2 – The City of Rain

It was dark and frightening with the sound of the storm striking at the boarded windows filled the room. On the bed she

sat, hugging her little sister. The younger girl was gasping for air and clenching on her useless inhaler. It was way too cold

for her and her weak lungs.

“I’m scared, Unnie,” she tried to say it aloud but it came out only as a whisper.

“You’ll be okay, Krystal. Don’t worry. Just breathe, breathe with me.”

“Don’t let me sleep…,” she said with tears. Her chest was rising up and down so violently as the girl tried to inhale more

air but only a few went into her body. “I don’t want to sleep. Promise me you won’t let me sleep.”

“I promise.”

She hugged her baby sister tighter when the storm raged even harder. Listening to her short breath and how much in

pain she was, she whispered in Krystal’s ear. “Remember last summer when you went to that lighthouse with your

friends?”

Krystal nodded weakly.

“Was it fun?”

Krystal nodded again.

“You said you’ll take me there.”

“I did.”

“So hang in there a little bit more. It all be over soon.”

Krystal clawed on her sister’s arms around her body and cried. “I love you, Sica.”

“I love you too.”

A minute later, when the storm had just began to weaken, Krystal was no longer moving. Her eyes were tightly shut and

no more strength could be felt from her body. She kissed her little sister’s brow in sorrow.

“I’ll see you soon, Baby Sister. I’ll see you soon.”

**

Taeyeon woke up feeling like an old lady. Her whole body ached as she tried to sit up on her bed. After a few grunts from

the sitting up effort, she looked at her window where the rain was still pouring endlessly outside.

She rubbed her head and ruffled her hair. The dream she just had was not her dream. It was a memory belonged to a girl

named Jessica. It was interesting for Taeyeon because they just met for a few seconds yet their thoughts were already

connected.

Taeyeon stepped down the bed to the window. The whole city was still grayish by the mist from the rain which had no

intention of stopping very soon. This rain was probably the trigger, she thought, rain reminded Jessica of how her sister

died.

She put her hand on her chest and let out a heavy breath. It was painful and hard but Jessica didn’t cry, she kept it all

inside to the moment her sister heaved her last breath. A strong girl, she said to herself. If it was her she would be bawling

like a child, begging for her to come back.

Taeyeon noticed an unfamiliar car parked on the lawn soon after and she decided to walked out of her room. Treading

the dimmed corridor, she stopped by the stairs and peeked down to the living room. There were two guys and two girls

down there, speaking with low voices, as if they didn’t want anyone to hear about it. Three of them Taeyeon recognized

except for the young guy sitting alone on the sofa. All of them were looking at an opened yellow folder with pictures in

them on the table.

“Ten? I only heard three,” said one girl with short brunette hair.

“We only published three deaths when there are already ten ranging from Dongyeol to here, all of them females. We don’t

want people to panic as they already are now,” said the unfamiliar young guy sitting near the door.

“A serial killer, huh? But, this…. This is not our… well, how should I say it… field of work,” said the older guy in the room.

“The Secretary asked me to consult you. He believes that whoever did this is one of your kinds.”

“A Helminthia?”

“Yes.”

All four of them went silent for a moment before the blond girl in the room spoke. “We should see Secretary Gaeil then.”

“Okay,” said the young guy, “I’ll tell him you’re coming.”

All of them stood up and the young guy excused himself before going out the door. Taeyeon was about to climb down the

stairs when the brunette said something that stopped her on her tracks.

“Don’t tell Taeyeon about this,” she said. “If this murderer is really a Helminthia then we would have to fight again like we

did back in April.”

“Yeah, we don’t want her to fight again,” said the girl in blond.

The older guy closed the folder they were looking and sat on a chair. “Where is she now?”

“I forced her to go to sleep. She was in a bus crash, Byunghyun-oppa, can you believe that? It’s like she’s looking for a

way to die every day now,” said the blond in annoyance.

“Come on, Hyoyeon. You know Taeyeon would never do that,” said Byunghyun.

“Well, I just hope that for my sake she would just stay at home.”

“She’s counting the days to her death, Hyo, you want her to sit at home doing nothing?”

“Yes,” Hyoyeon nodded. “I want to be there when she goes.”

“Stop it,” said the girl in brunette. “Don’t talk about it that way. Please.”

“Sorry, Sunny,” said Byunghyun.

“Sorry, Sunny,” and Hyoyeon said the same thing a second later.

Sunny leaned on her chair and sighed. “How much longer does she have, Oppa?”

“I don’t know. No Helminthia I know has ever survived this long without a Host.”

“Well, for the meantime, let’s keep this case out of Tae-,” Hyoyeon was about to take the yellow folder from the table when

she realized it was missing. “Where did-?” then she looked up into the air and found the folder was levitating in the air,

moving on its own to the top of the stairs. Waiting at the end of its track was Taeyeon.

“Yah! Kim Taeyeon!” Hyoyeon shouted. “Give it back!”

“Oops!” Taeyeon snatched the folder from the air and then ran back to her room while the three people downstairs ran

after her in a hurry.

**

Yuri rushed out of a taxi and ran two stories high to reach an apartment door. She knocked on it – banged on it to be

precise – as hard as she could. “Jung Jessica!”

A few seconds later, the door clicked open and a tired looking girl popped out. “Yuri? What are you doing here?”

