Chapter 5

Dara’s POV

Dingdong dingdong dingdong

The doorbell woke me but I couldn’t find strength to get up.  It rang a couple times more and it was so irritating so I gathered all the bits of strength that I had left just to open my eyes.  Before anything else, I searched for my phone.

10 missed calls, 2 messages, all from Youngbae.

“Oh right!”

I remembered Youngbae said last night that he’d come.

I dragged myself to the door and to the gate.

“Noona!”

“Youngbae-ah, what time is it?”

I was still half asleep when I opened the gate for Youngbae to come in.

“It’s 5 minutes to 9.  I’ve been here for almost half an hour.  I kept calling you but you never answered.”

“Sorry, I was still asleep.”

“Are you having a headache?”

“Pretty much.”

“Hangover.”  He smiled.  “Good.”

“What’s good about hangover?”

“Nothing.  Until someone cooks a cure for you.  I brought some meat so I can make you haejangguk.”

He set all the ingredients in the kitchen.

“I couldn’t cook it earlier coz I woke up late too so I just brought everything here.  This will take a little while so you can go back and have a rest.  I’ll wake you up when I’m done.”

This wasn’t the first time Youngbae has done me a favour.  He was always so warm and caring and always there for me.  He always keeps his promise, even the smallest ones.  His puppy-eyed smile half-cured me.

“Ne, chef.”

We smiled at each other one last time before I turned around to jump back to the sofa and go back to sleep.

And before I could completely fall asleep, I heard chopping sounds.  I couldn’t help but smile with the thought that someone cares for me, that someone is here to take care of me.  I felt safe.

--

Tabi’s POV

I woke up early today but I wasn’t really sure if I even fell asleep last night, so I decided to stay in bed a bit more.  I attached my iPod to my speaker and turned the volume high enough to fill the room with music.  This is how I start and end my day.

“One day down, 5 months and 29 days to go.” I said to myself, with all the thoughts coming in to my head; my father, Bom noona, and school.  I don’t get it.  I’ve done my bachelor’s degree in the arts already, why do I need to go back to college for Industry and Business Administration?  I mean, it’s totally not my kind of thing and I think I’m old enough to lead my own life.  But I just couldn’t.  With my father around.

My father never really acted as a father to me.  He was just a superior entity that I know.  Ever since I was just a kid, I’ve only seen him very few times.  In fact, I don’t have much clear memories of my childhood with him in it.  I remember having my 4^th birthday, though I wasn’t so sure if that was really me.  I used to keep dreaming about it.  But the very first memory I had with my father was when I woke up in the hospital and he was the first person I saw.  They said I crashed my bike while I was playing.  I remember hearing someone’s voice, I think it was the doctor, saying ‘your father’s here’.  And that very feeling I felt the first time I saw him, staring expressionlessly at me, is the same feeling I have for him til now.  Nothing.

I can’t say that I respect him, but I don’t disrespect him at all.  I grew up like all the other kids; got in to trouble, failed some classes, but not once was I called to the principal’s office.  I didn’t find it odd til high school.  I got in to a fist fight with some kid who was bullying my classmate.  He was punished by our teacher and was called to the principal’s office.  His parents were called too.  I was reprimanded by our teacher but I never got hit.  I waited for the principal to call me, but he never did.  Growing up, for me, was normal except for that, and when I went home.  Everytime I go home, it was another reality for me.  A completely different world.  My father has never scolded and we never had any argument.  Fair enough, since we barely even have a conversation.  I’ve never asked him for anything but he provides me with what he thinks I need.  I do as he say, and I don’t even know why.

Dingdong Dingdong Dingdong

I was deep in to my thoughts when the doorbell suddenly rang.  I didn’t really mind it at first coz I thought Dara would answer it since she was just downstairs.  But it kept ringing and it was so irritating.  I only had my boxers on, so I hurriedly put my hoodie and track pants on, to go down and get the door.  But before I could run down the stairs, Dara was already dragging herself out.  She was swaying from side to side, with her eyes closed.

What a mess.

I remembered last night when we were watching a movie.  We didn’t finish it.  She stopped it when Kim Bum got killed.  How ridiculous!  She was watching that movie coz of him?  He wasn’t even the main actor.

Tch

I went back upstairs, took my clothes off and grabbed a book from one of my boxes.  I sat down on the floor, leaned on my bed and read.

