Chapter 5 – Aegyo
Tae Yeon helped Seo Hyun place her luggage in a tiny crook between the boxes where her own luggage were – she brought them over this morning. Once it was tucked safely tucked, she went back to the sofa and nearly walked into Tiffany when the girl came out of the kitchen with some drinks. Unfortunately, her sudden halt had instead caused Seo Hyun to bump against her, rebound, and then fall onto the pile of boxes.
Thankfully they were all filled with clothes.
“Why are there so many boxes?” Seo Hyun asked as they helped her up before they went to sit on the sofa.
The apartment was cramped enough without all these boxes.
“We’re moving to a bigger apartment tomorrow,” said Tiffany, who seated herself next to Ixion but on the floor. She tried to decipher his expression. “Are you still mad?”
Ixion shook his head.
He was still a little mad.
“I told you my name was Tiffany when we first met because my Daddy always told me not to tell strangers my name,” she explained quickly. “So I told you a fake name instead, but I eventually changed it to Tiffany so technically you’ve only been calling me by the wrong name for about a year!”
Even though he was blind, Tiffany could feel him staring at her while thinking, “Really? Just a year? Doesn’t that make it a lot less embarrassing for me!”
“Please don’t be mad any–“
–He looked away and drank his soda.
Tiffany quickly crawled to his other side and held his knee with both hands.
“Please stop being mad,” she tried to sound as apologetic as she could.
He turned to the other side. And Tiffany knew that it was going to be pointless chasing him around. She had no choice but to resort to her ultimate and perhaps the most deadly weapon she had in her arsenal.
There is something in Korea known to all young girls and boys as ‘Aegyo’. It is known to little children and older girls for it was a weapon unique to them, though not all were capable of using it. And it is known to all guys for it was a weapon mostly used against them. And even until today, in this modern world and twenty-first century, there is no known defence against it.
Aegyo, known to us born with the English tongue as ‘Winsome’ though not a perfect translation, is a weapon – an art even – that Tiffany pride herself in most next to singing. And there was also one word she knew would penetrate Ixion’s cold shoulders like a chopstick through Tae Yeon’s steamed bean curd. It was a simple word of affection, but when used properly could have utter devastating results on the victim’s heart.
“Oppa~” she said artistically, dragging the end of the word just long enough to give it that irresistible, nerve-tingly charm.
The effect was immediate. Ixion shuddered, nearly flinched. The cold shoulders were breached.
She pushed forward.
“Ixy oppa~! Please stop being mad! Talk to me, please~ ~ ~!”
His efforts were valiant, but to resist aegyo alone was futile; to resist aegyo used by Tiffany was plain foolish.
Ixion faltered.
“You’re a year older than me!” he exclaimed, shaking her hands off his leg but she held on. “I’m not your older brother so stop calling me that!”
Seo Hyun stifled a laugh while Tae Yeon looked like she was going to vomit – the girl never had a fancy for aegyo, though even she would use it from time to time. Tiffany, however, allowed herself only a tiny smirk. The battle was not yet won but victory was very close. She got onto her knees – because she was short and not because she was desperate – and held his arm now.
“You’re no longer mad with me?” she said, speaking with that sweet, child-like tone while looking hopeful, biting her lower lip gently.
It was another form of aegyo and should you think that this one was quite pointless against a blind man. You thought wrong.
She felt a gentle breeze on her face and the moment she did, he shifted around in his seat uncomfortably.
A Master of aegyo does not waste any moves.
“Whatever…” he said after a pause.
And Tiffany claimed her victory with a big hug and a wet kiss on his cheek which completely grossed him out – the lip gloss wasn’t just wet, it was kind of sticky too.
“So how long are you staying?” Tae Yeon asked Seo Hyun while Ixion tried to get Tiffany off him. “You only said that you’re having your holiday on the phone.”
“I have a two months holiday before I have to start performing again, but my manager said that my schedule won’t be as packed as before and I won’t have to leave Korea.” She watched as Tiffany was now sitting on Ixion’s lap while he tried to push her off. “Are they a… couple?”
Tae Yeon turned to look at them and laughed, shaking her head. “They’re just really close, you can ignore them. Are you going to stay with your parents?”
“My parents are staying in London for a few days more to do some sightseeing, so I’ll have to stay with my Uncle.”
“The one with that really weird cousin?”
Seo Hyun nodded and put on a sad face. “Help me!”
“You can stay with me, oh no wait, my house is going to be renovated next week…” Tae Yeon tried to think of an alternative. “Oh right, I’m staying with Tippany until my house is done being renovated.
“Tiffany,” Seo Hyun corrected her pronunciation.
“Tippany?”
“No, it’s TiF-Fany.”
“Tippa- Aish, forget it!” she exclaimed and gave up. “You can stay with Tippany-unnie since they’re moving tomorrow to this huge–“
Ixion gave her a sharp kick on the leg.
“–Apartment!” She kicked him back for not trusting her enough to hold her tongue about the surprise.
“Really?” Seo Hyun looked over Tae Yeon’s shoulder at Tiffany. “Can I?”
The two children stopped fighting each other.
“I don’t know, I haven’t seen our new apartment.” She turned to Ixion. “Can she?”
Ixion thought for a moment before he stretched out a hand to Seo Hyun. “Hello, I believe we haven’t been introduced. I’m Elijah Shin. It’s both a pleasure and an honour to meet you. I’ve been enjoying your music since Tiffany gave me your first CD.”
Tae Yeon and Tiffany looked away. They really did forget to introduce them to each other.
Seo Hyun shook his hand immediately. “It’s nice to meet you too. I’m Seo Ju Hyun. I’ve heard a lot about you from Stephanie-unnie. Erm… can I ask you something?”
“By all means.”
Seo Hyun took a breath.
