jireum please? pretty please? c:
Genre: Romance, AURated: PG-13Pairing: JiReumCharacters: (Soyeon), Jiyeon, AreumLength: Oneshot
Hasty fingers work restlessly on the keyboard, every single movement planting whole new sentences on the virtual canvas. The irritating sound of keystrokes blends into the sweet, relaxing melody of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, creating a somewhat unsettling tone but this is all Park Jiyeon needs to help her concentrate on the article about a new psychological study related to Alzheimer’s that she has to finish by 8pm tonight. Which makes it 4 more hours left for her to be done. In that minute, she’s almost perfectly confident that she is easily going to make it.Finishing another well-written paragraph, she lays her laptop on the bed and gets up to have some well-deserved caffeine, even though she doesn’t really need it. She’s never really had a problem staying up or concentrating, all she needed was some jolly pop or classical music (considering which case it was) and she was way good to go.With a cup of hot, steaming coffee in her hands, Jiyeon wanders to the window to have a look around while taking a break, the wheels of her mind constantly rolling and ticking, never stopping with all the ideas for her article. She’s always knew that journalism was just the perfect job for her; she’s never once had a problem with any article she had to write, no matter what they were about. She loved doing proper research in case the topic was something she was more ignorant about than wise, and her hard work has always been fruitful that kept her going. It took her more than two years to get to where she was now, one of the most treasured journalists of South Korea’s most popular magazine, but she’s always been the kind of person to cherish an enjoyable journey more than the destination itself. And the journey never ends, as there’s always room for improvement, no matter how many words she has written so far that successfully got published.A small smile appears in the corner of her lips as memories of the past rush through her and she scans the neighborhood with her eyes superficially, not being much to discover now that she’s been living in this house for months. But as her gaze averts and fixes on the trashcans positioned right in front of her house, she immediately catches the glimpse of a figure whose owner appears to be a rather young girl with long, half-black half-copper red-ish hair and it takes her no eternity to realize that it’s not an ombre style; the girl must’ve forgotten to re-dye her hair a long time ago that her roots were showing this much, but as soon as her tiny hands (they looked small not only because the girl was quite afar from her, they really were small) reach to open the trash can, Jiyeon immediately recognizes the situation.In the next minute, she’s already outside, the half-empty cup of coffee in her hand as she approaches the homeless girl, but she notices Jiyeon and disappears before she could yell at her to get out. Stopping next to the trash can, she shakes her head disapprovingly before returning back to her house and finishing off her coffee in one big gulp.*It’s two days later until Jiyeon’s article gets accepted and promised to be published in next month’s issue and she leaves the company building with a huge smile plastered on her face. Wrapping her big, dark yellow scarf – the only colorful piece of clothing, all of the other pieces being her favorite color, black – around her neck tightly for protection in this cold weather, she walks down the street where her house is, her thoughts already wandering in places where she tries to guess what topic her next article would be about as well as estimating the number of people who will read her latest piece of work, feeling quite satisfied at the sight of the amount she herself speculated.She’s no further than a few metres away from her house is when she notices a similar figure crouching next to the same trash can as two days ago but this time, Jiyeon tries to keep it quiet, sneaking closer to the girl before she’s just an arm-length away and she reaches out, grabbing the girl’s wrist so tight she can’t tear herself out of the grip.“I thought I didn’t have to tell you last time to let you know that you’re not welcomed to sniff around in my trash,” Jiyeon says with voice as dry as dust and the girl seems genuinely intimated by it.“I’m sorry,” she mumbles so quietly Jiyeon barely hears it. The girl avoids eye-contact and keeps her gaze firmly fixated on the ground.“Do not come back again,” is all Jiyeon says before letting go and by the time she counts to two, the girl’s gone with the wind.*She’s never really been the kind to use public transportation and the fact that when she finally decides to try it out after such a long while and ends up getting on the wrong bus makes Jiyeon’s opinion (“We have legs so we could use them, I sit in the office and at home a lot anyway and it’s not like walking weren’t a lot better for the environment, too!”) harden and she swears never to use buses again. She takes off at a stop that’s at least three times as far from her home than the way she usually takes which wouldn’t be too much of a problem if the weather was good enough not to freeze her ass. She hurries by the houses that appear less modern here than in her neighborhood and she believes that the place she’s at is almost – if not – in the countryside and she suddenly slows her pace so she could take a better look at her surroundings in which she holds great interest (curiosity’s always been one of Jiyeon’s top traits). Apart from one or two, most houses aren’t very nice and Jiyeon believes that the majority of people