Why is it that I'm being treated like the bad guy now??

“Yah, unnie…” I whine, pouting my lips as I hang on to Yejin’s arm and even fiddling with her fingers, playing around with them, as she refuses to spare me a glance. “You can’t just act like you can’t see, feel, or hear me!” I’m in her room now to hopefully spend time with her, but she refuses to talk to me since she’s still mad with how I treated Jun.

“Ari, you insulted him in front of the kids!” She points out angrily. “We were only trying to make him feel at home since he’ll be staying with us.”

I grumble, “You know that I don’t like him.” I move away a bit to hang my legs off her bed. 

“But you didn’t have to be that mean.”

“He tried to kill me!” I retaliate, “How many times do I have to say that? How many times do I have to remind everyone that there was this point in my life wherein I thought that I was going to take my last breath?”

“We understand that happened, Ari, but you have to realize that Jun did it out of defense,” she argues.

My face falls, forming a deep frown, and I pull away from her. I’m not going to push the argument any further because it’s making me more frustrated than normal. I cross my arms in front of me and huff under my breath, “You always keep on calling him Jun this, Jun that, like as if you’ve known him your whole life.”

Thankfully, she did not hear me. 

“Ari,” Yejin starts, this time in a softer voice, “can you at least give Jun a chance?”

“Why should I give him a chance? Our lives were normal before he came. Now that he’s here, a complete stranger, we allow him into our safe community and integrate him with us. What is this? Some kind of reintegration?”

“He did not come from jail or anything of that sort,” she explains.

“We wouldn’t know that, though.”

Yejin rolls her eyes and heaves out an exhausted sigh. “This is why the others look at you as the bad guy.”

“At least the kids are on my side.”

“Well,” she drawls then surprisingly breaks out into a smirk. “I think the kids are not fully on your side anymore, though.”

I throw her a pointed look, feeling my cheeks start to heat up. “Shut up,” I snapped at her. I get what she's referring to and with all my heart, I do not like it.

She laughs, clearly amused with my sudden change of mood. Before I was the one attacking, now I’m the one on defense. "Now I know how to keep your mouth shut."

"Oh, God. Unnie, don't even make me remember please."

"I think no one is going to make you forget! What happened back at the playroom was something that we all enjoyed-"

"Okay, okay!" I reach over to clasp my hands over her mouth. The words she continues to utter are now muffled by now but she still won't stop! "I've heard enough! Keep your mouth shut or else the others are going to hear it," I finish through gritted teeth.

I feel her tongue glide up against my palm and I instantly take my hands away from her mouth, yelping a bit out of disgust. "Unnie!" I exclaim.

"I am forever going to use what happened against you." 

“Yejin,” I threaten her in a low voice, “I swear if you’re going to keep on bringing this up, I will definitely-”

A deep rumbling sound then suddenly echoes throughout the sky causing me to pause for a moment. I look up, uttering, “What was that?”

A flash of light shows through the window and another rumbling sound echoes, this time louder than the first. I jump to my feet and rush to the window. I pull the curtains back and see how the sky is starting to turn dark as large dark grey clouds move swiftly in the air towards our area. Through the horizon on the sea, I see how blurry and dark it is from the distance. Another round of peals of thunder resounds in the distance and flashes of lighting go in different directions. The waves of the sea have gone stronger as they lap roughly on the sand and pull back in an instant before doing it again. 

“Y-Yejin,” I stammer. Now a sense of urgency coursing through every fiber of my being. I face her to see that she is also looking alarmed. “Call the others. We need to move fast and prepare the area for the incoming rain!”

------------

Some may enjoy the rain especially when it’s this strong since it could accompany people, whether lonely or not, during sentimental moments. 

I, for one, used to be a huge fan of the rain back when I used to live in the city. I, especially, love to walk under it with only an umbrella over my head and a cozy jacket to warm me up a bit. 

But fuck that now because it’s raining cats and dogs. And one of the worst places to be when it heavily rains is by the shore. 

It’s now gone completely dark. Only floodlights are the source of light above our heads. The sound of the rain continues to intensify that it blurred into one long, whirring noise. It sounded annoying and painful to the ears as if I was going deaf. 

The children are in their rooms with Mrs. Oh, Yejin, and some of the other social workers staying with them to keep them calm and safe. Thankfully, their rooms are on the second floor of the building which makes it less likely that they would get flooded if the water level continues to rise. 

I, on the other hand, am part of the group delegated to make sure that the windows, doors, and even the tiniest of crevices are covered so that the water won’t enter our buildings. I’ve always done this job ever since I’ve been assigned to the area, so I’m used to being soaking wet from head to toe even if I have a flimsy raincoat and sluggish boots on. 

“Hyunwoo!” I shout over the strong rain and the roaring wind, cupping my hands around my mouth to make my voice louder. I see the man holding onto one of the palm trees by our main building. He hears me and looks toward my direction, squinting his eyes and shielding them from the rainwater to get into them. 

I wipe my hands down my face and continue, “There are still windows at the back that need to be covered! Take the plywood and bring them there!”

I see him nod vehemently and to further prove that he got my message, he gives me a thumbs-up before rushing towards the back area. 

The constant roaring of thunder reverberates across the sky and there are some moments wherein I had to clasp my ears with how loud they were. Oh, God, and the howling of the wild and harsh wind is another problem in itself. It’s hard to walk against the wind or else it is my wish to be blown away. That would definitely be a death wish, no doubt. 

