Coincidence, Much? Part 04
So I never really got around to finishing it... if anyone is reading this I am really sorry :( This chap is all I've got left. Well... here goes..
~*~
Clunk. My eyes snap open. The train has ceased its movement and I lift my head. I blink my eyes. Once, twice, to clear the haze glazing them. I look at the window and see Busan Train Station sign in a faded blue colour just outside the grey concrete station. Being the last stop, the train stays for more than the usual three minutes as people rise from their seats and gather their belongings, some stretching after the long journey, and make their way out the train. To wake up from my daze I stand up and stretch my arms up into the air. And then I remembered I wasn’t alone.
“Sorry.” I muttered to Changmin, who is looking at me with a smile tugging at his lip.
“Did you sleep well?” He asks, putting his book into his brown man-bag, Jaejoong calls it.
“Oh. Yeah. Were you reading all this time?”
“Hmm..”
“Wow. Because whenever I read on moving stuff I get really dizzy and feel like I’m going to vomit. Guess it’s only for some people.”
“Maybe I’m used to it?” he questions, getting our stuff from the overhead rack. “Here.”
“Thanks.”
We walk through the aisles behind an elderly couple who look like they’re having troubles carrying their belongings. Changmin, being the sometimes-nice-person he is, offers to help.
“Here, let me help, too.” I ask the grandma, taking some of the heavier bags from her.
“Oh. Thank you so much.” She smiles at me.
The couple’s son is waiting at the station and he said he’d bring the car around. So we wait and help load the stuff into the car.
“Aigoo, it’s hard to find nice kids these days. Thank you so much. You must be very lucky to have such a handsome and kind boyfriend. You make a very adorable couple,” says grandma as she pats my back and gets into the minivan.
“Uh.. he’s not my-“ I start. But it’s pointless. She’s not going to hear me anyway so I just stand there beside the car as Changmin and the son finishes loading. I start to read the signs around me when Changmin takes his place next to me and I hear the car door closing. Through the tinted windows I can still see the figure of the grandma and grandpa. So I wave and smile at them as they drive away.
“So, we’re an adorable couple, huh?” Changmin teases, obviously overhearing what grandma said to me.
“Yeah. I guess so.” I reply. There’s no way I’m the only one blushing about this one. “So how do we get to your grandma’s place?” I ask.
“We can take a taxi there. It’s not that far from here but if we walk it could take a while.”
While he calls for a cab I look around the station, trying to find an ad, a picture, or something to look at. I find one of those panels that tell you what train is leaving in what time to where. Changmin sits on the bench I’m standing next to.
“Changmin-ssi, when is our train back?” I ask. He looks up strangely to me. “Not that I’m ready to leave or not want to say or anything, just curious.”
“Hmm.. Since today is a Tuesday… we should be going back on Saturday afternoon.”
“Oh. Okay.” I reply as the matte white cab with a yellow taxi lights above it drive over. Changmin tells the driver the address through the half-rolled down shotgun window. The man nods his head and mutters yes. As I reach for the door handle, Changmin beat me to it and tips his head in the direction of the door.
“Ladies first.” He said.
“Now you say that.” I say back but get in anyway. He goes in after me, and when he sits, you could tell he is uncomfortable with the way his knees are hitting the front seat.
“Your fault for having long legs.” I comment.
“But doesn’t that make me more handsome?” he teases, playing with his eyebrows.
“Says you.” I reply and turn to face the window.
As the taxi drives further away from the station, the civilization thins to only a few small houses every few fields. The green mountains in the distance creates dimension to the scenery. Everywhere you see there is a little speck of nature’s touch in it. I marvel at its beauty. We take turns and curves that are unfamiliar to me but that don’t bother me. Looks like I am going to be eco-friendly this week, I think.
In about 20 minutes we arrive at a small cottage-sized house in the middle of… well, nowhere. We pay 50:50 for the taxi fare because I insist I pay and he insists he pays. I swear I could hear the driver mutter ‘cute couple’ under his breath before rolling up the window and driving away. Geez.. what’s with old people and ‘couple’ stuff today anyway?
As we turn around we are welcomed by Changmin’s mother who I swear looks A LOT like him. They have similar looking eyes and you can’t not mention their lips. It’s an exact replica.
“Annyeonghaseyo.” I bow to Mrs. Shim.
“Ah. Ye. Annyeonghaseyo. This must be… Ah! What was it again? I am so horrible with names.” She smiles at me.
“My name is Lee Seohyun. Sorry to bother you.”
