CHAPTER 7: REVELATIONS

Despite my scared and confused state of mind, I managed to make my way back to the Choi family’s house. The sun had already set and it had become dark outside, so Seungcheol had grown impatient and was about to go out to find me – I ran into him at the door. At first he seemed a bit annoyed, asking why did I leave the house and spend the whole day elsewhere despite it being a work day for me. Then again, he had also heard of the accident I had with the soup in the afternoon, so he asked whether I was alright and looked at the wound in my palm. After making sure I was okay, he rushed me in and told me to eat something before going to sleep – I’d need to wake up early as I was now part of the maids.

“I can’t believe dad did that to you”, the boy sighed as we walked up the stairs. “He doesn’t know how badly the others treat you.”

Right. He didn’t. But this time it was my fault. I had the chance to tell him, but I couldn’t do it because of the shock I was in. I didn’t want to pity myself but the situation was, no doubt, pathetic.

I was on my way to my room as I walked into a familiar face. It was the young maid that had apologized on behalf of the others yesterday. This time she looked very apologetic. She couldn’t look me in the eyes and had her eyes glued to the floor instead. Her posture was bad and I could see the wrinkle between her eyebrows. She seemed to still think I was her supervisor. So the maids didn’t know about my demotion?

“What is it?” I asked with a tired, weak voice and tried to walk past the girl.

“I’m sorry”, she said quietly. “It wasn’t me. But I’m sorry.”

I stopped, letting out a sigh, and turned to look at the small, crouching girl. For some reason, she reminded me a lot of myself in my teen years. I was silent, shy and always apologizing to everyone. I had grown up and let that part of me go. Or I thought I had. Now that I thought about it, this world had made my old, insecure self wake up again.

“What’s your name?” I asked, tilting my head a little bit.

“Hwang Sunhwa”, she replied right away, raising her eyes to look at me.

“Stop apologizing for others”, I said. “They probably aren’t sorry for what they did. So if you weren’t part of them, don’t say anything. We’re in the same boat now anyway.”

Thinking about my own words, I walked past the girl and grabbed the doorknob of my room. Just as I was about to enter, I realized it. I wasn’t the housekeeper anymore. This room wasn’t mine anymore. I blinked and frowned a little bit.

“I’ll share my room with you.”

Sunhwa’s voice pierced my thoughts. I turned to look at the girl. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to be friendly or still just felt apologetic for me. I sighed and flashed the girl a small, encouraging smile.

“Alright”, I said. “Then, would you like to help carry my stuff into your room?”

The rest of the evening and the night passed by quickly. I took one of the sleeping pills Dr Choi had given me and slept somewhat better, but the night was still restless and full of blackness. No dreams, no Wonwoo, nothing. Just suffocating black. Fortunately, the morning came quickly.

I thought waking up early to be ready to work at 7am would be hard – but surprisingly it wasn’t. Sunhwa woke up before me and opened the curtains of our shared room, letting the sunlight in. The light handled the rest and I woke up quickly after the girl.

To be honest, I didn’t understand why the maids felt so inferior. Their jealousy towards me was insane. Their rooms were big and decorated in a neat, modern way. Their uniforms were comfortable and pretty, and honestly speaking, their work wasn’t even as hard as they made it sound. Cleaning and cooking were the main chores – they were not hard, and you’d never do them alone. There would always be someone to help you.

As we started the day by preparing some breakfast for Seungcheol and his father, I couldn’t help but to feel a little bit bitter. The maids seemed all bubbly and bright, helping each other out and chatting freely while working. They were this close but decided to leave me out and bully me like that? Unbelievable. Now that I was one of them, they seemed to not care about me at all – they left me alone, completely. I didn’t receive any complaints, not even a single glare.

