May, 2015

A girl with her leg crossed was sitting calmly on the seat in front of the bar. Sometimes, she slurped her fruit punch and ate her french fries. Sometimes, she her mint-flavored cigarette and made abstract shapes with its smoke. She definitely looked just fine, nothing suspicious.

Dim light, laser-light, strong smell of alcohol, loud music, people dancing—she was all familiar with those things. It wasn’t like her first or second time being in this place. Night club, yes, she was getting more and more familiar with it. Almost all people in this place knew her, from the employees until the customers, they knew her.

She wore black tanktop covered with her brown leather jacket. Totally, she looked superb hot. She wasn’t that tall, but thanks to her heels that made her look tall. She didn’t use much make-up on her face, just foundation, blush-on, and pink lip-gloss, but she was pretty they way she was. She played more on her eyes by putting tensed eye-liner, mascara, and whatsoever. Now, that she looked so stunning, she scanned all the room with her kind of gaze. No, she wasn’t looking for her friends to have some fun in this place.

She was currently in her job.

“Yaaaa…” Someone was coming and suddenly patted her shoulder quite strong. “What are you doing, sitting alone in the bar, chewing uncooked potato and having a sip of punch?—not going to work, dude?”

He was good looking with his fairy-like ears. He also was tall and well-dressed. He was young-hot-popular man every girl would fall for.

“Are you done?” she asked.

“I’m here not as a DJ. Can’t you see how I dress up?” He spun around once, showing his outfits off and bragging about how expensive the clothes were.

“Give me one cigar, huh?” He said.

“Just take it yourself.”

“Ya, don’t you want to know why I’m here?” He asked while burning on his cigarette, but unfortunately, he was bad at this. He usually didn’t smoke. He smoked only when he was with this girl. “Ssshh—Ah! Ah! It’s hot!” He cursed sincerely.

“Dwaesseo, I don’t even want to know.”

“Ya—ya—I’m dating someone. She has nice body. You know, she’s just my type, hot girl with big lumps. You have to see how she looks like—damn! So y…”

“Tch—I bet I’m still a lot ier.”

Just then, someone came, giving her a car key. He’s not young anymore, about in his 40 age.

“What are you doing here, punk?” That man hit that tall guy quite hard on his head, leaving him sorrowful groan.

“Aish, why can’t I be here when this place is for public?” He smiled sneakily to the girl and brought the full pack of cigarette with him. “Thanks for the cigars.” He waved.

“Ya, Park Chanyeol!!” She shouted loudly. But it was a waste since the music was louder than her voice. She then grabbed the key and slurped all her fruit punch. “Ajusshi, where is it?”

“The car is parked in the corner of the basement. You can easily find it since there is no other white car in the basement. The car is right in front of the stairs. Go, hurry up…” He pushed her back lightly.

So that she walked down to the basement. Everytime she took a step, it would make sound ‘tok’. Well, it sounded elegant though. The white car—she could see it as soon as she walked down the stairs. She hurried her walk and entered the car. The owner—as usual—was drunk. Right, her job was to drive the drunken people back to their home safely. It had been her 4^th month working there.

She was kind of curious with the drunken guy beside her. He was passed out, totally unconscious. She turned him over so she could see his face. And well, he was still young and good looking. His skin was fair and his hair was dyed dark-brown. But anyway, since she had been working there for almost 4 months, she had never seen this guy. So she assumed that he was a new customer.

A new message came to her phone. It was from Mr. Kang, the man just before. He had the same job as her, but he would retire soon. He gave the address of that guy beside her.

“Yongiham dormitory?” She repeated. “Yongiham dormitory…” She mumbled it again and again. “Yongiham dormitory, third floor, room 304…”

She took a peek to a guy next to him once more.

“He’s not someone I know though, but why I feel so familiar with Yongiham dormitory?”

She started the engine and the GPS. “Yongiham dormitory…” She said to the machine, and that machine started to analyze the address. Well, that place existed. It was not that far, taking only 15 minutes by car. She directly headed to that place.

