Heaven - Mark Lee

- 8

The summer sun shone down warmly onto Heejins skin as she entered the cul-de-sac her house was on.

The now somewhat familiar building came into view and the lack of her parent's car in the driveway made her body relax a little- she had the house to herself.

Jiggling the door open, she kicked off her shoes and made her way upstairs. She desperately needed a shower. The stickiness of the sunscreen lingered on her skin and despite not even going into the water, she smelt of chlorine.

Her bag made a thud as it hit the floor and she made her way to the bathroom. Steam filled the room as she turned on the hot water. Sticking her hand in to feel the temperature of the water, she stepped in once declaring it the perfect temperature.

The warm water cascaded down her face and skin and since her parents weren't home, she took her time with washing her hair and body. Even going the extra mile to do a hair mask.

The instantaneous relaxation of all her muscles sent her into bliss as she exited the room scrunching her hair in her towel.

She plopped herself on the edge of the bed and grabbed out her phone, clicking on her boyfriend's profile and that familiar ringing sound filled the room.

"Hey babe," he said as the call connected.

"Hey baby" Heejin beamed as her boyfriend's face appeared on her screen- well, half his face, he was staring at his computer screen off to the side as he tapped away on his keyboard playing a game.

"What're you playing?" She asked, hearing the constant clicks of his keys and mouse echo through the speakers.

"Valorant."
"That's cool. Are you winning?"
"Yeah."
"Good job," she smiled happily for him. "How are you? How's school? How's our friend group?"

"They're good. Dosung got into a fight the other day, it was sick."
"Oh, is he hurt?"
"Nah, couple bruises and a split lip. But he looks badass."
"I bet," she chuckled awkwardly. "And how are you? How's school?"
"Yeah I'm good, schools boring as usual. Nothings changed."
"Oh..." pain struck Heejins heart like a knife.

Nothings changed... was she not as important to her friends as she thought? She had barely heard from them since moving and they rarely respond to her texts. But nothings changed... she at least thought they'd be sad without her, that they'd feel like a part of their group wasn't with them.

Maybe they were only pretending to be friends with Heejin and were actually glad she was gone.

"How are you?" He asked finally.
"I'm good, just finished my first shift at the pool."
"How was it?"
"It was good. Mark showed me around and we talked for a bit before the manager came to give me my contract and talk about training."
"Cool. What did you and Mark talk about," Heejin picked up on the way he said Marks name weirdly and her eyebrows creased a little.

"Uhh, nothing much. About how long he's worked there, I asked about his sister and then he asked if I was dating anyone." At the sound of that Juwon's eyes flickered straight into the camera to stare at Heejin.

The sound of his character dying rung through the screen.

"He asked what?" His tone had completely changed. His voice went from almost unbothered to intense and Heejin felt like she was being interrogated under his glare.

"He just asked if I was dating anyone. Obviously I said yes and talked about you."
"Why the fuck would he ask that? Is he trying to hit on you?"
"What? No of course not. Mark isn't like that. He just wanted to get to know me better since we're going to be spending a lot of time together."
Juwon rolled his eyes, "yeah, great."

Heejin squinted at him, unsure as to why he was acting this way. "If you're jealous, you really don't have to be. I love you and only think of Mark as a friend. And he's my first friend here."

"You have friends in Seoul," his tone was intimidating and Heejin was starting to get annoyed by his directness.

"Well yeah, but non have message me. It's been like four days since I've spoken to anyone and no one seems to reach out. At least I have a friend. Shouldn't you be happy about that?"

"Everyone has been really busy. I'm sure they have good reasons not to message you," Juwon said and Heejin scoffed. He had never been so angry and annoyed before.
"And I am happy you've made a friend, I am just not happy that it's with this Mark guy. He sounds like a player."

"So what? You're saying I shouldn't be friends with him because you think he's a player?"
"Yeah, I do."

Heejin couldn't believe her ears. He was being so possessive and controlling. Mark was nothing like what he was saying.

"I can't just not be friends with him. He got me this job and is helping me with English. Plus he is definitely not a player."

"I don't know babe. Something feels off," he said as he looked back at his screen and began playing again.

"I promise you nothing is off. If it helps, I can send you his links and you can look at him if you want. Plus he goes to Church and his dad's the pastor. So he really isn't a player. If anything he's probably waiting till marriage."

Juwon continued playing for a few seconds before saying "fine. Send them to me straight away. I've got to go."

"Oh, okay. Have fun playing. Bye baby."

"Bye."

And with that he hung up.

Heejin sat on her bed staring off in utter disbelief. She hadn't seen this side of him before and it really was not like him to take their friend's side and commend their absent effort of reaching out or responding.

The phone call turned her mood sour. So she sent him Marks profile and threw her phone on her nightstand.

Maybe he was just having a bad day.

Annoyance bubbled within her and so instead of doing homework, she planned to nap away her negative feelings.

Geez Juwon, take a chill pill 🙄🙄