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CHAPTER FOUR ( Goodbye, Autumn )
AHN SUHO WEIGHS like a sinking ship against Jaehwa's chest. He is so familiar in a way that is so unfamiliar, and Jaehwa hates when things are too comforting and too distant to call her own.
Feelings, emotions, all of the things Jaehwa has learned to hide because they are entirely not hers. They belong to the girl whose body she has stolen; Everything, the love of Cha Si-woo and Moon Boram, Ahn Suho, and even herself.
Cha Jaehwa's skin is peeling to reveal the horrid flesh that rots through her bones and burns her body, and she cannot hide beneath the sheets of a bed that she cannot fully call her own, surrounded by a home and by a warmth that is unbecoming of her sins.
Jaehwa is a thief - She steals and feasts upon frowns and heavy hearts, for she needs to satiate the cataclysmic pit that tears her apart.
Perhaps one day, Cha Jaehwa will learn to be whole.
MORNING SETTLES UPON Jaehwa's bones like a dull premonition of the coming winter, chilly and wet and all too mind-numbing.
Not for the first time, Jaehwa lets the light from outside filter through her curtains for a while longer before dragging the weight of her body upwards. Blankets erode her body, carving Cha Jaehwa into a sculpture of a dead woman only a breath away from deterioration.
Cha Si-woo knocks twice against the closed bedroom door. He feels inclined to do so, because the girl on the other side of the room is not inherently his daughter. He doesn't know this new Cha Jaehwa, even though they share the link of a last name.
"Jaehwa-yah" He calls her name softly, as though she might fade into nothing but Jaehwa-scented blankets and bitter memories.
She grumbles her response, too disoriented to feel awkward, or domestic. Jaehwa doesn't know what she has once called Si-woo - Father, perhaps? - So she chooses the logical option and stays silent.
"It's Monday." He states the obvious. Jaehwa spares a glance at her bedside clock.
The girl nods before she realizes there is still a thin door between her and Si-woo. "I know."
Silence.
Si-woo seems to be contemplating something heavy from behind the door. Jaehwa can hear the creak of the floor as he paces slightly. His voice pressed against the door, slightly muffled.