As I was setting the table, my thoughts wandered to the incident last night. The shooting in front of the bookstore. What was it all about? Vernon had said the gunmen were after Wonwoo. What reason could there be? He might’ve seemed a bit cold hearted but he wasn’t evil. He wasn’t the type to get involved in bad things. I wanted to meet the boy again and ask him. He couldn’t be mad about that; he had said it himself that I owed him one – we’d need to meet again anyway.

“What are you thinking about?” Sunhwa’s voice broke through my thoughts and I turned to look at the girl who stood next to me.

“Ah, nothing…”, I replied, shaking my head a little bit.

“You don’t have to set the table for Seungcheol”, Sunhwa stated. “He doesn’t have lectures today so he’ll sleep late. He’ll probably go to plan the tomorrow’s ball later.”

The ball. I was about to drop the chopstick I was about to put on the table. I had forgotten about the ball completely! Was it tomorrow? Well, Seungcheol had never told me when the ball would be, he just asked to go with him.

“Miss Dami?” Sunhwa called my name, tilting her head.

“Just Dami, please”, I said and then looked at the girl. “Actually… Seungcheol asked me to go to the ball with him. I didn’t know it’s already tomorrow.”

I could sense a couple of the maids’ heads turning our way but tried my best to ignore it.

“Really?” the girl’s eyebrows raised. “Do you have anything to wear?”

I let out a deep sigh. “Of course not.”

“That’s a big problem!”, the girl stated with wide eyes. “I can lend you my makeup and hair products… but a dress is important. I’m sorry to say this, but you’re in trouble.”

Of course I knew that. If I had known the ball was coming this quickly, I’d have gone straight out to buy a dress yesterday. But I didn’t know, so I was pretty much in trouble.

Sunhwa’s expression slowly turned brighter. “… or maybe you’re not.”

I raised my eyebrows, confused, and followed Sunhwa’s eyes that were glued on someone standing behind us. I turned around to see Seungcheol, for both my relief and shame. Even if I was a servant, I didn’t want it to seem like I had nothing at all, even if it was true.

“Good morning”, I greeted the boy and as all the other maids bowed at him, I realized that I should do so myself. I felt a bright rosy red colour appearing on my cheeks as I blushed, greeting the boy with an awkward bow.

“Morning”, he replied with a sleepy smile. “You don’t have a dress for the ball, right?”

I nodded, a bit ashamed. Why did he have to be so open about the fact he was taking me with him? I didn’t want the other maids to make me their target again.

“We should buy you a dress, then”, he stated and smiled so widely his eyes became narrow lines and his long eyelashes became even more visible. “Let’s leave after breakfast.”

There he went again, taking me out of the house despite the fact I was working. I wanted to shake my head in disagreement but ended up nodding after all. He was right, I needed the dress. But I also needed money in order to live, and I’d get that money by working. But then again, he was the boss. If I didn’t do as he told me to, I might end up in trouble. He claimed to be very kind but I had observed him for over a week, I had noticed the obvious rich kid mannerisms he had. So, no talking back, just obeying.

We’d go and buy me a dress.

After Seungcheol ate the breakfast Sunhwa and I had prepared and he had changed his clothes, we headed out of the house and rode the always so scary flying car to, once again, Apgujeong’s luxurious shopping streets. In no time I found myself being dragged into a big store which walls were covered in rails, stands and mannequins and all I could see was a beautiful dress after another. For my surprise, the dress fashion hadn’t changed too much since the 21^st century – the colours were still pretty bland but the design was fairly similar to the evening gowns of my era.

The store’s employees were very nice, they sat Seungcheol down and offered him some coffee or tea while one of the employees took me behind a curtain so discuss a little bit before she showed me some of the dress she thought would fit me, and Seungcheol’s suit. Multiple dresses were chosen as I was irresolute because of the amount of the beautiful dresses to choose from.

I tried on a couple of the dresses and the third one was a hit. It was fully black, which concerned me a little bit at first – I had never been a big fan of dressing in only black. But this dress was an exception. The dress’ upper part was form-fitting, including the long sleeves, but the skirt part was made of tulle and flared out beautifully. As I stepped out of the fitting room and eyed at Seungcheol curiously, I was about to chuckle at his reaction. His eyed widened and he showed me a thumbs up. I smiled and awkwardly brushed my hair behind my ear.