“No, no, no. Thank you for helping I’m just busy with work and all that I can’t be here for my own mother. Thank you so much for coming Seohyun-ssi. And for keeping our Changmin company when all his hyungs decide to leave him,” she jokes. “Changmin-ah I’m only here to tell you what grandma needs. All the medications that she need to take, what she shouldn’t eat, and things like that. I have to go later to take care of your sisters.”
“Okay.” Changmin simply replies.
“Now let’s go inside and put your stuff away. You must be tired from the long trip here. I made some food for a light lunch. Come, Seohyun-ssi. Just treat it as your own home.”
“You can call me Seohyun. Mrs. Shim.”
“Then you can call me Umma.” I see Changmin gives her a look that she just shrugs off as she takes my hand and leads me into the house.
She takes me through a wooden door into a small guestroom with some chairs and a coffee table. It is exactly as I imagined it to be, except neater. Off to my right there is a short wooden shelf filled with pictures of smiling faces of people.
“Seohyun, let me show you to your room.” Umma’s voice interrupts my thoughts.
“Ah. Yes.” I carry my bags over one shoulder and walk behind her past a long hallway. The house seems smaller from the outside. Actually it is quite long. My room is at the end of the hall to the right.
“So change your clothes into something more comfortable and come to the kitchen. We need to get to know each other because I have a feeling I’ll be seeing you a lot from now on.” she said.
“Okay.” I close the door of ‘my’ room and drop my bags onto a pile near the door. Tired from the trip, I plop on the bed, drag my duffel bag to the floor next to my feet and dig through to find my black shorts and white t-shirt with a picture of a bitten red apple on the front.
I look open the side pockets, looking for my hair band. I tie my hair in a high ponytail and check that I am presentable in the small mirror behind the door. I sigh and open the door.
I come face to face with Changmin who I have to gladly say look equally as shocked as I am.
“Your mom is really nice.” I say.
“Well, she is.” Obvious pride and love in his voice.
We walk down the hall, back into the main room.
"And Yuna told me you have a lot of people in your family. Looking at these pictures, she was right.” I stand in front of the wooden shelf, lifting a metal-framed picture of a little boy in a pool with one of those swimming tubes around his stomach. He looked really happy.
“Wasn’t he adorable?” says umma as she passed by me.
“How old were you?” I ask Changmin.
“This?” he takes the frame from my hand, stares at it, then gives it back to me. “Hmm.. like 6?”
“Aww… You were so cute.”
“Still am.” He grins. I smack him on the back.
“Kids! Come and eat.” Umma waves her arms to invite us to the small square table on the side of the window in the kitchen. The table has a light blue table cloth and a white vase with a single stem of yellow sunflower in it to contrast. I grab one of the bread on the plate and take a bite. The bread was still warm and the red bean paste inside sweeten the whole thing. “Oh my goodness this is really good.”
“Thank you.” Smiles umma. “Changmin-ah, I need to go in about 10 minutes. I’ll tell you what to do so pay attention.”
Changmin just nods as he chows his second bread. Hm.. I guess he’s used to having a teacher as a mother.
“Grandma needs to take one pill from the blue bag in the morning and another from the pink bag after dinner. The instructions are all there if you forget. And she can’t eat anything too sweet, sour, spicy, salty, or bitter food because her digestive system is still not well. So when you cook, separate a bowl for her when the food is ready then you can add the seasonings to fit your taste bud. Oh. And because she needs to rest until she gets fully better you will need to do the housework and such for her. I think that should be it.. call me if you have any questions or need urgent help.”
“She has to take her pills, can’t eat food that tastes good, and has to rest. Got it.” He recaps.
“Seohyun, if you could just keep an eye on her and make sure she’s not breaking her back or anything that would be perfect. Leave all the work for Changmin.” She rubs my shoulders before checking her wrist watch.
“Gee… thanks umma.”
“No problem, umma.” I say.
“Oh. I have to catch the train now. I called the taxi already so don’t worry. Oh look. There it is. Okay. I’m going to go now. Remember to call, okay?” umma hustles, running around for her bag and putting on her shoe at super lighting speed. She pauses to kiss grandma on the cheek and mutter ‘I love you’ before leaving. Changmin and I walk out to the pathway to wave her goodbye.
“Aside from watching over your grandma, I can do things like wash dishes and clean. Then you can do the grind work. If you want.” I look up.
“If that’s okay with you, sure.”
“Okay then. Let’s get working!”
“Workaholic,” he mumbles.
“Game maniac.”
“Hey. Gaming happens to be very educational.”
