A/N: Hey, sorry it's been almost a month since my last update. What can I say? Life.
Okay, back to updating regularly!
Also, thanks to everyone who left reviews on the last few chapters and to those of you started following this story in my absence! :) Here's another chapter for you :)
Ga Eul hadn't had this nightmare in a long time. The one where her brother went over the edge of the bridge, his face and hands pressed up against the back of the car window like he was a little kid who didn't want to go somewhere, maybe to a doctor's appointment or piano lessons. At first, she was standing on the bridge watching him go over, hearing the crunch of glass against metal. Then she was inside the car with him as they both went under, the freezing water numbing her skin as she clawed frantically at the door handle and banged her scrawny elbow against the door window, trying to smash it. She looked over at her brother—knocked unconscious, maybe already dead. Even in her dream, she remembered what the autopsy report had said—that he had died from injuries sustained during the crash, not from drowning. Maybe before he even hit the water, people had said, he was already gone. They said it in a conciliatory manner, like that should make Ga Eul feel better about the whole thing.
Ga Eul always thought, though, that if he had been conscious enough, maybe he could have gotten out of the car in time. Maybe he would still be with her. She hadn't figured it out yet, but she knew there was a way out. If she could just find something to break open the window…
The car always filled up with water too fast. The current jammed the doors shut, simultaneously keeping the water out and trapping it in. She was too weak—had never been a fighter like Jan Di—but still she kicked and barreled at the door until her body gave out and the world went black though she knew her eyes were still open and she woke up gasping for air.
With shaking hands, Ga Eul reached over to turn her alarm clock off and turn on her bedside lamp. The sun hadn't come up yet, and in the dim light from the lamp she stumbled out of bed and over to the small refrigerator in her tiny one-room apartment. Her hands trembled as she poured herself a glass of water and sipped it slowly, and when she returned back to her bed, her whole body felt cold despite the rather warm temperature in the room. Burying herself back under her covers, she closed her eyes and tried to make herself see anything other than the images haunting her dreams lately. In the past week, she'd had one dream about her brother's memorial service and another about the day he moved out of her parent's house and into an apartment with Gong Yoo and an older guy she'd only met once but didn't like. In her dream, she was grabbing everything out of Gong Yoo's car as her brother put it in, begging him to not to leave. In real life, she'd been mad at him and refused to come out of her room until he left, until late, late at night after her parent's fell into an exhausted sleep and she crept into his abandoned bedroom to stare at the stars on his ceiling that had been there since before she was born.
Ga Eul rubbed her face with her hands.
Today. Focus on today, she told herself.
It was Friday, thankfully, and the kids had a holiday on Monday even though she knew she would have to use the extra time to catch up on her grading. Still, Yi Jeong would be coming back to Korea in another week, so she had determined to get ahead on as much as she could before he returned. Having him so close again would be a bit surreal, she thought, especially seeing him in all their old haunts knowing how much their relationship had changed since he'd left. She wondered if he would continue to live at his childhood home or if he would get his own apartment. Probably the latter. She made a mental note to ask him when she called later that day.
Her cellphone rung from its place on her nightstand—the newest iPhone, Yi Jeong's latest present to her that had arrived in the mail several weeks ago. Picking up the phone, Ga Eul saw the picture of her and her mother at her college graduation lit up across the front.
"Omma? Is everything okay? Why are you calling so early?"
"Good morning to you too."
Ga Eul smiled and half-closed her eyes again as she stretched back out on her bed.
"Good morning."
"Your father wants to clean out some things in the basement this weekend, and he wants to repaint the guest room. Would you mind coming over and seeing if there's anything you want before we donate it?"
The guest room. That was what her mother called it. Never her brother's old room. This was the second time they'd repainted it since Ga Eul's grandmother had left. She guessed they couldn't find a somber enough shade.
"Sure. I'll come tonight and spend the night."
"Okay, great. I'll make daeji bulgogi."
"Mm, sounds good." Ga Eul pushed her covers down and picked at some of the chipping rose pink polish on her fingernails.
"How are classes going?"
