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There’s a hard thing to swallow, the feeling of loneliness even when you’re constantly surrounded by people. It was a feeling not many understood. But Nari did, a bit too well. She felt it every time she entered her house. She refused to call the dingy two-bedroom apartment her home. Wasn’t a home somewhere you felt safe in, somewhere you yearned to return to, felt relief upon entry. Somewhere filled with memories, laughter and love.ย
Home was where her mother was.ย
This apartment, however, was anything but. Within the walls, there was nothing but an empty, unloved apartment, even if three people resided within. Three people who seldom ever interacted all together. Who most times rather filled the void with more loneliness.
To Nari, it pained her to see how far they’d come and how strenuous their once dearly loved family had fallen. To realise that you could be so close to someone yet feel infinite worlds apart. She saw it between herself and her father. How it had ripped the two apart. It is why she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy when she saw Geon-woo and his mother. How the two of them built each other up, became pillars of strength for the other. How much they flourished with their love. She knew she had no right, none, to look at their bond and feel the bitter envy of their relationship. How much, despite what they lost, their house was a home. It was lived in, loved in. It was everything she had wished for her family. But they were not her family.
This was her family.
“Father”
Nari’s knuckles rapped the door. Old wooden boards that began splintering at the seams, rattled and withered with each knock she took. It was quiet, the house. One would even consider it dead.
“Father, you need to eat” she said once more. She was sick of the routine. Trying to coax him out and about, to leave the walls of their house, to step outside, breathe fresh air. It was a fruitless effort. Nari hated it. but he was, despite everything, still her father.
“I need you to let me in” her words would seep in through the cracks, swirl in the air but never reach his ears. He would not listen to her, because to him, listening to her robbed him of his everything.
It was not fair. The hate he harboured for her. The grief he drowned in. The sorrow he projected. The house fed off it. It is why she hated bringing people over, why Nam-gi’s friends never stayed the night. They couldn’t bear the depressing atmosphere of the Byun household. Anyone who stepped foot in the place would walk out looking at them a different way. They would suddenly find an excuse to stop talking to them. Because who would want to friend a poor girl, living in the slump of the city with an incapacitated father and young brother. No one realistically. That was her truth.
Her fist sent one last, harsh jab and the door. Nari winced when it echoed. Her brother was asleep in the room over. The last thing she wanted was for him to wake ,much less to another fight between father and daughter. Her head rested on the wood, defeat weighing her down before she gave up. Placing the tray onto a side table near the door she had been keeping there for this very reason. This had not been the first time he refused her. She would leave the food and upon return find the tray in the same position only the content bare. It was the only indication that he had eaten.
“Food’s on the table” she sighed, resignment heavy in her voice. Nari turned, her back to the door, eyes sunk in fatigue before her phone buzzed. There were very few people who took the liberty to message her first and she had a suspicion who it could be, but her smile slipped off her face when the words, all capitalised and urgent demanded her attention.
Little leather lady
Bookstore. Get here ASAP. Your boys have done it this time.
There was nothing else to it and panic spurred in her chest when Woo-jin’s messages followed swiftly.
Curly haired twinkle toes
RIRI.
THE LITTLE ONE WANTS TO THROW A CHAIR AT ME . HELP
Followed by a more sheepish, and a rather more expected message from Geon-woo.
Pretty boy woo
Nari, hey, uh, look, do you mind coming down to Mr Choi’s. We may have messed up.
Please.
Nari knew it couldn’t be good, judging by Hyeon-ju’s prompt response, Woo-jin’s panicked plea and Geon-woo’s desperation. It must’ve been bad if they needed her there and she had a sneaky suspicion, the boys may have ruined their chances of ass kissing their new employer. Nari knew she needed to mediate. And fast. Geon-woo couldn’t afford to lose his agreement with Mr Choi and Woo-jin would risk it all for his friend. Hyeon-ju was terrifying when angry and seldom thought straight especially with her already prevalent dislike for the two men. Nari needed to get down to the store before Hyeon-ju ended up killing either of them.
She left a slip on the table, ensuring Nam-gi knew she was leaving before she grabbed her jacket, slipping it over her shoulders and scrambling to put on her shoes as she hobbled out the apartment and grabbed her bicycle.
The atmosphere was palpable when she entered the store. Voices grew louder with each step she took into the bookstore and Nari was sceptical to what she would find upon arrival.
She tugged open the door and the yelling hit her full force and full volume.
“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” Hyeon-ju screeched, standing toe to toe with an equally agitated Woo-jin while Geon-woo stood off to the side, head bouncing between the two like a tennis match. Considering his size, Geon-woo looked frailly small between the two bickering adults.
“IT WAS A MISTAKE!” Woo-jin bit back. ” WE SAVED HIS LIFE!”
“YOU HAD ORDERS NOT TO INTERVENE!” she yelled, the two practically in each other’s faces. Woo-jin towered over her but Hyeon-ju met his intimidating stature with equal ferocity. ” CONSIDERING YOU’RE BOTH MARINES YOU SHOULD BE USED TO ORDERS!”
“Oh, don’t even start. You’re being unreasonable” Woo-jin hissed and Nari took it as her cue to break their spat when Hyeon-ju looked ready to pounce at the older man and smash his head in.
”Woah, woah woah. What happened?” Nari said and all three heads snapped in her direction, she was surprised it didn’t dislocate from their bodies from how quick they turned.
There was silence for a second. She barely heard Geon-woo’s relieved exhale leave his lips before both Hyeon-ju and Woo-jin both started frantically and quite literally seething their retelling in one breath.
