Darken hues look at the ceiling of the luxurious apartment she called home with her partner. Lately, she had felt more exhausted than normal, her eyes fell shut, breath slowing as she started to drift. Small hands rested on her stomach as her daughter colored next to her. An artist in the making, that one was. “Mommy’ filled her ears, followed by a tap on the shoulder brought her eyes opened once more. The mother turned her body to its side to speak to her daughter, pressing a small kiss to her small nose as she flashed the colorful picture, toothy smile accompanied. “Its beautiful Jinne” she spoke in a soft tired voice, a hand coming out to tuck the young girl’s hair behind her ear. Eun-ji looked at her daughter for a long moment, thoughts swirling in her head. Thoughts that prompted the woman to pull the girl on top of her and hug her tightly, earning laughs and giggles as she pressed kisses to the girl’s face. The soft sound of the door stopped their seemingly sweet moment, “Ah, dad’s home. Should we pretend to be sleeping?” The woman asked quietly to her small girl, earning a quick nod before they settled into a relaxed position. Eun-ji’s brown eyes fluttered closed as she heard the heavy footsteps of (@wykj) get closer to the pair. She had no idea how long the pair stayed like that, all she knew is that herself actually started to drift into a soft slumber, clutching her daughter to her chest, waiting for Jin to walk into the room.
Her high school friends heard that she came back from London, but not all of them knew she gave birth to a bouncing baby boy named Kang Jinoh. None of them knew as well that the child was Jin's. No one really knew, to be quite honest. It wasn't something she can announce to the world so easily. Especially when the father himself, Kang Jin, doesn't really know about his existence. But legally, she made sure to put him as Jinoh's father. Those documents would support her claims if he tried to deny it in the future, but she doesn't want to let him know about it anytime soon. Minah told Jinoh she'll be home after meeting with her friends but she can't make sure she'll be back home early.
Her friends were planning some gathering. Some light meal and a few drinks. She was at her lowest when Minah graduated high school. She was a total wreck. That's why she decided to dress up. Nothing too fancy but enough to show that she's doing so much better now. Finally arriving at the promised meet up place, Minah walks in. Striding confidently with her short dress, killer heels and designer purse.
“Hi.” She greets the group. She made sure to arrive late. Just late enough to make a grand entrance. “Minah!? Song Minah!?” Everyone called out excitedly. Except for one person who didn't even seem to care that she was there. Her long dark hair swayed with every step she took so confidently. “Hi, Jin. Missed me?” Minah asks as soon as she took the empty seat next to him. Red lips turn into a small pout as she gazed upon him. It hurt so badly, looking at him up close like this but this man was her whole world back then and now, he's the father of her child without him knowing anything about it.
Has your muse given pepero before? If so, who did they give it to and how did they respond? Kang Jin ( @wykj ) ; He seemed pleasantly surprised by it.
Colors fill the pages of her sketchbook in silence. The cold breeze outside softly brushes against one's skin, sending shivers down their spines. Leaves continue to fall down to the ground. Minah pauses for a second, lifting her gaze from her art. She finds a couple of students enter the coffee shop. She notices the couple among the group who fondly stared at each other while they held hands.
The female takes something out of her pocket and hands it to the male. Pepero sticks that are partly covered in chocolate with colorful sugary sprinkles on them. She must've made them, Minah thought. The grateful male kisses the female's forehead.
Minah can only smile, reminded of a memory long ago.
Once, there was a girl who stepped in a new land. A place she's never been to. This was home now, her parents said and she simply nods with a smile. What could go wrong? A new school promises her nothing but a new adventure to embark on. With a smile on her face and her brother on her side, the girl walks down the hall of the new school.
Unfamiliar faces pass by her and she continues to walk through the sea of strangers. In time, she becomes one of them. She was a new face and everything was unfamiliar to her. With each step she took and kind friends to guide her, she learns. She learns not to wander alone in the hallway after class hours, she learns that the cheer captain is the daughter of a pastor, she learns the name of the boy with the blond hair.
“Stay away from him as much as possible. He's nothing but trouble.” They said. “Who?” She asks, eyes fixated upon the male that stood out from everyone else. “Kang Jin.” His name was said like it was a cursed name that can't be said out loud. As if she was under a spell, Minah watched him pass by. Their eyes meet for a second and he stares at her. She doesn't lower her head nor does she look away like others do.
For a moment, the world stood still for them. “Kang Jin.” She says his name out loud. Enough for him to hear. But he doesn't stop for anyone. He was like a dragon passing through the skies, cutting through the clouds to make a path for himself. Life continues on. They are nothing but strangers whose eyes meet every now and then. Her friends made her promise not to get herself involved with him, but fate decided to play a game on them.
