Life sure was a strange thing, it never turned out quite how you expected it to be. You can never predict how the last day at Daecheon could be so eventful, it feels like a dream when you were already way back home with your whole family being silent on the car - a rare occurence that made you understand something in the system had shifted.
You just didn't know if it would be good or a bad thing. Rather, you knew that at least, the whole meeting with the other family had shaken up both your parents they never asked about the center part of that day.
It begins in the morning with Hye Jin embracing you and Daniel at the same time as she squeezed you both dotingly, almost suffocating the two of you. This was always the hardest part about meeting her occasionally - leaving her again to her puppies. She didn't know when she would see your family again - she may not see you for a year or more once your mom get back to England.
Savouring the moment, she unwillingly pulled away as your mom cleared her throat from where she stood by her side, glancing towards her wristwatch. "You might want to let go of my childrens before you decided to adopt them"
"Stay safe, my babies", Hye Jin said softly, kissing your forehead next to Daniel who's getting as Jungwon chuckled from beside your Dad.
As usual, your mom was becoming impatient, and had been attempting to depart for a while for your last activity today, but Hye Jin always found excuse for another hug, or Dad found another topic to talk about - and curiously enough, they made sure to evade topics from their school days.
"And you", Hye Jin said with shiny eyes as she made her way over to Jungwon with open arm, it took him awhile to realize what was happening, but as he was pulled into a hug, he seemed immobilized as he stood there awkwardly. "I am going to miss you too, looking baby boy"
As you and Daniel shared a look, the two of you stifle a laugh together as Jungwon was left looking lost in the motherly hug. "You look after the two of them, okay?", Hye Jin added, but in a whisper.
"Of course, ma'am", Jungwon said smoothly, a doubtful smile appearing in his face.
At last, the five of you managed to escape Hyejin's sweetness as you all get inside the car and waved at her from the window repeatedly, watching as she grew small along the rest of the beach when the car sets off to embark in the other souvenir stores into the main city of Boryeong.
"When will we see her again?", Daniel asks, during the silent ride as it becomes obvious the rest of you was still sleepy from waking up so early.
Mom squinted at him, as if trying to make sure she'd heard him right, before finally nodding. "You can go visit her in the summers if you want. She would love visitors like you"
"That's because everybody loves me, Mom!", Daniel exclaimed, grinning at everyone who rolls their eyes like you. "Maybe I could let her meet my Hazelnut?"
"As if it's possible for someone like her to be bessoted with you", an unwelcome comment from you called from beside Jungwon.
Daniel scrunched his nose in disgust, recognizing the sarcasm straight away and turned to look at you. Sure enough, you were leaning agaisnt the window with your eyes fixed onto him. It was challenging him to react, but he wouldn't give you the satisfaction.
"Do you really need to be a villain in my love story?", the question was out before he could stop it, earning him looks from your parents.
You turned your eyes from Jungwon to him and there it was, the smug look that Daniel hated seeing. "I didn't realise that I was talking to a human", you looked back at his bestfriend, "So, what he was going on about?"
"He was talking about his hopeless crush to Hazel-noona", Jungwon shot Daniel a teasing look and the younger boy groaned at his choice of words.
Your dad snorted at the statement and shifted in his seat. "There would be something wrong to Hazel's head if she so much gives you her attention"
"Exactly", your mom chimed in, making Daniel groan once again as it looks like no one is taking his side. "I know your my son but if I were Hazel, I'd never find you attractive with that kind of bratty attitude:
The three of you annoyed him some more with the help of Jungwon and that was the understatement of the century. It was as if all the spirits and the god was taking your side for once. And Daniel knew what you were thinking but yet he'd still rise to the bait. Even when he tried not to.
But this was one of those times losing was not on his top list. Daniel shifting to face you, and he smirked, clearly trying to rile you up as his gaze settled on your mom's direction. You'd patiently tried to let it all go, to no react, to hold it. Yet he didn't stop there.
He raised an eyebrow challengingly as he poised his mouth to reveal something, "Mom, wouldn't you want to know that someone here sneaked out of her room to see her Romeo at the pool?"
"I did not see anyone in the pool. I can't sleep because of your snores from the next room", He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to reply. You continued talking before he could interrupt. "Wouldn't you like to know what your Hazelnut is saying about you? In fact, it's not possible for her to like you even a bit and I don't know about you, but she certainly don't find you attractive"
He met your gaze head on, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "And Mom, do I need to remind you that she had been kissed by at least six boys by now"
"How can you know that?", you demanded suddenly, glaring at your brother when your mom nearly choked to drinking her water.
Daniel leaned closer to you, across Jungwon who was caught between cross fire. "I know that because it's true"
"Take it back", you hissed, one small remark away from grabbing his neck pillow and strangling him with it.
"Why should I take it back when I'm not lying, right Jungwon?", he asked innocently, tilting his head to one side as Dad only let out a small laughter.
