Do You Miss Fortune?
Mr. Perfect
-Two weeks later-
Myungsoo wasn’t sure whether he liked his new school life or not. On one hand, his new schoolmates were very hospitable and friendly; he even found himself a couple of people he would even call friends. On the other hand, he still had to deal with two certain individuals who made his life somewhat complicated. One made his life a living hell, while the other just made him extremely awkward.
After their little swim in the lake, Sungjong’s attitude toward Myungsoo had drastically changed. He no longer bothered Myungsoo anymore; in fact, he seemed to be trying to avoid any contact with Myungsoo whatsoever. That would have been no problem at all, had their teacher not decided to make Sungjong and Sungyeol switch seats after she’d seen them swim together.
That brought with it a million of more problems, problems that Myungsoo had no intention of dealing with. For one, Sungjong was even less responsive than Sungyeol had been during their first week of school. He completely refused to cooperate with Myungsoo in their pair projects. He refused to respond to any form of communication Myungsoo had attempted to make, so Myungsoo had to do all of their pair classwork on his own. Which didn’t help his stress level at all.
The other problem the seat change caused lied with Sungyeol. The tall boy didn’t take it easily. Apparently, he had been in that particular seat ever since he'd started high school, and being the choding he was, he protested very vocally against the change. But that was not all. Apparently, even though they had practically been enemies, Sungyeol seemed to have developed some sort of possessiveness over Myungsoo, and now that his “toy” had been taken away from him, he became even more sulky and childish. Which resulted in even more childish attacks at Myungsoo.
He honestly didn’t know what to do with the two of them. One was completely ignoring him, and the other seemed more fervent to cause him trouble than ever before. Had Myungsoo been his usual self, he probably would have figured out some way to deal with the cousins; however, he was hardly his usual self. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he had had several rather disturbing dreams in those past two weeks that involved the aforementioned duo. Those dreams made his judgment of the two rather clouded.
In annoyance, Myungsoo kicked a soda can in front of him. He didn’t bother to check where it ended up and just continued walking along the street; from the sound of it, it bounced off of someone’s car, but he couldn’t care less. All he could think about was his inability to get the two boys out of his head. Something must have happened to him during the race. Maybe the lake water had some weird bacteria that caused him to think weirdly of his adversaries. Because he had no other explanation why he thought of them in a fashion not dissimilar to the way he’d thought of only one man before—Fedora’s Hoya. Well, actually, Myungsoo had to remind himself that before Hoya, there was Bang Yongguk. And before that guy, there had actually been Nichkhun. And even before that guy,…
Myungsoo had to mentally slap himself for getting too far into the past. He needed to focus on the present and let bygones be bygones, as his sister had told him so many times before. And the truth was, at the moment, it seemed that he was harboring feelings for two different people whom he was supposed to dislike.
No, Myungsoo corrected himself, he definitely wasn’t harboring any feelings for those two. It was all just a misunderstanding. He was just going through some kind of period. Right. Period. He knew that women went through those, and that they got their feelings and emotions all mixed up. Maybe guys had their periods too. No one ever said that they couldn’t have their periods, right? There was no reason guys couldn’t have a hormonal malfunction from time to time, right? That had to be it. His hormones were just slightly edgy. It would all pass soon, and then he wouldn’t even give the two of them a damn thought. That had to be it.
Something caught the corner of Myungsoo’s eye just as he was about to turn the corner. He blinked for several moments before turning his head back. On the other side of the street, he spotted a small, almost unnoticeable sign. A sign that nonetheless caught his attention. He zoomed in with his eyes and read the sign in his head. It said, “Do You Miss Fortune?” Well, Myungsoo didn’t exactly miss fortune, but for some reason, he felt very drawn to the place, as if something was pulling him in. He didn’t know why, but his legs started moving on their own accord. Before he knew it, he was standing in front of the small shop.
He looked inside through the display. The room inside was small, rather cozy. There were a couple of chairs pushed against the right wall, and a glass vitrine occupied the left one. It looked like a waiting room of some sort. From the general decoration of the place, as well as the sign, Myungsoo guessed that it had to be a fortune-teller’s place. He carefully entered.
“Excuse me?” Myungsoo cleared his throat as he stepped inside. “Is anyone here?”
A door hidden behind the vitrines opened and revealed an elderly woman. Unlike many fortune tellers Myungsoo had seen before, she wore no hanbok. Instead, she was dressed in a simple white dress that might even have been a nightgown. Her hair was showing signs of gray, but she still somehow looked very energetic and youthful.
“I do not believe you have scheduled an appointment with me, young man,” she smiled at him.
“I-I just entered out of curiosity,” Myungsoo stuttered, taken aback. “I’ll leave if you want me to.”
“It’s perfectly fine,” she shook her head, still smiling kindly. “If you found this place, then you must have something pressing on your mind that needs my expertise.”
