Viola (비올라)

Chapter 4 - Memories

Hannah's POV

Hannah was thankful when she got a quick thumbs up from Sungho.

It appeared like her place wasn't too out of their way. She had meant it when she said she'd be completely willing to get a ride home if they dropped her off at a public dock. But to be honest it would have been a pain with the addition of the boat. A taxi would be out of the question and it would probably take a while longer if she tried to ask the rental company to pick her up.

But now there was nothing left for her to do but sit. She took another sip from her water bottle. The novelty of some rescued maiden had obviously passed as the group moved in front of them completely ignoring everything outside of their bubble. At some point the group in the canoes started to sing a catchy, but unfamiliar Korean song. It sounded similar to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".

She had gotten a good enough look at the group now to confirm they were definitely somebodies. Who? She didn't really care and wasn't going to ask. She'd learned early in her professional career that people of standing don't offer up a lot of personal information. Unless they wanted to impress someone or send a message. And if these were good bodyguards, they certainly weren't going to gossip about their charges to a girl dripping onto the floor of their boat.

She didn't want to deal with that kinda bravado on her vacation.

She took this time to look at the surrounding mountains. It was still a beautiful day.

"Yogigah sunchang-in-gah-yo? [Is this your dock coming up?]" She was startled out of her daydream by Sungho's voice. She really needed to get out of her own head today. Yes, this was the cabin's dock ahead of them. The house number was visible on one of the piers over a notice warning about trespassing on private property.

"Ne, jungmal dashi hanbun gam-sa-deu-rim-ni-da. Yogi namgyuhjiji anasuh dahaeng-im-ni-da. [Yes. Again thank you. I'm glad it didn't end up being out of the way.]" Hannah replied. There was a static sound as the driver let the other boat know they were making a quick stop. The lady (Toyun was it?) and Sungho wouldn't let her do anything more useful than watch them pull the kayak onto the pier. As she stood feeling awkward on the pier she waved them a goodbye. They had told her to keep the towel.

She didn't watch them long as they went to rejoin their group. She didn't really need to see them go. She was starting to get cold, as the pier was in the shade of an overgrown tree that hugged the property line.

Hannah took a warm shower and afterwards found a shopping bag of clothes she had hastily picked up at the small outlet next to the train stop. She hadn't packed vacation clothes for the meeting so that meant buying some touristy sweats and t-shirts. This one said Seoul City Girl, even though they were miles away from the capital. She had no one to impress so why not.

Once dressed Hannah found herself wandering through the cabin aimlessly. There were two bedrooms and a study on the second floor. A guest room and the master bedroom shared a full bathroom. She was staying in the guest room.

It's not that she cared that the master bedroom had been used by her parents, but when she had taken a test flop on the bed she felt like the mattress was going to swallow her up. How did anyone sleep on ultra-soft beds?

But she wandered into the room anyway. She had rarely been in here as a child, but as an adult she could appreciate some of the art she was sure her mother had selected. Besides the wall art there was only a small bookcase. She recognized one of the titles as a favorite of her dad's, Best of the Bach, so she tucked it under an arm to browse through later.

She almost didn't notice the instrument case on the bottom shelf as it had a decorative cloth covering it. But as soon as she recognized the familiar shape she stopped to pull out the instrument case.