Suddenly, your mom beat both of her hands in the dashboard. "That's it!", she shouted, simultaneously reminding you both of her presence as you and Daniel jumped apart from her outburst. "I have had enough of the two of you fighting constantly!", she turned to Daniel.
"Kim Dongkyu, she's your older sister and that means you shouldn't be messing with her and those boys by trying to join one of them in our family vacation", she turned to look at you, now hiding behind a chuckling Jungwon. "You know, he's the baby of the family, Kim Y/N, and while he might be an annoying little fart, you shouldn't pick on him so much, either. So, please ease up a bit"
There was a tense silence where you and Daniel both glared each other before abruptly looking away when your mom picked up a sizable wooden stick from floor in the front seat. It was enough to make you all shut up for the rest of the whole ride as you perfectly understood what it meant for an Asian mom
The reminder she would never hesitate to whoop your asses even if you were now a fully grown teenager in her eyes. You're never too young or too old for her kind of teaching a lesson.
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Once your family reached the fresh market where your mom and dad both squaeled at the sight of newly picked mushroom in different types and three of you - you, Daniel and Jungwon parted ways with them to go visit the stores displaying a variety of keychains, tshirt or any kinds of souvenirs that were available.
The two boys made an instant beeline when they spotted a keychain with a smiling sun, letting you know who it reminds them as they both mentioned Sunoo. As you hovered by the door, looking over the main selection and after seeing there was nothing interesting for you to gift to your friends, you decide to leave the two boys and have a look around in the other stores.
The whole market appeared to be crowded and busier today than you'd anticipated. There were so many foreigners roaming around and some of them were even asking you for directions. Too much for your kindness, you get to the point of directing this sweet looking american elders to where they can rest for a while outside a patio of a coffee shop.
Their grateful smiles had made your day that you didn't feel yourself getting farther and farther from your company until it was too late and you find yourself at what must be the sketchy part of the market - this area is lacking any busy people moving around, of storeowners calling to a potential consumers and the worse of all, your phone is not reaching any kind of signal.
As you tried to remember your way around from there, two white men were sat on the front of a boarded store not too far from you, conversing among themselves in their foreign language. They had hostile and quite frightening faces, and the larger man of the two holds up a wave, as if to greet you which you ignored as you quicken your footsteps to get as far away from them as possible.
You could have sworn they were throwing glances at your direction, and you felt your heart beat a little faster than normal with your breath becoming heavy as you walked faster at a realization you might fall into danger any second now. You almost reached the end of this street when a gruff voice with a heavy accent stopped you in your track.
"Excuse me, ma'am", they said, and you turned to see the taller and thinner man of the two, speaking with a strange glint in his blue eyes. The larger man stood behind him, watching you closely like a prey. "Are you lost? We can help you find your way around here"
"No, it's okay. I know where I am going now. Sorry", you hurriedly say, your heart rate quickening as you backed away from them and yet the larger one slip past you, as if to block you behind.
"Please, don't be afraid, little girl", the thinner man said quickly, a look of sudden distress flashing across his face, before he laughed a small laugh and flashed you a disgusting yellow smile. "You're the one to venture in this area at an unsafe time. We were just trying offer you a help"
With your eyes widening in fright as he stepped closer, the smell of his odor in the air making you slight dizzy. "I need to go. My family is now calling for me", you said quietly, as you turned again to attemp to leave, but the larger man was behind and now it looks they were trapping you in between with nowhere to escape.
"Why are you trying to leave?", the larger man asked suddenly, his voice low and rough, almost like a heavy growl.
"Like I said before, Sir, I needed to go now"
"We mean you no harm, little girl, so don't be afraid of us", the other man said with his eyes looking you up and down eagerly, causing for you to tense. "Very few from the tourists have past this way over the weeks, and never things pretty young"
By then, you knew the only thing you needed to do is to try find a way to get out of their reach and you assessed the situation with a sickening sense of predictability. It was like the creepy old man from Seattle where Jay had saved you from. But he isn't here. He was on his way back now to Seoul.
It was a beat before you took off in a run, hoping in your heart the larger man in front of you wouldn't catch you and it was almost possible, almost did you slip past him dodging his first attempt to grab you in the arm, not until your clumsiness get in the way of your escape.
The thinner man as if used to this kind of situation, kicked an empty barrel rolling down your path and it managed to trip you succesfully, the laughter of the larger man was the last thing you heard before you scream madly as you felt two massive hands clung onto your legs, pulling you from the public sight.
"No, please no", you were begging by the time the two men were sharing big smiles and large man was keeping your knuckles behind your back.
You have never known fear that felt like it in the moment. The tears were quick to come by the sight of the other man unzipping his pants while looking down at you in a suggestive way. Later, you would only recall how paralyzed and dirty you feel at the second his hand fisted the front of your shirt, nearly ripping it from your body until you heard an adult voice from behind.
"Let go of the girl"
The two men's bloodshot eyes flickered toward them, the two person who came in the right time to save you, then they glared over your shoulder at the man who had just spoken. "What the two of you can do to us, huh? Scare us with your height?"
