Smoke- lee heeseung

VII

"I wanted to be everything and nothing at the same time."
— Sylvia Plath

»--•--«

"Thank you so much, darling. You're the only one I trust with this." Ms. Choi, the registrar gushed as Yuwon smiled in response. The older woman was in her 50's and divorced. She was too innocent for her own good.

Apparently, the PC faced some technical problems and the woman freaked out. Since Yuwon had fixed her phone quite a few times in the past and she knew how big of a tech geek she was, the innocent woman called her to help.

"You continue your work and I'll get you some coffee. You're already going out of your way to stay after school hours for me," the soft voice made her smile as she nodded her head.

"Thank you, Ms. Choi. I'd love that."

Ms. Choi left and she got done with her work in roughly one minute. Just some pesky virus slowing the computer down which she could get rid of with her eyes closed.

She didn't know what came over her when she started skimming through the records. She didn't know what came over her when she searched Yang Heejin in the search bar. A profile popped up and she sucked in a large breath. Could this be her?

She clicked on the profile and a picture of a woman who looked eerily similar to her, just much skinnier, filled the screen. Her heart pounded like it was about to break free from her ribcage as she scrolled down. Information filling the screen but she couldn't process anything.

Words were imprinted on the lit screen in front of her but her brain stopped working and she couldn't read a single thing.

The only thing she could read was her birthplace, Dongnae-gu. Busan, South Korea.

Her mother was from Busan. She read the name of her school where she read until she went to university in Seoul. She went to Yonsei University. 

She could only process so much information when Ms. Choi came in with Mrs. Kang on her tail. She quickly exited the window and greeted them with a smile, standing up to greet Mrs. Kang with a bow. The woman's eyes narrowed a little when she saw Yuwon behind the computer but the expression smoothened again. "Who do we have here?"

Mr. Choi so generously filled in for her. "The computer got slowed down and since Yuwon is an expert at tech things, I got her to fix it. Besides, she's a really reliable student."

Yuwon started deflecting. "Oh, I'm surely no expert. Besides, it was just some pesky virus. It was actually tough for a young student like me to find but I'd say I did it quite fast."

"But you're-" Ms. Choi was cut off my Mrs. Kang who laughed. "Milennials consider anyone who can restart a phone a tech genius."

Yuwon felt uncomfortable at the statement but decided to overlook it. They were colleagues and surely close enough to joke about age. Ignoring the gnawing feeling in her brain, she stood up.

"I'll get going now." Yuwon smiled at the teachers and was about to leave when Ms. Choi handed her the cup of instant coffee and patted her head in a motherly way.

"Get home safely, dear. I'll see you tomorrow." the soft voice would have been enough to make her break down. She didn't usually get affection from people and whenever she did, it made her heart warm.

"I will. You be safe too, Miss." Yuwon bowed one last time and grabbed her bag before leaving.

She downed the partially cold coffee in one sip and threw the paper cup in a thrash can as she headed out of the school. The school was partially empty and she observed her quiet, somehow eerie surroundings as she headed towards the gate, plugging her earphones in.

There was almost a half-mile driveway surrounded by woods on both sides that led to the school. It was almost 7 pm and it was no doubt that she was painfully late and dark. She turned the volume up and hoped that Abel Tesfaye's voice blocked out the ghostly presence she felt lurking behind her. 

She quickened her steps, not daring to look back. She was almost running when she saw the wide roads that showed traffic. Seeing that the roads were relatively empty, she decided to just make a run for it, trying to get as far away from the woods as possible.

What she couldn't comprehend was the car that ran towards her at full speed and made her momentarily paralyzed. The headlights bore down on her, their harsh glare illuminating every thought she'd tried so hard to suppress. The car was coming fast, but time seemed to crawl, stretching out each second, forcing her to confront herself. She stood in the middle of the road, feeling the vibrations in the pavement from the speeding vehicle. But her feet wouldn't move. Maybe they couldn't, or maybe she didn't want them to.

Her pulse quickened, but not with fear. It was indecision, tearing her apart. Should she move? Should she give herself another day, another chance to see if she mattered? Or was this the moment she let go? She stared at the car, her thoughts a tangled web of "what ifs" and "does it even matter?" Her body tensed as though waiting for her mind to make the call.

In those seconds, it felt like the world held its breath. The car was almost upon her now. Move, she thought. Move. But still, she couldn't. Or maybe she wouldn't.

In that moment, a hand gripped the back of her jacket and pulled her behind, making her trip on her own feet and lose her balance so she would collide into a pole. But before the hard material could assault her muscles, she felt herself collide into a hard, warm body. A body that smelled nice enough for her to bury her head in their chest.

Her brain was slow to process the encounter she almost had with the grim-reaper and she slowly looked up. Her blurry eyes slowly cleared for her nemesis's face to become starkly clear.

Harsh lines creased his face for a moment but then his face smoothed out, his grip on her upper arm tight enough for it to hurt as he pulled out her earphones with one hand. He looked worried for a second or maybe she had just imagined it. Maybe she made it all up in her head since she wanted someone to be worried for her. But God knew she did not want Lee Heeseung to be the someone who worried for her.

She harshly stepped back, blinking away the tears that had gathered in her eyes. The revelation of her mother's past had been too much for her to take and left her brain all mushed up. 

She pushed him away and glared up at him. The top of her head barely reached his shoulder but her ego was too massive to comprehend that. "Don't touch me."

His eyes flared for a second before he tamed it down. "Oh, I would never dare to touch the likes of you. The goodness in me prevented me from letting you get hit by a car and probably leave you to die in front of the school so you could haunt it forever."

"I could've moved on my own. You didn't need to play hero." she huffed, feeling embarrassed that he had to see her momentary moment of weakness. If he thought she was suicidal or depressed by any chance...

"Then why weren't you moving? I had run to pull you away. That driver was probably half-asleep or drunk. You saw that he wasn't swerving and yet you stayed still," his tone was observative and it made goosebumps erupt on her skin. "Tell me, Angel..." he moved closer to her but she refused to back out, refused to show any weakness.

"Were you thinking of ending your own life?"