XIV

"I'll never leave you," he said. Lies. They were all lies, and yet she still chose to believe them. What was she to do when she was blinded by her love for him?

“To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves. ”

-Federico García Lorca, Blood Wedding Yerma

Even a blind man could see how much she yearned for him. People who think young love is only play has obviously never experienced love for themselves. It was too much for her fragile heart to handle. Somewhere in between their play dates at each other's house, coloring sessions, and late afternoon lunches, she found herself feeling fuzzy whenever she was around him. There was this---spark---that she felt whenever their eyes would meet. It was a glorious feeling, really.

"Mommy, what does it feel like when you love someone?" she asked one night when her mom was tucking her in.

There was a delicate smile on the woman's face as she thought about her own husband. "You'll always want to be with them. When they're not by your side, you feel empty. Even when you just look at them, it makes you feel happy on the inside. When they're happy, you're happy. When they're sad, you feel sad also. You just want to be with them all the time and they make your heart do somersaults. There are different types of love though, honey."

"Are you and daddy like that?" the child asked.

"Yes, yes we are," the mother simply replied.

That was all that the girl needed to know that she had fallen in love at such a tender, young age. She vowed to herself that no matter what happens, she would always stick by his side until the day her feelings were returned. She was content with just being by his side, knowing that his smiles were because of her doing.

Imagine what she felt like though when he told her that he liked someone else, nonetheless, someone she was close with.

She was barely a teenager when she first loved.

She was barely a teenager when she first experienced heartbreak.

It felt like nothingness. The pain was slow as it crept towards her heart, soon enough enveloping it with only a painful burning feeling. With their blissful memories in her mind, she built a wall around herself so that she could somehow ignore the pain. Except, that didn't really work. It was more like a room in hell with only her name written on it. Hope was what she needed but that too came crashing down.

He left.

Ring. Ring.

"Rina dear, could you go get the door?" Mrs.Kim asked from the kitchen.

With a groan, the teenage girl pushed herself off of the couch to see who was outside. She was beyond surprised to see Nami standing in front of her door freezing her off even though she was bundled up in a large winter coat. "Nami!" she exclaimed in shock.

"H-hi, um, could I go inside before we start talking about why I'm here?"

Rina's eyes widened before she nodded and opened up the door wider so that her friend could escape the cold. "Mom! My friend is over! Could you please bring us some hot chocolate?" she yelled, leading Nami towards the parlor.

The guest looked at her surroundings with great interest. Compared to the shabby apartment in which she lived in with her grandparents, this place was basically like a palace. Everything was pristine which made her feel rather out of place. The atmosphere inside the house was completely different from the one at her own house. It was too---rich. It was as if everything would break if she slightly brushed up against something.

Rina came back from the kitchen, holding two mugs of hot chocolate(with extra whipped cream on hers and large marshmallows for Nami). Nami gratefully took it, warming up her hands first as she held it before taking a sip. A smile immediately spread on her face the second she swallowed.

"It tastes good, doesn't it? It's my mom's special recipe that she learned from this old lady that used to be our neighbor back in the States." Rina said, drinking from her own cup. "So, why are you here today?"

"Well, I wanted to apologize for not being able to come to the Christmas dinner! I'm so sorry, Rina-ah!" the girl apologized, bowing her head as she spoke.

Rina let out a small giggle. "Silly, you didn't have to come all the way here just to say that! We can always hang out on New Years!"

Nami's eyes grew bigger when she realized that fact. "Ah, you're right!"

"Oh you," Rina laughed. "It'll be an all-girls night though, okay? There are these four goddesses that I've known for a long time and you're going to absolutely love them!"

Rina, the scary American transfer student that was in her rebellious teenage years, was seen at schoo---wait, Rina Kim was seen at SSHS during winter break? Voluntarily, even? Jesus, take the wheel. The world really is ending! Everyone, evacuate the planet! I repeat, all the citizens of Earth, evacuate the planet!

Okay, enough of that. Why was she sitting alone in a lab during winter break at school where no other soul was lurking? Omo, did she finally decide to become obedient and try to work hard like Rie? Omona---no.

Simple: to trick her parents into thinking that they can finally leave her alone and when given the chance, she'll be able to quit!

Too unrealistic? Eh.

It wasn't that hard getting this opportunity though. Lots of universities were already keeping an eye on her since they heard that she was one of the best students at SSHS despite her many behavioral reports. The school decided to snatch a chance at becoming very well acquinted with some of the best universities in Korea therefore, she was half-forced to do whatever the universities asked her to do.

