Thank You for the Venom

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‘And who was that?’

You heard those words more times a week than you heard 'I love you’, but that’s how it was with Kim Minjeong as a girlfriend.

You were close to celebrating 3 years of dating, and you were sure that neither you nor she could explain how it was possible that this relationship lasted for so long. In general aspects and facing the public you were the perfect couple, loving, affectionate and attentive to each other, and with a sense of humor shared by both that was more than comfortable. Minjeong had you madly trapped in her sticky web, she was beautiful in absolutely every corner, beautiful face, beautiful body and beautiful gestures that she had with you.

You could say that you were in love with her, but unfortunately, Minjeong had a very dark side that came out quite often, and many times more than you could bear.

Jealousy.

Obviously there were certain limits, like with close family, for example, but Minjeong usually got jealous over the stupidest and most insignificant things you could imagine. The first few times you thought she was joking just to be dramatic, but over time you realized that they weren’t jokes, they were real feelings, and very, very intense ones.

Many times you thought about ending that relationship for the mental well-being of both of you, but not a single word about it ever came out of your mouth since she did everything possible, whether directly or indirectly, to keep you under her clutches. She was very detailed with you 90% of the time, very tender and affectionate, she was also very kind to others, not to mention that sex with her was fucking incredible, but she completely transformed when you gave her the slightest reason to feel jealous.

Before you became a couple, you didn’t get along that well at all. You met in high school, when you were just a couple of immature brats who made stupid decisions and did stupid things, you really had no reason to dislike each other, but the social pressure of your group of friends (average Canadian kids, lovers of hockey and huge idiots) and her group of friends (not exactly the most popular, but differentially the most unbearable in the entire school) hated each other completely influenced your opinion.

Deep down you knew that she wasn’t like the others, you could tell by the discomfort in her expressions and in her voice every time her stupid friends made her say something, but your stupid friends never let you talk to her. You really weren’t one of many words, you were only in that group because of the typical teenage need to belong, so you never disagreed with the things they did or said.

Your interest in her didn’t let you just forget about it and ignore it, you were quite determined, and when a small window presented itself to catch her while alone you didn’t hesitate to take advantage of it. Your conversation that day was fleeting, since it was a small moment in which Minjeong was already on her way home from school, but those five minutes were enough for you to confirm what you had been suspecting for months. She was special.

Special. That word was perfect to describe her, in a good and bad way.

After that day you looked for her more often, taking advantage of the little time you had to talk privately to get to know each other better, and you quickly formed a friendship that no one ever found out about, you and her never exchanged a single word during the clashes that your groups of friends had, and neither of you ever said anything about either group, so it was easy to deduce that you and her had some kind of plot, but you were surrounded by brainless people, so no one ever said anything about it.

Things changed drastically near the end of high school, when you and Minjeong were about to turn 18. You both began to get tired of your respective social groups, and without any explanation, from one moment to the next you broke all contact with those people, no casual conversations, no greetings, no nothing, it was as if you had deleted and moved the cassette back to a point where you didn’t know anyone, only each other.

Everything was better from then on, but the real turning point was the day of the final bell, the day on which you were finally going to say goodbye to the school definitively to open a new chapter in your lives. You invited Minjeong to your house that day in the afternoon. The initial plan was to play Scrabble and watch a movie, but the closeness and tensions that you had been carrying for some time led to a completely different night.

It seemed like a difficult situation to improve, but you were brought down from your cloud when Minjeong told you that same midnight that the following day she would go with her mother all summer on vacation to Korea. You were at the beginning of July, and you wouldn’t see her until October. It was disappointing for you and your feelings, you were still going to be able to talk to her through text messages or video calls, but nothing was the same that summer. That lonely, empty summer.

