Fan Fiction |
by chinay
'Hide and seek time is over, LeeHaNeul. I told you, if I have to kill you to keep you by
my side, I will.'
"Huh!"
HaNeul jumped up from her bed like a mummy. She was still in her room, to her relief. A
cold chill ran down her spine and her face was covered with cool beads of sweat.
WooHyuk's voice in her dream still rang in her head, as if he was right next to her,
whispering in her ears .
It was always two kinds of dream she had almost every night since she escaped. It was
either WooHyuk choking her to death or destroying her the way he did that one night.
Neither was pleasant for her.
She clutched onto her blanket and slowly turned to her side. EunWoo was sleeping right
next to her in peace. She raised her hand to fondle him, but caught herself stopping and
dropping her hand.
'I feel 'him' coming closer... that's not good.'
She already met two of BIG 5 in less than a month. Seeing KangTa was painful enough
but she let that one pass pretty well. What worried her was HeeJun. She was never close
to him anyway, how was she going to trust him to not tell anyone? Specifically JaeWon
and WooHyuk. She knew both were out to get her, possibly murder her.
"Mmm... Mommy..."
She was startled when EunWoo mumbled in his sleep and held onto her arm. His white
face glowed in the darkness. She turned her head towards the window and noticed that it
was raining outside. She slipped back under her blanket and stared at the child. He had a
face of a cherub, though it was a face that reminded her so much of WooHyuk, which she
refused to touch but did anyway.
'EunWoo [silvery rain].... it rained like this too when you were born. My baby.... what
would happen to you...'
**********
[An Residence]
"You once told me, after JaeHee died, that first love never comes true."
"Yea?" Tony blinked his eyes at KangTa's abrupt statement. KangTa continued in a
subdued tone.
"I think you were right about that."
"Hell yeah. I'm always right," said Tony, "I gather you met her after the funeral? You
said you were so sure that she'd show up if you waited. So what did she say?"
KangTa sighed and told Tony everything about her, tracing back the time. Tony listened
to his cousin without a word.
"Did it... hurt a lot?" Tony carefully opened his mouth, while probing KangTa's
expression. It was gloomy and clouded with despondency.
"You think I gave up too easily?" KangTa cross-questioned Tony as his reply, seemingly
irrelevant. Tony shook his head. KangTa went on.
"I wanted to tell her... that she was my first sweetheart. It was such a warm feeling to
have someone waiting for me after my violin lessons when we went to school. I was
always in WooHyuk's shadow... and she led me out to the light, saying that the best violin
play is the one that could move a person's soul... and that I was the one who was able to
move her. Her words made me who I am today, but I'm not happy because she's not next
to me to share the glory. We started out as friends.. then grew up to be lovers... but what
are we now?"
Tony's face was filled with the question, "then why did you let her go?" As if KangTa
read that, he answered it clearly.
"She doesn't need me to add to her confusion. Every time she looks at her kid, she is
reminded of WooHyuk and what he did to her. And every time I see her, I would be
reminded of my failure... to preserve her. Do you actually think we could live happily like
that?"
"I always suspected that Hyukie would do something crazy. Even when we were little, he
always had to have his way. He had all the money to buy the stuff we had, but he wanted
ours because they 'looked better.' Remember that race car I had that he took away from
me? And when I asked him to give it back to me, he broke it and said, 'if I can't have it,
no one else can.'"
"And that playstation your dad bought us from England when we were 5. How about
that," KangTa lightened up and Tony laughed.
"And my CD player."
"And my violin... he didn't even know how to play it back then but he still wanted it. Too
bad I gave it away to Ha..."
KangTa stopped himself in the middle of his sentence and looked at Tony with melancholy
eyes.
"He took something that can't be replaced, Tony. What am I supposed to do now...?"
Without saying another word, Tony pulled KangTa closer to him as he buried his head
into Tony's shoulder. Soon his shirt was drenched with KangTa's tears. Tony patted his
shoulder lightly... the same shoulder that he cried on when JaeHee died. Now it was his
turn to comfort his cousin.
The thing that saddened both of them the most was that they still couldn't hate WooHyuk.
[16 summers ago...]
