@phantaisms —
a small black box, tied together with black ribbon, sits by kiyong’s door, almost anticipating to be picked up and inspected. once opened, a lighter, glistening under the harsh glows of ceiling lights, greets him. the image of the butterfly on it should be enough for kiyong to realize the identity of his not-so-secret admirer. on the back of the lighter, there is also an inscription engraved into it that says: “born to burn”. he should also recognize that handwriting; one that he knows all too well.
underneath the lighter, a small note peeks out and calls for his attention:
“to make sure you don’t forget me. can’t get rid of me that easily.
see you when i see you.
- namra"
It’s over now, the movie, but he feels it still on the inside of his skull. It’s a scratch he can’t reach, something he wants to scrape away with the blunted edges of his nails. He keeps sitting at home, even though he’s broke. He keeps ignoring the pinging chime of kakao messages on his phone; even the others who’d been ingested by that movie. It’s the knock that snaps him out from staring blank at the wall, the quick one-two rattle and squeak of sneakers turning heel tells him it’s a courier. So he picks himself up for the first time in, what? Minutes, hours, days and opens his door.
It takes him another day to open that package, wads up the bundle of ribbon and rips the edge of the box on the way to opening it. Inside and he finds a lighter, the immediate reaction is the kick-up of his heart before he notices the butterfly and the note, and words he feels before he sees as his thumb catches the gouge of an engraving. He swallows his heart back down and flips it open. On the third try of that sparkwheel the flame catches. He watches that too, for minutes, hours- and then cuts himself off. That’s when he finds it in himself to figure out where his phone is, dying its slow death at fourteen percent battery, he scrolls to Namra’s name and calls her.