“Why does unnie call you ‘Ixy’ when your name is Elijah?” But the girl didn’t stop her question there. “Is it because your real name is Ixion? Are you one of the specimens created from Project M.I.G.H.T.? Do you really have super powers like Tamama’s Tamama Impact?”
At first he wondered who or what Tamama was, but he quickly dismissed it as a cartoon character.
Ixion laughed and to her disappointment shook his head. “I didn’t expect you to believe in an urban legend like that though.”
That’s a lie of course.
She frowned. “I see… Well, it’s not like I still believe in San–“
“–YES! YOU CAN STAY AT OUR PLACE!” He cut her off immediately while Tae Yeon leaped onto the girl and muffled her.
Tiffany looked at the two of them curiously – lost – while Tae Yeon slowly shifted her hand until it seemed like she was giving Seo Hyun a hug. The poor girl did need a hug right then actually, being yelled at and pounced on so suddenly can be quite frightening.
“I really missed you, maknae!” Tae Yeon quickly added to help the deception when Tiffany didn’t seemed like she was buying the whole scene.
Ixion and Tae Yeon watched apprehensively as Tiffany’s head slowly tilted to a side. For a moment there it looked as though she really had put two and two together, but then all of a sudden, she jumped onto Tae Yeon and Seo Hyun to join them in a big hug.
“Yay! We’re going to be living together!”
That night, as Ixion slept on the top deck while Tiffany slept in her lower deck hugging her bolster, she couldn’t help but felt guilty about what happened earlier in the day.
“Hey, Ixy,” she called extra softly, not wanting to wake Seo Hyun who was sleeping on the floor with her huge Keroro plushie – an entire luggage was used to store this particular soft toy.
“Don’t worry about it.”
Tiffany smiled. No one, except maybe her father too, knew her as well as Ixion did.
“It’s just, I’m really sure that I saw you that day and that if I had chased after you then maybe… maybe…”
She fell silent.
Another word and she would start crying.
He remember many events that happened during the period he went missing. Many events that tempted him everyday to be erased from his own memory. Whether he was in the hotel, he could not remember, but what happened on the following day, he guessed, was something no one would ever forget.
It was the day North Korea declared war on their sister nation. And though how exactly Ixion couldn’t remember, he knew he was the cause of it. It was a memory that haunted him every night since he was released from the Project until the day he was brought to Tiffany so she could help him readapt to society.
But that’s another story to be told on another day.
“It’s not your fault,” he told her, like how he always did. “Even if it was me you saw, you couldn’t have stopped me. He would have definitely been there with me.”
He, the man whose name he and the other specimens refused to utter, or more accurate, was afraid to say out loud. Perhaps The First would be daring enough to speak his name, and be reminded of the horrors that man had injected into their minds, but it wouldn’t be something The First would do casually for sure.
Tiffany knew that he was right. What could she, a ten year old girl back then, have done to stop a man who had the power to start a war between two countries? As a matter of fact, the man did succeed in starting a war, though only for a few hours before Peacekeepers stepped in and the world leaders managed to force both countries to stop – or at least that’s what the news had reported. Tiffany, however, knew for a fact that the war was really put to a stop by two men.
One of them was The First while the other was also another specimen, most likely the third.
“Now go to sleep,” Ixion told her. “Tomorrow’s going to be a–“
“–Giroro…” Seo Hyun pulled out a maroon frog plushie that wielded a big rocket launcher from under her blanket, mumbling in her sleep. “Make them quiet…”
She threw the plushie at them but it barely made it to Tiffany, bouncing off the floor with a squeak.
They relaxed and allowed themselves a chuckle before they went to sleep.
“Night, Ixy…”
“Good night, my little mushroom…”
Chapter 4 – The Blind Who Sees
As if the glare of the afternoon sun was impairing his vision, Ixion took out a pair of emerald shades from his pocket and put it on. Even though he was blind, the heat of the sunlight was still a discomfort on his eyes.
Not to mention that Tiffany said he looked cool when he wore them.
“Are you sure you don’t want one of us to accompany you?” Tae Yeon asked.
Tiffany understood that he was well capable of being completely independent in any given situation, but it was simply Tae Yeon’s nature to worry even though this wasn’t the first time they were going to leave him alone in the public.
“There’s no need,” he told her as Tiffany locked the car with a beep. “I’ll go look for the both of you once I’m done.”
Tae Yeon was still unsure how he was going to do that but before she could insist that she followed him, Tiffany had already wrapped her arms around hers and pulled her away. He smiled, hearing their footsteps go further and further, reminded once more of how much of a motherly figure Tae Yeon was to him, though she always seemed to be aggressive towards him.
He dance his fingers with one another before he seemingly pulled out a folded walking stick out of thin air. He unfolded it with a single whip and began walking, tapping the ground in front of him as he did. The truth was, however, the walking stick was just for show. Ixion was blind, yet he wasn’t as well.
A sudden gust of wind swept across every direction around him.
And the world of darkness he faced each day was lit up with shades of white, wrapping sheets of white and grey around the real world where he lived in, but only so long as the ‘sudden gust of wind’ touched it. Every single detail appeared in his mind – every grooves and holes in the concrete pavement, every blade of grass, every single leaf, every single person and each and every strand of hair he or she had – everything.
The ‘sudden gust of wind’ was of course, just a gust of wind he created, but one that was also coated and laced with his mental touch – an extension of his mind; a telekinetic force. And that allowed him to sketch out the world before him in an instant.
A single ripple – a single breeze or a gust – took little energy and effort, but it only produced a snapshot of the world around him. Like the many ripples a pebble causes when its dropped into water, Ixion must produce multiple ripples to keep the world around him constantly updated, because the world does not stand still and frozen in time. Constantly producing ripples will get tiring eventually.
And that is why Ixion was both blind and not.
