I LOVE YOU SO
Chapter Twenty
❛ Safety by their sides. ❜
SOMETHING WASN'T GOING according to plan.
At all.
A strenuous ringing rattled through the speakers. Bringing a palm in front of her eyes, groggily, Aera's pulse hastened over the commotion that sprung to life. The mattress under her sank slightly as she got up, her limbs weren't screaming as much, due to having a proper nights sleep that evening.
"What's going on?" Aera found that her voice echoed into nothing as the alarm blared over her.
"I don't know," Sang-woo hectically peered around his shoulders, a puzzled expression drawn on his face, "the best idea is to not freak out."
"I wasn't really freaking out, but now that you said it . . . I'm freaking out," rubbing repetitively at her eyes, a weary sigh fell out of Aera's lips.
Placing her feet on to the floor, it felt cold against her socked toes, she'd discarded her shoes during the night since it made it uncomfortable for her to sleep. Plus, something inside of her thought she'd might feel a little bit at home if she slipped her shoes off. Thoughtlessly biting on the end of her sleeve, trying to find her shoes in concentration, scrunching her nose up with her pulse hastening, Aera found that her jacket smelled tinily like cherries and matcha- her mind drifted on to Sae-byeok.
"Just don't freak out," Sang-woo repeated once more.
"Hm very helpful," Aera mumbled a response.
Scanning the area, Aera's team mates dotted the blanket covered floor, several groans could be heard from the harsh alarm that battered down their ear drums. Barging through the metal, silver doors were a pack of supervisors. The people clad in pink dispersed into the perplexed room with their guns cocked, they started to examine each individual, releasing them whenever the players didn't meet the description the supervisors needed.
Patting aimlessly beside her, a shimmer of fright glossed over Sae-byeok's eyes as she searched for Aera's presence. "Aera? I swear if anythings happened to you I will make you sleep on the floor next time," she mumbled out with a tired yawn, her dreary eyes moistened slightly.
"I'm right here Sae," flicking the sleep out of her fatigued eyes, Aera felt Sae-byeok's fingers graze lightly against her forearm. Shifting slightly on the firm mattress, she carefully slipped her fingers through the gaps between Sae-byeok's fingers, a soft grin smeared on to her face, "I don't care if I sleep on the floor, I can take it."
"Shit," dropping her head back against another metal frame next to her, the lights caught on to the faint layer of sweat that coated her skin, making it sparkle slightly. Under the enhanced lighting, it was easier to depict the tough jawline she had. A shaky smile painted on Sae-byeok's ruby lips, "I thought I . . ."
Aera drummed her fingers against the back of Sae-byeok's hand as she lolled her head to the side, dazed, as she mindlessly brought a finger against her benumbed lips, "- lost me? No, not again, not in a million years."
"That better be true or I'll rip your throat out," eyeing Aera with a gentle grin that dared to display on to her uptight facade. Sae-byeok was meant to give it a more harsher tone, but it ended up being a softer tone- the glimmer of bliss sparkled within Sae-byeok's eyes, the corners of them creasing, a giveaway to how comfortable she was with Aera.
"Not if I rip your heart out first," being her immediate answer with a hushed tone, it distributed out into the obnoxious alarm that still played in the background. Still, Aera stayed but, and never tore her eyes away from Sae-byeok as she traced a finger along the side of Sae-byeok's tough jaw.
"Please make your way to the centre of the room," the robotic woman spoke through the speakers, overlapping deafeningly with the alarm.
A silent shiver arose from Sae-byeok's back as she tucked her lips between her teeth, before letting them turn into a coy smile, a gentle warm feeling bloomed within her chest from the contact of Aera's hand against her skin. Aera's tender finger dragged along her jaw, as her deep eyes wondered about on Sae-byeok's features.
Clasping her fingers around Aera's wrist, making it heat up, Sae-byeok's soulful eyes fluttered at the delicacy of Aera's unique characteristics. Taking each quality of Aera's face into detail, her eyes fell on to the litter of dark colours on her neck, the bruises that Deok-su created were beginning to fade away.
"You're all smiley," Aera teased, she reluctantly got up from the soft bed. After a while, she was able to sleep properly, for she felt safe, especially under the protective arms of Sae-byeok who rested her chin on top of Aera's scalp the majority of the night, the comfortable blanket draped on top of them comfortably.
With a bashful grin slipping onto Sae-byeok's full lips, she glanced towards their tightly entwined fingers, with her nails, she very tenderly and lightly dragged them along the surface of Aera's skin, making it tingle.
"I'm just glad that you're here," Sae-byeok got up alongside her.
Aera's heart swelled, "look at you being all mushy."
"Don't push it," trapping her bottom lip between her top teeth, a soft smile painted on to Sae-byeok's cherry tinted lips, enhancing her features with more of a glow, unlike the stiff and tense front she held during the beginning of the games.
