Honeymoon (1)
I had been invaded.
Lee Ga-rang and Cha Sang-hwi used my arms as pillows while Gong Na-rin curled up like a cat, turning my stomach into her mattress as she drifted toward sleep. Their love was so soft, so enveloping, that I could not bear its weight; my eyes refused to close. They meant to live with me—for the rest of their lives, because I had hurt them. The night was dark, yet sleep would not come. The affection they offered was simply too much... I kept my eyes open the whole time.
I could not concentrate. Ever since I had been forcibly branded a school bully, the girls had wanted an apology—yet the truth that I was in another woman's arms had driven them, just as I had once hoped, to this. And still I could not sleep.
"Ah..."
I opened my eyes only to be greeted by a stiff, aching body, and let out a short sigh. The sounds of them preparing breakfast reached me. Dragging my cramping limbs, I opened the door and had no choice but to accept that this was no dream.
"Hae-in, you're up! Breakfast's almost ready, just wait a little!"
Lee Ga-rang greeted me with a morning hello while she finished cooking. Gong Na-rin and Cha Sang-hwi helped beside her, beaming at me with silly, delighted faces. It should have been a sweet scene—yet it was so cloying that my teeth ached, and I could only frown at the excessive sweetness.
Last night they had declared, "We've only ever thought of you," and occupied my house. The moment they said Mother had given permission, I could only conclude that I was now surrounded by low hills on every side. In the aquarium the bipa fish seemed unusually lively, gripping the bottom even more firmly than usual, as if staring right through me and my old friends. They're really starting to bulk up. I should actually rehome them soon. Checking on the tank, I saw the bipa had grown quite a bit; before long they would be too big for it. What was I going to do with them? The list of things I had to worry about had suddenly gotten a lot longer.
"Hae-in. It's ready!"
Gong Na-rin called out cheerfully that breakfast was finished. When I sat at the kitchen table a hearty spread waited for me, and the three former—no, returned—friends stared as if to say, Hurry up. I did not want to sit. In the end I sat anyway. For the first time in a long while I faced them over a meal. Steamed egg, tofu soybean-paste soup, a thoroughly wholesome menu—yet nothing would go into my mouth.
"What do you think you're doing? In someone else's house like this! Yesterday I was too stunned to stop you, but..."
"What's wrong with it? The three of us made breakfast just for you and you're complaining about the side dishes?"
Cha Sang-hwi twisted her expression again and shut me up with a gaze the color of fresh blood. Gong Na-rin kept smiling, yet her dry ocean-blue eyes pressed in as well. Ga-rang's endless craving green lights silently told me to trust only them as she fed me side dishes without a word... the three of them, only for me. Their deep sisterly kindness was simply helping to choke me.
"It's good, right? Now you get that the only people who care for you like this... are us?"
"It's good. Clean and light and... so good I want to bite my own tongue. Seriously."
I meant every word. That was exactly how I felt.
"Such a joker! Hae-in, try this too~ You have to stay seated until you finish everything~"
Na-rin scooped up a bite with her chopsticks and fed it to me; I had no choice but to take it. Did even that sight please Ga-rang and Sang-hwi? Their newly transformed attitudes... the childhood friends I had always treasured were still precious, yet the urge to let them go was surging up. Accepting how suddenly their hearts had changed was hard. I managed to swallow the rice and spoke.
"You three... didn't tell your families. You just barged in, right?"
"That's right."
Lee Ga-rang answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"The three of us were scared you'd be alone and start thinking bad thoughts. Sang-hwi's better off here than in a semi-basement, and Na-rin's better off than eating under her uncle's watchful eye, right? If we live together again like this... I think things will go back to the way they were someday. Don't you, Hae-in?"
"...This isn't right. You're only doing this because I was with another woman. That noona and I aren't even dating—I barely know her. Why are you acting like this!"
"The purple-eyed noona has the same name as me, Hae-in. Can we really call that a coincidence?"
"Gong Na-rin! That noona is just someone who happens to share your name. What are you trying to say?"
"You think we don't know you're trying to erase me, Ga-rang, and Sang-hwi with that noona? How long are you going to keep playing with us?"
There was no getting through to them. I stood up from the table and started getting ready to leave, putting distance between us. While I brushed my teeth and changed into my uniform, a music box began to play, its bright little notes filling the air.
"The music box is still working?"
"Yeah. I fixed it. After I met you again, Hae-in."
Gong Na-rin spoke brightly and kept turning the handle so the melody continued. Ga-rang closed her eyes and sank into the music. Sang-hwi elegantly lit a cigarette—
"Cha Sang-hwi! Why are you smoking in here...?!"