He produced a second ripple and consciously directed his mental touch like snakes slithering in all directions, searching for the girl he promised to find and help. His mental touch were drawn from a mental pool – a limited source – which was why he couldn’t simply envelope the entire area and find her.
“My flight landed early but I can’t wait at the airport because there are… people, looking for me,” was what the girl on the Tiffany’s phone told him.
And it was the latter of what she said that made him concerned.
He made his way around a stretch of hedge, stepping off the concrete pavement and onto the soft grass.
“Are you the girl on the phone?” he asked though he already knew, standing behind a girl who was hiding behind a group of bushes at the nearby park outside the airport.
There were two large luggage were behind her.
He sent a ripple forward.
The first thing he noted was that she was tall, about five feet and eight inches. Just an inch shorter than him. Her oval face was turned round with her side bang and her figure was slender, not thin, slender. And perhaps relative to her height, her hair was long as well reaching down to her chest.
The girl flipped around with a gasp. “Are you, Elijah?”
He nodded and unknowingly stole a breath from her when he took off his shades with his emerald eyes.
“Yes and I’m sorry,” he then said. “I think I should have mentioned on the phone that I can’t really see. But no worries there, I came with my friends and they’re at the airport as well so I’m sure they wouldn’t mind helping you find your friends.”
He kept a gentle wind blowing across them to watch her reaction. She didn’t look like she was considering his idea and instead seemed to be just staring at him, as if she had met him somewhere before. Suddenly, she winced and did so rather violently.
The pain was like when you banged your elbow against something hard – strong and numbing, but this was felt in her head, no, more like her mind. She felt as though she was knocked out for a second there, but the pain left as quickly as it came. Those green eyes were so mesmerizing, especially so under the sun when it glinted a little. She swore she had seen him before but whenever she though hard, her head would start to spin and eventually it’ll hurt very badly. So she simply let go of it and dismissed it as déjà vu.
And a strangely painful one to add.
“Are you all right?” she heard him ask.
“Ye-yes,” she said quickly before she realized how thankful she was. “Thank you so much for helping me. Normally I don’t ask a stranger for help, especially a stranger on the phone, but I just…” She wanted to say that his voice sounded honest, familiar even, but held back thinking that she might sound creepy. “I was just really scared and desperate.”
“Was someone chasing you? You sounded like you were in danger.”
She shook her head but then she remembered that he couldn’t see and quickly replied a negative. “There were a bunch of people chasing me but I was never in danger. I’m really sorry if I worried or scared you on the phone!” Then it occured he might only be here because he thought she was in danger. “Please don’t leave me alone even though I’m not in danger! I’m really, really lost and-“
“Don’t worry,” he laughed, swinging his stick around until he found one of the luggage. “I won’t leave you behind. Come on, I’ll take you to my friends.”
He felt for the handle and helped pull one of the luggage when he found it. It was no surprise when she insisted that she could pull them herself – people tend to treat you like you’re powerless when they know you’re handicapped in any way – but he simply ignored her and told her to lead the way.
There were a few people in this world who he could easily locate as long as they were in the vicinity. They were people who he had an intimate connection with, or rather, people who he knew for many years and trusted with his life. Tiffany and Tae Yeon were two of those people and once they were in the airport, it was simply a matter of briefly sending his mental touch in random directions to find them.
Ixion was rather surprised when his ears beat his mind to it.
“I think I heard my friends,” he turned his head to where Tiffany’s voice came from. “Do you see yours anywhere?”
“Yes! Yes! I see her!” she shouted, and he was quite sure that she was hopping. “UMMA! STEPHANIE UNNIE! (MOTHER! BIG SISTER STEPHANIE!)”
Strangely, the girl seemed to be shouting in the direction where Tiffany and Tae Yeon were coming from.
“MAKNAE! (The youngest)” Tiffany ran to her friend who was very close to tears, surly because she must had been so alone and afraid just now. And when she reached her, Tiffany gave the silly girl a good smack across the head. “Why didn’t you call me when you landed? We were worried sick when we found out that your plane landed early!”
The girl started whimpering – while rubbing her head which really didn’t hurt that much, if at all – and it appeased Tiffany and Tae Yeon right away. You’d be appeased too if you saw something that melted your heart in an instant. So they pulled her into a hug and simply reminded her to call the next time.
“So, Stephanie,” she heard Ixy said, “I didn’t know you had two names.”
“I’ll explain that later, but first, do you remember who she is now?” Tiffany asked at once, realizing that they had came together.
Maknae turned around and was a little confused about the situation.
“She’s Seo Ju Hyun, your piano prodigy friend with a frog obsession that we’re suppose to fetch.”
“No, no! Not that!” Tiffany – or Stephanie – sighed but did not give up hope just yet. “I mean, yeah, that’s her but do you remember hearing her play at a hotel in Japan nine years ago? Do you remember being at that hotel?”
Ixion frowned and he knew Tiffany realized immediately where she had overstepped. He had made it clear to her that he didn’t want to talk, or be reminded, about that period of time when he disappeared for almost four entire years. But he never got mad at her because he owed her so much, his life being one of the many things, and so he tried to remember, yet it was like always to no avail.
He didn’t try hard though, out of fear that if he dug too deep, that bolt of pain would sear across his mind like before. And quite possibly cause his mind to go into a spasm and accidentally to hurt someone. Nevertheless, he had tried but could not remember.
Ixion shook his head.
And that was the end of it.
Chapter 3 – Her Name is Tiffany
It was a field trip to the zoo when he was four – he remembered clearly because a bloody camel spat on him – which was very close by the orphanage so the care-takers decided to save the money and walk. There was no way Ixion would get lost as long as he held hands with the boy he was partnered with, and that his ‘friends’ made sure that he was always in front or behind them depending on where they were. And with two care-takers each at the back and the front of the class, it was really quite impossible for him to get lost or left behind.