At this point you could no longer remember clearly what you did all that time, you had cut off relationships with the boys at your high school, so you really didn’t have a single friend to hang out with. You were alone. You had quite scattered memories, like watching Game of Thrones every day of the week without practically seeing sunlight, or reading the entire Wheel of Time saga (dark times), but among all these things there was always something in common, Minjeong was always there to keep you company, despite the huge time difference, she always made an effort to leave you a good morning or good night message.

Despite how screwed up that summer was for you, it passed much faster than you could have expected, and when you least expected it, October was already knocking on your door, and with it came the only person you wanted to see.

You had met Minjeong with long, brown hair and her forehead exposed, to you she already looked beautiful that way, but all your thoughts were revolutionized when you met for the first time after 3 months on that bridge over the Don River in Sunnybrook Park. She had returned from Korea with black hair, a bob haircut, and bangs that made her look like something out of a cyberpunk anime.

The months without physical contact were not noticeable at any time during your meeting. The first thing that came to both of you was sharing a warm hug in the middle of that bridge, with the sound of flowing water and maple leaves being gently blown by the wind. Sun was setting, and seeking to immortalize that moment forever, you and her kissed with the cold autumn breeze hitting your faces and ruffling your hair.

Who knew that that moment would become a memory as bittersweet as the perfect ending of a good movie, a movie in which you were the protagonist and that life put you to the test to develop you.

With Minjeong back in Toronto everything went much better, now you and she were a couple, and you went together to every possible place, everything was perfect, but you were already 18 years old, and that meant only one thing: you had to go to university, and the only one chosen among your options was the University of Toronto. You passed the admission exams together, you for the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering and Minjeong for Economics. You didn’t spend as much time together as usual, but nothing changed in your relationship.

Nothing except for her sudden, unbearable fits of jealousy, of course.

Two years had passed since then, you and Minjeong in the middle of your respective degrees and with all the pressure on your heads with every class, every midterm, and every end of the semester. This particular end of the semester was special, as it was the long-awaited winter break. The entire university was in a season of joy (of misfortune for some) since a series of extremely important midterms had been held for each faculty, where you and Minjeong had come out more than successful after weeks of hard work and study, more than 90 points for each.

On the day of delivery of grades there was a meeting between several representatives of various faculties in a common area of the campus, you were present at said meeting, in which the foundations began to be laid for a party to celebrate the end of the semester, Christmas and your grades. You and Minjeong were invited by Karina Yoo, a student at the Faculty of Dentistry, a good friend of yours but not of Minjeong. Future problems.

The place of the party was the house of a guy from medical school, the typical townhouse made of bricks and with a beautifully Victorian style. You two were a little late, but it was all your fault since you didn’t know what the hell to wear and you changed your clothes like four times.

“Damn, there are more people than I expected,” you said, watching as the house windows showed the rowdy atmosphere inside, with the flashing lights, loud music and people having fun. You had two bags in your hands, both filled with six packs of beer.

“Well, there are more people than you think on campus, babe,” Minjeong said, taking one of the bags from your hand to help you as you walked inside. You turned to look at her intently, and she stopped to look back at you, “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just that you look beautiful,” you said, looking her up and down. Minjeong was dressed in a short white dress, with the Yankees logo and printed with the letter N and Y in navy blue, with tall black leather boots, her short socks have the same print as the dress, and she was wearing white Balenciaga sneakers. She no longer had a bob haircut, now her black hair was slightly longer and reached a few fingers below her shoulders.

“Oh hush!” She said with a shy giggle, putting her hand to her mouth and then continuing walking into the house.

Once inside, the rumbling of the bass and the cacophony of sounds filled your ears, the house was completely full, more than it could surely afford, there was air conditioning, but even so the atmosphere became suffocating due to the large concentration of people. Minjeong began to dance discreetly, to the rhythm of Rush by Troye Sivan, making her way next to you through the narrow hallway that led to a larger room, where the music came from.

