CHAPTER 26

Another morning has dawned upon the city of Seoul. People from different walks of life pass by each other seamlessly. Different thoughts run across their minds, each person having their own destination, having their own plans on this morning that is a chance given to everybody in this unpredictable life.

“Sir, Dr. Kim Dohan is here to see you.” One of Soon-Il’s assistants walks in to his office and said

Soon-Il was caught off guard. He wasn’t expecting him or anyone at all this early. And there he was, thinking that he could have a peaceful morning at his office.

“Let him in.” he simply says. That made his assistant exit his office and fetch his boss’ unexpected visitor.

Soon-Il suddenly felt uneasy. Dohan dropping by without a word had always been bad news to him ever since he had met him. Even so, he was an important person to him. He was one of the people he completely trusted. The door gently swung open and there stood Soon-Il’s first visitor of the day.

“What is it this time, Dohan?” Soon-Il said upfront.

“I told Eunhye what she should’ve known a long time ago.” Like Soon-Il, Dr. Kim didn’t want to beat around the bush

Soon-Il’s expression turned dark. Yet another compromise that had to be done to avoid any casualty in the set up the have promulgated over the years.

“What did you tell her?” Soon-Il asks, his eyes tired and weary.

“I told her the truth that she would find easier to accept.” Dr. Kim sat himself on one of the chairs adjacent from Soon-Il’s table.

The guilt has been riding on Soon-Il’s existence has once again found more reasons to live on. It was as if he can no longer exist without it but when it all comes down and everything is painted white, Soon-Il will never find the strength to mend the scars of the past. It was because of those scars that he was able to save his family and that was the only thing he wanted.

“And that is?” Soon-Il asks despite the fact knowing the answer to his question.

“I didn’t tell her the part where Yuri might have been the one who killed her brother.” As soon as those words left Dr. Kim’s mouth, Soon-Il closed his eyes in an attempt to block out the memory that unwillingly resurfaced.

--

Flashback

Dohan and Soon-Il were at the Kwon household, particularly at Soon-Il’s study room. They were in the middle of a heated discussion on what to do with Yuri who was found passed out at the same room where a murder might have transpired. It also didn’t help that Yuri refused to speak to anyone at all.

“Where’s Yuna?” Dohan asks

“She’s in Jeju. She brought her students there for a trip.” Soon-Il then grabs a glass and pours himself a drink.

“Did you tell her yet?” Dohan pertaining to the incident that happened the night before.

“No. This is something we should talk about face-to-face.” Soon-Il wasn’t a drinker but the situation in front him was making him into one.

“You have to tell her to come home now. Yuri needs her.” Hearing those last words, made Soon-Il irrationally enraged. He didn’t like the fact that someone else was telling him what his son needs right now.

“Don’t you think I know that?! How am I supposed call Yuna? Just how? How do I just tell her that our 6-year old son might have killed someone?” Feeling the anger rise within him, Soon-Il roughly set down his glass, almost breaking it.

“The fact is, she’s Yuri’s mother. She has to have a say in this.” Dohan was calm and collected despite of the seriousness of the discussion they were having.

Dohan was a close friend of Yuna. He met Yuna long before, Soon-Il did. Knowing this, Soon-Il’s hostility towards him finds its roots around that fact. He acknowledged that in some ways, Dohan knew Yuna better than him but that didn’t mean it never stopped bothering him. Now wasn’t the time to get jealous over trivial things, Soon-Il thought. The state of his family was at stake, after all.

“Say in what? What are you talking about?” Soon-Il asks in a much more calm tone

Dohan hesitated for a minute or two. He was battling whether to tell Soon-Il right now or wait for Yuna to come so that the opinions would be more balanced but seeing as the latter wouldn’t be with them any time soon, he figured there was no use in hiding his plans.

“I’m planning to treat Yuri… just not in a way that is accepted in my profession.” Dohan says. The latter was a psychiatrist. In his field of practice, there were a lot of techniques to treat various patients which include unorthodox or unethical ways.

“Where are you going with this?” Soon-Il asks his jaw tightly clenched. He was a man of honesty and dignity. There were a lot of things he did that stood against that but knowing that it was for Yuri’s sake, he just had to turn that switch off for the mean time. Soon-Il invested heavily on making Yuri’s case go by as quietly as possible. Bribing here and there to make sure nothing slips out to the media. Not only would it end their family’s reputation, it would also be a catalyst for people to dig more about certain things that are not meant to be known, things like Yuna’s past.

