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As soon as I got home, I snatched the yellow umbrella from the tree-shaped metal rack and carried it with me to my room.
The white wolf’s yellow umbrella.
It may have taken me longer to put it together than it should have, but I finally figured out who it reminded me of.Gray.
After his parents disappeared, he used to bring it with him everywhere. I’d forgotten, because he’d been so weird for a while, and well … I’d been wrapped up in making Cole notice me.
I flipped the umbrella over, squinting at the worn engraving in the handle. The wood was cool and smooth as I traced the pad of my index lightly across the letters there.
YYW.
The gentleness of the wolf giving me the umbrella as I sobbed in the dark flashed in my mind, juxtaposed with the gentle way Gray had held my face in his hands as his lips ignited mine.
Gray’s Korean name.
Of course.
“Yeonwoo,”Gray had once told me when we were younger. “That’s my Korean name. If you don’t like calling me by my English name, you can call me by that name. It would really make me happy.”
Not that I was romanticizing heart attacks–but my heart truly skipped a beat again and again as each little clue I had lit up in my brain, the truth a big blazing ‘Aha!’ as I mumbled to myself, “He’s a werewolf.”
The sudden shrill ring of the landline startled me, disrupting my thoughts and sending the umbrella crashing to the floor.
Nobody ever called that line. Not even telemarketers. Mom kept it for emergencies only.
An unsettling dread crawled through my stomach as I picked it up, cutting off the third ring, and held it up to my ear in silence.
Heavy breathing hammered in my ear from across the line until whoever it was seemed to realize the call had been answered. “Sora, it’s me. You’re not answering your cell phone number. You said to call this number if—”
“Who’s this?” I cut off the caller. “Eomma’s not home yet.”
A slight choke could be heard from his end, followed by an odd, static silence.
A few seconds later, the male voice uttered another word. “Aera,” he called, his voice soft and gentle, as if he knew me.
Though momentarily surprised he knew my name, I handled it like a pro by snapping out of the brief confusion. “This is she. And you are?” I questioned.
“Oh my God …” His dejected tone morphed into apparent excitement. “Aera, it’s you. Oh, I can’t believe this. Did your mom change her mind? Did she say I can finally meet you?”
“I’m sorry, mister, but who am I speaking to?” I sighed, gripping the phone. It must be one of my mom’s boyfriends that she’d given the boot or the boss she’d kept on complaining about before.
Either way, it didn’t really make sense.
Not until he said, “It’s me. Your dad.”
Payback
I’d been staringat my watch for over an hour. It was past eight in the evening, and Aera had not yet arrived. I wasn’t getting any younger, and the sky wasn’t getting any brighter. Sooner or later, it would rain, and I would still be waiting in vain.
Another hour passed.
I got up from the swing, doubting she would even come, when out of nowhere a familiar figure in black heeled boots and high-waisted joggers approached me.
I looked up to see Krystal sneering at me with her long, ombre hair tied in a high ponytail.
“So, Aera dumped you?” She tilted her head to the side in mockery and wonder.
I stared at her as I remembered how I had once dated and cared about this human almost a year ago. Needless to say, that didn’t go so well. She would’ve killed me in a heartbeat if she knew the real me.
