During the second year of my middle school, I got severely ill, because of ongoing flu. I went absent for a whole month. I lamented on the fact my classes are in ruins as well as my training in dojo.
Eunha disappeared in the mist of our busy schedule as Julia and Lily were preparing to change schools in the third year of middle school. As soon as I recovered, I went back to school and Eunha started acting different and cold. Lily and Julia were both busy in transferring schools, and I didn't pay attention because I had to catch up on loads of school work.
My training got quite rigid, I didn't bother her or either cared. We both were together, as we entered our first year yet we didn't have words between us.
Time went by, and even though Eunha was silent, she was present besides me but it felt like she wasn't. Her mind and conscious was somewhere else.
One evening, before our third year end exams, I was sitting with Eunha on the rooftop. I finally asked her
"What's wrong? You don't talk much?" I asked as wind was making its crisp noises against the metal grilling of the rooftop.
"Its an year, and now you are asking?" she asked with a smile, and that smile seemed so dissimilar from the look in her eyes that I gulped in fear, perhaps that fear was guilt.
My words were caught in my throat, as I managed to say
"Wha..t d..o y..you m..mean?" .
The winds softened as the sun's glowing last hue was murmuring its goodbye.
"Nothing, lets get back to studying" The stinginess in her voice caught me off gaurd as her blowing hair disguised her face as well as expressions.
This was my only conversation with Eunha. After exams, I went abroad and when I came back to Korea, I couldn't get in touch with her. I, even visited dojo, but it was closed due to personal problems. As it was already late at nighy, I called lily.
"Hey" I muttered at the phone.
"Yes, Selena before you could say anything I want to tell you that, in this area there are rumours of notorious middle school union of thugs, their emerging leader is Baekjin Na or something-"
I interrupted her in between and asked
"Have you seen Eunha?"
"N..no" Lily hesitated and hung up the phone. I was sitting at the threshold of the dojo, legs were crouched and my forearms were wrapped around my arms.
The bitter winter winds swept through me like cold ice. I was contemplating where I was wrong, something in her life seemed so erroneous that I turned a blind eye to it.
I looked up at the dark sky, which was limitless, my pang of guilt, felt just like that- limitless.
"HELPPPP MEEE"
A chilling shriek rang in the utmost quiet surroundings. My, every instinct, almost honed to perfection felt alert and aware. It was Eunha's voice. It was coming from the backyard of her home.
Startled as I was, my feet ran towards the voice asking for help. My insides went churning as I looked at what was happening.
The streetlight above the scene clicked and I saw that Eunha's clothes were torn and tattered, her flesh which was peeking out was full of wounds and untreated scars. They were glittering under the golden light. She had a huge slanting cut on her face. The blood on the cut wasn't fresh but it had withered away, forming the smears of brown.
A short guy, almost my height. He didn't look much older, his fists were in Eunha's hair and he was on the top of her. Eunha's jeans were down. I understood what was happening. I wanted to throw up and run away. At the same time, I was filled with rage. I ran towards the guy and kicked at his shoulder with all my strength. He fell back, his member was exposed.
I was so overwhelmed that anything didn't affect me. Eunha was teary eyed and she just uttered one word
"Selena.."
Before I can say anything, He lurched at me like a hawk and I hit the ground pretty bad. I literally saw stars. My back was against the ground, as he directly punched my face and broke my glasses.
I heard a crack, as he said to me.
"Don't you dare"
He was leaning so close, I could feel his musty and nasty breath. I wanted to call Ben and Alex. I wanted to kill that guy in front of me and at the same time I wanted help.
A shriek. It was Eunha again. The man's face twisted in fury as he boxed my temple. It was as if hammer struck my head. I felt nauseous all of a sudden. My brain and its nerves throbbed.
He muttered gruffily, as I felt his weight shift near the end of my stomach. Fear and bile trickled in my throat.
"What a lucky day, I have two bitches to take advantage of"
My hands felt heavy. My vision was blurred.But, I realised, Eunha is in danger, she is sobbing just like I did that day, when were kids, she protected me from them and said
"Get up, how will you be the strongest in my mom's dojo, when you are this weak?"
Heh. I curled my finger in a fist. I don't have time to be behaving like a weakling. I smashed my fist at his face. My knuckled burned with impact of it. His face was thrown back as his weight shifted towards my knee. I slipped out and stood up.
My legs were jiggly but felt light. I kicked his member so hard, like when people kick a football. Then as he groaned in pain. I held him by his hair.
His face was a wreck, as a black eye was apparent, his eyes had tears. He was muttering lightly.
"H..help"
A fire was raging within me, as I wanted to kill this guy. Adrenaline kicked in and I boxed his face repeatedly as my fists in contact with his face made rapid crunching voices.
"STOPP" Eunha's voice snapped me and I looked at her, I turned my head against my shoulder and I dropped that guy, he scampered away to nothingness.
Her backyard was just illumination some part of surface, near some battered cushions. We sat on them. My heart was thumping like a drum inside my chest and fatigue was catching up.
Eunha sat beside me, in her broken form.
"Your fighting skills have improved, you can even fight Baekjin Na"
"Who's he?" I asked as the streetlight above me blinked twice.
"A union leader" she said stiffly. Silence stretched between us. I couldn't meet her eyes, because there was something in them, I was afraid to see.
"Tomorrow's graduation ceremony, right?" she asked and I nodded.
She sighed and said
"I really had fun with you all, I love you all a lot, more than anything"
I directly looked at her light brown eyes and chill ran down my spine. They were empty like dark tunnels with no light. I gulped, maybe I'm reading too much, I shoom my head slightly.
She lightly butted my head and said
"You're warm, please stay like this forever"
As soon she she said that, she turned her back against me, the streetlight blinked and its lights was gone forever.
Something seemed different. Why...
*
At the day of graduation, it was a foggy morning. Fog and mist covered the cold and made it unbearable as I stepped inside the building of my school. Julia and Lily were leaning against the doorway.
At a distance, I heard sirens of the car, like an ambulance or something but Lily interrupted and said
"Happy graduation! Ehh! What happened to your face??"
"n..nothing" I said but Julia eyes me suspiciously. I avoided her gaze.
We made our way to the class, as Julia and Lily's graduation was a day before. So they came here to see me and Eunha graduate. I will meet Eunha in the class, I'll apologise first.
As I entered the class, every face was silent and pale, as if they saw a ghost or something. Someone came forward and whispered to me
"In the room above...Eunha.."
I didn't hear the rest, it felt as if the ground was slipping under my feet. That feeling from last night. I ran, as thoughts were like a series of film in my head. Last night, when Eunha disappeared in shadows, I gulped and Lily and Julia were following me.
Why did it feel like I would never see her again?
Her voice was running in my head, as I entered the room, I saw a pair of feet dangling in the air. As my eyes were trailing to see her face, her voice, came to my blank and shut mind
"You're warm"
I saw her pale white chin, and my lips uttered in agony
"You are cold"
Before I could see her face, everything went black.
I ended up in the hospital, forgetting everything.
End of flashback
I woke up with a jerk, and with a splitting headache. My insides were about to throw up and I threw up, which woke Ben.
As I sat on the bathroom floor, I could hear Ben's footstep, he was at the door of bathroom, when I croaked to him
"She is dead"
My face felt moist and tears blurred my vision, I couldn't see Ben's face, but he carried me in his arms. His warmth was so enduring that I sobbed as I clenched to his shirt.
"Shh, Selena, its alright" he muttered to me as he left me on my bed and came back to hand me a cup of warm milk. I couldn' speak. I was lost in thoughts and memories which painfully belonged to me.