“If you want him to live a normal life then you’d let me do it. Believe me when I say I don’t want to do it either but there’s no other choice. He doesn’t deserve to live in a nightmare.” Being a psychiatrist he knew that Yuri would have to deal with trauma because of the whole incident. Yuri was too young to handle the totality of the situation he was involved in. And at the bottom of it all, this was something Dohan needed to do.

“I believe in him. He didn’t do it!” Is what Soon-Il said but at the corner of his mind, he couldn’t deny the fact that a part him was already convinced that Yuri was guilty. Although it was stupid to even consider it as a factor, Soon-Il silently thinks that Yuna’s biological upbringing might have something to do with all of it. That past which he wholly accepted even before they got married is also the past that almost made him lose his right as a Kwon.

 “That’s what I want to believe too, Soon-Il but that’s not what the evidence is saying. You need to understand that if you let things just go the way they are now then he will never get better.” Dohan was the one who first found the alleged crime scene which happened to be the victim’s house. And from his own findings, it was more probable in his eyes that Yuri might have been the one to pull the trigger. Talking in a perspective that Soon-Il found was logical, it was inevitable that his son will have to go through his life, bringing this along with him till the day he dies if something is not done.

Naturally as a father, he didn’t want that for his son. No parent would in all honesty.

“What do you intend to do then?” Soon-Il asks, finally conforming to the reality of the situation before his eyes.

“I intend to make Yuri live in a reality where none of this ever happened.”

--

Present Time

Through connections, Soon-Il was able to stop any further investigation about Yuri’s case. Soon-Il never wanted to know the one and only truth about what happened that fateful night. It was something he promised himself never to know until the day he died.

“The other boy… the victim… was he really...” Soon-Il stops himself from asking any further. Did he really want to know the truth? He did but he would never admit it.

“Does that really matter now?” Dr. Kim replied, his voice calm yet harshly cold.

Thinking about his words, Soon-Il was convinced that it didn’t matter now. Maybe it did before but it didn’t now. Or at least that’s what he tells himself.

“I came here to tell you not to worry about Eunhye. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

Soon-Il did not say anything else. He was torn between remembering everything and bottling it all up again. In reality that process has been Soon-Il’s life ever since the incident happened. He never moved on but instead his life has been revolving around the past. Each word of each conversation to each expression and feelings that were present during that time were nothing but vivid to him.

Being true to his words, Dr. Kim was about to leave after saying what he came there to. Each step resonated within the silent room and just as the latter was about to reach for the door, Soon-Il decided to ask one more thing.

“If it was me instead of Yuna? If we were to exchange places right now… do you think she would’ve done the same things?”

Dr. Kim stopped and paused for a moment. Thinking about it, Dr. Kim knew the answer to his question but like what Soon-Il had asked earlier, Dr. Kim thought the answer doesn’t matter. No, not anymore, at least. Without looking back, Dr. Kim refused to say a word and instead continued walking out.

Hearing the door close, Soon-Il reached over to open the drawer of his table. Inside the drawer was a framed picture of Yuna. It was a candid picture he took when they were younger and by far it was his favorite picture of her.

“What do you think? Did I do the right thing?” Soon-Il asks

--

Yuri wakes up in a break of sweat as he staggers along the fragments of his dream. He tried to remember his dream but everything just went all blurry. The more his consciousness grows the distant the dream got. Yuri hauls himself from his bed and head towards his bathroom. He takes a good hard look at himself at the remaining pieces of his shattered mirror and immediately felt a sense of relief. Although his reflection was broken, he was still able to see himself. Yuri takes a deep breath to calm down. The dreams he’s been having as of the late were taking a toll on his mentality. With everything that has happened, Yuri begins to wonder how much he can take in until he reaches his breaking point.

“It’s okay. Everything will be okay.” Yuri whispers to himself.

He picks himself up and prepares for school. Yuri got out of his apartment and started walking to school. Yuri knew that he needed a distraction to get rid of his anxiousness and Whimoon offered him a perfect medium. Instead of going to his classroom, Yuri went to the dugout to change clothes. He didn’t want to play soccer because the field was out in the open and other students would see him, in essence he wouldn’t be completely alone. Yuri knew the swimming team’s training schedule so naturally when he got to the indoor pool area, it was empty.

