reminisce | e'dawn. [🗸]

[chapter five]

Shinwon;

The day seemed much shorter than the rest of my days, in which I had nothing to do--no obligations. School made that drastically different for me, and I was tired by the time the final bell rang and Wooseok and I had to leave. I had walked so much my knees wobbled. One of the teachers followed me with her eyes every time I passed her classroom.

We walked side by side through the halls, the parking lot our destination. Mr. Jung was here to pick us up.

"So," Wooseok said finally, holding the lobby door open for me. It was bitingly cold outside.

"So?"

"How did you like school?"

I shrugged, yawning. "I want to sleep. I usually don't have so much on my schedule."

He grinned. "Heh, I get the feeling. You'll wake up soon, though. Mind if my dad takes us somewhere before we get home?"

"Where?"

"My friend works in this coffee shop," he explained. We both searched for Mr. Jung's car among the rows of students' rides. "He skipped school today to work there, so he'll be off his shift in a few minutes. I'd like to see him."

"Sure."

Mr. Jung pulled up and welcomed us into the car. The heat was blowing; it felt nice. Wooseok's nearly empty backpack slid across the seats, landing on my lap, and I didn't have the heart to push it away in the event that he was possessive over his backpack and didn't want me to move it.

"Dad, can you stop at Namusairo?" Wooseok asked as the car eased off school property. "I'd like to introduce Shinwon and Hyojong today."

"That sounds like a good idea," Mr. Jung smiled. "Ask him if he'd like to come over. I'll be at Hyemi's place to discuss some things."

Hyemi's place. "Isn't that my place?"

"Yes, Hyojong," Mr. Jung sighed. Why was he closer to Mom than I was? "I know it's strange, but Dr. Kim advises it."

I shook my head and stared out the window. The view was very similar to the one when I was leaving the hospital, yet this time, I didn't feel as independent and joyful as I was that day. Only a couple days ago, my life was orderly, relaxing, and simple, no end in sight; but when the next of life's doors opened, I must have tripped badly upon entering.

Wooseok nudged my upper arm, swiping his backpack off my lap afterwards. I just turned my head to acknowledge him.

"You good?" he asked, his eyebrows raised in concern.

"Good?" I repeated, not knowing how to use the term. I experimented, "Uh... you good?"

He shook his head. "It means are you okay."

"Yes."

Mr. Jung drove past the street with Jinho's house and the shedding Ginkgo trees. There was a stoplight at the end of this road, and it seemed to lead to a shopping center rather than another neighborhood. Immediately past the stoplight, the flashy white Namusairo sign was visible. So this Shinwon didn't work very far.

I felt less worked up when we arrived at the cafe. Mr. Jung promised Wooseok and me he'd be waiting in the car for us, and it wasn't long before I was inhaling the scent of ground coffee beans. It was a soothing fragrance, and the lighting was calm, too. Shinwon, whoever he was, was lucky to work here.

"Hey, Wooseok," was the first thing I heard inside the building. There weren't many people here, just an older businesswoman in the corner plus the baristas. We both looked toward the counter, where a tall guy around our age was waving cheerfully. There was an older man cleaning out one of the machines, and he didn't bat an eye when his younger colleague spoke.

Shinwon eyed me thoroughly as if reading my expression was his job and not making coffee. "It may not look like much now, but you should see this place at six AM. It's like an apocalypse."

"This is Hyojong," Wooseok laughed, pushing me closer to the counter. I made sure he was still behind me before approaching Shinwon on my own. "He shadowed me today."

"That's fun," Shinwon commented. "Nice to meet you, Hyojong. Want any coffee?"

"No, thanks," I declined shyly. Wooseok and Shinwon had a quick conversation about the history exam yesterday, and I stood quietly, listening in until Shinwon officially got off his shift. It wasn't long.

Shinwon led the way to Mr. Jung's car, having known it so well, and Wooseok whispered to me, "He's a really cool guy. Just wait a bit."

So I waited. We were at Wooseok's apartment, a place I had only once been but whose interior was almost identical to mine. I didn't feel so out of place when Mr. Jung disappeared to hang out with Mom, for Shinwon and Wooseok made me feel accepted.

I felt that way with Yuto, too, when we conversed in Japanese. It was one of the few times I wasn't puzzled about everything happening around me. And that was so refreshing.

"All right, Hyojong, your turn." Wooseok said it. We were playing a game called Aggravation, and Shinwon was very aggravated, though it could have been because he had been gloating about his luck with dice beforehand and was currently losing. I had just learned the objective, so I wasn't much better. It was funny when his voice reached such a high pitch from being aggravated so many times.

I rolled the die and it landed on a five, so my marble landed on top of Shinwon's. He looked ready to kill something when I sent his only active marble home for the second time. "You're too good at this, Hyojong."

"He's right," Wooseok said. "I almost don't want it to be my turn now."

"Maybe we can skip back to Shinwon then," I offered, probably sounding innocent to the two guys who exchanged knowing glances.

"Sure! We wouldn't want Wooseok to lose his marbles or anything," Shinwon submitted smoothly, and I found myself giggling at the remark. (I'd heard some amateur orderlies using that term to describe people when I was in the hospital; after living there for some time, I had the gist of what it meant.)

Shinwon had endured enough losses to suggest we wrap it up and turn on some music. Wooseok fetched his cellphone from some shelf with books and a charger on it and blasted a song that made me frustrated. Where had I heard it before?

"What do you think your folks are talking about?" Shinwon asked, folding his legs. We were sitting in a triangle on the floor. "The naughty-and-nice list?"

"More like the living situation," Wooseok proposed more realistically.  "Or maybe Mr. Kim. Maybe Bomi. Hey, Hyojong, have you seen that cat at all yet?"

I just shook my head, looking between Wooseok and Shinwon. "Should I have?"

"It'd be a miracle if she showed her face to you," Wooseok told me. "She only trusts your mom. Never leaves her bed."

"How did you know that?"

He shrugged. "I've just been to your place enough times with my dad to assume that was how it is."

"It's true. I've never seen a trace of cat in that place," Shinwon chuckled. I screwed my eyes together, folding my arms. I knew earlier in the week I said tiredness was the worst feeling, but I changed my mind now.

"You've been to my home?" I asked snappishly. I couldn't help it. "Are you closer with Mom than I am, too?"

He and Wooseok froze, their four brown eyes growing wider at some unsaid realization. I raised my eyebrows for lack of an explanation.

"Shinwon just comes with me sometimes when I go with my dad," Wooseok blurted, his face turning beet red. I scoffed to myself, looking down at my lap. I could tell Shinwon was embarrassed, too.

"All right, then."