Koi No Yokan

Summer Day in Practice

Minju's POV:

A year later...

It was a summer day and we were in a merged class for practice. We merged with Class C for today and we were currently being introduced to everyone. One of the new trainees looked at me as if she was a little loose in the head. She seemed goofy judging by the face she had on as I introduced myself to Class C. We were then given intructions to stretch our bodies and because I was already done stretching, I sat in the circle together with my team mates, Chaen, Kwangbae Oppa, Yuri and Chaewon Unnie. Yena Unnie was in Class B already. I hope Seri Eomma and Haneul Appa are doing fine now that they are gone. There are still times when I look at the pictures Haneul Appa took of everyone on her blog. The images of us nine being happy and innocent. A lot has changed since a year ago. I was dealing better with the loss.

I was often like Chaeyeon's teddy bear that she hugs, especially during the dark week of May twenty-second until the twenty-ninth. She cries incessantly for Seri Eomma and Haneul Appa. Those cries that sounded like she was being agonized. It still haunted her, finding Seri Eomma with a bloody head and a pool of blood. Same as me, that scene haunted me for a year now. It still hasn't left my mind. I still remember that image of Seri Eomma and the first Sunday she was gone, Chaen cooked us brunch of Pancakes, Hash, Sausage and Sausage Patties just like how Eomma does on Sundays. Aside from that, she never really came with us to Gangnam to see Seri Eomma and spend time with her family.

Kwangbae Oppa and I often comes to see not only Seri Eomma's family but we also see Haneul Appa's Korean side of the family. Often after going to Gangnam our last stop would be Mister Kwak's Photography shop. We get films, have the films developed and scanned back to digital format. It was a weekly thing for us to go to Gangnam and then the shop here at Mapo-gu. It was lunch time and Class C students joined us for lunch, Chaen said she was having lunch at the park, where she always spent her lunch time, eating her raw cut up veggies and dip of whatever dip she wanted. Chaen barely ate her meals since the two parents have gone on in passing. Often Kwangbae Oppa and I will have to buy ourselves food from a restaurant as Chaen refused to cook, save for that Sunday weekly breakfast. She doesn't cook anymore, often wallowing away with her grief for her loss.

We get her something to eat which she refuses to eat and was always left with us. Several times I'd catch her with another woman in our shared dorm room, kissing the woman or about to do something to the woman. Those women who ever they were would always slap her in the face once they hear me call her Jagiya. She looks at them blankly and then she looks at me begging for me to take the woman out of the dorm. Then blank again. I always get into character of being her girlfriend and put on a show for the women. It's honestly tiring to live in the dorm now, but I can't just leave Chaen and let her be miserable alone.

Kwangbae Oppa was still the sweetest Oppa, who takes care of us. She would make sure to order an awful lot of salads for Chaen and then for us, we eat everything we wanted to eat, be it meat or anything edible. We sat at a table together with Chaewon Unnie, Yuri, Yena Unnie and Eunbi Unnie. Talking about random things, totally random, avoiding the topic of Seri Eomma and Haneul Appa, anything at all to entertain us. We always avoided mentioning Seri Eomma for the fear of being in a puddle of tears. We haven't gotten any better from Eomma and Appa's loss. We were just avoiding talking about our feelings.

When a couple of newbies from Class C came to our table. The goofy looking girl introduced herself first and said.

"Hi, my name is Ahn Yujin, you can call me Yuje, Yujinnie or Jin. Is it okay if we joined you?" She told us brightly.

Totally like Haneul Appa's demeanor when she introduces herself, the same bright and smiley face. The rest of the originals looked at her like she was crazy for even asking us. The table was long, they could totally join in. It wasn't like we owned the table and no one could sit with us. She smiled expectantly at us. Everyone was stunned with her brightness. It was Kwangbae Oppa who was sitting beside me who spoke.