Precious Things || Jensoo

Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

"Grandfather, I'm so sorry, I'm so..."

"That's enough, Jisoo."

I know better than to argue with him. I know better than to defy that tone and stance. I just hang my head in shame, still standing on the doorstep.

He takes a step sideways and I slink through the door, biting my lip in a combination of fear and anticipation.

He's really angry. He's really, really angry. I'm twenty minutes late and that in itself is enough. But I'm also twenty minutes late from something he had the grace to let me attend even though he didn't have to. I have no excuse. I have no reason to be late aside from my own tardiness and he knows it.

I know he knows it.

We both know it.

I close my eyes.

"Put your books upstairs."

His tone is so cold. He is the Arctic.

I comply meekly.

Shivering with a hope that I know is plain ridiculous, I put my belongings away and try not to dilly-dally while doing it.

I know what awaits me. I want to avoid it but I can't. The more I tarry, the more I dawdle, the more I avoid, the worse it will get.

I should just take my punishment like a big girl and let it be that.

I move downstairs and change into my slippers. I'd taken my walking shoes off at the door, because I can't have them on in the house due to the wooden floorboards.

I can see that my grandfather's study is open. He usually sits in there during weekdays when I'm at school, but it's rare for it to be open on a weekend. Unless it's a day like today. It just confirms my suspicions.

"Come in here, Jisoo."

I approach the room and stop at the door. It's a knee-jerk reaction because I know that what is to come will come anyway. There is nothing I can do to stop this. My grandfather has made a decision and his decisions are final.

I take a deep breath and move in to the room.

It's there. And I'm there.

"Grandfather..." I don't know why I'm trying. Why am I even speaking? Normally I don't bother, because I know he is unflinching. Today, I try. "Grandfather, I'm sorry I was late, I..."

"Jisoo," he cuts me off, "I've given you many unusual concessions of late. Today was not just a matter of tardiness, but of rudeness. You have been rude to me and to the considerations of this house."

I feel my throat choke up.

"I'm sorry."

"That's well as may be." He picks it up. "Please take your blouse off and kneel down."

There is a method to this. I pass him, approach the window and kneel in front of it. I unbutton my blouse and take it off. Turning it around, I put my arms back through the sleeves so that it's on backwards. Reaching behind me, I unclasp my bra and cross my arms in front of me.

Now I'm kneeling, my hands grasping at the sides of my blouse and bra straps, holding them firm against my ribs. I'm chastely covered, with the only exposed part of me my back.

My grandfather is not a perverted man. He is an old fashioned man.

This is how he was punished.

This is how I am punished.

It happens rarely, because I'm very good at not stepping outside the boundaries. I learned that lesson when I was young.