Yuri climbed up the diving board and made his way to the edge. He took a deep breath and released it slowly. Yuri did this a few times to prepare himself. Without wasting another second, he dove right in to the water.

The body of water below claimed Yuri’s body and willingly he surrendered to it. He sank deeper and deeper by the second but he didn’t move. He let himself reach the bottom of the pool and for seconds he stayed there until his human instincts kicked in. Yuri swam up to the surface and caught his breath. He made himself float and just stared into the nothingness above him. Thoughts of just giving up were on his mind, giving up on trying to make sense of everything and just go back to living his quiet life. It was a tempting option but something pulled him back and that was Jessica.

Come to think of it, everything started when he met her. He wasn’t exactly blaming her but it was no doubt that she was some sort of catalyst. Thinking about Jessica, Yuri got around the subject about his feelings for this particular person. Yuri’s feelings for Jessica weren’t that complicated. He liked her because she felt different among others. Jessica felt real to him when everybody and everything else to Yuri didn’t.

“Jessica Jung….” Yuri utters her name

Actually saying her name, made Yuri remember another thing. Yesterday, he had promised her that he would tell all the things he kept from Dr. Kim. Like what he mentioned, there was nothing much to begin with but there were things he kept nevertheless. Yuri fixed himself up and decided to make the most out of the pool. He did a couple of swimming exercises then quietly left the area and headed towards the shower room. Afterwards, he puts back on his uniform and puts on new bandages for his injured hand.

Yuri heads to his first class with slightly wet hair but in a much better state than when he woke up this morning. There were already a handful of students inside when he got there, which included Taeyeon, Kris, Jessica and Taecyeon who were talking amongst themselves at the side. The four looked at Yuri right as he passed by them. Yuri slightly bowed his head as a greeting and then went straight to his seat.

“Is everything okay with Yuri?” Taeyeon asks Jessica with Kris and Taecyeon also waiting for her to answer.

Jessica hesitated for a second but soon answered to reassure Taeyeon. “He was sick yesterday but I think he’s okay now.”

Taeyeon nodded and opened up a new topic “By the way guys if you guys don’t already know, culture festival is coming in a few weeks! Here in Whimoon, a party is held after the festival since it’s a school holiday the next day. It’s gonna be at a beach not too far from the city. It’s a Whimoon tradition so I hope you guys can come!” Taeyeon said with obvious excitement.

“Cool! Will definitely check it out. How about you two?” Taecyeon directs the question to Kris and Jessica. The cousins looked at each other for a moment and as if they read each other’s mind they both agreed to go.

“Sounds fun. How exactly will we get there though?” Kris asked

“Oh the school provides buses and there will be free lodging there as well.” Taeyeon further explained.

As their homeroom teacher came in, everybody went back to their seats and prepared themselves for today’s activities. Before handing out the quiz sheets for her students, Sun Hee reminded her students about an important event

“The Culture festival is coming up in a few days. Hopefully, all of you have at least talked to your partner on what kind of design you’re gonna do for your sky lanterns. If not please do. We don’t want our section to be embarrassed during the festival, right?” Sun Hee tried to encourage her students with her smile.

--

Jessica’s POV

Right when our teacher reminded us about the sky lanterns, Yuri’s name popped in my head. Against all odds, I somehow was able to pick the same number he did. It was just my luck, I guess? We haven’t really talked about the sky lantern thing at all. Maybe later we could but first I need to find that girl.

I have a feeling she was the one who placed the necklace on Yuri’s locker. I don’t know how she did it but right now she’s the only person I could think of possibly having the motive of doing so. She knows a lot about me and she definitely knows something about Yuri as well. I need to find her and get to the bottom of this. I don’t know who she is and I don’t remember seeing her from anywhere before.  I might not be good at remembering people but I would never forget someone like her. That girl knows too much for me not to be connected with her in some way.

Ms. Sun Hee started handing out her quiz sheets. When everybody had their own copy of it, we waited for her instructions.

“You guys shouldn’t take too long to answer this. It’s fairly easy and it’s short too. When you’re done just come forward and submit your papers to me.”

