TaengSic (COMPILATION)

Red (OS)

Red. It is a colour of passionate love, seduction, anger, power and desire. It is sensual when it is on the lips, beautiful when it is the colour of fabric on someone's body, striking when you drive a car in that colour and festive when it surrounds us.

—

When we first met, I saw red; figuratively and literally.

~*~*~*~

It was a rainy Monday morning. Roads were packed with cars, lining up back to back and moving very slowly due to the sudden heavy downpour.

At a traffic light junction, I decided to take a sip of my coffee while waiting for the lights to turn green. The hot brown liquid warmed my body and chased away my Monday blues a little. Just as I put my cup of coffee back into the cup holder, I heard a bang and felt something hit my car from behind.

The hot coffee spilled onto my steering wheel and clothes, burning my lips and dripping down my chin. Some of it scalded my arm, leaving a red mark. I grabbed a bunch of tissues from my bag and cleaned the coffee stains off my six-month-old car. This is the first brand new car I bought with my own salary after slogging for a few years at work. Seeing the coffee stains all over my car made my heart ache more than the pain on my lips.

It was a perfect morning to sleep in but unfortunately I need to work in order to pay my bills. Every Monday morning was a challenge to drag myself up and get ready for work, and this morning was no exception. I was definitely not in the mood to deal with such an accident.

The rain pelted down unforgivingly on my umbrella when I opened the door. My black pumps and pants were wet the moment I stepped out onto the road. I headed for the back of my car to inspect the damage. There was a dent in my bumper and I could feel my heart shattering to tiny bits as I thought about the damage done to my precious baby.

Angry, I turned around and stomped towards the car behind me, wanting to yell at that person. When I looked up, I realised I was part of a chain collison and I was the first car. There were two other cars behind me. The car directly behind me was a red hatchback while the last car was a silver SUV.

The driver of the SUV was examining the damage to the hatchback and my car. He apologised to me profusely, admitting it was his fault. He was trying to look up a location on his GPS but failed to notice that the traffic light was red. He drove straight into the hatchback, causing it to move forward and crashed into me. Both of us went to the driver's side of the hatchback, wanting to settle this accident as soon as possible. We didn't want to be standing in the rain and getting soaked by the minute as the rain fell relentlessly.

You had a look of shock on your face. In fact, you were still sitting in the car, with your hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. There was a dent on your bonnet and a much bigger one at the rear. In fact, I doubted if you could even open your tailgate at all judging from the damage. The SUV was definitely a much tougher car than a small hatchback.

I was rushing for time already and was feeling really frustrated. I tapped furiously on your window and you finally opened the door. Since you didn't have an umbrella with you, I offered to share mine. You were definitely shaken by the unexpected accident. We went around to take photos of each other's cars and exchanged our contact details so that we could resolve the payment of the damages on a separate occasion. I recalled you holding onto my arm tightly as we walked from car to car. Thinking back, that was our first skinship and I hadn't realised it.

Your car was the most badly damaged one in the chain collison. You asked if I could drop you at a nearby train station as you were too stunned to drive to work. Though I was in a hurry, I decided to do you a favour since you were not the main cause of the accident.