I LOVE YOU SO
Chapter Twenty-four
❛ A cruel twisted world. ❜

ROSY HUED CLOUDS were painted around the walls, the warm coloured lights reflected against everyone's astonished eyes. The delicately painted ceiling was comforting to Hwang Aera, she always found solace when being under the glorious rays of the glimmering sun. When it touched upon her skin, it soaked up all her anxieties and caused them to dissolve in one go.

Being under the picturesque ceiling, it was close enough to watching the sunrise above the horizon in the exquisite city of Seoul. Exhaling softly, a small smile illustrated itself on to Aera's warm face as her pinky finger clung on to Sae-byeok's own little finger, it only tightened as her wonder filled eyes roamed over to Sae-byeok's tense expression.

"The sunrise looks so realistic," bringing her hand towards a yellowish lamp that was drilled on top of a archaic building, Aera peeked through the gaps of her fingers whilst squinting, "almost like the ones we used to watch by the river," fiddling gently with Sae-byeok's fingers, "I miss doing that . . . waking up at dawn, hearing the busy cars on the road in Seoul every morning . . . just to see the sunrise happen."

"Me too . . . but in all seriousness, the sunrises in Seoul are much more prettier than these walls," humming alongside Aera, with moist eyes, Sae-byeok's fair eyelashes fluttered slowly as she dragged her eyes across the walls. Palettes of orange and coral met her dark eyes, it almost brought a small grin on her strong structured face, but it wasn't until her alluring eyes landed on Aera, that a slither of a smile painted itself on her soft lips.

"Mhm, they are," with her jaw slacking slowly, a breezy sigh fell out of Aera's blossom pink lips. Starry-eyed, she tried masking her bashful state with a thin lipped grin, though the jitters in her abdomen betrayed her as it only made her pulse accelerate.

For numerous of years, Aera was one of the only people to truly see the colours of dawn within Sae-byeok.

The colour gold illuminated from Sae-byeok's winsome eyes whenever they landed on something appealing to her mind, causing a crack of a smile to linger on her cherry lips.

The colour pink brightened on Sae-byeok's cheeks whenever she found something amusing, and wasn't afraid to break out of her shell and show her unique laugh to the world.

The colour gold shimmered once again, from Sae-byeok's warm heart whenever she was willing to put her own life within risk's arms, for her own family.

All these tones made a spectrum of colours for an elegant sunrise- creating an enjoyable time when experiencing the time of dawn.

Thus, making Kang Sae-byeok live up to her name sincerely.

"Aera?" Not complaining about having Aera's eyes on her own ones for longer than a minute, a sly grin tugged at Sae-byeok's ruby lips as she flickered her beguiling, dark brown eyes from the left and to the right of Aera's stunned eyes. Straightening her back, "don't miss those sunrises so much," Sae-byeok murmured.

"Why," never taking her stupefied gaze away from Sae-byeok's mesmerising features, a silly smile pulled at Aera's tender lips as she absentmindedly chuckled, making her minty breath tickle at Sae-byeok's chin.

"Because . . . we're getting out of this hellhole together remember? And when we do . . . we'll watch as many sunrises as we want."

Smoothing out the back of Aera's hand with her thumb, Sae-byeok had to tear her playful gaze away from Aera, in hopes that she could return to her hard exterior. But the deep shade of pink that tinted at her freckled cheeks, was an innocent giveaway to her timid state.

Thinking deeply, a more profound frown seeped onto Sae-byeok's soft smile as she mentally scorned herself, she felt incredibly selfish for having such high hopes. It was so easy to loose hope. Especially when they were in this hellish facility, it just held so much painful evidence for lost hope.

It's dangerous to even behold hope.

Gulping thickly, Sae-byeok could see some hope trickle into Aera's eyes.

"You really think so?" Blinking slowly at Sae-byeok's beauteous figure, a gentle grin played at Aera's lips, before it parted into a soft chuckle, "who am I kidding, of course we will," pressing her forehead against Sae-byeok's shoulder, having to tip-toe slightly due to the incredible height difference, "I won't let anything separate us again," Aera promised once again.

