beyOnd

Chapter Nine: Lee Yongsoo

Sometimes I don’t get how Wook-jin can be this unpredictable. Yet I love this side of him. The side that shows his true, inner child. I wasn’t expecting anything to happen after art club. I was just expecting that we’d go to the bus stop, onto the bus, and then back home. Yet I didn’t think he would drag me to come with him to the beach.

We both ran hand in hand as he went to the beach nearby, feeling nothing but the cool wind blowing on our face. There hadn’t been a single thing on my mind in this moment. All I was focused on was the present. I didn’t have to think of the past, nor the future.

The sun didn’t set, luckily. Though it was on he middle of setting, it’d still casted over our heads like a whole wash of yellowish orange paint. It was pink on the horizon, and slowly faded into purple by the zenith. It felt as though nothing could be more perfect than right now.

“Why did you suddenly take me over to the beach?” I asked him.

“I wanted to spend more time with you today…” he muttered, following every curve that the waves made as it folded upon the shore.

“Why?”

“I don’t know…It was just…such a random feeling that came to me.” He then steps into the water, and I follow him in. The water was cold and shallow, yet I didn’t seem to find it all that bad. He kicked the water at his feet lightly, making small splashes of water go everywhere. Some even got on me.

So I gave him payback. “s**t,” he muttered to himself, yet was still smiling. He splashed me again, and it went on vice versa for the rest of the time the sun had been up. By that point, we were almost soaked, yet we didn’t seem to mind. All we did mind was each other; mind us.

At some point, I was even tackled to the sand by Wook-jin. I was laid on the sand, while he was on top of me, a hand planted on either side of my face. My breaths were heavy because of all the excitement, yet it was still such an enjoyable feeling.

Even in this cold, I could still see sweat dripping down from Wook-jin’s neck, yet I couldn’t tell if it were just water or not. He gently clears the hair off my face and just stays there, gazing straight into my eyes. Those coal grey eyes…staring right into me. I don’t even know how I managed to get through that.

“Do you mind…?” he asks. I shake my head having no complete understanding on what he meant. He slowly leans in, our lips just inches from touching. Wait, I thought, are we really gonna do this right now? He was on the verge of kissing me, yet he completely stopped in his tracks. A sweet grin perked up on the corners of his lips, and he got off of me.

He lent his hand out, and I gently slid my hand in the creases of his palm. “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” he said.

“It’s alright,” I tell him, seating myself upon the sand beside him. Those coal grey eyes had been so intently gazing upon the sea that I couldn’t dare to disturb him. I wish I could just gaze upon those eyes for ever. Yet they had been filled with such exhaustion that it made my heart laden.

Please don’t look so absolutely agonized like that, I thought. He sighed and those eyes had rested upon mine as he smiled so sadly; I swear I’d never seen him so tired like such. “You know, I got my license today. My father had told me that he got me a car as well. He said he parked it someplace near here.”

“Then why do you look so sad about it?” I asked.

“I-I don’t know. I guess I just feel like he never had to get me a car for some very reason. I wish he could’ve just came here and gave it himself. Imagine how great that would be.”

“Why? Is he not able to see you so often?”

“No. He lives nearby, but he’s always busy with work and stuff. I guess he just drove that car someplace and attached some note onto it.”

I nod so slowly, cutting our gaze entirely. “When the time comes, shall I drop you off at home today?”

“Yeah, that would be good,” I tell him. All so suddenly, my phone had started ringing.

“Sorry…” I mutter, taking my phone out of my pocket. It was father. Of course it would be him. I pick up the call.

“Hello?” I asked.

Dad: “Son, come home right now.”

Me: “Why? It’s not even 6 o’clock yet.”

Dad: “Still, come back home at this instant!”

Me: “Yes, father…”

“D’you gotta go home now?” Wook-jin asked. I nod silently, slowly getting back up. He gets up as well and follows me back to the docks, where we left our bags and coats.

“Guess the time really did come,” I tell him, sliding my bag over my coat covered shoulder.

He lets out a sweet laugh. “Yeah, it really did.” He looked over his shoulder from the docks, a sedan sitting so patiently within the metal fencing of the beach. “Guess it had been closer than I thought,” I hear him mutter.

The sedan had been glimmering against the sunset’s light, such a deep yellow against the black metal of it’s hood. Windows seeming so deeply tinted that nothing could barely be seen through the back seats. And upon one of them had laid a note, made with a white card with gold painted edges, such precision being needed to make the lines so absolutely straight.

