Mallory

I was awakened by the radiant sunlight streaming in through the window. The morning began on a cheerful note. The sun beamed down from the sky, the birds sang delightful melodies from their snug nests, and the scent of rain lightly teased my nostrils. The final touch to make the morning perfect was to gaze at James. There was nothing more wonderful than having him peacefully slumbering beside me.

I turned on my side to look at him, but there was no sign of him. Instead, there was someone else sitting on his sleeping spot. This person was wearing a white dress and had no shoes on. My eyes moved up to the person's face, and found that...there was no face. It was the same faceless girl I saw the previous day, when I was at the verge of death. I must've still been dreaming, for the last time I saw her was when I thought I died. And when James woke me up, she disappeared. I wondered why she appeared in my dreams.

"Why are you in my dreams?" I asked, sitting up straight

"You are not dreaming. This is reality." She said

"What?" I pinched my hand, and winced at the pain. I guessed I wasn't dreaming after all.

"Dreams are for dreamers, as well as people who love living in fantasies."

"I like fantasies." I said

"And that's why you struggle to see the truth," she said

"What truth?" I couldn't understand what she was talking about.

"You should know the truth by now." She said

"I don't understand. What truth are you talking about?"

"The truth about who you are."

"My name is Kim Hyun-Gi. That's the truth."

"Of course that's true. But do you know who Kim Hyun-Gi is? Do you know who you really are?

I sighed, "Listen, lady. I don't know who you are, but this crazy talk needs to end. Please leave."

The faceless girl stood up from the bed, but she didn't leave yet. "Can I ask you a question, Kim Hyun-Gi?"

"If I say yes, will you leave?"

She nodded.

"Fine. Ask me."

"Have you ever wondered why your boyfriend doesn't like your teacher?"

"James isn't my boyfriend!" I almost choked on my words, "We're just friends."

"Focus on the question, Kim Hyun-Gi."

"Well, I don't know. He never told me why he doesn't liked her. But what does James not liking my teacher have to do with anything? And how do you know my teacher?"

"Nevermind. Everything will be clear to you once you find the truth." She shrugged, "I will be seeing you soon."

She snapped her fingers and everything suddenly changed in a second. I found myself snuggled in my bed again. When I opened my eyes and looked out the window, it was raining outside. There was no smiling sun, and no birds singing. Just the sound and smell of rain. That was the opposite of how it turned out at first. I should've known that I was dreaming. That faceless girl wasn't real. She was never real.

But, when she told me to find out why James didn't like my teacher, Miss Chan, that really made me wonder. Why did he hate her? I tried to figure that out, but I always just let it slide. Was it just because James didn't like women like her? That couldn't be. Miss Chan was everyone's type. In fact, she the type of woman who could make everyone forget that they even had a type. She was everything a man could ever want, so why did James hate her then?

The curiosity was killing me. I needed to find out immediately. I removed the bedsheets off me and got out of bed. I walked slowly to mind my injured foot. James normally spent his time in the kitchen early in the morning, so that was where I needed to go.

When I reached the passageway to the kitchen, I could hear James arguing with someone. I hid behind the wall of the passageway and slightly peeped at him so that he wouldn't see me. He was on the phone with someone. The phone was on speaker, so I was able to hear the whole conversation.

"What do you mean I'm being dramatic. I know my limits with people. You don't get to judge me!" James raged with the person on the phone

"I am not judging you. I merely want you to change for once, James." The woman on the phone said

"Change? Change for who exactly? You?" Anger was written all over James' face. It was scary.

"Yes! We need to get along, not just for us, but for Hyun-gi as well."

My eyes widened the moment I heard my name. The only grown woman in the world who knew me was Miss Chan. How did that other lady on the phone know me?

"Mallory, this has nothing to do with Hyun-gi. If you're going to involve her, I will--"

"You will what? Abandon your family again? Abandon me, again?"

"Oh, so I was the one who abandoned you?"

"Yes! You left me all alone after the incident in the forest."

"You left me after that day and slept with my brother! You cheated on me!"

"James, you know very well that it was a mistake. I thought we've been through that already. Give it a break!"

"That very mistake hurt me! Do you know not realize that, Mallory? You expect me to be friends with you just because Hyun-gi is your student? To hell with that! You better keep this personal nonsense out of the school business, or else."

"Argh! James you're such a--"

James ended the call before the lady could say anything else. And there I stood, lost for words. As I listened to James speak to the woman, I couldn't help but find that woman's name familiar. That name sounded far too familiar to not be known to me. That was when it hit me. A few days at school, when Lee Haeyoung was arguing with Miss Chan, she mentioned something that could be related to that name. I tried my best to remember that day clearly.

