Their Quest

Jiyong flinched awake and almost fell from the bench when he felt his phone inside his pocket vibrating, indicating a call. He sat up and fished it out of his pocket. Rubbing his eyes, he stared at the caller’s id and groaned. He then answered it.

“What?”

“Could you go home for a bit?”

“Why would I do that? I’m at school. I have class.”

“You’re talking to your phone and you’re in class? The teacher must favor you that much for allowing you to do that,” he chuckled.

“What do you need?” Jiyong hissed.

“Dara left her Math homework again.”

“Why didn’t you call her instead?”

“You know she doesn’t have a bike like you. And she might be in class, unlike you. So, could you just come here?”

“Aish!” Jiyong groaned, standing up and heading to the parking lot. “You should have reminded her the moment she woke up with you by her side.”

TOP chuckled on the other line. “I knew it.”

“What?”

“I can see through you, Jiyong. Remember that,” TOP said and then hung up.

“What the hell was that?” Jiyong said, hissing, getting on his bike.

Jiyong hesitated as he neared Dara’s classroom. For sure, he would be stared at and he doesn’t feel comfortable when every eye was on him. He shrugged and held on to Dara’s Math homework. He took a peek inside the room. However, Dara wasn’t there. It was break time so maybe she was just out to buy some food. He decided to wait for a while, leaning on the wall, bowing his head to avoid the gazes by the students.

When the bell rang signaling that break time was over, he still hadn’t noticed Dara passing by him. Maybe she was late? But then, he followed his instincts and entered the room.

“Excuse me, have you seen Dara?” he asked one female student.

Although the girl seemed to want to shriek in happiness as the Jiyong was talking to her, she was able to control herself. “She’s… she’s absent. She wasn’t around during our first two subjects.”

“What?!”

Dara got off the bus after three hours of travel. It was tiring just sitting in the bus. She even got dizzy and her head ached, causing her to sleep while waiting to arrive.

Right now, she was in Busan, her hometown, with one goal in mind – to find her brother.

“Sanghyun-ah, we’re going to meet soon,” she whispered to no one in particular as if the wind would bring her whispers to where Sanghyun was.

She took her wallet out and stared at the bills and bills of money inside, proud of herself for earning such money. Finally, her hard work would soon pay off as she felt that there would be something good that would happen.

She took out the torn picture and examined it. They seemed to be sitting in front of a traditional temple or something. So, her itinerary for today only composed traditional parks where temples were found.

While she walked towards her first destination, although she was hopeful, she couldn’t help but think that this was indeed a gamble. The probability of her finding her brother was indeed low. But what can she do? So far, this was the only way she could think of to find her brother. Maybe other ways would come later on. And she thought that if her brother still remembered the promise they made to their father, they would meet up somewhere in Busan. Maybe he was also looking for her too.

She arrived at the entrance of the Suyeong Historical Park. With nervous steps, she walked inside, seeing tourists and Koreans alike. Some were staring at her because she was still in her school uniform and they might have thought that the school wasn’t familiar.

She walked under the shade of the cherry trees. The place was very admirable. If she wasn’t here for something else, she would have taken pictures or stop and appreciate the different attractions.

The park boasted a lot of temples and monuments and she visited them all, comparing it on the picture on her hand. But nothing came close to it. After an hour, she tiredly walked out of the park and decided to go to her destination.

She went to the train station and sat at a corner, conscious of herself inside the train. She never really traveled alone. She was either with all of her brothers or with Jiyong. This must be why she was getting nervous for no reason. But she reminded herself that she’s doing this for her brother and her confidence somehow boosted.

As she took off at the next station, she felt her phone vibrating inside her pocket. She took the call after seeing Jiyong’s ID on the screen.

“Where the hell are you?!” Jiyong immediately screamed the moment she answered.

Dara gasped and was thinking of hanging up but Jiyong spoke again.

