Serendipity (Kaistal)

Chapter 3 - Jung Manor

Chapter 3

Jung Manor

Jongin woke up. His eyes roam around the room he's in.

The room is fancy, even fancier than his room back at his old home. He's wondering how can an ordinary working class woman can live in this kind of mansion but he doesn't want to linger in that thought. He's too lazy to mind other people's business.

He got up, already missing the comfort of the bed but he's just a guest for the night so that means leaving the house is a must.

He got out of the room, went to the washroom and then head down to the kitchen. He's right in assuming that Soojung's in there.

"Thought you died in your sleep. Took you forever to woke up." Soojung said the moment she saw him as she placed the fried fish at the table.

"Good morning to you too." Jongin greeted her with a smirk, though he figured it must late already.

"I was just about to go upstairs and wake you up." she looks at the wall clock. "You slept for 10 hours!"

"Sorry .... been a while since I got to sleep on a comfortable bed." he scratches the back of his head.

Soojung sits down at the dining table, Jongin noticed she had placed two servings of food so assuming that it's for him, he took a seat too. The food in front of him is enough as invitation.

They eat their lunch in silence. It's not an awkward silence for Jongin. He's actually grateful for Soojung's offer of kindness and based on his experience not a lot of people do that to strangers. As for Soojung, she's surprised that for some reason this silent lunch doesn't feel awkward at all. Although it made her a little bit unease for being too comfortable to this.

"Thank you." says Jongin after awhile. He put his chopsticks down beside his now empty bowl of rice.

Soojung's done too, she got up and gathered their plates then went to the sink.

"I gotta admit I missed being at a home."

"Don't you really have a home?" Soojung asked.

"I did .... but ....."

Soojung felt sorry for him, after all in three days time she's gonna be like him.

"If you want you can still stay here for three more days." Soojung didn't know why she said that but since she did there's no turning back.

"Huh?" He stood up and went to the kitchen where she is. He leaned at the counter near the sink.

'I must have heard it wrong. There's no way she will let me stay.' Jongin thought.

"You heard me." Soojung said. She continued washing the dishes. "I'll be leaving tonight so you have the house for yourself."

"Where are you going?"

"Somewhere."

"You'll let me stay at your house while you're gone?"

"Yes. But only for three days.

"You mean until you get back."

"Oh I'm not going back."

"What?"

"The house's no longer mine." Jongin can sense stiffness in her voice.

'Something's not right here.' he thought.

"After three days they will come. Just make sure he will not see you here."

"Who?"

".....Mr. S."

Then it clicked on him. He remembered the conversation they had last night.

"You don't seem surprised by the deal. Is that a normal thing here in your kingdom?" he asked.

"Silla .... is in a complicated situation .... right now. Economy's not stable and worse, demons like Mr. S takes advantage from it."

He sighed. It's clear to him now. That explains why the furniture in this house were all covered in white sheets when he saw them last night. At first he thought Soojung just moved in to this house or she's about to move out but now he understands it perfectly.

"What's up with this kingdom? How come everyone seems to be under that bloody nose of your stupid boss?"

She didn't respond. This only made him sigh once more. "How troublesome." he muttered to himself.

"Baduk."

"Huh?" Soojung looked at him.

"He does it all through baduk?"

"He's a damn good player of that cursed game."

"Do you have work today?"

"No. It's my day off." Soojung finished the dishes. She grabbed a towel and wiped her hands dry.

"Good. Come on, we're going somewhere." Jongin grabbed her wrist and lead her to the door.

"W-Wait! Where are we going?"

"He's a good player you said? Well ... we'll see about that."

****

"You're crazy! It's either that or you're stupid! Or you're both!"

Soojung's been shouting insults at Jongin nonstop since she realized what he's about to do. They are almost running towards the Casino. She's been telling him to stop but to no effect.

Jongin just kept ignoring her remarks but it only made her even angrier. She stopped walking and pulled her wrist from his grip.

"If you wish to die go ahead, I don't have any desire to stop you whatsoever but don't expect me to hang around and watch it." then she turned around and started walking back towards the way to her house.

Jongin run and caught up with her. He blocked her way to stop her.

"Get the hell out of my way."

Jongin fished a small bag of coins inside his pocket, he reached for Soojung's hand and placed the bag at her palm. "This is all such a drag but I know how to end this. All I ask for you is to trust me."

His brown eyes meets hers. Soojung can see how genuine he is about this. But taking a huge risk like this is not a simple matter.

"Why don't you just drop it? This has nothing to do with you."

"Let's save the boring explanation later, right now we have a deal to make."

He didn't let go of her hand, instead he holds it tightly and leads her to the Casino. They stopped at the store next to it and hide themselves eyeing the goons that guards the main entrance of the building.

"Now what?"

"Meet me at the main game room in five minutes." Jongin said in low voice.

"What?" Soojung had no clue that they will split up. She thought they were gonna slip through the back door.

Jongin didn't answer instead he stepped out at the street and waved his hands up in air. "Oi! Stupid ugly thugs! Missed me?!"

The guards noticed him and their eyes widen in surprise. Took them five seconds to realize that Jongin had already ran off away from them. They followed him, screaming in rage like maniacs.

'If you die tonight, I'll dig your grave just to kill you myself.' Soojung thought, along with six other curses that she screamed to him in her head.

*88*

GLOSSARY

BADUK - Korean Go Boardgame

HANBOK - Traditional Korean attire

SILLA - One of the Three Kingdoms of Korea