Squirrel

"Sin, let's take some time off today. We've been doing a lot recently and I think we gotta wind down a bit", Hina suggested as we left the Congressman's office. 

"I am perfectly fine, Miss. But if you are tired, we can call it a day and I can bring you home. You do deserve some rest indeed"

"So you agree that we call it a day now?"

"That's fine. I will go back to the office and-"

"Nope. You are coming with me"

Just like that, Hina grabbed the cuff of my shirt and headed towards the public park that was adjacent to the parliament building. 

"Miss, you may get some rest, but I have work to do"

"Not today. We haven't done anything fun since that Nan Tower evening"

"YOU CALL THAT FUN?!"

"Tehe. It was one of the best nights I've had in a while"

"Gees, Miss. You almost gave a heart attack to Ema and I got in so much trouble with her and Mr. Jindo Chan, not to mention that I had to carry you on my back and run from police helicopters"

"Relax, Sin-, oh look over there! A squirrel!"

There indeed was a squirrel near the bottom of a tree we were passing by, and as soon as it noticed that we found it, the squirrel ran up the tree and disappeared. 

"They are so quick, right?"

"Yeah they are very cute"

Hina then suddenly stopped on the spot and let go of my sleeve, which I only realized that she was still holding after she let it go. 

"You said cute?"

"Er, yeah, and?"

"Wow, I didn't know you could find something cute"

"What do you mean, Miss?"

"I don't know. You never seem to show any emotions, maybe except when you get annoyed or angry"

"Miss… I am not a robot, you know…"

"I think it's really cute"

"Squirrels?"

"No. I think it's cute that you find cute things cute"

That didn't make sense to me at all but it felt a little embarrassing. 

"You know, when I was a child I ran around a lot"

"I can imagine"

"Apparently, as soon as I could stand, I started running. That caused a lot of trouble for everyone"

"I guess some things never change"

"Hey, that's not what I'm getting at"

"Sorry, Miss"

"Anyways, but get this, normally if a child runs around so much they'd get tired and sleep well, right? But apparently, I could just run and run and run for the whole day and still be hard to put to sleep"

What a nightmare of a child…

"What do you think my Dad's solution was?"

"Beats me. I wouldn't know how to handle such a child"

"He built a bigger version of a squirrel wheel. So I could just run and run in there until I used up all my energy. Then they could put me to sleep"

I just imagined little Hina running on a squirrel wheel while Chairman Chan sat in an armchair nearby drinking his Cognac and reading newspapers.

"Haha…", I couldn't help but let out a laugh for a short moment. 

"Ever since then, I built an affinity with squirrels"

"I'm sure you di-, hang on. What?"

"You wanna see something cool?"

Before I could answer, Hina approached the tree where the squirrel had run up just a minute ago. When she got to the bottom of the tree she placed her palm on the trunk and closed her eyes, and shortly after that, the same squirrel that ran away just before came slowly crawling down, walked across her arm, and sat on her shoulder. 

What in the actual fuck? Is she a druid or something?!

"Pretty cool, huh?"

Hina opened her eyes and patted the squirrel on her shoulder. 

"I'm completely lost for words, Miss…"

"Come, try to pat it"

"Er-, I think I will pass"

"Come on, Sin. It's very hard to get a chance to pat a squirrel. They are so quick to run away"

I had no freaking idea how she did this but she was right. Well, maybe just a little. I do indeed find those squirrels cute.

When I approached Hina and tried to put my hand on the squirrel though, it ran across her shoulders, scuttling over the back of her neck to move onto the other shoulder.

"Haha, that tickles"

Hina giggled and when she did, I had a sudden feeling that the time had stopped. 

Sunbeams were shining down on her through the leaves of the tree. Hina's face was full of smiles like an innocent child. A squirrel was sitting on her shoulder looking at me suspiciously. A gentle breeze of wind made her hair sway softly. Something pulled my heartstrings, and as soon as I became aware of the sudden pang in my heart, it disappeared and the time resumed again, and I could hear Hina's giggling sound again.

"Miss…"

"Yeah?"

Hina let the squirrel come onto her palm and knelt to ground to gently let it go.

"I'm sorry but I realized I had forgotten to do something. I should get going now"

"Huh? All of sudden?"

"I'm sorry, Miss. I just need to go. Personal matters. It's urgent"

"Oh, okay then. Sounds like it's important for you. Don't worry about me and hurry, Sin. I will spend some more time with the squirrels around here"

"Thank you"

As soon as Hina finished her sentence I sharply turned around and started to pace away from her, accelerating faster and faster, until I started to jog and then eventually sprint away, as far from her as I could and as fast as I could.

But I have never been a fit girl and years of smoking limited how much I could run. I soon ran out of breath and found an empty bench in the area of the park where nobody else was around. I sat on the bench and wiped the sweat off my forehead. I took out a pack of cigarettes from my pocket and pulled one out, lit it, and then took a deep drag. Smoking right after running made me cough, but it brought back some sense of normalcy to my mind again.

What the hell…

Just what am I running away from…