living here are too poor to afford nicer homes; and looking at the cracked, worn walls that seem so unstable Jiyeon almost fears that they would collapse if she laid her pinky on them.A few minutes later she tears her gaze away from the houses to somewhat ease the bad taste in her mouth the sight caused her.She passes by a smaller area that’s been completely overgrown by quite a big amount of trees, bushes and other plants and she almost doesn’t spare a second to study it better; but right before she would turn her head, she notices a couple of people gathered around some of the bigger trees and her instincts scream at her so stop so she does and immediately she recognizes one of them: the girl who kept digging in her trash the other days.Then she starts noticing the horrible conditions these people are in and there’s a thought flaming up in her mind as well as a spark of guilt that spreads through her rather quickly and she swallows, her eyes still glued on the girl with the scruffy clothes and terribly visible roots and the way she’s so desperately chewing on a tiny bit of dry bread (Jiyeon swears that she saw some green-ish spots on it) before passing it on to a boy who seems to be at least a few years younger. That’s when the girl raises her gaze and spots Jiyeon, fear sitting across her features and before she could tell the girl that she means no harm and even apologize for what she had said and done the other day, the homeless girl crawls behind one of the boys. Jiyeon opens her mouth to speak, but soon realizes that she has no idea what words could flow out that wouldn’t be completely insignificant and unimportant to these people. Obviously, some meaningless talk or a couple of sorries won’t ever help them with their problem and Jiyeon suddenly feels extremely bad and her legs automatically start to move, farther away from the homeless, farther away from a problem she knows she can’t solve, farther away from the guilt and her ego that probably prevented these people from getting just a little bit of more food and chance at survival. Only because she had been way too self-centered and selfish that she made such a big deal of someone searching around in things Jiyeon would never need ever again and yet, she didn’t let them have some of it.She turns around in the next second and starts to run, and she runs all the way home in the false hopes of finding sanctuary at home, in a place those people living on the streets and trying to survive on thrown out, moldy food are never going to live in.*She feels just a little bit awkward as she stands in front of the area the sight of which pains her so much, trembling only slightly from the cold with a pair of paper bags in her hands. Gathering her courage, she takes a deep breath before slowly advancing towards the biggest tree, her eyes searching for someone but finding no one, the dry branches and died off leaves crunching under each of her steps and for a short while, it’s the only sound in the entire neighborhood.“Hey?” she calls out, hoping that it would summon at least one person she could hand the bags to so that she could also disappear right after but no one pops out from behind the trees or the dried, half-bare bushes. She’s thinking of giving up and maybe returning tomorrow but as soon as she turns around, the sound of unsure footsteps from behind hit her ears.“Why are you here?”Jiyeon looks back and she sees a familiar face staring back at her; her expression not unfriendly but careful and she keeps her distance. The girl’s eyes fall on the bags in Jiyeon’s hands and the journalist clear her throat.“I-I came to apologize,” she starts, needing to clear her throat again as her voice cracks. “Also, I brought you and your friends some food and warmer clothes.” She extends her arms, offering her the bags.The girl doesn’t take them and only asks: “Why?”Jiyeon doesn’t know how to answer at first.Why exactly was she doing this?“I feel sorry for you,” she answers honestly, “and also bad for having everything you guys want and even more and the fact that you’ll probably never have half as a good life as I do makes me feel horrible and since I am in the position to help, even if it’s not much, I thought it would be a good idea.”The girl furrows her eyebrows, seemingly hesitant to believe Jiyeon’s words but eventually, she reaches out and takes the bags.“Well, thank you.”“What’s your name?” Jiyeon suddenly asks, biting her lip.The girl takes a few seconds to reply. “Areum.”“A pleasure to meet you, Areum. I’m Jiyeon.”An unexpected, warm feeling spreads in her chest when she sees the girl’s lips twitch into a half-smile. “Nice to meet you too, Jiyeon.”*It’s fascinating how one small moment, gesture of action of your life can change it entirely, turn it totally upside down and Jiyeon only realizes it after the fourth time of visiting Areum and her small group of friends – Soyeon, Yoseob, Seungho and Hwayoung, as she had been later introduced to them – and only after she personally requests her boss to have the chance to write her next article about homeless people. Only, and only then does she recognize how big a part of her life this has become: trying to help a few people who are living under such awful conditions it’s almost no longer human and although she knows that there are at least a thousand (but even more) people like them out there, she feels somewhat accomplished when she looks at these people who she now calls friends and see how happier they are now than they had been when she had first met them.But what’s even more surprising is that of all of them, there’s someone whose happiness has become the source of Jiyeon’s own; one smile, one laughter of Areum is enough to make Jiyeon’s eyes glisten from joy and she strives to achieve it every single day. Her daily goal is no longer to come up with the wittiest sentences or phrases for her articles anymore but to see the corners of this girl’s mouth twist into a smile that’s more beautiful than any other she’s ever seen and sometimes she wonders how a girl like that could possibly end up in such a situation.Sitting on a blanket spread across the ground among the others, Jiyeon watches as Areum tears the paper off the tuna can she brought her, her face lit up by a happy smile (tuna being one of her favorites) and she looks up to meet Jiyeon’s eyes, a grateful expression across her features.