CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

untold bruises

Sehun did not stop running even after his race. His gold medal bouncing around his neck was an annoyance, and he tore it off as he sprinted up the stairs of the hotel building. Something had happened; something far more important that his gold medal. Everyone talked about it; everyone from all teams in different schools.

He knocked on Rei’s door, but no answer came. He called, and nobody picked up. Restless, he kept on running, kept on looking for her. Where could she have gone? Where would she go amidst all this ruckus? What would Rei do?

Run away.

He climbed up to the roof, and his guess was right.

Rei sat at a corner, shaded from the sun’s blaring afternoon blaze. Her legs were bent towards her and she was drawing something intently, accompanied by faint music playing from her iPod. ‘Sehun.’ She raised her head upon noticing his presence.

He was panting, but he was relieved. ‘Is it true?’ he asked.

‘What is?’

‘You know what I’m talking about.’

‘Jung Jaehyun and Ryu Jinwoo?’ she looked back at her book, unbothered. ‘Yeah.’

Sehun crouched down to her level and lowered her book to bare her face. ‘No.’ he looked at her. ‘Did Jinwoo really touch you?’ his voice was full of care and concern.

‘Yeah.’ She answered almost as if it did not matter. ‘But I’m fine. Jinwoo isn’t, sadly.’

‘And you?’

Rei helped a small smile. It happened all too fast. Rei had regained her usual composed confidence and an ambitious focus on swimming and swimming alone. The coach secretly aimed she would outperform all other participants – there was very little chance anyone could beat her at all.

She arrived early and practiced an additional two hours at the pool. It seemed like nothing could get in her way.

Then it happened.

The coach dismissed them all for lunch, but Rei stayed for another half hour. It would take a while before everyone would be done washing and changing into dry clothes and she could use a little extra time to herself in the pool.

What she did not know was that Ryu Jinwoo had been eyeing her since morning. Frankly, she did notice, but assumed that he could pose no harm. She was not completely isolated from everyone else, after all. She left the pool last out of the school’s swimming team. The rest were already waiting at the bus outside. It was just as she exited the changing room that Jinwoo decided to be sneaky.

But his malevolent sneakiness was not without consequence.

Rei walked with her usual fast pace towards the bus and Jinwoo creeped up fast behind her, slipping a hand beneath her skirt. When she turned with her unusual calm expression of disbelief, he could barely smile before Jung Jaehyun surprised him in return.

Those who had already settled inside the bus rushed to the side of the window facing the three.

Ryu Jinwoo began yelling with a blazing face of betrayal at Jung Jaehyun, who barely flinched looking down at the former who lied sprawled on the tar ground. Spits of blood escaped his mouth and he held a terrified hand to his jaw.

Jinwoo messily rose up to his feet, always ready to throw a punch.

Jaehyun lifted his still-curled fist, but Rei stood up to him and held his arm before he could throw another. She looked up into his murderous, dark eyes and challenged with her own restraining gaze, which softened when he looked back at her. ‘Don’t.’ she shook her head. ‘Don’t hurt yourself.’ She said.

The coach held Jinwoo back before he could launch an offense, and the fight abruptly stopped there, with Jinwoo cursing at Jaehyun, promising to see him in court. The coach drove Jinwoo to a clinic. The bus ride remained filled with whispers and Rei sat in solemn silence next to a still-angry Jaehyun who refused to look at her at all.

Upon their return, Rei took Jaehyun to his room and tended to his right fist. He was fine overall and his fist suffered very little abrasion.

‘I’m sorry.’ He broke the silence, his eyes still flaring. ‘I should have known.’

Rei shook her head, her lips forming an assuring, forgiving smile.

‘Are you alright?’

‘Don’t worry about me. I’ll go now.’

That was when she decided to isolate herself from people. Her phone had been receiving a mass number of messages and calls all day. ‘So you don’t want to see anyone today?’ Sehun asked.

‘No. They’ll only distract me.’

Sehun stretched out his sore legs, sighing heavily. From the look on her face, she had dropped the topic and he asked no more about it. After a while, Rei leapt to her feet, brushing off the dust on the back of her skirt.

‘Well?’ she beamed down at him. ‘You have your medal.’ She offered him her hand, and he hesitated at first. Her face was shaded and looked too cool – but Rei had always looked too cool to be human. He reached up to her fingers and she grasped onto him tight.

‘Where are you going?’ he asked as she walked towards the entrance into the building.

‘Where am I going?’ she looked back with a curious smile. ‘Why, wherever you’re going, Sehun.’

Back in school, Jongin, in a rare moment, was reading a book – or rather, was flicking his fingers through the pages, quickly scanning over paragraph.

Kyungsoo sat down in front of him.

‘My sister’s a terrible writer.’

‘That’s not very nice.’

‘I don’t see any Soojung in this.’ He closed the book and slid it across the table to Kyungsoo. He and Kyungsoo had visited Jongin’s old home. He wondered whether Ms Yoon knew anything about Soojung’s supposed relationship with Jongyeon, but she knew nothing either. Jongyeon’s belongings still remained in the storage room, untouched. She had very little belongings and Jongin was familiar to the lack of appreciation that they had for sentimentality. However, he did find a journal book she was tasked to write in for her writing class.

The contents were unconvincing, and Jongin could sense she merely wrote what she deemed was necessary, not of things she truly experienced.

‘I told you we could just ask.’

‘And blow our cover?’

Kyungsoo squinted his eyes in suspicion. ‘We don’t have a cover, and you watch too much spy movies.’

‘What? They’re good.’

