Chapter 1.
Remyth
A small boy wandered and wandered, spilling silent tears. He was lost and didn’t know that no matter how long he looked around for, he would never find his way back again.
-
“Oppa, I’m going to work!” A girl around her late teens stepped out of her house, waving at her older brother over her head. Lee Sungyeol chased after his little sister with a blue apron tied tightly around his waist, trying in vain to convince her to stay home.
“You don’t need to work! Why do you need to work? I have money! Lee Eunbyul, get your 17 year-old back in the house!” But the girl, with a sorry heart for making her brother work so hard for her, had her mind set.
Eunbyul skipped right around the corner of the block to be met by her best friend. He was a good four years older than her, but to Eunbyul, age was never a problem when it came to making friends.
“Hyung~! You’re here already? Were you waiting long?” she immediately clung to Sunggyu’s right arm. He shook his head in mock disapproval. She didn’t have a problem making friends, but she did have a problem with making friends who enjoyed taunting her.
“You’re such a barnacle. Both literally and figuratively.”
She pulled her arm away and slapped him instead. She folded her arms, scowling while he snickered. What is there to be said? It was a love-hate relationship. She found nothing strange about it.
They arrived at her parents’ CD store.
“You must now call me ‘boss’, kiddo.” Sunggyu ruffled Eunbyul’s hair. The scowl never left her face. She was excited about working with Sunggyu, but Eunbyul couldn’t help but feel that the king of nagging would annoy her to wit’s end.
But hidden behind his playful eyes was a side of Sunggyu that Eunbyul never suspected. He motioned the little girl to stay and headed to the back room to grab a uniform for her. She insisted that the two of them were best friends, but Sunggyu couldn’t help but feel protective over her. He pulled out a gray polo and some black slacks for her, making sure the polo was a size larger than her actual frame. He knew she liked wearing her shirts loose, but he couldn’t understand why. It made her look more fragile than she already seemed to him.
“So, boss. How do I look?” Eunbyul twirled once before Sunggyu. He heard her voice but wasn’t able to process her words, distracted by the way her hair flew around her face. Sunggyu also knew that Eunbyul took care of her hair diligently; saying that the first thing a guy would notice when looking at a girl’s back-view would be her hair. He could have easily argued against her belief, but...he decided to stop thinking about it before she caught him flat out staring at her .
“...Hyung? Hello? Are you ig-”
“I’m here! I’m not late! Sorry! Oops! Sorry! I’ll fix that! Be right back!” Someone barged into the store panting heavily and knocking over plants, stools, whatever was within a two feet radius of his reach. He ran with whatever energy he had left to the back room to change into his uniform.
“Nam Woohyun, the replacement for that plant pot is coming out of your paycheck!” Sunggyu shouted after the darting figure.
“But I’m assistant manager!” he whined.
“Only when my sister’s here!”
Woohyun rushed out of the room, clothes wrinkled, hair disheveled, and face fallen. Woohyun was a boy who Sunggyu’s older sister had tutored a few years back. Sunggyu had quite a good relationship with his sister, so it wasn’t really an option to turn her down when she suddenly asked him to give her former student a job.
“Oh, you’re new! Hi, new girl! I’m Woohyun!” The boy raised his hand cheerily with a wide smile that made his eyes nearly disappear, but his hand soon retracted to rub the back of his head where Sunggyu had just struck with his palm.
“Her name is ‘Eunbyul’ you manner-challenged child,” Sunggyu scolded.
The girl stared at the pair. “You two aren’t dating, are you?” she asked. The two boys, especially Sunggyu, looked back at her with exasperation evident on their faces.
“…w…what?” Eunbyul was graced with a special appearance of Sunggyu’s trademark eyebrow raise.
“You guys seem like an old married couple…”
She regretted ever mentioning a word about it shortly after. Woohyun slung his arm over Sunggyu’s shoulders, spewing jokes along the lines of how he and Sunggyu were soul mates, a match made in heaven. It wasn’t his smartest decision. Eunbyul was positive that Woohyun would have a bump the size of a golf ball protruding from the spot that Sunggyu would keep smacking him over at.
“Poor Woohyun~” Eunbyul patted him on his head, feeling to see if a bump was forming yet or not.
The rest of the work day was anything but quiet. Eunbyul was far too kind to Woohyun for Sunggyu’s taste, and in response, Sunggyu took out his frustration at none other than Woohyun himself. But this then brought Eunbyul to feign pity towards Woohyun who took this as invitation to fool around more. Even though she wasn’t being serious, Sunggyu couldn’t help but feel jealous.