A voice snapped them away from their trances.
"Get away from the bed," a supervisor demanded in a bitter tone, their weapon beside their eye line as they got ready to fire if the two girls did not move, "get away from the bed," the sound of their gun cocking resounded around the room, "I repeat get away from the-"
With widened eyes, Aera gingerly thrusted her hands into the air, there was a slight tremble within her movements as she stumbled forwards. "Okay, okay, we're up now! Geez. Someone has an itty bitty tantrum." Chuckling tiredly whilst eyeing the gun that was pointed towards her, the supervisor shoved the weapon forwards, pointing it a millimetre away from her face, as if they were threatening her to get a move on. Jolting, "woah, woah woah, that was unnecessary," staggering forwards with her jaw dropping, Aera felt Sae-byeok's warm fingers graze against her knuckles.
"What the fuck is their problem," tugging on Aera's sleeve, Sae-byeok's eyes hardened, "don't waste your breath on that jerk," a deep frown creased her lips as she threw a dangerous glare towards the supervisor.
"Good idea, I don't want to be wasting my breath on someone who looks like a pink Jelly Baby," pointing her chin towards the ceiling with broad shoulders, Aera shoved the supervisor with the side of her arm as they strode towards the centre of the dormitory, flashing them a cold glare, "unbelievable bastard."
Arriving at some single filed lines, with a small frown etching across Aera's mouth, her eyebrows lightly knitted together as she exhaled deeply. The alarm must extremely serious, from the fact that the supervisors rushed towards each puzzled player's side, investigating each face with their bulky weapon within their gloved hands, it brought anxious flitters to bubble within Aera's stomach.
Squeezing Sae-byeok's soft palm apprehensively, a wobbly grin found its way across Aera's restless face, she hoped that whatever they were about to do, wouldn't split them up. Aera also hoped that the plan that she was still undertaking with Jun-ho was still on track, and that the alarm didn't resound because a terrible error occurred whilst doing so.
"What's wrong?" Staring ahead, trying to locate what held Aera's attention, concern filled Sae-byeok's dark warm eyes as she grazed her thumb against the back of Aera's dewy palm.
"I'm worried," murmuring next to her, with furrowed eyebrows, Aera exhaled shakily, "I'm worried that they found Jun-ho."
Shifting slightly on her foot and catching Aera's gaze, by reaching her fingers out to fiddle with Aera's silver locket, opening and closing the heart mindlessly, "it might not be him, the alarm could be on for something else, probably calling this whole thing off, you'd never know," Sae-byeok forced a grin. "Look he's not as idiotic as you," a light chuckle flew out of her lips, though it wavered for she was unsure. "I'm sure he's alright."
The haunting alarm began to do Sae-byeok's head in, biting on the inside of her cheek, she tried her best to reassure Aera, even if it was impossible to reassure herself.
"This is the only time I'm agreeing with him being less of an idiot," grimacing a smile, "shit. I hate this. I just want this to be over, everything's a living nightmare," rubbing at her forearms hurriedly, Aera let her eyes skid around the room apprehensively.
"At least you have me to go through this nightmare with you."
Quite a dreamy nightmare indeed, "we shouldn't even be going through this at all. We're human. This place isn't fit for monsters either," Aera shut her eyes briefly before breaking into a tender expression with a fragile grin, "but it also brought me back to you again," she smoothed the back of Sae-byeok's hand gently, "I'm glad to be in this nightmare with you."
Elevating her chin, the sides of Sae-byeok's lips turned upwards, almost a prideful stare took over her features as they lingered on Aera's soulful eyes.
Using the hair tie she stole innocently from Sae-byeok, Aera began gathering the majority of her hair into a tight ponytail, like she always did whenever she was ready to go through an unpredictable mission, though it didn't go smoothly since her tresses resembled a crows nest.
Enlarging her eyes slightly, Sae-byeok clamped her palm, lightly, on Aera's elbow. Sae-byeok frowned tightly as she flickered her eyes over towards the dark colours on the back of Aera's neck. There were some skin blemishes on Aera's neck that were created by Deok-su a few nights before, the bruises seemed more vibrant on the back than the ones on the front of Aera's neck.
"That jerk," Sae-byeok's light breath flickered over the surface of Aera's skin. Blinking harshly a miniature fire festered within her fuming pupils as she loosened her shirt, as if she were to spark up another fight with Deok-su.
"Aera you have a little something on your neck," Ji-yeong tapped Aera's shoulder with, tilting her head towards the side, Ji-yeong's lips teetered into a frown, not knowing if what she saw was truly there, "shit Aera . . . who did this to you?"
