Chapter 16 of Portrait
INDEX
Chapter 16
Junho's fingers ran down the crease in the photo that he kept in his jean pocket. His thumb rubbed at the spot where the boy's face was, rubbing to make the already indistinct face fade away completely.
Mr. Lion, Junho's old pal, was just as ferocious as ever. Junho swallowed his intimidation down and yanked the ring to knock firmly three times. He had said no to driving around with Kyunghoon, Sungmo, and their older brothers in order to come to Hyekyung's house. Junho felt like there was something wrong with his logic somewhere; there was no way that lawn work beat hanging out.
Yet, here he was. He had promised once a week and it was Sunday. If he had waited until Monday, it would have been two weeks since he had visited. Junho didn't normally think much of promises, but here he was, spending time with Mr. Lion once again.
Junho heard foot steps and a crunching noise before the gate opened to reveal Hyekyung with a bbungtuigi sticking out of her mouth.
"Wa crunch crunch oo doin crunch hee?"
"What?"
Hyekyung swallowed and put her hands (One with the bbungtuigi) on her hips. "I thought I'd gotten rid of you!"
"HEY!"
An awkward silence surrounded the two.
"Well…are you going to let me in or not?"
"Why should I? Why are you here?!"
"To see your Halmoni, stupid. Don't flatter yourself to think I'm here to see you!"
Hyekyung made a noise of disbelief as she headed to the house, only looking back to command irritably, "Close the gate!"
"Jeez..." Junho muttered under his breath.
Junho found a much warmer reception when Halmoni enveloped him in a great hug.
"Now get to work." Halmoni abruptly said with a bright smile.
Junho blinked in confusion. What? No friendly conversation over tea? Just straight to work? What is this?! Jeez, weirdness must be genetic...
At a nod from Halmoni, Hyekyung heaved a great sigh and made a tired motion for Junho to come with her.
The back yard had a few flowers still fighting out their existence before winter. The only thing was, they were invisible under a thick floor of fallen leaves.
"...And that's our mission."
Junho was flabbergasted. "ALL of these leaves?"
Nodding grimly, Hyekyung hunched over her rake. "Yup."
With a fwump, the rakes swung and let loose flying leaves under an acacia tree. The gigantic pile of leaves began to overtake the tree as huffing and puffing, Hyekyung and Junho retraced the same paths to the tree. The only sounds were the twittering of the birds still refusing to leave their homes, and the crunch of the leaves in rhythm with the heavy breathing of Hyekyung and Junho.
On his way back from the pile, Junho looked back to see Hyekyung with her chin on the ground and her behind in the air. Her wide eyes were level with a flower of fading pink.
"I wish I could pick it up and keep it with me forever. It's so beautiful."
"You'd kill it if you picked it up," Junho pointed out as he continued raking leaves.
"There's got to be some way to keep it alive…"
Junho didn't know how to respond to that so he just ran his fingers through his sweat-drenched hair and kept on raking.
"I wish it really could last forever," Hyekyung said wistfully.
"Well, it can't. Come on, let's hurry up and finish."
With reluctance, Hyekyung got up and picked up her rake.
Back and forth, Hyekyung and Junho raked leaves and dumped them. The yard was quiet again.
"STOP!"
Junho jumped and he winced as he landed hard on his feet.
Hyekyung rushed to Junho and latched onto Junho's shoes.
"Okay, I appreciate that you're trying to shine my shoes or whatever, but they're not THAT dirty."
Hyekyung grunted and pushed on his shoes harder.
"Just get off!"
Bewildered again, Junho asked, "Get off what?"
"OFF!" Hyekyung shrieked.
Junho ran away in whatever direction his feet headed, spooked by Hyekyung's shrill voice.
Hyekyung cupped the flower in her hands, trying to keep all the petals together. The stem's frayed ends protruded at odd angles from in between her fingers.
Junho tiptoed to Hyekyung's side and timidly asked, "Is there no way that it can be put back together?"
"Look at this! How can it be put back together?!"
Now genuinely wishing he had never stepped on the flower, he asked, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Absolutely positive."
Hyekyung flung the parts of the once beautiful flower away from her.
"It's dead now."