2 Entry: 1. 2.
Chapter 2: Touch
"Mrs. Nam!!!"
Soojin greeted, noticing a woman in her early 30's walking towards her from the next door apartment. She stopped at the driver's side and smiled at the friendly neighbor who waits for her every morning to warmly call her with a bright smile and a gossip to share.
"You are early today."
The married woman came striding down from a few steps in front of their house with a little infant in her arms. Mrs. Nam Joomi recently moved into the apartment next to her. After giving birth to a boy named Siwoo, the couple decided to leave the noise of the city and stay in a quiet neighborhood in the suburban village of Yonhi-dong in Seoul.
"I have an early schedule with a patient." She replied, clasping both her hands on her back and letting out a bright smile towards the woman and her child.
"Why don't you just call me Joomi, we're almost the same age."
The woman with an infant suggested with an embarrassed look on her face, turning her eyes away while swinging the tot around as he starts to cry on his mother's arm,
"Okay, Joomi." Soojin flashed a gleam as the baby continued to wail. She holds the baby's arm and looks down at the woman's bag behind Joomi's back. "Baby wants to have his pacifier." She adds.
"Oh, how did you know?" Joomi inquired, reaching for her baby bag where she hides the teeter but couldn't reach it while holding the baby. "Can you hold Siwoo for me?" The mother pleads.
"S-Sure…" The young woman is reluctant to take the infant into her arms. Looking into the baby's small mouth spilling saliva onto his chin makes her wish not to see the neighbor again and prevent herself from holding the kid.
When her hand brushes into Joomi's skin, a surge of emotion comes rushing into her senses, like electricity enveloping her mind and sending her to a quick trance of blankness witnessing images flashing like a movie in her memory.
["You are late again?!?! I called you twenty times on my phone, why aren't you answering my call?!?!" Joomi yells at the man sitting on a couch. Her hands are on her hips while leaning down at her husband slouching at the couch.
The man looks away and starts to loosen the black tie on his neck. His red face, messy hair, and sluggish action come with having too much drink that night.
"Will you SHUT UP?!?!" The man shouts at his wife who got startled at the sudden repulsiveness the man express.
Her husband did not treat her this poorly before they move out of the city and into this suburban home they have. Now, the man constantly ignores her and their child, coming home late every day, driving home intoxicated from alcohol, and shouts at her whenever she asks why he neglects her call.]
Soojin blinks her eyes and shakes her head to stop herself from seeing too much of the vision she has acquired from touching the woman. She breathes in and out deeply while staring blankly at the kid she carries in her arms.
"I'm sorry, I made you hold, Siwoo." The young mother apologizes after she notices the woman sigh loudly while holding the infant. Joomi took the baby in Soojin's arms and put the pacifiers in his mouth.
"It's fine. I'm thinking of my patient." Soojin replies and looks down at her feet to avoid the young mother's peering eyes.
"You take your work seriously, you don't have time to date anymore," Joomi remarks, noticing the neighbor never had a visitor in her house. She silently pries on Soojin who comes home daily at the same time alone, without any company of friends that can visit the woman.
"Oh? That's not the reason why?" Soojin mumbles under her breath, lowering her head and laughing to hide the awkwardness the woman begins to bring in the air.
The reason why Soojin doesn't date is because of her ''ability" to know other people's thoughts and memories through touch. She has dated men who are only after her body and plans to dump her after they get what they want. Some men try courting her and she discovers they are also wooing other women.
Yet, it doesn't stop her from believing there is someone out there for her. Someone true that she can love and will love her honestly. Soojin believes there are still people with good intentions out there that she can meet whether it's for love or friendship.
She'll find the one.
Who knows…
….
It might be today.
"I know a friend that can fix you up with someone." Joomi offers her young neighbor assistance to find a date. Her eyes sparkle with excitement with thoughts of men asking for the young woman's name and number.
"I'm sorry, I'm going to be late." Soojin answers, she grabs the handle of her car door to open and hurriedly gets in before the neighbor pursues the plan to fix her with someone.
"Wait Soojin, let me get your number first." The young mother begs, she tries to follow Soojin in the car, peering inside the open window to get the woman's number.
"Maybe next time, Joomi." The young woman replies, starting the engine of the car and hurriedly steering the car away from the nosy neighbor.
"Okay, take care, Soojin." The woman shouts and waves her hand goodbye. Cradling the infant with both of her arms with a wide smile on her face.
