FOUR

“I’m sorry, Unnie. Because of me, Taeyeon Unnie won’t talk to you.”

“Hey, it isn’t your fault. And it isn’t your fault too that your sister is seriously being a hardcore retarded right now. Whatever happened to Taeyeon being reasonable and fair?”

“I’m really sorry…”

“No, forgive me for ranting. Seohyunie, it’s not your fault too that my cousin is a total jerk. Why are people around me like seriously awfully demented these days? Oh, you’re not one of them, of course.”

“I think I am like that too,” Seohyun looked down. “I was at fault here really because I assumed.”

“We all did and we, in way, led you on and made you believe. I’m sorry, love.”

Seohyun dropped her handbag on her bed and fell down beside it as she remembered snippets of her conversation with Jessica days after it happened, four years ago. By the looks of it, her unnies saw him at the bar too and she was worried that it might create another rift between her sister and her Sica Unnie.

It was weird seeing him again that she didn’t really imagined it after all those years and after everything that happened. For her, Yonghwas was a thing of the past. There wasn’t anything that can connect her to him and she has outgrown everything she felt in the past, or so she thought.  She left because she wasn’t prepared seeing him but then again, she was shaken. It didn’t occur to her that one day this day would happen. She hoped it was the last for everyone.

It has been so long. Although four years was not even that long to begin with but it just felt that way.

She just turned sixteen then and was too naïve to know better than putting herself in a very embarrassing and painful situation that she didn’t want to go back there even in her wildest imagination.

Her thoughts were halted when she heard soft sounds coming from her bedroom window so she peeked and saw their helper by the gate and saw that she was talking to a man. Seohyun decided to run downstairs to check. Only when the old woman moved aside that she realized who the latter was fussing over at.

“Oh my goodness! Yonghwa Oppa? Is that you?” Seohyun said in complete shock seeing the familiar person slumped by the side of their gate.

“You know him?”

“Ye, ajumeoni. He is Jessica Unnie’s cousin.”

“Then why is he here? And he’s very drunk if your parents find him here— and oh, your sister just called me to unlock the gate for her that was how I found him here!”

“Unnie is coming? Oppa, you have to leave! How did you come here anyway?”

"Ohhh, Seohyunie!" the older woman panicked.

“Maybe we can call a taxi? But, oh god Taeyeon Unnie is probably on her way. Ajumeoni, please help me take him to my room.”

“What?! I don't think that's a very good idea, missy!”

“Please? He is a good person, don’t worry! He just needs a place to rest and my sister cannot know this.”

“Seohyunie, are you sure?”

“Yes, please and don’t tell my sister. I’ll have him leave early tomorrow.”

“Ohhh, if Taeyonie finds out that I helped you—“

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell if you don’t.”

“Okay, I trust you. Your sister is scarier than your parents.”

“I know, so help me!”

The two managed to bring the drunk intruder inside Seohyun’s bedroom and deposited him on the bed.

“You can rest now, ajumeoni. Just leave the gate unlocked so you don’t need to bump into Unnie outside.”

Seohyun locked the door when the old woman left and faced Yonghwa, “Oppa, seriously, you are putting me in this terrible, terrible situation right now.” She shut her eyes tight in frustration then realized he couldn’t possibly be on her bed. Taking his arm again, she hurled it over her shoulder, took him to the bathroom and slowly laid him in the bathtub. "I'm sorry but there's no other place better than here... I can't let you in one of the guest rooms. My sister won't really take you for a guest, right? And my bathroom, oh goodness, seriously my bathroom is the safest place in the house right now."

Obviously, she was doing a monologue.

Seohyun sat on the toilet seat cover and plopped her elbows on her knees and sighed in frustration, “Oppa… why… here…????” The whole time they were transporting his limp body in the house, Yonghwa was nothing but a two-day old lettuce. He was just mumbling incoherent sounds with eyes closing and opening.

Suddenly, Seohyun jerked when he finally opened his eyes wide; then, they wandered over the ceiling until finally settling on her face.

“Sshhh… Sheohyun-ssssii… Ohhh, itsh chu~” He slurred raising a finger at her with a stupid smile on his face.