Stiffening slightly, Sae-byeok nearly toppled over from the feeling of Aera placing her forehead on the tip of her shoulder, she also found that her fingers were interlocked tightly between Aera's own balmy fingers, making her muscles harden even more. She exhaled gradually, "yeah, we will," Sae-byeok barely whispered.

"I promised you Sae, don't look so unsure," waving their firmly clasped hands into the air with a sunny grin, Aera sucked in a breath before rambling on again, "we'll also have a picnic basket full of Pepero biscuits, Choco Pies, Pocky, lemonade . . ." Aera's dreamy voice trailed away as the mechanical voice droned into the tightly spaced room.

"Attention. All players, please follow the staff to your designated positions for the game . . ."

Slowly manoeuvring herself beside Aera, a slick grin pasted itself onto Mi-nyeo's face as she crossed her arms tightly, peeking at Sae-byeok from the very corner of her eyes, a knowing gleam glistened within Mi-nyeo's sharp eyes, "so Hwang Aera hm . . . are you here to eye goggle at that bastard girl or win this game with me, huh?"

"What?" Aera uncrossed her arms and reluctantly faced the curly haired woman, "Mi-nyeo, what are you even saying," she gestured towards both Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong, "can't you see I'm busy talking right now?"

"When are you not talking, honestly." Mi-nyeo scrunched her face up with her eyebrows pulled together, "what? Aren't I your partner? Shouldn't we be figuring out how to win this game?" She clicked her tongue loudly, "what a little bitch, always so ignorant-"

Trekking alongside Sae-byeok and conversing tinily with Ji-yeong, Aera was very much in her moment- a moment where she tried to drown out her brutal reality with her useless blathering.

"I swear I've been down this lane before," Aera began, "a really sweet man used to drive his Dalgona biscuit cart around my neighbourhood, the entire village would smell like sugar for days," dancing eagerly around the pebbled pathway, one that had cherry bushes aligned beside the twisty lane by her ankles, Aera plucked one off and nibbled on the juicy drupe between her teeth. Her body instantly thanked her for eating something healthy after such a long period of time.

Peeking behind Sae-byeok's arms, Ji-yeong also tore a shiny cherry from one of the bushes, "finally something good," smiling softly at the little drupe, she let the fresh juice melt on her tongue, "this was very much needed," she licked the remaining juices around her lips with a satisfied grin.

"Right? It's like drinking water! Well it might be even better than water- Watch me eat these cherries throughout this entire game," tossing the seed aside, Aera rushed to another prickly bush, her fingers pulling another rich, red, drupe from its branch, "mmm it doesn't compare to the ones in my hometown though."

Ji-yeong tilted her head at Aera, "your hometown sounds sweet. How about this, after we get out of here, we can have have sleepovers together, and you can give me a tour of hometown!-" There was an euphoric gleam about her that casted her features aglow, "you know what, I might even consider getting a house there," Ji-yeong licked her mouth gingerly once more, tasting a burst of cherry on her tongue before her lips morphed into a joyous smile.

"Just move in with me," shrugging with blotches of pastel pink blossoming across Aera's soft cheeks, she reached out and lightly punched Ji-yeong's arm. She then dropped her hand and tugged on the sleeves of Ji-yeong's jacket that was still wrapped loosely around her neck, "even though we only have three bedrooms, I have plenty of space in my room!- I can remove my plants that I have in front of my bed- well, I think they're dead now, because I haven't been home in so long- oh! but maybe my Ma watered them-"

Rubbing at her bare forearms, a fond chuckle left lightly from Ji-yeong's lips, "hey, that sounds awesome, but I thought you said you wanted a house by the coast with a cat? Or was it a bunny? I don't want to be holding you back-" Ji-yeong raised her eyebrows, her eyes darted all over Aera's attentive expression, her pulse thudding heavily, she hoped that Aera would say otherwise.

