Chapter 4 – Soul Searching
ReminisceFebruary 3rd, 2016
It was eight in the morning when Seohyun decided to knock on Yonghwa’s door. It was her final day in Busan. She needed to say goodbye to him before she went back to Seoul.
It was so painful to realize that it was probably her last time to meet and play freely with him.
She braced herself and called him loudly from outside, “Oppa, wake up! I need to go back to Seoul today. And don’t you need to go to work?”
There wasn’t any respon, so she tried to knock it once again when finally Yonghwa opened the door.
“Aigoo~ Are you my employer or what? Why do you need to force me to go to work everyday?” he grumbled as he walked out from his room while holding an overnight bag.
“Are you going somewhere, Oppa?”
“Hmm.”
“Where are you going?” she asked him but corrected it immediately, “Ah, I don’t mean to be nosy or something. It just maybe you want to go to the station. Because I also want to go to there to get back to Seoul right now. So, probably we can go there together? Only if you want to.”
He saw that she was nervous, but he pretended not to know it and started to rummage his refrigerator, looking for an apple to fill his empty stomach.
“I will go to Seoul. Do you want some (apple)?”
“Really?”
“Yes, I have decided to accompany you to Seoul and help you find your friends.”
“What?! Are you serious??” her eyes widened due to shock.
Last night, Yonghwa could not sleep well because a strange thing happened to his heart. It had turned upside down since Seohyun coming back into his life.
He needed to make sure that she could handle her current life on her own. Then maybe he could put his feeling at ease and continue with his life. So, he decided to follow her to Seoul and help to find her memories.
He turned to face her and replied firmly, “I’m dead serious, Seohyun-ah.”
“It’s impossible, Oppa,” she commented.
“Why not?”
“It’s just...,” she tried to argue but her tongue tied.
“See. There is no reason for you to stop me,” he convinced her.
To be honest, Seohyun felt elated to hear that. Like finally she had someone who sincerely offered helping hands for her, beside her nanny.
However, she understood very well that Yonghwa only did this out of his conscience. And this action would give her difficulties to forget and move on from him when everything was over.
She was still contemplating with her thought, when Yonghwa nudged her.
“So, shall we go now?”
“Huh? Are you sure, Oppa?”
“Absolutely.”
“O-okay,” she finally decided to leave the future to their fate.
“Good. Let’s get going.”
Yonghwa had a small smile on his face when helped her with the luggage and guided her out of his apartment.
***
With several distractions here and there, they finally arrived at Seohyun’s apartment in the afternoon.
“Welcome to my apartment, Oppa~”
“Thank you for your warm welcome, Seohyun-ah,” Yonghwa followed her to enter the apartment.
It was a two-bedroom apartment with a spacious living room. It was painted in light yellow, Seohyun’s favorite colour, and dominated by wooden furnitures.
Beside the decoration which was screaming luxurious aura, he surely felt the cold and emptiness feeling around it. There wasn’t her touch on it, no picture of her or her parents or her friends hanging on the wall.
“Ahjummoni~ I’m home. Where are you?” she called out Mrs.Kim cheerfully.
“Welcome home, Agassi,” Mrs. Kim approached them at the living room.
“Oh, I really miss you, Ahjummoni,” she hugged Mrs.Kim in a tight embrace.
“You really don’t know how much I miss you, Agassi.”
Mrs.Kim released her embrace then looked at Yonghwa curiously.
“Ah, I forget to introduce him to you. This is Jung Yonghwa, my friend whom I visited in Busan yesterday,” she introduced Mrs.Kim to him.
“Annyeonghaseyo, Jung Yonghwa-imnida. Nice to meet you,” he bowed politely.
“Annyeonghaseyo, Kim-imnida. It’s my pleasure to finally meet you, Doryeonim.”
“Please don’t be so formal with me. Just call me Yonghwa, Ahjummoni.”
“I have asked her to call my name hundred times, but she always refused it,” Seohyun pouted her lips..
“De, it’s uncomfortable for me to call both of you with your name,” she smiled at him.
“Oh, I see. It’s alright if it makes you comfortable.”
“Thank you, Doryeonim,” then she continued, “Glad to know that you finally find your boyfriend in Busan, Agassi.”
“Ah that’s not true. He is not my boyfriend, Ahjummoni,” Seohyun denied it strongly.
Mrs.Kim furrowed her eyebrows in question.
“I will tell you my story when we open your souvenirs later. Now please help me to put my luggage in my room while I take Yonghwa to the guest room,okay?”
She slightly pushed Mrs.Kim’s back toward her room.
“Algaesumnida.”
“Oh, and don’t forget to prepare us a delicious dinner, Ahjummoni,” she reminded Mrs.Kim.
“De, Agassi.”
Then, she cleared and turned to faced him, “Sorry for the misunderstanding. Let’s get you to your room, Oppa. Follow me!”
