All Your Lies | Yoon Jeonghan

CH 33: Umbrella Guy (The Start)

[ Always Have Been Umbrella Guy ]

Raki was nineteen the last time she saw her parents, and five years later, she was going to see them again. The people she grieved for for five years, she could almost reach them, so close she couldn't begin to believe it.

As she sauntered her way up the gentle incline of the hill, the grasses tickled her ankles, leading her mind to presume that it was somehow her parents' way of telling her that she finally found them, that they were there, always have been waiting for her.

If she knew, she could've found them sooner. But she got caught up blaming her brother for everything that happened that she didn't know whom to ask. Or what to even do next.

The rustling sound of grass made her look behind, and smiled when it was finally Jeonghan catching up, holding up a bouquet of white flowers.

When he came close, he offered them to her. "I bought this earlier. For your parents."

She knew that it was common knowledge to bring flowers when visiting a cemetery, yet that and everything else that day, it was like he planned it thoroughly and without fault.

Raki lay hold of the white flowers. "Thank you.", Every thing around was almost white, and it was just surreal. "I feel like I'm in a dream right now."

The corners of his lips stretched into a smile. "Is it a good dream?"

"Hmm.", She nodded, then looked at him in wonder as she asked, "Where do we go?"

"I think it's this way.", Jeonghan began to pave his way forward, seemingly certain of the direction.

If things could have been different, he wouldn't have been so afraid that she might hate him for what he was doing, and the things that he was doing, she would have been the one taking him there, the one buying her parents' flowers and the one who was certain where to go.

"It feels odd that you're the one telling me where to go."

For a moment, he halted, turning to look at her with such unfeigned eyes, she recalls the way how she couldn't just bring herself to hate him. "I don't mind."

Raki kneeled in front of her parents' grave, placing the bouquet of white flower beneath the gravestone where their names were engraved.

Jeonghan crouched down beside her, observing her hands and the way she carefully positioned the flowers. "What were they like?", He asked her, looking at the names on the gravestone, imagining what could have been they like with Raki.

She felt unnerved, yet she just smiled, remembering all the times she had with them. Even the last time that she got to see them. "They were amazing. All I could ever ask for."

Then, at that still and silent moment, all that reached her ears were the gentle whoosh of the wind and the occasional rustle of the grass when he shifted in his position, solemn as she was.

Raki took a moment to exhale, her breathe riding along with the wind. "I was in class when someone called me informing me that they got into an accident.", She breathed in, heavy with feelings. "That they didn't get to make it to the hospital before they passed."

Jeonghan pondered of his question cautiously before letting it reach her. "Do you think there was a reason?"

She shook her head slowly, genuinely unsure."I don't know.", Raki pursed her lips as she lowered her eyes to the edge of the gravestone. "It was my older brother's graduation in Japan, and even though he was told more than several times that it was difficult for our parents to get there, he persisted and they couldn't bare to have him upset."