I scanned the paper given to us. The questions were pretty straight-forward. Hopefully, I don’t mess this up. I started earnestly answering mine. Fortunately the answers just came to with ease. Ms. Sun Hee is a good teacher, remembering her lectures was rather a walk in the park, really.

15 minutes into the quiz, I heard light footsteps from behind. I wouldn’t be able to hear it if it weren’t for our class being in total concentration mode. I looked over to my left and I see Yuri walking over to the teacher’s table, already done with his quiz.

He’s done?!

Okay. The quiz is easy but seriously? I’m only halfway through mine. Just what kind of brain does Yuri have? Well, I shouldn’t be surprised. Tiffany was kind of like this when we were in Daewon. She wasn’t the top student like Yuri but she was smart enough to be on the honor’s list all year round. I guess it really runs in their family. I continued answering mine but then I couldn’t help but overhear something. Well, I didn’t hear it alone, the whole class did.

“Mr. Kwon, could we talk outside for a moment?” Ms. Sun Hee says in a calm tone.

At this point, I couldn’t help but look up and turn my gaze towards them. Like I said earlier, the whole class heard it so naturally some lifted their heads from looking at their papers and looked up front. Hearing her friend’s name, Taeyeon looked up as well. Yuri didn’t say anything but only nodded. Again with light footsteps he stepped out of the classroom and waited by the door.

“I trust all of you not to cheat. I’ll just be outside.” Ms. Sun Hee says as she leaves the room.

I wonder what that’s all about. Ms. Sun Hee didn’t look like it was something serious but then again I’ve never seen her serious except during her lectures but even then she always had a smile on her face. Taeyeon must’ve seen my worried face so she gave me a slight nudge.

“Don’t worry about it. He’ll be fine.” Taeyeon whispers then smiles at me. I took her word for it and went back to answering my test.

--

Normal POV

Yuri waited for Sun Hee to get out of the classroom and slide its door shut. When the door clicked, Sun Hee stood in front of Yuri at a preferable distance.

“I’ve heard troubling things about You and Ms. Jung….” Sun Hee starts off and the pauses. She looks at Yuri’s face and examines his expression. Nothing changed even at the mention of Jessica. It was that same old expression he held every day.

“…Amongst the rumors that have already surrounded Jessica the minute she got here, there is one that I’ve heard that caught my attention the most. It goes along the lines of you planning something against Jessica because of her unfortunate circumstance in the past.” Sun Hee continued.

Just like before she tried to look for any tell-tale signs on Yuri’s face but as expected, she saw nothing change at all. Yuri firmly held his usual expression. The latter didn’t say anything and just kept staring back at his teacher as if waiting for her to elaborate more on what she was saying.

“…I know the girls’ washroom is not really much of a reliable source but I heard what I heard. A couple of ladies were chatting about you and Ms. Jung. Saying things like you’re just using her for fun and then eventually leave her. Although, I know you wouldn’t do tha---“ Yuri cut her off

“With all due respect but I don’t think you have the right to say that. You don’t know me at all.” Yuri says calmly.

Sun Hee taken back by Yuri’s words, bit her lip and furrowed her brows.

“…You may know me because of Dr. Kim but even he doesn’t know me that well. You shouldn’t take his words that easily. Maybe you know a bit of my past but that doesn’t necessarily have to have any meaning at all. I’m not saying all of this to confirm what you heard, it may seem like that but it’s not. I just want to make sure you do not paint me in a way you’re more comfortable in believing in.” Yuri continued. He didn’t feel particularly offended at all, he said what he said for the sake of correcting Sun Hee.

“I don’t need other people to know that you’re a good person. I just simply feel that you are.” She smiled at Yuri, hoping to convey the sincerity of her message.

“Well, I guess I can’t do anything about how you feel. If that is all then I think it’s best we go back inside the classroom, ma’am.” Yuri said monotonously. He took a few steps towards the door and was about to grab the handle when Sun Hee spoke again.

“If you’re willing to get involved in her problems then protect her till the very end. That means staying by her side, no matter what, Yuri.”

---

HELLO Dear readers :D

Thank you to new subsribers! Anyways, I'm almost finished with school so I'll have more free time to update! Thank you for patiently waiting!! :D 

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Peace! -ymllama