“Sure. Whatever, Einstein.” I start to walk back to the door to go wash the dishes when Changmin runs ahead of me to pause right by the door frame and gives me a ‘merong~’ before dashing inside.
“Kids these days.. ” I say obnoxiously loud so he could hear me.
There aren’t that many dishes to do, just some plates, a knife, and the cutting board. Soon enough, the dishes are all stacked on the plastic white thing that you use to put your wet dishes to let them dry. I take the blue and white squared kitchen towel to wipe the edges of the sink to make sure no water would drip down to the floor and make it slippery.
When all that is done, I go back to ‘my’ room and lie down on my back on the bed, just staring into the holey ceiling. Bored, I started to count the number of the larger holes before slowly drifting into sleep.
The firm knock on the door wakes me up from my supposed to be ‘light’ nap. “Yeah? Come in.” I say aloud. Reaching for my cell phone on the little bedside table I squint when the lights are turned on.
“It’s 7:30. You’ve been asleep for about 3 hours.. I didn’t know whether or not to wake you up or not. And now I’m going to go… I don’t know… walk around or something.”
“Oh. Okay. I’ll come with you.” I start to shuffle my feet to find my slippers and slowly get up.
“But someone needs to stay with grandma.” He points out.
“It’s okay, you can go. I’m not going anywhere. Actually, I think I’m going to bed. The medicine that I had just now is making me tired.” Says grandma from the hallway. I didn’t know she was there.
“Okay. You want to come?” Changmin turns back to me.
“Yeah. Just give me a minute.” I get up stretch. I notice Changmin is still in the room. I give him an ‘uhh-aren’t-you-supposed-to-go-out’ look. He blinks a couple of times before his gasps in understanding. He mumbles a sorry and shuffles out of the room.
“I’ll wait for you near the door.” He yells.
“Mkay.” I reply.
I rub my eyes a couple of times. Yes I know you’re not supposed to do it, but I do it anyway. Then I comb with my fingers through my hair to fix my dishevelled ponytail.
Still stiff from the sleep I stretch my arms up and around, bending my neck side to side to hear cracks of air bubbles in reply.
I walk out of the room to the front foyer, slip on my orange flip flops and go to where Changmin is waiting.
“Sorry.” I say.
“For what?” he asks as we start to walk.
“For making you wait.”
“Nah. Don’t worry about it.”
The end? /runs away/
~*~
Clunk. My eyes snap open. The train has ceased its movement and I lift my head. I blink my eyes. Once, twice, to clear the haze glazing them. I look at the window and see Busan Train Station sign in a faded blue colour just outside the grey concrete station. Being the last stop, the train stays for more than the usual three minutes as people rise from their seats and gather their belongings, some stretching after the long journey, and make their way out the train. To wake up from my daze I stand up and stretch my arms up into the air. And then I remembered I wasn’t alone.
“Sorry.” I muttered to Changmin, who is looking at me with a smile tugging at his lip.
“Did you sleep well?” He asks, putting his book into his brown man-bag, Jaejoong calls it.
“Oh. Yeah. Were you reading all this time?”
“Hmm..”
“Wow. Because whenever I read on moving stuff I get really dizzy and feel like I’m going to vomit. Guess it’s only for some people.”
“Maybe I’m used to it?” he questions, getting our stuff from the overhead rack. “Here.”
“Thanks.”
We walk through the aisles behind an elderly couple who look like they’re having troubles carrying their belongings. Changmin, being the sometimes-nice-person he is, offers to help.
“Here, let me help, too.” I ask the grandma, taking some of the heavier bags from her.
“Oh. Thank you so much.” She smiles at me.
The couple’s son is waiting at the station and he said he’d bring the car around. So we wait and help load the stuff into the car.
“Aigoo, it’s hard to find nice kids these days. Thank you so much. You must be very lucky to have such a handsome and kind boyfriend. You make a very adorable couple,” says grandma as she pats my back and gets into the minivan.
“Uh.. he’s not my-“ I start. But it’s pointless. She’s not going to hear me anyway so I just stand there beside the car as Changmin and the son finishes loading. I start to read the signs around me when Changmin takes his place next to me and I hear the car door closing. Through the tinted windows I can still see the figure of the grandma and grandpa. So I wave and smile at them as they drive away.
“So, we’re an adorable couple, huh?” Changmin teases, obviously overhearing what grandma said to me.
“Yeah. I guess so.” I reply. There’s no way I’m the only one blushing about this one. “So how do we get to your grandma’s place?” I ask.
“We can take a taxi there. It’s not that far from here but if we walk it could take a while.”