Unless by ‘friends’ I meant children twice his age and who savoured the joy of giving him ‘boo-boos’ and ‘purple-nurples’ before taking his lunch and walking stick.
A group of noisy and naughty children, warm weather and a lot of stinky animals were all it took to quickly tire and irritate the care-takers enough to make them want to just return to the orphanage for a nice cool bath. It didn’t help when a girl refused to leave the cafeteria and stop crying until she was given a third cup of jelly, causing a large enough scene for it to be their last trip to the zoo.
Then it was just a matter of the right place – a crowded pedestrian path – and the right time – just as the traffic light turned green – for his partner to shrug off his hand and scurry away.
And Ixion was lost.
Obviously the first thing he did was to, of course, cry. But it did him no good because he was walking away from the crowd and people who noticed him thought he was just a little boy throwing a tantrum. On several occasions he bumped into lampposts and trees and benches and, amazingly enough, twice into two stray dogs of which one peed on him. And just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, he bumped into another person – about his height – but something cold smacked into his face and he tasted raspberry ice-cream in his mouth.
He was right, it couldn’t get any worse because the person – this girl – he bumped into was none other than the Tiffany he now knew.
“Daddy! He walked into my ice-cream!” she yelled as she cried, and also while she licked what was left of her ice-cream cone. It was just wasteful to not finish it.
“Only my daughter can watch a kid slowly walk right into her and then cry about,” her father mumbled to himself, wondering where he went wrong with this one as he wiped the ice-cream off Ixion’s face. “And what kind of kid just walks blindly into…”
Ixion’s eyes weren’t focused on anything and his arms were flailing about in front of him.
“And just when I thought my wife was the only one suffering a cruel life in this world right now,” he thought to himself. “There, there, I’m so sorry my daughter didn’t see you there.”
“But I saw him.”
He spun around quickly and flicked her on the forehead, hoping it would knock some sense into her.
“Michelle,” he called the oldest of his three children. “Take this little boy and your brother and sister to the bench. Wait there while I go get that policeman we saw earlier. He went towards the pond right?”
Tiffany sat next Ixion and watched him as he stared blankly in front of him.
“What’s your name?” she asked while her sister was busy fighting with her older brother.
“Itchy.”
“You speak English?” she said, surprised. “Cool, are you American-Korean too?”
He didn’t respond.
She guessed that maybe he didn’t understand English when the words were put together.
“Where are you itchy?”
“My name is Itchy,” he told her.
Tiffany thought hard for a moment.
“That’s a stupid name.” And out of nowhere she was flicked on the forehead by her sister. Tiffany ignored it since it seemed to happen quite often. “Why is your name Itchy?”
He shrugged. “Everyone calls me Itchy.”
“Maybe it’s because your name sounds like Itchy,” she thought since he didn’t seem itchy or scratchy.
He shrugged again. She didn’t know what to say next. So she licked her ice-cream.
“It’s really a stupid name you know?” Her sister was now busy shouting at her brother for biting her.
He nodded. Then she thought quietly. And licked her ice-cream.
“My daddy found the policeman, he’s gonna help you find your mommy,” she said after seeing her father walking towards them from afar.
“My parents are dead,” he said. “Santa Claus ate them by accident. It gave him a bad tummy ache which is why I never get Christmas presents since my parents made Santa sick.”
That’s according to his ‘friends’ of course who just wanted his presents.
“Your parents probably forgot to leave some cookies and a glass of milk for Santa,” she said and felt smart since she thought she was right.
“Here’s the boy,” her father told the policeman. “I think he’s blind though, just look at his eyes.”
The policeman squatted down in front of Ixion and waved his hand in front of his eyes, seeing quickly that Ixion was indeed blind. He also waft the air in front of him when he smelled pee. He then asked if Ixion knew where his parents were but Tiffany quickly explained to him what happened to them, earning herself a good flick on the forehead. In the end, not being able to get anything about his guardians from Ixion, the policeman decided to bring him back to the station and wait for someone to report a missing child.
“Then again,” the policeman thought as he straightened up, “there’s a good chance he might have been abandoned by his parents.”
“No. Didn’t I tell you that his parents were eaten by San-“
“Quiet!” her father hushed her.
Tiffany puffed up her cheek and glared at him.
It was quite adorable, really.
“In any case, I’ll take it from here.” He reached down and lifted Ixion from under his shoulders. “Come on, little boy.”
Tiffany watched the policeman offered him some candy as they walked away, which she really wanted, but somehow she felt more concerned about the boy and his stupid name.
“Hey,” she shouted, standing on the ground now. “My name is Tiffany! It’s a pretty name!”
Her father quirked a brow when he heard that. Tiffany wasn’t her name. But he did remember considering it with his wife when they were naming her.
“Itchy is a stupid name,” she went on. “So I’m using my magic to change your name to Ixy.”
She waved her wand round and round in the air and gave it a good whip at the end to cast her spell.
It made the cone slip off the tissue that was wrapped around it and dropped ice-cream first onto the sandy ground. She blinked once and twice.
And her lips started to tremble.
Chapter 2 – Doll Husband
He stepped out of the bathroom and started drying his feet on the ragged floor towel which was actually one of his old t-shirts. This apartment was filled with old things from the spoon they ate with to the water heater that never seemed to work. Consoling himself with the fact that they’ll be moving soon, Ixion–
“–Good morning, Ixy–“
“–Jesus Christ-“ He nearly tripped and fell backwards. “Would it hurt for you to announce yourself when you enter my apartment?”
“No,” said a new girl who resembled very much like a doll.
And she simply left it as that, continuing to clean up the dining table like nothing had happened.
“And my name is Elijah,” he told her for perhaps the thousandth time.
