TIP #12: “L’habit ne fait pas le moine”

(The vestment does not make the monk)

“Umma! Appa! Look! I got good news!” In Hya exclaimed, bursting through the door, excited to see how her parents will react. Her heart was on fireworks, finally there was something substantial to impress.

As soon as she flung the door open, she was greeted by the piercing sound of glass shattering and jumps.

“Where the hell did you go last night?! You went out drinking right?! Or were you with another woman?!” Mdm Bae hollered as her husband hurriedly sauntered down the stairs with an empty alcohol bottle.

“Get out of my way, old hag.” Mr Bae spit, pushing past her mother.

In Hya staayed frozen at the front door, surprised at the scuffle unfolding before her. Her father noticed her presence first and pressed a thin smile.

“Oh my sweet child, back from school?” Her father mumbles sheepishly and his face looked flushed.

He was drunk again.

In Hya quickly hid her stack papers behind her back and nodded, “Y-Yeah.”

“I’m not done here!” Mdm Bae screamed from a distance and the smile on her father’s face got replaced with a dark scowl. He grunted under his breath before passing by In Hya as well and exited the house.

In Hya turned behind and watched her father get in a cab and then looked back nervously to her distraught mother.

“Um, where is Appa going?” She bravely asked while fidgeting.

Mdm Bae shot her a really, really unhappy glare and it made the girl cower. She scratched on her elbow again.

“Don’t talk to me.” She breathed out and stormed her way up the stars and shut the door with a grand slam.

In Hya looked around at the empty house and her hands dropped to her side as she eyed the exam sheets.

She had gotten 1st in class for the mid preliminaries.

* *

At a young age, In Hya learned that it was better to depend on yourself than to rely on others.

She never really had anyone to confide in, so she ended up doing everything by herself.

No one taught her any better.

Which was probably why she didn’t know how to respond to Jongin’s offer earlier.

She had always been relying solely on her bones and efforts even for her own grades and an extra allowance.

It was really hard at the start, where she fell but had to pick up the pieces by herself. In Hya would always ask herself why, but there was always a reason.

Even if she never got the chance to learn what it was.

She figured that she was numb because she was already broken.

Broken things no longer feel anything.

Thus, after learning it through the hard way of being abandoned once, she never once holds it against her adoptive parents for their lack of care and concern.

She would simply grin and tell herself, ‘it’s okay’.

Why?

She was just contented enough to have a shelter and a family.

Even if it was just for show.

In Hya walks back home, slowly, really tired and the sounds of beetles creaking are annoying her. Her hands are dug deep inside Baekhyun’s coat and the shuffling of her heavy feet contributes to the noise on the streets.

She closes her eyes for a while, a little forcefully, but doesn’t see complete darkness because the moon burns twice as brighter that night, and that too agitates her.

She starts moving and moving, wondering why her apartment seems extra further tha night and why the roads never seem to end.

In Hya lifts her head when she hears a soft but clear melody.

Tinkle.

The diaspora of her looming thoughts start to run wild when she recognizes the tune and her heart constricts with a strange sensation.

She thought that it was over, but it’s here again.

Amazing Grace.

The same biting cold brushes over her legs again but this time, it feels different.

It feels beyond eerie.

In Hya looks around the quiet streets, even lonely trees swaying look terribly uncomfortable, tightens her grip on her sling bag and quickens her pace while chanting a mouthful of silent prayers.

“You’re gonna be okay, you’re gonna be okay, you’re gonna be okay.”

She briskwalks her way to the front door, rummaging her bag for keys but her foreboding doesn’t just stop there.

She halts in her steps, taking one, two, three steps backwards.

There, right at her doorstep, lies a flower, a tall white chrysanthemum that looks ghastly in the moonlight.

The one she’s been receiving at her work desk for weeks.

How the did it get here too when she hasn’t tell anyone where she lives?

She literally just moved here.

In Hya breathes heavily before making a full turn around, something in her finally snapped.

“I don’t know what you want but whoever you are, stop this instantly!” She screams out and her chest rises and falls erratically.

She frantically slots her keys, opens the lock, and presses her perspiring back against the closed door before sliding down to the floor.

It can’t be him.. right?

* *

“Dude, open the damn door for ’s sake.”

Baekhyun taps his shoe impatiently as he waits outside Jongin’s office. It’s been 30 minutes incurring his cold shoulder and everyone here is dissing him. If he is granted one wish, it is to dig a hole right there and then and never come back out.

“Open it or I’ll break—“

“Are you looking for Kai?”

Baekhyun shifts his gaze to a taller teenager who is enveloping a couple of files blink at him curiously.

“Kai—Uh well, yeah.” Baekhyun scratches the back of his neck.

The teenager knocks on the door, tiptoes slightly and peers into the door, “Strange. He’s inside though.”

Baekhyun sighs, “I know.”

“I have spare keys.” The teenager announces and easily barges into his office.

“Who the hell let you in?” Jongin barks as soon as he sees Baekhyun strutting in and his face falls upon seeing that he isn’t alone.

“Sorry, Kai. But I need to pass you these prototype sketches from the other intern designers.” The teenager apologises from behind.

“It’s fine.” Jongin replies.

“The hell is wrong with you? I’ve been trying to contact you all night since yesterday.” Baekhyun grumbles and leisurely takes a seat at the couch.

“Hyunsik, give us a second?”

The teenager gazes at both grown-ups awkwardly and leaves the sketches on Jongin’s table before he leaves obediently.

“Now you know how I feel.” Jongin mumbles.

Baekhyun dips his voice in a more serious tone, “You shouldn’t be so hard on her yesterday.”

Jongin peels away from his chair and raises a brow, “I have yet to sound you about that. You clearly knew she was working there, seeing as to how you’re a regular at that pub, so why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s because I know you’ll react like this.”

Jongin scoffs, “Of course I will? I told you I care about her. All the more I’ll be worried if she’s working at that kind of place.”

“Look, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be angry. You can be angry all you want. But at least try to understand from her perspective, don’t shun her so quickly.”

“Weren’t you the