On The Other Side

Chapter 004: Help

When Mi-Ok awoke, she was in her bed, in her room. 'Was it all a dream?' Part of it hoped it was a dream, but, if it had been, that would mean that Hyun-Ki was still missing, and she had never met Eli. She decided that there was only one way to find out. She stood up and walked towards the door, hesitating as she reached it. She knew she would have to find out if she were really in a parallel world or if it had all simply been a dream, but part of her didn't want to find out, not yet, at least. 'Maybe I should wait a little while. It seems like it's still pretty early, so I might be the only one awake either way.' she thought to herself. Now the only question was what to do while she was waiting. She already knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again, now that she was awake and out of bed, so she decided to look around her room at the things she usually wouldn't pay any mind.

                About a half an hour later, she noticed noises coming from the kitchen. Click. Someone turned the stove on. She set down the picture of her family that she had been looking at and rushed over to the door, opening it with little hesitation. Upon hearing the door swing open, Eli, who had been the one to turn on the stove, turned around, a look of surprise on his face. "You fell asleep." he said, the look of surprise gone, and replaced by his usual, cold glare. "Ah, sorry..." she replied. 'Eli must've stayed up and kept watch when I fell asleep...' Mi-Ok thought, feeling guilty. "You should've-" he sighed. "Just... come get me before you fall asleep next time." Mi-Ok walked over to where Eli was standing. "You can cook?" she asked, looking down what he was making. "Yup." he replied, hardly paying her any mind. Mi-Ok decided that he probably didn't want her there while he was cooking, so she began to walk away. To her surprise, as soon as she started to leave, Eli said, "Where are you going?" "Oh, I just figured that you wouldn't want me over there while you were cooking, so..." she told him. "No, it's fine. You can come over here and watch, if you'd like." "Oh, alright..." Mi-Ok thought it seemed a bit strange that Eli actually wanted her in the kitchen while he was cooking, but she decided that he must have had his reasons, so she walked back to the kitchen, still staying a little bit off to the side as to not get in his way. "Can you cook at all?" he asked. "No, not really." she replied. "Then I guess I'll have to teach you." he said, smiling. 

                For about twenty-five minutes, Eli showed Mi-Ok how to make crepes. They seemed rather easy to make, especially since Eli already had most of the ingredients ready, so they didn't have to try and find them. A few minutes after they had finished making the crepes, Hyun-Ki came out from the spare bedroom. "Hyun-Ki, Eli showed me how to make crepes! Come try some!" she said excitedly. Hyun-Ki and Eli both laughed, and Hyun-Ki said, "Alright, alright, I'm coming." He walked over and sat down at the table, grabbing one of the crepes and trying a bite of it. "Wow, did you really make this?" he asked. "Well, Eli did most of it, I mainly just watched." she told him. "I see. Where did you learn to cook, Eli?" Hyun-Ki asked. "Oh, my mother taught me. She loved to cook, and she had hoped for me to take over her restaurant, but things didn't quite work out." he said. "Oh? So you didn't like cooking as much as she had hoped you would, then?" he asked. "No, it's not that. I actually love to cook. My mother passed when I was twelve, and, with no one to take over in her stead, her restaurant closed and was sold by my father." Eli told them. "What? Why would he sell your mother's restaurant?!" Mi-Ok chimed in, outraged by what Eli's father had done. "My father is... not the type of person to hold on to things that he views as usless or unimportant. He is a businessman, so he has to know when things are no longer worth holding onto." he said simply. "That still doesn't justify what he did! How can you not be angry? Your mother wanted you to take over her restaurant, but yet your father sold it as if it didn't matter!" Mi-Ok seemed to care more about what had happened than Eli did, despite it being his personal life. "Look, Mi-Ok, it's fine. I understand why he did it. More than a businessman, he was her husband. He loved my mother more than anything, but he didn't want me to follow the same path that she had, despite her wishes." What Eli said didn't make sense to Mi-Ok. Why wouldn't his father want him to be like his mother? Despite how many questions she still had, she figured that Eli wouldn't want to talk about it anymore, and it was probably best to just let it go for now.

                "We should get going soon. It's not a good idea to stay in one place for too long. But, before we go, we should take what we'll need. We don't know how long it'll be until we find another place that isn't infested with the monsters." Eli said once they had finished eating. "You're right. There are so many of the mosters that it's almost impossible to find a place that they haven't completely taken over." Hyun-Ki agreed. For the next five minutes, they all looked around the house and grabbed what they might need. Mi-Ok made sure to grab her locket, she didn't want to lose it again. 

                After they finished getting everything that they might need, they left the building, being careful to avoid the places where they had seen the monsters the previous day. They made it out of the building pretty easily, hardly spotting any of the mosnters other than in the places they had seen them the previous day. Almost immediately after they made it out of the building, they spotted at least thirty of the monsters surrounding a small corner store that was across the street. "Help!"