Chapter 73
You Said Remember Me II
“Yuri…” Victoria called.
Yuri glanced at Eunhyuk. Perhaps him being so silent should have explained it all. She should have realized it the morning she found him outside the room in such a confused state. Yuri should have realized it when she had taken Nana and Eunhyuk out for breakfast only to discover the two of them so awkward with each other. She should have seen it sooner.
She felt like screaming and pulling out her hair.
“How is Nana?” Changmin asked.
She wanted to slap that man so badly. Yuri wanted to scold him for letting Nana in on the mess, for letting her realize that he didn’t care about her, and leaving her there.
Yuri was at a loss of what to say that wouldn’t express the anger, the anxiety, the confusion, and everything else she was feeling.
“Yuri?” Changmin called.
“She’s fine,” Yuri answered with a groan.
Changmin frowned, “Why are you angry?”
“I’m not.” Yuri replied.
“You are.”
Yuri turned to him with a glare.
Heaving a sigh she turned away, “I’m going home. I don’t even know why I came back.”
Yuri glanced at Eunhyuk again and wondered how she would talk to him again from now on.
“Do you two want to come along?” Yuri turned to Donghae and Victoria. “I’ll give you…all a ride back.”
“How’s Nana?” Victoria asked in the passenger’s seat.
“She’s asleep,” Yuri glanced into the rearview mirror to see Eunhyuk’s eyebrows crease.
“Was she really sick?” Donghae wondered.
Yuri hesitated, “Yea…”
Eunhyuk’s frown disappeared and he softly glanced out the window with a gaze she couldn’t decipher.
When they got to the house, she watched Eunhyuk make his way up the stairs quietly as if willing taking a punishment.
Yuri was really at a loss.
/ / / / /
Yuri was upset, but she wouldn’t say why. Was Nana really not feeling well? Why hadn’t he noticed if she was still sick?
Eunhyuk paused at the top of the stairs and allowed his eyes to drift toward the carpet before walking on. He passed Victoria and Donghae’s room, his room, Changmin’s room, and halted at the corner of the doorway to Yuri’s room.
Nana…would she really be sleeping as Yuri had said?
Eunhyuk felt nervous for some unknown reason. Taking a step forward he glanced in to find Nana curled up under the blanket, eyes closed. She was deep in sleep just as she had the other night.
He wanted to walk in and make sure she wasn’t burning up, but he didn’t know if it was the right move to make. What if he woke her? How would she react? How would he react?
Giving up he retreated to his room.
/ / / / /
Yuri later busied herself with dinner. She needed to focus her mind on something else to keep her mind off everything else. She used all her might to stir this and to cut that. Within an hour she had filled the table with plenty of side dishes and sent fresh whirls of steam into the air.
“Wow…what is this?” Donghae asked walking in. “It looks like you’re serving a king and queen.”
Yuri heaved a sigh and wiped her hands clean on her apron with a grin. She finally felt stress free.
“Lets eat!” Yuri clapped her hands together.
Her eyes shifted toward the corner when Nana walked in looking a bit pale. Yuri felt her heart go out to her.
“Come in,” Yuri invited pulling out a chair and tossing her apron aside.
“Looks delicious,” Victoria commented sitting down.
Nana took a seat beside Victoria and glanced at the food with dull eyes. Yuri glanced at the quiet Eunhyuk next to Donghae suddenly feeling nervous about that night’s dinner and how it might progress.
Yuri lifted her spoon, but paused when Nana started speaking.
“I…” Nana started, “want to go home.”
All eyes turned toward her surprised to hear the words come from her after all she’d been talking about was revenge on her brother’s killers.
“After Changmin gets discharged, I’m going home.” Nana told confidently. “I’m going to get Junsu’s body, give him a burial, work for a while, and return to school. I really want to go home.”
Yuri turned her eyes away from Nana when she felt her own pain sweep into her.
“Nana,” Donghae called.
Nana pulled a smile onto her face and Yuri couldn’t imagine how hard it must be to do that.
“I’m going to leave the rest to you. I’ve been thinking, I want a normal life now,” Nana expressed. “Let me go home.”
They were all quiet.