“But I don’t have much money,” Myungsoo straightened his school uniform. “I only have ten thousand won. Will that be enough?”
“I wouldn’t have a young student like you pay the full price, would I?” she chuckled. “Don’t worry, ten thousand won is more than enough. Now, follow me.”
Myungsoo did as told. He followed the fortune teller into the smaller chamber. She motioned him to sit down on the floor in front of a tiny floor table and sat down on the other side.
“Care to tell me what is bothering you?” she encouraged him with a smile.
“Well, it’s sort of difficult to explain,” Myungsoo began, trying to think of a way how to put what he was going through in words. “I guess you could say I’m having some trouble figuring out my feelings.”
“Have you fallen for a girl?” the fortune teller asked.
“Not exactly,” Myungsoo shook his head. “How do I say this… there are actually two-”
“You can’t decide which of the two maidens you like better?” she gave him a sympathetic look.
“You could say that,” Myungsoo nodded. She didn’t need to know that they were actually boys.
“How deep is the river if you cannot see the bottom?” she asked as she stood up.
“Excuse me?” Myungsoo blinked in confusion. Why was she talking about a river?
“Think about it,” she said as she walked toward a counter behind her. “Would you like a cup of tea? My grandson loves it.”
“No, thank you, ma’am,” Myungsoo refused politely. “Anyway, I’m not sure if I have any feelings toward them at all. I mean, until recently, I was pretty sure I loved somebody else. But then…”
“She broke your heart,” the fortune teller finished the sentence for him, returning to her seat with a cup of hot tea. “And you thought your world would collapse, but then suddenly, these two maidens made you feel again. But you don’t want to believe that you’re actually falling for someone so soon after having your heart broken, isn’t that right?”
Myungsoo was shocked at how precise her analysis of the situation was. Well, apart from the gender, she got everything right. “I guess you’re right.”
“And so, you’re not troubled with the fact that you already like another maiden, but that you actually like two,” she concluded, nodding her head.
“But still, isn’t it possible that I’m going through some sort of hormonal change in my body that’s causing it?” Myungsoo asked, remembering his resolution from earlier.
“If you immediately know the candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago,” she replied, still smiling.
“I don’t think I understand you.” Myungsoo had never been a fan of riddles. He found them incredibly annoying, and most of the time, they were just a bunch of nonsense. But somehow, he felt that her words might have a real hidden message behind them.
“What is it that you want to know?” she asked after sipping from her cup of tea.
“I really don’t think that I have feelings for them,” Myungsoo denied. “Even the fact that I have feelings for two different people means that they aren’t real, right?”
“The river tells no lies, though standing on the shore the dishonest man still hears them.” Great. Another cryptic message. Myungsoo’s head was starting to hurt from thinking about them.
“OK, look,” Myungsoo tried again, his patience running low, “Even if they were real feelings, it will never work out between me and either of them. One hates me to death, and the other avoids me at all costs. Either way, they’re both dead ends. This has been a problem for me since forever. Anyone I’ve fallen for was always unavailable in some way. Too old, too young, too distant, too close! That’s why I’ve always avoided relationships of any sort until now. You like someone, you befriend them, you get close, and then they leave you!”
By the end of his rant, Myungsoo was on the verge of fuming. Old memories that he thought had been long forgotten resurfaced in his mind, and it cost him all of his willpower to chase them away. There was no room in his life for his past anymore.
“Lightning flashes, sparks shower; in one blink of an eye, you have missed seeing,” the fortune teller commented.
“Can’t you tell me in a way I can understand?” Myungsoo growled.
“I’m afraid I’ve already said everything there is to say,” she shook her head patiently. “It is up to you to interpret my advice.”
“Great,” Myungsoo rolled his eyes. He stood up and pulled out the bill from his pocket. “Here’s the consultation fee. I’m really happy that I could talk to you. Bye.”
With that, he angrily shoved his legs out of the small chamber. He heard the fortune teller following him, but he did not look back. He quickly headed for the exit and made his way out of the shop. Three steps into the street, the fortune teller told him one last thing.
“You’ll understand soon enough, Myungsoo-yah.”
His eyes widened at that statement. He immediately turned around, but the woman was already gone. The waiting room was completely empty again. Myungsoo grabbed the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge—locked, it seemed. His mind raced quickly—was it possible that she didn’t scam him? How did she know his name?
As you may know, the quotes all originate from a certain Oma Desala, a character in the Stargate universe. They're all very deep and profound riddles that I hope you didn't understand on the first go. Because that would just be sad. Anyway, as I was saying, there are a lot of hints about not only the future of Myungsoo's relationship with the Sung brothers, but also about Myungsoo's personality behind his "perfect" facade. And a little bit about his past as well.
Anyway, next chapter will finally have them go on the Jeju trip! I'm so looking forward to it as well; I already have soo many nasty ideas forming in my head xD So stay tuned for June 1st!
Karma~
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