Treasure tales

Short 17: Park Jihoon

I checked my watch. 4:30 pm. I groaned.

I looked up and stared wistfully into the blue sky, watching the clouds drift slowly by. Just for a moment I allow loneliness to consume me, and I indulge in the momentary relief from finally being able to feel freely rather than always having to repress my every emotion. Today is just another day. I must go home, shower, and study, and tomorrow it will repeat again.

Today I take a detour so that I can see the river. It is already very late, so it means that I would not have much time to finish the work for the day. I don't care. I wanted to rebel. I needed to rebel. I was sick, sick of everything.

There was a boy sitting by the river, photographing some flowers by the river. I watched him curiously. He was very focussed on his photography, adjusting his camera angle every now and then, fully devoted into getting the best picture he possibly could.

He lowered his camera for just a moment, and I watched his piercing eyes look thoughtfully into the distance. I instantly recognised that he was Park Jihoon of Treasure. I seemed to be running into Treasure members everywhere I went nowadays. I smiled to myself in amusement, wondering what it was about those flowers that enraptured him so much. I placed my hands into my pockets, and went on my way home.

"Rin!" I turned around in surprise. Jihoon was staring at me. I didn't realise he had noticed my presence. He smiled and beckoned to me.

"What is it?" I asked him as I approached him. 

Jihoon pointed to the flowers he was photographing. "Aren't they pretty?" They certainly were. They grew in clumps, pure white and angelic, untaunted by harsh storms and thrived in the gentle wind.

There was a barking sound. I looked up to see a dog hopping around and barking madly while its owner helplessly attempted to calm it. I looked around, wondering what had triggered it. There was nothing to be of notice, and I was confused. I had read somewhere that dogs, many animals in fact were sensitive creatures. There might have been something it noticed that we were unable to.

"Let me handle it," Jihoon said from behind me.

"Wait! It's dangerous!" I warned him. Jihoon ignored my pleas and walked towards the dog. He began to talk to it in a soft voice. After a while the dog calmed down and Jihoon began talking to the owner. The owner nodded at him, and the two, owner and dog, went on its way.

I walked to stand beside Jihoon, amazed at the spectacle he just showed me. Was this guy just naturally good with animals? I have always loved animals, so I did not know whether to be jealous or in awe.

"Don't mind it," Jihoon said, as if he had read my mind. "You don't know what my power is, don't you? Now you do."

Then it occurred to me. "You can...talk to animals," I said.

"Almost," Jihoon responded. "Language and affinity. I can speak in any tongue as long as they have a language to be spoken--which means I can't ask a bacteria or virus to leave your body because really they don't work that way. And anyone whom I choose to use my power on will have a natural affinity for me, because really I can't waste my time socialising with every animal I see to gain their trust if I need something out of them, right?. But, if they choose not to trust me despite naturally feeling those emotions, they still won't talk. They still get a choice. My power works on emotions, but it leaves the intellectual side alone."

"In that case, why was that dog so agitated?" I challenged him.

"Its owner has cancer," Jihoon said. I saw that empathy was reflected in his eyes as he watched the owner and the dog, who were now so tiny they were just a speck in the distance. "It was trying to warn him. I pretended to be a vet-in-training and told the owner to get himself checked. The owner agreed."

"I see," I said. I looked at Jihoon. He was so special, I privately thought. He could understand every animal I had ever wanted to talk to out there. I felt envious. I shook my head. Envy was a terrible emotion. That was not an emotion I should be feeling towards a member of Treasure, because a part of me desperately wanted to be part of their world. I looked away.

"By the way, Rin, I was actually going to call you after I had finished taking those photos," Jihoon said. "But by coincidence, we ran into each other." He looked me in the eyes seriously. I quickly looked away, embarrassed. He had very pretty eyes, piercing, deep and reflective.

"What is it," I asked. I wondered if it was something serious.

"Are you free to meet this saturday?" Jihoon said. "Eleven of us are going to meet up to discuss something. It's important. You must be curious too, right? Well you must know by now that we're not just some random twelve boys gathered together to have fun. There's something else."

"Eleven? Out of Twelve. That means the one excluded is--"

"Asahi," Jihoon interrupted me before the name could come out of my mouth. Yes, the boy who had never turned up for a single Treasure meetup other than the first, a presence that remained cold on their tongue, the mysterious final member of Treasure.

"He would adamantly refuse to come even if we got on our knees and beg," Jihoon said, looking away. "We do have some plans regarding that, though." His eyes shifted back to me. There was a smirk on his face. "You must be very curious as to why we need him to come so badly, right?"

"If you're using your affinity powers to tantalise me--"

"I'm not," Jihoon said. His face had gone back to being serious. "This is an important matter concerning both you and him. In the world that we have to contend with, choices like this cannot be treated as trivially as whether to put jam or peanut butter or both on your bread."

"Your world..."

Jihoon smiled. It was a very pretty smile. A lethal smile. "It's nothing great to be in so don't get too curious," he said, before imitating my awed expression. I casually ignored his lighthearted taunt. "You might be better off staying away from us."

"No," I protested. Jihoon did not look at me. He kept his eyes fixed in the distance.

"That's what we feared the most from you," He murmured quietly.

"I..."I wanted to tell him I could show him I was worth it, anything to convince him that I should stay. At first I myself had thoughts about leaving, that maybe, maybe I was just wasting my time. Even now that thought remained. Still...I had no idea what was happening to me, why the thought of having to leave tore so badly at my heart. And words, they failed me. I did not know what to tell Jihoon.

"See you," Jihoon said, patting my shoulder. Then he left, his hands in his pockets, and I heard a faint rumble sound from my chest. Then I knew that it was the sound of an insatiable yearning, a yearning that would come and go as long as Treasure did.