Aigoo! It seems like this story was put in the back burner, no? Well, you all can thank good old College for that!! But, now that I'm off till September, this story (as well as my other ones on fanfiction) can be my top priority!! To those of you who have had a hell of a lot of patience with me, I thank you for being so patient and putting up with me. THANK YOU ALL! HAVE SOME COOKIES!! On to Chapter nine!!
Chapter 9
I tossed my book bag down next to the coffee table and flopped down on the couch not bothering to change out of my uniform. I had a rough day at my all-girls school, and I wanted nothing more than to just sit and do nothing for the rest of the day. Unfortunately for me, my teachers had decided to pile on the homework, which would more than likely take me hours to do, so it wasn't like I could lounge about for long.
Don't get me wrong--I hated going to an all-girls school--but after attending for a week, I had grown tolerant of the place. When I had learned that I had been sent there by my guardian when I had gotten home that first day, (I took the bus) I did not speak to him when he had called the house checking to see if I was there. Instead, I left the phone ringing, and when he finally arrived home and attempted to scold me, I shoved a piece of paper under his nose that read "I will not speak to you until further notice. Do not call my cell phone, nor the house; I will not answer. I am extremely pissed at you. ~Kimi" and then walked to my room where I listened to my iPod on full blast and ignored him for the rest of the night. (Though, seeing as how I didn't see him for the rest of the night, I assumed he had gone back to work, which was all right with me.)
I had not seen him since that incident that Monday afternoon when I had gotten home from my first day of school. He had kept his word and had not called me on my cell once since I handed him that paper, nor had he called the house. I had gotten over my anger at him some time ago, but my pride prevented me from being the first one to actually talk to him. I debated on whether or not I should pay him a surprise visit at the Police Agency when the phone rang and I leaped off the couch and practically dove for it.
"Yobuseyo?" I said into the receiver, somewhat breathlessly.
"So you're speaking to me again?" came the voice of my guardian, Detective Kim, on the other end. My heart seemed to inflate with joy at hearing his voice (granted it was dripping with sarcasm, but I really didn't care at the moment). "I thought you weren't going to talk to me until further notice," he continued in English.
"You're the one who called the house," I answered back, cheekily. "So what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call, Detective? Just wanted to check up on me?"
"Yes," he answered bluntly. "Make sure you do your homework." I suppressed a sigh. Of course.
"Oh, and one more thing," he continued, "try and contact some of the girls from the Hong Kong investigation; make sure they're doing ok. I'll see you later." He hung up. I put down the receiver and groaned. First time talking to him in a week, and the first thing he wants me to do is my homework. I looked to the coffee table where my book bag lay toppled on its side and weighted down with heavy books. The feeling of dread that came with having to do homework filled me to my very core.
"The faster I get it done, the faster I can do nothing," I muttered to myself as I raked my hand through my hair. I sighed, and went into my room to change out of my uniform and into something more comfortable to attempt to do homework in. I came back out wearing baggy grey sweatpants, socks, a fitted orange t-shirt, and my hair in a ponytail and sat down at the table and took out my books, papers, and pencil from my bag.
"Let's get down to business," I muttered to myself....then I finished with "to defeat....the Huns~." (Because everything is better with a Disney reference! :D) After some immense struggling with my Math, Language, and Chemistry homework, I finally finished everything I had to do......and it was only 11:30 pm!! (Oh joy...) I dropped my pencil and slammed my head into my Chemistry book when I saw what time it was. Dear God, I was exhausted; giving this much homework should be illegal.
I got up, stretched, and hobbled back to my room for the rest of the night planning to get the most out of my six and a half hours of sleep. But before I retired for the night, I decided to give Detective Kim a call. Don't ask me why, I just did. Unfortunately, he didn't pick up his cell phone, striking me as odd, since he always picks up no matter what. I tried a few more time, but each time it went directly to voice mail. I glanced at the clock, unease rattling my nerves. It was almost midnight, and I needed to get up soon and be prepared for my Chemistry quiz tomorrow, so I gave up trying to call him and went to sleep, praying that he was ok.
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I face-planted against my desk as the bell rang for lunch; God I was tired...and that stupid Chemistry quiz wasn't helping my mood. Nor was the fact that I couldn't get a hold of Detective Kim all morning, and I hadn't been able to since school started. I had been too preoccupied with worry to really focus on that quiz so I knew I had completely bombed it, but right now I could have cared less. I lifted my head up and rested it on my hand, my elbow propping me up as I stared out the window and my stomach rumbled, painfully reminding me of its emptiness. (I had slept a little through my alarm, so I didn't have time to make myself lunch, nor did I have money to buy myself some, fml.)
