Jan 8, 2014

Sunggyu closed the door behind him, as softly as he could. His hand was still on the knob behind him, and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. There was a really heavy feeling in his heart along with the feeling of dryness in his throat as he thought about his words, and hers, and the whole situation. He knew that he didn't really mean what he said but he found himself wanting to hurt her with his words because of the anger that was still lurking in his heart. He opened his eyes slowly, feeling his grip on the knob a little tighter and slowly, he turned to face the door and turned the knob, after minutes of just holding it.

Seul-ki wasn't there anymore, and it wasn't something that he had expected. He stood in the middle of the living room, trying to strain for any sound from the kitchen or the bathroom, but the house was dead silent. He looked at the door to her room and walked towards it slowly but his hand was fast to touch the knob but in the end, he was just touching it, without making the effort to turn it. He pulled away his hand and decided that he needed a drink instead as he retreated to his room to change his clothes before going out of the house.

None of the kids was available for the night, and he didn't even want to meet Woohyun because of what had happened. He wanted to meet up with Dongwoo but the latter told him he was having his dancing class and when Sunggyu thought again about it, he figured that maybe it was best that he didn't meet Dongwoo since he would probably be scolding him instead. Sunggyu got a little annoyed thinking about the high possibility that his friends would all be on Seul-ki's side, as he was sitting alone at the bar, stirring the ice in his glass. He took out his phone to try to find anyone else available to hang out with when he saw Youngeun's contact name, which he took his moment to stare at. Then, Seul-ki's words appeared in his mind;

"Then I am embarrassed as well... Because my husband slept over at another woman's house when he has a wife."

He remembered vividly the anger in her voice, and her eyes when she stared straight into his eyes. Considering about it, of course she would be mad about it, but what about him? He clearly told her not to hang around with Myungsoo and even after promising him, she still ended up meeting him again and almost got herself killed riding with Woohyun.  Remembering the accident, his mind drifted off to the bandage on her forehead and arm, her knee and torn jeans and it was killing him because he didn't even considered about what kind of pain she was having. He shut his eyes and took another shot to erase the images from his mind. He was angry and he just decided to stay angry and wasn't looking forward to look at her at that moment, putting aside whatever consequences that may come later on.

"What happened to you?" Ye-eun shouted, once she saw Seul-ki at uni the next day. Some other students were also looking at her when she arrived at the examination hall that morning but she paid no attention to them, and put up a hardened look on her face.

"It was just a small accident." She said, smiling wryly as she took her seat near the stairs after limping a little.

"What exactly happened?" Ye-eun asked, touching the band aid on Seul-ki's forehead. Seul-ki told her what happened and her friend sighed and patted her shoulder. "Aigoo. Be more careful next time, oh? Does it hurt badly?"

"There won't be any next time..." She said quietly, looking at her shoes; a pair of sneakers that she had since middle school. That morning, she had put away the shoes that Woohyun had bought for her in a box and hid it away in her room because she didn't want Sunggyu to see them any longer, because she thought that it was the least she could do to lessen his anger.

"What did you say?" Ye-eun asked, but Seul-ki only shook her head. "You should just stay at home to get some rest."

"How can I do that? It's our first paper today." She said, laughed weakly. "I'll be fine. I've already studied enough to answer this paper."

"Are you sure?"

"Hm! Don't worry. This is nothing! You should see when I was a kid. I got a black and blue eye from a fight with the biggest kid in the school." She laughed again, trying to look cheerful. Ye-eun wasn't looking that convinced and she kept on looking at Seul-ki with a worried face. She fished out her phone from her pocket and started scrolling for something as Seul-ki was watching her. When Ye-eun put up her phone, her stomach churned, looking at a picture of a woman with red eyed against pale white face and traces of blood near , with her hair all over her face. "What is that?!"

"Hahahaha. Is it scary?" Ye-eun asked loudly, a little relieved that Seul-ki had wiped off that pretense cheerful look on her face. "I'm Sadako."

"Sadako?"

"Well, it's my part time job at the recreation park. I'm one of the female ghosts." She said, rather proudly. "You should come by sometimes and say hi to me and sing Scream to me."

