Across The Paper

Part 10: Sunflower

The air stood still.

Yoohyeon wasn't sure if she was breathing. If she even knew what breathing was at that moment. Her heart dropped to the ground, and she wasn't sure how to catch it.

"Siyeon-"

"I said, how long has it been since you're reading Bora's diaries?"

Hearing the woman's name coming out of Siyeon's mouth made Yoohyeon nauseous. It suddenly occurred to her that what she has been reading wasn't just some kind of fiction novel. It was real. Everything... was real.

"Siyeon, it's not how you think it is..." Yoohyeon almost cried out. She was sitting on the edge of the couch, holding onto it tight with her hands. She knew she was lying.

It was exactly how Siyeon thought.

The blonde woman took in a sharp breath, her hands covering her face while her head shook from left to right. Yoohyeon knew then, what she had done was something she was never supposed to do.

"Siyeon... I- I am sincerely sorry, I feel utterly ashamed." The brunette girl now couldn't help the tears that rolled down her pink-shaded cheeks. She slid down from the couch, now kneeling in front of Siyeon. She slowly put her hands over those on the woman's face, though the latter flinched and stood up, standing away from Yoohyeon.

"I'm... I can't have a conversation with you right now." She also had tears unwrapping her reddened eyes, her lip quivering once she tried to speak out the words. "Can you please leave for a little while?"

"Siyeon, please-"

"Leave!!!" Her scream echoed in the living room, in the whole house. The dust on the woods of the home vibrated. Yoohyeon flinched, shutting her eyes.

Siyeon leaned on the wall beside the window, trying her best not to let out a miserable sob that wanted to leave her throat while clenching her fists. "Please, just leave. For a few hours. I can't- I can't talk right now." She said softer this time, looking away from the younger girl. Yoohyeon stood up and ran to the door, leaving without saying anything. Her mother's letter fell on the ground and shuddered after the loud shut of the door.

Siyeon sobbed, slowly sliding down from the wall to the ground. Bringing her shivering knees to herself, she wrapped her arms around it and cried. Cried until numbness had grown onto the walls of her pained heart like a blooming plant, sending thin tendrils into cracks and holding on tight.

It was as if she was never going to escape.

-=-

The tears felt suffocating for Yoohyeon. It was a windy night when she ran out of the house and became a part of the darkness. She was running against the harsh air and she didn't know if the cause of her tears was Siyeon or the wind.

She knew it wasn't Siyeon's fault. It was her own. She should've never touched anyone's property.

As she made her way to the familiar mountain with the tree that she just found out is a monument, the only thought that was in her mind was that she was so spoiled. She always got what she wanted from life if it was connected to money. Both of her parents were working in the town, she graduated from the best school for girls, and she was always financially stable. The only thing that she had never gotten was love.

Love.

That's exactly what drew her to those diaries. She could feel love in Bora's handwriting. She could feel the familiarity of having that kind of conflict with her own father. Bora, too, was rich, but no amount of money and property could fill her loneliness, fill the absence of love in her heart that had so much space for it.