Jin-kyong’s Apartment
Atlanta, GA
United States of America
December 2016
“Kyongsies?”
Jin-kyong barely lifted her head. The sound
of footsteps filled the apartment and Song Hae-jin peeked at the form on the
couch, a paper bag of takeout food in her arms. “Hae-won and Eun-seok are
coming in a bit,” she continued despite the lack of answer from the other girl.
“Eun-seok told me that you needed help getting your apartment back in top
shape.”
“I don’t need help.” Despite that, Hae-jin
set the paper bag down on the coffee table and searched for the cleaning
supplies. “Hae-jin…”
“Don’t worry about it, Kyongsies.” She
paused to look at the other and flashed a small, genuine smile. “I’ll get it
done. You can stay there and rest all you want while we wait for the other two
to arrive. Okay?”
The darker-haired model’s expression didn’t
change. She merely gave a brief nod and turned on her side, curling up on the
couch and pulling the blankets over her head. The smile on her face
disappearing, Hae-jin sighed and resumed looking for the necessary tools needed
in order to tidy up the other’s apartment.
In the span of an hour, Hae-jin had managed
to make the place a little more decent. She had done a quick sweep of the floor
and wiped off the counters, humming softly as she picked up whatever trash she
could find and throwing it away. In the bathroom, she had wiped whatever she
could, spraying a can of air freshener wherever she could.
Hae-jin wondered if cleaning up Jin-kyong’s
bedroom was a good idea and for the moment, decided against it. She was left
staring at the white door. “She isn’t staying in her own room for some reason,”
she muttered, then took a chance and decided to come in.
From the couch, Jin-kyong barely stirred.
Hae-jin exhaled. Upon entering, she
understood why her friend wanted nothing to do with her own bedroom.
On the walls were different pictures.
Framed pictures, polaroid pictures, wallet pictures – pictures that she could
snag. The polaroid pictures were what caught her attention; they were neatly
arranged on a large corkboard which was hanging on her wall.
Most of the pictures contained Jin-kyong
herself. She recognized one of them from a shoot they had to do a few months
back in Los Angeles. She spotted herself in another, this time with her twin as
well as Jin-kyong, the latter in the middle. The smile on her face was wide,
and she had her arms wrapped aroud the twins affectionately.
The heartbreaking part, however, was the
number of pictures dedicated to Soo-yeon. Hae-jin felt her heart crumble a bit
in her chest as she looked at the different pictures as well as the captions
written in black ink. There were pictures of Soo-yeon smiling, pictures of
Soo-yeon laughing, and pretty much candid pictures of their blonde-haired
friend.
Hae-jin took another step closer to the
pictures and let her fingers touch one of them. “You really do miss her,” she
whispered. She dropped her hand and looked at the rest of the room, exhaling
once more. The usually pristine area was a mess, sheets strewn and a few
pillows on the floor. Shoes were knocked over. Makeup had barely been touched.
Putting on a brave face for the sake of her
friend, she took a nearby laundry basket and proceeded to sort the dirty
clothes from the clean.
Outside the apartment, Hae-won watched
silently as Eun-seok fumbled for the keys. “Are you sure you have another
spare, or did you give it to my sister?”
“I’m sure I have a spare in here,” the
other grunted. He fished around in his pocket until something he felt something
hard. Smiling a bit, Eun-seok took it out and proceeded to unlock the front
door. “Do you think Hae-jin managed to get her into a better mood?”
“Don’t know. Let’s see.”
The two had just come from other places,
bringing other items with them. Eun-seok gave a sigh as he saw the female’s
form on the couch, looking like she hadn’t moved an inch. Despite that, the
rest of the apartment looked considerably better. The curtains were pulled
slightly, letting sunlight come into the room. The floor didn’t look as dusty.
It smelled like Jin-kyong’s favorite air freshener.
That had to be some kind of improvement.
“Hey, Kyong…” Hae-won could hear Eun-seok
talking to the female; instead of hanging around, he looked for his sister. He
found her in the bedroom, quietly sorting out clothes that were to be washed,
and clothes that were to be refolded and hung in the closet. He was about to
open his mouth to talk when the pictures caught his attention.
Hae-jin looked up and saw him looking at
the pictures with a small frown on his face. She couldn’t help but give a sad
smile. “You too?”
He snapped out of it. “What?”
“The pictures. They can be a little
unsettling, considering what’s happened.” Hae-jin neatly folded a white shirt
and put it on the pile next to her. Her brother joined her, sitting on the
wooden floor and starting to match socks (which was an easy task, considering
the fact that Jin-kyong liked wearing different-colored and
differently-designed ones).
The two of them stayed quiet, assisting
each other and folding, separating, sorting. The silence was there until
Hae-won cleared his throat. “You weren’t able to get her off the couch.”
“I wasn’t,” the other agreed. “But…I
understand. Or at least I think I can understand her, just a little bit. In a
way, she’s right. None of us knew Yeonnie the way she did. And we both know how
she felt for her, so…this is all hitting her hard. Really hard.”
Hae-won stayed silent.
“We should just be there for Kyongsies…she
needs all the help she can get, and we’re the only ones who can give it to her.
She helped us out before, remember?” he nodded. “So…we should get her bedroom
cleaned up and then coax her to eat with us. I think we’ll need to reheat the
food, but it’ll do.” Hae-jin told him, folding the clothes at a faster pace and
with a new vigor. Her brother rose from the wooden floor and kissed the top of
his twin’s head.
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”
Hae-jin gave a tiny smile. “I hope she
does. If Yeonnie were here…I bet she’d just want to see all of us smiling
again. Especially Kyongsies.”
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