--Honey Lou's Point of View--
"So far, so good..." the doctor stated as he checked the test results he took of me. "I am not seeing that thing in here." he made me stand up as soon as I heard something change in the results. "Are you saying that I don't have a limited time?"
I thought about the good news...
'If it is good news.' his look was directed at me but I couldn't tell what it meant.
"Can you say something at least? You know that I can't know much based on your expression." his pantos-shaped glasses were the only thing I could clearly see on his face, and my mind kept on ignoring the horrible sight.
'Which is his face.'
Not that I'm saying that he looks... 'The opposite of a handsome face, that is.'
"You seem to be getting well." he briefly discussed other details about my health condition, hours passed by, and we were officially done with the check-up but he suddenly told me not to leave so soon.
"Why though?" I had another thing planned right after this appointment with my stepmother.
"You'll see." his response made my eyes roll.
Just then, a knock on the door gave me some kind of a role around here. "Last time I checked, I don't work here." the doctor assumed that I was kidding but in reality, it was really sarcasm.
"Hi, how can I help you?" I opened the door for the next client or rather, should I say patient? "Doctor Lim is over there, you can proceed with your check-up."
"Uncle, can I go now?" it was silent for a moment once the three new arrivals entered further into the room, they made a somewhat gasping sound as if in surprise but why?
"Honey, what are you doing here?"
Ivy's voice had me tripping on the chair that I was sitting on earlier, falling on the ground with my bag hitting me.
I lost consciousness from that impact and quickly jolted up from the cushion... I'm no longer in the hospital from which I came from just a while ago. "Where am I?"
I looked around to see an unfamiliar room, it wasn't anything like the rooms back in the hospital, and thinking to myself, I came to assume that my uncle must have taken me to his place.
But that assumption was soon proven to be wrong...
"Are you feeling okay now?" Ivy's voice resurfaced again, it was very familiar and I didn't hesitate to believe that it definitely was her.
"Where are we?" I straightforwardly interrogated her.
She made me drink something that appeared to be water, and I hope it is what I think it is. "We're in your dad's house. The house that you spent your early days in." she replied and took back the glass from my hand. 'Is that so?' I wondered.
"You can do as you please in this house, there won't be any more rules like there used to be." she declared before leaving me in the room alone, a room that felt quite nostalgic.
"A not-so-good nostalgia to feel."
Ivy left the door that allowed me to view what it looked like outside since I might get lost in this house by chance.
I followed her figure until she was no longer in sight, slowly realizing that I leaned forward too much. "What is that noise?" a man's voice echoed in the hallways.
"It was probably your daughter. Do consider acknowledging her presence for once." Ivy added before her heels click-clacked on the wooden tiles.
"Says the one who likes to act like she's fond of the girl."
That remark from the man's voice was out of the blue and the sound of his black office shoes also tick-tacked on the floor.
He seemed to follow her farther from this room and soon, I got up from the pebble-tiled cold floor with an apricot color.
I could hear nothing but the air conditioners running throughout the place.
There is also the sound of a bell and light metal dangling on the floor as it travels from one place to another.
"Francine!" an unfamiliar voice of an elderly woman chasing it ruined the silence.
'Doesn't sound like that was a housemaid.'
I started exploring the room using my eyes only because I still felt dizzy from accidentally hitting myself with the bag I had. 'My clumsiness at its finest...'
I chuckled at the thought of fainting from such a weak hit from that bag after tripping myself.
I am a bit of a weakling, am I not?
"Francine!" I saw a little part of the pet's body.
It looked like a poodle...
It wasn't barking either so I assumed that it was trained and had manners.
'Manners that are better than my sister's...' moving on from that thought, I examined the furniture and all the things that belonged in this room, and I thought to myself, have I been here before? Ivy did say that it was our old house.
A house from my past which I don't recognize even a little bit. "My memories are still a blur but I am getting near there." near the point where I can confidently say that I remember everything.
'Everything as in not a single detail missing.'
There weren't any photographs in the bedroom either.
"I have a feeling that this room used to be mine."
A woman's head appeared through the doorway, her hair looked as white as platinum and she was wearing an all-white sheath dress that goes below the knee.
'She looks young though.' her silhouette was exposed to my entire vision and revealed that she was much older than I thought she would be. "Uhm... Hi?"
There was no response from her, she simply stood there with her front rear hair covering almost half of her face like a ghost.
From a different perspective, it would have looked like I was talking to an invisible entity, seemingly like I was a crazy person but in reality, I am not.
'Whatever.' I dismissed the presence of the woman and the dog.
I walked past the doorway and looked back, seeing nothing anymore. "I am sleep-deprived." I concluded the thoughts, not wanting to think that the house was haunted or that I was somewhat of a crazy person.
"You're going out again."
The voice of a man from earlier caught my attention, glancing down from the second floor, and saw the two figures that I welcomed into the doctor's office a while ago.
"I have important things to attend to, unlike you." Ivy sneered.
"I should be the one saying such things, woman." he referred to her disrespectfully, I was about to walk away and explore a bit more around the house until... "What was that?" they both looked around after hearing my stomach grumble.
'You just had to make a loud sound, don't you?' I scolded my own body.
"Take your daughter with you if you will." the man shook his head upon realizing that it was me. "Nuh-uhhh! You feed her." was the reply of my stepmother, her heels click-clacking on the hard floor once more when she made her exit.
I was left there feeling awkward from the forced interaction with my father whom I recall to have forgotten he had me.
He motioned for me to come down and follow him inside the kitchen, I obediently did as he appeared to have ordered, and there was no conflict whatsoever.
He put on his apron once we entered and began to set up the ingredients. The counter was far enough from the stove so I settled down there and watched him as he moved from here to there.
"What were you doing there with our family doctor?" his back was facing me when he interrogated me. "Check-up." was my simple answer to his question, and as his daughter, I returned the question.
"And you? Why were you also there?" he lifted his head and placed down what he was holding before resting his hands on the counter for support.
"I came here because I have become weaker due to my age." he deliberately emphasized the word 'weaker' which had me rethinking regarding that family dinner we had not so long ago.
"I wish your mother was still alive for me to say sorry for how I have treated her. Before something happens to me." hearing those come from him made me doubt the truth.
The truth about his other 'side' that Ivy often talked about during my first few days back.
"What if I told you that she is?" my mouth spoke on its own.
"Alive and lives near us." I let myself fall for his tricks.
If he is planning some kind of a scheme.
Just like he always would along with Haesu-eonni.
We had a heart-to-heart conversation, both of us were keeping each other in check, trying not to believe everything the other one was spilling without hard evidence.
"Eat up." he delivered a plate filled with hot milk-seasoned boiled potatoes across the kitchen to me, it was placed on a tray alongside a chicken soup and freshly baked garlic bread.
Now it all became clear to me, that I got my cooking skills from him.