Chimes

Three

When the first ray of sunlight hit SinB's body, I started screaming.

"B! YOUR HEAD!" I was jarring her vigorously to consciousness while checking if she was breathing. There was blood at the back of her head but it hasn't seep through the covers.

She was startled and sat up instantly. She hugged me like she wasn't in pain.

"Calm down, I'm okay. It will go away."

"WHAT?! NO! WE NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL!"

"I've been there. They couldn't do anything. I'm alright. Believe me-

"NO! HOW COULD-"

"Yerin! Yerin! My ears... Stop screaming. I'm okay... I love you. Sshhhh..."

"B! NO-"

"Sshhh..."

***

"Why did we go here?" I whispered. It was weird, that after that steamy encounter last night, that SinB seemed to have caught some investigative vibe.

"I wanted to show you something." She didn't care to lower her voice in spite the countless white stickers plastered on the walls that had that red triangle reminding us to 'Keep quiet, please.' I guess because it was Saturday.

But more than her disregard of the rules in that building, there was something disquieting with how the words fell out of her tongue. There was subtle fear but at the same time, she was earnest to let me know.

"What is it?"

She didn't answer my question but she continued talking as we slowly treaded the endless rows of old, rusty metal racks that housed volumes and volumes of periodicals. Something felt wrong. I was confused seeing 2016 and 2017 labels on the racks. I couldn't understand how the racks were loaded with tons of newsprints when those years haven't come yet.

"Two years ago, I met you for the first time." She said quietly as we reached the 2015 newspaper issues. "You sat on the corner table of the restaurant. In that same corner that was always reserved for me. The staff wanted to get you another table but I asked them to not bother you anymore. I sat on the table next to yours."

"Wow. Really? I don't recall that we've met."

"Because we didn't. We never had the chance."

"We sure did after two years." I said forcing a smile. Saying it was two years didn't seem right. I've frequented the restaurant more than any other place in Seoul and I doubted the odds of not seeing SinB throughout that time.

"I remembered everything that happened that day... Unfortunately. No matter how hard I tried to forget, it kept coming back." She met my eyes, and I saw the fear that I have been praying wasn't true.

"But why would you want to forget? Did I do something to you?"

"No. If there was anything, it was that you unknowingly made me fall for you by doing nothing. I watched everything you did that day, from the way you slumped on the chair, to the playful way you cut your cake, to the cute giggling you made when you tasted it. Yerin, you were the most beautiful person I have ever seen."

"And you are too, B. But why are you telling me these things only now?" I wanted to believe that she was going to ask me to be her girlfriend, that's why she started all that dramatic oration. But then I remembered that she already asked me, and I've given her my 'yes' together with my everything.

She cleared her throat as she pulled a large plastic binder of periodicals dated October 2015.

"That day, I think you were too excited to finish your cake that you coughed when the chocolate got stuck on your throat. I ran to you and offered you a bottle of water. You had a drink in front of you but you grabbed the Perrier bottle from my hand and drank all of it."