Hi. I want a season two. Here's a bit. Another bit coming in like an hour.
Dedicated to the two reviews I got on 'Again' and 'Tussle':
To Dear anon and Guest (I'm not sure if you two are the same reader?),
Here you go, I'm also very glad to see I'm not the only person to have watched Sketch, it was so good – head over to Soompi, there's a small community over there to gush over the story.
More author notes below :))
It would have been nicer if her brother was released on a warmer day, they shifted the date, in fact, to a week longer of all things.
Then she wouldn't have to hold a large jacket and a sweater and a thermos flask and a bowl of beancurd all at the same time.
Not to mention, he's taking too long and the beancurd is going to be cold and they'll get home late and then Lieutenant Oh – oh wait no, Inspector Oh will begin to worry again if she doesn't message in time.
She spaces out.
The metal gate swung open in the background, the quiet keen of metal on metal.
Shi Joon makes his way silently out, not necessarily on purpose, but before Shi Hyun can speak, "Op-" he presses a finger to her lips.
"Where's my tofu, Shi Hyun-ah?"
She holds onto the little cloth carrier case awkwardly, balancing a container on her pinky, and Shi Joon takes it from her before she hides it.
"Op-" she tries again but he tells her, "Shh, let me turn over a new leaf first."
He slurps down the beancurd dessert like it's a shot of soju and wipes his face with the sanitary wipes Shi Hyun packed in for him.
"Ah… it's cold."
Shi Hyun pouts.
"Like I was going to say before Oppa cut me off, it's cold and we should have gone home to reheat it. But you! Took so long to come out my ears are going to freeze off," she starts off snarky and ends with a huffy look.
Shi Joon rubs his hands together, before covering her ears with them.
"What nonsense, your ears are warm," there's no bite to his reply, something tender in his eyes that hides something grieving and afraid, Shi Hyun's barely there unhappiness just disappears.
[ "Oppa!" she calls out, the moment she sees him and he smiles, so wide.
"Shi Hyun-ah…"
It's a warm day, the sun is out and she tells him, "Your beancurd isn't cold anymore, wait till we get home to chill it. Until then don't do anything bad, got it?"
("Oppa arachi?")
Shi Joon nods obediently, following her to the car and holding the beancurd, warm like the sun, and Shi Hyun smiles – bright, like that sun.
("Ye, ye, Shi Hyun-ah, Oppa araso.") ]
"Let me drive, Shi Hyun-ah."
Shi Hyun looks at her brother curiously, and he goes, "It's my car after all, even if you've been using it for five years," and she hands him the car keys.
"As long as you don't crash it?"
The corners of his mouth lift upwards in a secret, maybe lightly ironic lilt.
"Of course not."
Shi Hyun is a total side-seat driver. They can't help it that Shi Joon forgot how to use a steering wheel and took a wrong turn onto the wrong highway.
He's so apologetic that Shi Hyun can't fault him, only pull out her phone to find their location by GPS to see how to get back home.
The funny thing is that after that, Shi Joon's gear shift is flawless, smooth as if he hadn't not driven for years.
Of course, things like that, Shi Hyun doesn't notice.
She notes the jerkiness when he brakes, and when he forgets to turn on their headlights.
"Ah? One of our headlights is tinted green."
Shi Joon frowns at Shi Hyun's observation, as if deep in thought and then remarks in all honesty, "Green is not a bad colour. But noticeable, and weird. As if someone is trying to identify us."
Shi Hyun laughs it off – the years have been kind to their team without her sketches, her edge of paranoia and reading into symbols significantly dulled.
"Oppa, you're being too paranoid, I'm sure it was just one of the kids at the school we visited for showcase yesterday."
Shi Joon doesn't speed, doesn't overtake and drives on the inner lanes.
They reach home safely, a whole three hours later thanks to the detour and the delay at the prison.
Later, but still safe. And it was just a piece of flappy craft plastic that Shi Hyun pulls off the headlight easily.
[ Shi Joon doesn't offer to drive, not sure if he can tell left from right after not touching a wheel for so long – and, Shi Hyun does.
The route she took to the prison, she takes the same route back, the same expressway, the same tunnel, the same roads, same everything, just on the opposite side of the road.
It's predictable, foreseeable.
She reached the prison in the late evening, just before the sun dipped down and did not turn on her headlights.
But then they clicked on and one was green and Shi Hyun just – laughed.
"One of the kids at the school yesterday must have thought it was funny!"
Shi Joon doesn't let it weigh on his mind.
They're on an expressway – a six-lane expressway, three in each direction and they were on the second to leftmost lane, always comfortable with overtaking.
Then a trailer crashed into them.
It's a hit and run – the trailer had no headlights on, purposeful.
Shi Joon regains consciousness first, calling out to her, "Shi Hyun-ah, Shi Hyun-ah," fumbling, glass cut hands searching for the seat belt release, displacing shattered glass all over his lap.
He's fresh out of prison, without a functional phone and Shi Hyun is out.
Her phone's in her pocket – he stretches out, over her to gently lift it out, picking and tossing larger pieces of glass out the window as he goes.
Her emergency call function, thankfully calibrated goes to the police's emergency service.
He breathes – the smell of charred wires and overheated parts, his limbs protesting as he pushes open her driver side door that caved in with the roof.
Shi Joon's hands, pressing into her clothes and feeling the little grains of glass stick to his palm, at least, not her, he thinks.
Then he removes her seat belt.
Her leg is trapped by the caved-in dashboard, he's not sure if it's crushed, but judging by the wound on her head, Shi Joon doubts that the leg is more dangerous.
He tugs off his shirt and cuts it with broken glass, brushing glass bits out of Shi Hyun's hair then biding strips around her temple the way he imagines paramedics would.
It's not bleeding heavily, but he makes him feel better knowing that some measure to save his sister has been taken.
The ambulance arrives. ]
Did I start a new series? Yes, yes I did.
Can you blame me? I love these two so much, so much. I would ship them together but I'm not sure which would be sweeter, their current sibling dynamic alone, or if turning them into adoptive siblings thrown together by fate just so I have a love-line I can pursue would be better.
This author isn't the best at romance, honestly, but, I'm going to tug at my own heartstrings and mend them. Yeah okay, I can't pull of the adoption schtick, but just imagine if they dropped the bombshell at the end that they're not blood-related and that would bring another dimension to the depth of their relationship.
Seriously. Get yourselves partners that look at each other like Shi Joon and Shi Hyun do.
It's so full of love and concern that it makes me feel so happy.