Entry 10

The sun flared brighter on this hot, Sunday afternoon. Inside the cool and comfortable house of the Parks, sat Chanyeol and Krystal who were busy finishing their project. They only have two days left before their deadline.

"Krystal, can you please pass that photo over there?" Chanyeol asked her politely.
"Why don't you do it?" she snapped.

Chanyeol reached over the photo himself and glued it on their scrapbook.

"What else shoul I cut?" Krystal asked.
"Blue and white crepes please."

Krystal proceeded on cutting out their designs. The two of them decided to make a scrapbook of their 10 chosen sports. The model was Krystal while Chanyeol was the photographer. Two weeks were long enought for them to prepare, but Krystal was lazy enough to start doing their project in an early time. Now their Sundays mean cramming days.

"Yeol, Krystal! Lunch is ready. Come on , let's eat." Mrs. Park's voice rang on the kitchen.

The two of them stopped their works instantly and stood up. They have been working for four consecutive hours and they were both starving now. Chanyeol hopped happily towards the dining table and sniffed the delicious smell of their meal.

"Mmmm... I want to eat now, why's there so much food Mom?" Chanyeol asked.
"I asked Sulli to come over. She'll be here in any minute." Mrs. Park answered.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang. Mrs. Park went over the door to welcome Sulli.

"Ah Sulli! You're just in time! Come on in."
"Thank you for inviting me auntie."

Krystal and Chanyeol heard their voices from the doorway. Seconds later, Mrs. Park appeared on the dining table with Sulli on her side. 

"Yo Chanyeol!" Sulli greeted. Chanyeol waved at her. She looked at Krystal who was looking at her too and averted her eyes to Mrs. Park.
"I brought some fruits auntie." she told Mrs. Park.
"That's so sweet of you." Mrs. Park beamed. "You know Krystal right? She's on the same year like you and Yeol."

Sulli glanced sideways and attempted to smile.

"Er, yes, I know her."
"Are you friends too?" Mrs. Park asked expectantly.

Sulli and Krystal caught each other's eyes and looked away awkwardly.

"Umm..."
"I'm hungry!" Chanyeol groaned, clearly oblivious on the awkward atmosphere.
"Haha, okay let's eat now." Mrs. Park pinched her son's cheeks and sat. Krystal sat beside her while Chanyeol and Sulli sat opposite them.

"So how's your project?" Sulli asked Chanyeol.
"We're halfway done! Do you want to help us?" 
"Yeah, sure. Do you want shrimps?" Sulli asked. Chanyeol nodded and she placed shrimps on his plate. Krystal watched them, irritation was burning inside her.
"Your sembreak is just one week ahead. Do you have any plans for your vacation Sulli, Krystal?" Mrs. Park asked.
"Yes auntie, Mom and Dad asked me to come with them on one of their tours. I think next week we'll be in Thailand."
"Oh that's nice, how about you Krystal?"
"Work auntie. I'm in charged of Crystallize here in Korea while my sister was managing our branch on U.S.,"
"How about your mother? I haven't seen Hae Min for a long time." 
"She's busy with work too, but not in Crystallize. Father was also busy and he's on his business trip for a month now."
"Then you're all by yourself?" Mrs. Park asked.

Krystal nodded.

"Well, you know that you're always welcome here Krystal, right? I treat you as my own daughter now, just like Sulli." she spatted Krystal's head affectionately. Krystal's eyes softened a bit from what Mrs. Park said.
"Thank you auntie."

***

Students flooded outside SM High's building; everyone was cheering as their first semester finally ended.

"Ahhhhh finally it's sem break!!!!!" Chanyeol flapped his arms wide and laughed happily.
"Silly Chanyeol." Sulli muttered but she was laughing at Chanyeol's reaction. She walked towards him and tapped his shoulder.
"Do you have any plans for sembreak?" she asked him.

Chanyeol put his fingers on his chin and thought,

"I don't know... but I think Mom has one so maybe I'll just help her with that."
"Ohhh.."

There was a loud honk beside them and they turned around. Victoria was smiling widely towards them.

"Wanna hang out?" she said.
"Yeah sure!" Chanyeol did not hesitate to walked towards her car and sat at the passenger's seat.
"You  don't want to go Sulli?" she asked.

Sulli slowly walked towards her car and smiled.

