Four.

BOM

That night, I decided to go to Rosemary’s rooftop.  Although the building has only ten floors, it was tall enough that if you look down, everything has shrunk ten times. The scenes happening down the building is like watching a diorama in action. If you look at it that way, it’s actually cool.

“Hey,” I heard someone called from behind me.

Although Seunghyun’s voice has now become familiar to my senses, what with the few short conversations we shared that night we watched a movie at my apartment, I still coiled my neck to take a look at him. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

He stood next to me in a matter of a few seconds. His hands deposited at the front pouches of the navy blue jacket he was wearing. I didn’t realize how cold it had been now that I have seen him wrapped in that garment.

“I saw the note you attached in 606’s door,” he answered.

I cocked a brow at him in mock suspicion and contempt. “Ah, so that is your thing, huh? Reading notes that you aren’t supposed to read?”

He instantly looked scared and taken aback. And it was so funny I almost jetted a giggle. But I tried to hold it in. This was amusing. Consider this initiation to the new guy.

“No,” he rebuffed my allegation in an outrageous manner. “It’s not like that.”

I crossed my arms on my chest, trying not to be fazed by his frightened countenance. I must admit I do get easily sympathetic. A hyena can feign it is hurt right in front of me and I would not think twice to take it in my arms and coo to it like a 6-month-old baby.

Seunghyun went on. “It’s just that your penmanship is so big. And I saw your name. And I got curious. It was there for everyone else to see.”

The note I left for Mai, the 40-something-year-old woman who lives in Apartment 606, was simply a message informing her I was going to the rooftop. Since my accident, Mai had this habit of checking up on me every 7:00 in the evening and ask if I had eaten my dinner already and taken my meds. She never failed. It sometimes annoyed me that she does that, but for the most part I was honestly grateful. She’s the closest to a mother figure I could have. And like the daughter that she never had, I didn’t want her to worry about my whereabouts, hence the note on her door.

I gathered my acting skills, squinting at Seunghyun, faking increased infuriation. “So it’s my fault now?”

“What?!” His eyes went bigger than before. “No, I didn’t mean it like that! I—” Then he sighed, thereafter bowing his head from what appeared to be shame. “Maybe I should just shut up. I think none of what I’m saying is right.”

Okay, maybe I’ve tortured him enough; I sniggered. “I’m just messing with you, Seunghyun. That’s how you welcome the newcomer, Rosemary style.”

His jaw dropped in astonishment. “You did not just do that. You almost gave me a heart attack. I thought you were really angry at me.”

A playful grin spread across my lips. “Glad that I still haven’t forgotten my knack for facial expressions.”

We shifted our sights then to the sky. The stars glowed beautifully like Christmas lights against a black backdrop. I was instantly reminded of Siwon and a particular memory harked back to me. That memory of our date when he took me out on a night picnic and then we laid on our backs to watch the stars.

Needless to say, the smile on my face turned upside down. What happened to the good memories? Siwon and I, we had those. Did he forget them all of a sudden?

What changed?

“Something’s bothering you that’s why you’re here,” Seunghyun suddenly said.

I turned to look at him, surprised. He saw through me. “It’s nothing.”

“You were just smiling seconds ago, and now, poof,” he made a gesture with his hands as though something exploded in front of him, “it’s gone. That’s not nothing.”

Deeming that I have no way out of his goading, I succumbed to disclosing what happened at the mall. “I saw my ex-boyfriend this afternoon.”

“Bad break-up?”

I nibbled my lower lip. “Not quite. Just…unexpected.”

“You must still love him,” he assessed. “For you to be worked up like that when you saw him.”

I smiled. Seunghyun couldn’t see through me after all. “Actually, I hate him. He thinks I planned the whole getting-hit-by-a-car in my attempt to gain our relationship back.”

Seunghyun’s eyes shone of doubt. “It’s not true, right?”

“Oh, God, no! Of course not!” I fervently rebuffed. “I loved the guy, but I wouldn’t go as far as hurting myself. I have more dignity than that.”

Seunghyun snorted repulsively. “Your ex-boyfriend is stupid.”

“I know,” I agreed wholeheartedly, chuckling. “Glad he broke up with me. And I didn’t beg for a second chance.”

“So you got hit by a car, huh?” Seunghyun asked. If my judgment was serving me right, he had become more interested in this conversation.

“Yes. I was too caught up in my broken heart I didn’t realize a car was about to give me a pair of useless legs and feet.”

“The doctor said you’re not going to be able to walk again?”

I stalled. For a moment, I provided contemplation toward Seunghyun’s question. But I quickly wiped it out, not wanting to horrify myself so much with it. “Not yet. I’ve been in physical therapy for the last two weeks. Although the pain had greatly decreased, my legs and feet are still heavy and numb as they were from the beginning. But my doctor said, as the nerves were greatly damaged, it takes time for them to repair. If they are then I can walk again. I’m actually lucky that my bones weren’t fractured, which means my healing process wouldn’t be that extensive.”

Seunghyun looked at me seriously. “You’re even luckier that you are alive right now.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. And I appreciated the fact that someone who I only met twice would actually be concerned for my existence. “Hey, you want to see something cool?”

“Sure.”

I lifted a few wisps of my hair on the left side, revealing a crescent-shaped bald streak of about an index finger long.

“That’s a scar…”

I brought my hand down, the strands dropping back to their place, hiding what they just exposed seconds ago. “Yup. Apparently, I also hit my head from the collision. 30 freaking stitches. It would have been a proud moment, you know, enduring having been sewed up…if only I was conscious at that time.”

Seunghyun shook his head. “I don’t know what to say. Your accident would have been an awful thing, but it seemed as if you’re taking it rather lightheartedly.”

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?”

He smiled. “Right.”

It would have been a much longer conversation—had Mai not suddenly appeared and ordered me to take my meds already.

~*~