Aera flickered her widened eyes on Ji-yeong's composed smile, a thrilling rush coursed through Aera's veins, "wait, I totally forgot about that! Then we'll do both, first, I'll show you my hometown, and then we can move in together on Jeju Island-"

As if an army of rats climbed on to Sae-byeok's back, she bit on the inside of her cheek, curled her fingers tightly, and flickered her harsh eyes on to Ji-yeong, then at Aera, then at Ji-yeong-

Sae-byeok halted slightly in her tracks, a more sullen expression weighted on her hardened face. "Aren't we doing that," Sae-byeok added sharply.The idea of an unfamiliar person accompanying her on her and Aera's dreams caused her features to freeze, her eyes to narrow. A trace of a gentle smile lingered on Sae-byeok cherry tinted lips, though. Only because she found it comforting to hear Aera's hasty rambles, "we've always planned this Aera."

Knowing that something like this would happen, Ji-yeong recomposed her posture, her spine a little straighter, for she tried to seem unbothered whilst her eyes casted downwards, her lips drawn into a thin line. "Well . . . I could do the hometown bit," blinking several times, Ji-yeong continued with a strong voice with a hint of disappointment, "Jeju Island sounds like a personal matter-" Pressing her lips tightly together, being used to concealing her cheerless frown with an easy-going grin, Ji-yeong lifted her chin up and nodded briefly at Aera. "I don't want to be intruding-"

"No, no, Jeju Island is welcome to everyone, you have to come with us, it's so beautiful there," sending Ji-yeong an encouraging grin, the twinkling sparkles within Aera's eyes only glowed brighter when her mind raced with compilations of what could happen if all three of them lived in Jeju Island together. Just the thought of drenching themselves under the carefree sunlight and chilly yet soothing waves- "I want you to come with us."

Not realising how she sucked in a long breath, Ji-yeong relaxed her shoulders, her soft grin finding its way back on to her face. "Sweet! Then I'll be looking forward to all the fun girl days out," with a widened smile, one that reached her eyes wonderfully, causing her pretty eyes to glimmer, Ji-yeong's pink cheeks warmed, though her cool smile faltered when her eyes landed on Sae-byeok, "what about you, am I not allowed to join the cool kids?"

Huffing silently, "I'll think about it," Sae-byeok twiddled with Aera's fingers whilst her mind swarmed with many possible answers. Either way kept her stiff stare firmly towards the ground, not really relenting despite Aera's constant pleading.

Their shared dream was strictly private.

Aera and Sae-byeok had planned to go to Jeju Island for as long as time endured. They were like astronauts yearning to reach for the moon. With Jeju Island being the moon, the stars were all the dreams they achieved already. They ached to land on the moon.

The more Sae-byeok saw Aera interacting with Ji-yeong, the more she gave in. The envy that festered towards Ji-yeong soon turned into trust. For, it seemed that Aera was comfortable with being herself around Ji-yeong, which caused the walls Sae-byeok built up around her to crumble slightly.

They landed next to a familiar pastel pink gate with antiques, such as colourful pottery and delicate paintings, lined up against it. Something about it caused Aera's heart to enlarge, with a teary glance, her fingers shook as she traced her fingers along each curve and dip on the gate. Almost immediately, her mind travelled back to she painted the gate, what used to be a coppery green colour, with her brothers.

"Stop waving the brush around, you're getting it all over my new shirt," young Hwang Jun-ho complained with his bottom lip stuck out.

Flicking some more pink paint towards the side, young Aera's cheeks reddened from her deafening chuckles, her sides hurt from laughing so much at Jun-ho being irritated over a simple shirt, "you're such an idiot for wearing it whilst painting," shaking her head quickly, she cowered away when Jun-ho tried painting on her cheeks, "NO STOP," before doubling over with an amused laugh.

"I'LL GET YOU BACK I SWEAR," Jun-ho chased Aera around with the rough paintbrush that had dripping paint trickling down the handle and onto his dirtied arm.

"NOPE, IF YOU DO I'LL TELL MA YOU'RE SEEING THAT GIRL FROM YOUR HISTORY CLASS!"

"DON'T YOU DARE," Jun-ho shot back with a frozen stare.

"OH I DARE MYSELF, NO NEED FOR YOU TO- WOAH- AH-" tripping over her own shoelaces, Aera stumbled, the tip of her foot collided with the tin of blush coloured paint. As if in slow motion, the thick substance splashed across Jun-ho's torso with a booming splat sound.