"How could I do that...? You look so scary. Even Changmin would run away from you. "She shuddered, not wanting to look at the picture any longer. "But you're doing that as a job?"

"Uh-huh. The pay is okay and I don't have to work long hours... And it's so much scaring off people. Some people almost pissed their pants, you know." She said, suppressing her laugh.

"That can't be..." Seul-ki said, shuddering a little. "Are you working even now? Is it not disturbing your studies for exam?"

"Not really. I can just do my revision during the day. Besides, I can use some extra cash to buy this and that without using my loan and parents' money." She shrugged, and put away her phone.

"It's no good to live off someone that much, huh..." Seul-ki said, to herself, while looking down on her shoes. "Ye-eun-ah... Say, if you get married one day, would you still be working or will you stay at home?"

"I want to work." She said, without giving it much thought. "Because you know how the economy is these days, and except if my husband can afford a car like Park Yuchun, I guess I will be helping out with the family's income. I don't want to just like, be a burden to my husband."

"A burden..."

"What's with the question? Are you going to get married soon?" Ye-eun asked, a bit teasingly.

"Huh? Uh, no. I was just asking..." She said, and tried smiling but it faded too soon and she was glad that at that moment, the invigilator came out from the hall and asked them to gather around for their papers.

"Good luck, Seul-ki-ah!" Ye-eun said, giving her a wide smile and patted her back lightly. Seul-ki nodded and entered the hall, sitting at the back of the hall and taking a deep breath, she waited until they were allowed to begin answering the paper.

"A burden..." She mouthed to herself, looking at the front cover of the paper she was about to answer. When the invigilator announced that they could begin answering, she flipped the paper slowly, and tried to answer the first question but it was rather hard for her to concentrate and the words were dancing in front of her and her mind went blank. Her mind was then swimming back to Sunggyu's words the night before and she couldn't help but to feel that it was true that she was an embarrassment because there wasn't a thing that she was good at and that she was going to fail that paper and Sunggyu will be further embarrassed of her. She gripped her pen and tried writing, and tears were just pouring out of eyes but she hid it with her fringe. Quietly, she wiped her tears away, before they fell onto the paper and swallowed the sadness in .

I guess I'm just a shameful burden to Sunggyu-sshi...

Sunggyu was spacing out at work, with his fist on his cheek, and his eyes staring blindly at the computer screen. He was of course thinking of Seul-ki, and how she made breakfast that morning and he thought that she must have left just after dawn because the breakfast had turned really cold by the time he woke up. His heart softened a little, as he considered how she must have been in pain because of her injuries. But when he thought of Myungsoo and Woohyun, he groaned and put off the pity he felt for her. He knew he was being childish but he couldn't help it, because he felt like he was dealing with a kid after all.

After work, instead of going home, he walked to Dongwoo's house, just to be greeted by Ba-rock who was barking loudly at him. He flinched badly, almost stumbling backwards when Ba-rock was running towards him but fortunately, he was tied to his post. Sunggyu looked at the dog in disbelieved; not noticing that Dongwoo had came out of the house.

"Ba-rock! Easy boy!" Dongwoo tried to calm the dog by its fur here and there, but he was still barking at Sunggyu.

"What's wrong with that dog!" Sunggyu asked, loudly, and without taking his eyes off the dog, he walked sideways and jumped onto the porch. "Aish. Dogs these days!"

"What dogs these days?" Dongwoo mused, and Ba-rock barked once more before retreating back into his dog house. "It seems that he thought you were some trespasser or something."

"Why would he think like that? It's not the first time I've been here!" Sunggyu protested, furrowing deeply, shooting a judging look at the dog.

"Then perhaps you came here with a dirty heart. Dogs can see into our hearts, hyung." Dongwoo said, nodding his head slowly, closing his eyes for a second.

"You're saying that I am a bad guy?" Sunggyu asked, laughing disbelievingly.

"Ba-rock seems to believe so." He shrugged.

"Aish, chincha! I can never understand you kids." He rolled his eyes and went inside Dongwoo's house without being invited. Dongwoo only smiled to himself and followed his hyung inside, who was sitting at the ki