The Deed | Kang Mira

As my cheeks heat up and the sleep in my eyes starts drifting away, I shift aside. It's a soft motion; the pillow under my head caresses my face and the bed creaks lowly. My eyelids flutter open, expecting immense sunrays to make me blind for a second.

But to my utter surprise, it doesn't happen. I rub my eyes to see more clearly. A dark silhouette is towering before my lying figure.

It takes me a while to realize who this is.

And the moment I understand that it's him, my heartbeats start skyrocketing by the beauty in front of my eyes.

Yeonjun is looking down at me, his left hand propelled to a side to heave his body up. Sunrays blooming behind his back radiates a glowing art over the traces of his lean figure. His usual dark eyes are drooping low but shimmering fiercely, locking all the stars of my universe inside them.

I forget every existing definition of breathing just by looking at him.

Yeonjun raises his hand slowly, and pushes away a strand of hair from my forehead. This action is very gentle, but I jump from my lying position at once.

"It's still five, though. Are you an early person?" Yeonjun asks me in a deep, throaty voice, rubbing his eyes as doing so. It sends a long trail of ice and shivers down to my spine, while at the same time- putting my nerves on fire.

Oh my god.

Without bringing myself to look at him, I nod timidly and start unfolding my braid while turning to a side. I try to smoothen down my bird nest hair as much as I can, and lock them up in a messy bun. Locks of red strands fall over my gaze.

Finally being done with the challenge of making myself appear slightly less mental than before, I turn back to Yeonjun while looking down at the bedsheet underneath my fingers. It has very vague stitches of silver flowers, which I have failed to notice before. With a cough, I ask.

"Did you have a good sleep?"

"Oh yes, I did." Yeonjun answers in a cheerful tone. "But what about you?" he points his finger at me sitting at the very edge of the bed, while keeping a distance of minimum three feet. "You're nearly going to fall over. Are you okay?"

"Oh yes, I'm fine." I brush my thumbs over my lips, wiping the drool away. "I don't need much space actually. I always tend to sleep like a dead fish."

"You don't sleep like a dead fish at all." Yeonjun scrutinises his gaze on me. "You sleep like a koala, to be exact."

I stare at him with confusion.

"I mean, like this." Yeonjun lies down on the bed again, turning beside to face me. Then he brings his legs up to his chest, locking them together and putting his chin above. He looks like a large, fluffy and round cushion right now. "You sleep like this."

"How did you-" my cheeks turns red from embarrassment. No way he saw me sleeping like that.

Yeonjun chuckles at my red face.

"Well, at least you looked cute." he gets back into his original position, playfully tapping his foot on the sheets. "Huggable."

I can only turn into all visible shades of crimson.

Yeonjun sits up after crunching his nose. Putting down his legs and bending over, he flexes his shoulders, twisting and turning them over. His fingers run through his messy, bed ridden hair; trying to arrange them in a neat style.

But then he stops and turns at me, while looking down at both of his wrists.

"They don't itch anymore." Yeonjun mutters in surprise. "Did you do anything to them, Mira?"

"Yes." I nod slowly. "I put some ointment on there."

"Oh my, thanks." he says in a low tone, a light red hue smeared across his cheeks. "I think I'm allergic to spiders now. Who has that kind of allergy even?"

"I'm not sure about others, but you do. Certainly." I start spekaing in a teasing voice. "And the way you ran to me- was hilarious!"

"I didn't do that intentionally!" Yeonjun argues back, making me raise one of my eyebrows. "It was- it was not in my control! I just ran to whichever room was near me and it turned out to be yours!"

No matter what he says, I can't stop myself from laughing. Yeonjun rolls his eyes and leaps down from the bed.

"I'm going then!" he exclaims in a sour tone, while stamping on the floor. "Not going to burst into your room ever again!" he turns back haughtily and starts marching toward the door. "End of discussion-"

"I heard that they haven't sorted out the spiders!"

The moment the word 'Spider' leaves my mouth, Yeonjun jumps on his feet and dives back to me, clutching the hem of my nightgown. I burst into another fit of laughter.

"You-" Yeonjun gives me a burning look, his lips parting apart in shock. "You are so-"

"Ms. Yena also said there could be spiders in your slippers, too!"

"Stop!" he screams loudly, as I bend over the bed while clutching my stomach, laughing. "Just stop, Mira!"

Now it's my time to tease you.

After finishing my breakfast, I have straight walked to the lawn in front of Yeonjun's house, and settled down on the grass with a book. I have got it from the bookshelf in my room; the blue bookmark in the middle of the book showed that Yeonjun was halfway in reading it.

'The Notebook', the title says.

I turn the book around, inspecting its cover with sheer interest. Just as I have opened the first page, a light tap on my shoulders makes my attention divert.

"Unnie? How are you doing?" Sarang peeks at me from behind, her hands rested above her back as she leaps down on the ground to sit beside me. I smile and scoot away for giving her enough space.

"Doing good. What about you?"

