STARS || ksy

27

I stormed back to the office and loosely planted myself on my armchair. That was when Jisoo came in.

"Where were you?" I demanded angrily as Jisoo jumped a little and bowed to me.

"I was checking in for a new guest, Mr-"

"That should have been me, you understand?" I blurted out without thinking.

Jisoo blinked her eyes repeatedly. "I...beg your pardon?"

This wasn't going to go well...Jisoo has already been so awkward and less open to me ever since that incident last night...

"Nothing." I sighed, closing my eyes.

I couldn't control myself anymore. Something about Jisoo was preventing my allergy from overtaking me. Something vaguely familiar. She makes me feel something, something which I haven't felt before, no, something I haven't felt before in a long time.

~

Parking my car in front of my two storey penthouse, I burst into the door, stunning my cousin, who was seated on the couch with who I assumed to be his long lost friend, who also happened to be the short nurse. But I didn't care, really. I just wanted to verify Jisoo's identity once I got home.

I stomped up the spiraling stairs extremely loudly and banged the door to my room.

I hurled my laptop bag onto the floor with a loud thud and started rummaging through everything in my room. The drawers, the cupboards, everything.

Seungcheol and the short nurse Jihoon peeked into my room. Seungcheol widened his eyes as he observed the ruckus that I had caused. "Are you okay, Soonyoung?"

"Do I fvcking look okay to you?!" I hollered, tossing an old book backwards, almost hitting the short nurse. "Hey, watch it!" He retorted, folding his arms.

"Are you looking for a pen?"

"No."

"A document?"

"No!"

"The toilet?"

"You know what, midget? Go away."

Seungcheol looked at me, perplexed. Then, his face lit up. "Hold it, are you looking for that small bronze box? The one you handed to me for safekeeping years ago?"

I stopped and nodded. "Do you have it?? I need it!"

Seungcheol scratched his neck and shrugged. "I might still have it somewhere in my room, but I don't know really, I need to go look for it."

I looked at Seungcheol pleadingly. "Then please help me look for it. I need it now."

Seungcheol nodded and walked away, with Jihoon tagging along with him.

I sank onto the floor, perspiring. My eyes stung and my heart froze as I thought about things that had happened in the past. I spent more than 4 years looking for them, and I gave up looking for Sooji and Wonho, Seoul is too big, I won't be able to find them, they could have already been adopted, out of the orphanage...

"Hosh! I found it!" Seungcheol came in, with a small bronze box in his hands. It was locked, of course, because I locked it  years ago with a key.

My eyes shifted to a small compartment in my wall. Standing up, I pryed the loose compartment open and slowly pulled out a key in the shape of the star.

"Is this like a scene in a movie or something?" Jihoon whispered softly as he leans closer to Seungcheol.

Seungcheol shrugged. "Like I said, he's a bratty weirdo." he whispered back.

I inserted the once polished bronze key into the keyhole of the box and twisted it. A creaky click could be heard as the lid of the box slowly detached from the lock and rose up slowly.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see Seungcheol and Jihoon's neck craning over to see what was in the box.

A small dusty cloth was in the box. Underneath it were some bumpy things which I could only see if I removed the cloth, that is, and so I did as my mind told me.

My fingers trembled as I reached for the oh-so-familiar necklace resting on top of a few yellowed and crumpled photographs.

A chill ran up my fingers slowly and goosebumps tugged underneath my skin as I trailed my thumb over the small engraved heart pendant which hung on the browned necklace chain. KSY+JSJ...

"What's that?" Seungcheol asked, curious. I said nothing and I lifted up the necklace and hung it on my neck, the unfamiliar feeling wafting back to me as the cold chain stung me. I picked up the yellowed photographs and flipped through them.

I smiled weakly as I saw a photo when Sooji, Wonho and I were toddlers, chasing after the chickens that I reared at my house when we were younger.

The next photo was when Sooji was 6 and I was 8, huddling together under our favorite childhood hideout, which was the old large willow tree, the only place in Gyeonggi-do where you could see stars brightly and clearly. We loved stars so much that we would meet under the tree every night, just so that we could see them together.

"Make a wish, Youngie."

A small drop of warm tear managed to make its way out from behind my eye and slowly slid down my cheeks as Sooji's sweet voice rung in my mind.

"Is he...crying?" Jihoon whispered.

"I've never ever, in my 23 years of living, ever seen him cry like that." Seungcheol said.

I looked up the ceiling to stop the waterworks for the time being and took out the next photo with my head still tilted up and I imagined what Wonho and Sooji would be like now...

Wonho would be working now, or even married, with kids. Sooji would be-

I glanced down at the final photo and my heart stopped beating.

"Oh my God..." I choked on my tears and my voice was raspy as my eyes wandered on the last photograph.

Jeon Sooji was...

...Jeon Jisoo.

~