“Oppa! C-can you get up? I’ll call a cab.” She stood, “Where are you staying?!”

“Hyunniiiieee… Oppa ish ve-verryyy bad ma-man… you—“

Seohyun rolled her eyes when she realized that it was his drunk-self talking and there was no way she could get anything out of him at the moment. Not to mention he continued with his little speech. It made her smile, then giggled, and laughed uncontrollably because he just looked disgustingly funny. Yonghwa went on talking gibberish with matching hand/finger signals but the rest of his body remained still on the tub.

Just then, she realized he was already making too much sound considering her sister might be home any minute. She started feeling nervous especially when he won’t stop talking. “Oppa, you need to be very quiet now since Unnie will come in here for sure and she’ll definitely going to kill you if she sees you here… in my freaking bathroom!”

“Hyunie… I—“

“Oh sweet heavens, you really should shut up. And you're too drunk; your breath is awfully stinky for goodness sakes!” She muttered as her gaze roamed around the room until it fell on the hand towel resting in the counter. Seohyun reached for it while keeping him still then put it in his mouth, “Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you. Just stay still until I—“

“Seohyun? Are you still up?”

“Arrggghhh great!” she sighed and called out, “Unnie, I’m in the bathroom! I’ll be there in a sec!”

She ran out just in time to find Taeyeon already inside her room so she cornered her there, “Unnie, why did you come so early?”

“It wasn’t fun there... Seohyunie, you look pale. Are you okay?”

“Yes! I mean, yes, I am… I-I was just…”

“Oh, baby, you can talk to me.”

Seohyun felt terrible for lying. Her sister only meant well— has always meant well. Although her ways are a bit exaggerated, she knew that things Taeyeon do for her were because she only cares and loves her. “I’m okay, Unnie. I swear. I only left because I wasn’t prepared to see Yonghwa Oppa again. That’s it.”

“Are you sure?” Taeyeon took her sister’s cold hand.

“Yeah, thank you for worrying but there’s no need for it. I’m fine.”

“You won’t go on another crying spree for the next decade?”

Seohyun chuckled as her sister finally smiled, “Nope, no more crying spree for me and no more kick-boxing spree for you too, okay?”

Taeyeon rolled her eyes but laughed and nodded, “Arasso, you say so. So, I guess I’m not needed here anymore.”

“Yep… good night, Unnie. I love you.”

“I love you more, kiddo. And oh, you left your bathroom lights on.”

Seohyun heaved a sigh of relief the moment she heard her sister’s bedroom door shut close. Hurrying back to the bathroom, she smiled as she noticed him finally snoozing away in dreamland. Taking some extra sheets and pillows, she tucked him in hopefully comfortable enough for the night. There was still a lot of time tomorrow to deal with him. For now, she needed to rest too.

And then she remembered her bladder.

She badly needed to pee.

And the toilet bowl was sitting just five feet away from the tub.

