invisible

Chapter Two

Chaewon dragged her feet to the nearest taxi stop. She needed to get out of there and seek for explanation somewhere and even if that meant she had to take public transports. She saw a taxi coming to her direction. She stood by the street and waved her hand to get the driver’s attention.

“Stop,” she mumbled.

But the taxi wasn’t slowing down.

“Hey, stop!”

The taxi went past her so fast that she had to take a few steps back from the road.

She gritted my teeth and scoffed.

“Why the hell aren’t you stopping?!” she shouted on the sidewalk to the taxi that was already out of her sight.

“Fine! Go away! I don’t want to get on your stinky piece of crap taxi anyway!”

She stomped her feet a few times on the ground to let off her steam. But she forgot that she was wearing high heels. Suddenly, she couldn’t stand straight and lost her balance.

“Ackk!”

She kneeled down on the ground.

She looked at her feet and realized that the left heel of her shoes had broken.

“Nooo! This is Jimmy Choo! Noooo!” she wailed as she was holding the broken heel like a mother crying for a fallen child.

She felt something wet on her cheeks and touched it with her fingers. It was tears. She couldn’t believe that she was crying on the streets. She looked around to see if people saw her like this. There were people walking on the sidewalk and across the street, but none of them looked at her. No one wanted to help her get on her feet or at least asked her why she was crying.

She continued to sit on the pavement for a while but it was still the same. No one looked at her. So she wiped her tears and pushed herself up. She dusted off her dress and stood up.

She stood there, not sure what to do or where to go. She clenched tightly to her handbag and gulped.

She still couldn’t believe this was real. This couldn’t be real. No.

It couldn’t be.

Suddenly, a blue bus stopped at a bus stop just across the street.

And then her body just moved by itself. She couldn’t think but her feet were moving towards the other side of the street. She hurriedly crossed the street with her broken shoe heel. She entered the bus and found an empty seat at the back. The driver wasn’t looking at her, as expected, so she just sat there without wasting her breath trying to talk to him. A few high school students entered the bus and soon they were filling the space. She hid her face with her hands, not wanting to be seen by them. But soon she realized that it wasn’t necessary. None of them noticed her. They were chatting among themselves while holding coffee cups.

She suddenly craved for coffee too. Her stomach growled. She pressed her stomach, realizing that she hasn’t eaten anything since the morning, and it was already 3pm. She bit her lip and unknowingly eyed the red bean fish bread in one of the student’s hand. She was standing near her and she could take a bite if she moves a little closer. She felt something wet trickling down her chin and wiped it with her fingers. She shook her head repeatedly, realizing how embarrassing it was to drool for a 1,000 won street snack.

The bus began to move and Chaewon sat still on her seat. At each bus stop, there would be people coming in and coming out of the bus. Chaewon kept hoping that they won’t sit at the seat where she was since it may appear invisible to them. She looked out of the window as the bus moved across the bridge, crossing Han River. She couldn’t remember the last time she took a bus.

The bus stopped. And this time, Chaewon saw a stream of people filling the streets and the cars lining up. With such heavy traffic jam and crowd, she figured that they had reached the heart of Seoul. A group of men suddenly entered the bus and one of them was drunk. One of them made his way to where Chaewon was. She gulped.

No. Please go away.

“Get your away from my seat,” she muttered.

But the man was still moving towards her. He was getting closer and closer. Chaewon couldn’t take it anymore. She could smell his stinky breath from where she was. She had to move or else the drunken man will end up sitting on her lap. She sprung up from her seat and ran towards the door. She pushed a few people along the way. They looked at each other and accused one another for pushing. Suddenly, the atmosphere became tense among the passengers. They might even punch each other but Chaewon wasn’t going to wait for that.

Chaewon got off the bus and walked away from there. But after a few steps she stopped and looked around her. She saw huge department store buildings and a street filled with thousands of people.

It must be Myeongdong.

She felt her phone buzzing in her jacket pocket. She took it out to check who it was.

It was Minjoo.

She picked it up, “Hey Minjoo where are you?”

“Chaewon unnie? Hello?”

“Yes I’m here! Can’t you hear me?”

“Unnie, hello?”

“Yah Minjoo-yah! Where are you? I’m at Myeongdong now, you said you’re having a promotional appearance at the department store right?”

Then there was dial tone. Minjoo had hung up.

Chaewon scoffed and almost threw her phone on the ground.

**

Chaewon broke off her other shoe heel so that she could walk properly. But it was still uncomfortable. She ignored the uneasy feelings and began walking to the department store where Minjoo was. She pushed open the glass door to enter and suddenly a few people turned around to stare at her.

Chaewon stood still.

“Do you people see me?” she asked.

But they didn’t respond; they just stared, shocked.

Chaewon smiled proudly, “Yes, I know. I’m that Kim Chaewon. Sorry but I can’t give autographs right now-

“Did the door just opened by itself?” asked one of them to his friend.

“Wow that was freaky,” his friend replied.

And then, they both turned around and hurriedly leave.

Chaewon bit her lip. Her legs wobbled and she almost fell on the floor.

“This can’t be happening; this can’t be happening…”

She lifted her feet to walk, one by one until her pace was steady. And then she ran. She ran up the escalator and pushed away people who blocked her. But her shoes were making her uncomfortable. Her feet hurt. She stopped as soon as she reached the top of the escalator and took off her shoes. But it was cold to stand on the floor without anything to cover her feet. She saw a sportswear shop nearby and sneakily grabbed a pair of sneakers. The owner didn’t notice; no one did. Chaewon looked at the shoe that she was holding tightly in her arms and then at the owner who was standing just in front of her.

“So, everything I touch becomes invisible too?”

Chaewon shook her head, “No, the door wasn’t invisible. They saw it moved.”

“So, anything I touched with both hands became invisible?”

Chaewon put on her new shoes then walked to a cosmetic shop next to the sportswear shop. It was a cosmetic outlet that she endorsed. Her face was on the display and the wall. She couldn’t help but felt proud. She had been endorsing the brand for a few months and she heard the sales increased. Suddenly, she took some of the items there, the lipstick, some blusher and cc cream and shoved them in her bag in front of the sales assistant.

“I’m taking these and I don’t want to pay. It’s okay right?” she asked the girl.

But she was looking somewhere else, ignoring her.

She rolled her eyes, “Hey girl, look at me. Without me endorsing this product you won’t be able to get paid, you know? At least you should respect me.”

But the girl was too busy gazing at her newly-painted nails.

“Okay fine. Let’s see you get scolded by your boss when this rack filled with cosmetics falls on the floor.”

With that, Chaewon pushed the rack. It fell, startling everyone.

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