through the mirror

PART IV | odd company

PART IV | odd company

It’s been a month already and Freya had been working extremely hard as a journalist in a large publishing company. Since she started, she has been drowning in a sea of paper works which had been denying her time to mingle around and form some connection with the people near her cubicle. Due to this, she usually eat lunch alone in the company’s cafeteria.

It’s harder for her because she’s young and new and most people will only come around her cubicle to give her things to do — that were not even part of her job description. The only time she could vent out all her frustrations is at home and towards Yoongi.

“It’s so fucking annoying! Every damn time, they come to me and ask me this and that. And that’s not even the worse!” She’s now walking around, hands all over the place, mouth spitting with all the bad words in her vocabulary, while Yoongi is on the opposite side, notebook and pen on the table, scribbling silently, listening to all her rants.

“What’s worse?” He asks, eyes still on the paper and just writing. Freya continues to spout raging words, “You know what’s worse?”

“Uh huh?”

“Me! I’m the worse! You know why?”— Yoongi chirps with a quiet why—“because I can’t fucking say no! It’s so frustrating!”

“It means you’re a good person.” Yoongi rests his head against his palm, casually glancing at a red faced Freya, grumpy, sitting on the chair by her desk.

“And all good people always get treated like trash.” She slouches down onto her desk then groaned. “I wish I’m not so kind!”

“Do you want to quit?”

Freya emerged from sulking, eyes almost not visible from the amount of hair that has fallen down her face. Yoongi wanted to move them away, he wanted to brush her hair off because it’s annoyingly tangled together. But he couldn’t and he just had to wait until Freya does it herself.

“Are you kidding me?” She moves a strand away to look at Yoongi in the eyes. One month in and they’re no longer awkward meeting eye to eye. “It pays me so much!”

“Then what weighs more? The hectic environment or the money?”

Freya shrugs at this. “Can’t I just work for you or something? You look so rich.” This comment make them both giggle. Freya now knows that he’s not just a music producer but he is one of the best in their world. He is the most sought songwriter/producer in their music industry. He’s got good tunes and Freya has heard some of it already. 

“Maybe as your assistant or something.” 
“How am I suppose to transfer your salary then?” Freya’s smile turns upside down. She stands and walks towards Yoongi— the mirror— and touches it, the part right above his hair.

“Can’t we ever meet in person?” Her voice is quiet and she looks down at Yoongi who is sitting there, avoiding her gaze. He gulps, an unsettling heartbeat pattern thumping against his chest.

When Freya notices his silence, she brings her hand to her mouth. “Oh God, I’m sorry.”

“Tammy and your grandfather, they never?” Freya couldn’t finish her sentence. It already hurts just thinking about it. Yoongi nods, confirming the sad reality of the romance between Tammy and his grandfather.

“That’s so sad.” Freya mutters. “They never got to hold each other.”

Yoongi stays silent. Freya didn’t notice this but he already stopped writing. The pain from Freya’s heart reaches him, making his muscles tense, his hand heavy, frozen from moving, from scribbling notes again. He was well aware of the love story of his grandfather, who loved so much, he crossed boundaries, crossed universes even. His heart is so big that he got to love a woman from another universe. And he was so patient and loyal that no matter how it was hard for the both of them, he never gave up. It’s romantic and magical but it’s also painful. And Yoongi dwells too much on the painful part, promising himself that he’d never have a heart that big. Because a heart big enough to love like that, will only get hurt just as much. He doesn’t want to go through that kind of pain.

• • •

It’s Saturday afternoon and the sun is out, shining over the plants of Mr. Jeon. It makes him happy. His plants are now green and healthy, far from their previous state just a month ago. Freya is here with him but they don’t talk much. She loves the rooftop as it brings her mind away from both her work and Yoongi. It’s not that he bothers her in a bad way, but ever since she met him, she’s grown so talkative. She spends more time talking to him than doing her work in the office. It makes her happy too, having some company, but it can be too tiring as well. Yoongi also needs his own space so from time to time she comes up here and occasionally find Mr. Jeon catering to his plants.

“I see you’re coping up very well.” Mr. Jeon sits on the bench and presses the towel around his neck on his forehead, wiping away beads of sweat that has formed.

Freya is sitting beside him, petting a white cat with blue eyes she found near the garden. “I just realized I’m just hallucinating. You know it’s my first time alone and away.” It has been an agreement between her and Yoongi that no one, literally not a breathing, talking person except for them, will know about the mirror. It was a secret kept and brought to the grave by Tammy and his grandfather and Yoongi wants to keep it that way.

“I bet you’ve also begun talking.” Mr. Jeon joked which Freya chuckles to. It’s intended to be a dry joke but it’s funnier with Freya’s situation.

“How’s your son?” Freya asked about Jungkook. Mr. Jeon often talked about his only son who he had groom to become a pilot. He was the person behind why Mr. Jeon almost broke the mirror, also his promise to Tammy. It’s been a frequent topic when they’re both up here, hanging out.

“He’s coming home for a while.” The older man smiles toothily, it’s evident that he is very much happy on that news. “After three whole months away.” He adds.

“Oh, you’re so happy, grinning ear to ear.” Freya teases. Of course, he is. What kind of father is not happy when his son, a pilot, comes home?

“I’ll introduce you to him when he arrives.” Mr. Jeon stands up and picks up the now empty pail. “I bet he’ll like you.” He had that playful smile, a smile of a parent who loves to play with their child’s romantic adventures. Freya read it too but she just laughed it off.

Dating doesn’t concern Freya at the moment. It’s not part of her everyday thoughts. It comes when she watches romantic movies and goes when she’s busy with work. It’s not her main priority. She had past relationships. Fair, playful, serious. They all end anyway. It leaves her broken a month or two, and then she forgets that it ever happened. Her fair knowledge about dating was enough for her not to dwell too much on it. It’s something she doesn’t really need nowadays so she pushes the thought of it aside.

“You’re back.”

Yoongi acknowledges her return, his voice raspy and airless. He most definitely just woke up from a nap. He’s scratching his abdomen over his cloth when Freya glanced at him before going directly to her set of books. “Where’ve you been?” She stops her hand from gliding against the book she found interest in.

Yoongi doesn’t really ask for her whereabouts but now he just did. It tugs a string in her heart, a strange flip in her insides.

“Forget that I asked.” Yoongi says once he doesn’t get a reply. Freya hears a slam of the door, informing her that Yoongi either left the room or went to the bathroom, but nonetheless, she scurried away and out of the room, bringing the book with her.

Why?

She doesn’t have a definite answer for that.