It Ends with Us • Kim Mingyu

[thirteen]

"Why're you looking at me like that?"

"I'm not looking. Who says I am looking?"

My head is fizzling with nerves. I have to keep my back pressed against the wall to remain still. Lollipop, Dino, clean, licked, stranger, hunter – it's all like a deluge breaking inside my mind. Each time I try to think my way through, I get capsized by another tide, bigger and stronger than the previous one.

Dino took a lollipop from a stranger (my potential killer) and it's already gone. How could something like this happen? I can't believe it.

"Stop looking at me, noona. You're terrorizing me." 

"Say, are you high, Dino?" I ask, but why? I don't know. Could it be possible Dino got high from all the crap he took? How much was it?

Dino stares at me with a frown. He smells his clothes and armpits, and gradually, a flash of panic comes over him. Even in the lack of sufficient light, I can see his face flushed. He begins to shake his head, holding his hand up. "It's not what you're thinking, okay? I swear." He declares. "There was an incident on the way back – the way before, I mean. There was a guy I got stuck with. He had...did...I didn't do it, okay? I didn't do anything."

"Alright, alright." I say, calming Dino. "If you say so, you didn't do it. I was wrong." Although I find it hard to believe with the way he smells, I decide to drop it for now. "Tell me about the lollipop my friend gave you. Did you really lick it clean? Like it's inside your stomach and it's never coming out?"

"Coming out -- I couldn't even unwrap it. Jeonghan hyung took it from me way before." Dino says, expressing dismay. His voice gets thin. He glances behind at the living room, as though making sure he isn't heard. He tells me, "The manufacturing details weren't clear on the wrapper, so hyung thought it was expired and threw it away when the guy wasn't looking."

"So you don't have it?" I ask.

Dino says no.

It takes me a moment to grasp the situation, but when I do, I sigh like I can evaporate into the earth. My knees feel wobbly. I thank Jeonghan for usinghis common sense  when he did, and manage to stand up properly. "But why did he give you a lollipop?" I ask.

Dino shrugs. "I might've looked hungry to him." He says.

"But why did it have to be a lollipop? How did he know you like coca-cola lollipop?"

"Everyone likes coca-cola lollipop." Dino says, like it's an universal fact similar to the sun rising in the east. "But what's it have to do with you?" He narrows his eyes at me.

I pace around, purposefully avoiding his question. While doing so, I nearly knock over a koala showpiece on the router shelf with my elbow. Dino makes a gasping sound. I quickly turn around to show that I haven't dropped it and put it back on the shelf. After that, I stop pacing. "Do you think that guy was hiding something?" I ask. "Like being inherently evil. Was there like a flicker in his eyes, or a thickness in his voice? Something that could've told you about his real intentions?"

Dino gives a confused look scrunching his face. "Maybe you're the one high." he says. "What's the deal with you, noona? What's going on?"

"Nothing. I just don't know this guy, that's all," I say. "I don't know what he looks like, or why he keeps claiming to be my friend. I've never even seen his face."

"But that doesn't make sense," Dino says. "How does he know you then, or where you live?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. Do you know something about him that I don't? Something that might help me learn about him."