There the crowd of people was even more noticeable, everyone was walking from here to there, talking, laughing, drinking and dancing. You saw many familiar faces, some colleagues from your faculty, and many other students that you knew from other faculties through specific meetings. Minjeong also met up with friends, and the two of you spent about five minutes greeting everyone before being left alone again. You didn’t know the owner of the house, so you had no idea where to keep the beer, but luckily, your lifeguard appeared in the crowd with a big smile on her face.

“Omg hiiii!” Karina Yoo greeted you with a big smile on her face after making her way between two boys. She had both arms open waiting for a hug, and you gave it to her without hesitation.

“What’s up Rina!” you greeted back, giving her a big hug with a smile on your face. You saw Minjeong out of the corner of your eye, and you noticed how her expression had completely changed, she now looked cold and expressionless as she looked at you. You played dumb.

“It’s good to see you,” she said, pulling away from the hug, “those grades deserve a good celebration,” she winked at you, and then turned to Minjeong, who transformed her expression once again to seem as friendly as possible, “Oh hello darling! I’m glad you came too,” Karina wasn’t close enough to Minjeong to hug her, so she just smiled at her and gave her a small nod.

Minjeong also smiled at her but without showing her teeth, a clear sign for you that she was faking the smile. She didn’t say anything either, to act shy. You already smelled the problems.

“Well? Where do we keep these things?” you asked, holding up the bag of beers, “you look great by the way,” Karina was wearing a black sports sweater with white sleeves and orange details, loose white pants, and white sneakers. She almost never wore such reserved outfits, she was always showing some skin from time to time, but she was so beautiful that everything looked good on her.

“Thank you handsome,” she said with a giggle, “you don’t look bad either,” she said that, looking at you up and down discreetly, but you were a thousand percent sure that Minjeong had noticed, “Follow me.”

Karina nodded for you to follow her and she turned around, walking forward through the crowd. You were trying to pretend that what had just happened hadn’t happened, but Minjeong linked her arm with yours tightly, very tightly, clinging to you as if something was going to happen to you, the reality was that, of course, the monster was waking up, You could tell it just by her face.

You followed Karina through some hallways until you reached the elegant and rustic kitchen, close to a living room in which crazy things were happening everywhere, among them, a girl drinking what seemed to be vodka from another’s mouth. You weren’t one to judge, you just thought it was funny.

“Would you pass me the vodka like that?” Minjeong whispered in your ear with an evil giggle, she had seen the same thing as you.

“Maybe later, it’s still too early,” you replied, laughing, following Karina behind the island in the middle of the kitchen, where there were dozens of bottles of all kinds, with some buckets full of ice.

“Give me the beers, come on,” said Karina, opening the refrigerator. You and Minjeong took the sixpacks out of the bags one by one, and put them little by little into the refrigerator. You were behind her on one side of the bar, while Minjeong was still on the other side of it, with her forearms resting on the counter as she looked at her bottles. Karina had no idea how close you were, so when she closed the refrigerator and took a step back to turn around, she completely collided with you, from her back to her ass, which was pressed against your bulge for a second. You immediately pulled back and laughed to cover up the awkward moment, “Oh god I’m sorry!” she apologized with a giggle, covering her mouth with both hands.

“Don’t worry, the dim lights don’t help either,” you said, turning towards the counter with slightly blushing cheeks. You looked down to hide it, but you knew Minjeong was murdering you with her eyes. Everything was being too unfortunate for you, and you knew you were going to get your ass kicked.

“Anyway, do you want a drink while the beers cool?” Karina asked, giving you small discreet glances from time to time, staying to one side of you but keeping her distance.

“No thanks, I’m fine,” Minjeong said immediately, again faking a smile at Karina.

“I do want to, what do we have here?” you asked, looking at the bottles.

“Well, there’s vodka, gin, and…” she raised her head to look through the bottles, “Whiskey.”

“I want a vodka with… hmmm,” you looked through your possible options, “is there Pepsi in the fridge?”

“I think so,” she nodded, opening the fridge for a second to take out a can of Pepsi and hand it to you.