Chapter 7 - Closer

 

She could never take her eyes away from her dad. She was only looking at him, who lied unconsciously on the ground, bloody, and almost didn’t look like a human at all.

His legs were torn from his body, one of his arms were gone, half of his face destroyed and disappeared. He was no longer the handsome man she always praised. But he’s still number one in her heart no matter what.

They were taken to the hospital and separated into different treatment rooms. Little Chaewon was wailing for her father and didn’t want to part from him, but the hospital authorities couldn’t let her go. They needed to check on her conditions too.

One of her legs was weak and she needed rehabilitation if she wanted to walk like normal again. Her forehead had a big scar that she needed an immediate treatment and had to hide with her bang now.

But her injuries weren’t serious.

At least not as seriously injured as her pure heart that had just witnessed her father’s death before her eyes.

Little Chaewon was brought to where they took her father. He was already lifeless, she knew, but she was still hoping for the expert doctors to bring him back to life.

When Chaewon’s mother arrived at the hospital and was informed of her husband’s death, she broke down on the floor and cried her eyes out.

Chaewon stood before her mother that was on her knees, feeling guilty and apologetic.

“I’m sorry mom...I knew you love him so much but b-because of me…”

“I’m sorry…” she cried in front of her mother.

 

Chaewon wakes up from her nightmare, her tears still roll down on her cheeks. She sits up and rests her bed on the pillow against the bed stand, can’t sleep for tonight either. She glances to the clock and it reads only 7 am, still too early to fully wake up now.

Sometimes the image of her mother crying over the lost of her father was still the greatest nightmare in her sleepless nights.

She titls her head to the side and the sight of Minjoo’s peaceful sleeping face calms her down a little. The younger girl cried too much last night that Chaewon had to offer her room for them to sleep together. Well, it’s mostly Minjoo who got her sleep well while Chaewon was still suffering from her insomnia.

After some minutes of staying wide awake still, Chaewon closes her eyes again and attempts to get some more proper sleep.

***

The blinding light shining in the room wakes Minjoo up from her deep sleep that morning. She groans as her eyes hurt from the bright lighting. They are still puffy and swollen thanks to all the crying she had last night.

After some time getting accustomed to the light, Minjoo finally opens her eyes and lazily rolls in the bed.

Then she realizes she’s not in Hyewon’s room. Suddenly she regrets staying awake late at night and led to meet Chaewon outside of the room. She should be the one to comfort Chaewon but it turned the other way around. She’s too embarrassed because the older girl had seen too much from her last night.

But once she looks up, she meets Chaewon’s intense gaze and her face immediately heats up.

“Did you sleep well?”

Minjoo nods sheepishly. “Yeah I d-did,” she answered. “What time is it?”

“It’s 9.14. Mom will call us anytime soon to have breakfast together.”

The former yawns and rubs her eyes lazily. Her instinct says she wants to sleep some more but since Chaewon is in here with her, she can’t possibly do that now.

“Did you ever sleep properly at all?”

“I woke up every 30 minute and then closed my eyes again back and forth.”

Minjoo feels bad that she gets to sleep well alone while the other girl was struggling by herself. “I’m sorry...”

“It’s okay,” Chaewon beams. “I’ll usually ask Hyewon unnie to sleep with me if I struggle to sleep since her presence is a healing to me. But I couldn’t possibly leave you alone.”

Is this girl an angel in disguise of a human form or something? Why does she make Minjoo feels something? Minjoo badly wants to ask her if it hurt when she fell from the sky.

“I guess I should get up now. Hyewon unnie is probably worried that I didn’t return to her room last night.”

Chaewon catches her wrist before Minjoo fully gets off of the bed. The latter turns around and stares at the former in bewilderment. “Please keep about the accident a secret from our friends, especially Hiichan and Yujin.”

“I thought they already knew?” Minjoo frowns.

“They only thought I had some serious insomnia problem, depression or something thus the super extra care. But they don’t really knew what I had actually gone through in the past, except my friends Chaeyoung and Nakko.”

Minjoo nods her head and beams softly. “You can count on me!”

***

Once the family plus Minjoo are done with the breakfast and the three girls help the lady of the house wash the dishes in the kitchen, Ms. Kim offers Minjoo to do her hair and the youngest of the house accepts the offer gladly.