‘I have something to say.’ Kyungsoo leaned in closer and softened his voice. ‘Did Soojung come to class today?’

Jongin shook his head. ‘She said she had a fever.’

‘Guess what? My friend asked me if she was alright because she saw her at the dorm building, and she said Soojung had a bruise on her face. She said she was crying and looked pretty messed up.’

‘Really?’

‘I texted her as well and she said she had a fever too, but maybe she’s lying.’

Jongin abruptly got up from his seat and rushed out of the library, with Kyungsoo tailing behind him. They snuck into the girls’ dormitory floor and with the help of Rei, managed to find the room where she and Soojung were lodged at for the year.

When he knocked he could hear Soojung’s voice answer, ‘Who is it?’ she sounded to well to be feverish, but she did not particularly sound happy. Jongin did not answer, for he feared she would ignore him if he did, and he kept knocking until she opened up, standing behind the wall so that she would not be able to see through the peephole. When the door was opened, she was standing behind the door with part of her face peeking from the door. Upon recognizing Jongin’s face, Soojung attempted to push the door, but Jongin struck his leg between the gap before it could close.

As a result, he felt a sharp pain strike his leg and he winced. Soojung relented and let the door open.

‘Sorry,’ Jongin welcomed himself in. ‘We heard you were sick.’

Soojung did not look up at him. She was wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled over her head, and a mask over . She returned to sit on her bed, her head hanging low.

‘Have you eaten?’ Jongin asked, sitting next to her. Soojung shook her head, slowly turning her head away from him. He instructed Kyungsoo to go down and buy her food with his money and the latter obliged. ‘Em.’ He crouched down in front of her. ‘Look at me.’ He reached a hand up to her face.

‘Don’t.’ she said.

‘You’re hurt, aren’t you? I want to look at it.’

‘You already know, so why do you have to look at it?’

‘Because I care about you, and I get worried. Soojung,’ he looked up at her. ‘Soojung, I’m not going to open your mask, but I do care. If you’re hurt, I want to know. I want to help you.’

Still she remained silent, her fingers slowly curling towards herself.

‘Please don’t push me away again.’ He pleaded.

Soojung swallowed, then slowly pulled the strings of the mask off, and her hood. Light began illuminating her shaded face, her red sore eyes that had cried many hours during the night, and the bruise Kyungsoo mentioned.

It was a patch of fresh bluish purple just under the left side of her lips the size of a large coin. Though not exactly huge, it was noticeable. ‘It’s horrible isn’t it?’

‘It looks like it hurts. Who did this?’

Soojung zipped again.

‘So someone did do this to you.’ Jongin sighed.

‘I deserve it.’ Her voice was filled with tears.

‘No you don’t.’ he held her hand.

‘Yes I do.’ She began crying. ‘I deserve to be hit like this.’

‘Why do you say that?’ he held his gaze on her. ‘Who did this to you? Is that what they said?’

Soojung rubbed her eyes hard. Jongin ascended to the bed, his mind enshrouded in a thick cloud of thoughts, gathering wind as if to make a storm inside his head. But Soojung looked far more at a discomfort than him. Her grey eyes would not stay still and she looked like a cat trapped in a dark box with no way out.

‘You were in love with her, weren’t you? Jongyeon, I mean.’

Soojung looked dazed, and then resigned.

‘So you know.’

Jongin felt as if he might be stepping into forbidden grounds but gathered up his courage to stay. ‘What happened?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve always looked up to her,’ she confessed. ‘So strong and stubborn. That’s what I thought when I first met her. Remember? When you visited her at the café she worked in? I never knew you had anyone you cared about until then. You don’t really like to show how you feel much, you know?’

He remembered. Of course he did.

That little idiot, he would murmur under his breath. She’s always reckless, always trying to do things that gets her into trouble.

It was not a struggle to smile at customers who entered the café, but when Jongyeon saw her brother, she deliberately pulled a face at him. Soojung thought Jongin would scold her for taking up a part-time job when she was legally not eligible by age. ‘You’re 14,’ he had said at the counter to her.

‘And would you like to help me so that I can become rich quicker and quit faster? We take tips too.’ She flashed a cunning smile at him.

Instead of arguing further, Jongin bought three drinks, one for him, one for Soojung and one for Jongyeon – and a slice of cake. She was like an exact version of Jongin, Soojung thought, but where Jongin observed his friends less, Jongyeon could pick up a signal people never emitted.

Perhaps Soojung’s closeness to Jongin and Jongyeon’s unclaimed desire to shower her brother with attention led her to approach Soojung, but their relationship advanced further and they began spending time with each other for each other.

Nothing about Jongyeon was similar to Soojung. She always knew where to go but Soojung could feel lost in her own room.

‘I kept it to myself because I was okay with it.’ She smiled a little, a tear running down her cheek. ‘She had a boyfriend then, remember?’

‘Yeah, Doyoon, I think.’

‘And then she called me up and said she wanted to talk.’ And that was when Soojung found out that she was not the only one hiding feelings.

‘Did you guys ever fight?’

She shook her head. ‘Barely.’

Everything fell into pace then. Her worries faded, she ventured into new grounds, leapt for the sky and never worried about falling down, because she would be there to catch her.

But now it was all gone.

Everything good go so fast, and they never say goodbye.

‘And this-‘ Jongin pointed to her bruise and Soojung was pulled back into the current dimension of time and space. ‘-does it have anything to do with Jongyeon?’

She looked at him with a solemn gaze.

‘It has everything to do with her.’

‘What do you mean?’

She looked away, her eyes shattering again.

‘I killed your sister, Jongin.’