“Woohyun, how many times have I told you to clean up that potted plant that you knocked over this morning?” Sunggyu rubbed his temple, trying not to sock Woohyun again because it would only distract Eunbyul from her work organizing CDs. He turned to glance at her filing the CDs in artist order with a look of extreme boredom. She tied her wavy hair up in a messy ponytail with stray strands sticking out randomly. She was really something. Even in such a state, Sunggyu couldn’t keep himself from staring at her. It was how he knew that she was truly beautiful. Even in a state of carelessness, she still looked breath-taking.
“Hy- I mean, boss! I’m done,” Eunbyul plopped down on the stool behind the counter. Business was always slow on Mondays and Sunggyu felt awful for giving Eunbyul such boring tasks to do.
“Good job, kiddo. You can take a break now,” he patted her messy head.
“You’re so nice to her! Are you discriminating against plants?” Woohyun looked up from the pile of potting soil he was sweeping. Sunggyu rolled his eyes.
“Nam Woohyun, if you insist on being a tree, you can plant yourself in that new pot we’ll be getting instead.” Woohyun responded with a pout so big that Sunggyu was positive he could dance on Woohyun’s bottom lip.
Eunbyul laughed, “He’s so cute~”
Woohyun’s face brightened up quite drastically after hearing her comment, but he immediately looked away when his eyes met Sunggyu’s stern face.
“There. I’m done,” said Woohyun, holding a dust pan full of soil, leaves and sticks from the plant, and broken pieces of the pot.
“Good. Now go throw it out in the dumpster outside.”
Woohyun stood up and started walking towards the door when out of nowhere, a boy ran into the store. He barged in with such force, Woohyun was knocked off his feet along with the dust pan in his hands.
“Wow, someone’s in a hurry,” Sunggyu thought. He looked at Woohyun who was sitting on the floor looking quite defeated. Eunbyul walked over to him and giggled while picking sticks and leaves out of his hair. Woohyun nearly had tears in his eyes when he realized he would have to sweep everything up again. He looked, puppy dog eyeing Sunggyu who just motioned at the boy to get up and finish what he was doing. Woohyun sighed.
“Excuse me? Are you going to buy anything or are you just going to keep standing there?” Sunggyu asked. Eunbyul turned to see the boy standing near the back of the store looking strangely bewildered.
Wordlessly, the boy selected a CD and walked towards the counter.
“Eunbyul, come over here. I’ll show you how the cash register works.”
They made the exchange and the boy, still without a word, left the store.
“Weird guy,” Woohyun said. He had finally finished sweeping and was dusting off his shirt. Curiosity was gripping Eunbyul. The boy who had just left was nothing but suspicious to her. Why would someone who looks not much older than her walk out of the best-stocked CD store in the city with an album of recorded Opera performances? Not to mention he was wearing a suit. Why was he wearing a suit?
“Yeah…”
“I wonder why his watch read time backwards,” Woohyun said, shrugging to himself.
“His watch was backwards?” Eunbyul asked, her curiosity growing more and more.
“Yeah, it went from 12 to 1 backwards.”
Eunbyul glanced at her own watch, “Boss! It’s closing time! Sungyeol Oppa’s probably worried about me because I didn’t bring my phone with me. I’ll leave first! See you tomorrow, Hyung! Bye, Woohyun!”
She ran out.
Woohyun stared after Eunbyul.
“Oi, Mister Tree.”
“Yes?”
“Get out.”
-
“Which way could he have gone?” Eunbyul looked around frantically, hoping the boy couldn’t have gone too far. She grinned when she caught a glimpse of polished dress shoes disappear behind the corner of the block.
Eunbyul was out of breath. Where on earth was he going? The boy continued to walk through what seemed like a labyrinth of alleyways. After turning what seemed like the twentieth corner, Eunbyul came to a halt. She was face to face with the boy’s back. They had hit a dead end. She caught a glimpse of his watch, bright silver and indeed, backwards. Then, there was a flash. Then, they were back in the alley again.
He turned around and grabbed her arm. Eunbyul jumped, startled. But before she could scream, he covered with the other arm. His bright silver watch was shining in the sunlight. But something was wrong. It wasn’t backwards anymore.
He spoke.
“Stay quiet and don’t move unless I tell you to.”
-
Sunggyu locked the back room and started tidying up the store, making sure everything would be ready for tomorrow. He came across the shelf Eunbyul had been organizing earlier. 1TYM, 2AM, 2PM, Se7en, 8eight…what was that? Sunggyu couldn’t stop a chuckle.
“Lee Eunbyul, you’re going to have to relearn your alphabet.” If it had been Woohyun who had made the mistake, Sunggyu would have been ruthless. But it wasn’t. Sunggyu knew that Eunbyul didn’t want to work. She was just doing it because she hated feeling like a burden to her brother. And so, she was on a quest to make her own money.
Smiling, Sunggyu pulled out his cell phone.
“Hello, Mr. Lee? Yes, this is Sunggyu. I have a favor to ask of you,” it was his first time calling his boss in a while.