“Don’t you ever think of hanging up on me! Tell me where you are right now!”

Dara hesitated but Jiyong was scaring her that moment. “B…Busan.”

“I’m on my way,” he said simply before hanging up.

Dara stared down at her phone and frowned. “He’s coming?” she asked and then gasped. “HE’S COMING!”

Dara realized that no matter what she did, Jiyong was indeed on his way. So, since it would still take some time before he arrives, she figured she could get to some of the places she had in her itinerary and then when he arrives, she could tell him that… that…

That what?

And there goes another problem Dara had to think of an alibi of. Shrugging, she continued on her way towards the Geumgang Park, where after an hour, she came out empty-handed. She noticed that it was already past noon that was why she was feeling hungry. Maybe it was also because of hunger that her head was aching really badly.

After buying some snacks at a nearby store, Dara continued on towards Heodong Yonggungsa, munching on a burger and drinking pineapple juice. Suddenly, as she was walking by the bridge towards the temple, her phone rang again. She knew it was Jiyong but she never expected him calling this early. It was just an hour and a half ago that he told her he was coming.

“Where are you right now?” Jiyong asked.

Crap, has he arrived already? Why so soon? She thought. She wasn’t able to think of a perfect alibi so she resorted to telling him the truth. “Heodong Yonggungsa,” she answered.

“Great, I’m coming in fifteen minutes,” he said and before he hung up, he reminded her something else. “Don’t move an inch from where you’re standing.

Dara leaned on the railing, looking at the far sea, and then sighed. “What should I tell him?” she whispered. Maybe it was the time that she had to tell him finally. But was she ready?

In less than fifteen minutes, Jiyong arrived as he panted from too much running. Thankfully, he rode the bullet train towards Busan so the travel was shorter than taking the bus.

Jiyong stared at Dara who was leaning on the railing, seemed to be lost in her thoughts. She was holding a plastic bag of fast-food chain foods and he knew he had to reprimand her again of not eating the proper food. As he decided to approach her already, he saw Dara pulling out an old torn picture from her bag and she stared down at it.

Slowly, he walked to him.

“Is that you?” Jiyong whispered on her ear.

Dara almost let go of the picture from shock. “You scared me!” Dara complained. As she recovered, she leaned again on the railing and then showed the picture to Jiyong. “You must be wondering why I’m here, right?”

Jiyong shrugged. “I got the slightest bit of idea.”

“You do? I never told you my story.”

“That’s true. But I always knew that you wanted to see your family again. I just never asked. And I guess this is that time, eh?”

Dara nodded. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you. I don’t feel like sharing it to other people especially when I’m not ready.”

“Well, are you ready now?”

Dara turned to him and smiled. “This torn picture was given by my dad to me. The other half was with my brother. He also gave us this,” she pulled out her necklace where a silver ring hung on it. “This is Omma’s wedding ring given by Appa. Appa’s ring is with my brother too,” she paused. “Appa made me and my brother promise that we’re going to look for each other when we get older. Unfortunately, that was a difficult task. I don’t know where to start.”

Jiyong rested his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll help you.”

Heodong Yonggungsa was known as a mysterious place where anybody who wishes seriously in a prayer would have their wishes granted. Jiyong pulled Dara’s hand towards the temple where a few other visitors were kneeling and praying with their eyes closed inside the temple. Jiyong signaled her to do the same and as they did, Dara immediately went on to pray. After Jiyong prayed too, he stared sideward to Dara who wasn’t yet done. However, he saw a tear escaping from her closed eyes. Without much thought, he reached out and wiped it for her, while Dara didn’t even flinch from her prayer.

Dara and Jiyong continued on to their quest, visiting a lot more places, but they failed to see anything. Not a Sanghyun, not a temple that looked like in the picture. They even tried asking official photographers of park and temples who were roaming around and offering services in case they recognized the picture. Unfortunately, the photographers were all new that the photo seemed to be too old for them to be the one to take it.