“You called me! Are you okay?” Yuri barged into the room, held Jessica on her shoulders and checked her out from the

top of her head down to her toes. “Are you hurt? Oh, my God, your head!”

“I’m okay.”

“Waa! There’s more!” Yuri pointed to Jessica’s left arm and then she lifted her shirt up. “What about the rest of your

body?!”

“Yah! Are you trying to undress me?!” Jessica pushed Yuri away.

“But you had an accident! A big one!”

“I am fine,” Jessica said, stressing on every word so Yuri would believe in her. “Come in, you’re soaked.”

Jessica locked the door after her friend went inside the apartment. She threw her a towel and let the girl wipe herself dry.

Yuri was taller than Jessica, well-built body with trained muscles beautifully wrapped under her tanned skin. She was the

only friend Jessica had. Even so, Jessica felt like she needed no more friends in the world. Yuri had it all she wanted and

more.

They knew each other all the way back from high school. They both lost their parents at young age and that became a

strong bridge of understanding between the two. Yuri was also the only person in the world that knew about Jessica’s

ability.

“That’s why you have to work out so you’re muscles will protect you from crashes like that,” said Yuri as she lifted her shirt

up to show Jessica her abs. “Like this!”

“God, you exhibitionist,” Jessica said.

“You will be too if you have this rock hard abs,” Yuri smiled in confidence.

“Yeah, but your cheeks look like melted chocolates. Stop playing under the sun or you’ll look like a tourist from Hawaii

soon.”

“Don’t mock my flabby cheeks and my natural tanned skin!”

“Fine, fine. Don’t you have class?” asked Jessica. She sat next to Yuri on a sofa in front of the TV.

“I ditched it.”

Jessica said nothing else. Yuri was always running over to her whenever something happened; good or bad. She never

fails to be by Jessica’s side through her everything, no matter how small or huge it was. And that was the reason why

Jessica could not feel more thankful to the universe that she had given Yuri.

Yuri always said that orphans need to stay close to each other because they are all they have in the world. Jessica did

not argue to that comment.

“Thanks,” said Jessica.

Yuri put a hand on Jessica’s head, ruffling her hair. “We orphans need to stay close to each other, remember? You seem

a little shocked though. Are you really okay?”

Jessica sighed. “I had the dream again.”

“Krystal?”

“Yes,” Jessica said. “Curse this rain. It brings back memories I don’t want to remember.”

Yuri patted the girl’s head. “You poor thing.”

“Stay here until I sleep?”

“Sure.”

Jessica put her head on Yuri’s shoulder as they stared blankly into the TV. Then, her mind went astray and it stopped at

the image of a girl she met in the bus crash. Taeyeon. How come Jessica could not stop thinking about her? How did she

know her name when they never even met each other?

There was this weird feeling inside of her, tickling her in a very uncomfortable way, saying that she wanted to see

Taeyeon again. Not to ask for an explanation but to just look into her eyes, capturing the flawless image of her face and

stare at it for a long time. How can she miss someone she doesn’t even know so badly?

“Do you believe in love at first sight, Yuri?”

**

It was dark already when Yuri woke up. She had fallen asleep with Jessica a few hours ago and when she woke up, the

sun has almost disappeared from the sky. She slid slowly from Jessica’s side and lied her down on the couch before

walking to the window. The rain was still as heavy as ever. And even though she still wanted to stay a bit longer, she

figured it was time to go home.

She turned around looking at the sleeping girl and she remembered the question she asked before they went adrift to a

deep sleep.

With a very small voice, almost of a whisper, she said, “I do.”

It was ridiculous to say that alone in the dark to a sleeping girl. She should have said it when Jessica was awake so she

could tell the reason why she believed in love at first sight. But she had no such courage and she had decided to leave it

at that like she always had.

“Don’t tell this to your sister, Krystal, or I swear I will get an exorcist to clean this place,” she said a little bit out loud,

hoping that the ghost of Jessica’s sister; Krystal, could hear her. “I know you’re around here somewhere.”

She then shook her head in ridicule before walking to the bedroom and grabbed a blanket to cover Jessica. After that,

Yuri wrote a little note on a piece of paper and put it on the table. She left the apartment.

A few seconds later, Krystal dropped down from the ceiling, floating to the table and read the note.

“I went home. You know how to reach me.”

Krystal knew what Jessica didn’t but she had no intention of saying it. It was fun staring at Yuri throwing her heart out in

the open only to let Jessica walks by it without noticing every single time. Jessica could be such a fool sometimes to not

see the love that had been crawling for her attention all of this time. Then, there was Yuri to blame.

Why don’t she just come out and say it? Krystal could only sigh at how dumb Yuri was.

“Unnie!” Mika came in to the room, phasing in through the door.

“Yes?”

“Come!” Mika beckoned Krystal and then ran through the door again.

Krystal followed the little girl and she led her to the roof of the apartment. Hana was standing at the edge of the roof top,

staring far to the misty landscape. “What is it?”

Mika joined Hana at the railing and both of them pointed their hands to a very tall building a few blocks away from the

apartment. Krystal narrowed her eyes to see clearer between the heavy rain and the mist.

“What am I looking at?”

“There! On top of that building!” said Hana.

Krystal moved a little further ahead and then she saw what the girls were pointing at; on top of the building at the other

side, stood a girl in white dress. Both of her arms were stretched widely to her sides and her head was looking up to the

grumpy sky.

“What…,” Krystal muttered. “What is that?”

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