As I stared out the window, thoughts of Detective Kim entered my mind and it began to race with questions and concerns about his well-being. He had never NOT answered his phone before, and I found myself thinking up the most ridiculous (yet totally possible) situations in which he wouldn't be able to. The worst one was when I dreamt last night that he had somehow been killed by some crazy murderer, which I then woke up from in a cold sweat, shaken and scared and had ended up crying. Then, after I had calmed down a bit and drank a glass of water I managed to go back to sleep, though the dream was still fresh in my mind.
There were plenty of other scenarios like that in my head that had filtered in throughout the day, and I was concerning myself with one of them when a voice thankfully interrupted my mental breakdown. I turned my head and saw Hee-Jin standing in front of me, smiling at me with her dark straight hair down and framing her features and makeup slightly coloring her face.
"Annyeong," I said, bowing my head slightly and smiling. She did the same as she greeted me, and said in Korean, "Would you like to eat lunch together? I mean, since meeting in Hong Kong, we never really got a chance to talk, and now that we're in the same school and in the same Chemistry class...." her voice trailed off as she ended her sentence pathetically.
I stared at her before answering. Now, if I was to be brutally honest with her, I would have said no and been content with starving until I had returned home because--let's face it--Hee-Jin is not my favorite person in the world. From what I saw of her in Hong Kong, she's a downright spoiled, bitchy person and certainly not the type of girl I'd want to be friends with. But, because I'm a nice person and didn't want to hurt her feelings, I said the exact opposite.
"Sure, I'd love to," I answered also in Korean, wanting to kick myself in the face. (Curse my kindness!) "Oh good!" she sighed and took up a chair and sat in front of me at my desk and brought out two bento boxes and handed one to me. I looked at it for a while, and then back at her.
"Is this for me?" I asked. She nodded and smiled and opened her bento. Inside, there was rice, vegetables, fruit, and spicy calamari. She then picked up two pairs of chopsticks, handed me one, and then started eating. I hadn't touched the food she had given me and just stared at her while she ate and after about ten minutes she finally looked up and--chewing on calamari--asked me why I wasn't eating.
"It's ok for you to eat it; made it for you," she added while I continued to stare at her. I blinked once, said nothing, and quickly opened my bento and started eating. It was delicious. I glanced up at Hee-Jin as I ate and saw that she smiled once at me and continued eating her own lunch.
"So, um...Kimi," she said hesitantly after a while. I looked up from my food and saw that she was now at picking her own with her chopsticks and staring down at it. I waited. Finally she stated, "If you don't mind me asking....how-how did you end up in Korea?" Of course. I bit back my annoyance at having been asked a question I had avoided since coming to this country and tried to answer without barking.
"Personal reasons," I answered, carefully choosing my words. "It's a long story and I'd rather not get into it." She nodded and said nothing more about the subject and asked another question.
"Where are you staying if you don't mind me asking?"
She glanced up at me and her onyx eyes locked with my brown ones as I stared her down, causing her to blink in unease and go back to staring at her food and picking at it with her chopsticks. I gazed intently at her for a very long time before answering her slowly.
"Why are you asking me this?" As if it were nothing important, she shrugged and answered back, "I'm just curious is all. I mean...of all places, you ended up here and involved in international kidnapping and all...it's just...surprising."
"That's not it," I answered quickly, my voiced laced with annoyance. "You're lying, I know you are. Tell me the real reason why you're so curious about me." She scoffed a few times and pretended to look offended before finally answering me.
"Well....it's just....when you and the other girls were kidnapped again..." she stammered nervously, faulting under my harsh glare. "The girls' were wondering...and it got me curious too--I mean I'm not sure if it's true or not, but the girls did say there were some kinds of signs--"
"Spit it out, Hee-Jin!" I finally snapped at her, my temper getting the better of me.
"Are you and Detective Kim....y'know....together?" she finally blurted out, awkwardly. That did it; what little patience I had left completely vaporized as I sat, scowling at her though careful not to explode in front of her and cause a scene. Instead, I shoved the bento box she had given me for lunch back at her, got up and left the classroom seething with anger. It wasn't the fact that she had asked me such a question, that I was pissed; it was the fact that she actually thought I was incredibly stupid to fall for her 'let's be friends' act so she can coax me into spilling my living arrangements so she could go and report it to the rest of the girls.
I stormed to the girls bathroom, shoved open the door, and leaned against a sink and gazed at my reflection in the mirror.
"Tch...do I look like an idiot to her?" I sneered in Korean. (I had gotten into the habit of muttering to myself in Korean. I found it quite fun.) "Who does she think she is?" I growled as I wet my face with cold water as I tried to calm myself. After I had counted to ten, and was feeling a little better, I headed back to my Chemistry class to grab my belongings before I had to head to my next one: Language.
