'Golden Mary'

Part 21

Squished in the midst of the crowd he waited for the crowd of curly heads in front of him to finish looking through the boxes before they turned to squeeze their own way out. Once they finished Siwon stepped forward and glanced at the crushed herbs neatly packed away in clear plastic bags. He quickly picked up a few bags and decided on which one looked better before turning around to leave. While waiting for a few grandmas to make their way pass him he listened to the distinct accent in their voices and turned to look at Seohyun who smiled at him. For some reason he felt quite homey.

An old man from behind accidentally bumped into Seohyun pushing her forward. Siwon watched as she stumbled her own feet before reaching an arm to steady her balance.

"Sorry," she apologized.

"Nah, it's fine. It's quite packed in here," he told before watching the last of the grandmas walk by.

When a path was cleared for him he took her hand quietly and led her toward the counter. He had to admit that the silent pounding of his heart made him quite nervous. He quickly became regretful when he had to let go of her hand to take some money out of his wallet. Thanking the middle aged woman behind the counter he walked out with Seohyun to be greeted with the kind sunlight from above.

"It's kind of crazy in there, huh?" Siwon asked.

"Medicine does do a lot," Seohyun said, "it's a wonder why so many people are here for it. How do you know what kind of medicine to get your mother? I thought maybe you might ask someone to help prescribe the medicine."

"I did research online ahead of time," Siwon explained, "and I've bought it once before for my father. It worked quite well so I'm buying some more for them."

Seohyun nodded in understanding.

"Do you want to go look at the outdoor market?" Siwon suggested.

"Yea, I was thinking it'd be nice," Seohyun nodded.

Siwon led her down the street pass the rundown shops which sold everything from clothes, bags, shoes, and hats. The outdoor markets were full of tents that had been set up since early morning. Stall owners conversed with interested customers and tried to get them to buy a few of their items. The area was crowded and full of laughter and chatter. Babies were crying, children who were irritating one another were screaming back and forth angrily, elders among the crowd walked from tent to tent slowly gazing upon items of interest and moving on. The sight of all the people made Siwon feel warm and alive. He and Seohyun stopped by a few places to look through a few miscellaneous items.

Along the way he spotted a pretty gold bracelet and stole a glance at Seohyun to see that she was watching a family eating some sweets together. He suddenly wondered if she was thinking of her own family and reminiscing upon the times when they were together before the divorce, if she felt sorrowful about it. Thinking about how hard it must have been for her during her parents' divorce and when they'd just left her made his heart go out to her. Siwon wanted to comfort her, but he didn't know how to do it so it would seem appropriate. A few words might help soothe her, but he actually wanted to do more than just say a few words.

They headed back toward the parking lot after browsing through the market.

"Do you want to wait here for a minute? I think I forgot something back there," Siwon lied. "I'll be back real quick, ok?"

"Is it important?" Seohyun asked. "You should hurry back and get it then."

"I won't be long. I'll be right back." he promised before turning back to head toward the tent he'd seen selling the bracelet.

After a few minutes of running back and forth confused about which tent it actually was, he picked up the bracelet to closely observe it. It was prettily entwined with a thin gold lace, the carving of a shooting arrow and a heart sat in the middle of gold bracelet.