To save you the confusion, I will tell you that his real name is in fact still Ixion Might. But it wouldn’t do well for his privacy to run around announcing himself as one of the four Project M.I.G.H.T. specimens, now would it? Amongst his friends, only Tiffany and two others know of his true identity but everyone simply call him ‘Ixy’ because she calls him that.
Besides, who would name their son, Ixion – a crazed Greek God – in this day and age?
The girl tied her neck-long hair, dyed a shade of brown darker than Tiffany’s, into a pony tail and continued to clean up. Flat-out ignoring him. Ixion raised a fist and suppressed the flood of frustration and rage, before biding farewell to another five years of his lifespan. Once he was appeased, he sighed and went out of the kitchen.
“Tiffany, your–”
–The door to their room slammed wide open and Tiffany jumped out.
“TAENGOO!”
“TIP-PANY!” shouted the other girl.
Both of them ran, though it was more like a brisk walk since the distance was so short, and hugged each other before hopping in very tiny circles. If Tiffany was considered short then their ‘mother’ could only be considered as shorter, but not by much.
The new girl, Taengoo, whose actual name was Tae Yeon, looked just about as adorable and sweet as Tiffany, though in a much more doll-like way. Her skin was as fair as a luminous pearl – I am not exaggerating – and her lips were always that healthy shade of cherry-pink. Petite figure, heart-shape face, long and wavy hair, and not forgetting her pair of small, clear eyes that always held that gleam of childish innocence; all traits that were striking contrasts to her mature personality.
The personality that somehow dissipated every time she met up with Tiffany.
“See, why can’t you just be as nice to me as you are to her?” Ixion asked, looking at their direction.
Tae Yeon fell silent and shot a severe look at him.
“You’re glaring at me aren’t you?” he said after a pause. “Seriously, why is it so difficult to understand that I am visually impaired?”
She held her glare for a few more moments before she and Tiffany burst out laughing.
“It’ll be easier once you start behaving like you’re actually blind.” Tae Yeon walked over and patted him on the shoulder with a Tiffany latch on to her other arm. “Now the two of you need to get changed or we’ll be late. And that’s the last thing we want.”
The oldest girl shuddered at the thought of their friend being left alone at the airport.
It took quite a long time for Ixion, a guy, to get dressed but that wasn’t because he was blind or couldn’t decide what to wear. It was Tiffany who couldn’t decide whether he should wear the black slim tie or the scarf to go with his fedora.
His reactions to both were, “Why do you hate me?” and “Why do you want me to die of a heatstroke?”
And so with puffed up cheeks, she replaced his hat and shirt with a simple t-shirt and a good amount of hair-wax, before sending him out to the living room to wait with Tae Yeon.
“You and Tippany are obsessed with ear piercing…” Tae Yeon said after noticing a third hole on the top of his ear.
“Tiffany, is the one who is obsessed with piercings,” he corrected her at once, “not me. We were at the mall the other day and she made me sit down on a ‘couch’ to wait while she tried on some clothes, but out of no where, my ear gets pierced!”
“It’s only natural since you’re her life-size Ken doll.”
He considered throwing Tiffany’s phone at her and would have if it hadn’t started ringing.
“Hello, Tiffany isn’t available right now, can I–“
“I’m so sorry to bother you!” It was the same girl who called earlier, but her voice sounded a lot more distressed now. “I-I was the one who called earlier and got the wrong number.”
“Yeah, I recognize your voice, so since you know you’re calling the wrong number,” he paused to try and make logic of this but couldn’t, “why in the world are you calling this number again?”
“I’m so sorry! Bu-but I really need help right now!”
Like most blind people – probably all, actually – not having the sense of sight had heightened his other four senses, most specifically his sense of hearing. Being born blind into this world, Ixion relied mostly on his sense of hearing since he could remember. Most visually impaired child could also rely on touch, from both their surroundings and the touch of their parents. Ixion had no such luxury. He was an orphan since birth and being blind made him no fun at all and hence, in the seemingly innocent world of toddlers, was deemed a bore so he never had any friends…
…until a girl, who wasn’t an orphan mind you, found him on the street.
Her name is Tiffany.
Chapter 1 – Flying Jam
A gentle breeze swept through the kitchen, slipping across every surface and kissing every single object it touched.
He stepped into the kitchen and grabbed the pack of bread loaf from the table on his right, removing two slices before he placed the pack back to exactly where it was before. Reaching up to the wall, he switched on the power for the toaster before popping them in. He then turned and took only four steps to reach the other end of the kitchen where the stove was. Placing the frying pan on the grill, he retrieved a box of matchsticks from the second drawer on his left with which he used to light up the stove – carefully.
Another breeze swept through the kitchen.
He reached to the upper right corner of the stove and fetched a bottle of olive oil, squirting a fair amount on the pan before placing the bottle back to where it was. Reaching now to the right of the stove, he gingerly picked out two eggs before knocking them on the side of the pan, cracking them open with practiced finesse like that of a chef. And without even having to turn his head, he tossed the empty shells to his left and they went straight into the basin.
He lowered the heat before turning around and left the kitchen.
Another breeze, stronger than the one before, blew across the living room touching tens of boxes neatly stacked against a wall, a long sofa only large enough to seat three people, a television that was to be considered tiny in this twenty-first century, and an oval glass coffee table squeezed between the two.
Two steps forward, one step to the left to avoid the boxes, three more steps to straight ahead and another step with a right turn brought him to the only room in this tiny apartment. A breeze swept through the moment he entered, interrupted only by a small and very old fan on the floor that deserved to be put to rest many years ago. Directly ahead of the door was a double-decker bed, where on the lower deck lay a girl who had recently turned twenty-one, thus becoming a year older than him, a few weeks ago.
Her short, hazel-brown hair that reached only to her neck lay messily all over her face, hiding a face of fair and spotless skin which held a petite nose, a pair of pink, chipped lips – for the weather was dry – and two eyes which now seemed harmless as they were gently closed, asleep.