Lurching backwards with dejected eyes, a flood of tears built itself up around the rim of Jun-ho's eyes as he stared, distressed, at his pink stained t-shirt. "AERA- WHAT THE FUCK MY SHIRT-"

"I'm telling Oma you just swore," In-ho jumped in whilst painting harshly on the gate with his brush heavily coated, causing particles of paint to sprinkle all over Jun-ho's brand new t-shirt on purpose.

"NO YOU FUCKING DON'T- OH FUCK- FUCK I SWORE AGAIN- FUCK- ARG- I'M SO GROUNDED."

"Not grounded, you're so dead," snickering, In-ho continued his duty and neatly painted the rusty gate with ease, earning a high-five from young Aera as they both ganged up against their sibling with jaunty chuckles.

"You are so freaking dead and freaking grounded," still covering Jun-ho's soaked shirt, Aera shamelessly dipped her paintbrush back into the dense consistency and acted as if Jun-ho's brand new shirt was a canvas, creating an art that was just one solid colour.

"Those were swear words right, right In-ho?" Flapping his arm in front of Aera, Jun-ho tried getting In-ho to change his mind about snitching on him, still he received amused chuckles, "right?" Growing frantic, he bit on the nail on his thumb whilst peeking inside the house, hoping his mother was far away, "you won't tell Oma right?"

Aera dragged her teary eyes away from the rusty gate that had pretty heart designs on the front. Her dazed eyes landed on Mi-nyeo's up close face. The curly haired woman bellowed, "finally decided to talk to me yet hm?"

"WHAT THE HECK- you bastard stop startling me-" Jolting in alarm, the back of Aera's head crashed gently against Sae-byeok's perplexed face, causing her scalp to burn briefly. "AH- Ouchies- Oh, shit- Sorry Sae!- Mi-nyeo what the fuck-" Sheepishly bringing her shaky fingers on to Sae-byeok's temple, Aera curled her bottom lip under her top teeth with mousy eyes, a sizzle of warmth flooded Aera's veins the longer her hand rubbed at the minor injury on the side of Sae-byeok's head.

Gripping gently at Aera's wrist with barely any force, a feathery touch really, Sae-byeok raised her eyebrows whilst lowering Aera's hand, "just look at where you're going next time." Her soft breath wafted faintly across Aera's pretty cheeks, causing her delicate eyelashes to move upwards and forwards in a small flittering motion.

Holding her breath, Aera tried rebuilding herself, a wobbly grin played on her pink lips.

The more Aera trudged next to Sae-byeok with their arms consistently brushing against each other, with tiny soft smiles dancing on their lips, the more regret Aera felt within her veins. A jerk could be felt within her chest, she tried to convince herself that her own plan was the wisest choice. That choosing not to partner up with Sae-byeok would give them a chance to save each other. She could only hope that she wouldn't go against Sae-byeok or Ji-yeong- but if that was the case, Aera would let herself be slaughtered to save the two.

"I am looking at where I'm going though . . ." Aera let out a long sigh. Shrugging away the doubtful feeling upon her shoulders, Aera stomped a foot lightly on the ground, causing a gust of dust to disperse from under her shoe, she huffed playfully whilst glancing rapidly around the detailed room, "see I am looking at my surroundings a lot. So much that I won't bump into you again."

But instead, Aera collided shoulder first into her supervisor, their chest was firm, causing her entire figure to grow rigid.

"Oh God," cowering away with a shiver, Aera forced herself away from the unyielding supervisor, "yeah I was looking at where I was going, it's just this," wagging her finger in front of the masked supervisor, "they're the one who bumped into me! Yeah . . . yeah, I-"

Keeping an eye roll to herself, it took all Mi-nyeo's might to not tut loudly at Aera. "You bastard, stop messing around and set your mind straight," drawing Aera closer to her side by wrapping her cold fingers around Aera's wrist, Mi-nyeo barefacedly rolled her eyes at the graceless young girl.

"Players, please take one bag each from the staff member before you." The supervisors thrusted their gloved hands forwards with two cottony grey bags in both their fingers, the objects within them clinked obnoxiously when the draw string bag moved. The machine like female continued to talk, "there should be a set of ten marbles in each bag. Please check to confirm the number."

