Gangdong-gu

Recently, my household has been quite lively.

After I boarded the cab, I didn’t want to head back to the apartment in Gangnam, where Se Hun might appear at, so I decided on the train station and took the earliest one back to my hometown.

The following morning after my arrival, Jong In barged into my room and nagged a whole lot while I was still asleep.

Seeing that I wasn’t paying any attention at all, he finally ran out of patience and pulled me out of bed by the ear.

“Why, oppa?” I asked groggily.

“Why?! You have the cheek to ask why?! How can you just come back here on your own without telling anybody?! When your boyfriend came to me asking if you were with me, and said that you’ve been missing the whole day, do you know how nervous we were?! We spent the whole night searching the whole of Gangnam for you, and here you are sleeping! Thank god my mom called to ask why didn’t I come back with you, or we would still…….

Ya, Oh Sun Hee…. Why are you, crying? I was just, worried… You know I’m not really angry, right?”

His tone immediately softened when he realized that there were tears streaming down my face.

“Sun Hee, you….” He reached out his hand but stopped in mid-air, unsure of how to console me.

After all these years of knowing each other, I’ve only cried in front of him a few times, all which happened when I was much younger, so he was naturally lost at what to do.

“I, I will go get Se Hun! He is in the living room chatting with your parents now.”

I quickly grabbed him to stop him from doing so, but I still couldn’t do anything else but cry.

After I felt like my tears storage had been emptied, I finally stopped sobbing and raised my head from Jong In’s hug and explained the whole incident to him.

Being the hot-blooded teen he is, he was even more agitated than I was.

“Outrageous! How dare he accuse our Sun Hee like this?! Even I don’t dare to do so!” (Err, is that the main point….?)

“Don’t worry, Sun Hee, I will not let him off so easily, and I won’t let him have the chance to bully you anymore!” He slammed his fist on my table before stomping out of my room.

I quickly checked the condition of my table before going back to sleep again – getting waken at 8 and crying a river had drained all of my energy.
 

When I woke up again in the evening, my mom told me that Jong In dragged Se Hun out of the house and chased him away, warning him not to step into our house again.

I was very pleased with his work, and thought that I could finally have peace for the rest of the holidays.

I was proven wrong the next morning.
 

“What are you doing here?” I squinted at him.

Se Hun was forbidden to step into my house, so now he sends his good friend? Who was one of the culprits behind my tears?

As if he could hear my thoughts, Jong Hyun quickly denied, “Se Hun has nothing to do with this. I asked for your address from Se Kyung. I wanted to….. apologize.”

“Apologize?” I sneered before ignoring his existence and switching the television on.

“Sun Hee, I’m really, really sorry….. I don’t ask for your forgiveness, but Se Hun was on your side all this while, can you please forgive him…?”

I continued treating him like thin air while switching channels.

“I… Jin Ri was from my middle school, I’ve liked her since then... I couldn’t ignore it when she came to me crying… But Se Hun had always been on your side, really! After you left, he asked me why I did that to you…. He believed you were innocent all along, but he wanted to give me a chance to explain myself… he didn’t think you’d…”

Jong Hyun’s voice gradually trailed off and he left after saying his piece.

I thought that was the end to the entire explaining saga, but the next day, another person appeared at my door, the last person I want to see.

“Go away.” I gritted my teeth.

“Wait!” I slammed the door close when she held her hand between them.  Soon, a red bruise appeared on her fair hand.

“Sorry… I thought you’d withdraw... your hand.” I honestly thought so.

She didn’t seem to mind about the pain on her hand, and instead quickly ran into the house while I let go of the door in shock.

“What are you up to this time? Se Hun and I have broken up already…. You can go act to him all you want.” I said while searching for an ointment. Not that I care about her having a scar on her hand, but since I sort of caused it, I should take responsibility.

“Sun Hee, I think I can see why Se Hun likes you now…. Even after all that I did to you, you still feel guilty about injuring me….”

I rolled my eyes and threw the ointment bottle onto her lap,

“I’m not as kind as you think, so you better apply that and get out of my house as soon as possible.”

I was about to enter my room when she grabbed me with her injured hand, which I refrained from shaking off in fear of aggravating her injury.

“I like Se Hun since the first day we met. I thought as long as I stayed close by his side, he will fall for me one day. But I saw the way he looked at you and I knew it wouldn’t happen anymore…..
That day, after our committee meeting ended and Jong Hyun told him that you took his bag, I was very happy inside. I thought he would surely get mad at you for delaying our work. But he laughed to himself and formally apologized to me for postponing our work.
Sun Hee, you won’t understand... Seeing someone you like being formal and polite to you and reserving his true side for someone else…
Sun Hee, will you please stop starving yourself? For each meal that you starve, Se Hun is doing the same…”

Since when did I starve myself? Why would I do that? No matter how sad I am, I will never neglect my stomach. I wonder what Jong In has been telling them….

Seeing that I don’t show any sympathetic expression, she added,

“You are starving yourself in a sheltered home, but Se Hun has been sitting at your gate for the past 2 days. He can’t withstand the cold without food for much longer…. Take it as I’m begging you; please make him eat something…. He doesn’t listen to me at all…”

Sitting outside for the past 2 days? Without any food at all?

After Jin Ri left, I immediately dialed Jong In,

“Ya! What have you been telling Se Hun! Why is her starving himself at my doorstep?!”

“Do you feel his sincerity too?! At first I was just trying to make him guilty and chase him away, I didn’t expect him to be so stubborn and even go to the extent of ‘starving with you’….
Sun Hee ah, after listening to his story, I really think you should give him another chance. After all, he never once said that he doesn’t believe in you. Jong Hyun is like a brother to him, I can understand why he is trying to give him a chance…”

After I ended the call, I climbed to the rooftop balcony to peek at the gate, and there really was a little figure by it.

My Se Hun was all scrunched up from the cold, barely moving at all.

I couldn’t bear to stand that sight for any longer and dashed out of the house.
 

 “Oh Se Hun, what are you doing!”