At my shout Sang-hwi answered with a smile as benevolent as an angel's... and simply kept the cigarette between her lips. That she could do this—and that Ga-rang and Na-rin were so used to it they paid no attention—was already a shock. Then Sang-hwi shaped her fingers and lips as if conducting and blew a heart out of the smoke toward me.
Fuck.
The returned angel's expression of love for me... was a heart made of cigarette smoke. I wanted to clench my fists, but I barely reined in my temper and spoke.
"Don't... smoke. Do you think this is a smoking lounge? The other floors will complain! You really..."
"I do it because I like you. If I didn't, I wouldn't put this much care into it."
"Ha... fine, because you like me... Anyway, has your mom made up with your dad yet?"
I gave up on the argument and changed the subject to Cha Sang-hwi's mother.
"My idiot dad showed up drunk asking why she only came back now and tried to hug her—Mom kicked him. Then she cried that she was scared of him... It was so pathetic I nearly died laughing. Pfft."
"Jeez... why is the guy like that... No, forget I asked."
It was the unvarnished truth, and I felt as if I shouldn't have heard it. After a glass of water I spoke to the three of them calmly again.
"Listen carefully. I'm grateful you came because you were worried about me, but this is still illegal entry. You walked onto private property without permission. Legally speaking..."
"Didn't your mother already give permission? We came with her okay. You can call her right now and ask~"
Gong Na-rin declared with total confidence that they had received permission and that any argument was pointless. So Mother wanted three daughters-in-law? Was that how I was supposed to understand this? Ha, for real...
"Listen carefully. I have no intention of taking responsibility for the three of you for the rest of my life. That kind of ridiculous nonsense—"
The music box stopped. Only the green light, the blue light, and the blood-red light stared at me; I could not keep my eyes properly open. The moment I closed them against the ache, the three of them piled on top of me at once. Looking down at me where I had fallen safely to the floor, all three spoke together.
"For life."
Just those two words: for life.
"I... all right... I get it..."
They looked ready to throttle me, so I finally answered in the affirmative. This was wrong... Hearing my weak agreement, they seemed satisfied; they pulled me back to my feet and pressed close. Even if I was the perpetrator... their soft, fluffy contacts insisting they could not give me up were so gentle I could not even tremble.
It was the walk to school. For the first time in a long while I was walking with them. The school I was headed to had changed, but still...
"Don't come back to my place after classes... I'm really not going to think any bad thoughts..."
"...Do you hate us?"
Holding both Gong Na-rin's and Cha Sang-hwi's hands tightly, Lee Ga-rang glanced sideways at me with a lonely look. Na-rin and Sang-hwi turned the same lonely gazes on me. Why were they suddenly like this again...
"It's not that I hate you... it's just sudden."
"Boring. Don't worry. We'll come again."
I should have just said I hated it.... Soon the bus stop greeted us. At last it was time to part. Facing the three of them, I offered my goodbyes.
"My mom seems to have given permission because she thinks you're all so kind... that you can stay. But you still have school, and plenty of other things to do... Everyone should head home for now. I don't think this is the right time for us to meet again yet."
It was not that I was pushing them away out of annoyance. With the White Flame Cult swarming after me, I was afraid they would get dragged in again and get hurt...
"No way. We've got tons of free time now, you know?"
Gong Na-rin spoke as if puzzled, and the other two nodded in agreement.
"Tons of free time? Finals are coming up. You have to study."
Time had already raced toward the end of June. I had been framed as a school bully and given up on studying, but they could not afford to do the same. For their futures. You have to get far away from me.
"Finals? How long ago was that? Hae-in, it's not June—it's July. We're about to have the summer break ceremony... Your calendar's all messed up~"
Lee Ga-rang corrected me with a short laugh, and the other two found it so absurd they laughed as well. June was already over... and summer vacation was about to start. This... was not good.
The girls who had been smiling at me as if I were cute suddenly threw themselves against me all at once. Thankfully no one was passing by, but they were so close to my shirt collar that I was flustered.
"Can you stop...?! I'm really having a hard—!"
They undid my shirt and pressed their lips to my neck. No—kisses... It was the first time. That was why I froze like a statue and could only take it.... Lee Ga-rang, Gong Na-rin, and Cha Sang-hwi seemed satisfied; with bashful little smiles they said they would see me after school and left. Or at least I think they did. I could not remember clearly. The pain branded into my neck made me forget everything else.
I stood there like an idiot staring after the place they had vanished until the sound of the approaching bus finally snapped me out of it. I climbed aboard, but the driver froze in shock when he saw me. Why...?
"Kid...? What's that on your neck?"
At his words I came to my senses and looked down. Three girls' kiss marks were left on my throat. Painted prettily across my shirt, as if declaring, You're mine.