While he calls for a cab I look around the station, trying to find an ad, a picture, or something to look at. I find one of those panels that tell you what train is leaving in what time to where. Changmin sits on the bench I’m standing next to.
“Changmin-ssi, when is our train back?” I ask. He looks up strangely to me. “Not that I’m ready to leave or not want to say or anything, just curious.”
“Hmm.. Since today is a Tuesday… we should be going back on Saturday afternoon.”
“Oh. Okay.” I reply as the matte white cab with a yellow taxi lights above it drive over. Changmin tells the driver the address through the half-rolled down shotgun window. The man nods his head and mutters yes. As I reach for the door handle, Changmin beat me to it and tips his head in the direction of the door.
“Ladies first.” He said.
“Now you say that.” I say back but get in anyway. He goes in after me, and when he sits, you could tell he is uncomfortable with the way his knees are hitting the front seat.
“Your fault for having long legs.” I comment.
“But doesn’t that make me more handsome?” he teases, playing with his eyebrows.
“Says you.” I reply and turn to face the window.
As the taxi drives further away from the station, the civilization thins to only a few small houses every few fields. The green mountains in the distance creates dimension to the scenery. Everywhere you see there is a little speck of nature’s touch in it. I marvel at its beauty. We take turns and curves that are unfamiliar to me but that don’t bother me. Looks like I am going to be eco-friendly this week, I think.
In about 20 minutes we arrive at a small cottage-sized house in the middle of… well, nowhere. We pay 50:50 for the taxi fare because I insist I pay and he insists he pays. I swear I could hear the driver mutter ‘cute couple’ under his breath before rolling up the window and driving away. Geez.. what’s with old people and ‘couple’ stuff today anyway?
As we turn around we are welcomed by Changmin’s mother who I swear looks A LOT like him. They have similar looking eyes and you can’t not mention their lips. It’s an exact replica.
“Annyeonghaseyo.” I bow to Mrs. Shim.
“Ah. Ye. Annyeonghaseyo. This must be… Ah! What was it again? I am so horrible with names.” She smiles at me.
“My name is Lee Seohyun. Sorry to bother you.”
“No, no, no. Thank you for helping I’m just busy with work and all that I can’t be here for my own mother. Thank you so much for coming Seohyun-ssi. And for keeping our Changmin company when all his hyungs decide to leave him,” she jokes. “Changmin-ah I’m only here to tell you what grandma needs. All the medications that she need to take, what she shouldn’t eat, and things like that. I have to go later to take care of your sisters.”
“Okay.” Changmin simply replies.
“Now let’s go inside and put your stuff away. You must be tired from the long trip here. I made some food for a light lunch. Come, Seohyun-ssi. Just treat it as your own home.”
“You can call me Seohyun. Mrs. Shim.”
“Then you can call me Umma.” I see Changmin gives her a look that she just shrugs off as she takes my hand and leads me into the house.
She takes me through a wooden door into a small guestroom with some chairs and a coffee table. It is exactly as I imagined it to be, except neater. Off to my right there is a short wooden shelf filled with pictures of smiling faces of people.
“Seohyun, let me show you to your room.” Umma’s voice interrupts my thoughts.
“Ah. Yes.” I carry my bags over one shoulder and walk behind her past a long hallway. The house seems smaller from the outside. Actually it is quite long. My room is at the end of the hall to the right.
“So change your clothes into something more comfortable and come to the kitchen. We need to get to know each other because I have a feeling I’ll be seeing you a lot from now on.” she said.
“Okay.” I close the door of ‘my’ room and drop my bags onto a pile near the door. Tired from the trip, I plop on the bed, drag my duffel bag to the floor next to my feet and dig through to find my black shorts and white t-shirt with a picture of a bitten red apple on the front.
I look open the side pockets, looking for my hair band. I tie my hair in a high ponytail and check that I am presentable in the small mirror behind the door. I sigh and open the door.
I come face to face with Changmin who I have to gladly say look equally as shocked as I am.
“Your mom is really nice.” I say.
“Well, she is.” Obvious pride and love in his voice.
We walk down the hall, back into the main room.
"And Yuna told me you have a lot of people in your family. Looking at these pictures, she was right.” I stand in front of the wooden shelf, lifting a metal-framed picture of a little boy in a pool with one of those swimming tubes around his stomach. He looked really happy.
“Wasn’t he adorable?” says umma as she passed by me.
“How old were you?” I ask Changmin.
“This?” he takes the frame from my hand, stares at it, then gives it back to me. “Hmm.. like 6?”
