THE HEALING SUNSHINE

THE VERY BEGGINING

That day, she was lying around in her grandfather’s study.

From when she woke up in the morning, she could already feel her throat hurt very badly, her head also muddled. It had been so long since the house was empty without anyone during the day that she had already gotten used to it, especially during the summer and winter breaks, such that she had learned to rely on herself to take care of all the problems.

But at the moment, the problem was that she felt she had gotten sick, needed to take some medicine.

Yet, it had been so long since she was sick, that she had already forgotten where the medicine box was.

Just after she had looked through several drawers, she finally found the medicine box.

Two anti-inflammatory tablets, two cold tablets, might she as well take another tablet of

Huangjiedu?  Seemed like when she had a fever last year, mother had her take it once. A tablet of this as well then.

(Huangjiedu: literally Toxin-relieving Yellow. A type of Chinese inflammatory medicine.)

Just as she had popped out each of the tablets from their tinfoil pack and poured some water, she heard the doorbell rang.

She put the tablets on some tissue paper, ran to the main door, and tiptoed up to look through the cat’s eye.

The sunlight at the height of summer penetrated the glass onto every corner of the corridor; it seemed as if any trace of shadow had been banished. Under the glaring sunlight, she saw Jeon Jungkook.

It was only afterwards that he told her that that was, in fact, their second encounter.

But at that moment, to her, he was a stranger she had never met before. Lisa, through the peephole, saw a young big brother, tall and thin. He was smoking with his head lowered. It did not seem as if he was one of those of her grandfather’s students, who would be in military uniforms; he was simply wearing black knee-length pants and a white short-sleeved T-shirt…

Because his head was lowered, his short hair slid down this forehead somewhat disorderly, blocking his eyes from view.

She did not utter a sound, as if watching a movie in slow motion. She saw him with one side of his palm placed on the snow-white wall, pressed the cigarette in his hand on the top of the metal trash can in the corridor. What was most interesting was that after he had put off the cigarette, he even used the cigarette to wipe off the grey stain before throwing it away through the side of the trash can.

After that, he lifted his head, a pair of clear, pitch-black eyes looked back to her side. Perhaps because there was no answer from the inside of the house, his brows knitted.

Then, the doorbell was again rung by him.

She finally remembered that she had come out to answer the door, so she asked: “May I please know who you are?”

In this compound, to enter the family housing area, one must at least have passed two sets of security guards. Entering this ridgepole even required a security passcode, outsiders would normally not have been permitted through. All the buildings inside the family housing area are four-story, one floor per family. All the families cannot be any more familiar with each other than they are now, but she found him so unfamiliar. Could it be that he is a big brother of one of the families who studied outside?

“Lisa, this is Jeon Jungkook.”

With a cold, yet very warm voice, he told her who he was.

“Jeon Jungkook. Ah…”, she thought back to the people in grandfather Jeon’s family, that little uncle Jeon whom it had been settled to take her to the recital.