Chapter 9 – Senseless

Megan did not get a wink of sleep that night. The ghost from her past, namely Jungmin, lingered in her memory, refusing to go away. Every time Megan closed her eyes; there he was, his demented eyes staring at her, following her every move. She couldn’t take it. She desperately tried to get her mind off him; reading, cooking, ironing, none of it was helping. Even once she was done sorting out her oversized wardrobe, she could still see his face, and it gave her no comfort knowing that he was still somewhere out there.

She grabbed her mobile phone and dialed the first number that came to her mind.

“Megan?” the voice at the other end of the line spoke.

Megan could not bring herself to talk. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.

“Megan? Is everything all right?” the worried voice spoke again.

“Michael…..” Megan finally spoke.

“What’s wrong?” said the voice.

“Everything,” she choked out, tears not filling up her eyes, flowing down her cheeks.

“Where are you? I’ll send someone to get you,” said the voice again.

“No, don’t,” Megan said in between sobs, “I just..really need someone to talk to. Do you have time?”

“Of course.”

Megan then proceeded to explain everything that happened. From the incident a year ago right up till the events that occurred that very day. Michael listened to every word on the other line, non-judgingly.

“Well….I can’t really help you there,” he said when Megan had finished; “I’m not exactly an expert on relationship problems.”

“It’s okay,” Megan said, her eyes now swollen from the crying, “I just needed someone to listen.”

“Do you want me to book a flight for you? Back to the States? It’s about time you came back,” Michael said on the other line.

“No, it’s fine,” said Megan, her eyes now dry. The last thing she would want to do was to leave abruptly like the last time without any explanations. She couldn’t do that to Yongbae again, no matter how much he hurt her.
“Okay then…” Michael said.

Megan hung up the phone.

She always felt comforted after talking to Michael. He was her brother after all. He was her go-to guy whenever she was feeling down or having problems.
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It was 8 am in the morning. Likewise, Megan had been up the whole night. She was afraid that if she fell asleep, Jungmin would appear in her sleep. At least now she could ‘control’ Jungmin’s presence in her mind.

The phone rang, and Megan, in desperate need of human interaction, did not hesitate to answer.

“Hey,” said a voice at the other end, which Megan recognized as Jiyong’s, “Did I wake you?”

“No, it’s fine,” she answered, her mood automatically revived once she heard his voice, “I got up awhile ago.”

“So, I was wondering….” Jiyong’s voice trailed off, “Whether we could meet for breakfast or something.”

At that moment, Megan caught her reflection on the refrigerator door. She noticed the dark circles formed at her lower eyelid, as a result of zero-sleep the night before. She thanked god that today was a Sunday, and she didn’t have to go to work with eye bags.

“Err….,” said Megan, now reconsidering Jiyong’s offer, “I’m actually pretty swamped today, have to settle some things with my agency etc.”

“Oh….”

“Sorry…” Megan said, her tone full of regret.

“It’s okay…” said Jiyong, “Some other time then.”

Megan hung up.

She felt awful that she had just lied to Jiyong. But she didn’t want Jiyong to worry.

She then grabbed her purse, and headed for the door.
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Outside Megan’s apartment, Jiyong was dumbfounded. He had hoped for a nice breakfast with Megan, to straighten some things out in regard to the events that took place the night before.

Jiyong signaled for a cab, and went back to his apartment.
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Megan knocked relentlessly on the door.

“Coming,” said a rather irritated voice on the other end.

The door opened, and there stood Seunghyun on the other end.

“Well….this is a surprise….” he said, rubbing his eyes, obviously awakened by the relentless banging of the door.

“Let’s go shopping,” said Megan, obviously aloof to Seunghyun’s current condition.

“Wha?” said a clearly startled Seunghyun, “Don’t you have, like, a boyfriend or something?”

Clearly, Seunghyun would do anything to go back to sleep.

“Yeah, I sort of lied to him about something, so going shopping with him is out of the way,” Megan explained.

Seunghyun raised an eyebrow, clueless over the entire situation.

“Pleasee????” Megan said, in a pleading tone. Her lower lip now stuck out.

Seunghyun stared at the now pouting Megan, and finally gave in.

“10 minutes,” he said, and let Megan in.
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Seunghyun had obviously no idea what he had gotten himself into. For one, Megan was a crazy compulsive shopping addict. And two, Megan had brought him to a boulevard, where all the high end brands were located. Seunghyun was clearly dumbstruck when he saw Megan shop. Whenever she entered a shop, she became a blur, and clothes would mysteriously disappear off the rack.

They were at a Louis Vuitton store when Seunghyun managed a glance at Megan’s purchases. As far as he could tell, she had gotten close to 3 pairs of shoes. The cashier rung up the purchases, and the bill came up to a total staggering 2 million won.

“I think you are officially insane,” Seunghyun stated as Megan paid for her shoes using a credit card.

“Do not question a girl’s form of therapy,” Megan stated, “Besides, you haven’t even seen me shop for jewelry yet.”

“This may sound mean,” said Seunghyun half-jokingly, “But I pity your future husband.”

Megan could only laugh at his statement.

After Megan signed the delivery form, they proceeded to the next store.

Seunghyun watched helplessly as Megan paraded around the Elie Tahari boutique. He couldn’t help but wonder how Megan could afford doing this on a daily basis.

“Are your parents, like, major billionaires or something?” he asked when they continued their walk.

“Not exactly, they’re rich and all that, but my brother is the one who brings in the big bucks.”

“Your brother?” Seunghyun asked questionably.

“Yeah, he’s the president of some fancy record label,” she explained.

“Oh, so he pays for all of your purchases?”

“I guess,” she trailed off, “It’s his bank account, right?”

“You’re using..your brother’s bank account.”

“Well, he noticed that everytime I shop my bank account gets completely emptied, meaning I wont be able to shop anymore. So he created a joint account so that once my account gets emptied, money is automatically transferred into my account.”

“Well, you have a very good-willed brother, that’s all I can say.”

And it was true, Megan’s brother was the best one could possibly find.

Then again, it WAS Michael who had pushed Megan into choreographing for Big Bang.

Which wasn’t all that bad, now that she thought about it.