"Pretty good. I have a few troublemakers, but mostly the kids are real sweet."
"That's usually how they are. Always those few mischief-makers in the bunch." Ga Eul's mother had been a teacher, too, once upon a time, and she sometimes gave Ga Eul advice on how to deal with certain situations, this being Ga Eul's first year officially teaching. "I'm sure they're glad they got the young, pretty teacher, though," her mother continued. "Especially the boys."
"Omma…"
"What? You don't remember Kim Sang Bum Songsaengnim?"
"My second grade teacher?"
"You came home the first day of school and told me your teacher was a movie star. You thought he looked like…oh, what's the name of that actor again…"
"Omma." Ga Eul giggled. "I don't remember that."
"You wanted to pick flowers for him every day," her mother continued in an affected tone she always used when pretending to be mad. "You know, most children pick flowers for their Ommas, but you only picked them for your Sonsgsaengnim. I was so upset."
"You want me to bring flowers for you tonight? I'm old enough to buy pretty ones now."
Her mother sighed.
"Aniyo, you can't bring those moments back. When you have children someday, you'll understand."
"Okay."
"By the way, how is your friend over in Sweden? Still coming back this month?"
"Yes, he's coming back in a week."
"That's good. Tell him to come over for dinner when he does. Your father and I want to meet him."
"Appa wants to meet him?"
"If I say he does, he does."
"Okay…Omma, I need to get ready for work, but I will see you tonight, all right?"
"All right. Take care. I'll see you this evening."
"Take care. Bye."
Ga Eul hung up the phone and stared up at the large scuff mark on the part of the ceiling directly above her bed. She'd come up with several outlandish theories for how it had gotten there, but none of them now distracted her enough to calm her rapid heartbeat, which had started to decline as her mother's soothing voice greeted her but picked up again with the announcement that she wanted to invite Yi Jeong over for dinner.
Not that she didn't want him to meet her parents. They knew about him, of course. In fact, they had known about him for some time at this point. The problem was that they didn't know exactly who he was. When her mother had asked how they met, she had described him as a friend of Jan Di's. She hadn't mentioned he was also the best friend of Jan Di's significant other and one of the most high-profile former playboys in Korea. She could only pray that they reacted better than Jan Di did upon hearing the news. Then again, she'd seen Yi Jeong's charm work its magic on all sorts of people—from art critics to university officials to maids to bartenders. She could only hope it worked on overprotective parents as well.
The past month in France had been every level of hell Madeleine thought it would be. Her mother had insisted on eating regular meals with her—on actually speaking to her—which she only did when she wanted to talk Madeleine out of or into something. Her brother had been his usual annoying self, although fortunately she saw little of him as he spent half the day passing his work off on other people and the rest of it partying at his apartment.
She could do her brother's job better with her eyes closed. He was supposed to be making the most of his training in hotel management, but Madeleine doubted her father had any idea what her brother did when he was out of the country, especially since Madeleine lived with her father in Korea, and he seemed to have little idea what she did in her spare time, even when she stayed over at Woo Bin's apartment for nights on end.
They had a few clueless new maids scurrying around her childhood home, but Madeleine didn't bother to learn their names; they'd be gone by the time she returned to France.
She'd had few close friends in high school and none close enough to call after all those years, so Madeleine had spent a large amount of her time at home painting in the basement room she had renovated into a studio as a teenager. The rest of the time she'd spent shopping, putting most of her purchases on her brother's card and shoplifting the rest. One day she'd been fortunate enough to run into her brother's latest girlfriend—an air-headed heiress with one of those nails-on-chalkboard voices—and had gotten some minor thrill out of lifting her clothes from the dressing room when she had stepped out for a moment. She had considered returning the lacy rose summer dress to her brother's apartment—half the bitch's clothes were over there anyway—but the dress had turned out to be Madeleine's size…
Yes, her childhood home was exactly the way she'd left it, aside from some minor home décor renovations. Same dead-quiet. Same horrible food. Same cheap people.