Harmless, was anything but when those eye lids are lifted.
You’ll understand why in due time.
The bed she lay on was a typical single-sized mattress, but a third of that was occupied by soft toys and bolsters and pillows, all of which – in fact nearly the entire room – were coloured with all the shades of pink. Yet the girl seemed very snuggled in what little space she had, no doubt aided by her short height and slender figure.
He took three steps forward, mindful of the fan that was directed at the girl, and kneeled down next to the bed.
A gentle breeze tickled her nose before a gentler voice roused her.
“Time to wake up, my little mushroom,” she heard a voice.
She felt a finger graze across her cheek before she brought her hands up and rubbed her eyes, coaxing them to open. And when they did, they shut back immediately when the morning sun that came through the window touched her eyes. Slowly, they opened again and she was greeted by a handsome face with fair, spotless skin, high cheekbones and a refined – yet strong – jaw line, all of which were framed by a mane of black hair that was now tied into a small tail. But there was one particular feature on this face that made it so absolutely stunning.
It was a pair green eyes, the loveliest that she had ever seen.
“Morning, Ixy…” she mumbled with a smile, brimming with sweetness as what little of her eyes that could be seen sparkled, though her voice was still sleepy.
That was what I meant before regarding her eyes. The sweet smile and little, sparkly eyes was a deadly combination that when applied at the appropriate situations, could melt any guy’s hearts and get her anything she wanted.
“You’re so pretty…” she added.
Though she couldn’t see clearly, she knew that he was frowning now – he never liked being called pretty – but she knew he wasn’t mad. He never gets mad at her.
“Come on,” the guy known as Ixy said, pulling her pink blanket away before he patted her twice on the leg, “we gotta head to the airport once we’re done with breakfast.”
She then frowned and turned away, covering her head with her blanket.
“Go away.”
“What do you mean ‘Go away’?” he laughed, pulling her back so the sunlight would shine on her face. “You’re the one who said we had to go and fetch your friend from the airport.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “She’s a smart girl, she’ll find her way around.”
“That’s not what you told me last night.” He licked his finger and rubbed it on her dry lips, grossing her out a fair bit. “You said that she gets distracted really easily and will almost always get left behind at some point whenever you go shopping with her.”
She made an irritated noise – she did tell him that – and dragged herself out of bed, but not without her pink blanket and an equally pink hand phone. With one hand hugging her blanket and holding her phone, while the other was holding on to the back of his t-shirt, she followed him out of the room and to the kitchen before she alighted and dropped onto her seat.
Then she planted her head on the table in her arms.
Having left with no other choice and not wanting to get reprimanded when their ‘mother’ arrived, he snatched her blanket from her.
“Hey!” she exclaimed at once. “Give me back my blankie!”
“After you’ve wash up and brush your teeth,” he said, fetching the frying pan from the stove that was already turned off before they even stepped into the kitchen.
“I don’t like you,” she said before she stormed to the bathroom.
She didn’t mean it.
His head shaking, he set two plates down on the tables and dropped an egg onto each before he fetched the toasts and a butter knife.
“Butter or jam?” he yelled.
“Jam,” she said at first. “No wait, I want butter!”
Halfway through buttering her toast, her phone started to ring so he quickly finished the other half and sprinkle a little sugar – just the way she liked it – before answering it.
“I’m sorry but you got the wrong number,” the told the girl on the other end in Korean. “Yes, I’m quite sure you got the wrong number. There’s no such person here. Alright, no worries. Bye, bye.”
He set the phone aside and started to spread the remainder of the jam in the jar onto his toast.
It took a good fifteen minutes before she finally got out, looking all fresh and awake with her hair tied into two little tails.
“Who called?” she asked, picking up her toast before she looked at him having his.
“Wrong number,” he said before noticing that she wasn’t eating hers when he didn’t hear her chew. She was still staring at his. “You want jam don’t you?”
Her lips curled into the tiniest frown while her eyes and brows became sad – the eyes even got watery, before she answered him by nodding with the slightest whimpering sound.
There was a short pause.
“You’re doing that puppy face thing again aren’t you?” He gave her a look of disbelief. “You do remember that I’m a little blind for that to have any effect right?”
She continued nodding in the same manner.
With a exasperated sigh, he twitched his finger and with his mind, willed the unopened jar of jam out of the cabinet. The cabinet door swung open and the jar flew across the air before it landed gently onto the table. His finger twitched again and the cabinet door closed itself gently while the jar lid popped open on its own.
“Not too much,” he told her as she eagerly twisted off the lid. “Or Tiffany is gonna become Tif-fat-ny”
“OK,” she said.
And quietly scooped a big spoonful onto her already buttered – and sugared – toast.
Prologue
(Please read the Disclaimer and Copyrights page as well as the Forewords page if you have yet to do so)
Smooth jazz and a dim lighting gave the bar all the posh and elegance the designer was aiming for. Gentlemen and Ladies in sharp suits and alluring gowns filled every table available, sipping their wine as they looked to the stage that was empty, save for an ivory grand piano under the spotlight. It was a performance anticipated by many – some even from other nations – and those unable to get a table had to settle for the bar. They were the lucky ones though, for many had to make do with standing.
The ceiling twinkle and shimmered as the light pierced through the frozen teardrops that hung as chandeliers, dazzling the two little girls who had their hands tightly wrapped around their mug of hot chocolate, which was of course not a beverage you could order from the menu.
“So pretty…” the older one – though only by two years – whispered.
She swept her hair aside like a kitten pawing its whiskers when the ends tickled the sides of her chin. The girl was determined to let her hair grow out this time, jealous of her friend who had long, straight hair that lay softly on her shoulders. The idea of having long hair right now was very much appealing – all that heat and warmth around her face and neck.
