20 AGAIN // Jeong Yunho

12: UNSETTLING FEELING

San laughed. "I trust you on that. Well, we are almost there."

"Can you stop over there." Hyejung pointed at the bus stop nearby. "I don't want people to see me coming out of your car."

"They can't see me. All the windows were tinted."

"I mean, I don't want people to see me coming out from an expensive looking car. It makes me feel uncomfortable."

"Oh okay. I get what you mean." San pulled over at the bus stop.

"Thanks for giving me a ride! I'll go first!" She hurried out of the car and towards the university gate. Hyejung prayed that she would make it on time before her turn was up.

San's lip curled up into a smile as he watched her with interest from inside the car. It never occurred to him that he will one day experience this warm feeling; it sprang up like a mushroom inside him.

"Seo Hyejung, an interesting woman indeed." Everytime he sees her, his heart feels ticklish.

A smile graced his face and started to drive again but San made an abrupt stop when someone suddenly crossed in front of his car. The person cursed at San but he paid no heed when something else caught his attention; a leather journal and a light blue jacket which fell forward from the passenger seat.

"It must be Hyejung's" San leaned sideward and grabbed both the journal and the jacket before he placed it back on the seat. A small paper slipped out from the journal — it was a sketch which was most probably drawn by Hyejung. It doesn't look like a sketch that was drawn professional but the outcome of it was enough for one to know that it was a picture of a boy.

What caught San's attention was the written message below the sketch:

'Mummy miss you so much Soobin.'

"Soobin?" He never heard of the name before. An idea came and San quickly shook his head. "It can't be that Soobin is her son." Judging from the boy inside the sketch, he looked like a 3 or 4 years old boy.

"If Soobin is her son, she would've been about 16 years old when she got pregnant." The idea sounded far-fetched for San. "Must be her sister's or brother's son." San slipped back the sketch inside her journal; he pushed the implausible thought to the back of his mind.

Once again, something disturbed him — the jacket — it didn't look like one that woman would wear, rather it looked like a man's jacket.

The jacket belonged to Yunho but Hyejung didn't realise that she brought it along with her while she rushed out of the house earlier.

San lifted it up to have a better look at it; a masculine perfume wafted from the jacket. The size did fit a tall and broad shouldered man, something that San thought would be impossible for Hyejung to wear though she's indeed tall.

After all, why would she wear men's perfume?

San quickly folded the jacket and placed it on top of the journal. "Must be her brother's or male cousin's—" Yunho's face suddenly appeared in his mind. San shook his head and again, he pushed it to the back of his mind. Cousin is part of a family too.

San thought that he would forget about those unsettled feelings but he was wrong; his mind was filled with those thoughts for the whole day.

~

"I'm sure I brought it with me," Hyejung mumbled as she rummaged through her bag to find her lost journal. "Did I leave it at home?" She bit her nail, trying to remember if she forgot to bring it along with her this morning.

"I didn't leave it somewhere, did I? At the bus stop—" She drummed her fingers on the table. "No, I don't think so. If it was inside San's car he would have told me if I left it there. Maybe I should text him." She fished out her phone to text but soon realised that she didn't have his number and neither did he — they never exchange their numbers.

"Great. Let's just pray that I indeed left it at home."

"Seo Hyejung! Let's go!" Yeji called her.

"Coming!" She grabbed her bag; a new realisation dawned upon her — where's her jacket? "Yeji, did you see my jacket?"

"First your journal and now your jacket. Are you becoming forgetful now?" Yeji placed both her hands on her hip. "I didn't see you bring any jacket."

"Are you sure?"

Yeji nodded.

"Did I leave that too?" Hyejung tilted her head in confusion.

"Come on, lass! I'm hungry! Just buy a new jacket!" Yeji groaned in frustration. She waited for 20 minutes and Hyejung was still clueless as to where her missing things were.

"But my journal—" There's a sketch of Soobin inside.

"I'll buy you a new one." Yeji cut in before Hyejung could finish her sentence. "You need a new one anyway so I'll buy one for you. Now, can we go and eat? Nara's already waiting for us at the cafe."

Hyejung bit her inner cheek.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go." Though she reassured herself that she might have left the journal at home or if she happened to leave it somewhere, people wouldn't know it's hers; she never wrote her name there. However, there's still this unsettling feeling that pit inside her stomach; as if her secret was about to unravel to someone.