“I think this will be the right dress”, he stated with a smile on his face. “Do you agree?”

I nodded. “It looks good.”

Seungcheol did the same – he nodded at the employee. “So this one it is.”

After buying the dress Seungcheol insisted we’d spend the day together. At first I refused and told the boy I’d need to work, especially now that I had been demoted. Instead of letting me go, the boy had pouted, saying he’d try to talk to his father and make me into the housekeeper again. Then, despite me refusing, he told me we would spend the day together. In the end I gave up and followed the boy to the coffee shop he wanted to visit and buy a piece of cake to share with me.

At first I suggested returning home after every place we visited, be it a coffee shop, a clothing store, a food market – anything. But slowly I let myself relax and enjoyed the fun day in the city. Yes, I was able to really have fun for the first time since waking up in the future. I laughed, and really spent most of the time smiling. Just like I had thought many times up until this day, Seungcheol was the one who was able to bring out the smile and happiness in me. He was the only one I could talk to freely. Sunhwa seemed like a very nice girl but she was someone I could never reveal my ability and true identity to. Seungcheol already knew it all so I didn’t have to worry about anything and just relax.

The sun was already slowly starting to go down as we sat in the car and headed back to our neighbourhood. The 20-minute drive felt faster than it had felt earlier – I was clearly starting to get used to the speed and flying since I travelled by flying so much these days; be it a car or a train.

As we got closer to the house, I noticed myself glancing at the direction of the bookstore. I frowned a little bit.

“Seungcheol”, I said quietly. “Could you leave me here?”

“Why? Do you want to go somewhere?” he asked.

I nodded. “I’ll just walk around the block and come home.”

“Alright, then”, the boy said and stopped the car for a moment. I hopped off the seat and thanked the boy before heading towards the bookstore.

I couldn’t be sure of him being there, but we had already ran to each other twice there, and I knew Wonwoo loved books and reading. He had even said in my dreams that he lived in an abandoned library. There was always a possibility of him being there.

As I arrived at the bookstore, I could feel myself frowning a little bit. The window that had been shot yesterday had been already replaced. The modern, shiny window didn’t suit the old, romantic bookstore at all. Would everything be replaced like this someday? I sighed and stepped in. The store keeper behind the container flashed me a wide smile. I had already become a familiar face for her – this was already the third time I visited the store in a short time.

For my relief, I found Wonwoo at the back of the store again, seated the comfortable armchair, reading a thick book. His raven black hair was not styled and landed on his forehead, almost covering his other eye. He was wearing straight black trousers and a grey sweater with a white shirt under it. The outfit reminded me of a grandfather and I couldn’t hold back a chuckle. I eyed at him from behind the bookshelves for a second before stepping to the reading corner and sitting down to an another chair. He raised his head, glancing at me curiously, before realizing my identity. He let out a sigh, but not as annoyed as it could have been. I could actually hear some amusement in it.

“Stalker”, he breathed out as he continued reading.

“Me?” I asked, tilting my head with a smile on my face. “No. I was just curious. What was the shooting yesterday about?”

The boy sighed and raised his sharp eyes from the book. “I don’t know. I ran for half an hour to get rid of the gunmen. I did seem like their target but I have no idea why.”

I frowned. The situation was confusing. “Are you sure you don’t know?”

The boy let out a frustrated sigh. “Yes. I have nothing to hide.”

I blew out some air. “Yeah, except for the library”, I sighed under my breath and got up from the armchair.

Wonwoo’s eyes narrowed and his expression became alert. I only realized I had actually thought out loud instead of silently in my head, when the boy stood up with the speed of a light and rushed towards me. I tried to back out but he grabbed my wrist and forced me against a bookshelf, pressing my back tightly against the books behind me. My eyes spread wide open and I felt my heart beating very fast because of the shock. The look in his eyes was so sharp it was almost angry.

