with you // lee jihoon

02

"Joshua oppa!" I said as I grasped the faint memory of the man in front of me. He hugged me once more before handing me the application form.

"Here. Fill this out and you can start whenever. Okay Sookyung-ah?" I nodded and looked for a pen when Jihoon handed me one. I muttered a thank you before filling out the form and handing it to Joshua oppa who handed me a work uniform. As he left to take care of other things, I took my uniform and headed towards the workers' room where I changed into it and went back out.

"Wait are you going to start working today?" I heard Jihoon ask as I left the room and back to the cafe. I nodded before walking to Joshua oppa to ask what I should do. He told me to go to the kitchen with Jihoon who came out of the workers' room in his uniform too. I dragged Jihoon to the kitchen and started washing the dishes.

After hours of washing and drying coffee cups and plates, we were set free with information that we were getting our real jobs and our name tags tomorrow.

"Bye Sookyung. See you tomorrow." Jihoon said as he started walking home. Luckily, we didn't have to eat together since we needed to start after our first pay. I thought of all the trouble that was coming my way becaude of this project and sighed but slightly screamed because of my phone blasting my ringtone.

"Hello?" I asked without looking at the caller ID.

"What's taking you so long Sookyung? You're late for dinner!" It was Jaehwan.

"Kyungsoo's worried about you. He's walking back and forth while looking at the door. Hurry up and come okay?" He hung up after saying goodbye, making me annoyed but also run home aince Kyungsoo was waiting.
I stood in front of our house, hands resting on my knees and panting.

"I'm home." I mumbled as I opened the door. Kyungsoo's big eyes grew even larger as he ran to me and jumped up to hug me, making me stumble backwards. I hugged him back tightly and whispered a sorry and detached him from my neck. Patting his head, I said hello to aunt and uncle while ignoring Jaehwan and went upstairs, not hungry at all. I took out the small amount of homework we were given and finished it in minutes before getting ready to try to sleep again. Iaid on the bed and closed my eyes, thinking of happy memories and soon fell asleep

--

"Mom! Let's go over there!" I dragged my mom's arm to the park where there was a playground and stopped in front of it, my mom tired from pushing the stroller and being dragged by me. I reached out to hug my mother but saw that I wasn't the younger me and that they couldn't see me.

"Mom!" I tried yelling and reached towards her when the scene suddenly changed and I was in a dark and confined room with minimal light. I heard a crash and a yell coming from outside so I peeked out of the place where the light was but saw that there was a girl next to me and a sleeping baby boy next to her. This seems so familiar. I looked out to see nothing but then the door of the room slammed open and a lady was pushed to the floor by a tall man.

"Why are you doing this to me? Leave the house right now before I call the police." The woman slowly stood up and only now I could see her face. Is...is that mom?

"Why do you think I'm here? I came to collect the money your husband borrowed from me." The man walked closer and closer while my mom took a step back each time. She pushed him away and tried running away but was pulled back by the man. She started hitting the man with a lot of force, making the man angry. This next part I knew too well so I tried closing my eyes but I couldn't move anything.

"You're making this harder for the both of us. Just give me the money and I'll be gone." My mom didn't stop, making me want to shout and stop her. The man finally got hit in the face, making him overflow with anger and took out a knife from his back pocket. He lurched at mom and stabbed her in the stomach multiple times, making her scream. Hearing her agonizing screams made my knees weak and nauseous. I felt like fainting and then I could see nothing.