He turns on the taps—and he runs a bath.
I’m lured closer.
Just a step.
But closer.
The bud of hope dares to bloom into something more, something like excitement—a feeling I haven’t had in so long.
“For me?” I ask, thumb already hooked through the bag strap over my shoulder, ready to tug it off and scramble out of my manky clothes—
If he lets me.
If he says yes.
Samick dips his fingertips under the stream of water. He waits. Tap water rushing over his fingers, seconds pass without any acknowledgement of me, of my question, and I wait, thumb hooked around the bag strap.
He sighs something small and disappointed before drawing back from the tub.
Setting the bowl down on the edge of the sink counter, he speaks a simple command, just one word, and it feels—as it always does—like ice.
“Wait.”
With that, he leaves me.
He actually leaves me alone.
Trusts me enough to vanish from the bathroom for long enough that I wander over to the door against the far wall, peer inside to find the toilet—
Then he returns.
Sparing me a single cold glance that frosts through the torchlight, he empties a pot of boiling water into the tub.
The water must be cold in the pipes.
Before he leaves again to boil more, he turns off the running tap—and gives me too much trust again.
Or maybe he just knows I’m too weathered down to do anything stupid.
Maybe he knows I’m too smart to leave his side, when he’s the one who will reunite me with Bee at the end.
So all I do in the moment he’s gone is use the toilet. Privacy—for the first time in months.
I flush, tidy myself, then come back out into the bathroom. My boots thud on the tiles as I wander in aimless circles until he returns again.
The water steams as he pours it into the tub.
And that’s it.
He sets the pot down on the floor, then turns to sit on the ledge of the bathtub. One of those built-in tubs surrounded by cold tiles.
It reminds me of mum.
She would have a pack of smokes on the ledge, a glass of wine, the wine bottle, and some orange-chocolate.
It was herdo not disturbtime.
Still, I would bother her. Sit on the bathmat on the floor, read, listen to music, talk her ear off about school and falling out with friends, how some teachers had it out for me…
