Rachel
Three years before when Rachel moved to Korea, she swore she would never let her emotions get the better of her. But as she pulled up to the familiar, small, two-story cabin with its wrap-around porch, she realized just how much she had missed coming out to its peace. It truly was her home.
“This place looks cozy,” Min Jae said as she paused before turning off the car.
He had no idea.
This was the place she spent most of her holidays during college. It was where she spent most weekends after graduating with a degree in both accounting and law. Until she had met her ex-fiancé.
Burke was a city boy through and through. The few times he had come out to the retreat with her, he did not react well to the wildlife or anything else up here. Burke preferred clubs over campfires, fine dining to fishing, and room service to roughing it. Although, this place could hardly be considered roughing it. There was a lodge that had fine dining available, and each of the cabins was well taken care of and had nice furniture. Granted, she had kept her cabin rather simple. But it had been too simple for Burke.
While she dated and had gotten serious with him, she hadn’t visited more than once every couple of months. She hadn’t even realized it until her perfectly built world of being happily engaged crumbled. When their wedding was called off and he married another on their wedding day, she ran to her cabin and didn’t emerge for a month. It was her protection, the one place where she could completely be herself.
Then she had taken down most of her identifying decorations and personal effects, put them in a bin, locked it up, and moved to Seoul. She hadn’t been back since.
“I can’t think of a time when I haven’t enjoyed being here,” Rachel admitted. She wasn’t going to explain why though. She looked to her right and saw Min Jae looking at her. “What?”
“Thank you for sharing a bit of yourself with me,” he said gently.
Rachel blushed and was grateful it was dark enough he couldn’t see her very well.
“We should go inside. It’s getting late,” Rachel said, getting out of the car and walking around to the front of the cabin while Min Jae followed with his bag. It really wasn’t late if they were in Korea; in fact, it was still day time there. But it worked as an excuse for her to get away from him for a moment and to be by herself and regain her bearings. It was rather hard when the man she regularly fantasized about was right there, willing to listen. One thing she didn’t want to do was share too much about her past with him.
She unlocked the door to the cabin and switched on the lights. She smiled as she saw the familiar surroundings. Thankfully, everything was practically as she left it. Her cabin was occasionally rented out, so things might have been a little worn down, while other things had been replaced because of a couple of renters weren’t careful with things that weren’t theirs, especially when they got drunk. Despite it all, it still had her personal decorative touch to it. If she were to stay longer, she might consider changing things a little, but it was only for a week, so why bother?
“Wow! This place is nice,” Min Jae said from behind her. “It didn’t seem this spacious from the outside. I like it.”
She knew what he was looking at and she had to agree with him. She had managed to pack in a kitchen, a small bathroom, a private bedroom, and an upstairs loft with several bunks in very little square footage.
“I wanted something small but functional. Go check out the loft, that is where you’ll be staying. There’s a desk up there where you can set up your gear if you want to,” Rachel said, and went to a small closet under the stairs while he went up.
She had pulled out two bins and was working on a third by the time he returned. “I have all the necessities we’ll need for tonight. They left the cabin clean but didn’t get it all set up for guests because I didn’t tell them when I was arriving, and I want to use my own things.” She moved one bin by the bathroom and another to the foot of the stairs. “This one has things you might need up there, the other has all the toiletries either of us might need. Hey, can I convince you to go back for my suitcase and lock up the car? I’ll let you have the bathroom first tonight,” she offered.
“I can do that,” he said, and went back outside.
In reality, she didn’t want him to see what was in the other bin. Other than a few generic useful items, it was full of all the Hydra things she had collected over the years that were useful in a personal bedroom. She could at least get it into her room before he came back.
“It feels like you did not pack a lot. It is rather light,” he commented, bringing the suitcase to her bedroom door.
“With all the things I had here, I didn’t need much,” Rachel admitted, putting it in her room. “Should we set your room up?” Together they hefted the other bin up the stairs.
The loft was set up to hold several children of all sizes; there were two sets of bunk beds with drawers under the mattresses as well as a larger single bed under the window. There were also a couple of desks at the heads of the bunk beds. There were power outlets at the desks and lamps, and his bag rested on one of them already.
She pulled a sleeping bag out of the bin, followed by a pillow and a small throw blanket. She finished up the process with a new pair of men’s gray sweats. “I forgot I packed these in here,” she muttered. “You can use these to sleep in if you want,” she said a little louder. “They’re not terribly fashionable, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Everything is already more than I could hope for on such short notice,” Min Jae said, looking at her. His hands brushed hers as he took the sweats from her, causing her heart to warm. “Thank you,” he quietly added.
Rachel quickly let go as if she had been shocked. “N-no problem.” It was her turn to stutter. “Set your stuff up and I’ll let you know when the bathroom is ready,” she said, and quickly went back downstairs where it was safe.
Unloading the bathroom bin with its towels and soaps and shampoos, she noticed the different scents she had. Most of them were a little on the masculine side of things. Granted, she preferred those to some of the fruitier scents designed for ladies, but these she had bought three years ago specifically for her wedding night. A night that never happened. A night that still haunted her.