--

Dara’s POV

I was in a deep sleep when I felt a little wind blowing on my cheek.  It was Youngbae.

“Noona.  Get up. You need to drink the broth while it’s hot.  It’s very good for you stomach and it will help bring your senses back.”

He helped me up, almost carrying me to the dining room.  He prepared a bowl of steaming haejangguk.  He scooped a spoonful of broth, blew on it and fed it to me.

“How is it?”

It was so refreshing.  The warm broth slowly travelled through my throat down to my stomach and left a warm trail.  I wanted more.

“This tastes so good.”

Youngbae smiled proudly and I felt proud of him too, like an older sister would feel for her little brother who’s done something good at school.

“But I thought you only knew how to cook kimchi fried rice.” I .

“Eeehhh.  Of course not.  I learn a lot of things every day.  Jiyong cooked this for me once when I was sick and he taught me how so that I could cook for him when he had a hangover.”

“Oh my, you were sick, when?”

“Some time ago.  It doesn’t matter.  Eat up noona, I’ll have some too.”

He grabbed another bowl for him and sat in front of me.

“But I wasn’t there.” I sighed.  I felt bad.

“Seriously, it’s okay noona.  You didn’t know, I never told you.  It wasn’t a big deal.”  He assured me again.

“So, you get sick too…”

“Ha! Of course, I’m not superman, you know.”

“True.”

We ate our bowls of haejanguk and had an easy flow of conversation, as we always do, when Tabi suddenly came down.  He was already prepped up like he was going out again.

“I’m going out.  I don’t know what time I’m coming back.”  He said.

“Where are you going?”

“Dankook.  Somewhere else.  A lot of places, I don’t know.”

“Oh, okay.  By the way this is Youngbae.  Youngbae, that’s Seunghyun.”

I introduced them to each other and they greeted each other.  The atmosphere felt weird but I don’t exactly know why.

“Nice meeting you.” Youngbae nodded in manly way.

“Same here.  I’ll get going now.”  Seunghyun responded.  His face had zero expression, like he always has, which made him look insincere.

“Why are you always in a hurry?”

I don’t know if he heard me or not coz he just kept walking and ignored me.  Just a few seconds after he went out the door, he came back in and said.

“Keys..”

“Huh?  Sorry, what?”  I was flustered.

“KEYS.  I need house keys.  You’ve never given them to me yet, remember?”

“Oh, KEYS.  They’re behind the door.  Yours are the ones with the green chain.”

“K, thanks.”

KEYS.  For a second there I thought he said ki – WHAT WAS I EVEN THINKING!

“Noona, are you okay?”

“Huh? Oh yeah.  Please give me another bowl.”

--

 “So your tenant is a guy?  Why didn’t you tell me?  Why would you even take a man in?  I mean, that’s just dangerous.”

“I thought I already told you that I’m having a tenant.  Remember yesterday when I called you and asked you how to cook kimchi bibimbap?”

“It was for him?”

“Yeah.  You know I don’t stress out too much on food.  I eat whatever is there.  But he didn’t want any ramen.”

“But it’s still risky, noona.  He’s a total stranger.”

“I know but I negotiated with his guardian, and he was pretty decent.  And I don’t feel like I’m in risk of any harm at all.”

“His guardian?”

“I know right?  Such a sissy.  And he’s older than you.”

Youngbae didnt stay longer when we finished out meal.  He said he still needed to go to Jiyong’s.  I helped him pack up some haejanguk for Ji and some herbal medicine too.  Before he left, I asked him to drink a packet of herbal medicine coz I still felt bad about him being sick and me, not being there.

“Thanks, noona.”

“No, thank you.  You take care and take care of Jiyongie.”

“You take care too.  If you feel anything weird happening, and you know what I’m talking about, call me.  Keep your phone with you, ALWAYS.”

“I know, I know.  I get it.  Go on now.”

We smiled with assurance at each other and he waved goodbye.

The days went by so fast and every day was the same.  Tabi always went out early, just after I woke up and would come home late when I’m already in my room.  Basically, I only see him 10 seconds or less every day.  Now I understand why he said we didn’t need to use honorifics since we won’t be talking to each other that much.  The last conversation we had was when Bae came over, if that was even considered a conversation.  That was 5 days ago.

Tomorrow will be Dankook’s official start of the semester, but I don’t know if he’s got classes.  I don’t know his schedule and I couldn’t be bothered asking.