“Yes, can you transfer all of my future paychecks to your daughter’s account? Thank you.”
-
“Oppa, I’m going to work!” A girl around her late teens stepped out of her house, waving at her older brother over her head. Lee Sungyeol chased after his little sister with a blue apron tied tightly around his waist, trying in vain to convince her to stay home.
“You don’t need to work! Why do you need to work? I have money! Lee Eunbyul, get your 17 year-old back in the house!” But the girl, with a sorry heart for making her brother work so hard for her, had her mind set.
Eunbyul skipped right around the corner of the block to be met by her best friend. He was a good four years older than her, but to Eunbyul, age was never a problem when it came to making friends.
“Hyung~! You’re here already? Were you waiting long?” she immediately clung to Sunggyu’s right arm. He shook his head in mock disapproval. She didn’t have a problem making friends, but she did have a problem with making friends who enjoyed taunting her.
“You’re such a barnacle. Both literally and figuratively.”
She pulled her arm away and slapped him instead. She folded her arms, scowling while he snickered. What is there to be said? It was a love-hate relationship. She found nothing strange about it.
They arrived at her parents’ CD store.
“You must now call me ‘boss’, kiddo.” Sunggyu ruffled Eunbyul’s hair. The scowl never left her face. She was excited about working with Sunggyu, but Eunbyul couldn’t help but feel that the king of nagging would annoy her to wit’s end.
But hidden behind his playful eyes was a side of Sunggyu that Eunbyul never suspected. He motioned the little girl to stay and headed to the back room to grab a uniform for her. She insisted that the two of them were best friends, but Sunggyu couldn’t help but feel protective over her. He pulled out a gray polo and some black slacks for her, making sure the polo was a size larger than her actual frame. He knew she liked wearing her shirts loose, but he couldn’t understand why. It made her look more fragile than she already seemed to him.
“So, boss. How do I look?” Eunbyul twirled once before Sunggyu. He heard her voice but wasn’t able to process her words, distracted by the way her hair flew around her face. Sunggyu also knew that Eunbyul took care of her hair diligently; saying that the first thing a guy would notice when looking at a girl’s back-view would be her hair. He could have easily argued against her belief, but...he decided to stop thinking about it before she caught him flat out staring at her .
“...Hyung? Hello? Are you ig-”
“I’m here! I’m not late! Sorry! Oops! Sorry! I’ll fix that! Be right back!” Someone barged into the store panting heavily and knocking over plants, stools, whatever was within a two feet radius of his reach. He ran with whatever energy he had left to the back room to change into his uniform.
“Nam Woohyun, the replacement for that plant pot is coming out of your paycheck!” Sunggyu shouted after the darting figure.
“But I’m assistant manager!” he whined.
“Only when my sister’s here!”
Woohyun rushed out of the room, clothes wrinkled, hair disheveled, and face fallen. Woohyun was a boy who Sunggyu’s older sister had tutored a few years back. Sunggyu had quite a good relationship with his sister, so it wasn’t really an option to turn her down when she suddenly asked him to give her former student a job.
“Oh, you’re new! Hi, new girl! I’m Woohyun!” The boy raised his hand cheerily with a wide smile that made his eyes nearly disappear, but his hand soon retracted to rub the back of his head where Sunggyu had just struck with his palm.
“Her name is ‘Eunbyul’ you manner-challenged child,” Sunggyu scolded.
The girl stared at the pair. “You two aren’t dating, are you?” she asked. The two boys, especially Sunggyu, looked back at her with exasperation evident on their faces.
“…w…what?” Eunbyul was graced with a special appearance of Sunggyu’s trademark eyebrow raise.
“You guys seem like an old married couple…”
She regretted ever mentioning a word about it shortly after. Woohyun slung his arm over Sunggyu’s shoulders, spewing jokes along the lines of how he and Sunggyu were soul mates, a match made in heaven. It wasn’t his smartest decision. Eunbyul was positive that Woohyun would have a bump the size of a golf ball protruding from the spot that Sunggyu would keep smacking him over at.
“Poor Woohyun~” Eunbyul patted him on his head, feeling to see if a bump was forming yet or not.
The rest of the work day was anything but quiet. Eunbyul was far too kind to Woohyun for Sunggyu’s taste, and in response, Sunggyu took out his frustration at none other than Woohyun himself. But this then brought Eunbyul to feign pity towards Woohyun who took this as invitation to fool around more. Even though she wasn’t being serious, Sunggyu couldn’t help but feel jealous.
“Woohyun, how many times have I told you to clean up that potted plant that you knocked over this morning?” Sunggyu rubbed his temple, trying not to sock Woohyun again because it would only distract Eunbyul from her work organizing CDs. He turned to glance at her filing the CDs in artist order with a look of extreme boredom. She tied her wavy hair up in a messy ponytail with stray strands sticking out randomly. She was really something. Even in such a state, Sunggyu couldn’t keep himself from staring at her. It was how he knew that she was truly beautiful. Even in a state of carelessness, she still looked breath-taking.