“Go ahead then, if that’s what you want,” Donghae spoke for Yuri.
Dinner didn’t end on a spectacularly good note. It had been quiet after Nana had spoken. Not even Donghae or Victoria chatted. Now being there made Yuri feel uncomfortable. She’d now lost the skill to make everyone feel at home.
“You ok?” Victoria questioned pulling the faucet toward her and turned it on.
The water gushed out and dishes clattered when Victoria reached for them.
“Oh…yea.”
“Did something happen? Seems like you have something heavy on your mind,” Victoria kindly started off.
She wanted to talk. Yuri didn’t know if she wanted to share Nana’s problem. If she wanted to share her own problems. In all this load of a mess it felt like she’d lost the only friend she could really talk to, Changmin.
“Just…work.” Yuri lied.
“That so? Lets hope it all gets better then,” Victoria smiled.
If she talked to Victoria, there was a possibility she would tell Donghae. Donghae would get to Eunhyuk and it’d all just create a cycle of misery.
Yuri had to find a time to talk to Eunhyuk. She had to make space for Changmin and get him to realize what he’d done.
/ / / / /
Donghae stopped by the arching entrance of the living room and found Nana sitting silently. The TV was blaring colors of blue, green, yellow, and red. He hadn’t heard her speak about home at all, and to hear her speak about it that night just made him feel that something was wrong.
He walked in and jumped down onto the seat beside her. When Nana turned to look at him he reciprocated the stare.
“Home, huh?” he questioned.
Nana moved her eyes away and nodded.
“It’s the first I heard you speak of home other than your brother,” Donghae said. “I miss my home too.”
“You just want to know why I’m speaking of home, don’t you?” Nana guessed.
Donghae raised his eyebrows. He was surprised at how quickly he’d been found out before nodding.
“Home is comfort. Home knows me inside out and has Junsu oppa’s stuff. Home has at least a little bit of him that I miss. I just want to rest at a place I can call home,” Nana smiled. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been gone from it. The mail must have piled up in the mailbox by now.”
“Where do you live?” Donghae wondered. “Perhaps, you could go stay with my uncle. He’s a pretty lonely old geezer. I bet he’d like to have some company.”
Nana slowly shook her head, “I just want home and to enjoy the last bit of Junsu oppa before he totally disappears.”
“Nana,” Donghae called, “are you ok? Are you feeling ok? You know, I can be your oppa too. I don’t mind if you talk to me about what’s on your mind. Don’t keep everything to yourself.”
“Of course, I know.” Nana nodded her head.
Donghae still couldn’t quite help but feel that he was so far away from getting her to open her heart. It was unfair that her last family member had to be taken away from her. It wasn’t right for a young girl to be faring for herself in this big world.
/ / / / /
Home. Nana was going back home. After Changmin’s discharge she was leaving.
Eunhyuk glanced at his hands. What could he say to her but tell her to work hard?
Honestly, he was disappointed in himself for being so indecisive. He couldn’t understand even himself. If Nana went back to Seoul, would he ever see her again?
Seoul…was a big city. If he went to visit Hee Sun, would he ever run across Nana?
Eunhyuk didn’t want it to be the last farewell between them…yet. How could he approach her and not feel bad about himself? How could he walk toward her and not feel like he’d taken a part of her? How could he not feel guilty?
/ / / / /
Yuri spat out the water she’d used to rinse free of toothpaste and turned the faucet off. She stared at herself in the mirror for a minute before glancing at the door.
Taking a deep breath she opened the door, turned the lights off, and walked out. Nana’s eyes were still open.
She turned the lights off and climbed onto her side of the bed. The many things from earlier on in the day that had started attacking her one by one never left her head. Yuri was guilt ridden and she didn’t know what to do about it.
“Who…do you mean by ‘him’?” Yuri asked. “You said you like ‘him’. Eunhyuk? Or Changmin?”
“Eunhyuk.” Nana’s voice was a whisper.
Yuri glanced at the side table.
“I don’t like Eunhyuk, Nana.” Yuri told. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. Everything I said had been on impulse. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“It’s ok.” Nana’s quiet voice assured.
“Are you sure…you want to go home?”
“Yes.”
