“I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things” - Tom Waits

                                        Hwa young

She couldn’t shake off the feeling that someone was out to get her, whether she was being crazy or not something was off. After being interviewed by the police and checked by the doctor, she was finally allowed to leave the hospital.

“The bruising seems to have subsided and there’s no sign of any permanent scars but I do suggest taking this prescription for those sudden headaches that you’ll experience at times.” Doctor Choi suggested to Hwa young and she nodded. He seemed almost a little young, but showed experienced by his talking to her and her mother .

“Here let me help.” her mother was right beside her as she swung onto the bed to get down and landed both her feet solidly.

“Thank you for everything Doctor Choi.” She bowed politely to him and he smiled back at her. “Take care Hwa young.”

Walking slowly down the hallway her mother questioned her “Are you sure you’re fine? I mean we can let you stay in the hospital and have you checked further for any repercussions.”

“Mom I’m fine, you don’t need to babysit me like I’m four years old.” She adamantly proposed that her mom stop pestering like she was on the brink of nearly dying.

They got into the elevator and pressed for the main floor, music played in the background of their silence as she looked in her bag seeing if she didn’t miss anything. Her mother and Lilly had packed all of her things in a suitcase the morning, since the police advised the room was an ongoing crime scene. But they were allowed to come in and take any of Hwa young’s personal belongings that weren’t contaminated.

The elevator opened and she and her mom walked out straight from the doors and outside, Hwa young breathed in a sigh of relief. It was far too long being cooped up (if you call being in the hospital for only two days cooped up) but to her it seemed too long she would have liked being in the hospital for only a day. .

“Are we taking a taxi?” Hwa young asked curiously as her mother gave a reply.

“No we’re getting picked up.”

“By who.”

Just as the last words left a car appeared and slowly stopped in front of her, the window rolled revealing to be Yongguk and Mr Yoo.

“We thought it would be safer to have you guys drive to your destination.” Mr Yoo smiled as he signaled the back of the car to where they put their belongings. From there they got into the car and drove off.

“You guys don’t have to do this, I could have gotten a taxi.”

“Nonsense Hwa young, you just came out of the hospital and even if you’re not injured badly we have to keep an eye on you.” Mr Yoo’s voice was filled with concern and Hwa young knew how everyone must have felt.

“Besides the police are investigating and its not safe being by yourself anymore.” Yongguk’s voice piped up and added the safety concern that Hwa young knew that was coming.

“It...it wasn’t intended right? This wasn’t a random attempt if the person knew where I lived.” Hwa young knew that it didn’t feel like a random assault, whoever wanted her dead was very intent on it.

“Well at least we’ll be here anyways to look out for you don’t worry.” Yongguk turned around and gave her a reassuring smile.

“I guess, well I mean if its you and Mr Yoo then I shouldn’t be in any danger.” She softened her voice to make the atmosphere more enjoyable.

The rest of the car ride went along smoothly, they soon arrived to a house hidden by tall bushes and a gate. Hwa young could see the house up ahead covered by the wrought iron gate that protected it.

“Well this is some house mom.” She peeked out the window as the gates automatically opened and the car drove in.

“It was still under your father’s care up until he died, but he still kept it just in case of emergencies and this was one of them.” Hwa young’s mom talked in a soft tone.

Hwa young nodded and looked out from the window, the lawn had statutes that littered the place planted with flowers of variation, colour, and size. The house itself wasn’t a mansion but a medium sized house. Painted white and splashes of grey, it had a modern look to it.

“Here we are, your mom can probably show you the place around.” Mr Yoo turned off the car engine and Hwa young retrieved her luggage from the back.

“This seems familiar, did I ever come here when I was little?” Her face was puzzled as though small instances of memories came back.

“Probably because you were small when we came here and your memory isn’t that well.” Her mom sarcastically commented passing by Hwa young as she gave her mother a frown and pouted.

“I do have a good memory, maybe I just have a selective memory and chose to not remember it, my brain probably has this certain memory stored somewhere.” She lugged off her suitcase and felt a hand grab onto the handle of it.

