Thy Art | Park Seonghwa

1.2

"That'll be ₩3,000," the girl said coldly. Seonghwa was frozen on his feet, with his mouth slightly agape at the sight of the cashier standing before him. His hands slowly moved to his pocket to grab onto the cash he had brought but his eyes stood still in its place.

The cashier took his money from his hand and continue doing her work as the man standing across her was still baffled. Only when she gave him his change did he come back to his sense. "Here's your change, sir. Have a good night and rest well."

She bowed to him slightly after the money was no longer on her grip. At that moment, the lad seemed like he had something to say, probably a lot of them but no words came out of his mouth. Yunhee was glad he only looked down on his change before shoving it to his pocket and then zooming out of the convenient store after. She was not prepared. She came to work that night, not foreseeing how she'd met Park Seonghwa and that he'll stand less than one meter away from her, staring at her like he didn't believe what he was seeing.

Yunhee sat down on her chair, sighing as she was bewildered herself. She knew they were going to meet sooner or later. She knew it was only a matter of time, yet she wanted to meet him in a proper way. The amount of things she wanted to tell, the countless sorry-s she wanted to say to him, she needed time to plan that. But they say things happen and sometimes we can't control when or how it does. She didn't know what was going to come now that he knew she was back, the only thing she know for sure that night was the fact that she would probably not sleep a wink.

Seonghwa got back up to his apartment in a rush, nearly tripping on his feet. He didn't even know why he was so surprised. It's not like she was a dead who came back to life, she simply came back to Seoul. But just like the lass, that night, he didn't sleep at all. In fact, he laid on his couch for the whole night, pondering over his own thoughts. It was then when it sort of clicked in his head why his fiancé was suddenly doubting. Somehow, it must've had something to do with Yunhee coming back.

When the sun rise and he could see the light penetrating through his window, Seonghwa got up on his feet and got himself ready to go to work. As he was about to leave, he realized how the ramen he got last night had been untouched on the counter. He quickly but neatly place them on the cupboard before going out the door.

~

It was lunch time when Eunji came knocking on his office door. He had called her earlier that morning, saying how he wanted to talk to her. She had always been the type to be oblivious and dense so when her fiancé, who she dearly loved, finally became the one who called for them to meet, she was more than just ecstatic. He had offered to be the one who drive to her office but she quickly told him not to.

They had a normal conversation for a while. The girl looked like she was in a good mood and Seonghwa was more than just afraid to ruin that. He knew the mention of Hwang Yunhee wouldn't be pleasant to her ears, especially when the facts are given of how she barely ever liked the girl at all even though they all went to high-school together.

They were both sitting on the couch placed near the doors. And after 30 minutes of fake chuckles and enthusiasm, he took her hand in his before bringing himself to ask. "The reason why you asked me what it'll take for me to leave you, was because you found out Yunhee came back, didn't you?" This was the closest thing to intimate that Seonghwa has done for her behind closed doors, after what felt like forever and it did say a lot about how he didn't want her to riot from the sound of her name coming out of his lips.

She looked down at her hands before nodding, "Haerim met her at the grocery store, yesterday. She was a cashier there." Seonghwa was quiet, he knew she wasn't done talking as she bit her bottom lips, "I was just afraid if you ever found out she came back, you'll run to her like how you always did back in high school."

"That was high school," he replied.

"I know but the fact that you cried yourself to sleep almost every night for 6 months really did tell me how much you loved her," Eunji didn't know how instead of crying himself to sleep, he'll wake up to his pillows wet. It haunts him still, the memory of Yunhee breaking up with him in the cruelest way possible had turned into a nightmare. Though it wasn't one where he'd wake up screaming to, but after seeing how it all play out over and over again in his head, he'll wake up with fresh tears streaming down his face. But he didn't want her to know.

"It's all in the past. We're engaged now so have some faith in me," the word tasted bitter inside his mouth and it felt wrong. The girl sitting beside him was not dumb, she knew there was not a single drop of sincerity in his words. It was said merely to make her stop whatever she had in her head. It was all said so he could at least tell himself she'll stop cursing Hwang Yunhee in her heart. That kindled the flame even more but Eunji merely responded with a smile and extending her arms to wrap it around her fiancé.

Jung Haerim was the victim to her anger. She always have been. Right after she left Seonghwa's, she appeared with smoke in her ears at her best friend's doorstep, ready to let it all out. She slammed her purse down on the red couch placed across the tv while rambling incoherent rants at an inhumane speed.

"Seriously, can you ban someone from entering a city," Eunji said through gritted teeth.

"You can! But I heard that person has to do some kind of serious crime first. I don't think breaking a heart could be enough," the lass almost lost it when her best friend answered her so lightly. A groan left her lips as she quickly grab a glass of water, downing it in one go.

"If she try to win him back, I swear to-," Eunji was cut off when her friend suddenly yelp.

"WAIT! I don't think she will. I heard she has a daughter now so she must be in some kind of relationship with someone, right. And when I met her yesterday, she was wearing a necklace with a ring as the pendant!