How would Changmin react, was the first question that entered her mind. What if Changmin really liked her?
He would have to go to Seoul to see his parents as well as Nana, a part of her mind disputed.
Yuri lie awake for a long hour.
/ / / / /
“Is something wrong with Nana?” Victoria asked.
“She wouldn’t say,” Donghae replied while playing with one of her long locks. “Nana just wants to go home. She says she wants to grab what’s left of her brother before it all disappears. I feel quite sad looking at her.”
“She must be having it hard.” Victoria sympathized. “Do you think Eunhyuk has something to do with it?”
“There’s a possibility. He hasn’t spoken at all. It’s like he’s isolating himself in misery,” Donghae said. “I can’t stand looking at him either.”
“I wonder what we can do to fix it,” Victoria told. “They’re having such a hard time. Yuri seems troubled too. Do you think Nana said something to her?”
“They were gone for quite a while this afternoon,” Donghae reminded. “Something must have come up during that time.”
“I want to go home soon too.” Victoria to her side and burned her head into his shoulder.
/ / / / /
Nana didn’t go to the hospital the next day to visit Changmin. Work was the usual. She reported to the head department about her phone call to Eunhyuk’s home, which had cleared him for the meantime. When she returned home, Nana was helping Victoria in the kitchen.
Early the next morning, she left to go pick Changmin up from the hospital. On the way back to the house he ranted on and on about how glad he was to finally leave that boring place. He even looked excited when he knew he’d be able to see everyone again, Nana, that is.
Yuri worried over the fact that Nana was intent on heading back home. She hadn’t told Changmin about it, she didn’t know why but she just didn’t.
When they walked through the front door, Changmin started in with a leap and headed toward the kitchen. Yuri calmly followed to find him rubbing Nana’s head with his hand. That smile on his face made her feel somewhat…sad.
“Hold on, I’ll be back. I’m going to throw my clothes into my room,” Changmin told before he hopped up the stairs.
“Boy, doesn’t he look excited?” Donghae commented.
Yuri smiled and glanced at the quiet Nana who was standing by the stove.
/ / / / /
It was good to be back. Changmin felt like he finally understood the real meaning of “Home sweet home”. He opened the door to his bedroom and heaved a sigh of happiness as he took in the scent which belonged to only him.
Yes, he was at the right place. His house.
He tossed the bag containing his clothes onto his bed and looked around the room once more. His room had been swept clean thanks to his mom. The early morning sunshine was strutting in through the window with a glow. It felt like it would be a good day.
Changmin backtracked out of the room and halted when he turned to head toward the stairs. Eunhyuk had just stepped out of his room and stopped as well when he noticed him.
They stared at each other.
Suddenly the mark on Nana’s neck flew back to memory and the emotions of how worried he’d been about her when she hadn’t stopped by penetrated his mind heavily. Yes, he wasn’t stupid. He knew what that mark was. He also couldn’t get it out of his mind about how quiet she’d been the day he noticed it. She was uncomfortable and hadn’t said a word.
Eunhyuk turned away and took a step toward the stairs that would bring him to the kitchen.
“What did you do to Nana?” Changmin asked.
Eunhyuk paused, his back to him.
“What did you do to Nana that night?” Changmin asked again.
Eunhyuk slightly turned his head and questioned, “What are you talking about?”
Abruptly taking a swift step forward, he put a hand on Eunhyuk’s shoulder to spin him around.
Finally face to face, Changmin said, “You know very well what I’m talking about.”
Eunhyuk stared back at him.
“I asked you a question!” Changmin bellowed.
/ / / / /
Donghae and Victoria turned their heads toward the stairs except for Yuri and Nana who didn’t seem to move at all.
“What’s going on?” Donghae asked getting up from the chair he’d been occupying.
Victoria got up along with him.
“Stay here,” Donghae demanded.
***And so...the C & the E meet xDD
***So much more tension is gonna end up building from here unless someone like REALLY does something. You're gonna hate me for a while heh~
***Sorry for the long wait :/ my creativity is so dead at this moment.
***Btw, I have tne new poster made for each couple up! :D
spring semester ends this friday and i'm off for summer break :D i'll get back on track with YSRMII
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