She took another sip from her hot chocolate.
“Stephanie unni! (Big sister Stephanie!)” her friend suddenly exclaimed, tugging on her jacket. “Look! That lamp thing looks like the one in Keroro!”
Stephanie looked up but then wondered why she did.
She never really liked that frog.
“It’s called a…” she realized she didn’t know what ‘chandelier’ was in Korean, so she simply explained it in English. “It’s called a chandelier.”
Her friend tried to repeat it as she took out her green notebook and pencil. It was no surprise to Stephanie when she saw Keroro characters printed on them.
“How do you spell it?” she asked.
Stephanie thought for a moment, unsure.
“Erm… S…H,A,N…” she mouthed the word as she thought. “T,H,E,L,E,E,R! Shan-the-leer!”
Her friend wrote a few letters before she paused and flipped to the front page where her name, ‘Seo Hyun’, was written in English alphabets, searching for how the letter ‘e’ was written before she flipped back to finish the word.
“Shantheleer!” her friend exclaimed, even adding a tick beside the word like it was a spelling test. “Unnie, you’re so clever!”
“Clever about what?”
They turned and saw that it was Seo Hyun’s manager. Then again, who else would it be? The three of them were the only Koreans in this Japanese Hotel.
“I learnt a new word!” She raised her notebook to show it to him. “Shantheleer!”
“Ah, that’s my hardworking prodigy!” her manager said, beaming with pride. “And speaking of my hardworking prodigy, I, or actually he needs a favour.”
Seo Hyun’s manager, Kyu Sung, gestured to a man in his late forties standing next to him.
“This man is Christopher Knightly,” he explained. “He owns this hotel.”
Surprised, the two girls quickly got up and greeted him with a bow. They were surprised once more when the owner bowed and greeted them back in fluent Korean as well.
“Before I explain what the favour I require of you is about,” Christopher turned and took a small basin of water from a waiter. “Please soak your hand in this.”
He set the basin on the table and Seo Hyun only placed her hand in when her manager nodded to reassure her. She gasped the moment her fingers went in.
“It’s warm!”
“Really?” Stephanie quickly stuck her hand into the basin, splashing a bit of water over the side.
The adults laughed softly as the two children enjoyed the frequently taken for granted pleasure of warmth. Christopher gestured for them to sit before he sat himself opposite of Seo Hyun.
“Shinichi Noda was involved in a car accident on his way here,” he told her softly.
“WHAT?” The seven year old burst to her feet. “Is he all right? What happened?”
Kyu Sung quickly sat her down while Christopher assured everyone around that nothing was the matter. Stephanie furrowed her brows but she wasn’t exactly worried or upset about what happened to the pianist. She was only here to accompany her friend to watch the performance. The flute was more of her instrument.
“Noda-san is all right,” the hotel owner assured her. “The car he was in skidded because the road was frozen. His manager told me that he only suffered a light bump on his head, but they didn’t want to take any risk so his performance has to be rescheduled.”
Stephanie took a hand out, reluctantly, and patted her friend on her back to reassure her. The only thing that this Shinichi Noda guy and her friend had in common was that they were both piano prodigies – Seo Hyun was much better though, in her opinion. Other than that, Stephanie doubt the guy even knew Seo Hyun existed. After three good pats on her back, Stephanie’s hand went right back into the basin.
“So… what is the favour that-“ Seo Hyun was also the smartest friend Stephanie had. “No!”
It took Stephanie a little longer before she realized what this old man wanted.
“Why not?” Seo Hyun’s manager asked her. “It’s not like you never performed before.”
“I never performed in front of so many adults before!” she argued, realizing the moment they stepped in that she and Stephanie were the only two children in this lavish bar. “You could go to jail for bringing us here!”
“But you were the one who was crying and begging me to bring-“ That wasn’t the issue. “Never mind. You don’t have to worry about me. The owner of the hotel personally gave his permission for you to be here, so none of us will get into any trouble. And besides, you have to perform in front of adults eventually. You always said you dreamed of having your own concert right?”
“In a concert hall filled with children!” That part of her dream she just added right there and then.
Her manager simply looked at her.
Realizing that her manager was too determined to be swayed, Seo Hyun turned to her friend. “Unnie! (Big sister!)”
“I think you should perform too,” said Stephanie. “It’s a really good opportunity.”
The little girl’s heart shattered as her friend – her only friend – downright betrayed her. Where others were stabbed in the back, Seo Hyun felt like she was stab right from the front.
In the next moment, Seo Hyun found herself standing on the stage next to Christopher. Her arms and legs shaking while her eyes locked to her heels. She didn’t even notice when he had finished announcing the change of plans, hearing only disappointed moans and grunts from the audience.
Her head started to spin.
“Relax.” She looked up and saw him smiling at her. “If you’re really nervous, pretend that you’re only playing to your friend over there, or to my friend’s daughter, Lucia, at the back of the room. She about your age as well I think.”
She followed his finger and saw a girl whose hair was tied with two white ribbons, sitting behind the bar watching excitedly. Seo Hyun smiled, feeling a little better to know that there was another child here. And as she looked around, something scintillating and absolutely brilliant caught her eyes.
There was a boy, perhaps a year or two older than her, seated right in the centre of the room. He was on the edge of his seat, bent over the table as he waited eagerly, almost hopping even. And what caught her eyes were his – two brilliant emerald orbs that seemed to be looking neither here nor there. To say it was peculiar would be appropriate.
To say it was simply mesmerizing would be accurate.
Somehow she no longer felt like she was about to faint, so she bowed to the audience before she sat herself down behind the most gorgeous piano she had ever played on – but its beauty seemed dull when she turned to glance at the boy again. His eyes were still looking neither here nor there.
With a soft smile on her face, she began playing.