“Good heavens…” But yeah, she needed to get down to business, almost literally though.

~~~

Yonghwa woke up with a terrible back pain and headache. Then the coldness finally shot through his system that he pulled the sheets closer to his body. He opened his eyes when he realized the sweet feminine scent emitted by the fabric; and, so did the pillow. That was when he realized he forgot where his body took him last night.

He sat up and found himself in someone else’s bathroom— dangerously familiar baby pink bathroom.

And so he decided, since he was there already, to wash his face, wash his arms, and wash his mouth.

His thoughts didn’t fail him. Of all the bathrooms he could get lost at, he found himself in Seohyun’s bathroom, thankfully though.

Gently, he opened the door and found her still asleep.

Yonghwa smiled to himself. His drunk self deserved a pat on the back for bringing the sober him in her bedroom— of all the places in the world.

Yes, thank you self.

He watched her sleeping. How long has it been? How long does four years really mean? Probably, if he counted the seconds of it would cause him a dizzying million. So, yeah, four years was such a long time.

The stupid grin got pasted on his lips then it melted into a longing smile— still a kind of stupid longing smile.

Looking at her closely, it was the closest he ever got after so many years and he missed being close like that. Now, all that was missing were her voice and the way she would look at him.

Seohyun had this different way of looking at him. He couldn’t put a word to it but it always gave him an unusual feel— consuming. Perhaps that.

Consuming.

It took him a long time to realize it. He met her when he was twelve and she was ten and Seohyun was like a sister to him for such a long time. He denied it for so long and he kept on denying it until one day he realized that he might have been really in love with her for a long time— so long that he couldn’t remember how it started: how, why, when, where.

It seems that what they said is true about absence being like the wind that extinguishes a candle but fans a fire and all those metaphors.

He did remember those crazy moments when he was around sixteen or seventeen that he would watch her absentmindedly when they would be studying. Seohyun would move her hair on the other side of her shoulder. That side of her neck exposed to him. Slender and looking smooth. She was too near to him most of the time that he even recognized the tinge of vanilla and lily in the perfume  she was using.

It would be crazy because he knew it was just his ‘growing-up’ hormones kicking in. Then she would catch him during those unguarded moments.

“Oppa, you are not focusing.”

“I am Hyunie…”

“No, you aren’t. You’re just staring at me.”

“I am not!”

“Yes, you are.”

“Fine, I’m sorry. I think I just can’t concentrate right now. Say, why don’t we just go out?”

“What?”

“I mean, you and I…”

“You and I what?”

“Argh, go to the mall, watch movie, eat somewhere, I don’t care.”

“Like on a date?”

It rattled him. Going out on a date with Seohyun seemed wrong somehow so they never got to go out at all even on a not-date kind of going out.

And then it happened. The biggest surprise of his life unfolded before him when he wasn’t at all ready for it. After that everything changed. It couldn’t have ended that way if not for his stupidity.

That moment, Seohyun stirred. He held his breath as she opened her eyes, then she opened them wide in surprise to find him sitting on the edge of her bed studying her in all her just-woken-up-in-a-bad-hair-day kind of glory. Realizing that, and of course her usual skimpy-but-cute bedroom attire, Seohyun hurriedly sat up and covered her upper body with her blanket.

“Oppa!”

“Good morning. I’m sorry, I guess I did barge in last night in a terrible state,” he smiled almost timidly. After so many years he was there sitting on her bed talking to her. “I-I can’t even remember how I got in your bath tub.”

“I put you in there.”

“Oh… I-I… Seohyunie, we need to talk.”

“I know but this isn’t a good time and definitely not a good place to do that.”

“But, how?”

“I don’t know! Any moment my sister will come in and check on me, like she always does,” she rolled her eyes upon remembering. “Especially after last night.”

“I know. The way she glared at me at the bar after you left. I swear if looks could kill I won’t be talking to you right now.”

“I’m sorry. Taeyeon Unnie is such a complete psycho sometimes.”

Yonghwa smiled, “Tell me about it.”

“Anyway, you must go becau—“

Knock. Knock

“Oh.my.god.”

PREVIEW: FIVE

“KIM TAEYEON, STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!” Jessica said sprinting towards her friend who looked terribly possessed by an otherworldly kind of evil. But, a hand gripped on her arm that stopped her on her track.

“Don’t. Let her be.” It was Tiffany who was standing there watching the whole scene— calmly.

“What the hell, Tiff? Stop her!” Sica said again but the other girl remained still but her hands balled on her sides like dying to join the fun. “Tiff, come on! Look what she’s doing! Yah, Yonghwa just stand up and go! Kim Taeyeon, stop!”

“I’m sorry, Jessi, she needs this.”

Fany just shook her head that all Jessica could do was to cry in sheer desperation, “WHAT THE FㅛCK IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU!!!???”

.......................................

cliffy, i know i know dont about it lol

i don't want you to indulge too much. thank me for not spoiling you, okay? ㅎ___ㅎ

this is getting longer than expected ㅋㅋ i only planned 9chaps now its more than that, be happy?

and thanks for the comments, they're lovely ;)

errr i updated kismet yesterday too, check it out

kamsakamsa!

즐거운 추석~

~Lyra Unnie ㅇㅅㅇ