Hee-Jin was no longer at my desk when I arrived back, but instead with her own little clique of friends away from my desk. When I passed them to gather my belongings, some of them gave me dirty looks, which I ignored. I didn't care whether they thought I was a bitch or not, it was none of my business anyway; maybe they shouldn't have a two-faced snake as a friend.
I picked up my bag from the floor and went back outside into the hallway, taking my cell phone out in the process. I turned it around in my hands as I exited the school and went to a deserted area far from students' listening ears as they stood out and about in the frigid air, their faces rosy pink and their breaths crystallizing in the cold. They were talking and walking around as girls do, sharing the latest gossip and trying to keep warm with their hands shoved deep in their pockets and scarves wrapped around their necks.
I shivered as I opened my cell phone, cursing myself and wondering why the hell I had decided to go outside when I could have easily just stayed in the hallway and tried to make sure no one would hear me. (Again, that would have been waay too easy). I punched in Detective Kim's number and waited. No answer. My insides went as cold as the winter air around me--this was the second time he didn't answer in two days. I tried a couple more times, but each time the ringer would go on about five times then I would be directed to voicemail. I hung up my phone, and sighed in worry and frustration. All I wanted was to see if he was ok since I hadn't been in contact with him since yesterday and he still wasn't answering. What the hell was going on? The bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch hour and I reluctantly went back inside the school with the rest of the students to my Language class, worry eating away at my brain.
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I wrenched open the apartment door and flung myself inside, glancing down at the floor hoping to see a pair of expensive looking shoes. Nothing. Not wanting to believe what my eyes were seeing, I kicked off my own shoes, and bolted to his room, hoping to see a sleeping Detective. Nothing. I growled in frustration and slammed his door...then kicked it. Repeatedly. WHERE THE HELL COULD HE BE?! I ran a hand through my hair, and stomped to my room where I threw my bag in my closet, and flopped down on my bed and stared at the ceiling.
I tried to reason with myself that this was to be expected from him--I mean, he DID have a rather intense job to do, but still...something inside my head screamed that something was wrong. I tried to push that feeling out of my head all day, but it kept slowly coming back and being repeated in my head. Something's wrong, something's wrong, something's wrong.
"Nothing's wrong!" I said harshly to myself. "He's just being a butt and not answering his phone; he might even have it on silent....but then again, a police officer always has to answer his or her phone, and putting it on silent would be a huuuge mistake." I sat upright in bed, deep in thought as to what might have happened to my guardian throughout the course of two days. The thought's that ran through my mind however, were so frightening that I almost made myself hyperventilate and have a heart attack so I abruptly stopped thinking and decided to preoccupy myself with homework.
"Something completely different to keep my mind busy," I reasoned. "Very, very, very, busy." I got out of bed and marched to my closet where I had flung my bag, and taking out my books, went to the kitchen table to commence my homework. I littered the kitchen table with my belongings, and got knee deep in my Language homework, which consisted of me having to translate some Engilsh texts into Hangul and Hangul into English. Neither of them were easy to do, and I nearly ripped out my hair trying to figure it out. Dammit, why couldn't I just get Rosetta Stone? That would have been SO much easier.
After about 2 hours of deciphering Hangul to English and vice versa, I started on my Math, which I considered a blessing from God after having to go through Language Hell for the past two hours. And I hate Math. I glanced at the clock to see how much time had passed.
6:00pm.
Alright...so doing homework was actually a GOOD idea. I stretched and went to my room to change into my PJs before really getting into my Math homework. As I changed, thoughts of my guardian came back to mind and I angrily pushed them away. I wasn't going to think about him for the rest of the night, no matter how worried I was. And no matter how much this uneasiness was eating away at me, I wasn't going to give into it. I'll just have to suck it up and wait for him to come home.
If he comes home, said a nagging voice in my head. I pulled my tank top over my head and stared at my reflection in my dresser mirror.
"He's coming home," I answered it fiercely and exited my room, planning on focusing so much on my Math homework that my head would explode. I sat back down and got straight to work, finishing at 11pm and feeling exhausted. I wanted to go straight to sleep, but something stopped me from doing so and--going against my better judgment--I went to my room, grabbed a blanket, and planted myself in front of the television and started to watch some stupid variety show. Apparently, my mind had decided to tell the rest of my body to stay up and wait til Detective Kim came home just to see if he was ok...whether the rest of my body wanted to or not.
I didn't move from my spot, until 3 in the morning when I finally heard the front door open and Detective Kim come striding home, as if he had another normal workday. When he had taken off his shoes and saw me sitting on the couch watching TV, he looked at me in surprise, while I glared at him from where I sat.