"Who did what?" Aera sucked in a sharp breath, she felt Sae-byeok trail the tips of her finger delicately on the large bruises, almost hovering it above Aera's skin, careful not to cause infliction. "Right . . ." Seething through her gritted teeth, a series of unwanted trauma resurfaced within Aera's mind as she recalled the scarring night, "that Deok-su guy grabbed me by the collar, during the fight in the dorm room," rubbing the back of her neck hesitantly, "ah shit."
Pinching her eyebrows together, "I'll kill that asshole." Ji-yeong tutted whilst shrugging her jacket off, "you know what here," holding it loosely with her hands, she began tying the arms of the jacket, gently, around Aera's neck. "Now you look even more awesome. Dang Aera, I'm beginning to think you should model in your own photos, not us," shoving Aera's arm lightly, trying to lighten the mood, she also nodded at Sae-byeok.
Standing with rigid shoulders, Sae-byeok made sure her arm practically touched Aera's shoulder, her neck craned downwards as her eyes continuously threw daggers at Ji-yeong's feet. From her peripherals, she flickered her attention from Aera to Ji-yeong. The pressure of her teeth being clenched together increased, making her jaw tense as a strange, bitter emotion sizzled within her veins.
Unable to reply, an uncontrollable amount of warmth imprinted on to her cheeks. Wrapping her hands around the sleeves of Ji-yeong's jacket, that was now tied around her neck, Aera fiddled with them with a timid smile whilst shuffling on her feet awkwardly, "thank you but, won't you be cold?"
"Don't worry about it," raising an eyebrow with an arm on her hip, Ji-yeong chuckled lightly once more whilst winking once, "you look great."
Grinning softly, Aera lowered her arms and immediately tried searching for Sae-byeok's warm palm. Her chest deflated when she couldn't locate it. Twirling around slowly to face the front, Aera was met by a prolonged silence, the irritating alarm was put to a pause, hopefully never to be resumed again. Everybody was distanced slightly from each other as they stood in single lines, almost like warriors soldiering on to an unpredictable war.
"Attention. The fourth game is about to begin. Please follow the staff's instructions and swiftly make your way towards the game hall."
Fatigue tried closing Aera's eyes as she scanned the room. Taking the opportunity to examine each player herself, Aera tried finding her brother within each line, believing that it was even possible to find him. It had been a few days, she'd been confined in the same room with the same people, surely she would've found him already. But, Aera's goal of fulfilling both her and Jun-ho's plan was still not met. Her brother was still missing.
Shakily sighing, Aera blinked away some tears that glazed over her eyes, though, stopping short, something caught her attention.
A faint figure blended in within the stacks of bed frames. Trailing away from her line, Aera's pulse pounded within her ears, that was the only thing she could hear, apart from the shuffles of some feet and her own trembling breath. A hand caught on to her weist and brought her to a halt, though her wondering eyes never left the centre of the room.
Is that really him?
"In . . . ho?" Staggering over, the whites around Aera's eyes began to widen as she tried fight against someone's gently tight grip, keeping her from going beyond the line.
A gentle hand gripped on to her shoulders, still it didn't cast Aera's eyes away from the dark figure within the room. Squeezing her shoulders a few times, concern loaded itself into Sae-byeok's eyes as she craned her neck around to look in the direction Aera was looking at. When her eyes met with nothing, a wave of worry mounted on to Sae-byeok's shoulders as she glanced back at Aera.
Sae-byeok opened her mouth to say something, but Ji-yeong overlapped her voice on top of hers, making her shut her mouth forcefully with a flitter of agitation bubbling within her veins.
"What's got you holding up the line Aera- You look like you've seen a ghost," Ji-yeong ignored the crowd of people that tried to form around them, her tone was laced with concern, though it sounded muffled against Aera's ears as she was preoccupied with her visions of In-ho.
Keeping her careful eyes on the figure in the distance, the inner sides of Aera's brain began to squeeze, as if something was hammering against it. The shadowy figure only became clearer the more she stared.
Aera swore she could see In-ho grinning in the distance, he was clad in his usual jumper but with tattered hems and scuffed boots. Urging herself to move forwards, a couple of tears began to scatter down her cold cheeks, the figure only encouraged her to move onwards.
But then in vanished- dissipated into thin air.
"In ho?" Breathlessly, with her bottom lip quivering slightly, Aera's jaw widened in disbelief, she shook her head slowly, feeling a loss of warmth within her chest at the disappearance of her brother again.
"Earth to Aera," breaking away from the strictly formulated line, distress filled Ji-yeong asked in a sing-song voice as she paced over towards Aera.
Sae-byeok grumbled with a short eyeroll, "move." Pressing a foot in front of Ji-yeong so that she couldn't go any nearer, Ji-yeong threw her palms up in defense as a suppressed chuckle flew out of her lips.
"Dang okay, always so cold aren't you?"