It was 5:30 in the afternoon, Jiyong and Dara sat on the swings of a preschool they tried visiting for some possible information about her and her brother. She couldn’t remember where they studied before and they just tried their luck on schools. Considering that they thought of the idea belatedly, they weren’t able to visit many preschools.

Right now, Jiyong stared at Dara who just stood up from her swing and walked towards the slide. He saw her leaning her hand on the slide as if absorbing its energy.

Jiyong chuckled. “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to pick up some memories from my brain. Maybe Sanghyun and I played on playgrounds together or something. I’m trying to remember where or if we did,” she said, her eyes closed. Jiyong let her be but after a while, she turned to him and then stomped her feet. “I can’t remember anything!”

Jiyong walked towards her. “Don’t force yourself,” he said, holding her by her shoulders.

“It wasn’t like I had amnesia. But I was just too young then. I shouldn’t have forgotten important things like that. How stupid could I get?!” she ranted, hitting her head several times.

“YAH! YAH! Don’t hit yourself!” Jiyong said, holding on to her wrists.

Dara stopped and looked up at Jiyong. She then sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it for a while,” she said as she walked back to the swings.

Jiyong followed and sat beside her. “What do you want to talk about?”

She thought for a second and then furiously stared at him. “Why did you leave me this morning?!”

Jiyong chuckled awkwardly and then stood up. “We should go home. The sun would be setting in a matter of minutes.”

Dara pulled him down again and then held his face so that he wouldn’t escape, both from her gaze and from her question. “Why did you leave me this morning?” she asked again.

He blinked rapidly and decided to answer her with another question. “Why were you sleeping in TOP-hyung’s arms?”

“What?! I wasn’t! I woke up this morning in that position!”

“Why were you sleeping beside him anyway?!”

“I was treating his wounds. Didn’t you see how badly beaten he looked like?”

Jiyong escaped from Dara’s grips and then scoffed. “That guy…”

“Wait, wait! Why aren’t you answering my question?” Dara asked.

Jiyong stood up and raised his chin up high, leaving Dara behind.

“YAH! YAH! Why are you not answering?!” she asked, trailing behind Jiyong who kept on ignoring her. She started poking him on the shoulder but nothing happened. Finally, she decided to poke him by his waist, tickling him.

Jiyong jumped on his spot and stared furiously at her. As if he had claws, he raised his hands and prepared to attack her. “So you want to do it this way eh?”

“Eeek~” Dara shrieked, running around the school’s playground, with Jiyong running behind her. Laughing and having fun, Jiyong was glad that Dara seemed to forget her frustrations because of their failure for today.

When Jiyong was a few steps away from Dara, the latter slowed down from running and then bended down, her hands on her knees. Jiyong assumed she got tired and decided that it was the right time to tickle her.

When his hands found Dara’s waists, even before he could tickle her, he noticed that she was trembling. He tried to look at her face but it was covered with her hair. Setting her hair aside, Jiyong saw that she was actually crying. Her eyes and nose were red and her face was tainted with tears that flowed down continuously.

“Who am I fooling, Jiyong?” she asked, her voice trembling. “I’m trying to act as normal as I can, laughing as if my mind isn’t filled with thoughts of my brother. I can’t. I’m tired.”

Jiyong straightened her up and hugged her tightly to himself.

“I’m a failure,” she whispered.

“Sssh, you’re not. Don’t say that,” Jiyong consoled, caressing her hair.

But Dara didn’t stop crying. She felt frustrated. She tried evading those emotions but she couldn’t. She felt like she was a failure.

Fortunately, someone was there beside her, always making her feel she wasn’t alone since day one. Slowly, she raised her arms and wrapped them around Jiyong, tightening their embrace so that she could truly feel Jiyong was with her.

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A/N:

here are the parks i have mentioned in this chappie:

SUYEONG HISTORICAL PARK