「Chapter Three」

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I woke up with a start. I was covered in sweat.

2:05 a.m. showed the clock.

"Its just another bad dream."

Why wouldn't it just stop?

I gave a heavy sigh and sat up in bed. I'd been getting these dreams ever since mom died.
Everynight, all I would see was her pale white face, moving away from me, farther and farther until she disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
Then I'd fall, fall into an endless pit, not knowing what to do.

This dream had briefly stopped when dad said we were moving to Jeju.

I thought it was gone for good. But I was so wrong.

It was impossible to fall asleep now. Putting my headphones on, I patiently waited for for the world which lay outside my window to gradually brighten up.

"And over there is the electronics repair store. That's where I work part time." Jaebum said grinning and giving the peace sign.

Jaebum wanted to show me around town so I happily excepted the offer.

"Do you like working there?" I asked a little boldly than last time.

"Yeah, I love fixing things. So if you hair dryer's not working be sure to call me." He joked.

We grabbed some ice-cream from Mr. Jo, my neighbour's ice-cream palor, he tipped his hat towards me and smiled.
Since it was a small town, everyone knew eachother.

We were back in the main street walking slowing while eating our ice creams. There was an awkward silence, Jaebum must have guessed that because then he starting asking me my interests and hobbies.

"I like reading books so I'm really happy because of the book store." Then I asked, "Do you like to read?"

"Not really, all the books I've read are only school books which I had to read. No other choice." He grinned when that made me laugh a little.

"Oh, you're joining school right? Let's head to the clothes store, school is only one week away!" He shouted excitedly while spontaneously grabbing my hand and running forward with me at his heels.

I blushed profusely and secretly thanked god that atleast Jaebum didn't get to see my face.

It was already evening and we had toured to almost each and every street in the town. Jaebum's part-time was starting soon but I politely refused.

"It's okay, I'll make it in time." He said.
"No it's alright, I know the way back home and you must be exhausted too. Thankyou for showing me around." I gave a genuine smile.

"Okay then, had a great time with you. See you tomorrow." He said winking again.

It was a bit chilly today so I wrapped myself tightly around my light jacket.
My dad's company had a branch here in Jeju so it wasn't really hard to transfer here.
I never really had many friends back in Seoul so I don't think anyone would feel bad for me leaving either.

The cobbled streets were brightly lit by the lamp posts. I made my way humming to a popular song.

I heard running behind me but didn't bother to look back. As I made a sharp left, the person behind me bumped into me, making me stagger towards the wall.

The person now whom I identified as a boy, had his hair almost covering his eyes. He faltered a little, turned to look at me for a split second, didn't even bother to mumble out a 'sorry', and was already on his way.

Wow, so rude.

I quickly regained my posture, looked towards the way he ran and proceeded on my way. Maybe by the time I would have reached home, I would have already forgotten about it but then, I saw a plastic card on the ground, reflecting the light from the lamp posts. I was sure it wasn't there before I was thrown towards the wall.

I bent down to pick it up, when just at that moment, my phone rang.

"Yeah, dad, I'm on my way. No, I'm not lost, see you."

I guess I was taking too much of my sweet time that I didn't realise that it was already nine o' clock.

I shoved the plastic card in my jacket pocket before making a run for it.

"Welcome to Delitrium!" I said, almost shouted excitedly, earning a bit of a weird glance from the man who had entered and a hearty laugh from granma.

"Ah, you're the perfect person to take care of the bookstore for me." She said.

"Ofcourse, I've always wanted to!" I told her.

What else would be better than be surrounded by books and coffee all day. Just the thought made me so satisfied and happy.

Granma needed to attend a meeting at the town hall as she was one of the mayor's advisors. I bid her goodbye and sat down behind the counter.

Ahh, this is what it feels like to sit behind a counter. I laughed at my own thought.


Just as I put my hands in my jacket pockets, my hand hit something cold, a piece of hard paper.

The plastic card I found yesterday.

Finally getting the opportunity to discover the rude guy from yesterday, I quickly took the card out to find that it was a library card.

'Jeon Jungkook' was the name printed on the card, the was a picture beside it and sure enough it was the rude guy from yesterday after all.

He reads books?

Judging by his birthdate, we were roughly the same age.

I closely looked at his picture. Hair just like I saw yesterday, jet black, almost covering his eyes and well, he had this scowl on his face.

"Seems familiar?"

Do I know him?

"Maybe."

I looked at the library card again, imprinting his face in my mind.

Where had I seen him before? I somehow had a vague memory but nothing that might make sense in any way.

Still puzzling over this, I put both my legs on top of the counter and sighed.

Jeon Jungkook, just who the hell are you?

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