"This is a surprise, but I appreciate it. Of course I'll come." she opened the back door and went inside Victoria's car too. Chanyeol was grinning excitedly at them.
"Where are we going Victoria?" he asked.
"To heaven."

"Ready?" Sulli asked Victoria and Chanyeol. The two of them nodded firmly. "Okay, on three, one.. two.. three!"

The three of them inserted their tokens and the screen flashed red letters. They started shooting balls rapidly, competing on who will shoot the most balls.

Sulli was flawless; Victoria missed a few times and Chanyeol missed a lot. After three minutes, the buzzer sounded and both of them panted. Sulli was looking triumphant.

"How's that 90 balls!" she peered over Victoria's basket and smirked. "45's not bad." then she peered at Chanyeol's and laughed out loud. "Yeah, and you can always try next time Chanyeol. Next time you might get a point higher, go for 9 balls! Hahaha!"

Chanyeol frowned at her and crossed his arms.

"Let's do it again!" he said determinedly.
"Okay, but don't cry when you lose again." Sulli winked and Victoria laughed. Victoria stared at Chanyeol softly, a happy smile drawn on her face.
"Right. On three, one... two... three!"

"Ahhh that arcade nearly ate all my money!" Chanyeol grunted frustratedly.
"Because you won't stop shooting until you won over us." Victoria said.
"Which he never did." Sulli piped in
"And we have to make a great effort to move you away from that place." Victoria continued.
"Next time, I'll really win! I promise you that!"

Sulli and Victoria laughed. Then Sulli turned to Victoria.

"I've been meaning to ask you this, but why did you ask us out?" she asked.

Victoria thought. "One, because my friends always hangout on clubs, and sometimes clubs grew weary on me too. And two, I really want to spend time with the two of you." she stopped walking and beamed at Chanyeol and Sulli. "I felt something new when I met you two. You know? Something that says... I'm welcome. And I don't care if you two were marked persons, just as nobody cared that I was popular on school once. I just want to be friends with you now. It... took me a while to realize this. I'm sorry."

Sulli and Chanyeol smiled at her. Then Chanyeol tugged her arms "Why are you saying sorry? Come on, let's eat waffles! Your treat right?"
"Of course." 

***

It was officially sem break, and the first thing Chanyeol did? 

"J-jamie... Jamie died.." Chanyeol sniffed while tears were dangerously falling from his eyes. He had just finished watching "A Walk To Remember" starring Mandy Moore and Shane West. He wiped his tears and stared absent-mindedly at the television which was rolling the credits.
"If I were Jamie, what would be my last wish before dying?" he muttered sadly.

Mrs. Park came from upstairs and looked at Chanyeol.

"Are you crying?" she demanded.
"Yes Mom. Jamie died." he answered sadly.
"Who? Oh." Mrs. Park looked at the television and shook her head. *Sometimes I wonder if my son is a man* "Well, I need to go somewhere, lock the doors while you're out okay?"
"Where are you going Mom?"
"I volunteered on Women's Mental Institution as caretaker and cook. I really pity the patients there, they received little support from our government." she shook her head disapprovingly. "Just because the patient's families can't support their everyday expenses and medicine doesn't mean they must leave them all by themselves."
"Can I come with you?" Chanyeol stood up, his eyes full of sincerity and concern. "I would love to help them too."
"Of course you can, it will be more fun, mother and son doing charity works." Mrs. Park beamed at him.

Chanyeol went upstairs and changed his clothes. He took his camera and opened his piggy bank too. He emptied his whole savings and put it in a small, white envelope, then ran downstairs.

"I'm ready!"
"Okay, let's go and catch the bus."

They walked towards the bus station and waited for their bus to arrive.

"Where is WMI Mom?"
"It's outside the city. I don't know what our government was thinking to build a mental institution in a far place, away from the majority."

Soon, their bus arrived. It was an hour and a half before they reached their destination. They stopped in front of a small and nearly inhabited village, with dark alleyways and creepy driveways everywhere.

"Now I understand what you mean Mom." Chanyeol said.
"Come on, the institution was still far from here."

They continued to walk. They passed a small convenience store and a grocery shop on their way. Finally, tehy halted into a stop and looked at the poor building in front of them. The roofs were dilapidated, the paint peeled from the walls, the grass was untrimmed, and the whole atnosphere was creepy and unwelcoming.

