granny

27// fin

as yall probably can tell, this is the last chapter. i remember thinking it needed an epilogue but i don't really like them so i chose not to write one but idk.. does this need an epilogue?

it was getting dark outside and jisung caught a glimpse of the old house, the one where all of this had happened, through the window. it was scary right now, burned down like a haunted house, though he could suppose it was haunted way before it started looking like this.

honestly, some of the stories that he heard had been bone chilling. not because there was something so scary about a fire, but because it was his own grandfather who did it. actually, come to think of it, a fire was scary enough, jisung thought, recalling his own experience with being set on fire.

"i don't know what they did to provoke him, but i was called one day to the front door by an urgent and loud banging from outside. i opened the door fast- things were different back then, it was never a question about whether or not the person outside was dangerous- they probably needed help.

and they really did. it was yujin, with the little one in her arms, and she looked desperate. i let her in, never thinking about how it could affect me. she told me to lock the door, so i did. and she kissed the kid's head as she thanked me frantically. minho was at school and she had been alone with the kid and his grandparents, as always.

she was so stunned that i didn't want to ask her about what she was running from, though i knew the answer. so i remember that i talked to her about the kids. and then she told me all that..

she didn't think the kids were wrong but her in laws did. her husband would've taken her side in an argument but he was rarely there and she didn't want to worry him. (what she was trying to say was that he didn't want to test him and complain too much in fear that he ends up taking his parents' side).

she had chosen both names, she said, of the older and the younger. minho, she said with a proud smile, and jisung.. yes, jisung, how could i forget! i thought, oh, as in 'love of stars', but we never got to discuss it. i never knew what it meant. maybe it was a relative too, because her father's name was minho.

but i was just getting her to calm down when we saw him through the window. injeong, with a huge butcher's knife, coming to the poarch. 'come out,' he screamed and waved the shiny blade in the air, 'let her out, you old whore.'

i didn't want to pay attention to that but couldn't help but get scared of how we might be treated if he ends up entering the house one way or another. we were like the little pigs in their straw house, i felt, and he was screaming outside for some time, going from one window to another to harass us.

the dog barked at him at first and i saw it jump at him, bite him, but after some time it stopped making any noise.

yujin cried and cried in my arms, but i didn't want to lock us into a room in case he ends up inside, so we just stayed there, waiting for him to calm down.

and he did, i don't remember why and when, but after the cries died down, we waited for some time and looked around before daring to go out. yujin wanted to stay with me but she couldn't risk minho coming home from school and stumbling upon his angry grandfather.

so, not long after we figured that injeong was gone, i sent yujin off with the kid, only hoping that they would be alright.

after that, i don't know what happened to them that day, but when i finally gained the courage to look around my backyard, i found my dog slaughtered next to my apple tree. it was probably the only creature that was brave enough to stand up to injeong.

and they resumed life again, more fearful than before but still altogether, and i couldn't help but wonder if yonghoon could comprehend what was going on under his nose, in his own house. yujin wouldn't speak to his parents more than a minimal amount, just to keep a polite tone, but she wouldn't let the kids interact with either of their grandparents.

she often told me how she slept with the kids on both of her sides so that she could feel their presence and know that they're safe. i thought it was odd but there was nothing normal about their household so her behaviour made sense to me.

she seemed to be determined to live in the house without complaining and did so until injeong's last madness occurred. i don't know what it was about, again, but yujin came to me one morning to ask me if jisung had come to see me by any chance. the kid was five, i replied, why would he come to me?

but that didn't seem to calm her down. she bit her lip and twirled her hair to keep it out of her face. she then told me that the little boy and his grandfather had been missing since she went to do the kids' laundry.

we called her husband, and he came home immediately, and he and juhyun joined us to search for the boy. minho was at school, luckily enough, and we all went around the village multiple times before finally finding them.

i was the one who saw them first. the unmistakable tall and lean figure of the old man and the tiny human next to him, stepped in the river. if i was braver, i would've shouted or directly attacked injeong but i couldn't. instead, i called yujin over.

what that old man was about to do to the kid we never found out, but when i heard yonghoon confront juhyun in the beginning of our search all she could say was, 'he said he doesn't want him. i don't know what he might do'. and she swore that she had no idea where they could be.

this wasn't hard to believe honestly, since we all thought he was the more deranged one. but the kid was all wet when we reached him, and he looked frightened, though he wasn't crying. yujin held him into her arms although he was already too big and she didn't say a word to anyone on the way home, nor did she let anyone else touch the boy.

it was so cold outside that it was a miracle that he didn't catch a cold honestly. but in a week's time, they quit the house. it was evident that her insistence had been at the root of it but he was now recognising how threatened his entire family was by his parents.

they never said goodbye to anyone. just took their car and left. and the three never returned. yonghoon came back a couple of times, maybe paying his old parents a visit, but he didn't stay long. i don't blame him, i wouldn't be able to stay with them for a long time either.

but they went crazier and crazier, from screaming in the garden at night, to wandering in the streets in a nightgown in winter and taking all sorts of guests in their house. they poisoned dogs, strangled cats and burned their bodies, and i stopped speaking to them years ago.

what they did to the poor little family was appalling and i hope they were alright after," mrs kwon let out a sigh and cleared her throat a little. the visitors still didn't seem ready to speak though, "i heard yujin died. poor girl, she was a saint, living only to suffer.. i heard the young boys had been here when the house burned, did they survive?"

"yes, mrs kwon, they did," jungwoo was the first to get out of his stupor, "they're alright now."

"oh. that is good to hear," the woman smiled weakly, "if i knew they would be here i would've spoken to them. but these days i never go out anymore.."

"um, that's alright, mrs kwon, it is nice to talk to you now," jisung raised his voice a little, to minho's surprise. the older looked to him and squeezed his hand. nobody could be sure what she heard and what she didn't but she smiled.

"nice to meet you, such beautiful young people you are," she sweetly complimented, "why do you take an interest in those old crooks next door?," she asked and jungwoo took the task of filling her in again.

she clearly hadn't heard about the young mr kang's death and couldn't comprehend the link between the kang family and jisung and minho and, after having heard jungwoo's thorough explanation for the third time, she nodded meaningfully and wished them a good day as she walked them to her front door.

as informed and sweet as she was, she was totally clueless up to the very end of the visit.