In the bathroom, Ms. Kim washes her hair with a nice fragrant of a shampoo, something that smells like apple mint.

 “Can I dye your hair to a dark brown a little? I’m sure your mom won’t mind that much.”

“I’d love to!” Minjoo agrees and bobs her head enthusiastically. She had wanted to dye her hair at least once in her life for a while now and this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity for her that she couldn’t let it miss.

 

“Minjoo...”

Minjoo hums softly as Ms. Kim continues to do her hair.

“...thank you for listening to me last night. My former mother in-law wasn’t fond of me since I first married her son and she only despises me more after the accident that took his life. She chased me and Chaewon out from the house and never really accepted my daughter as a part of her bloodline after that unfortunate day.”

The words trigger Minjoo so much that she opens her eyes abruptly. Why would a grandmother hate on her grandaughter after the lost of her son’s life like that? It’s not like Chaewon killed him herself.

“Chaewon couldn’t stop feeling guilty towards me because she thought I lost the man that I loved and our family’s only protector because of her, but I couldn’t do anything to help her lessen that feelings that shouldn’t even exist.

“She first met Hyewon’s father when she was getting her rehab at the hospital and they saw each other often because of that. About two years later, he came to the salon I worked at to get a haircut and recognized Chaewon immediately although Chaewon had stopped going to the hospital.

“It was my daughter who set him up with me and encouraged us to date. She said she didn’t want me to be lonely and I should date the man that I liked. I couldn’t deny my feelings for him because he wasn’t only a gentleman towrads me but I knew he could love Chaewon like I loved my daughter.”

Minjoo can definitely feel the love between the parents. The way Mr. Kang cares about his new family tells her a lot. “That’s such a beautiful love story,” she said. She dreams to have such a deep and beautiful relationship too.

Ms. Kim chuckles. “But the both of us had our own share amount of sufferings before we could reach the beautiful part. I hope you won’t have to go through that much or worse experience.”

After the color on Minjoo’s hair has changed and the professional hairstylist gets her hair washed, the both of them step out from the bathroom and the older woman starts to dry Minjoo’s hair from the back.

“Hyewon and her father are like a savior to us, Minjoo. I can’t get more grateful to the both of them for saving Chaewon and me!”

Minjoo smiles fondly at the way Ms. Kim mentions her older sister and her father. “I’m sure they’re just as grateful for having you and Chaewon into their lives too.”

“Chaewon really likes Hyewon a lot. Sometimes I feel like she looks up to and relies on her step sister more than her own mother, haha. But one thing I couldn’t deny is that Hyewon takes care of Chaewon better than I did. She treats my daughter like a grown up unlike me who always sees Chaewon as a child, my baby.”

“There’s nothing wrong about that auntie. There’s no doubt that she’s your baby.”

The older woman chuckles. “I’m always so content that Hyewon loves her younger step sister so much. Chaewon has matured a lot now thanks to your sister who taught her like a grown up. I’m forever grateful towards Hyewon.” Ms. Kim smiles as she puts the hair dryer down once Minjoo’s hair has dried enough. “So I hope you can be Chaewon’s friend like normal and treats her like a grown up too, just like her friends Chaeyoung and Hitomi do.”

Now Minjoo feels more relaxed as Ms. Kim combs her hair gently. “Yes, I will do that auntie.”

Ms. Kim has done with the hair and turns Minjoo’s shoulder around to face her with a loving smile across her face. “You can just call me mother. You’re like a daughter to me too since Hyewon is your sister. This is your home too.”

Minjoo’s eyes brim with tears, her feelings overwhelmed with the warmth of Ms. Kim’s words. She’s truly an ideal mother that Minjoo craves and dreams for.

“Thank you...mother.”

***

After the History teacher ends his lesson, almost all the students immediately slump their heads on the table. The boring subject and teacher make them sleepy that they can’t help but sometimes doze off in his class.

He can’t blame them to be honest. To teach the subject History with the lowest volume and no fun method can really bore people without a doubt.

Chaewon rises on her feet to take a break from the class and has a breath of fresh air. She informs Hitomi that she’ll be in the toilet for a while but both the mochi and Minjoo know she’s out to smoke a cigarette.

Albeit worried of the older girl, Minjoo decides to give her class president some time alone and sits on her vacant chair beside Hitomi for a while.