I grit my teeth and continue to scout the area if there are any windows and doors that we might have missed to cover. Fallen leaves from palm trees fly right past me and sometimes, I don’t realize what they are because of how fast they go. 

Is this a typhoon we never received news of? We are always prepared when this happens, but why don’t we know any of this at all?

I spot someone trying to place the plywood on the window and I curse under my breath, rushing to that person. “What the heck is taking you so long?!” I scold the man as I rush to his side. He turns his face toward me and I throw the man an incredulous look. It’s Jun. I haven’t seen him since that incident in the playroom. But now is not the time to think of that scenario.

“Oh, God, it’s you,” I grumble and take the piece of plywood from his hold. 

Jun shivers a bit and wipes his face as he shouts, his deep voice resounding over the rain, “I volunteered to help out!”

“Well, it seems like you’re not helping out since I’m here!”

I hear him huff from beside me. “I fixed around four windows before you came along.”

“Oh yeah? And I fixed eight with this being my ninth! You got a problem with that, hotshot?”

He shakes his head and I even see him roll his eyes. The temerity of that man to roll his eyes at me under the heavily pouring rain! “Why do you always treat me in this manner?”

“Are we really having this conversation now?!” Another peal of thunder echoes through the sky and it almost feels like it could shake the ground. “Could you at least wait until we get back- Ah!” I yelp as I feel one of the loose leaves of a palm tree slice through the skin of my forehead. The pain instantly becomes unbearable and stinging because the rainwater dripping down my face adds to it. I see Jun’s eyes widen just before I close my eyes and drop the piece of plywood to bring my hands to the wound. 

“Don’t touch it!” He berates me and takes my hands away before I feel him wrap an arm around my shoulders and lead me somewhere. I still keep my eyes closed, but take careful steps to where he is taking me. “Come on!” Despite it being so cold, the warmth radiating off his body with how he holds me close feels weirdly comforting. It makes me want to snuggle up near a fireplace. 

It does not take long for us to enter the building again since I do not feel any of the harsh wind around my body or the continuously pouring rain over my head. We must be at the infirmary since it’s the only door kept open at all times in case someone gets injured. I slowly blink my eyes open and squint them a bit since the overhead light of the infirmary is too glaring. 

“Sit here.” He situates me before a bed and gently pushes me to sit on it. I carefully run a finger under my wound and when I look at it, there is blood on it. Suddenly, his face goes mere centimeters from mine that it causes my breath to hitch in my throat. For once, I am the one at a loss for words. The way he looks at my wound is one that I’ve never seen from him before. His eyes would narrow and his jaw would tighten when he’s serious. He runs his fingers through his wet hair, fixing them away from his eyes. “Stay here,” he mutters in haste and goes to one of the cupboards where the first aid kits are located. I watch him warily as he takes one and opens it. 

He’s fast as he works on my wound. He works as if he’s been doing this his whole life. He knows that the wound must be cleaned first and then dabbed with a small amount of iodine before it is covered. Perhaps it may be because of my shock and this newfound information about him that I did not wince when he was placing the disinfectant on my wound, which I hate all the time. Was he in the medical field before losing his memory? He really is a mystery man. 

The whole time he works, he stays silent even until the moment he covers my wound with a clean bandage. “The head is one of the easiest places to get a wound at,” he tells me. The rain outside continues to pour but I do not seem to hear it anymore. As much as I am shocked and in awe, I am annoyed as well. 

“And am I supposed to thank you?”

He draws back and grimaces. “You can really be a bitch at times,” he mutters under his breath. 

Finally getting my senses back, I snapped at him, “I could have taken care of myself, you know.”

“Yet, you didn’t,” he bites back. “It’s like you froze and didn’t know what to do. Did you act that way on purpose so that I could kiss your wound away again?”

I break out coughing as the words die in my throat and my jaw drops, completely feeling appalled. This man really had to bring it up?! Out of all times? Really?! 

“You’re the one who gave the boo-boo to Miss Ari?!” Hanwool interrupts Mrs. Oh in a loud voice, pointing an accusing finger at Jun. 

The children start to clamor, following Hanwool as they point their small fingers toward him. 

“You should say sorry to Miss Ari, Mister!” Sunja says from my lap. 

“No, no!” Hanwool chimes in, “If he wants Miss Ari’s boo-boo to go away then he must give it a kiss!”

“I-I didn't ask for you to kiss me yesterday!” I sputter in defense. “For all I know, maybe you were the only one who enjoyed it!”

He looks at me as if I’m deluded. “And why would you say that I enjoyed it?”

To follow the children’s orders and to not let them down, I had to stand and walk to where Jun was standing in the playroom. I can still recall how he cupped the nape of my neck and dipped his head down to place two soft kisses on the bruises on my neck. It made my heart pound out of my chest and I could not wrap my head around what was happening until it finished. He was oddly gentle with how he held me and I hate to admit this, even to myself, that I did not feel any kind of discomfort at that moment.

“You didn’t have to kiss me like that, you weirdo, and yet you did," I retorted.

Then he retaliates, “Then how else was I supposed to kiss you?”

His question catches me off guard. “How else was I supposed to appease the children yesterday?” he continues. 

I shake my head and get to my feet. I walk to the door of the infirmary which leads to our individual rooms. Huffing out, I turn around to look back at him. “You could have appeased the children by leaving the moment you woke up,” I finish in a snarl and furiously leave him behind in the infirmary to go back to my room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry for the late update! 😭 Still, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!

And yes, pull through Jun-ho!! Help your girl!! Hahahahha

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