“Hy- I mean, boss! I’m done,” Eunbyul plopped down on the stool behind the counter. Business was always slow on Mondays and Sunggyu felt awful for giving Eunbyul such boring tasks to do.
“Good job, kiddo. You can take a break now,” he patted her messy head.
“You’re so nice to her! Are you discriminating against plants?” Woohyun looked up from the pile of potting soil he was sweeping. Sunggyu rolled his eyes.
“Nam Woohyun, if you insist on being a tree, you can plant yourself in that new pot we’ll be getting instead.” Woohyun responded with a pout so big that Sunggyu was positive he could dance on Woohyun’s bottom lip.
Eunbyul laughed, “He’s so cute~”
Woohyun’s face brightened up quite drastically after hearing her comment, but he immediately looked away when his eyes met Sunggyu’s stern face.
“There. I’m done,” said Woohyun, holding a dust pan full of soil, leaves and sticks from the plant, and broken pieces of the pot.
“Good. Now go throw it out in the dumpster outside.”
Woohyun stood up and started walking towards the door when out of nowhere, a boy ran into the store. He barged in with such force, Woohyun was knocked off his feet along with the dust pan in his hands.
“Wow, someone’s in a hurry,” Sunggyu thought. He looked at Woohyun who was sitting on the floor looking quite defeated. Eunbyul walked over to him and giggled while picking sticks and leaves out of his hair. Woohyun nearly had tears in his eyes when he realized he would have to sweep everything up again. He looked, puppy dog eyeing Sunggyu who just motioned at the boy to get up and finish what he was doing. Woohyun sighed.
“Excuse me? Are you going to buy anything or are you just going to keep standing there?” Sunggyu asked. Eunbyul turned to see the boy standing near the back of the store looking strangely bewildered.
Wordlessly, the boy selected a CD and walked towards the counter.
“Eunbyul, come over here. I’ll show you how the cash register works.”
They made the exchange and the boy, still without a word, left the store.
“Weird guy,” Woohyun said. He had finally finished sweeping and was dusting off his shirt. Curiosity was gripping Eunbyul. The boy who had just left was nothing but suspicious to her. Why would someone who looks not much older than her walk out of the best-stocked CD store in the city with an album of recorded Opera performances? Not to mention he was wearing a suit. Why was he wearing a suit?
“Yeah…”
“I wonder why his watch read time backwards,” Woohyun said, shrugging to himself.
“His watch was backwards?” Eunbyul asked, her curiosity growing more and more.
“Yeah, it went from 12 to 1 backwards.”
Eunbyul glanced at her own watch, “Boss! It’s closing time! Sungyeol Oppa’s probably worried about me because I didn’t bring my phone with me. I’ll leave first! See you tomorrow, Hyung! Bye, Woohyun!”
She ran out.
Woohyun stared after Eunbyul.
“Oi, Mister Tree.”
“Yes?”
“Get out.”
-
“Which way could he have gone?” Eunbyul looked around frantically, hoping the boy couldn’t have gone too far. She grinned when she caught a glimpse of polished dress shoes disappear behind the corner of the block.
Eunbyul was out of breath. Where on earth was he going? The boy continued to walk through what seemed like a labyrinth of alleyways. After turning what seemed like the twentieth corner, Eunbyul came to a halt. She was face to face with the boy’s back. They had hit a dead end. She caught a glimpse of his watch, bright silver and indeed, backwards. Then, there was a flash. Then, they were back in the alley again.
He turned around and grabbed her arm. Eunbyul jumped, startled. But before she could scream, he covered with the other arm. His bright silver watch was shining in the sunlight. But something was wrong. It wasn’t backwards anymore.
He spoke.
“Stay quiet and don’t move unless I tell you to.”
-
Sunggyu locked the back room and started tidying up the store, making sure everything would be ready for tomorrow. He came across the shelf Eunbyul had been organizing earlier. 1TYM, 2AM, 2PM, Se7en, 8eight…what was that? Sunggyu couldn’t stop a chuckle.
“Lee Eunbyul, you’re going to have to relearn your alphabet.” If it had been Woohyun who had made the mistake, Sunggyu would have been ruthless. But it wasn’t. Sunggyu knew that Eunbyul didn’t want to work. She was just doing it because she hated feeling like a burden to her brother. And so, she was on a quest to make her own money.
Smiling, Sunggyu pulled out his cell phone.
“Hello, Mr. Lee? Yes, this is Sunggyu. I have a favor to ask of you,” it was his first time calling his boss in a while.
“Yes, can you transfer all of my future paychecks to your daughter’s account? Thank you.”
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