“Your best friend doesn’t have enough sleep as of lately!” she declared to the mochi and the owner of the fluffy cheeks that often gets victimized by other people’s pinching puffs her cheeks in confusion. Minjoo is so tempted to poke those cheeks.

“You mean Chaewon or Yujin?”

“Ah right, Yujin is your best friend too,” Minjoo blinks. “But I’m not talking about my girlfriend. It’s about our class president!”

Soon Yuri, Nako, even Yunjin and Suyoon drag their chairs to gather around Hitomi and Minjoo to join in their conversation. It’s such an interesting topic if Chaewon is involved, especially just for to tease the vice president again.

“I’m aware about that. Her panda eyes can’t deceive me!” The group laughs at Hitomi’s remark of Chaewon’s eyes as a panda’s eyes. “But she’ll be fine. She’ll always be fine since she has your sister.”

“Minjoo’s sister must have meant a lot to her!” Suyoon smiles in content.

“Hyewon unnie is an angel to Chaewon. Chaewon adores her a lot,” Hitomi acknowledges that. “And another thing that sometimes calm her down is-”

“Smoking!” The other girls whispered in unison. Minjoo is utterly surprised that a lot of her classmates actually know about her smoking habit.

“You all knew?!”

“You’re not the only one who caught her Minjoo, but yes, we all know about that! But we couldn’t tell on her to the teachers because she did nothing wrong other than that.”

“Did her family-” Minjoo was about to ask the girls but then she suddenly remembers what Chaewon had told her when she first caught the older girl smoking at the back of the school.

“You’ve never seen this.”

“Right, we all knew with the exception of her family.”

They resume with the lesson once the teacher comes in and Chaewon has come back all clean from any trace of smoking. The school continues until for a few more hours before the end of the period.

Chaewon naturally comes up to Suyoon to talk to her assistant. Minjoo eyes them from the back and she clenches her teeth without a reason. What is this uneasy feeling inside her? She can’t describe it well.

Yuri squeezes her shoulder and that touch makes Minjoo comes back to her sense.

“You’re going to come with us to the gym and watches our basketball practice, aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah, you’re right! I’m supposed to go with you guys!”

Both she and the shorter girl pass by their head class monitor and the assistant before they’d walk out of the door.

“Minjoo!”

The brown-haired girl instantly rotates her head when she heard Chaewon’s voice. “Yes?”

“Hyewon unnie and Kkura unnie are coming with me to pick up my prize. Would you like to join us?”

“Prize? What prize?”

“The national drawing contest for art school high school category! Chaewon participated for that and submitted her art! She won the second place and supposed to pick up her prize today!” Suyoon replied instead of the class president.

“I see, but unfortunately I can’t join you. I promised to watch Yuri and Yujin play this evening!”

Chaewon nods her head. “It’s okay, of course you have to see them.”

 

Minjoo is halfway into the gym with Yuri next to her when she suddenly halts her steps. “Actually, I change my mind. Yuri, can you please tell Yujin that I can’t make it today? I’d like to join Chaewon so bad.”

“Again? At this point Yujin and you are going to end up fighting a lot!”

Minjoo scoffs. “We already fought countless of times! She keeps comparing me to Wonyoung when it comes to support her play in the games!”

“That’s because Wonyoung is her ex and she plays basketball unlike you!” Yuri accidentally spills a hot tea and quickly covers when she realizes her mistake.

Minjoo grits her teeth. “I got it now!”

“Yah Kim Minjoo!” Yuri hollered for the former’s name when the taller girl suddenly fled away from the gym.

***

Hyewon drives to the Institute of the Arts where Chaewon submitted her art drawing and now to pick up the prize from the contest. She receives a good amount of money on the cheque and a trophy alongside the honorable certificate. She’s told by the organizer that they had hung and exhibited her drawing alongside the first and the third winner at the gallery studio and the high school student alongside her companies can go in there if they’d like to see the exhibition.

Chaewon thanks the clerk in charge and is off to the gallery studio alongside the other three girls.

Minjoo has her jaw dropped as she looks at the nice drawings. They’re all really well done, and it’s no doubt that the first winner deserves the win for her magnificent portrait of a woman with angel wings, but the Chaewon’s one really moves her heart.