~Jump jump~
"Stop it Tony! You're gonna get us off this boat and drown us!" 8 year-old WooHyuk
exclaimed at Tony who was bouncing up and down on the boat. KangTa just giggled
because he liked the shaking of the boat Tony's jump was giving.
WooHyuk, Tony, and KangTa were spending their summer at WooHyuk's cottage. They
wanted to go play on the beach one day. WooHyuk dragged his little boat along and was
rowing on the boat as the three drifted farther and farther away from the shore.
WooHyuk looked above his head and saw that the sky was darkening with clouds. He
started getting worried.
"Uh-oh... we should prolly go back. Grampie's gonna worry about us... stop jumping
Tony!!"
"Oh, why not? It's fun! Come on, KangTa, you jump too!" Tony's lips became pouty as
he started bouncing on the boat even harder.
Soon, the three boys who were out in the middle of the ocean became terrified when the
strong wind started blowing and thunderstorms came. Tony stopped what he was doing
and looked at WooHyuk.
"We're going to have to go back. Shoot," WooHyuk said, trying to retain his calm.
At that moment, boisterous wind struck the boat and it flipped over in no time.
"Oh crap!!" All of them yelled. WooHyuk had been in this situation before and he was a
good swimmer, so he wasn't panicking too much. Tony was also a good swimmer, too.
Fortunately, the boat wasn't too far away from the shore so they swam back a short
distance against the crushing waves. When they made their way back to the shore, they
flopped onto the sand and breathed hard. However, they realized that KangTa was
missing.
"Oh shoot! I forgot that Hyunie can't swim!" Tony said, panting hard as he sat back up.
WooHyuk's eyes grew wide.
"What?! Where is he? He must be still in the water!"
"What do we do!!" Tony stood up and pinched his wet face to regain his senses.
Suddenly, WooHyuk's eyes lit up as he told imperatively to Tony,
"You hurry up and go call help, Tony!"
With that one sentence, he went back into the water.
"Hyuk! Come back here! You're gonna drown!" Tony yelled but saw it no use. He
decided to do what he was told and went back to the village to get help.
Meanwhile, WooHyuk desperately searched for his friend. He couldn't have been far
away because they were close to the shore to begin with. But the wind was strong so he
wasn't sure, but he carefully navigated his way through. He was an excellent swimmer.
'Oh, please be okay KangTa... don't die...'
To his hope, he saw someone grasping for air on the water surface, his body drowned up
to his nose as he tried all his might to stay up.
'KANGTA!' WooHyuk yelled in his mind as he reached out his hand, but KangTa was
already almost unconscious. WooHyuk pulled him with all his strength, but he was
drained out of energy after swimming back and forth many times. KangTa, who was
gripping onto him and adding to his weight, made it even harder for him to shift
themselves back to the shore.
WooHyuk felt his limp body slowly falling under the water, yet he still managed to keep
KangTa's face above the surface. He then blacked out.
-------
When WooHyuk opened his eyes again, he was blurred by the lights above him. He
noticed that Tony and the nurse were by his bedside. He woke up screaming.
"Is KangTa alright?!"
Judging from Tony's relaxed expression on his face, WooHyuk could tell. Tony pointed
with his chin to look at the person standing on the other side of the bed.
"As you can see," KangTa was standing there, smiling more radiantly than ever.
"Whew! I thought you were gonna die or something..." WooHyuk sighed happily.
"Thanks, WooHyuk."
KangTa squeezed WooHyuk's hand tightly. WooHyuk just smiled faintly in return, being
glad to see that his friend was okay.
That was the story that made Tony and KangTa never hate WooHyuk for whatever he
did. Even now... when things have been twisted so much...
After that incident, WooHyuk's asthma got worse and the access water in his lungs
remained for a while. His face was pale as ever and he grew more grouchy because he had
to stay in bed all the time, for the next year or so.
The day he came back to school and entered cafeteria, he saw a girl sitting at his favorite
spot. He was really angry that some filthily clothed girl was at his table. So he shoved her
off to the ground.
But when he saw a pair of blue eyes staring at him downheartedly, he imagined a sky.
Sky that he could always look at, but never touch.