"Let go of her now", the man said, which to your opinion is thick with accent. Like to an Australian. "There's no reason to make this any worse"
The two man ignored him. With a surprising speed, the larger man lunged toward the smaller man, his arms wide, intending to take him down. And there's nothing you could but yelped when you were grabbed by his company away from the thinner man, you almost struggled at his hold in your waist if not for the voice whispering in your ear.
It's Jake who placed you behind him as he concealed you from the other man's view. "Don't worry, we'll save you. At least, my dad will save you"
You were about to respond when the large man closed in, the man that Jake said it's his dad - kept one leg in place as he leaned to the opposite side, his armssweeping as he used the larger man's momentum to throw him off balance. A moment later, the one who nearly subjected you into something bad - was facedown in the dirt with the smaller man's rubber shoes on the back of his neck.
"Just calm down now", Jake's dad said as he gestured to his phone ringing up 911 and the thinner man instantly backed away. "Just stay there and be a good man until they all came here"
The larger man began to struggle beneath the shoe, preparing to push himself up, but with a quick hop - while still keeping one shoe planted firmly on his neck - the other foot slammed down on his fingers, then quickly moved aside. On the ground, the large man retracted his hand and screamed while the shoe on his neck pressed down even harder.
"Stop moving or it'sonly going to get worse", The words of Jake's dad were clear and slow, as if he were addressing a dimwit. "You deserved it right by trying to molest a helpless girl"
Still stunned by the rapidity of the events, you just stared at the man who you had think it's quite familiar, not just because he was the father of the boy holding you in place. It's like you've seen him somewhere before.
You noted that he had yet to look at you. Instead, he seemed intent on keeping his shoe in the proper place, as if warily pinning a rattlesnake to the canyon floor. Which, in a way, he was.
On the ground, the larger man began to struggle again. Again, his fingers were stomped while the other boot remained fixed on his neck. He stifled a wail, his body gradually growing still. Only then did the Jake's dad look up at you, his eyes piercing in the reflected lights from the window of this store before him.
He smiled, instantly recognizing why he agreed in the first place with his son to save you. "Jake, bring her out of here now", he ordered. "I'm sure her mom would be worried by now"
Jake hesitated for a moment, looking back once more to your tormentor before pulling you of that place without any words. As you struggled for an appropriate response to the event, you take one last look to his dad and realized that he wasn't much older or appropriately even in your parents's age.
He looked vaguely familiar, but not because you'd always seen his son face-to-face who shared some of his facial traits. You'd seen him somewhere else, maybe inside, but that wasn't quite right. You couldn't put your finger on it.
"You know what? Even in a first meet like this, I think my dad was already fond of you", Jake said as he leads you to the nearest police station at the market.
He let the words hang before focusing on walking you there with a grave face. There was anger in his expression and fear as well, and with that, he turned to hug you before continuing in your real destination.
Of all the things he could have said, and of all the things he'd said to you in the past, you didn't know why his words about his dad caught you off guard so much at this very moment.
For the first time, you thought there must be something more to his dad than meets the eyes.
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When your family comes flying through the front doors of the police station with your mom leading the worried circle, the first thing she sees is the person she didn't expected to se after so many years. The beautiful woman is sitting hunched in one of the three blue plastic chairs opposite the main desk, staring vacantly at the dirty floor and gnawing at one of her fingernails.
And though it's after lunch and Mom found herself in Boryeong's police station for the very first time in her life, it's this detail that shocked her the most.
This woman from her past doesn't bite her nails. She isn't a person with nervous habits, because nothing makes her nervous. She's fearless and unwavering and bold. And her nails, like the rest of her, always look perfect, with red polish to match the rest of her outfit. So seeing her now like this is a little bit alarming.
"Where is she?", she nearly demanded, not caring for any sort manners when it comes to this woman.
She is now as Mrs. Sim, and she seems surprised to see her, as if she's already forgotten that she'd been the one to ask her to leave before. She blinks at your mom, then lowers her hand and said, "Inside with my son and husband. She's safe, Hae In"
As soon as she said, your mom took no time to waste as she entered the room to where you must be with your dad trailing in after her, and she heard the click of the knob as she turned to opened it inside. When the police walking around parted to make way for her, she took a step forward and then another.
She saw him almost instantly after the first step forward to where he was comforting you at the Chief officer's table. His brown hair almost tumbled down his forehead and his face took on the exact expression she had expected from the both of them, shock.
Neither the two of them said a word as their eyes locked onto each other and Mr. Sim's face fell.
"It's been far too long, Hae In"
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Oh my god.. this story is now turning in as a drama for me and I was so shocked at how I managed to write this in one go. I hope you all find it interesting especially at the end of this chapter.
What do you think about it? Is it going too fast or too slow?
By the way, can you help me create a name for Jake's parents's name along Y/N's and Jay's since they were all a big part of this book?
Please. Please. A korean name suited to them. Like maybe, a name near to Dongkyu for Y/N's Dad?
Don't forget to Comment & Vote!