“Aww… You were so cute.”
“Still am.” He grins. I smack him on the back.
“Kids! Come and eat.” Umma waves her arms to invite us to the small square table on the side of the window in the kitchen. The table has a light blue table cloth and a white vase with a single stem of yellow sunflower in it to contrast. I grab one of the bread on the plate and take a bite. The bread was still warm and the red bean paste inside sweeten the whole thing. “Oh my goodness this is really good.”
“Thank you.” Smiles umma. “Changmin-ah, I need to go in about 10 minutes. I’ll tell you what to do so pay attention.”
Changmin just nods as he chows his second bread. Hm.. I guess he’s used to having a teacher as a mother.
“Grandma needs to take one pill from the blue bag in the morning and another from the pink bag after dinner. The instructions are all there if you forget. And she can’t eat anything too sweet, sour, spicy, salty, or bitter food because her digestive system is still not well. So when you cook, separate a bowl for her when the food is ready then you can add the seasonings to fit your taste bud. Oh. And because she needs to rest until she gets fully better you will need to do the housework and such for her. I think that should be it.. call me if you have any questions or need urgent help.”
“She has to take her pills, can’t eat food that tastes good, and has to rest. Got it.” He recaps.
“Seohyun, if you could just keep an eye on her and make sure she’s not breaking her back or anything that would be perfect. Leave all the work for Changmin.” She rubs my shoulders before checking her wrist watch.
“Gee… thanks umma.”
“No problem, umma.” I say.
“Oh. I have to catch the train now. I called the taxi already so don’t worry. Oh look. There it is. Okay. I’m going to go now. Remember to call, okay?” umma hustles, running around for her bag and putting on her shoe at super lighting speed. She pauses to kiss grandma on the cheek and mutter ‘I love you’ before leaving. Changmin and I walk out to the pathway to wave her goodbye.
“Aside from watching over your grandma, I can do things like wash dishes and clean. Then you can do the grind work. If you want.” I look up.
“If that’s okay with you, sure.”
“Okay then. Let’s get working!”
“Workaholic,” he mumbles.
“Game maniac.”
“Hey. Gaming happens to be very educational.”
“Sure. Whatever, Einstein.” I start to walk back to the door to go wash the dishes when Changmin runs ahead of me to pause right by the door frame and gives me a ‘merong~’ before dashing inside.
“Kids these days.. ” I say obnoxiously loud so he could hear me.
There aren’t that many dishes to do, just some plates, a knife, and the cutting board. Soon enough, the dishes are all stacked on the plastic white thing that you use to put your wet dishes to let them dry. I take the blue and white squared kitchen towel to wipe the edges of the sink to make sure no water would drip down to the floor and make it slippery.
When all that is done, I go back to ‘my’ room and lie down on my back on the bed, just staring into the holey ceiling. Bored, I started to count the number of the larger holes before slowly drifting into sleep.
The firm knock on the door wakes me up from my supposed to be ‘light’ nap. “Yeah? Come in.” I say aloud. Reaching for my cell phone on the little bedside table I squint when the lights are turned on.
“It’s 7:30. You’ve been asleep for about 3 hours.. I didn’t know whether or not to wake you up or not. And now I’m going to go… I don’t know… walk around or something.”
“Oh. Okay. I’ll come with you.” I start to shuffle my feet to find my slippers and slowly get up.
“But someone needs to stay with grandma.” He points out.
“It’s okay, you can go. I’m not going anywhere. Actually, I think I’m going to bed. The medicine that I had just now is making me tired.” Says grandma from the hallway. I didn’t know she was there.
“Okay. You want to come?” Changmin turns back to me.
“Yeah. Just give me a minute.” I get up stretch. I notice Changmin is still in the room. I give him an ‘uhh-aren’t-you-supposed-to-go-out’ look. He blinks a couple of times before his gasps in understanding. He mumbles a sorry and shuffles out of the room.
“I’ll wait for you near the door.” He yells.
“Mkay.” I reply.
I rub my eyes a couple of times. Yes I know you’re not supposed to do it, but I do it anyway. Then I comb with my fingers through my hair to fix my dishevelled ponytail.
Still stiff from the sleep I stretch my arms up and around, bending my neck side to side to hear cracks of air bubbles in reply.
I walk out of the room to the front foyer, slip on my orange flip flops and go to where Changmin is waiting.
“Sorry.” I say.
“For what?” he asks as we start to walk.
“For making you wait.”
“Nah. Don’t worry about it.”
The end? /runs away/