Chapter 15

*English is coloured like this

The dining room is cold. Ha Rin sat eating her breakfast alone;her brother still asleep. She shoveled another spoonful in as she heard, footsteps coming down the stairs.

“Morning, oppa.” she chirped, still chewing on the contents in .Byunghun walked towards the sink and poured a glass of water.“Are you feeling better?”

He gave a reassuring nod as he took a sip from his glass.

“Some guy called for you yesterday,” Ha Rin informed, discarding her food and pushing away her bowl. “He said his name was Jae Young.”

A sudden coughing noise came from Byunghun as he choked on his water. “What did he want?”

“I don’t know,” Ha Rin shrugged, “He said you’d know who he was. Do you know him Oppa?”

He gave a sly nod, “Chunsa, did he tell you his last name?”

“Yeah, why?”

“What was it?”

“Park, he said, Park Jae Young.” she recalled, “I’m pretty sure that was it.”

The older boy’s heart sank, his expression turned pale. It can’t be.

Ha Rin got up from her seat and placed her bowl in the dishwasher and dusted off her hands.

“Well see you, oppa.” She smiled as she kissed his cheek. Quickly she walked towards the front door.

“Walk safely!” he called in response.

Ha Rin dismissed his worry with a small flick of her hand. Exiting the house, she began to walk to school.

The wall of the campus gates was cold on Ha Rin’s back. Every few seconds, she’d whip her head around the corner to see if the coast was clear or not. When Youngjae was finally  out of sight, she made a run for her English classroom.  She had almost reached it when she saw Youngjae talking to his friends.

Crap. Ha Rin desperately covered her face with the textbook she was holding, hoping he wouldn’t notice her. Safely she entered her classroom and sat down, thanking the gods Youngjae didn’t take English.

After a few moments the teacher walked in to direct the class.

“Good morning, students.” He spoke, “I would like to inform you that you have an assessment task.”

“You must write a 3000 word essay on a subject of your choice,” he continued, “You might be thinking, ‘that doesn’t sound so bad’, but here’s the catch, It must ALL be in English.”

The class burst in to loud groans.

“All in English?” One student protested. “That’s impossible!”

Ha Rin was laughing inside. in, losers! I have a brother who can speak English. Who’s the outcast now?

“I know,” the teacher said before he mimicked their groans, “Get over it. Do it or fail.”

Class was over and all the students exited the classroom. Ha Rin left the room with caution always checking her surroundings. Walking towards her locker, she fiddled with the edge of her textbooks when she ran into someone. Slowly she looked up to see Youngjae eyeing her, holding an English-Korean Dictionary. He flicked through the pages and read some before speaking.

“Hello,” he said, “You have been…” He flicked to another page in the dictionary, “Avoiding me.” he gave a glance to Ha Rin who looked at him blankly. He flicked to the other end of the book and skimmed the page before looking up confidently. “Why?”

“Huh?”

He averted his attention back to the dictionary and read from it. “You say you don’t….” A turn of the page. “... speak Korean, so I talk to you in…” he flicked to the back of the book again, scanned it then looked up again. “English.”

“Are you stupid or something?” Ha Rin snapped.

“Oh, so you can speak Korean,” he mocked, raising an eyebrow, “Do you care to tell me why you have been avoiding me?”

Ha Rin held her textbooks tightly.

“I haven’t been avoiding you,” She lied. The outcast tried to walk past Youngjae but he grabbed her wrist.

“Does this have anything to do with that Queenka?”

“No, it doesn’t.” Another lie. She tried to pull her hand free but he just pulled her back. Their faces were inches apart, Ha Rin couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. She found herself staring at his lips.

“I can protect you.” 4 words. 100 Heartbeats.

Astonished at her behaviour, Ha Rin pulled away.

“I’m Fine.”

“I heard you called for me yesterday,” Byunghun spoke through the phone.

“Yes, I did.”

“Did you find anything new? Is it getting better?”

“No, I’m sorry Byunghun. You’re condition is only getting worse.”

“There must be something you could do, Dr. park-”

“It’s probably best you tell your sister. The outcome of your condition is inevitable.”

“I-I understand.”