There was one specific request that was interesting enough to catch her attention. A rather amusing experiment it was. Well, to her at least. So there she was in a lab doing her thing.

Even when someone walked in, she was still focused on mixing chemicals and writing down her observations. She didn't bother to look up because she immediately knew who it was by their footsteps. Hey, being a musician gives you the ears of an owl.

"What do you want, Howon-ssi?" she asked with her eyes glued to the testing tube.

Something was placed in front of her. "Oh god, don't call me that. Woohyun wanted me to bring you lunch since he knew you wouldn't eat without someone forcing you to."

This made her look up. She pushed up her safety goggles with her index finger(which was rather unnecessary) and scrunched up her nose. "What makes you think that you can make me eat then, Howon-ssi?"

Hoya growled, playfully sneering at her. She was purposely trying to annoy him so why not do the same? He bent over the table, leaning closer towards her. "No one can say no to this face right here," he said with a smirk.

Rina scoffed, lightly slapping his face. "Go away, loser."

"Nah. I promised Woohyun that I'd get you to eat. Dongwoo heard and started pestering me about it also." he said, pulling out a chair and taking a seat in front of her.

"How annoying," she muttered. "Can't you see that I'm busy?"

"With what?" Hoya asked, pretending to thoroughly look around.

She punched his arm. "Gosh, I hate you!"

Despite her grumbling, she reached for the bag by the edge of the long table and took out a box full of kimbap*. She squinted at it, wondering if it was either store-bought or homemade. Hoya seemed to have caught on with what she was thinking because he answered her exact question.

"Woohyun made it himself, you know."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

Hoya shrugged. "The only reason why he didn't personally deliver it because of---something."

Rina decided not to ask him why and instead popped the bite-sized kimbap slice into .

Not bad.

Being able to feel nothing but absolute happiness, well, that's a ing talent. Even when one is having the time of their life, there's always that annoying thought tugging at the back of their mind. Irritating, really.

Six ladies were the center of attention at a shopping district that they weren't really familiar with but had heard about many times. The two girls that looked slightly younger than the other four felt rather awkward under the eyes of strangers. The innocent-looking one was more bothered than the other girl, though.

"Can we go somewhere else? I'm getting claustraphobic." Rina said, tugging onto Fei's shirt.

The oldest one turned to look at her with soft eyes. "I forgot, you're not used to this atmosphere. Come on, I know a really good restaurant around here!" With that, she led them to the place that she was talking about.

When they arrived, Rina and Nami were relieved to find that the place wasn't crowded. There were few customers scattered around the two floors of the restaurant but the place was rather empty; just the way the six of them liked it. They all sat down by the glass wall on the second floor that looked down at the busy streets of the district.

They created small talk after they had ordered and dug in when the food came, only talking when necessary. Desserts came and they took their precious time, trying to preserve the moment for as long as they could.

Nami was slightly disturbed by the constant vibration of Rina's phone to the point where she couldn't take it anymore and decided to ask her about it. "Aren't you going to check your phone? It seems quite urgent because the person won't stop."

The other four stopped what they had been talking about to look at the younger girls.

"What's going on?" Suzy asked with a raised eyebrow.

With a sigh, Rina took out her phone to check who kept on trying to contact her. Jong Suk. She shot up from her chair and started to walk away while reading his text messages. "I'll be right back," she said to them. She called him. After 2 ½ rings, he picked up. "What is it, Jojo?"

"The situation right now is screaming bloody murder. Where are you and the girls right now?"

Waving her hand in the air she replied, "Sinchon-dong or whatever it's called."

There was a pause on the other end of the line and she could tell that he was frowning at that moment. "T-that far?"

"Why? Where are you?" she asked as she started to get anxious. What exactly was going on?

"Kyunghee Hospital," he simply answered, bracing himself for the millions of questions that was about to be thrown at him.

Rina's breath hitched for she could only think of the worse as she paced back and forth in the women's bathroom. "It's not Steven is it? No, it can't be. Crap, is it Ryan? No, hold on, Woohyun? Mum? Dad? Who?!" she panicked, sputtering out complete nonsense as she started to hyperventilate.

"Oh god, calm down!"

She did as she was told until she felt her heartbeat returning back to its normal pace.

"Promise me that you won't freak out when I tell you, okay?" She nodded. There was a small pause and she didn't even notice that she was holding her breath. "It's Granny Ji Jin."

Boy, isn't that just lovely?