chapter.31  »  on the brink.

Seungpyo slammed on the counter the spoon he was holding.  “I can't take this anymore.  Soojin!  Soojin!”

“Coming!”  I was all the way at the front of the café, but his slam and screaming for my name were so loud and alarming I ran.  “What is it?”

“Your dog's lost, right?”  He fast-walked away from the counter and stomped into the staff's room.

I followed him, adding pace to my steps.  “Yes, why?”

“Well, it has been some time, isn't it?”  He said, his movements quickened and hurried it was all very unusual.  “And I have to tell you things that you should have known long before.”

“Seungpyo, I don't understand—”

“You don't have to understand!  I just need you to know,” he pulled the door back open rabidly and ran out of the staff room.

Mara was oblivious to us running around the café, but the sound of the door hitting the wall she heard.  “Hey!  Where are you two going?”

“Nowhere you need to know, Mara.”  Seungpyo didn't even look back, and his answer stung Mara, judging by the shock and water in her eyes.

“Seungpyo, what the hell, can you please slow down?!”  I had to raise my voice then, stopping Seungpyo in his tracks.  There was no one else in the café and I was grateful for it. “How can I know if I don't have a slightest clue what you're talking about?  Or why you're suddenly acting like this?  You're hurting other people!”

“You're gonna know,” he stepped forward to me and grabbed my hand, “because I'm going to show you.”

Seungpyo dragged me from the place, not even saying anything about his hurting others, only leaving me the slightest amount of time to untie my apron and throw it at a nearby table.  Mara was close to screaming at the top of her lungs but she didn't wait for us to turn around.  As Seungpyo and I jogged away from the café, we heard the far sound of the café door slamming close and the stomping sound of someone running after us.

“Go back, Mara!”  Seungpyo almost growled.  People with square glasses tend to seem calm to me, but I was fearing Seungpyo at the moment.

“No, I'm not,” Mara said.  “I'm your friend, too, aren't I?”

Seungpyo breathed through his nose like a bull about to charge but said no more.  He only ran, and he didn't let go of me.  His hand had somehow crawled up to my wrist, and I could feel my veins pulsing underneath his strong grip.  Absentmindedly it seemed as though he was stopping my blood from flowing and I wasn't sure if that was healthy, but I had no time to care.

We ended up slowing down as we reached the neighborhood where I lived.  Assuming he was leading us to my house, I almost spoke up and asked him until he turned left, away from the street that would have led to my place.  I looked over at Mara but she looked as clueless as I was.

“I should've told you about this earlier,” Seungpyo finally spoke as we passed by numerous houses.  This side of the neighborhood felt like it only had rich people, “but there were always distractions.”

Something told me he was referring to Jonghyun.  I mumbled, “Sorry.”

He laughed bitterly, the pace in his steps still not worn out.  “Oh, I should be.”

I bit my lip.

Finally I felt Seungpyo slow down to a matchable speed.  His hand was still wrapped around my wrist, and as soon as we stopped in front of a grand single-story house, he let go of me, and my eyes traveled to the house.  No way.  There was no way the house was Seungpyo's.

Mara seemed to be thinking the same thing.  “This... This isn't yours... i- is it?”

Seungpyo unlocked the gate, the rattling of chains against metal snapping at Mara and me.  “I'll have time for the story, but not today.”

He entered while Mara and I ogled the house.  Seungpyo sensed we weren't moving, so he yelled our names aloud and we had no choice but to follow him further into the house.

“Whoa...”  Mara said what I didn't.

It was grander inside, the living room alone the size of my living room and my kitchen and dining room with its vastness.  There were hallways and doors that led farther into the other nooks in the house.  But other than the fanciness of the interior, a vase at the far end of the living room on its stand took my attention.  There was something in it, a thick white fog or smoke that swirled inside, trapped in the clear vase...

“Seungpyo, no!”

Mara's high-pitched voice was the last thing I was sure of hearing because after Seungpyo toppled the vase over and shards spread over the ground in thousand little pieces, the white fog escaped and thickened and grew and swallowed the three of us whole.

It was cold, and my scream was inaudible.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

hmm...

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