Her fingers moved slow at first, still not properly warmed up, but it fitted the song she chose quite perfectly. And as the tempo began to pick up, her fingers started to awaken and she allowed them to take control of the performance.
Fantaisie-Impromptu. It was a song she simply enjoyed to listen to and play. Hearing the fantasy-like melody always help her to relax when she had trouble learning a new song, or when she was stressed from her schoolwork that seemed never ending. Her attention to all the adults watching her was gone from the moment she lay her first finger on the key, focused entirely on playing and allowing the song to overwhelm her until eventually it came to an end.
The piece ended slowly and quietly – almost mysteriously too – until her finger lifted from the final key.
She exhaled and smiled, assuring herself that it was only anxiety that made her foot not hold the sustain pedals long enough for four notes. A problem nonetheless but a problem that would be solved with more experience. Now came the scariest part.
Looking at the audience’s reaction.
Seo Hyun stood up, moved out of her seat, but even before she could turn to look at the audience, the entire room was filled with applause. She held her soft and humble smile, remembering to bow once more to the audience. But a torrent of emotions raged in her chest when she realized that she was receiving a standing ovation.
Sure, the students from the kindergarten she performed at stood and applauded as well, but they were just babies. These were adults applauding for her and she seemed almost sure that the boy would be clapping as well, but she wanted to be sure so she started searching for him. It was then that she noticed one man who remained in his seat, an indifferent look stuck on his face.
The sight of his face made her took a step back.
It was horribly disfigured with a long scar stretching down his left cheek, while his dark, cold eyes were glaring at her as if she had done something wrong. She tried to look away but they held her firmly, drawing her to look deeper and deeper. She felt violated, almost physically but it was more mental, like there was a touch in her mind – no – like there was a Presence. And it continued until the man blinked and turned to address someone, who, she didn’t care. She just wanted to get out of there.
“What’s wrong?” Kyu Sung asked as he carried her down the stage.
Seo Hyun said nothing but just clung tightly to him, burying her face in his shoulder.
Stephanie tried asking what was wrong as well but her friend seemed badly frightened by something – or someone. Immediately, she got on the chair and looked to where Seo Hyun was staring at earlier. Many of the adults were still on their feet and clapping for her, so she jumped a few times to look over the sea of heads.
“Stephanie, stop playing, we’re leaving now,” she heard Kyu Sung said, no doubt worried about Seo Hyun and her strange behaviour.
She got off the seat at once and held his hand before he led them away. As they walked, escorted by two security personnel, Stephanie continued to search for any suspicious looking bad people. She wasn’t going to let the person who bullied her friend get away. But unfortunately, all of them just looked like rich people and she couldn’t tell one from another. That is, until she saw a boy.
It was only a glimpse through a gap between the army of legs – a boy being led away by a man she didn’t take notice of. But this boy wasn’t just any other boy because he had eyes – green eyes – that seemed to be looking neither here nor there.
Eyes that were blind.
And it caught her attention not just because they were beautiful, but because she once knew a boy who was blind and also had eyes like emerald stones. He was a friend she grew up with – a friend she came to love and treasure – but suddenly disappeared three years ago. The odds of there being two boys who were both blind and had green eyes were slim.
Too slim.
Stephanie tried to free herself from Kyu Sung’s hand wanting to be sure if the boy really was her friend, but his grip was too firm. She tried to call out for him to stop but the adults, more irritating than ever now, were still clapping non-stop. There was nothing she could do. And when she turned back to search for the boy, he was no where to be seen anymore.
She had lost him again.
Index
Specimen Two: Ixion
Disclaimer and Copyrights
Forewords
- – -
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
- – -
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
- – -
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
- – -
Forewords
(Please read the Disclaimer and Copyrights page first if you have yet to do so.)
*stones for five minutes trying to figure out how to start this bloody forewords*
Hi.
Yes, it took me 5 entire minutes to just come out and say ‘hi.’ And that’s five minutes of my life gone forever.
If you’re the kind of person who reads deeply into every sentence, you may think that I’ve just wasted five seconds of your life with that sentence up there, seeing as how it doesn’t seem to have any relation to this Forewords or to Specimen Two: Ixion.
I’m sorry to say but you’re mistaken.
Time.
You never have enough time when you need it and you seem to have an abundance of it when you don’t.
It’s one of the most taken for granted for things in this world. Why? Because we kill time all the time (no pun intended). Time can be killed by doing pointless things like playing Restaurant City on facebook or dropping your head onto the table and take a nap. But the thing about time is that while it’s easy to kill, spend, waste - whichever word you prefer - you can never get back time for certain things once it’s passed.
Take for example an examination – O levels examination for this case. You’re given time to spend studying but you didn’t spend it wisely and ended up failing, resulting in you having to most likely spend another year to retake it. While one can argue that you still get a second chance, you can’t argue that the time given to you to get it right the first time, is lost forever.
But that’s examination, it’s not that bad because as mentioned, you get a second chance.
But what happens if you don’t get a second chance?
Time.
That’s what this story is about.
And with that said, I now present to you the Prologue of Specimen Two: Ixion
Disclaimer and Copyrights
This is a Fan-Fiction of South Korea’s Girl Group, So Nyuh Shi Dae (Girl’s Generation).
Any other characters and events that appeared/occured in this work are fictitious.
Any other resemblance to real persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental.
All copyrighted materials belong to their respective copyright owners.
Specimen Two: Ixion is an original and copyrighted story written by Derick W J Tan.
Do NOT redistribute this story without first obtaining permission from the writer.
Misuse of any materials in this blog may result in legal actions being taken.
You have been warned.
- – -
TAKE COVER!!!
Warning! Warning!
Incoming Chapter-Placeholder-Posts.
Prepare for a barrage of empty and temporarily useless posts.
- Derick