"Le's go in Yeol." Mrs. Park hold her son's hand and together they opened the rusty gates of WMI. A kind-faced middle-aged nurse smiled at them.
"You must be Mrs. Park?" she asked.
"Yes, this is my son, Chanyeol." 

The nurse smiled at Chanyeol too. "Such a tall and good-looking man. It's nice of you to volunteer here too."
"T-thank you ajumma! Here, please accept this." he offered the envelope to her. "It's not much, but I wish it can help."

The nurse looked touched at Chanyeol's kindness. Her smile widened and patted his head softly.

"It's a big thing already. Chanyeol right?" she asked kindly. Chanyeol nodded. "Come on in."

The three of them walked inside. Chanyeol received a surprise. If the outside of this building was cold and scary, the inside was definitely the opposite.

The walls were painted in different and happy colors. Chanyeol expected a building with only white as its color but he proved to himself that there are some mental institutions who disobeyed the usual designs. Some broken lights were not a barrier to give the visitors a welcoming feeling for the inside still shined with warmth. Chanyeol and Mrs. Park smiled at each other. They've come at the right place.

"Surprised aren't you too?" the nurse chuckled. "Five years ago WMI doesn't look like this at all. We have no money for paints, lights and so on, but someone volunteered and provided us funds. She's a regular here, you might see her later. By the way, I'm Nica." she offered her hands. Mrs. Park and Chanyeol shook hands with her.

"Here's the visitor's lounge, you can drop your things in here. The rest room was over there. Wash your hands first before we go inside the living room. Our patients were all inside, so you can meet them all. I'll come here at five, okay?"
"Thank you Nica." Mrs. Park said. Nica nodded and closed the door behind her. 

Chanyeol and her mom washed their hands. Mrs. Park took a large box of home-made cookies from her bag.

"I wish our patients will love this." she said.
"I'm sure they will Mom."

Nica appeared at the doorway again.

"Ready?"

They walked at the long hallway and turned around a corner. Nica opened another door and walked inside, Chanyeol and Mrs. Park on her heels.

Chanyeol gasped audibly. The room was surprisingly spacious. There were at least 45 women of all ages inside. They were all sitting on the floor, aligned in neat rows. They looked at Chanyeol and Mrs. Park who nervously smiled at them.

"Okay girls, listen." Nica said. The patients turned to look at Nica instead. "Remember when I told you that we have a new volunteer this month? Well we have two, isn't great?" she asked in a happy tone. Some of the patients nodded and clapped their hands, but most of them continued to stare.
"This is Mrs. Park Hye Ri and her son, Chanyeol. Let's be good to them, can we do that?"

The same patients who nodded and clapped earlier nodded and clapped again. Nica nodded her head approvingly.

"Very good. And look, they even brought you some cookies. Who wants cookies???" Most of the women raised their hands. The other nursed went over Nica and put some cookies on their plates.
"Don't be afraid approaching them. Just don't surprise them. It's really nice that you volunteered here, our patients need someone to talk to." Nica said, giving Mrs. Park and Chanyeol their own plates with cookies too.

Mrs. Park went over the nearest patient while Chanyeol searched around. He saw a woman on the farthest corner of the room, her back turned from everyone. He walked towards her.

"Yeol, where are you going?" Mrs. Park asked, following her son. They stopped in front of the woman who was busy staring at the space in front of her.
"Er... hi I'm Park Hye Ri." Mrs. Park said uncertainly.

The woman did not respond, her back was still facing them.

"And my name is Park Chanyeol Ma'am!" Chanyeol piped happily.

The woman turned very slowly at the sound of his name. She was gaunt-faced but she was still unmistikably young, in her late 40's. Her eyes were dark and deep, and her jaws resembled strongly of someone they knew.

"Oh my God." Mrs. Park clasped a hand on as she stared at the woman in front of them.

Chanyeol's mouth was hanging wide. He stared at her for a long time before uttering two words... 

"Mrs. Jung?" he asked disbelievingly.
"Mommy, I'm here." 

Chanyeol and Mrs. Park turned around. The new arrival dropped her things and stared at them fearfully.

"Ahh! I see that you finally met her!" Nica walked towards them and beamed at the girl. "Mrs. Park, Chanyeol, meet our regular volunteer, Krystal Jung."