three

Yeoreum gawked.

She didn’t even believe that the boy had just threatened her and make her feel weak and to make it worse – her heart was beating so fast that it hurts like crazy and even much worse, the boy was smirking in triumph the moment he let her go, as if he was that satisfied on threatening her and making her feel weak, and that just make her blood boils like crazy because is it fun messing with people like that?

And as fast as she could, and unknowingly – she slapped him. Hard.

And the boy must have been so surprised – he was frozen on his feet, head tilted to the side. It took a moment for him to recover from the hit and when he did, he scoffed, massaging the inside cheek.

And as for Yeoreum, she was also surprised, not because she had just slapped a boy, but because she just used her burn arm to slap him and her palm burned so much that she just wanted to cry. ! Not even helping that her burned palm was already red in pain.

But that pain had to be put aside for a moment as she had to deal with that stupid boy. She hopped off the desk, quickly staying away from him as far as she could while glaring at him.

“Who do you think you are?” her voice peeked and Jongin quickly composed herself, even though he couldn’t search for her by his eyes, he could still hear her through his ears and it wasn’t really a hard job to spot her position when she spoke up.

“You think you’re so great, huh?”

Yeoreum swallowed hard, holding her burning hand that was now throbbing with pain. “No wonder every help that came here quit, you made them to.” She breathed out.

“You’re pain in the , you know that?”

At that, Jongin just laughed.

“Listen, now you listen to me.” She set her gaze hard on the boy. She knew he couldn’t see her, and oh, how she wanted him to see how mad she was at him at the moment. But she knew, he can hear her – he can hear her pretty well.

“No. You, listen here.” Jongin snarled. “I am the pain in the and you wanna know what’s new? I’m going to be much of an if you continue working here. And trust me, you will never win against me, babe.”

Yeoreum was pissed.

She whirled around and stomped out of the room, still holding her hand that was in pain. She took a deep breath, knowing as hell that her tears would be flooding since the burning pain was unbelievably seeping into her and also because she was just getting shamed by a blind boy.

But the moment she stepped into the center of the house, the mother caught her gaze and immediately, the woman went alerted, probably because she saw that a girl was almost crying while holding her red hand.

“Doctor, I will call you back.” The call that the mother was having ended immediately.

Yeoreum sniffled her tears that was about to come out and forced a smile when the mother came to her hurriedly, taking her burning hand.

“What happen?”

“T – the dinner slipped and I got hit…I’m sorry…”

The mother frowned, seemed a bit uncomfortable hearing apologies from the girl. She tugged the girl’s hand rather softly, guiding her to the kitchen and went straight to the tap water, turning it on and slowly put the girl’s hand under it.

Yeoreum hissed immediately, but calm down afterwards when the cool water pampered her. “Thank you.” She muttered and the mother just gave out a thin smile.

“B – but the dinner had spilled and I need to take care of it first…”

“It’s okay…” the mother assured. “I will take care of that later.”

Yeoreum answered in silence.

“Did Jongin give you this?”

She quickly shook her head. “No.”

The mother said nothing, only massaged the girl’s hand softly.

Yeoreum just stared at the older woman, noticing how stressed she looked after she had come back from work. And somehow, she felt bad for her.

The woman was out to work, only to get home to a bratty son that talked back to her, a house that is still have chores to do and maybe a broken plates in her son’s room. Yeoreum felt dead guilty – it’s because of her that all of this happened.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hmm?” The Kim looked at her.

“It seemed like I just made your work here much worse.”

The woman smiled. “No you didn’t.”

“You shouldn’t be apologizing. It wasn’t your fault.” Even though the mother said that, Yeoreum still couldn’t let go of her guilt. The mother then closed the tap water, cleaning the girl’s hand.

Yeoreum had to admit, that the burning had lessen a bit.

“You should put it under the running water at your house. I don’t mind you doing it here, but it’s already late and I’m worried that your mom will be worried sick.”

Yeoreum looked at the clock, noticing that it was almost ten at night and she nodded to herself, wiping her wet hand onto the clean clothes that was hanging near the tap water.

“Come on, I’ll give you a ride.”

Hearing that, Yeoreum quickly declined. “I – its okay…m – my friend is picking me up.”

“Ah…really?”

It was a lie, really. But nobody has to know that.

She just really doesn’t want to burden the mother anymore. She had just came back to work, all tired and all and Yeoreum really wanted her to rest. Besides, it wasn’t so hard to go back home.

 Yeoreum forced a smile, holding her burning hand. “Yes. But do you want me to help you – ”

The woman just smiled. “It’s okay.” She suddenly caressed her arms softly, smiling.

“I will take it from here. You have done too much.”

