The weather seemed to get gloomier as the sun set and I was not having it. Panting from almost forty minutes of running like an idiot on the streets, I entered my parents' convenience store. I thought I could, maybe, find a distraction from that annoying pain in my chest.
"Woah, why are your eyes red?" my cousin asked as soon as I got in the store and dropped to the floor.
"Allergies." I lied and he laughed, handing me a bottle of water.
"Jeong, it's September," Taewook spoke "Were you crying?"
"Of course not! Why would I?" I lied again, closing my eyes at the sharp pain in my chest.
Standing there with both hands resting against his hips, my cousin scoffed. He shook his head, the fluff he called hair bouncing along as he looked at me intensely.
"Please Jeong, stop lying to me." Taewook whinedand helped me up from the floor before tilting his head to the left, checking the only customer entering the store.
"Alright. I was mad."
I did that sometimes, crying because I was too mad, but not this time. This time anger wasn't what got my eyes all red and itchy, my nose running and my lips swollen.
"Where were you?" he asked, patting my back a little too hard.
"Auntie's restaurant," I replied and shoved him away "She wouldn't shut up about me being a gangster."
"Well, you kinda are," Taewook replied. He glanced around, eyes widened as he brought his finger to rest against his lips, signaling to keep my voice down "The sheriff's wife is in here." he said and I coughed.
"W-what?"
"She has been strolling on—"
"Let me guess, aisle 14?" I scorned and he nodded.
"What's with that aisle?" Taewook asked but I ignored him.
"Like mother like daughter..." I mumbled and his mouth open as if ti say something. Of course I didn't let him, he talks way too much. Rolling my eyes, I put my palm over his mouth, threatening to throw my water bottle at him.
"You've been hanging out with the sheriff's daughter?!" he whisper-screamed "Do you want to die?"
"I'm already dead." I shrugged. Okay that was too emo, Jeong "Whatever."
Letting my hand fall from my cousin's mouth and drop to my side, I stretched my neck and took a deep breath in. Adjusting my jacket and fixing my hair, I proceeded to take a step forward only to stop once Taewook started talking.
"Where are you going? he asked and I glared at him, beginning to walk away from him and to aisle 14.
"To see if the lady needs help." I shrugged, burying my hands in the pockets of my stained pants as I made my way near Nayeon's mother.
There she was, back turned against me while she looked at the items on the shelves. From the back she looked exactly like Nayeon, same height, mannerisms. The woman's hair was way longer though, nearly as long as her white dress.
"Excuse me, do you need—" I started and she turned around, startled.
"Oh, dear god! You scared..me." the woman trailed off.
What's with this family always dressing in white? And why isn't the sheriff dressing in white too if he likes the color so much? If he wanted he couldn't easily made a white suit and force everyone in the station to wear them too, just like he did with the women in his life. Is purity only for women to showcase they have? Are we the only ones obligated to feel and be viewed as the innocent souls who have never sinned? This is bullshit.
"I'm sorry." I bowed and she moved closer, smiling bitterly.
"You look just like her." the woman whispered, reaching to hold my hand.
"Her?"
"Eunji. Park Eunji." she said, my breath hitching at the sound of my mother's name coming out of her mouth.
"I-I'm.."
"Her daughter, I know." Nayeon's mother responded and let me go. Her eyes scanning the aisle one last time. "I better go now." she said.
"Wait, no!" I shouted when she turned around to walk away, causing her to freeze. She blinked a couple of times and shook her head, thinking something to herself, before smiling at me once more.
"Is there anything wrong?"
"M-my mom, how do you know her?" She knew my mother. She knew her past. I wanted to know everything, all the details about my mother's past. Everything Nayeon told me about repeating inside my head.
"We were classmates," the woman spoke "And really good..friends."
It was her. My mother was the woman Nayeon talked about in disgust, the woman that got her mother locked in a room. My mother—
"You loved her." I blurted out and her eyes widened.
"How do you—"
Sighing, I looked back to see my cousin uninterested, doing his thing while turning on the music on the radio. Suddenly everything felt scary, like by just existing I would get hurt permanently. Never in my life had I been this scared...or normal scared in general.
"Nayeon told me about...everything that happened."
"Nayeon?"
"Your daughter?" I titled my head in confusion and she laughed, explaining to me that she never got out of the house so it would've been practically impossible for me to have met her.
Taking one step forward, I came face to face with the woman. Looking deep into her eyes, I explained everything: how I met Nayeon, the promise I made to show her how to be free, the fact that her husband hates my guts and how I don't know why.
"It's because you're her daughter," Nayeon's mother simply said "Him and your father were friends, both destined to marry me and your mother respectively." she explained.
"But you loved eachother..." I breathed out.
"Exactly! And they were both furious, mostly my husband. I bet you already know what happened next."
"About the Room?" I looked down, my legs slighty shaking.
"Yes, the White Room." she replied and suddenly everything made sense.
[Flashback]
"Father has an obsession with the colour. He believes it symbolizes our relationship with God, pure and untouched, almost perfect. " Nayeon said, her voice sounding muffled behind the mask.
[...]
"She was sick" Nayeon spat "And at the day of the wedding she brought her equally sick g-girlfriend to the wedding," the girl hesitated "She tried to get away with that girl but failed. My father kicked the other girl out of the house and with the help of my grandfather closed my mother in the 'Room' in order to be cured."
[End of flashback]
"What's the White Room?" I almost shouted and she sighed, taking my hand in hers again.
"Is a room filled with priests and old ladies. They put you in there to torture you by drowning you in water, hitting you and cursing at you. You are kept in there until you ask for forgiveness and admit what you did was wrong," Nayeon's mother said "Most of the people lie to get out, like I did." she said.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. We live in a society where people take something that's different from the ordinary as a sin," the female added and squeezed my hand "I mean, you know better."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you think I know what being in love looks like?" she chuckled lightly "The way you talk about my daughter—"
"No-no!" I cut her off "I'm not in love with her. She hates us, the different"
I couldn't fall for someone like Nayeon, she doesn't get me. She never will.
"Nayeon hates no one," her mother replied "She's too pure."
"Yeah." I scoffed, raising an eyebrow. The woman across of me exhaled loudly, brushing her neatly cut bangs out of her big eyes. She looked down at her feet for just a split second, contemplating on whether she wanted to reply or not.
"Has she told you?" she just asked.
"About what?"
"The wedding plans. " Nayeon's mother said and my jaw fell to the floor. Everything went black.
[Flashback]
The girl closed her eyes as she put her train of thoughts in order and, as soon as she calmed herself down, she looked at me again. "He was destined to marry my mother," she started again "Both of my mother's and father's families made a deal from the day they were born. They even made contracts," Nayeon said with disgust "It's a thing in my family, I guess." she mumbled and I looked at her in confusion.
Before I could even ask another question, she held her hand up, stopping me. "The contract said that when my mother turned eighteen, on the day of her birthday, she was supposed to marry my father. The wedding would take place in the groom's family house and everyone from the family, was invited." she said and played with the fabric of her white dress.
[End of flashback]
"The contract." I mumbled and she nodded.
"Nayeon is turning eighteen in two weeks." the female spoke and I felt my knees giving up, my body freezin, my stomach hurting all over again.
"W-what?"
"I'm so sorry." she said as I tried collecting myself before running out of the store.
Here goes more running.
-kimwig