You're My Sun

As you expected, it was the Lee Brothers who inhabited this room. I never thought my life would be like this, like in the dramas my mom would always watch. The girl meets the guy wherever she went.

“Dinner will be served soon, please enjoy your beverages till then.” I grind the words out of my mouth with much difficulty as I see Kai enjoying my pain.

Taemin, the one sitting at the round table, took his drink and tasted it as if he was judging the flavor. He nodded his head after a simple “cha” at the end of his sip.

“Ya, hand me a drink. Wait, Ms.Jieun, will you pass me my beverage?” Kai spoke to Taemin at first, but then got an idea in his head. I could tell from his eyes that he’s going to start torturing me from now.

Eunseol elbowed me in the sides, gesturing me to do what Kai told me.

“Of course...” I started to say until Eunseol elbowed me again. “Yes, of course young master.”

Kai grins widely and laughs out of enjoyment. I hand him his damn drink and pick up the tray.

“We will see you at dinner, masters. The main course should be done in about ten minutes, so please make your way to the dining room.” Eunseol steps forward and announces. Taemin stands up and walks towards the door to the dining room with Kai following slowly behind.

I roll my eyes and grind my teeth right before I turn around to go and serve the ‘masters’ their appetizers.

“Cha, here’s your bedroom! ~ Personal maids for the young masters get their own room, so you can comfortably sleep here and all. Just keep it clean, the lady has a for messes.” Eunseol introduces me to my room after we cleaned up the dining room after dinner. It was decent, the walls were a light pastel pink and the furniture was a soft beige color with vintage touches. The frills were everywhere though, like the ones you see on this freaking uniform. What is up with all these cutesy things?!

“Who’s the lady?” I ask subtly. “Taemin and Kai’s mother. Ah, so glad I don’t have to call them young masters anymore, that was annoying.” Eunseol shocked me, her personality is much cooler and laid back!

“Woah, you sound like you just threw off a bunch of weight off your shoulders. You don’t like calling them young masters either?” The conversation starts getting interesting, unlike the usual ‘How old are you?’ and the ‘Oh, I see’ statements people usually use when they first meet.

“Hell no! Okay, I know they’re rich and all that, but c’mon. ‘Young masters’ is a little overboard. I just put up with it because if you don’t, they cut your freaking pay! And Taemin is a sweet kid, but Kai is a little, erm…like a lobster. Hard shell but soft on the inside.” She plops on my bed and lays back.

“Ha, yeah. I haven’t seen Kai’s soft side yet, and I don’t believe he has one.” I join her and jump on my bed also, which is pretty comfy.

“By the way, since your job is being a personal maid, you have a….walkie talkie!” Eunseol sits up and points to the desk across the room. A white walkie talkie was sitting there with a white envelope.

“SOOO basically, you’re a slave now. Well, my shift is over in five minutes, nice meeting you! Bye!” She walks out the door with a smile and waves goodbye. Wow, what a nice explanation. I’m a slave.

I was about to just go to sleep because I didn’t really feel like getting up and going all the way across the room to touch a white device.

Until it starts blinking and making buzzing noises.

“Ah..ah..ah! Kim. Ji. Eun. Can you hear me? Over.”

Over? What the heck? We are not hunting any criminals or anything, no need to say over.

“KIM. JI. EUN! CAN YOU HEAR ME?” The device talks again, and the person speaking is getting annoyingly louder.

“Yes! I can hear you fine! Now will you pleaaaase leave me alone so I can go to-“ I don’t bother to walk and press the talk button, but my door opens?!

“There you are.” Kai holds his walkie talkie in his hand and holding the door knob on the other.

“What are you doing here?!” I furiously mount up and yell at this incompetent fool.

“I am here to tell my new personal maid what I like and dislike, and what my expectations are.” He steps inside my new room and sits in my chair, propping his legs up on the desk.

“There is a high probability I will be doing 99% of the things you dislike, and a very high chance I won’t even listen to you right now. So do both of us a favor and just go back.” Rising up from the bed, I walk over to the closet to see how many clothes I can fit inside beforehand so I can pack correctly.

“Ya, what are you doing here?” Someone suddenly says. Is this like a supermarket or something? Why does the door keep opening?! This time I see Taemin enter with a tray, which is supporting a glass of juice and some bread.

“What are you doing here?” Kai asks again bluntly.

“I’m bringing Jieun some snacks, since it is her first day here. Anyways, I asked first.” Taemin shoots me that warm and comforting smile I saw when I still worked at the convenience store and puts down the tray on the desk. He also shoos Kai’s feet off for me.

“I am announcing guidelines.” Kai reaches out for a piece of bread, but Taemin slaps his hand away and pushes the tray back further.

“Jieun, come and eat. I don’t think you had dinner.” The kinder Lee brother walks towards me, grabs my wrist and softly walks me over to eat the food he brought.

I tried to whisper ‘thank you,’ but the words just wouldn’t form. I take the bread and bite a piece off to hear Kai sigh in what seems to me to be disbelief.

“I have to pick up my dry cleaning; can you get it for me?” Kai turns around and stabs his gaze into my eyes.

“It’s getting dark! Get it yourself tomorrow.” Taemin confronts Kai strongly, dissolving me from the whole situation.

“It’s my school uniform, I need it.” Kai responds back and takes out the pick-up slip from his pocket.