"Lee Haeyoung, stop making fun of Kim Hyun-Gi," Miss Chan said while me and my class were in the knitting class, "She's still new to knitting, so you have no reason to make fun of her."

"Argh! Whatever, Mallory." Lee Haeyoung said, and rolled her eyes

The entire class gasped in shock.

"Lee Haeyoung just addressed Miss Chan by her name." Tsuki whispered to Yerim, shocked.

I ended the flashback the moment I realized the truth. All this time I was wondering why James hated Miss Chan and why he kept avoiding her. The answer slapped me hard on the face.

Miss Chan was his ex.

I felt hurt for some reason. I liked Miss Chan. I admired the way dressed, the way she walked, she way she spoke, and the way she smiled. I loved everything about her. But all that love got cancelled out by one tiny thing: she dated James. James was once hers, and she was once his. The thought of it made me sick. My heart began to ache. Why did it have to be Miss Chan?

I finally got my answer of why James hated Miss Chan, but now I wished I never knew. If I never heard that conversation, would James have ever told me? Would it have remained an unsolved mystery to me? Miss Chan and James have both hurt my feelings on the same day at the same time. How was I supposed to deal with the pain?

"Hyun-Gi?" James noticed me standing by wall, "How long were you standing there?"

"Long enough." I had a lump in my throat. I fought back the tears so that I wouldn't have to look like the hurt one in this situation.

"Hyun-Gi, I can explain."

"Explain what? That Miss Chan is your ex-wife and you hid that from me? Is that it?"

"Hyun-Gi, have a seat. I think we need to have a little chat."

"You think?"

I limped over to the chair and took a seat. I folded my arms and waited for whatever he had to say to me.

"19 years ago, Mallory and I met in college. We were both studying archeology, so we were in the same class. At first, we didn't like each other that much. She was too girly for me. But one day during a study session in the library, we found each other doing research on the same thing: The Forest Lover."

"What's that?"

"It was what we called the Forest Monster at the time. Mallory wanted to find out so much about it, and so did I. So we exchanged each other's study notes and started working together. And that was when we got close. One time, we came to the forest to do research on the monster, but we never got the chance to see it. Instead, we found something else: love. We held each other's hands that night and--"

James noticed the disgusted look on my face. He immediately scratched that part out and continued with something else.

"Anyway, we became boyfriend and girlfriend afterwards. Our love for each other was strong, and it got in the way of our studies. Things went downhill two years later when Mallory fell pregnant."

My chip broke from my heart when I heard that last sentence.

"You and Miss Chan have a child?" I asked in disbelief

"The story isn't finished yet. When Mallory fell pregnant, we both had to drop out. I found a job as an assistant mechanic, and Mallory stayed at home until she gave birth. A few weeks later, we found out that she was pregnant with twins; both girls. That was the happiest moment of my life. But the saddest too, since I was financially unstable."

"Every time I came home from work, Mallory would call me 'useless' and say that I was going to be a terrible father. She didn't realize how hard I was trying. I wanted to break up with her, but I didn't want to leave my kids. So I decided to stay, only for my daughters. Eight months later when Mallory gave birth, we named our kids Milly and Molly."

James smiled sadly as he remembered the names of those girls. I almost felt bad for him, but I still wanted him to continue.

"Wait, so Mall-- I mean, Miss Chan is looking after your kids by herself right now?" I asked

James had a crystal look in his eyes. I couldn't bare to see him cry. Even though his former true love was the woman I admired most, I still cared for him deeply.

"James, did something happen to your kids?"

A tear dropped from his eyelids.

"They died."

I should've seen that part coming. James was a family man once before, and there I was fooling around with him as a teenager. His daughters would've been the same age as I was that time. What would they think if they found out that their father had fallen in love with their peer?

"That room that you gave me. The girly one," I said, "Was that theirs?"

He nodded, "I made it specially for them."

Why was there only one bed in the room then? How did his daughters die?Why did Miss Chan decide to become a teacher? Was Miss Chan the woman in the wedding photo James showed me?Why was Miss Chan referred to as 'Miss' and not 'Mrs.'? Is she not married to James' brother? Why did she want to become friends with him now that I was her student?

A voice in my mind was urging me to ask more and more questions. I have never had an inner voice before. It was always just me and my thoughts against the world. But now, it seemed like that inner voice was messing with my mind, and it sounded very familiar.

It almost sounded like the faceless girl from earlier.