“Wow, Jjaeon drew you all so well! *Sugoi!” Sakura said with her thick Japanese accent. (*amazing/great)

Using her house’s interior design as the background, she drew Hyewon, her mother, Mr. Kang, herself and even Minjoo in the living room all together with happy expressions and a little note on top of the drawing said “Our home”. Chaewon truly treasures her new family a lot. Minjoo can’t get the right words to exactly describe her feelings at the moment.

“W-Wow, you drew really well! Now I understand when Yujin said you could be a great a-artist.”

She wants to say thank you and she has a high gratitude feeling towards the older girl but it feels like cat got her tongue.

Hyewon already has her tears roll down on her cheeks and she quickly wipes the droplets before it gets worse. She takes out her phone and snaps a picture of the drawing. “I’m going to print this out and hangs it at our home!”

 

They are already on their way back home when Minjoo receives a call from Yujin, her girlfriend. She suddenly recalls when Yuri told her that Wonyoung is actually the girl’s ex girlfriend when she never knew about that before. A pang of jealousy seeps inside her heart.

She slides her screen and answers to the call. “Hello?”

“I’m at the convenience store nearby your real house. Please see me here asap!”

Minjoo is stunned by Yujin’s cold voice. Why is the star student suddenly getting mad instead of her?

“Unnie, I’m sorry but can you please drop me off first? I need to see Yujin real quick now!”

Hyewon nods and listens to her younger sister’s plead. As soon as Minjoo spots Yujin and the two girlfriends reunite, Hyewon drives her car away and entrusts her sister to the tall girl.

Minjoo paces nearer towards Yujin while rolling her eyes in annoyance. For some reason her girlfriend really irritates her today.

“I thought you promised me! YOU PROMISED TO ING SEE ME PRACTICE SPORTS THIS EVENING!”

Minjoo stares up at the taller girl in disbelief. “WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT ME?!” she retaliated with the same volume.

“You don’t even come to any of the games that I played, don’t even come to support me during practices, don’t even-”

“STOP! If you want someone who support you during your games and practices so bad, then go find a cheerleader and not a plain and boring girl like me!”

“Why you- I want a supportive girlfriend who got my back everytime, not a ing cheerleader!!!”

“AHN YUJIN!” Minjoo snapped. The lovers have been yelling at each other back and forth and the shorter girl is getting tired of this kind of attitude. “Then you can just get back with Wonyoung who had been nothing but a supportive EX-girlfriend to you all these times!”

Yujin scoffs. “What does this have to do with her?”

“We always end up arguing because you made a comparison between me and her! I can’t stand it anymore, NOT anymore especially knowing that you and Wonyoung used to date!”

She wipes the tear that rolls down on her cheeks roughly and grits her teeth as she keeps glaring at the taller girl.

“Then what? You want a break up?!”

Minjoo becomes silent, suddenly too petrified and numb to move nor speak.

It never crosses in her mind that she wants to break up with Yujin.

“Fine then, let’s break up!”

But it’s happening now!

Yujin leaves her, alone and dumbfounded outside the convenience store, now not so convenient anymore since she has her first heartbreak near the place.

Minjoo is heartbroken.

***

She finally arrives home, drained and exhausted. She spends a good one hour in front of the convenience store crying over her unexpected break up with Yujin. The poor girl is in regret for saying things she didn’t exactly meant to say. She hates to bring up Wonyoung’s name around Yujin.

To be honest, she has always been jealous of the unexceptionally tall girl that is Yujin's best friend. Although she knows the girl often gets in bad terms with Yujin too, but Minjoo knows at the end of the day Yujin will always come back to Wonyoung’s side and they remain as good friends as always.

“If you gonna go out all day long and only come back to sleep, then you better rent a hotel, not staying here for free!”

Minjoo is pissed off upon hearing her mother’s sarcastic remarks. Her words don’t only cause her pain but also bleed her ears.

“What the hell are you talking about, mom?! I’m your daughter and this is my house too, I can step in and out anytime I want like you do!”

“Your house??? My husband and I PAID for this home! What right do you have to say this is yours???!” The folk is just as frustrated. “You only come in here to sleep and don’t even stay for the weekends! Every week you’d go to Hyewon and her new fuxking family to the point that I don’t even see my daughter as often as them! I’m sick of this, Kim Minjoo!”

The young girl is full of malice as she stares at her mother with tears brim in her eyes.

