The Afterlife

13) A Heart of Steel that I Shall Polish

The note found in the murder scene came with an unforeseeable dizziness Sihyeon had no definition to; instead, when she sobered up, she blamed it on the lost hours of sleep.

She had lost count of the hours she had spent awake, and it was only when Taehyung swore to release Cho Eunju for lack of evidence did she give in and agree to leave work. 

She had meant to linger for longer still, a time just enough to find way around what made the least sense, but the whole case spoke no language of hers, and Taehyung saw Sihyeon's lack of sleep so evidently he knew there was no use of her staying.

It was not only Taehyung; in fact, Sihyeon's weariness wrote itself so clearly on her face it did not take anyone a second glance to find it. The exhaustion drew itself around her eyes, and the distortion made path of her tongue, sending the words out, slurred in the face of their vicious stay. 

She did not have to ask to know that her kid was a Naeun's, again; Yeonjun would not have left him all alone, and it was just what had Sihyeon driving past their home with no second thoughts.

It was not to get Siwoo, not was it to find Naeun at all, but Sihyeon caught up with where her lost head led her only when familiar lights came into sight.

The roads suddenly looked wholly familiar, every step vowing itself an unconditional home, and there were endless years behind the very traffic light Sihyeon stood before.

She had driven past those alleys and shops and signs over and over they carved themselves into her memory, and Sihyeon drove past them without caring to think were she went; they were clear, true enough for even her malfunctioning head to find way through them without trouble.

A clinging warmth rose to Sihyeon's chest, and from there, it spread like water reaching every tip of a droughty land. The desert that sleepiness made of her limps then turned green, and upon the sight of the familiar flower shop, Sihyeon took a deep breath, one she knew was especially long and healthy compared to all the short, hard ones she had taken in the face of the hours.

Right there, as Sihyeon stood before the shop, she read no sign and no names, but the mere realization that hours, no matter their domain, had to be limited, ending in time to make way for another. 

An hour shall end, and another shall follow no matter the day. 

It was with the sound of home that such words came patting on Sihyeon's back, and she knew, right there and then, that she was a whole play on her own, a dramatic actor that sought an extravagance of emotions the least where they were needed.

It had not been long since she had been to the penthouse, but something about walking inside the building at that hour and witnessing the calm with which it stood amongst the many others in the city had Sihyeon stumbling upon peace.

Every step from the entrance on had Sihyeon filled with forgetfulness, one that targeted all there was to be chased off in her heart. She knew it was temporary, and she knew she was not to run away from what was her rigid life forever, but she also knew that hours, as much as they were limited, they were also made to exist, and she decided to exist in those she was offered when she could. 

Sihyeon smiled at the familiar chime that rang upon the elevator's arrival to her floor, and the air from the foyer filled her lungs like none of the city's. Sihyeon did not have to wait beyond the foyer to find comfort, the warmth that contrasted with the rest of the world immediately driving her to shrug off her thin layer of a coat.

As soon as her steps made clear announcement of her arrival in the endless space of her serene home, Sihyeon found the pieces that made up said home as soon as she lifted her head from her shoes to take them off.