“How do you know that?” he asked, his voice getting extremely low and deep. “What else do you know? Are you really stalking me?”

“I am not a stalker”, I replied, trying to keep my voice from shaking. “But I know a lot.”

“Why?” the boy asked, his voice becoming a mere groan, his eyes becoming narrow lines. “Why do you know anything about me?”

His hold on my wrist became even tighter, so tight it started to really hurt. I let out a silent yelp and Wonwoo glanced at my hand, apparently noticing the wound in the middle of my palm, and quickly let go of me. He backed away from me and for a split second I saw an apologetic expression on his face before the glare returned and he crossed his arms on his chest.

“Tell me”, he hissed. “Why do you have the right to know so much about me?”

I gulped as I massaged the skin of my wrist, thinking hard. Whether I should tell the boy or not, whether I could trust him or not. I sighed. I had known him for long enough. I could trust him.

“I think you should sit down”, I suggested and glanced at the armchair behind the boy.

“No”, he refused. “Speak.”

I sighed. “To be honest, I came from the year 2016. Unbelievable but true. I have an... ability. I can travel between time and universes. I see people in my dreams. I learn about the people; I get to know them. And then I meet them in the real world. I’ve met my teachers, my future relatives… and I’ve met you.”

I observed the boy’s expression carefully as I could see the anger going away and being replaced by confusion. There was a deep wrinkle between his eyebrows and I could basically see him thinking, trying to put the pieces together and understand.

“It’s been three years”, I continued. “I’ve seen you every night. I know a lot about you. I know your parents passed away when you were 15. I know you live in that abandoned library. I know Vernon and Mingyu are your best friends. Your love for books, the fact you’re afraid of dogs, I know it all!”

I didn’t mean to get so occupied by my emotions but in the end, my voice was shaking and I felt my eyes would get teary any second – I tried my best to hold back, and for my surprise, succeeded. I looked at Wonwoo who looked very troubled. I took a step towards the boy. His expression was something between disbelief, confusion and shock. He had a frown on his face and he just stared blankly in front of himself.

“I know it’s weird and – “

“Were we in love?”

The boy’s question caught me off guard and I was about to choke on air. I couldn’t reply. I just stared at him with wide eyes, opening and closing my mouth but not even the smallest noise came out.

“Do you remember?” I managed to breathe out.

He turned to look at me. “No. But I guess I was right.”

I looked down, letting out a sigh. I knew he must’ve been shocked. I had been just as shocked little over a week ago when I had woken up in this world. In a way, it must’ve been even more shocking to Wonwoo. He hadn’t experienced any of this before. I had known at least something about my ability since I was a child. Now I understood Dr Choi – he had told me how it all came crushing to him when he was just ten years old.

Wonwoo slowly sat down on the armchair and let out a deep sigh. I took a step towards him, thinking of ways to comfort him.

“I know you’re shocked”, I stated quietly. “But now you know the truth. This is the reason I keep finding you. I’m not trying to force you to remember, or to love me. I just want to stay close to you. But if you really want, I can leave.”

I hesitated for a second before gently patting the boy on his shoulder and then turning around and taking a step away from him. I’d leave the bookstore; I’d try to stay away from him. The shock I had caused him seemed to have driven us even more far apart from each other.

“Wait.”

I stopped and froze for a second. I blinked and slowly turned around to look at the boy. His posture had become better and he was trying his best to keep his expression as neutral as possible.

“Don’t leave”, he said, looking straight into my eyes. “I give you the permission to stay close to me.”

______

Hello! ^^ I just thought I'd say hi and thank you for reading and subscribing! I've been a bit lazy to write lately but I promise to start updating more as I used to do. A chapter per day used to be my measure but I've become lazy lol

Anyway, thanks again and I hope you leave a comment, comments really make my day!