Seung’s, ahh, out for a while, so you get the joy of seeing my gorgeous face every two hours.”

“Ok.” Dara bites her lip and it’s just so damn cute. “Can I have a shower then? I want this blood off me.”

“Hot water- I doubt it. Plus, what happens if you collapse?” I sigh and pack away the first aid kit.

“You get the delight of pulling a drippy, wet, unconscious me out of the shower.” Dara sits up slowly, and pulls off her covers. “Open the first aid kit back up.” She slowly makes her way over to me and ‘tsks’.  “Idiot.” Grabbing a tissue from the box beside her bed, she wets the edge with her tongue, and as I watch mesmerised, she brings it up to dab my forehead. “Should’ve made Seunghyun take off his ring, before you two went all ‘male’ on each other. We’ve got matching cuts now.” She indicates her band-aided forehead as the tissue comes away with once dry blood on it.

“Do you want that shower or not?” I try and put my cocky persona back on, to help hide how much she has shocked me. Not one question about Seunghyun, nothing about how this is really my fault, nothing about how much her nose hurts, no, she just cleans me up, like she does every time I come home injured, and she’s just come out of a concussion. Just as I think to myself, ‘why can’t I just find a girl like Dara, who doesn’t judge me for my job, or personality, or little quirks and is perfectly happy with the life I lead, and prepared to clean me up after everything’? I realize, I have, in fact, found her. Only problem is, she’s right in front of me, and I can’t touch her. That’s how this whole thing started in the first place, so I will just go on, pretending I never noticed in the first place, just like I have ever since Chaerin.

“Shut your eyes.” I follow Dara into the bathroom and sit on the toilet, like those dutiful husbands while their wives shop.

“Why, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before, plus you’re all beat up and I am not a fan of beat up girls.” I smirk and pretend to relax languidly on the pink toilet seat.

“Shut them.” Dara had her ‘stern face’ on and it was enough to make me laugh.

“Yes mum.” I did as she asked and about a minute later heard the shower turn on.

After several minutes of me calling out ‘Dara’ and she would answer ‘still alive’ or some other just as hilarious comment, the shower was finally turned off.

“Are your eyes still closed?” Dara’s voice was rebounding off the walls in the small room and I could smell her citrus body lotion from where I sat. I’ve go to say, it was a pretty big struggle not to get up, walk over and just smell her skin, the unique scent of Choi Sandara. It was citrus and white chocolate and strawberry lip-balm, with just a hint of whatever soap is used on our clothes. I love her smell.

“Yessss. Hurry up; I want to get my two hours sleep before I have to wake you up again.” I stood up; eyes still closed and slid my hand along the wall till I found the door. “I’m gonna got put on my pj’s. Please don’t collapse while I’m gone.”

I left Dara’s room and walked along the hallway till I got to Seunghyun’s. Quietly knocking on the door, “Seunghyun? You in there?” No answer. I pushed open the door and discovered an empty room.

I shrugged my shoulders and left, passing the kitchen on the way to my room. Spotting a note on the table, I see, in Seunghyun’s precise handwriting

‘Gone to Bom’s for the night. Please take care of Dara. I’ll probably be back tomorrow. Leftover spag bol in the freezer- heat in saucepan until hot.

Seunghyun.’

“That explains something.” I mutter to myself as I head to my bedroom and throw on a extra-large t-shirt and some flanny pyjama bottoms. Before I put on the t-shirt I look down at my bare chest, tracing the numerous scars with my eyes and watching the ring, on a chain around my neck, moving up and down with each breath I take. Like my memories of Chaerin, this ring is always with me; I never take it off. It was her half of a couple ring, the partner still on my finger. I haven’t taken this chain off since I got her ring, three years ago in the morgue. Tonight I make a decision, one of my hardest. I reach around and unclasp the chain, holding the thin chain and engraved ring in my hand.

“I love you Chaerin, but it’s time to move on. Memories are something I’ll always have, but I think you’d probably want me to do this too.” I put the ring on my side dresser, reclasp the chain around my neck, throw on my shirt and head back to Dara’s room, my doona and pillow in tow. 

AN

So, hope you all like this. I wanted to keep writing but then I couldn't find a way to end it, so the next chapter will probably be from Ji's perspective too.

:)

Comments are love!