18

“Kim Sooyeon.”

A knock echoes from the door, awakening the distraught young widow from her own depression.

It was gentle, but it holds a commanding tone to it that makes Sooyeon sit up from bed. Eyes land on the closed door, her window to reality and the world without Taeyeon. They shift back to the huge bed, now feeling its expanse with the absence of its other occupant. It still smells like Taeyeon – like her and Taeyeon – like them.

“Kim Sooyeon?” There it goes again, that voice.

But what strikes Sooyeon to move is not the voice, but the mention of her name – her former name – before she was forced to bury it under mountains of legal paperwork to keep their paranoid enemies from harming her family. Taeyeon and his family has always been a vital part of Sooyeon’s life. Taeyeon has been her constant companion before they are – were – even lovers. He was – still is – Sooyeon’s best friend, her unbiased confidante, who is now lost.

Sooyeon reverts back to her past, retreats into her shell of sadness and depression. Hands wrap around knees as she cradles herself in the gloomy room.

“Kim Sooyeon!” The voice gets louder this time and Sooyeon flinches at the sharpness of its clarity. Her eyes land on the locked door, vision registering the moving shadow beneath the door. Sooyeon’s heart pounds as the voice continued calling her distinct name. “Kim Sooyeon, I know you’re in there. Open up.”

A knock resounds through the dark room, rousing Sooyeon from her depressive state.

‘I’m here.’ Sooyeon means to answer, but words never escape as she draws herself in further.

“Kim Sooyeon.”

Another call and it snaps her back to the person outside the door.

“Open up.”

Sooyeon inhales Taeyeon’s fleeting scent in the long shirt she wears, eyes close in denial of the reality calling for her attention on the other side of the door.

“Kim. Sooyeon.”

The sound changes into a deeper tone. Sooyeon’s bloodshot eyes widen at the familiarity.

“Taengoo?” Sooyeon’s whispers in the darkness, her voice meek from her long silence as she whips her head up towards the direction of the closed door. Silence ensues and Sooyeon’s curiosity gnaws at her like an itch. She sits up once more and moves from the bed, almost falling as her legs cope with her movements, feeling like jelly from disuse.

Like a toddler only learning how to walk, Sooyeon staggers towards the door, eager to hear and perhaps feel Taeyeon’s presence once more. She leans against the wooden frame, hand clutching the doorjamb. Slowly, Sooyeon twists the lock and with much effort pulls the door to open.

“Kim Soo-”

+++

Miyoung is startled when the door suddenly opens and reveals a disheveled Sooyeon wearing only an oversized shirt, which the younger woman assumes to be owned by the late Taeyeon. The young employee has just coaxed Soojung to bed before taking one last attempt at luring Sooyeon out of her lair. Miyoung is stopped mid-sentence when Sooyeon with glazed and puffy eyes steps past the threshold only to fall into Miyoung’s arms.

“Taengoo-” Sooyeon mutters under her breath as she slips away from consciousness.

“Sooyeon!” Miyoung is quick enough to catch the fainting woman. Her eyes gaze down the hallway and she finds the other servants alerted to her aid. One of them whips out their phone and quickly calls for an ambulance as the others rush to attend to their now unconscious boss.

+++

Everything feels numb.

She finds herself laying on the gurney, eyes seeing but not seeing all the same. Shadows hover over her pitiful form. Voices, more like muffled sounds, fill her ears as she remains unmoved. The world feels dull, gloomy, and colorless as her sight registers the blinding, annoying lights running past her. Eyes manage to close and she resigns, succumbs to the darknes