As the school festival comes close, the students have been busy preparing till it was pretty late. Minah tells everyone else to go ahead, taking the rest of the supplies to the storage room at the gym. Instead of simply putting the rest of the supplies in the room, she finds the blond boy. The door closes behind her, trapping them both inside. Her heart races at the sight of him. They were right. He's dangerous.
Dangerously attractive that she forgets how to breathe for a second.
They tried to get out of the room but they only ended up tiring themselves out. She's heard nasty rumors about the male. He's nothing but trouble, said her friends. Instead of finding a monster in the shadows of Kang Jin, she finds solace. Resting her head on his shoulder while his rests atop of hers. They were never the same after that. She was no longer a stranger to him and he, who was never a monster in her eyes, was now a friend. What they became was so much more than neither of them probably ever expected. They were too different from each other and yet, everything felt like they fit perfectly for some reason, despite all the imperfections that they have.
Minah walked side by side with Jin from then on. At one point, they started holding hands and began sharing meaningful smiles. Jin would show up at her volleyball practice and she'd always run straight into his arms. The words Mine and Yours were uttered frequently by the pair. She was his and he was hers. He made sure everyone knew that she belonged to him and she always reminded people how to keep their hands off of her man.
One afternoon, the pair sat side by side at an empty classroom. Minah was helping Jin with his studies when she slid the neatly wrapped chocolate covered pepero sticks towards his side of the table.
“What's this?” He asks, Minah only laughs. She felt shy. She has never observed those silly holidays that people made up but since she and Jin decided to be together, she couldn't help but want to try for him. He stares at her. He always does. He stares at mostly anything that catches his eye. At least, that's what Minah has observed while watching him. “A gift.” Minah tells him. “It's pepero day, Julie. It's my first time ever giving someone something like this. I hope you like it.” She leans in to press a kiss on his cheek without hesitation. She loves showing him affection especially when it's just the two of them. Resting her head on his shoulder. He's not used to affection, so he lets her do as she pleases most of the time. “I'm going to keep giving you pepero sticks on pepero day even after we get married,” Minah tells him, slipping her hands in his, letting his fingers fill the gaps in between her own.
“Kang Minah.” The name spills from his lips and Minah can only smile. “Yeah?” Brushing her thumb gently over his knuckles.
After the fiasco with the Snakes, Minah made Jin promise to meet their son. He has acknowledged the fact that he has a son after she threatened him by making him put a gun to her head. He had two choices, end her or acknowledge their son. She had gotten sick and tired of his attitude already. Being so cold towards a child of his own blood and flesh, calling him a dead man's child. It was absurd. Minah wouldn't mind if he wanted some DNA test done. He was supposed to meet Jinoh a long time ago but it wasn't easy. He still doubts that the child is his and she knows Jinoh meeting his father would be a major change in the child's life.
After running into Jin at the lobby a few days ago, they finally had a chance to talk normally. The way they used to. No guns, no enemies but there were always eyes watching them and she obviously stopped caring a long time ago. Them trying to hide from everyone else ended up with her having Jinoh. She asked Jin to meet her at the lobby the next day so they can see the market together. All three of them. She gave Jin a chance to run away, again, if he wanted. But she did also tell Jin that this will be his only chance to meet Jinoh. If he doesn't show up, she'll take it as he's revoking any rights he has on their child and as much as she said she'll understand his decision, she can hold grudges too.
“Mommy, where are we going?” The child in her arms asks, embracing her along with his dragon plush. “We're going out, sweetheart. Mommy took some time off from work because you said you missed me.” Jinoh nods at Minah's words. The elevator doors finally open and she steps out to the lobby. She doesn't see Jin anywhere and her heart sank. She took a breath and held Jinoh tighter in her arms. “I guess he doesn't want us in his life, sweetheart-”
Caressing her son's head when a familiar silhouette walks towards her. The same blond hair with those eyes that continued to stare at her as he walked closer. She holds his gaze till he was close enough to see she was with their child. “I thought you wouldn't show up,” Minah tells Jin, a small smile gracing her lips as she spoke.
“Jinoh, look.. Daddy's here.” Jinoh carefully peels himself away from his mother and turns to look at the stranger before them. He clutches his dragon plush and stares at his father. “Daddy?” The word didn't feel foreign at all, but as soon as Jinoh knew the concept of having parents, Minah had explained that unlike other kids, his father couldn't be with them because he was a dragon, unlike other dads. “Mommy said you're a dragon. Are you?”
What is a home? A home is a place where your heart is - and my heart is with you. Our family will last forever - as long as we’re trying. We’re going to grow and stay together ‘cause you’re my forever home.