"Kimi," he said, walking into the house. "What are you doing up? It's 3 in the morning, you have school tomorrow. Go to bed." He then proceeded to get a glass and pour himself some water from the fridge. I on the other hand, didn't move and inch, and continued to gaze at my guardian like an angry hawk.
When Detective Kim saw that I hadn't moved from the couch, he put the glass down, looked me directly in the eye, and said "Didn't you hear me? I said go to sleep. It's late."
"Oh, I heard you," I answered, nonchalantly. "I'm just choosing not to listen, that's all."
".........What?" asked my guardian, almost rhetorically. "What did you just say to me?" I ignored his ominous tone and stood up from the couch, clutching a pillow to my chest as if for comfort and protection from his reaction to what I was about to say next.
"You heard me," I retorted, my temper rising as I grasped the fluffy pillow tighter in my hands. From what I could see of his face, his jaw was clenched in rage at my defiance and disrespect and had taken several swift steps towards me. But before he could even reach the final step to where I was standing, my temper got the better of me and I flung the pillow at him, which hit him square in the face and made him stop dead in his tracks.
The light from the television illuminated some of his features and I could see that he was most definitely glaring at me and took several more deliberate steps forward. It was then that I completely lost control of my anger and grabbed the remaining pillows from the couch and hurled them at him, as if shooting him with fluffy bullets.
"YAH!" he yelled at me, fed up at my behavior and catching one of the pillows and thrusting it to the ground. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"
I stayed silent, glaring at him.
"Have you forgotten that I am your guardian now? I'm not one of your peers at school; I'm your elder and I deserve respect!" he scolded me. "You seem to have forgotten that I'm doing you a favor; I didn't have to open my home to you--I could still be living alone if I had chosen to!"
"Then stop acting like you're living alone, and start realizing that you do have someone who lives with you!!!" I hollered back, ignoring the angry tears that started to fill my eyes. "You're not alone in this house anymore--you have someone who shares the same living quarters as you do, and who depends on you: me!!"
He stared at me for a moment, registering my words.
"I tried calling you so many time today and yesterday, but you wouldn't answer you're stupid phone!" I continued screaming, the tears now flowing from my eyes and down my face. "I was worried sick about you!! I didn't know if you were alive or dead; if you would come home or not--and the worst part about it is, I can't go to the police station to see if you're ok, because nobody's supposed to know I'm living with you aside from Detective Cha and Prosecutor Kim!! So I was basically stuck here in the house all day worrying about you with nothing but my own horrid thoughts about what happened to you!!"
I hung my head and covered my face with my hands, sobbing. I was not only crying because I was angry--and I was livid--but I was also crying because I was relieved. I was relieved that he had made it back home alive and well. I was happy that he was here....with me. I don't know how long I stayed like that, or how long I was crying for. But the next thing I knew, I felt two powerful and strong arms wrap around my shaking body and hold me tightly. Securely. Safely. I was taken aback for a moment, then realized that Detective Kim was hugging me, and relaxed into his grasp, sniffling like a baby. He rested a hand on my head and stroked my hair and placed his chin on my scalp.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, "so sorry. I do forget that I'm not alone anymore, and that I have someone who depends on me. I've been alone for so long....I guess old habits die hard. I've never had someone waiting for me at home, or worrying about me. It's just something I'll have to adjust to."
I had stopped crying then, listening to his words and his heartbeat as I rested my head against his chest.
"I'm sorry," he repeated. "Do you forgive me?" I sniffed again, and looked up at him trying to look determined, but I knew I failed at it miserably.
"Only if you promise that you'll always answer your phone when I call and tell me where you are. If you can't answer your phone then text me; you look like you're tech savvy, texting should be easy for you. Ok?" I reasoned. He smiled at me, and I felt a blush creep across my already tearstained face.
"Ok." he said, "Now go to bed." He dislodged himself from me, making me feel cold and vulnerable for some reason. I had to suppress the urge to not go and attach myself to him once more; as if I didn't want him to let me go....as if I didn't want to let him go. Nonetheless, after he handed me a napkin and I wiped my face and nose, I bid him goodnight and went off to bed. But as I tucked myself into bed and snuggled into my covers, I couldn't shake the feeling of how much I wanted to be with him at this very second. How much I wanted to feel his arms around me again.
I felt another blush sear across my face, and I buried my head under my covers and turned on my side. I closed my eyes and started to count sheep, trying to relax my mind and drift off into sleep. Unfortunately, sheep were not the ones to permeate my dreams that night...on the contrary...it was Detective Kim who now managed to make me drift off into sleep.