She would be flying back to Korea this afternoon, however, in preparation for her debut oil painting exhibition at the So family's art museum.
At the moment, she was attempting to pack her last few belongings into her carry-on. She had packed all of her things herself, claiming one could never be too careful where new household help was concerned.
Her mother insisted on hovering over her to the last, begging her to reconsider permanently moving to Korea.
"Madeleine, I still don't understand why you want to live in that godforsaken place. Your friends are here. Your brother is here. The critics love you. You can do anything you want."
Except get away from you, apparently.
Madeleine shoved her phone charger under her sweater and stuffed her makeup bag into the corner of the small rolling Louis Vitton suitcase.
"You have such talent," her mother continued. "I would simply hate to see you throw it all away on someone so…so beneath you."
The makeup bag wouldn't fit. Pulling out her sweater and readjusting a few other items, she maneuvered the bag into the tiny space again.
There. Perfect.
"You know you can't run away from this once you go down that road. You're stuck with your decision. No one's going to save you."
Madeleine scoffed and muttered, "He must have really been something."
"Don't mumble. It's unbecoming."
Madeleine forced the top of the carry-on down with one arm and zipped it up with some effort. When she had finished, she replied, just loud enough for her mother to hear, "I said, 'He must have really been something.' I wonder if it runs in the family."
Her mother grabbed her wrist, but Madeleine shook her off. She clicked the lock on her carry-on shut and set it on the floor. Hoisting her purse over her shoulder, she turned to head to the door, but her mother stepped in front of her, a determined look on her face.
"Yi Hye Jin, you don't know what you're doing," she hissed.
For a moment, Madeleine stared at her mother—at the nearly imperceptible lines of age beginning to crease her forehead, at the emotion that looked deceptively like worry shining in her normally hard brown eyes.
Madeleine forced her voice to come out calm and uncaring.
"Omma, my name is Madeleine, and I've always known what I'm doing." She leaned in closer and whispered, "Always." Pushing past her mother, she tugged her carry-on rather violently behind her so that it nearly hit her mother's foot.
"Yi Hye Jin is the name on your birth certificate!" her mother called after her as she made her way down the hallway.
Another piece of paper Madeleine should have destroyed.
"You told me you weren't coming for another week!" Ga Eul exclaimed, shutting the door to her classroom behind the last couple of students racing out to meet their parents.
"Surprised?" Yi Jeong reached over and brushed some dried clay out of her hair. He had cut his hair. The new style made him look older, more mature.
"Well…I would say 'yes,' but then I guess I should know better by now than to be surprised at anything you do." She moved over to collect some of her papers in the corner of the room but kept her eyes on him. "What? No grabbing my wrist this time?"
Yi Jeong raised his eyebrows.
"I know you're here to take me somewhere, so come on. Out with it." Sticking the paperwork in a folder, she set it down beside her purse.
Yi Jeong hooked his thumbs in his jacket pockets and smirked at her.
"You really forgot, didn't you?"
Ga Eul scrunched her eyebrows in confusion.
"What do you mean? I forgot where you're taking me?"
"You don't remember what I promised you? Four years ago?" Yi Jeong sighed and looked past her to the window. "Oh god, don't tell me I'm becoming the romantic in this relationship."
Ga Eul broke out into a huge grin as realization hit her.
"I'm the first one you've seen, aren't I?"
"I drove straight here from the airport." He stepped over to her. "May I kiss the pretty teacher?"
"Only if you're good in class," Ga Eul said in her stern teacher voice.
"I'm good at kissing. Does that count?"
"Mmmm…" Ga Eul pretended to think about it even as she saw Yi Jeong leaning in towards her.
At the last second, she closed her eyes and waited to feel his lips on hers, but the sensation never came.
She waited a few seconds.
Her eyes fluttered open again.
His face still hovered over her, but he was staring at the window behind her with a serious expression.
Did she have clay on her face? Was the principal staring in at them?!
Suddenly, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards the door.
"Let's go."
"What…But Sunbae, I have to get my…" Ga Eul grabbed at her purse as he flicked the lights off and pulled her into the hallway.