Poles apart

9. Yesterday

Jun is running as fast as she can. As if she's running for her life. She doesn't know where she is, all she can see around her is pitch-black darkness, but she knows she has to run.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," a voice following her says "we gave you everything you needed yet didn't achieve anything." the voice continued to scream at her as she tried to run away from it.

"You're useless." another voice hollered. "Just look at your sister. She's perfect! And you should have been as well. You're a disappointment."

Jun was trying to run from these unbearable voices, but the word "disappointment" made her lose her focus on running, causing her to trip and fall to her knees. The voices were now able to catch up to her and surround her. They started repeating the exact phrase over and over again. Yelling the words directly into Jun's ears as she sat on the ground, catching her breath.

"You're a disappointment". Jun covered her ears with her trembling hands as she quietly pleaded, "Please, stop!" "You're a disappointment" The voices grew in numbers significantly. "You're a disappointment". All of them kept wailing these words to her. "You're a disappointment". Her whole body, now trembling, "You're a disappointment", and her eyes began to tear up. "You're a disappointment". The noise filled the whole void-like place.

"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointmen"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"
"You're a disappointment"

Jun quickly opens her eyes, gasping for air. She looks at her surroundings, recognising that she is no longer in that dark and endless room but in a bedroom, she didn't recognise. Knowing this, her nerves calmed down, and her breathing got steadier, though her worry did not completely fade away.

A door suddenly creaked open as someone walked through. Making their way to Jun, her sight was a bit hazy, so she didn't recognise the man, who was now standing just inches away from her. However, she soon identified the voice belonging to this unknown silhouette.

"Guess you finally decided to wake up from your fever dream. You know it's a real hassle to take care of a sick person, especially if they black out in the middle of a road and you gotta somehow bring them home." The man said as he was getting a thermometer ready to take her temperature. Jun looks at him with a confused expression on her face.

'It's Daniel, but what is he talking about' she thought to herself as she tried to sit up straight on the bed. The male stopped her attempt by placing a hand on her shoulder, adding only enough pressure to enable her to get up, forcing her to lay back on the bed. "Don't make this difficult," he says as he puts the thermometer under her armpit. "D-Daniel, w-why are you d-doing this?" Jun asks with a stutter and a raspy voice. Since he came into her room, the man didn't look at her once, but now his head jolted toward Jun with a mixed expression of confusion and anger. Then he released a lengthy, loud sigh to calm himself down. "I don't usually give my real name to my customers, but since technically you're not my customer, I'll make an exception." he sat on the bed next to her, "My name isn't Daniel. That's my stage name. My real name is Jace."

There were a few moments of silence. His back is hunched over with his arms resting on his knees. Hands clasped together and fingers intertwined, looking down at them. He seems deep in thought. Jun is lying in bed, looking at him with a shocked and confused look. She wanted to say something when she unexpectedly got cut off by the beeping of the thermometer. The man snaps out of his thoughts and turns to the girl. He slowly reaches his hand toward her, taking the thermometer and looking at the small screen displaying the measured temperature. Jun takes this opportunity, of Jace being distracted, to finally sit up. She pulls her knees to her chest to put some distance between the two and make herself feel more protected.

"You didn't answer my question yet," she says in a small voice, barely loud enough for Jace to hear it. "37.6, still have a fever. At least it's better than before," he says, speaking to himself, not answering her question. Even though he heard it, he pretended not to. "I asked you a question you have yet to answer!" Jun reminded him in a slightly louder and angrier tone, looking directly at him. Jace smirks and slowly turns his gaze towards the girl, "Is this how you talk to someone generous enough to bring you to their house and take care of you when you pass out on them as soon as you meet them in the city?" He takes a deep breath, turns his head away again and rustles his hair. He lets out a sigh allowing his head to drop down. "Fuck it, if you're so desperate, then I'll answer. You asked, why am I doing this? Let me first jog your memory of yesterday a bit. I was walking home when I saw you sitting on a bench near a park, looking like some homeless person running around just in your pj's and a jacket. I needed to walk by anyway, so I decided to be a 'decent human being' and at least greet you."

Jun's head drops down from embracement of the fact that she was running around the city in her pyjamas, but when he says the last part, she lifts her head and looks at him with her mouth slightly opened. Memories flooding back to her, she remembers someone calling out to her, 'My, my, who do we have here'. That was the last thing she recalls before passing out.

"So now you remember." He looks at her from the corner of his eye. After a moment, he turns his look towards the front. Looking at the bedroom door as he continues to explain yesterday's events. "After I said what I said, you turned to me with a hazy look and said something like 'please help' or 'help me'. I don't know, and honestly don't care. But after that, you just slumped off the bench when you passed out. As you can imagine, I got shocked. It's not every day that a person passes out on you as soon as you say hello to them." He again glanced at Jun for a moment before returning his gaze. "After that, I assured you were breathing, then picked you up and brought you to the ER. You were burning like hell, but all they said was to get you home and give you some medicine to bring your temperature down since your passing out was the cause of your fever and excessive physical exertion combined. I have no idea where you live, so I brought you to my home and lent a guest room to you."

There was a moment of silence. She kept looking at Jace with a shocked expression. She had no idea what had happened while she was out. She felt a mix of; shame by what happened and gratitude toward Jace for helping her. She wanted to thank him, but before she even opened her mouth to say anything, Jace continued to talk. "You know, you're a real nuisance to take care of, but I didn't want to be a shitbag that leaves a sick person alone outside at night. But seriously, your fever didn't want to break and waking you up to take the medication was a load of work alone." Jace, now standing and pacing around the room, complained.

The girl's gaze drops to her knees, her hair covering her face like curtains as she quietly says, "I'm sorry". "If you have something to tell, speak up!" The man demanded from her, still annoyed by the memories of the previous occurrences. She raised her head a little, repeating what she expressed, "I-I'm s-sorry". She managed to stutter out. Jace looks at her, then turns toward the door. "Yeah, whatever," he says as he walks through the door, leaving Jun alone in the strange room.

She clutches her knees as she thinks to herself.

'what should I do now?'

To be continued...

---------------------------------------------------------------Note:

Hello!

I wanted to try something a little different with this chapter, and since I had more time to write this one than I did for other chapters, I put a lot more effort into it. I really like how it turned out.

I hope you enjoyed it.