Koi No Yokan ___ Inevitable Love

25. Whispers of the Past

Third Person's POV:

Why is it dark? I turn around moving my arms here and there to touch something but it's all thin air and darkness. Suddenly a sharp beam of light hit my face causing me to squint my eyes. I adjusted my eyes to the golden light and slowly fluttered them open. I am  standing alone in a dim-lit hallway "Ji-ah?"I turn to the voice, it's my parents "Mom! Dad!" I say and run over to them, I touch my mother's hand and it turns to ashes. "Why? Why did I give birth to you?" my mom said, tears streaming down her face "Mom please don't say that" I sob trying to reach for her. "You're a walking death curse" I turn back to see Halmeoni standing there, holding her heart out in her palm, blood oozing out of it and running on the floor towards my feet. I back away, not wanting that blood to touch me. I keep walking backward until my back hits something hard. It's Julia "You ate my husband and now you're doing the same to your grandmother" she pushed me so hard that I fell to the ground. My chest tightened, a shooting pain piercing through my ears "You crazy bitch' "School freak" "You ate my husband" All these voices were shrilling through my ears. I covered my ears with my hands "Stop" "Stop"

"Stop!" I screamed as I woke up huffing and panting. Sweat beads covering my forehead. It's happening,  it's starting again.
----------------------------------------------------
 Ji-ah was working very hard at the teotbokki restaurant, and the lack of sleep was making it harder. she went to school after a day off, and all her friends showed concern and asked about halmeoni's well-being and her well-being too because she looked like a zombie with bags under her eyes. after school she went to see her halmeoni at the hospital applying more make up than she usually does to conceal her dark circles so that she won't be concerned.

she wanted to tell halmeoni about the nightmares and the phone call with Julia, aka her stepmom, her words replayed in Ji-ah's head "You ate my husband and now you're doing the same to your grandmother" as she looked at her halmeoni so frail and fragile,  How could Julia say such things when she knows how much those words costed her, yet she had no remorse of what she did to Jiah

It was the first time Ji-ah talked to her after that incident, she didn't expect an apology but was expecting  Julia to sound guilty. Turned out she was wrong she should've known better but halmeoni didn't need to know that, she didn't need any unnecessary tension at the moment, she also wanted to tell her that she talked to Han seo jun about it, she never told these things to anyone except halmeoni she had to tell someone about a horrific stepmother who showed up out of the blue one day and pushed her to her lowest.

Ji-ah found herself opening up to han seojun, and wanted him to do the same, which he did to her surprise, she wanted to ask him about his hatred for Lee su ho as well but didn't go with this thought because the more she was getting to know him, the more she wanted to tell him and that was not a sane thing to want. Ji-ah told him about a dark phase of her life,  but the darkest part was still kept hidden and she never want that part to be resurfaced. Not even to the sweetest guy she knows, a voice in her head said "He won't judge you, he is not like others" but the other voices contradicted it.

Shrugging off these thoughts she focused on her work, taking orders, wiping tables, the place was not so busy so she was easily keeping up with the chores, and then she found Han seo jun with Lim ju gyeoung. He was avoiding her gaze as if she caught him doing something she was not supposed to. From the way, he was behaving it was evident that he was here to spend time with the girl he still loves. Ji-ah stared at them from afar, eating and talking, she could feel a pang in her chest. She likes him but that doesn't entitle her to have him, so she sucked it up and got back to work.
---------------------------------------------------------

Han seojun was standing outside the restaurant, it was almost 9 and  Ji-ah's shift was about to end so he decided to wait for her so that they can walk home together, that was partly the reason for the other reason for being overprotective of her. He wanted to make sure that nobody followed her once she left the restaurant, these scary thoughts of her being cornered by some goons he just couldn't shake off,  and this protectiveness had nothing to do with his conflicted emotions towards this girl, that place was full of drunk adults, his caution was an understatement at least that's what he told himself.