“I didn’t even do anything…” Yeoreum frowned and the woman just smiled.

Both of them slowly walked to the door. Yeoreum was about to walk outside the moment she wore her shoes when the mother stopped her.

“You – you will come back tomorrow?”

Yeoreum looked at the woman straight into her eyes. She was basically pleading her with all her might for her to just stay working, but Yeoreum grew silent, still staring at the mother.

Looking at the response, the mother just smiled, looking down immediately. “Well…” her voice suddenly cracked and Yeoreum’s heart fell.

“Thank you then. Walk safe, okay?”

“Aish. ing .” Yeoreum banged her head on the window of the bus, staring at the colorful neon lights that were decorated along the streets. The images of Mrs. Kim’s pleading look haunted her and she groaned again, closing her eyes in distress.

“Just why do I have to be so kind?” she wailed. “Can’t I just be ing heartless and move on with it?”

It’s not that she doesn’t want to help the mother, but after what had happen to her in the boy’s room, she suddenly had second thoughts on the job – as if she hadn’t had that thought before.

Yeoreum didn’t want to admit, but she knew that her ego was high and the moment she had been threatened by someone – a blind boy to be exact, she was absolutely embarrassed. And much worse, she had been shamed and oh boy, she really doesn’t want to go through that again.

But then, there’s Mrs. Kim who just had those sad eyes pleading to her and Yeoreum knew, even though she had a big ego, her self-conscious self and big heart just couldn’t say no to that.

She knew what it’s like to be in a difficult time, having no one by the side to help and was so desperate in finding one. That feeling and she really doesn’t want anyone to feel that way.

But then, she doesn’t want her ego self being smashed into tiny pieces by the blind boy who think he rules everything.

She groaned once more before searching for her phone in the jeans. Her burning hand wasn’t hurting so much like before, but she could still feel the burn. The moment she took out her phone, she began searching for a name, pressing call and waited for the line to be picked up. Just two rang until a melodious voice greeted her from the other line.

“I tell you, we must have some kind of connection or something ‘cause I was just about to call you.”

Yeoreum managed to snort. She ignored the constant yelling at the background of the other line and just focused on the voice of the person that she really needs to hear the most.

“How’re you? How’s Daegu?”

“Ugh – I’m not good. Daegu is so boring. I just arrived, but it feesl like a month already. My grandparents keep asking me to go outside and play, but nothing is even there to play with – ”

A sigh.

“ – but the food here is great though, and don’t get me started with the boys here. The high school boys here are so god damn beautiful that every time I see them walked by, my eyes are blessed.” Another sigh.

“But still boring because you weren’t here.”

She just laughed.

The bus stopped for a while, taking another passenger and Yeoreum ignored that, focusing on her friend. “Aww, you miss me?”

“Umm…kinda?” a laugh. “What’re you doing though? Did you finish babysitting already?”

Yeoreum just sighed. “Yeah…I’m on my way home actually.”

“How was it? Was it fun?”

She just sighed. “Everything but fun.”

“Okay…what’s with the sighing?” the voice from the other line stated. “ – is it that bad?”

“You could say something like that. He hates me.”

“Why would he hate you?”

“I don’t know, and apparently he did…and he just threatens me to quit the job.”

“Wait, what?”

A laud laugh could be heard from the line and Yeoreum rolled her eyes. “I’m glad you find this amusing, but I’m being serious Eunhui…”

Eunhui, the girl from the other line couldn’t help but to laugh again.

“I bet he threaten all his helps to quit just like how he did to me.”

“But…he’s blind?” the laughter died a little.

Yeoreum rolled her eyes. “So what if he’s blind? Do blind people can’t threaten people?”

“I don’t mean it like that…” her friend coughed a bit. “…you make me feel like I am the bad guy here.”

Yeoreum just rolled her eyes.

“Forget what I just said…” Yeoreum could hear shuffling going around on the other line and she guessed that her friend was outside the house, strolling around as they were talking.

“…so, are you quitting then?”

She could only sigh at that. She watched as the people step off to their destination and mentally prepared to step off to her destination next as the bus continued to move once again.

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? I thought you said that the blind boy was rude.”

“He is…but I don’t know. I feel sorry for his mother you know…it reminded me of my mom. Before I finish my work, she looked at me like, begging me to stay you know…”

A sigh from the other line.

“I don’t know Yeo. If he hates you, why bother taking care of him? I’m sure the mother can find someone else…”

She just hummed. “I guess…”

When she got home, a sudden cold glare was thrown at her and she frowned, taking off her shoes as she having a stare down with her own brother.

“What?” she spat, noticing that he won’t tore his gaze away from her.

He was