a dream of impossible love (Complete, Waiting For Editing And A New Name! )

Chapter forty one. Housing crisis.

At mums house, my dismal pile of belongings grew smaller as we organised them. Most of the bags contained Samantha's things and the majority of the rest was just household stuff. My nice bags, dresses and shoes were almost all gone, the landlord had gone too far. At least Lily had saved my paperwork, so I had my rental contract as proof but on reading through it, I noticed something.

As long as I paid the rent on time, I kept my reduced rent privileges. If I missed a payment by a week, for any reason, the rent doubled. But why go so far as changing the locks and gutting my flat? Surely that was illegal, he had no right! The account closing down was also suspicious, he wanted me to stop paying and made sure I couldn't.

Another clause on my contract stated that if my children still lived at home, I couldn't be evicted but if they left and I couldn't be contacted for more than two weeks, after missing rent, he had the right to kick me out.

Technically Samantha wasn't home, but in the summer she would have to come back. Still, I surely had some rights. The locks had been changed only a few days after the rent was missed, this didn't seem legal at all. Did he know that no one else was home? Did he find out that the mess I was in would prevent me from stopping him? If so, maybe he was somehow connected to this.

While Lily went to help her grandmother with dinner, I rang the detective in charge of my case, he agreed that the landlord could be a suspect and that although his actions were suspicious, my contract put me in a difficult position. They would continue to investigate but I would have to take him to court myself.

The call ended with the detective agreeing to send me information and contacts that would help me. The email popped up as I logged in on my laptop and I quickly sent messages to different groups, such as citizens advice and law agencies. My inbox was still suspiciously empty of any messages from Joon-Jae. It had only been two days but I missed him so much, why wasn't he contacting me?

*****

After that day, my battle with my ex landlord progressed but I didn't get my flat back. Maybe it was meant to be, it no longer held Gran's spirit and Fig was gone but it held so many memories. The landlord was found guilty of illegally evicting us, he had reported me missing, to pretend that I could be hurt at home and used emergency services to break into my flat. The police discovered that I was abroad, as soon as I was reported, but the landlord pretended that he hadn't received any information.

Unfortunately he only got fined and he was found to have nothing to do with my issues abroad. But the detective believed that the person who orchestrated the plot definitely used my landlord and possibly knew about the issues between us. That meant that someone close to me, who knew about the contract, was involved. It had to be someone I trusted.

I found that I was reverting to my quiet past, unwilling to be friendly with anyone. My colleagues didn't understand my change in character and Micky confronted me with leaflets about depression and counselling. Kelly pretended nothing was wrong and comforted me by chatting as if nothing had changed. My two closest work friends, were the biggest suspects but I couldn't believe that one of them was involved.

Although I had been paid a generous amount in compensation from my landlord and the sum from the Korean ruling, I was still living in the box room at my mums house. I hadn't told anyone at work about it but soon I would have to change my address and everyone would find out. Samantha would be back in a few weeks too, so I had to find a new place.

With all that had happened here, I was also distracted by the fact that Joon-Jae still hadn't contacted me after two months. I often checked his public social media accounts but there was no attempt to contact me privately. When I was up late, I debated calling his agency with myself, but I knew they would never let me contact him.

Every snippet of news about him showed up on my feed, I didn't look at anything else, I was practically his internet stalker. Clinging to our memories together, kept me strong and replaying clips of us at the charity event, gave me courage. The beautiful superstar on Joon-Jae's arm was me, if I could be that person, I could do anything!

I worried about him but I never doubted us, since I found out who Mi-ho was, the woman he spoke about in his interview. My obsessive searches had been useful, they explained his teen crush on a trot singer, a woman who would be around sixty now, if she was still alive. The translation of our interview now made sense and it explained Joon-Jae's interest in an older woman like me. I could only guess that something had stopped Joon-Jae from contacting me.

Maybe he realised that we weren't that serious, just a momentary interest, a holiday fling. Or perhaps he had lost my note somehow. Whatever it was, I would have to find a way to meet him again. Mark had kept in contact as promised and I planned to get his help, maybe they wouldn't tell me what was going on, but Mark could be a useful contact to Joon-Jae's agency.

My priorities might be messed up, but I couldn't get myself to find a place, if I didn't know what was going on with Joon-Jae. The dreams had stopped since our time together, so I couldn't even see him when I slept, my dreams were chaotic, snapshots of my stressed life. I tried to relax by sitting in the local park after work, trying to absorb the atmosphere of peaceful nature.

"Urrrrgg!" It was no use, I couldn't stay long. By the time I took a few breaths, I had a desperate need to pee! I speed walked back to mums and rushed to the toilet.

Stupid bladder! If only my mums garden felt as relaxing but Figs grave was out there. I wasn't avoiding it as such but even though I now understood my emotions, the pain of loss was still there and grief took time to heal.

"Hey love, any luck finding a place?" Mum asked when I opened the bathroom door.

"Not yet but I was thinking, that I might not get a three bed for now. The girls are grown up now and maybe Samantha could stay here, while she's on break, she will be staying at university housing anyway. You don't mind if she does that? George would have to keep his stuff in the garage, but that's where it should be anyway!" I explained, although my mum was being patient with me, we clashed often and she was hinting that I should leave.

The private rental market was way too expensive and I had only just paid off all my debts, so I hadn't saved as much as I would like. A small bedsit or a room in a shared flat would do, while I saved for a better place. I also needed to support Samantha, her rent, living costs and fees, all came out of my pocket.

"She's my granddaughter, that's fine. If you go for a smaller place, you should be able to find something sooner!" She agreed, raising an eyebrow to remind me of my obligations.

"Oh don't worry mum, I'll send you a couple of hundred for her living expenses, I know a growing teenager eats a lot!" I added sarcastically. My mum never let go of an opportunity to get money out of me.

I didn't mind so much now that I had this good, well paid job. When I was growing up, things had been much worse. The house that my mum lived in was ultimately paid for by me, but it was under her name. While I rented my flat, I paid off half of her mortgage and it had become a habit to support her.

My mum had no shame, as Samantha's grandmother, she should be happy to help for a few weeks. I sighed and accepted my fate, my mum had been working all her life, but she still saw me as a way to get it all back, everything that she had lost when giving birth to me.

My dad had been just a teenager too and he couldn't handle the responsibility, when he got mum pregnant. Mum made sure to tell me his name, so I could hate him when I found him. I didn't feel that way through, gran had always told me not to blame him, they were both too young and it took two to tango!

With the plan agreed with mum, I could finally get out of this house. I went back to my room and flicked through the pictures on my phone, if only I could speak to Joon-Jae, that would help me the most.

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Life goes on for Jenny but why hasn't Joon-Jae contacted her? See you next week for Joon-Jae's side of the story. Don't forget to vote and comment.