Chapter Twenty Seven -   Finding out

"Kim Jieun?" I asked, my voice trailing off.

The skinny lady in front of me turned her head and smiled once she acknowledged my presence. She was wearing a white knee length dress, and her feet was enveloped by black heels. I assumed that she just got back from work. She had a beautiful brown wavy hair, and her eyes were wider than Sunggyu's obviously. Her nose and lips though, resembled his. Weird, I had never met Sunggyu's family.

"You're Song Nara yes?" 

The way she spoke was just like Sunggyu and I felt a lump in my throat. I could not reply her. 

"Y- yes, I am," I said. 

"Can we come in?" She pointed to my apartment door. 

That was when I realized that we were standing awkwardly in the middle of the hallway. I glanced to Sunggyu's apartment. I missed barging into it, waking Sunggyu up for school and all. 

"Yeah, sure," 

I fiddled for my keys and unlocked my apartment, "Please, come in," 

Jieun went in and took off her shoes while scanning my apartment. I went to make some tea for her. 

"Wow, you live here alone?" She asked with awe. 

"Yeah, but I'm used to it you know, being lonely," I gave a nervous chuckle. I was half lying actually. Yes, I did feel lonely at times, but hey, there's Sunggyu right in front. 

She walked towards the wall in front of my bedroom, just right above the television. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she glanced at the photo frames. I placed the mug at the living room table and stood next to her. 

"They must be your family," she pointed to the huge picture in the yellow frame, placed at the centre. 

"Yeah. My mom, dad, Hana and Jaeryul," I pointed to each one of them.

She pointed to a photograph at the top, "That's Sunggyu?"

"Yep, that's us. It was the first day of high school," I informed, while reminiscing the time when I forced him to take a picture with me. Like come on, it was the only picture with him that I had, seriously.  

She nodded, and a glimpse of sadness was shown in her eyes. 

"Ehm..." I wanted to call her but I didn't know how to address her, "Jieun Unnie, what brings you here?" I finally asked.

She averted her gaze on me and put on a sad smile, "I want to talk about Sunggyu, actually,"

I sat down on the couch and she did the same. 

"Did you... Find out?" I asked carefully. 

She nodded and spoke quietly, "Yeah we did. Our parents were furious, especially our dad. He kept cursing on Sunggyu, saying that he was an irresponsible son and all," she paused and sighed, "But I'm not here to curse on my brother. I just... Want to ask you how he's doing, and why did he do this," she bit her lips. 

On the second thought, her actions didn't really resemble Sunggyu. Sunggyu talked with clarity and authority most of the time, it's like he's confident with what he's saying. But Jieun, I saw her as the weaker version of Sunggyu. She stumbled on her own words, and her voice was small.

I glanced at the clock and smiled to her, "I think I can help you with this," 

Taking out my laptop, I opened the safari and the webcam. Jieun inched closer to me. She was nervous, I could tell. "But, I'll tell you this right now, there is a 60% chance that Sunggyu doesn't want to talk to you," I said, not wanting to give fake hopes. I mean, it was true right? 

"Okay," was all she said. 

When the internet line was all connected, I found out that Sunggyu was online. I clicked on his icon and chose the 'video chat' button. It was several moments later, due to the crappy wifi connection, that we could both finally chat. Sunggyu was wearing a black hoodie, and he was in his dorm. After all, it was almost midnight there. 

"Hey, still surviving?" I started, beaming.

Jieun was sitting at the other end of the couch, so the webcam couldn't catch her. 

"Of course," he rolled his eyes, "It's pretty good here," 

"Don't you feel homesick?" 

He shrugged, "Not really," 

I bit my lips and nodded, "At least you do miss me, right?" 

He let out a scoff, "You wish. You're the one who misses me," he retorted before adding, "And oh, how's Minjae?"

I glanced to Jieun for a second before turning my eyes back to Sunggyu, "Minjae mission failed. She's happy with Eunji," 

He nodded, "Too bad," 

"Hey, Sunggyu," I called, "I have a surprise for you," I grinned though I was actually quite nervous too.

He cocked his right eyebrow, "What?" 

I glanced at Jieun and told her to come closer. She did so, and I pushed back the laptop so that the webcam could capture the both of us. 

Sunggyu widened his eye and had his mouth was ajar. He wanted to say something, but nothing came out of his mouth.

He glanced up the camera, probably towards his clock, before finally saying, "Nara, it's late here, I need to sleep. Bye," 

With that, he turned off the line and we were staring at the screen with a message notifying us, 'User is currently offline'.

-***-

"Do you have the M size?" I asked the salesman beside me. He was really good looking by the way, but since I already had Myungsoo in my mind, he wasn't that attractive. 

He took the pastel blue shirt from me and said, "I'll check it for you," 

"Thanks," 

I waited while looking at some other male clothing. So, the reason why I ended up in a male clothing store was to buy a gift for Myungsoo. After two months of contemplating, and asking both Sora and Ailee, I finally decided to buy him a shirt. But of course, it's not just any kind of shirt. Since it seemed that Myungsoo didn't have any colored outfit except for black, I bought him a set of cheerful dyed outfit. I had been saving for this by the way, and oh, it also helped me in my diet since I needed to limit my expenses. Sadly, I haven't loose any weight despite starving every now and then. 

I took a pair of neon orange pants and examined it. Cute. 

The dashing salesperson came back and handed me the item that I was looking for.  

I thanked him and look meticulously for any fault in the shirt, and found out none. I took the orange trouser and went to the cashier, paid for the two items, and left. 

I decided to visit mom and dad since the next day was still our holiday. So after putting my stuffs inside my apartment, I went to the subway station and rode the train to Ilsan. Since the journey would consume more or less forty minutes, I sat back and took my blue notebook out. It had been a long time since I scratched my pencil above its yellow pages. 

