Of Obsessions and Possessions

Belonging

II. BELONGING

Normalcy was not something one could generalise.

'For Go Yoo Han who has face blindness,
And I, who is a Mono,
Our lives become as normal as others, — together.

The grey world I see
Now embodied excitement the moment I see colours again.'

Unlike before, I looked forward to going to school.
I looked forward to see Yoo Han.
I looked forward to the colours he would be teaching me today.
Most importantly, I looked forward to spending every minute with him...

— Which was good and all.

Until one day after school he said that we were going to his place instead of our usual haunts.
While his argument was that he was going to make good his promise to show me the Lazurite he mentioned before, — all of a sudden, my former rationale didn't seem so convincing anymore!

From the time we've known each other, I have never once set foot anywhere within the vicinity of his neighbourhood; let alone his house!
We have been together everywhere; — the school, libraries, parks, cinema, museums...
Heck! We spent so much time at my place, that some times I forget that he lived elsewhere in the evenings.

But his house?
Never.

— Until now.

Yoo Han literally manhandled me all the way to his house.
So caught up in my feeble attempts to debate the demerits of this unpremeditated visit, — to which he paid absolutely no heed of, — I hardly knew where we were going;
Until he came to a stop before a monumental gate within the community of the affluent in Seoul.

With the finance world, the political world, and the military world, — all within one household;
— Why did I think that it would be any less than the most coveted address in the illustrious Hamnan-dong, UN Village?

If Yoo Han saw the slack of my jaw, he politely kept his snickers to himself.

The gates threw wide open the very moment he stood before it. No door bells rung, no keys needed to unlock; it was as though his very presence was key itself to open.

He led the way up the winding driveway that was splendidly framed by a carefully manicured garden of variegated trees and plants.
I dreaded to think what the actual house would look like, if the outlook was this impressive.

And inwardly I scoffed derisively, at how right I was.
With every step forward, brought us closer to the imposing mansion hidden in the lush greenery.

— Which was impossibly huge!

Awe-stricken and all as we approached the front door, —
"Go Yoo Han... Do you ever get lost in your house...?"
I didn't know what possessed me to ask such a thoughtless question.

Casually having his thumb scanned on the door handle, he turned to toss me a mildly offended look, "I have prosopagnosia, not topograhagnosia..."

As the locks clicked open, he conceitedly threw open the pair of colossal mahogany doors to a foyer of equal grandeur. When he realised that I was too busy being awestruck, Yoo Han took my hand and led me through what I later discovered to be the beginning of a world beyond my wildest imaginations.

We rarely spoke about his family when we were together. But as the youngest son of the chairman of Taejong Group and an assemblywoman, and the younger sibling to a judge sister and a military officer brother, — he obviously lived in a world divergent from the one I knew.

We didn't get too far in before we were greeted with a deferential bow by a middle aged woman in uniform.
"Yoo Han-nim, welcome back. Would you like some refreshment served for your guest?"