"Marbles!- I was kind of hoping we'd do a game of marbles," counting each individual transparent marble with a gleeful grin, they rolled around Aera's palm freely, her chest warmed at the sight, "finally a game where I can show my hidden skills, my Harabeoji used to play this with me all the time, when he was alive of course-"

"I don't need to hear your life story Aera, we almost missed the next instructions, just shut your big mouth so we can listen, yeah?" Mi-nyeo pivoted slightly before settling down on to the floor, her back resting on the trunk of a tree.

"Why don't you?" Aera shot back. "I can't believe I have to spend another hour with you," throwing her head back, her eyes flickering towards the orange hued ceiling, Aera grumbled another response, her voice overlapped with the electronic woman's voice, "some day you'll actually see how much of a bully you are and shit will come crashing down on your-"

"In this game, using your set of marbles, you will play a game of your choice with your partner. The player who manages to take all ten marbles from their partner, wins."

The buoyant smile Aera held flashed away, as if a burden of needles prickled at her skin, Aera flinched at the news. "They don't mean . . ." A breathless whisper fell out of Aera's lips, she poked at each marble with her finger.

A ringing stung at her ears as she trembled. Being motionless, Aera progressively crashed down on to her knees. The impact from stony ground would surely paint gloomy bruises on Aera's fair skin- though the darkness of the bruises would be no match to the dismal feeling that formed on Aera's chest.

"Mi-nyeo?" Dragging her eyes on to the older woman, she tightened her grip around the grey bag of marbles. When Aera received no answer, she shuffled forwards, still facing the back of Mi-nyeo's permed hair, "Mi-nyeo?" Aera repeated with a wavering voice, she watched as Mi-nyeo drum her fingers, loudly, on to her bag of marbles.

When Mi-nyeo continued to stare absentmindedly at the ground, Aera trailed her glassy vision over towards a particular pair that sat behind the enormous tree she was beside. Every bit of her soul gradually demolished itself, as her melancholy eyes fell on to Ji-yeong and Sae-byeok.

All that spun within Hwang Aera's mind, like a whirring tornado thatonly festered as the seconds increased, alongside her other anxious thoughts, was: my theory was wrong. This is all my fault. My theory was wrong. This is all my fault. My theory was wrong-

"You have 30 minutes to complete the game."

Slumping against the gruff trunk, Aera flopped her head back against it, she cringed silently, not really caring how that inflicted her skull slightly. She sucked in a breath.The towering tree was firmly rooted to the ground, though, it felt as if it teetered slightly from her weight, as if the tree wasn't originally there, as if someone had put it there.

With a laborious exhale, a glimmer of tears welled up within Aera's fervent eyes. She slowly traced her eyes upwards, thus her eyes were met with some scrawny branches that towered over her small figure. Biting harshly on the insides of her cheeks, a twinge of distress pulled at Aera's heart strings as her eyes landed on the tiny, round, yellow fruits that were attached loosely by its lengthy branches.

Whoever put the lemon tree within the cruel facility, definitely knew Hwang Aera, and perhaps Kang Sae-byeok too.

Digging her fingernails roughly into the surface of her inner palm, Aera had no spare time to think about that fact, for she was preoccupied with training her eyes onto the lean, raven haired girl on the other side of the lemon tree. The tall girl gazed soulfully, with slouched shoulders, back at Aera's pink rimmed eyes.

Sae-byeok tensed her jaw as she lowered her arm helplessly, the bag of marbles between her fingers clanged piercingly, but it was as if all sounds were a blur as her delicate eyes journeyed upwards. What met her eyes were reminiscent lemons that hung themselves high in the celestial tree, they all rustled gently, causing a pang to strike across Sae-byeok's chest.

Amidst the cruel games, someone thought that placing an object from their childhood would ease things up. But it only pained both Aera and Sae-byeok more. For, there was a high chance of them not being able to make any more memories under the lemon tree. Instead, they might spend their last memory together . . . under that very tree.

Fate had such a cruel, twisted way of handling things.

( 3923 words )

DEAR ALL

This and the next few chapters will be so eventful and so sad so grab some tissues lol😣

Anyways love you guys‼️‼️

help me it's nearly 3 am guessing i'll see this image😩😩

WITH LOVE, SYLVIA