A dull glare landed on Sae-byeok's face when she looked at Ji-yeong, though softened as she smoothed out Aera's flyaways with both her index fingers, making Aera's skin tingle and pinch pink, "what's wrong Aera," a rictus grin fell upon Sae-byeok's lips, "what did you see?"
Still shaking her head slowly, sorrowful tears painted Aera's cheeks a profound frown wobbled on her lips as her vision blurred, "I thought I . . . I thought," hiccuping with her cheek rested against Sae-byeok's chest, her arms slowly wrapped around her torso. She could feel the questioning looks from the other players, burning on her back, she shrugged that feeling off. She could only just handle her despondency. "I thought I saw my brother, over there, by the beds."
With her chin falling delicately on top of Aera's head, falling almost perfectly against the surface, since they were in a similar position to this during the restful night, Sae-byeok's shoulders stiffened at the miserable tone within Aera's croaky voice.
"You'll find him," swaying slightly, a delicate grin tried to force its way through the tight frown on her lips, Sae-byeok tried her best to sound convincing as she slowly released her arms, pulling the two away from the embrace they shared, "and when you do, I'll punch him fair and square in the face."
Shooting her eyebrows upwards, "why punch him?" Aera almost gasped aloud with her palms flying towards her mouth that was agape.
"For making you feel like shit," leaning forwards, Sae-byeok beamed genuinely, proving her words to be true.
"You're right, I do feel like shit," Aera responded, even though she had a weak, beaming smile illustrated on her pink lips, making her words unconvincing.
With an arm lifted up to snake around Aera's shoulders, a prideful grin found itself onto Sae-byeok's mouth when she saw how Aera walked effortlessly, well still with a tiny hobble. Sae-byeok's chest filled with a sunny warmth for it meant that Aera's wounded leg was healing fast.
Casting her mind back to when she used to hang out with Aera by the river in Seoul, when the cloudless pastel blue skies stretched out above them, when the golden sun battered its light against their dewy skin, making the two soak in the shiny rays- a soft smile illuminated on Sae-byeok's lips.
The chilly water in the river blanketed their bodies, as young Aera and young Sae-byeok swam freely within the calm current. She remembered how the grass beside the marine river was almost emerald, and the fields within the tranquil park were littered with dandelions. Often, Aera would make them wish on them, and even though Sae-byeok thought it was pointless, she made useless wishes anyways. Ones that were on the lines of: "I wish to be best friends with Hwang Aera forever." Or something like that.
The tiny freckles on young Aera's face, ones that were so very faint, would danced upon her bashful cheeks, young Sae-byeok would often gaze at them whenever the swimming in the river got boring, she'd also count the many brown highlights that were in Aera's hair. But with the water coating Aera's hair, it made it hard for Sae-byeok to count the highlights, but nonetheless it didn't stop her from trying.
At times they'd show each other cool tricks they could do underwater. The shallow waters made it easier for them to balance their hands on to the ground. Aera would always be the one to do a handstand perfectly, even though her feet lolled to the side, Sae-byeok still gave her a round of applause- followed by an eye roll and a statement:
"I can do that better than you obviously," pinching her nose, getting ready to go under the water, Sae-byeok squeezed her eyes shut as her body submerged into the water.
Followed by an answer, "show me then idiot," chuckling softly, Aera always watched as Sae-byeok's 'handstand' teetered, which made Sae-byeok fall gently back into the water, and when she reached the surface again, another eye roll would display on to her face. "See, I'm better than you, Kang Sae-byeok," placing two hands on her hips, Aera always ducked as Sae-byeok flicked some water into her face, thus causing a water fight to commence.
Though, one time Sae-byeok tried doing a handstand, her hand slipped, causing her body to tumble backwards. From below the waters, she could hear Aera's muffled laugh, though, it soon faded into a loud scream as the waters were diluted impermanently with a light crimson colour. The surface of Sae-byeok's ankle had collided with a small boulder within the river- causing a gnarly gash to tear at her skin.
For about seven weeks after that, Sae-byeok had a limp, Aera's family were willing to pay for the hospital expenses so that her ankle didn't get infected. For every single minute of those weeks, Aera's concern never ceased, she was always there to aid Sae-byeok with a helping hand.
It was, really, at that point when Sae-byeok fully trusted Aera, for even though she was injured and moody most of the time, Aera stayed, and never left.
The fond memory faded from her mind when they entered the pastel staircases. Sae-byeok wished she had a dandelion at that moment, so that she could wish a proper wish- a wish to have safety by both her and Aera's side.
( 3724 words )
DEAR ALL,
Sort of filler chapter sort of not, promise the next ones will be more spicy, thank you for all the comments and votes I always say this but I'm truly thankful💗💓💕💖💞
Hope you have a great day tbh🤚🤚
WITH LOVE, SYLVIA