CHAPTER THREE

T     H     E          L     E     T     T     E     R

Commuting from Seoul to Gwangju and vice versa takes its toll on Luhan’s body. The exhaustion and weariness from the six-hour trip slowly eats Luhan’s vigor and he just wants to cut the day short and sleep his tiredness away.

Umbrella on his back, he slowly drags his feet to the green bus stop that will take him back to Seoul. He steps on the pavement while closing his umbrella and settles himself at the leftmost corner. He leans his side on the green metal post. The seats are all occupied.

Luhan looks up from his spot, noting the weather’s particularly warm and dry this day although the sun’s not fully out. It just rained yesterday. Ah, spring must have been announcing its arrival. He looks to his side and not far he sees the green silhouette of the bus gradually increasing in size.

It stops in front of him and Luhan hops inside. He swipes his T-card pass and occupies the nearest seat his eyes land into. He’s thankful the bus is relatively empty because he can feel the cool air-conditioning. He leans his head on the window mirror, praying for a safe trip. Not long after, he finds his eyes slowly drooping. He sees blurred images of Sooyoung and Siwon in his head before completely dozing off.

After Luhan’s parents’ tragic death, he was forced to live by himself with no relatives to help or back him up. His grandparents never accepted his parents’ relationship from the very start. Sooyoung came from a well off family, daughter of a noble and belongs to the infamous Choi clan, one of the oldest running high profile clans in Gangnam’s business society. On the other hand, young Siwon was a poor servant boy to the Chois, having been turned over when he was just five years of age to the family as payment for his parents’ debt. Sooyoung and Siwon started as playmates. And from there, an unforbidden love grew.

Sooyoung’s parents had been bothered and alarmed by the unusual closeness of their daughter to their servant boy. Not privy of what was actually going on and fearing for the possibilities, they tried separating the two. But their love only prevailed. Sooyoung and Siwon furtively met behind their parents’ back despite having Siwon transferred to the province, in care of another family. The two managed to pull off their clandestine love affair for two years.

All good things must come to an end, the quote says. But not for Sooyoung and Siwon. Things got only worse when their parents found out that Sooyoung was two weeks pregnant of Siwon’s child. The revelation just made both of their parents more furious and they ought to make an end to this whole fiasco. Sooyoung was bound to marry another man, someone who was of their level and wealthy enough not to destroy their name and reputation. So what must be done should be done. Sooyoung’s parents forced her to undergo the brutal process of abortion, getting rid of two-week old Luhan out of her mother’s womb.

But Sooyoung knew it more than to kill her own flesh and blood so she ran away, accepting Siwon’s offer of marriage and living in the far island of Jeju. There they lived in peace without the constant judgment of their parents and raised Luhan very well, the strong willed and sturdy Luhan of today.

 The boy managed to live through his parents’ death insurance for a half a year. Paying the rent of their previous apartment gave him a hard time so he had no choice but to leave the only place he had memories of his parents. He was able to find a small but cheap apartment for a while, staying there for a couple of years so he can finish the remaining two years he has in high school. After Luhan graduated, he moved to Seoul in hopes of finding a decent job so he can save for college expenses.

Sooyoung and Siwon had a high value of education. They worked their very best each day just to send Luhan to the best school because they always told him that this will serve as his gateway in achieving his dreams and a greater access to a better life. His parents reminded him every day to finish his studies no matter what happens. He’s keeping his promise. He’d make his parents proud.

Luhan’s first days in Seoul is far from pleasant. There he faced the cruel and cold treatment of the mainlanders to a province boy. He tried finding his luck applying for various jobs and having jjimjilbang or Korean saunas as temporary roof for the time being. He can’t afford renting apartment until he finds a stable job.

He encounters a Do Kyungsoo in a public high school’s canteen. He was working at Kyungsoo’s school as a kitchen staff, serving in the counter and taking their orders for lunch. He meets Kyungsoo in the most unexpected way.

***

“Luhan fainted.”

“What?” Seohyun asks disbelievingly. She checks crates upon crates, opening them one by one while roaming around the stock room. She’s making an inventory of the vegetables and meat delivered yesterday.

 “You’re asking me how I met him but then you won’t believe me,” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. When Kyungsoo entered the stock room, Seohyun popped the question out of nowhere, suddenly curious because she never really knew how Kyungsoo and Luhan met.

Kyungsoo squishes his self further in the already cramped stock room. Seohyun stops from her inventory and notices her son’s squiggling. She eyes him like Kyungsoo wants to be one with the cabbages and cantaloupes on his side.

“Why did he faint?” She asks again.  

“He was about to give me my tray of lunch when he suddenly fainted in front of me. I brought him to the clinic and the nurse said it was of over fatigue and he has been starving himself,” he replies nonchalantly like the memory was just yesterday. Kyungsoo grabs the bundle of radish on top of the shelf behind him and covers his face with it.

“Poor Luhan,” Seohyun says sympathetically, suddenly curious of Luhan’s life story. She is not the type to meddle on other people’s history and Luhan’s not the loquacious one as well. The place suddenly become quiet, Seohyun noticing the sounds of shuffling and squiggling had died down. She looks up and sees Kyungsoo’s state.

“What are you trying to pull now?” His mother deadpans. “We’re going to use that for our kimchi, Kyungsoo. Put the poor radish down.”

Kyungsoo peeks in between the two radish he put in front of his face. He stares at his mom and sighs. “There are weird customers outside and Minseok told me they’re looking for me.”

“Are they your friends?”

“What? No. Like I said, they’re weird. I don’t even know them.”

Seohyun clicks her tongue and puts her record book down on top of a crate. “Is that why you’re hiding here?” Kyungsoo nods. Seohyun sighs and rubs at her temple. “Go outside and socialize. You need to have more friends, dear.” Seohyun grabs his hands and throws him out of the room.

“But Mom wai—“ Kyungsoo begs but is slammed with a door to his face. Ugh, it. I’m just going to hide in the bathroom, he thinks.

Before Kyungsoo can even step a foot, the door of the stock room opens again and his mom’s head peeks in. “Oh before I forgot, when Luhan arrives tell him to meet me, okay?” And she slams the door again.

Kyungsoo turns around and spots the table of the six weird men. He ducks his head immediately, just right before the tanned male who roams his head set his eyes on him. Kyungsoo walks out of the storage room slowly but surely while the upper half of his body is crouched down. He successfully makes it to the toilet but the sign says ‘occupied.’ Ugh.

He can’t stay inside the kitchen because it’s still late lunch hour and he’s sure everyone inside is busy running around. He spots Minseok attending to the six weird men again and he takes the opportunity while they’re all occupied to run across the restaurant, to the door and out of this place.

He runs as fast as he can and just when he’s about to grab the door handle, the door opens and hits him right on the head.

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