Understanding What's Underneath

Chapter: 1 (Part 1): Ghosts of the Past

"Hyojin! Andrew! You two better not be screwing around in the living room!" Mrs. Park roared from the kitchen as she prepared for the Christmas feast. "I swear to god if I see a speck of dust out of place you two are dead!" she rumbled on as the speakers from the living room blasted pop music.

Andrew and Hyojin meticulously followed the choreography as they pranced about with great vigor mimicking the idols on the TV screen. "We got this mom! Don't worry about it!" Hyojin reassured her mom as she began to pose for the big finish. "Let's finish this, Sis!" Andrew exclaimed as he began to run towards his big sister; in one clean motion he jumped into the air and shifted his weight to perform a backflip when suddenly...CRASH!!

Andrew's legs swung into the mini chandelier hanging from the ceiling, causing him to lose balance and make an awkward landing as well as causing the glass decorations of the chandelier to shatter and causing the chandelier itself to tumble down onto the coffee table.

Hyojin rushed over to her little brother who was now groaning on the floor. "Andrew! Are you hurt?" Hyojin asked Andrew who had now looked dazed and confused rather than hurt. Hyojin lifted his head and squeezed his calves to see if anything was broken. Andrew snickered and remarked "Well at least it was a finish..." The two of them started laughing hysterically until...

"I'm going to kill the two of you." Both Andrew and Hyojin looked towards the doorway to find their mother standing there with a furious scowl, tapping the rolling pin in her hand as if she were about to punish them with it.

Later that evening...

"How am I going to get an Electrician? At this time of the month nonetheless?" Mr. Park grumbled crossing his arms in disapproval. Mrs. Park smashed her fist down onto the dilapidated coffee table, making one of the legs break even more and causing the table to become lopsided. "I don't care how the hell you do it! In a few hours half the family is going to barge in through that door and if they see this mess it'll be my reputation on the line!"

Meanwhile both Hyojin and Andrew had been confined in their rooms where they could audibly hear their mother ranting on about them. "Well there goes the night." Andrew remarked as he looked at her sister who just shrugged and continued to text away on her phone, "What else is new?" she said under her breath as she sighed and looked out the window. "Well what are we going to do now sis?" Andrew asked as he looked back at his own phone. "Hey, Sis?" Andrew asked again, expecting a reply only to hear silence.

He looked over at Hyojin who was looking out at the window, eyes bulging out; body shivering as if she had just witnessed a ghost materializing before her eyes. "What's wrong sis?" Andrew asked as he tried to look out the window to see what's going on. "NOTHING! It's nothing!" before Andrew could even come close to the window Hyojin rushed to shut the blinds and stopped Andrew in his tracks preventing him from getting to the window. Immediately the door bell rung throughout the whole house and Hyojin jerked up in shock, the shivering was more vigorous and apparent now, "I-If anyone asks for me tell them I'm not here... and don't let anyone into this room okay? Tell mom and dad I'm sick or something." there was now a stutter in Hyojin's voice, something that was really out of character for her; whatever she saw must have spooked her a lot. Seeing his sister like this worried Andrew but all he could do was listen to his big sister and do as she said.

Andrew descended the stairwell to tell his parents that his sister wasn't feeling good when suddenly he was met with a bulky middle aged guy he had never seen before. The man must have been in his early 50s with gray, balding hair, a big Amish looking gray beard without a mustache to accompany it and a receding hairline that was well above his eyebrows and yet somehow he was built like a refrigerator, wearing a cyan jumper . "Hey kid, I'm the electrician. You called for a broken chandelier or something?" This electrician must be doing some real heavy lifting to be that built Andrew thought to himself. "Yeah...um it's in the living room down the hall, my parents should be there." Andrew said as he led the way to the living room where his parents were still arguing.

"Mom, Dad the electrician is here..." Andrew said and followed by Mrs. Park darting her head in his direction and screaming out, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUTSIDE OF YOUR ROOM MISTER? DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THE WORD GROUNDED MEANS?" To this Andrew whimpered out that Hyojin wasn't feeling well and to not let anyone in the room. Mrs. Park raised one of her eyebrows, clearly in doubt. "What happened to her all of a sudden?" she inquired suspecting that this was another one of her plots but instead of charging upstairs and confronting her for it Mrs. Park just shook her head and replied "Whatever just get back to your room and stay there." She then turned her attention towards the electrician who was now tinkering with the chandelier.

Meanwhile in Hyojin's room she was still frantically shaking in her bed clutching onto her wrists to try to stop the jitters, tears were now slowly streaming down her cheeks. Suddenly a brisk knock at the door caused her to jerk up and her heart to leap out of her chest. "W-Who is it?" she stuttered and rushed to the door, feeling dumb for asking that because that kind of vigorous knocking can only be her mom's. She opened the door and her heart sank; her mom was there alright but behind her was the electrician. Hyojin began to sweat even more and the stutter grew even more prominent as her mother explained in a monotone voice that she was making the electrician look through all the other nooks and crannies of the house to see what else she and Andrew had screwed up because of all the power surges from their IT shenanigans.

Hyojin didn't bother listening to her mom; she was staring wide eyed at the electrician who had an eerie smile plastered on his sweaty mug a smile that was filled with malice and an ulterior motive. As soon as Mrs. Park left the room and was out of sight, the electrician slowly advanced towards Hyojin at an agonizingly slow pace before uttering in a slow soft guttural voice:

"Good to see you again sweetie."

To Be Continued