“Son, I hope you like the (incredibly early) birthday present! You’ve gotten so old now. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you this in person. I hope you like it!” The note read.

Wook-jin slowly picked it off the window and read it with great intent present in those coal grey eyes. He smiled dully and folded the note, tucking it into his pocket. “I guess you’ll be the first person who gets to ride this with me,” he said.

“Did you have experience?” I asked.

“Yeah. I was going through training back in Daegu. I guess it was only now that I got my license.”

I made my way to the passenger seat and strapped myself in, my mind only caught up in my father’s words. I was in trouble, and I knew that. Yet I also know that I don’t have any other way of getting out of it. I’m gonna have to deal with it, no matter how much I hated it.

He inserts his keys into the ignition, yet pauses right in his tracks. “You alright?” he asks, taking a sad glance at me.

“Yeah,” I mutter, staring at the empty screen of my phone, “I just…don’t wanna go back home.” We stay silent for a while, not even daring to speak. He didn’t even start the car at that point, and we just sat there looking out the windshield. “Anyway,” I finally speak up, “let’s just go. We don’t wanna stall anymore.”

He then starts up the engine, still sitting there in silence. “You wanna put on the radio?” he asked, “I can’t bare the silence.”

I then get up from my seat and fiddle with the knobs of the radio, eventually managing to get it turned on. Apparently, his radio system had been connected to his Spotify account, which meant all I had to do was pick a playlist of his. “What playlist?” I asked.

“Whatever you’re feeling.” So I decide to play his most recent playlist, “lys.” Immediately, lovememore. by dosii had started playing, and I finally felt at peace. I look at the name of the playlist for a while. L, Y, S? I thought, what could that mean? I sank down in my seat and closed my eyes for a bit, enjoying the warm sunlight against my skin.

“Hyung,” I start, “what does ‘lys’ stand for?” I ask, my eyes still closed. He laughs nervously as he shuffled in his seat, slowly getting himself back up.

“Right…so I was actually meaning to send tell you this…” he said in a slightly quiet manner, “but a few days ago, I decided to make a playlist for you. It’s not the best, but I just put all the songs that really remind me of you…”

The thought of it immediately made me blush, and I was sure it had gotten much too obvious that I was. I thought about the name again. ‘lys’ were my initials. Lee Yong Soo. “Thank you,” I told him, a small smile playing on my lips.

“No problem,” he said, also starting to grow a little smile. And we stay silent for almost the rest of the ride. I sat there, gazing out the window enjoying the music playing in the background. Yet I still had dread in me. I really didn’t want to go home, because I knew that I would just be scolded at by my father who’s always drunk.

By the time I could already start to see my apartment in the distance, I had already gotten much too tired. Yet I have to stay awake. I have to. it kills me by demxntia had started playing throughout the car, so I just sat there while I comprehend to the beat of the song. At some point, me and Wook-jin even start humming along to it. “No, I don’t wanna see you hurt anymore,” I hear him mutter in a sweet melody, “it kills me. Every time that we speak, I know that you wanna be free.”

“You could be a singer if you wanted to,” I jokingly said.

“No. Never in a million years,” he said sternly. I laugh with the idea and brush it off with a smile.

“Fine, fine,” I told him, “you’re not gonna be a singer when you grow up.” The car then comes into a stop, and I realized that we already reached my parking lot. Yet Wook-jin looks at me with an offended look in his eyes.

“Are you saying that I didn’t grow up yet?” he asked in an overdramatic tone. “You little bastard—” He then makes an attempt to strike me on the head with his fist, yet of course, he doesn’t. He would never hurt me like that.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry!” I said in surrender. “You’re already grown up, just not eligible to be considered to be an adult.”

“Fine,” he said, “I’ll take that.”

“Anyway, I’ll get going now,” I told him as we got out of the car. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” he said with an adorable grin that got my heart fluttering. He then opens his arms out, indicating a hug. Of course, I had to go in and hug him. I would never want to leave him hanging like that. I wrap my arms around him in a gentle manner and enjoy the warmth of his body against mine. I wish we could’ve stayed like that forever. I wish I could’ve been with him forever.

Then quietly, very quietly, in a whisper, he tells me, “love you…” I smile with the thought, even though I was sure he meant it in a friendly way. “Good luck up there, and don’t get hurt!” he said as he watched me go to the elevator.

“Thank you,” I said just right before I entered. I didn’t know what was waiting for me upstairs, but all I did know was that I might get another glass shard up my head again, or my voice will go hoarse from arguing with my father.