“Can you both shut up. One at a time” she berated, raising her hand in surrender as Woo-jin and Hyeon-ju shot each other deep scathing glares.
“Your two IDIOTS ruined the plan I had worked months for. ” she hissed. ” You compromised the mission, compromised your and therefore my identity and have single handedly managed to not only allow Jae- myeong to escape but could practically lead their boss straight to our damn doorstep so thank you for that” she tugged at her hair frustratingly. “God, you can kiss your job and favour goodbye” she spat and Nari didn’t like the way Geon-woo’s saddened look fell further. It was as if the world was swept under his feet and he was falling, falling and falling. But Nari would not let him hit the ground.
”Hyeon-ju, that is quite enough” Nari said forcefully.
“Oh yeah. As if you’re so righteous all of a sudden. You expect us to just sit back when a man was bleeding to death from Jae- myeong’s goons. We admitted we messed up, we apologised. But you cannot expect us to have done nothing” Woo-jin snapped back harshly. They looked ready to scrap again and Nari had to visibly stepped in between the two of them this time.
“Both of you, stop. Everyone take a breather” she ordered, watching their arguments die down and the only thing left was their heavy breathing and beseeching glares.
Nari turned to Hyeon-ju expectedly. “You and me, camera room. Now” she said.
“You do not order me-” Hyeon-ju tried but Nari tugged on her arm. “Now Hyeon-ju” she repeated, her tone hardening and they were startled to see her so serious.
“You two can wait outside. Get some air” she said to Woo-jin and Geon-woo.
”Nari” Geon-woo tried to call for her but she merely shook her head.
“Go, the both of you” she said before noticing red splotches on Geon-woo’s jacket. Her eyebrows furrowed in concern when she identified the cause- the blood mirrored on his hand. She wanted to ask if he was okay but the tension in the air was suffocating. They needed to get out. She’d worry about him later. She had to save his ass one more time. ” And make sure to clean that” she said, pointing to his hand that he sheepishly hid behind his back.
“Let’s go” she said to Hyeon-ju before they left the two boys and made their way to the more secluded and private quater of the store. The second she closed the door, Hyeon-ju threw the black cap that was in her hands onto the chair.
“They were acting incompetent” Hyeon-ju hissed. ” Stupid, idiotic, arrogant boys. They don’t listen. You give them one simple instruction. Do not interfere. Just tail and gather entail. And what do they do- INTERFERE! I shouldn’t have trusted them and I shouldn’t have trusted you” Hyeon-ju spat as she turned her glare to Nari. ” I let them tag along for you. Because you are my friend. Now look, everything’s ruined. Everything I worked so hard for. Work I’ve been preparing for years. Just ruined. ”
She was pacing, face turning red and her hand pulling at her short hair. Nari thought she might actually rip it from her skull.
“Are you done?” Nari asked, calmly. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and one would have compared her to Yang-jung in the moment. Calmed, poised and stoic.
“No” Hyeon-ju spat and Nari felt her lips quirk.
“What happened Hyeon-ju properly this time, without the yelling preferably” Nari asked.
”What happened? What happened was I had given them the simple task of tailing Jae-myeong and his goons to gather entail on the ID theft that has been going around. But for some reason they decided that they were to be heroes like some knights in shining armour. Jae-myeong got away and they could’ve easily spotted who they are which means he’s either going to go into hiding for who knows how long. Days, months, years. But also, it means we’ve been compromised. They know we’re onto them which means we’re targets. All because your boys couldn’t sit still and had to intervene”
“Look Hyeon-ju. Geon-woo would not have intervened had he not felt obligated to. He knows how much this job is to him. He wouldn’t’ve jeopardised that unless he felt as if he was doing the right thing and saving someone is doing the right thing. “
“Do not mock me and my moral compass Nari” Hyeon-ju said bitterly.
Nari sighed, taking a step forward. “I’m not trying to mock you much less question your humanity. I know there is a heart under all that black. I know you care way more than you ever let show Hyeon-ju which is why I know you’re not really mad at them but rather at this whole situation. I understand you are upset. You can be but you cannot blame them for saving someone’s ilfe, ” she said. ” You know how Geon-woo got that scar. Myeong-gil sliced into his cheek with his knife. He made his mother watch and I-. He wanted him to work for him despite that. As if it meant so little to him. But Hyeon-ju, Geon-woo’s humanity and loyalty is his strongest trait and also one of his weakest. Do not fault him. If you do then who are we to say we’re better than Smile Capital, to say we’re better than the likes of Yang Jae- myeong.”
Hyeon-ju stared at her, long and hard. Nari had been her first ever friend. Someone she trusted and for some time Hyeon-ju was her only friend too. Nari would defend Hyeon-ju with her every breath, the way she did now for her boys. With such fire. Something in her stirred, regret maybe. Guilt. Nari looked genuinely upset and it seemed she deeply cared for them. And most of all, she was right. She couldn’t fault them, not really. Hyeon-ju knew deep down she would’ve done the same. It was just that she had worked so hard to capture them, it had blinded her.
“You’re insufferable “Hyeon-ju relented and Nari’s smile was instant.
“It’s my favourite trait” Nari said before she lunged into the shorter woman’s arms. ” You’re the best Hyeon-ju” she grinned as Hyeon-ju patted her back, grumbling pathetically as she tried to wiggle from her friend’s embrace.
”Know you’re the only reason they’re not fending on the streets yeah” Hyeon-ju said. “I will not be so considerate next time”
“I wouldn’t count on it” Nari grinned as Hyeon-ju shot them a message.
Their cheers were deafening.
Nari’s smile was just as infectious.ย
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