“I can help with that.” Yongguk took the suitcase from her but she shook her head. “You don’t have to I can perfectly manage.” She was adamant and didn’t want any extra help but Yongguk kept pleading back that it wasn’t any problem at all. Finally she gave in and had him rolling the suitcase along the paved road.

“I think you need to rest before doing anything physically or emotionally stressing, you just came out of the hospital.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean you have to treat me like I’m crippled.” She pouted and Yongguk couldn’t help but laugh at her.

“What? Am I that whiny when I want to have my own way?”

“Very, I think you’re asking to live off in an island by yourself if you’re so confident.” He raised his eyebrows at her as she rolled her eyes and entered in the house striding ahead of him. Yongguk was slowly walking with the suitcase in his hand smiling as though as if he won a battle with a two year old child.

“Hey! You didn’t think of opening the door for the person that’s carrying your suitcase?”

“Well then that means I’d have to be opening every door for you, ahjussi.”

Yongguk

She did end up opening the door for Yongguk as he rolled it into the door and took of his shoes before walking in. He looked around and found the place to be comfy and practical. It had a open space entrance where off to the right was the living room and from there the rooms all connected in a way.

Several art pieces hung the walls and a grand piano filled the space, it seemed empty and vacant until they arrived.

“Its actually a comfy house, I wouldn’t staying here if I needed a place to rest and relax myself.” Yongguk talked aloud as Hwa young turned around.

“You saw pictures of it?”

“Yeah, when your mom and Mr Yoo were talking back in the hospital.” He settled the suitcase in the living room. He didn’t want to particularly tell Hwa young the reason why they moved here or the fact that she couldn’t exactly remember.

“Well I guess I’ll call this home for the while.” Hwa young skimmed over a row of books shelved on a bookcase nearby. She took out a rather heavy medium sized book and flipped through the pages.

“I don’t really expect you to remember at all seeing as this was a distant part of your childhood before we immigrated to Canada.” Hwa young’s mom appeared and leaned on the couch where Hwa young was sitting at.

“I wonder why we moved if the place here was so nice.” She mumbled under her breath as Yongguk saw her fully concentrated with the album.

“You told me that Hwa young was raised here until she was 5, that’s right?” Yongguk walked over and took a seat next to Hwa young also gazing over the album that she was holding.

“Yes and do call me Eun Ah, we’re pretty familiar with each other already as is.” Eun Ah sat down on the couch opposite to Yongguk and Hwa young. She smiled with a careful gesture, almost as though as if she was crossing the boundary over a delicate thin line.

“Aww who’s this little cutie?” Hwa young pointed to a photo of a young boy pictured with an older gentleman. The boy was wearing coveralls and had a particularly large smile over his face as though as if he’s the happiest little boy ever. The gentleman was dressed in a casual jeans and t-shirt holding a hose in one hand and embracing the other boy in his arms.

“Ah, that must be your father the older gentleman and a boy he met while living here, apparently he had sneaked into the house looking for something to eat and your father discovered him.” She suppressed a laugh but continued her story.

“But your father, who’s too empathetic to send the boy to the police for stealing had ended up giving him the food and letting him stay here at the house for the time being. I can’t recall the name of the little boy, but he was quiet and didn’t speak of the times I’ve encountered him. Afterwards, I never saw him again and it just seemed like he was a ghost that just up and disappeared. He’s probably grown up to a handsome man, he should be around your age Hwa young.” Eun Ah smiled fondly at a distant memory.

Yongguk still eyed the photo rather at the boy, if certain objects or photos in particular triggered memories that were hidden; it was one of them. All too sudden it came back to him that the boy in the photo was reminiscent of a long hidden past.

“Well, I should prepare dinner and you two can just chat here.” Hwa young’s mother coughed and stood bowing to them and left the room.

“I really do wonder what’d he would look like now.” Hwa young had her hand on the side of her cheek in deep thought.