It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing
It's always better when we're together
After moving from one place to another, the Song family finally settles in Wonyang. With the new environment, Minah goes out of her way to learn about the place and meet people as well. At school, she makes friends with her classmates easily. They inform him not to get too close to the boy with blond hair. “He's nothing but trouble.” They said. She watched him from afar. She felt drawn to him just like how gravity works. He was like the sun and she felt like Icarus. She knows if she flies too close, she’ll burn her wings but she can’t help but watch him.
In time, she comes face to face with the boy in an odd set up. Most people would've felt fear and panic, but Minah found peace instead. In the dark, the silence and his presence were more than enough to comfort her. The long night dragged on. He was a stranger, a troublemaker- Minah took her time to talk to Jin about random things throughout the evening, till both of them fell asleep.
When morning came and help arrived, they parted ways with a smile and a promise not to treat each other like strangers anymore next time they cross paths. Thus, a friendship blooms so unexpectedly. More so, Minah never hid the fact that she had growing feelings for the boy. He was a year below her, so she was his senior, yet they spoke like friends.
At the school cafeteria, Minah spots Jin sitting alone. Again, her friends try to remind her that he's nothing but trouble, but Minah decides she prefers the trouble that he is than to have people like them continue to hinder her from exploring and learning. Taking her tray of food with her, she quickly marches towards his direction. Gently placing her tray down on the table and seating herself down right next to him.
“I saw you were alone again- so I came here.” Minah tells Jin even though he never asked her why she's there in the first place. “Say, Kang Jin, Can I eat lunch with you from now on?”
NIGHTMARE: i’ll write my character having a nightmare about yours, or vice versa.
The stress of the day had incapacitated her hours ago, all but knocked her out standing up. Long days at the office recently, fumbling around her husband’s over-sized desk and trying to peck away at his keys without understanding what’s written on his computer screen. It’s all the same to her; just numbers and words that blur before her vision.
Her day ended in a crash, curling up on the couch in her apartment because the bedroom was off-limits. Despondently, she couldn’t ever explain why she’d simply burst into tears upon walking into the room, so she’d stopped going beyond that door. A threshold that felt like Goliath to her (she’d grabbed an armful of clothes and literally thrown them outside of her room one day so she wouldn’t have to go back in. A mountain now piles up next to her couch and she doesn’t even care. She's no David.
She lay on the couch covering up with one of her winter jackets like a blanket, restlessly fighting off nightmare after nightmare.
Sometimes she won, chased away the manifested darkness like shapes without a face, like her mind can’t fill in the blanks to paint a real picture. Scenes that are all silhouetted without substance.
Kang Jin has a substance, ever since he’s traipsed into her life she began to remember. Fragments, shards of memories that felt painful to recall, left her sweating in her sleep.
She doesn’t question that she knew him before, there was too much evidence, and now it wraps around her like a clenching fist.
His voice is deeper but softer than she thought it would be, not in the pleasing way, in the way that sneaks up on her, makes her uncomfortable. Everything surrounding him, dark and cold, like the single detail on a backdrop of pitch black, tables and desks, chairs, walls, all painted over in onyx until nothing remains but shapes. She can only see him, everything else lacks too much clarity. He stands with arms loose at his sides, it shouldn’t be frightening but it is. She watches his hands as he speaks afraid they’ll lash out at her, materialize metal to wrap fingers around and point at her with the pull of a trigger.
Jin’s eyes catch on her and she realizes after a moment that she had been here too, in this very room unaware of it, standing in the corner far from that desk he towers near. Why is she afraid to go near him? Is it because he would hurt her?
Memories of him she does have, though flashing like strobe lights or a flipping picture book; he’d never hurt her in them. In some he even seemed pleased, peering at something next to her that she can’t see when she looks over, an empty space that feels like a brumal black hole.
She snaps back to present, whatever present this is, to note that she’s closed the distance, too close now, just a few feet. “Where is it?” His voice is hard and she shakes her head as if she can clear her ears from it, “Where did he put it?”
A frown from her that’s too harsh, she wants to open her mouth and ask: who, but the words lodge themselves in her throat. WHO ! She tries to scream them but nothing comes of it but a dizziness from straining too hard.
The room spins like she’d been strapped to a spinning top and she reaches a hand out to grab onto Jin, the only real thing that she can see. He doesn’t move to meet her, stands and stares as she tilts, his image a smear of motion though he stands still. “Please?” She says a word this time, not what she intended, the sound of her voice is too raw and loud.
And she falls down, lands so hard she let’s out a high pitched groan, eyes squeezing shut as she gathers her baring.
Eyes pry open to gaze at the plush carpet of her apartment, mound of clothes within touching distance. Her forehead is laced with perspiration and she curls up on her side to hug her knees. She wanted to stop dreaming of Jin now, he never wielded results in her dreams, just a power that scared her.