“You’re so nice to all of us, Jiyeon. Thank you so much. You know it’s my favorite, right?”“Of course I do,” she answers, her voice warm as her chest from that happy feeling of being here and helping her friends in need and being able to see Areum smile again.*“You sure it’s okay?”Jiyeon turns to look at her, seeing such enthusiasm (although she tried to hide it) in those dark brown, almost dark irises that for a short while she forgets what she wanted to say previously.How could it be not okay when it causes such happiness for you?“Sure. Come,” Jiyeon says simply, offering her hand, fluttering in her stomach (something she’s last experienced years ago but nowadays it’s been always so lovely to keep her company) when Areum takes it and she pulls her on the porch and through the door, letting her enter her little shelter, a place she’s spent so little time at lately.What a funny – and rather sad – joke of life it was that Jiyeon wished to be so much at places Areum and people like her wanted to run away from so desperately; and so little at places they would’ve happily run to but never had the chance.“It’s so spacious! And the colors!”“Areum, it’s called minimalistic style. Almost all my furniture is either black or white.”“Those are colors too!”Jiyeon only chuckles. She follows Areum’s hasty and jiggly movements as she jumps around, waddling from one room to another, plopping down on the couch, complimenting its comfort before rushing off to see something else.She heads to the kitchen to get some coffee (all those damned attempts on trying to stop) when Areum temporarily gives up on exploring.“Are you some kind of writer?” she asks, a pair of curious eyes glued on the screen of Jiyeon’s laptop she carelessly left turned on and tossed in the armchair.“I’m a journalist.”“And you’re writing an article about homeless people?”In the next second, Jiyeon’s already next to her, a tiny stain of spilled coffee on her perfectly white blouse and she slams the laptop closed.“Why can’t I see it?” Areum sounds displeased, the small pout on her lips proving it.Jiyeon bites on the inside of her mouth and wonders herself.“I just don’t want you to think I’m spending so much time with you because I am writing an article about your kind,” the truth slips out and she bites again. Why is she being so paranoid?Areum frowns a little.“I would never. Besides,” she pokes the screen lightly, “it would be worth it.”Jiyeon cocks an eyebrow, confused by her words before she deciphers them and her previous smile re-appears.“Come live with me.”It’s way too late to chew on words because she’s already spat them out but she doesn’t mind them, not even in the slightest, not even when Areum’s eyes go wide, just like those stupid cartoons on tv nowadays but she looks still cute that way and that is what Jiyeon thinks gives her offer a solid base.She thinks Areum’s cute, heck that, beautiful no matter what she does or how dirty her clothes are, how hideous her half-black and half-red hair is and how badly she smells of rain and earth and sweat sometimes, she doesn’t care about any of those things because she loves her, she loves her so much it would break her heart to let her suffer on the streets for any longer.“What?” Areum finally breathes, weakly, hesitantly, her voice barely audible and Jiyeon takes a step closer.“Live with me, Areum,” Jiyeon repeats, her hand reaching out to caress the girl’s pale cheek with her thumb. “You don’t have to live on the streets anymore. You never ever have to freeze out in the cold weather or struggle for days without food. Be with me, Areum.”For a second, she debates whether what she said was an offer of shelter or a desperate cry for her love, but Jiyeon doesn’t believe it matters.*It’s somewhat funny how well normal, clean clothes fit a person who hasn’t seen any of them for months, maybe years.What’s not funny is how breathtakingly beautiful Areum looks in a not too tight, but perfectly fitting crimson dress Jiyeon picked out for her. Areum makes a turn, then another, her eyes studying her reflection in the mirror with child-like curiosity and maybe some self-admiration before facing Jiyeon.“What do you think?”“You look perfect,” Jiyeon says and she means it and she steps closer, her hands on the girl’s cheeks as she presses a loving kiss on her forehead.“I think that was enough shopping for a day,” Areum murmurs, her eyes closed. “Let’s go home.”*Home is not a permanent thing. Some believe it is and maybe the meaning is permanent, but it changes multiple times during the lifetime of one and for some, this change isn’t always a pleasure but the complete opposite, a pinch of horror or even more.But the latest change in Areum’s life is nothing like a horror and her new home is finally no longer another Hell but a new Heaven she doesn’t know too well yet but is willing to find out more about.And as someone lifts up the blanket to wriggle under it, as Areum rolls on her other side to face Jiyeon and snuggle closer for a kiss, she knows that she’s no longer afraid of changes.
