Something was up. Tia had been avoiding Julieta all evening. Tia had been hiding in her room when Julieta had come home. She’d knocked gently on Tia’s door but gotten no answer. Opening it a crack, Julieta had discovered her sister lying face down in her bed, apparently asleep. That was three hours ago.
Tae had walked Julieta home, saying goodbye on her doorstep. She couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t come inside. She’d wanted to reintroduce him to Tia. Until today she hadn’t been sure why, but she had gotten the impression that Tia might have had a crush on him.
Julieta and Tia had been watching a BTS concert on YouTube a few weeks ago, after Julieta had learned she was going to be meeting with Jin, and Tia hadn’t taken her eyes off of Tae the entire evening. But every time Julieta tried to talk to her about him, Tia had changed the subject. Still, Julieta recognized a crush when she saw one.
She couldn’t blame Tia. Tae was adorable. And after spending part of the afternoon crying on his shoulder, Julieta knew she couldn’t have found a better guy for her sister. So she was truly perplexed when Tae had made some excuse to avoid the reintroduction she so wanted to make. And for some reason, she’d had the impression he was avoiding her on purpose. But that was crazy, surely? What reason would Tae have had for avoiding a girl that he’d clearly fallen in love with a few weeks ago?
She had set his mind at rest about Jin, right? Jin wasn’t in love with Tia, he’d made that very clear. He liked…Julieta. At least he had before she’d thrown him out of her office. Why had she done that?
She’d been so mad. So hurt. But why? Because he’d wanted to celebrate her life?
Julieta felt like her paradigm was shifting. Ever since she’d talked to Tae. But really, why had Tae been able to break through where Jin had met with an unscalable wall? She’d thrown up all of her defenses to protect her heart when Jin had tried to reason with her. But when Tae had said similar words to her, she had seen the truth in what he was saying. Tae was right. It was past time for her to begin living again. And a wonderful guy had come calling, and she had just shown him the door, quite literally. What on earth was wrong with her?
She was broken, that’s what it was. Losing Papá and Mamá had broken her, and she’d spent ten long years lying wounded. A darling man had come along, seen her in her pit, and attempted to throw her a rope. Jin had wanted to pull her from the dungeon of her own making, but she had refused him. She’d thrown his rope back in his face and sent him packing.
But a few minutes later, Tae had tossed a rope ladder down to her. And somehow he’d shined a light into that dark night of her soul and made her want to live again. She was on her way out of that pit right now, clinging to the rungs of that flimsy rope ladder, climbing upwards in an attempt to find the sun again.
But what if it was too late? What if she had scared her light away for good?
And tomorrow was his birthday. Hers too. What was she going to do about it?
Suddenly his words came back to her. “If you ever need a friend, please. Know that I’m here for you. You can come to me with anything.”
She would have to take him at his word. She picked up her phone to call Tae.
—
Tae felt exhausted by the time he arrived at home. Dealing with a girl’s pain was no easy task. He didn’t think he was up for this again. That was why he had avoided Tia. He was certain he had hurt her by ignoring her after that last day in Paris.
And he hadn’t known just how deep his own feelings ran until he’d seen her at dinner with Jin. The question was…how did Tia feel about Jin? Tae was still mulling over the whole perplexing situation when he walked through the front door.
To be immediately confronted by Jin.
He and Jungkook were sitting in the family room. Jungkook was playing a game on his phone, and Jin was eating a bowl of ramen. He glanced up at Tae.
“Where have you been?” he asked with an edge to his voice.
“Uh.” Tae wasn’t sure how to respond to that question. “I took a walk.”
“Alone?” Jin asked, that weird edge still in his voice.
Tae glanced sharply at him. “What are you implying?”
“Just that you weren’t alone.”
“How do you know where I was and who I was with? And why do you care?”
“Why do I care? Maybe because it was my business?”
Jungkook, sensitive to the note of distress in Jin’s voice, finally looked up from his game, allowing his player to die an ignominious death, forgotten on the battlefield as a deeper, more important war was being waged in front of him by his two friends.