“Maybe he’s doing well, a shame that your mother never did remember his name we could perhaps see if he still lives in Seoul.” Yongguk talked, but with a much more resilient tone.

“Yeah, he’s really cute in this photo.” She sighed and closed the album and stood up to put it back on the shelf. Yongguk felt awkward as it was only the two of them but tried to start a conversation.

“How are you Hwa young, really?” Yongguk stood up and walked towards her at the bookshelf and Hwa young hesitated for a few seconds before replying.

“uh, well I mean...physically I seem fine but emotionally I guess that’s a different story.” He saw the look in her eyes, the look of paranoia, fear and anxiety.

“Hey, you’re safe here the police are doing all they can and I don’t think they’ll let that burglar off that easy.” His voice softened and his expression was serious but firm.

“I guess...but I don’t know maybe I should have mentioned it to the police earlier. Lately I’ve felt like I’m being watched, or more like stalked. Its happened way earlier even before coming here to Seoul. I don’t think this was random and I’m positively sure this person doesn’t want money or anything materialistic.” Yongguk nodded listening intently as she rambled off a bit before stopping herself.

“A-ah you know all my talking I might have bored you somewhat and I don’t think I should be loading this all on you a-”

“Its okay” He reached out his hand and grabbed her shoulders gently while looking at her this action surprised him and Hwa young too as she quickly lifted her head up at him.

“Don’t feel that way these few days has been hard on you and you’re probably right, but you should clear your head and listen to this.” He reached at the back of his pants and took out a familiar device.

“That’s the music player I gave you, what are yo-”

“Shh” He told her as she unwinded the earphones and put them in her ear and hit the play button. Music came out from the earphones as Hwa young stood there silent while closing her eyes and humming the words. Once it was done she took the earphones out from her head and spoke.

“Thanks, I really appreciated it, Nikki Yanofsky’s “Waiting on the sun” isn’t it?”

“It is” He smiled “I thought you might need it since you look so tense all day and I thought a little song might cheer you up.” He took her hand and placed the music play in her hand., confused she looked at him.

“I know you gave it to me but I was thinking of this; we could exchange the player back and forth and download songs for each other. That way we would be creating a playlist of songs that I could listen to in the end. Call it a promise if you don’t mind doing something like this.”

“Oh, Yongguk I wouldn’t mind doing this and I’d appreciate it.” Her eyes twinkled as Yongguk couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction.

“Well you can start first if you want since I’m giving it to you.” Hwa young smiled.

“It would be my pleasure.” Suddenly Yongguk’s phone rang and he quickly checked the caller ID.

“Sorry, I need to take this call.” He excused himself and walked outside so that no one could hear the conversation, he then pressed the call button and put the phone to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Yongguk, I’m sure you’re settled well and that everything’s going smoothly.” A male was talking in a hushed voice.

“Yes, I’m certain that Hwa young is the only one that doesn’t know about this.”

“Its better to keep her in the dark that way, and by the way I looked into that woman, Charlene most of her records were faked and we’re already working on finding legitimate records.”

“Thank you detective Lee, its most appreciated.”

“Please call me Sungmin, we established this on our first meeting with each other back in Vancouver.”

“Ah yes, well I just tend to rather be more formal that way.”

“As you wish...she still doesn’t remember you?”

“I’m afraid not, but its not a huge problem I have other big things to worry about Detective.”

“Yes, I see that you decided to push with performing back on stage again, sounds rather wonderful congrats.”

“Thank you.” Yongguk looked around to see if there were any signs of anyone spying on but found none.

“That’s all that has happened I’ll let you know if anything further develops I’ll call you again detective.”

“Yes, that would be most helpful good day Yongguk.” Just as he ended the call he heard the sound of footsteps echoing. Quickly he looked around and his eyes squinted to a pair of bushes that was moving. He stood there for a considerable few minutes and slowly turned his back walking into the house.

For an odd moment he felt the hair on his back turn up as though as if someone is watching him.