"Finer than yesterday, going to be fine for today, and tomorrow- I have no idea." she muses while bending over to touch her toes. "But I hope that I will be okay."

"Wow, you're such a thoughtful person, Sarang."

"Me? Thoughtful?" Sarang covers her mouth to muffle her giggles. "I say that to sound cool, not thoughtful."

"Then you're very cute."

"Huh! Don't call me cute!" she narrows her eyes while mumbling. "Tell me about you, though." Sarang lightly hits my arm and puts a smirk on her lips. "What chaos happened last night? Ms. Yena is doing an important meeting with all of the maids inside the kitchen."

"Really?" my interest gets risen. "What's she saying?"

"Oh?" Sarang looks a little confused at my question, but shrugs anyway. "Well, they have come to a conclusion that the 'Operation : Spider', which took place last night in Yeonjun- ssi's room, was only a little part of the demonic plan of Choi Soobin and Choi Beomgyu. And..." she starts dragging the 'And' and making me anticipate for more. "And..."

"And what?" I ask, feeling curious as ever.

"And they did that deliberately, so that Yeonjun- ssi had to sleep inside your room!"

My shoulders slump down at her answer.

"Oh, that. I thought you were going to say there was a hidden treasure inside Yeonjun's room or something."

"He himself is a treasure!" Sarang exclaims in an are- you- serious? type of voice. "Now, tell me. Did you two do the deed?"

"What deed?"

"The deed." she lowers her head to inspect me from a side, her gaze turning into a mischievous one. "The deed married couples do in the late of nights... in an alone room... together..."

She starts flailing her arms while staring at me, trying to mean something which clearly doesn't get inside my brain. I tilt my head, immensely confused.

"What are you talking about, Sarang?"

"I'm talking about that." she grits her teeth, still flailing her arms crazily. "That ! Did you two do that ?"

"I'm also asking that what is that ?"

"Don't tell me you don't know." Sarang mutters in a horrifed voice, her arms sliding down. "Come on, don't be so shy in front of me. Just nod if you have done it-"

"You know what? If you don't want to explain, then don't press on it any farther." I sigh and proceed to read the book placed on my lap. Sarang's mouth hangs open.

"It's rare to see an innocent girl like you these days." she whispers with disbelief. "I feel attacked and jealous, both." the girl holds her chin and sighs. "I miss those days when I was so innocent."

"But I'm really curious about the deed though. Mind explaining without cracking up?" I say in a flat tone, trying to appear as bossy as possible by holding the book under my nose. I hear Sarang sigh deeply.

"First, tell me- do you really have no idea? None even told you about this in your house? None? Or... didn't you ever read it in any kind of books?"

"Oh?" I turn to Sarang, while thinking fast. "My father didn't allow me to read. And there wasn't a single story book in his study room." I grimace at the bitter memories flashing in my mind, and push them far away from me. "But, Mrs. Hyun actually said something, though. It's me who was dumb enough to not understand." I feel ashamed to my core. "Is it- is it bad that I didn't understand?"

"No, it wasn't your fault! It takes a different time for a different person to learn something. But the topic we are discussing is so..." Sarang clicks her tongue and asks. "Anyway. What did she say?"

"Something about... ah- wait, let me remember." I tap my chin after closing the book. Maybe today isn't a good day for reading. "She was stuttering and sweating like crazy, so I really couldn't grasp her words. All I could make out were 'Follow everything your husband says.' 'Please him as he wants.' 'Never deny his orders.' 'Never turn him down.' and many more."

"Wow. I-" Sarang stares at me, her mouth hanging ajar. "What an awkward way to explain that. How did you endure that lecture, Unnie?"

"You got that right!" my eyes brighten up in joy; feeling happy that at least someone realizes what I went through. "I had to listen to her ramblings for almost two hours, and still nothing went inside my brain. But..." I scoot closer to Sarang, while smiling cutely. "As I said, I'm interested to learn them from you."

"Why?" Sarang says in a high pitched, terrified tone.

"Well, Yeonjun is taking care of me. So I should return his favour, shouldn't I?" I confess honestly. "I should work hard to make this marriage work. Or else- no, I really don't want to..." I whisper under my breath, so that Sarang can't hear me. "Return to that hell house."

"Oh god, I don't know what you should or shouldn't- but I definitely shouldn't be sitting here and discussing such an absurd topic with you.", Sarang springs up to her feet, gulping and coughing. "Good luck with reading, Unnie. I'm going."

"Hey! You can't leave me hanging like that!" I yell at her as she makes her way home with fast steps. "Sarang! Why can't you simply explain?"

She waves her hand and disappears behind the gate.

"What's with all testing my patience?" I mumble before going back to my book. "Can't they stop murdering their brains and say it nicely?"

a. n. : rest in peace, choi odi :( i feel like giving up on life now. i never imagined we would have to lose him one day. 

it hasn't been a day and i already miss odi so freaking much 😭

and my brain wasn't working nicely- i'm so sorry for this boring chapter.

tani, 18.08.2023.