Heaven - Mark Lee

- 3

"And this is the playground for the kids," Mark said finishing off their tour outside.

It was behind the church, a small little playground consisting of a slide and swing set.

"It's cute," Heejin looked around, hands clasped behind her back as she made her way to the swing set, sitting down. Mark following after her.

"You didn't bring me out here to kill me, right? This seems like the perfect place to do it."

Mark laughed at her words, shaking his head with a growing grin on his lips, "no no, not today. I save my killings for mondays," he said seriously and her eyes shot open as she looked at him. The corner of his lips pulled up into an amused smirk which caused her to chuckle.

The silence returned for what felt like forever, bar from the squeaking of the metal swings.
God how she hated small talk.
"So, not many teenagers at this church, huh?"

Mark nodded, "it was always just me and my sister."
Heejin looked towards the boy with furrowed eyebrows, "i don't remember seeing another girl."

"Ahhhh, she's sick. Staying at home today."
Heejin let out a silent ahhh and looked around the little courtyard they were in.

It was a little over grown with wild flowers and vines crawling up the back of the church wall.

A stillness fell over them, the girl pushed herself lightly with her feet and let herself swing a little.

She could feel the guy beside her looking at her. Mustn't be often that there's a new girl in this small town. Heejin would bet a million dollars that nothing exciting ever happens here.

"So, out of curiosity, how many people would you say this town has? 10 maybe 20 thousand people? Bet nothing exciting ever happens here" she puffed out a shot of air, forcing the stray strands of her hair to move out of her face.

Mark chuckled, "try maybe 100,000, and plenty goes on here. Just last week some guy got arrested for shop lifting." He shook his head, the corner of his lip was still pulled up into a smirk.

"Huh," she turned to face the church wall. "I mean, it's no Seoul. But, I guess 100,000 isn't as small as I thought."

"Seoul... So when did you move here then?"

"Uhhh, about two days ago," she cleared her throat, taking a second before looking back over to him. "Your names Mark right?"
He looked her way, "yep."
"That's not... are you not-"
He picked up what she was insinuating and quickly interjected.
"No no, I'm not from Korea. I was born in Canada and we moved when I was like 11."

"Then what brought you to this town, if you don't mind me asking."
Her eyebrows furrowed as she awaited his response. Not understanding why someone would willingly move to this town, so far away from anything- especially Canada.

"My grandfather was the old pastor of this church, and when he died, my parents decided to move us to this town so we could be closer to my grandma and reconnect with our roots."

"Ahh... I'm sorry about your loss."
"It's all good, it was ages ago."
"Do you miss it? Canada that is."
He let out a hum, "yeah, sometimes. But I've grown used to Korea."

Her lips pulled up into a tight grin as she nodded her head- not really knowing what to say next.
They sat there silently and she tried to avoid looking at him. Thankfully her mother walked into the court year with her dad and the priest.

"Common sweety, it's time to go," she said and Heejin practically sighed in relief.

"Thank you Father for the lovely service," she bowed and he shook his head.
"It's okay, I'm looking forward to seeing you guys more regularly."

"Of course, you have such a lovely church."

Heejin watched as Mark made his way to his fathers side.
"Thank you for the tour, I enjoyed it," he smiled at her, hands pushing into his pant pockets.
"It was my pleasure. Looking forward to seeing you around."

—

"So, how was the tour?" Her mother asked as they had sat down around their kitchen table (that had finally arrived).

"It was good."
"What's Mark like?"
"He's nice," Heejin was eating her dinner, left over pizza from yesterday. "Apparently he has a sister and that they're the only teenagers that attend the church."

"Oh? Where was she? I didn't see her."
"He said she's sick," she shrugged, picking up another slice.

"That's nice darling" her dad said impervious to her words.
"I start work tomorrow along with your mother, and the last truck driver is coming around noon. Can you handle that sweetheart?"

Typical.

Her mother glared at her father (which went unnoticed) before turning back to Heejin and giving her an apologetic grin.
"Would you be a dear? You could even start unpacking your room and making it look all nice and presentable."

Heejin sighed, " yeah, sure thing." She brushed off their request.
Not even a week in and they're already leaving her for work. They could at least have the sympathy to wait until school when she's busy and isn't rotting at home in this stupid town she doesn't want to be in.
"How fun", she rolled her eyes.

"Oi, watch that attitude missy," her mother's faced turned stern, her eyes widened and her posture straightened the tiniest bit.

"Sorry," she mumbled, not having the energy to get into yet another fight with her mother. She dropped her pizza slice onto her plate and rolled her eyes.
"May I please be excused? I'm really full."

Her father didn't bother looking up before muttering out a "sure," and she stood up abruptly. Pushing in her chair and disposing of her half eaten pizza slice before made her way up to her room.

She closed the door behind her with a sigh and leant up against it, eyes screwing shut as her head hit the wall behind her.

She was once again alone.

Fishing out her phone from her back pocket she quickly type in a message.

Loml 💖

Are u free to talk? I've had a bad day

Sorry babe
I got homework to do
I'll call tomorrow after practice, Kay?

Oh...
Yeah sure

Thanks babe
Love u

Love you too
Seen

Locking her phone, her head went back to the wall with a thud.

Her body felt numb, but her mind filled with dread as her first day of school approached.
Knowing full well that she will be once again, alone.