Ninth Chapter
Wicked Fate by Kenzo
The Past and its Hold
Ji’s second weekend in Jeju was beginning to look like it would be as uneventful as his daily clinic. Waking up to the sound of waves from the sea, he knew he had to do something he had been putting off for the past twelve years today but he still was not moving to do anything about it.
With a cup of steaming coffee on hand, he thought to himself “I might not do it at all even while I’m here”.
Ever since his return, he’d been staying in Seunghyun’s beach shack, a little way off from his cousin’s own home. It’s a charming two story, two bedroom cottage that had been built for his cousin’s first wife.
Before Bom had come into Seunghyun’s life, his cousin had been living like a zombie in the memory of his high school sweetheart.
Five years ago when they had seen one another in Seattle for a conference, Ji was beginning to lose all hope that his cousin was ever going to surface from that black cloud.Even Young Bae was telling him that Seunghyun could self-destruct anytime.
But three years ago, it had all changed when Bom had moved from Seoul back to Jeju to take care of her ailing mother. She had decided to work for their family’s clinic and with all that sunshine was able to draw out Seunghyun from the darkness that had encased him since being widowed.
He remembered wishing at that time that someone could come in his life like that but he also knew that with the life he led and with the past he had, it was better off to go on alone.He became a different man when he left because people didn’t know who he was, they didn’t have judgments of him just at mere sight and they didn’t expect him to do anything wrong.
That knowledge had led him to begin the change from a once reckless teenager to a highly decorated military man.It was easier to forget who he was and to begin to become who he actually wanted to be in that faraway land.
Back here in Jeju though, no matter how much he’d changed, the expectations of people that he was still the same old rascal who wreaked havoc into their lives was making it difficult for him to continue being who he is now and not revert back to who he once was.
His phone rang and he saw it was Young Bae.“Bro.”“Hey Ji. Me and the guys are going to play ball. Want to come?”
“Sure. What time will you be playing?”
“We’ll do it later this afternoon. There’s lunch over at Teddy’s house then we play ball afterwards. You should come to lunch too. Every staff on day off is there and all the women cook!”
“No problem. I’ll be at Teddy’s house for lunch.”
“That’s great! Dara’s going to be there too so it’s going to be really fun with you and her as our main entertainment.”
Ji laughed at that “I just might have changed my mind.”
Young Bae responded with a hearty laugh from the other end of the line. “Don’t worry. She’s not as predatory on her day offs. I’ll see you later then.”
“Wait. Do I need to bring anything?”
“Ow! Bring lots of booze, cash, and women. Teddy’s got a mini home theater. We could forgo the basketball and just have cabaret night.”
“Sure! And have our heads cut off by Mai-noona and Bom.”
With a smile on his face, Ji put down the phone and looked up the clock. It was only 8:00 AM. He still had a lot of time before lunch.
“Maybe I should just get this over with” he told himself and headed for the shower. There are things that even the greatest of us cannot run away from.
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Where angels fear to thread
Dara looked up one of the most beautiful houses in Jeju and felt go dry with apprehension.
She wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do but she’d said yes to Seunghyun already and knew it was childish and stupid to turn back.
“You see him and scold him more than twice every God-given day in the clinic” she told herself “This is no different. Just give the food to him and leave.”
Almost like a tradition now, their whole team gathers together every Saturday for lunch and talk of everything or nothing. It had led to them becoming closer like a real family and it had formed a lot of their bonds into the way they were now.
This was supposed to be the first lunch that Ji was invited to since Seunghyun had suggested he be left alone last Saturday but despite a promise made to Young Bae, he had not come.
“I saw him leave this morning” Bom had told them.
“I think I know where he went off to” her husband answered and asked Bom to prepare lunch for him “He’ll need his time.”
And so here she was, bringing him food in the house he grew up in because Seunghyun had asked her to be the one to do it.
“He might be feeling a little raw” the Doctor had told her.
“Then why am I the one you’re asking to bring him food?” Dara asked in surprise, she surely wasn’t going to be “sweet” or anything to him.
“Because seeing you will draw him out from all the memories of that house. He’ll surely banter with you and it’ll take his mind off things.”
“Great” Dara answered sarcastically “And I’m supposed to be encouraged by this.”
Seunghyun laughed “You know what I mean.”
With a sigh, she shrugged her shoulders and now headed for the door. Imposingly beautiful, this house had both fascinated and scared her ever since she first came to Jeju.The judge and his family were immensely respected in the island.
However, everyone knew that the patriarch’s imposition on his only son to follow his footsteps was such that it had led to one of the most intense displays of rebellion the island had ever seen.
She remembered her Grandfather telling her and Chaerin that despite that, they should not think of Ji as a bad guy. “He is a very good young man but he is misunderstood” the old man had explained to them.
“But he’s still an airhead” she told herself to build up her irritation and not show any hint of understanding for Ji.
She knew what he was going through but pride is often a crazy senseless thing that she couldn’t let go off.
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