It was out of expectation that she only needed 10 minutes to drive the car to the Yongiham dormitory. At first she felt so hesitant when she saw the building. She really hoped she drove to the wrong address, but well, it was Yongiham dormitory.

Okay, this guy had very fancy car and he dressed so well, just like hot blooded guy who would ask his girlfriend to eat in the five-starred hotel. It was just—surprising that the fact he lived in the small and old dormitory. She bet all her life that the dormitory didn’t have lift and—that would be even worse! She checked her phone again, the address—she suddenly widened her eyes. His house was on the third floor! Damn, she had to carry this guy to the third floor. In the end, she might end up crawling.

“Ya…” She shook his body, but the response only soft growling and he got back to sleep.

“Ouch, this guy! He even got me in the difficult situation.” She cursed before she went out. She even kicked the car’s wheel to release her anger.

She helped that guy half-heartedly. Of course, if he wasn’t that good looking, she probably would have left him on the street. But since he was handsome, she didn’t have heart to do that.

“You have to treat me well in the next life, sir… Eeerrgghhh—” She tossed down the guy on the floor. Now, she had another problem. Well, since he was—kind of—new customer, she didn’t know what his home’s password.

She touched the buttons because she found it familiar to her. Her hand moved by itself all of sudden. She thought she pressed randomly, but it turned out that the door actually was opened. She even got surprised herself. No, no, she didn’t have that superpower to read someone’s mind or to know the future. Sometimes, she believed she didn’t have, but lately she was slightly able to—just slightly—recall the past memory. She felt like de javu. But whose memory?—she didn’t know.

“Oh—how come I know his password?” She confusedly mumbled to herself while having so much hard time to drag the drunken guy inside his home.

His home was warm and—again—it seemed familiar. She was pretty sure that it was her first time entering this guy’s home, but how come it felt like she had been here before?

“Ouch, you owe me really…” She cursed again and left him alone, sleeping on his sofa.

She had done with her work. If it was possible, she had to come back to Fire—the name of the night club—to get Chanyeol out from that place before he caused trouble. But again, she stopped right in front of room number 303. She felt it again, that de javu. Her hand moved again, reaching the intercom when suddenly the door was opened. She was startled and stepped back.

A girl dressed in shirt and jeans came out. She got shocked when she found someone was standing in front of her door.

“Who are you?”

“Oh, sorry, I was on my way to my home after driving your neighbor homed. He is totally drunk. I’m sorry…” She bowed lowly.

“Yeah, no problem.”

“By any chance, how long have you been living in this home? Sorry, if I ask this all of sudden. I’m just curious because everything here seems familiar to me. Perhaps—you know who lived before you…”

“I don’t know who lived before me. I’ve been living here since 2 years ago. I came from Yeosu back then. I got scholarship.” She giggled. “Sorry, if I’m too rude, but—did you somehow lose your memory?”

“No—” she answered fast. “Maybe I’m wrong.”

“Anyway, I’m—” She gave her hand. “Minhwa.”

She felt like her heart stopped beating when she heard that name. Definitely, she was familiar with that name either. Ever since she was born, some names kept appearing in her brain. Minhwa was one of the names. Minhwa—she knew that name somewhere. But it was strange since she didn’t have any friends or family named Minhwa.

“Minhwa?” She repeated.

“Yes, Minhwa. I don’t have family name because I used to live in the orphanage, in Yeosu.”

Getting no response from the girl in front of her, she asked again. “Do I also seem familiar to you? Or do I remind you to someone you know, maybe?”

“Minhwa… Yeosu… Haebaragi Orphanage…” She mumbled randomly.

“Oh! How do you know I was from Haebaragi Orphanage??”

“Just because—it seems familiar to me. Well, then, I will make my leave… Thank you and let him know that the key is on the table, near the lamp…”

“Wait, you haven’t told me your name…”

“Haru. Just call me Haru.”

“Haru?”

***