Just when I was about to write, a person sat on the vacant seat beside me. I wasn't really bothered, but he greeted me, "What are you writing there?" 

His voice was familiar, so I turned averted my gaze from my book, only to find out Woohyun beaming beside me. With reflex, I closed my book and slipped it into my back pack. 

Woohyun arched his eyebrows, "Am I not allowed to see it?" 

"Umm... No," I spoke with a small laugh, "Where are you going?" 

"Ilsan, I'm visiting my sister, she's getting married. And you're going back home am I right?" 

I nodded. 

Things were kinda awkward between us since we didn't know what to say to each other. Woohyun would just smile or chuckle when it was just the two of us, but when he was placed in the middle of the whole group, he became this energetic, animated boy. 

"Have you decided on what to buy for Myungsoo?" 

"Yeah... Would a pair of shirt and trouser do?" I asked uncertainly.

He tilted his head and put on the Nam Woohyun's thinking face before saying, "It'll do," 

"Really?" 

"Yeah, well, I don't know what about Myungsoo, but for me, as long as you have good intentions, I'm okay," he shrugged. 

"It must be easy for Sora then," I gave a playful smirk.

"Yeah, she's lucky," 

"No, you're lucky," 

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, whatever," he waved his hand in his air while laughing. 

The train ride didn't go that long with Woohyun's existence beside me. We finally arrived and parted ways after promising that we'll see each other around.

I walked to my house, giving a smile of acknowledgement to some of the old neighbors that I recognize. 

Once I arrived home, I was greeted by my mom and dad, as usual. Then there was my Siberian husky, Gem (because he had a beautiful blue eyes that resembled a gem, you see). 

"Hey mom, let's go out," I said, realizing that my mom was bored while constantly changing the television channels. My dad was in his study, busy with work. 

She switched off the television, "Where do you want to go?"

I shrugged, "Let's eat lunch and do some shopping, I don't know. We can do whatever you want," 

She turned her head and looked at me with a smile, "Okay, let me change first," 

I nodded and sat on the couch while my mon rushed up to change her clothes and all. Opening my phone, a message from Myungsoo came in. He was asking me about my whereabouts and I told him I was visiting my parents. Our chats and texts had became way more personal compared to before. I learnt that his favorite food was ramen, he has a good looking younger brother, with a two year . His parents worked as an accountant and he was from a quite wealthy family. He also had a divorced aunt. 

"Ready?" My mom emerged down. 

I stood up and beamed, "Let's go," 

We decided to eat in a quite pricey italian restaurant, since yeah, I couldn't eat in these type of restaurants when I wasn't with my parents. Budget, you know. 

"Hey, how about Sunggyu? He's in the states already?" My mom asked after we ordered. 

I nodded, "Yeah, now I have to take the bus to school," 

My mom shook her head, "That's what you should be doing. I'm expecting you to be more independent by buying you an apartment there, but it seems like you can't get over with bugging people,"

"Oh come on, Sunggyu is in the same apartment with me, on the freaking same floor, and hey, we're on the same school," I raised my palms up. 

My mom sighed with defeat, but of course I knew she was saying this for the sake of lecturing me and giving me her 'mom image', she actually trusted Sunggyu. 

Our foods came and we ate quietly. When I was only with my mom, we were never chatty, because my mom wasn't the type of mom who would go, "Hey honey, how's your day?" And all. My dad was perhaps more easy going, asking how was school, and bringing up some random topics. 

Once we finished eating our delightful lunch, we went by the minimart for some grocery shopping. Now, I'll tell you this rather funny thing that happened.
I was waiting in the cashier line which was dreadfully long. Myungsoo was asking me if I wanted him to pick me up in Ilsan rather than me going back with the subway, but I said no of course. Slipping my phone inside my pocket, I sighed while scanning the supermarket filled with ahjummas. I never liked grocery shopping. I mean, the filtering of good onions and spices, smelling melons and all, why can't crops grow naturally perfect? Okay, that's absurd, but anyway, back to the topic. I was waiting for the line to freaking move an inch forward when suddenly, my eye caught a familiar figure with his back facing towards me. He was holding a pack of cigarette and was in the midsts of paying it. I gasped, making my mom turned to me with a frown. 

With reflex, I handed my mom the shopping basket and rushed out of the store, following the male with the red shirt. He was with his fellow companions which looked rather big and muscular and... Creepy, perhaps. He opened the pack, took one of the cig and threw the red box to the others who received it with their huge arms, resembling Gem when I gave him his favorite snack.

"Woohyun!" I exclaimed as I walked closer towards him.

I knew I had two choices: Keep quiet and acted this never happened, or embarrass him and probably myself. 
I chose the latter. Sora was one of the reason. 

The male in front of me turned his body and had his jaws dropped when he noticed what was happening. He dropped the cig to the ground, the thud was making the tense situation worse. His companions backed off and left the both of us. 

"Nara?" I wasn't sure if it was a question.

"Are you smoking Woohyun?" 

We stared at each other for like probably three minutes. In my head, it was like, why was he doing this? Was that really the Woohyun I knew?
I thought smoking only goes for the poor and uneducated.

He nodded guiltily. 

"Please... Don't tell anyone," he bit his lips, "Especially Sora."

Hello people :)) 

long time yeah? Just finished my major school exam XD *and the next pne would come in a week's time*

I believe you guys have heard about the Sewol ferry incident and idk... But I always have goosebumps all over my body when reading updates on the news. It's just so... Sad, but incredibly moving at the same time to know a lot of people sacrificing their lives for others. Like, a crew actually gave life vests to everyone and she ended up not getting one for herself and died. I just hope everything gets better...

okay... Enough talking about the tragedy 

thanks for reading up to here XD See ya!