They stepped inside to the room next to hers. It also had Seohyun favorite colour on it with the emptiness feeling like the living room.
‘What kind of life that you had this six years, Seohyun-ah?’ he thought inwardly.
“Sorry if it’s smaller than your room in Busan. Is it okay for you, Oppa?” Seohyun asked him.
“De, it’s perfect,” he responded while looking around.
“Here is the bathroom, you can freshen up yourself and take a rest for awhile. I'll call you when the dinner is ready.”
“Okay. Thank you so much, Seohyun-ah.”
“Aniyo, it’s me that need to say that. Gomawoyo, Oppa~”
***
“Aigoo~ I’m so full,” Yonghwa tapped his stomach while lying on the sofa, “Your nanny was so generous with food. But honestly I really don’t mind it, because it really taste like heaven.”
“De~ I know it. I felt so grateful to have her with me,” Seohyun sipped her tea.
They were chatting happily after dinner in the living room. Mrs.Kim had been long gone to her own home.
“Oppa, you said that you’ll help me to find my friends. Let’s hear what is your plan for that quest,” she reminded him.
He sat straight before smiled proudly, “Okay. Here’s the idea. First, we will maximize the use of google in our lives. We will search up anything about you. Your profile, your current project, your accident, and also rumors around you. We also need to check your sns account to see if there was someone whom you were close with. Then we will meet them later. What do you think?”
“So, are those your plan that you are proud of?”
“Why? Do you think it’s not good enough?” he was offended.
“Do you really think that I haven’t done that much all this time? Google up my name, check my sns account, etc.. etc..? I have done all of them, Oppa,” she felt defeated.
“Oh,” he just rubbed his nape in embarrassment.
She just giggled to his action.
“Well, did you find something?” he asked.
“Not really. I was not an active user of sns. I rarely posted something, except it was related to my musical project. Nothing personal. And about the google thing, I found that I was on my way to my last musical project’s rehearsal when suddenly my car slipped. But it was a single accident. No other cars were disturbing me. And I was not drunk either. My manager said maybe I was just sleepy. I really don’t remember.”
She explained to him everything she knew.
“Anything else? Maybe your call or message logs?”
“Just professional discussions to my manager or my musical director. I don’t have any personal attachment with me all this time. It’s so strange, right?”
“Hmm.. Not really, with the personality you had when we met last time,” he mumbled.
“What do you mean? Have you come to Seoul to meet me before? But you said that this is your first time in my apartment. Didn’t you come over here?” she felt so confused.
He coughed a little to clear his throat.
“Later. I will tell you about that later, Seohyun-ah. I promise.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll get back on that later, Oppa.”
“What about your theater group? Have you come to their studio?”
“That’s it. The theater studio. I haven’t come to check it before. Gomawoyo, Oppa. That’s very smart of you. Thank you so much,” she suddenly gave him a bear hug but released immediately, “Ah, mianheyo, Oppa.”
“O-oh, it’s okay. So, let’s go to the theater studio tomorrow,” he continued awkwardly.
“De~”
“But I think we should stop by the hospital first. You need to check up your leg after your short vacation in Busan, little pig,” he nagged her.
“Don’t call me that,” she pounted her lips, showed her disinterest to the topic.
He shook his head and ruffled her hair as he walked to his room.
***
February 4th, 2016
Yonghwa and Seohyun found themselves sitting in the middle of the audience of a musical performance at Charlotte Theater in Seoul. That was actually her project before she got injured and removed from the team.
She felt a little sad because of it before, but then she felt relief to saw the satisfied look on the audience. Honestly, she really enjoyed the performance, too.
Long applause echoed throughout the auditorium after the perfomace ended, when suddenly a scene flashed in Seohyun’s mind.
***
Seohyun was bowing deeply to the audience on a stage. Hard and long applause echoed throughout the auditorium when they gave her standing ovation. There was also Yonghwa Oppa smiled brightly and waved at her in the middle of the front row. She felt so proud of herself.
Then, she received her favorite mini-sunflowers from him in her dressing room.
“Congratulation, Hyuu~n. That was awesome,” he complimented her.
“Gomawoyo, Oppa~”
They hugged each other before he kissed her lips tenderly.
Author's note:
The memory has been finally awaken, hasn’t it?
Unconsciously, I put too much sadness in this story. But let’s believe there will always be a sunshine after the rain.
Will you try to guess what is the sunshine in this story?
And for Yonghwa character, I’m sorry for making him into an indecisive person. I think we should give him a little more time to sort his feeling for the sake of himself. Not for Choa or Seohyun, but himself.
Thank you so much for your comment. It means a world for me, sorry for the exaggeration. But seriously, I felt so happy that you share your opinion on each chapter. Please keep it coming till the end of this story.
As usual, please enjoy the story and see you on the next update :)
- minikittybdg -
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