“You don’t think I’m sick of this too, huh mom?! This doesn’t even feel like home to me anymore! You don’t act as a mother to me like how you should be, and let’s not even talk about Hyewon unnie! Her stepmother is far better than you! I wish she is my mom instead of you!

“She welcomes me home warmly and lovingly! She treats me and Hyewon unnie like her own daughters! She said her house there is my home too!

“They are…” Minjoo clenches her teeth. “...my new home!”

***

The family hears the bell rings at a late night and wonders who has come during this hour. Although they’re all just leisuring in the living room together, it’s still not normal to have a guest at this kind of time.

Chaewon gets up from the sofa as the others are still too stunned to move. “I’ll get the door.”

Without bothering to look from the screen monitor, she pulls the door open and is surprised to have Minjoo visited them at this late hour. “M-Minjoo…”

The girl’s eyes are puffy and she doesn’t seem to be in her best condition. She wonders what happened to the younger and blames herself for leaving her alone way earlier.

“C-Chaewon-ah!”

The girl leaps her body to the front and hugs Chaewon without hesitance. Mr. Kang, Ms. Kim and Hyewon all rush to the door when they hear the sound of a girl crying.

“Minjoo, why are you-” Hyewon widens her eyes at the sight of her sister who’s in despair.

“Unnie!” Minjoo cried and she moves to Hyewon, embracing her older half-sister. “I hate mom so much! I hate Yujin too! I can’t stand them anymore!”

“Minjoo…” The elderly couple sighs and thinks Minjoo needs her alone time with Hyewon for now. Her malice to the two people that she had just mentioned only comes from her personal feelings, so the adults think the girl must need time to sort out her problem with the girls around her age.

Mr. Kang and Ms. Kim leave the three young girls and Hyewon immediately has her arms around Minjoo’s shoulders. “Let’s go to the backyard and talk there!”

 

Minjoo is enjoying the late night breeze in the backyard while sitting in the porch swing that Mr. Kang made by himself. She still has many tears left to shed and gets drawn in her emotion. Hyewon has gone to her room for a while and has some talk with her birth mother over the phone. She can’t accept the fact that her mother has made her sister so upset.

And let’s not even start with Yujin. Hyewon is furious that the young girl that claimed to love Minjoo so much dares to break the poor girl’s heart.

Chaewon sneaks to the backyard and sheepishly  sits next to Minjoo on the swing. The latter who can feel the weight beside her on the swing looks up from her palm and tilts her head to find Hyewon’s beloved step sister.

“You cried a lot. You must have been really upset.”

Minjoo has stopped sobbing but her tears are still falling from her eyes.

Chaewon blinks and continues to stare at Minjoo with the most endearing gaze. “Do you want a kiss right now?”

Minjoo’s eyes are about to pop off by Chaewon’s bold question. “W-What?”

The red-haired pockets her hand and takes it out back before showing off her fist and opens her palm.

It is a Hershey’s Kisses chocolate! Chaewon has actually deceived her and made her believed she meant another kiss, not a ing chocolate!

Minjoo can’t believe herself and laughs sheepishly, getting embarrassed in front of Chaewon for making a fool out of herself. Her tears of sadness have subsided and now replaced with a genuine laughter.

Chaewon chuckles lightly, elated that her trick works and manages to make Minjoo smiles radiantly once again. She opens the silver-colored wrapper and feeds Minjoo the bite-sized chocolate.

“All I need is to give you a sweet kiss to make you cry of happy tears,” she said wittily and Minjoo laughs louder.

She’s not wrong at all!

---

Preview :

 

She takes one step closer.

Minjoo holds her breath.

And their lips meet.

 

***Okay apparently I lied when I said this story will have the same pace as Love Four Ways xD Idk how long this will last but maybe for a while for now ^^ The first half of this chapter was deleted by accident, can you imagine how frustrated I was to rewrite them back??? I had to come up with new ideas and all because I couldn't recover the original words back T_T Also I'm sorry if I make any of you hate Minjoo's mom so much, but we're seriously going ✈ to stan Chaewon's mother xD Are you guys excited for the next chapter??? 2kimnation make some noise!!! xDDD

P/s: Happy birthday to our dearest Minguri!!! Thank you for being born and I know you and Chaewon love each other a lot 😊#HappyMinguriDay #Happy_100thDay_IZONE