“Well, I’ll go with you. It’s almost dark and it might not be safe. It looks like it’s gonna rain too.” Taemin shrugs and walks toward the door.

“It’s okay, the address on the pick-up slip isn’t far from here, I’ll be back soon.” I hated myself for saying this because one, I didn’t want to do this errand and two, Kai was just being snobby at this point. But I just started the job and I don’t want to cause trouble in the beginning of it. Guess this is what Eunseol meant by slave.

It was cold outside, the air felt sharp and my layers of clothing didn’t help. The cold felt like it was stabbing my skin, but the dry cleaner’s wasn’t much farther.

The cleaner’s was located in a small shopping centre and was mixed with other small discount stores. Never knew the elite Lee brother Kai would ever get his clothes cleaned here.

I picked up his stinkin’ clothes and laid it on my arm. When I walked out, it was drizzling and the rain gathered up quickly to become a small session of pouring rain.

I took out the umbrella Taemin handed me earlier and started to open it until I saw a grandmother look out with her hand over her eyes, checking the sky. She looked like she was freezing, and I didn’t spot an umbrella near her anywhere nor did she have a hood on her coat. No scarf either.

I had a furry hood on my coat and a long scarf, so I walked up to her and handed her my umbrella. She denied it at first, but I insisted.

“I don’t need to go far; it takes less than five minutes to get to where I need. Please take the umbrella.” I take the grandmother’s shivering hand and placed the umbrella on it. When she finally grips the umbrella, I take off my scarf and wrap it around her bare neck.

I put my hood on and zipped my coat all the way up to cover Kai’s uniform then bowed to the grandmother, who was tenderly smiling at me behind the scarf I gave her. Her smile was sincere and delightful. It’s hard to find a smile like that, so I didn’t regret giving her the umbrella and scarf.

Walking down the steps of the shopping centre, the wind smacked me hard along with cold rain when I reached the bottom. The side wall of the centre was no longer there. I gritted my teeth, hugged Kai’s warm uniform and walked as fast as I could back to the Lee mansion.

“Grandma, none of the stores have umbrellas. They all sold out because of the sudden rain.” A handsome high schooler jogs towards the grandmother disappointed.

“It’s alright, a nice young lady gave me an umbrella.” The grandma holds the umbrella up and the boy takes it in his hands.

“And the scarf..? Did she give it to you also?” He questioned his grandmother, seeing her smile and snuggled underneath the warm and long pink scarf.

The boy looked beyond his grandmother and saw a girl hugging her coat and speed walking against the chilly and wild rain. He only saw her side view for a moment until she disappeared into the rain. Capturing only half her features when the wind blew her hood off, he smiled the same smile the grandmother had. The warm smile that could toast anyone up even in this weather.

I held my hood by a single fur and often switched arms from the cramps I would get. The wind was blowing my way, so that was unlucky of me. I couldn’t feel my neck or my face and the rain kept hitting my skin. The five minute walk I took to the cleaner’s feels longer. I wasn’t even halfway back, yet it felt like an hour has passed by.

Another ‘hour’ passed and I finally reached the final steps of the mansion. Just one more step and the door will be right there…

I walked in submerged in frosty rain, which dripped from the ends of my coat and nose. I could not feel one body part and felt like I was living in a dead body form all the numbness. Coldness is always tagged with loneliness and sadness, and even though nothing depressing occured, I was...cold. 

In the midst of all this, I managed to my coat low enough to take out Kai’s dry cleaning. It wasn’t warm, but it’s dry. That’s the important part.

“Jieun!” Taemin comes barging towards me and grabs my shoulders. “You’re soaking wet! It’s freezing outside! You should’ve called and asked for a ride!”

“I..don’t have you…your number…” I stuttered and my words were breathy. Taemin took the dry cleaning and led me to his bathroom with his arm around my shoulders.

“Stay here.” He puts Kai’s dry cleaning on the sink and tells me to sit down on one of the wooden vanity seats.

Taemin comes rushing back with a big black coat lined with white fur on the inside and a white thermal blanket.

“Take off your coat.” Taemin pulls a seat in front of me and sits down. He helped me take my drenched coat off and swapped it with the dry black one and wrapped the blanket around me.

“Are you still cold?” He looks deep into my eyes with a worried gaze and rubs the sides of my arms.

“Just..a little..” My mouth still numb and cracked from the wind, the words barely made it out. Taemin takes a small hand towel and pats my face with it to rid of the rain.

After my face was dry, he blanketed his arms around me and hugged me close. Rubbing my back to warm me up more, he sings a small melody. There were no lyrics, nor did he sing it. He hummed it. Smoothly and delicately.

The corners of my chapped lips curved up as he started to pat my back to the beat of his hums. The grandmother’s smile and Taemin’s smiles were warm, just like this.

“It’s okay.”

“No need to worry.”

Those were the words Taemin’s hug radiated, which I don’t hear often. I say them often, since I am the breadwinner of my family. I have to protect them, but I never felt protected and safe by someone else besides my mother until now.

“Fool.” Kai whispered under his heavy exhale. He spotted my eyes closing slowly from the gap the bathroom door made and saw the dry cleaning lay carelessly on the sink. Not in the happiest mood, Kai stuffs the coat and blanket he held in the closet as he walked away and throws the disposable cup of warm jasmine tea into the trash.