“What do you mean, it’s your business?” Tae questioned, steel in his own tone now.
“Just that I don’t want to see Julieta or Tia hurt again.” Jin’s voice was accusing.
Tae narrowed his eyes. “What? What are you talking about? I’m not the one who was trying to date them both!”
Jungkook’s eyebrows smacked into his bangs. “Wait! What? Jin, are you interfering with my lifetime supply of free snack cakes? Are you threatening the continued success of our partnership with the snack cake queen? If you offend her, if you put this friendship in jeopardy, I’ll just have to leave BTS and begin my lucrative career singing opposite Hyejin!”
Jungkook’s humor lost on them, Tae and Jin both froze before their heads swiveled simultaneously towards Jungkook.
“Who?”
“What?”
“Who is Hyejin?”
They took turns questioning Jungkook, Tia and Julieta momentarily forgotten.
Jungkook’s face suddenly went perfectly blank. “Who? What? I don’t know. That was a hypothetical statement. Jin, what have you done?”
“Me?! I haven’t done anything! Tae was the one hugging Julieta in the park!”
“What? How do you know that? Were you following me, Jin?”
“What? No! I was just minding my own business, walking through the park, after my fight with Julieta. It’s not my fault you were sitting on a park bench with her.”
Jungkook stared from one to the other. “You were hugging a girl at the park? Wait! You were hugging Julieta? The snack cake queen!? Tae, are you dating her?”
Out of the corner of their eyes, Jungkook and Tae both watched as Jin turned pink. “He is NOT!”
Tae raised his eyebrow, suddenly wanting to play devil’s advocate for some absurd reason unbeknownst to him. “Who says I’m not dating Julieta?”
Jin’s already pink face turned an alarming shade of red. Jungkook was truly concerned now about his normally easygoing friend.
“Take that back!” Jin shouted.
“I will not,” Tae stubbornly resisted Jin. “Is this how you treated Julieta? If it was, no wonder she showed you the door!”
Jungkook saw that Jin was about to rip Tae’s head off, so he stepped between them. “Guys—” he intervened, placing one hand on each of their chests. “Please tell me you’re not fighting over a girl.”
“No!” Tae exclaimed. “Two girls!”
“What girls?” Jimin asked from the doorway.
Tae met his gaze.
“Tae, does this have anything to do with the girl whose picture you keep sighing over?”
“She’s the one you’re in love with, right, Tae?” Suddenly Jin’s ire simply disappeared. His love for Julieta wasn’t threatened by his friend. He wasn’t sure what he had witnessed in the park, but he suddenly knew with certainty that Tae was in love with Tia, not Julieta.
Tae let out a deep breath, all his own anger being expelled along with the hot air of his lungs. “Julieta is just my friend. I was trying to help her let go of the past.”
Suddenly, Jin’s ears perked up. “Did she? Did you convince her?”
Tae met his eyes. “I don’t know. I hope so.”
So did Jin.
—
Tae looked at Jin. Jin looked at Tae.
“So…” Tae let out a long breath. “Who is Hyejin?”
“I don’t know. I googled her name. Nothing of note came up.”
“Strange…” But Tae would be pondering this conundrum for quite some time. Maybe this explained why Jungkook had suddenly taken up jogging.
—
The scene played itself out in her mind for the thousandth time. She never saw her parents enter the store or the events that led up to the final moments of their lives. It always started in the same place, her imagination filling in all the question marks left by her not actually witnessing their deaths. The dream always began in the same way. Her mother cowering behind the shelves which housed a multitude of tortilla chip bags. Her father standing in front of his wife, his arms flung back to shield her from the gunman. But he couldn’t stop the bullets from coming.
Julieta suddenly sat up, her eyes wide, her sheets drenched in her own sweat. There was no way she was going back to sleep tonight. She glanced at the clock. 1:17.
She had been a fool to think she could outrun the past. Just when she began to think she could leave it behind her, it had invaded her dreams again. The same nightmare had haunted her for a decade. She shook her head. It was quite obvious that she would never overcome it.
