Eunbyul threw her stuffed animal to her aunt, earning a groan from her as it landed right on her nose. Jiwon's lower lip jutted out into a pout as she faced her niece who was in the midst of a laughing fit upon seeing the flash of expression when the bear hit her face. "Eunbyul! If you do that again, I'm going to come at you with tickles," she warned the little girl as if she would understand every word she just said. But of course, as kids are easy to entertain, her small hand grabbed onto another one of her stuffed animal, this time a rabbit, and launch it at the blonde. Her nose once again accepted the hit, this time taking no time to wait, the older advanced forward and attacked her niece with tickles. Eunbyul's laughter was soon the only noise filling the room. Yunhee was only able to shake her head as she watched the two.
The vibration coming from her phone tucked into her back pocket was what stopped Jiwon from tickling Eunbyul. She quickly trap the younger in her arms before pulling out her phone to pick up the call. Yunhee was busy typing away words after words on her laptop that she barely paid attention to what was said throughout the call even when her sister, along with her daughter encircled in her arms, was sitting on the carpeted floor less than a meter away from where she was at. Before she knew it, Jiwon was half-shouting trying to tell their aunt how Jongho and Hongjoong was coming.
Yunhee glanced at the clock placed above their TV to see the short-hand arrow pointed at the number 9 with the long-hand also on the same number. "Why are they coming so late?" she asked her sister who was now busy showing Eunbyul a video of Five Little Ducks.
"I left my wallet at Jongho's place yesterday and he got us cake," she answered, calmly, oblivious of how her sister is now bewildered.
"Why were you at Jongho's place? What were you doing there? Did you two do anything?" The younger rolled her eyes upon receiving the sudden blast of question.
"I swear, you sound like a mom."
"Well, I am one!" Yunhee exclaimed.
"Oh yeah, that's true," she recollected, "but to answer your question, I was just there to finish my assignment. I write better when he's around, don't even ask why."
Yunhee nodded as a small smirk crept up her face. "We've only been back here for less than two months yet it's like we never left for the two of you."
"Shut up, we're just.... reconnecting," the blonde retorted. Yunhee only nodded at the denial she received although she didn't buy it at all.
Jongho and Hongjoong arrived 10 minutes after the call, with a white box filled with 3 different types of cakes. Jiwon opened the door as soon as the first bell rang and as soon as they were in, she placed the cake on the coffee table before carrying Eunbyul up into her arms. "How about we color some flowers in my room?" she whispered disappearing with Jongho into their room. Yunhee was surprised when she lifted her eyes off her laptop screen and the only person her eyes were able to spot was Kim Hongjoong.
"Yeah, I kind of told them I had to talk to you," he uttered, "do you mind?"
She smiled at him, gesturing him to sit on the small couch placed beside the one she was on. "I don't, Joong. But what's so important that you had to come at 10:00 PM? She questioned. Hongjoong took his steps and settle to sit down as the lass saved her work and close the lid of her laptop.
"It's not.. that significant for me. Well actually, we were at the café earlier and Jongho saw your sister's favorite cake and insisted we should get it," he began, "but now that we're here, as I've been pondering about this since yesterday morning, I figured, why not just.. you know, ask you."
"He likes her that much?" she chuckled, "but ask away, what is it?" She could see the red-hair hesitating for a second which made her nervous as well.
"Eunbyul's father..," Yunhee gulped at the mention of the two words, she knew where this was going, "is his name.. Kim Jongin?"
The lass' eyes widened. How did he even know? She thought. "How did you..?"
"I saw you yesterday," he answered shortly.
It took a while for Yunhee to finally nod. "Yeah, that's him."
"Is this why you keep trying to suppress your feelings for Seonghwa?" She was really going to have that conversation again; the same one she had with her sister.
"Yeah, but Joong, I think I'm going to try," although her words were laced with uncertainty, that was as much as she could give right then, "I love Kai, he'll always have a place in my heart but I don't know how much longer I can stop my feeling from resurfacing," she admitted.
A satisfied smile was plastered on Hongjoong's face as he heard what she said. They all knew how wrong it was to support two to become one again when one of them was already tied to someone else but they've had enough of Seonghwa living like a puppet whose strings was pulled by God-knows-who. "I'm glad to hear that. I was ready to lecture you but seems like someone else beat me to it?"
Though her face was still slightly sullen, a small chuckle was emitted from her lips. "I had this talk with Jiwon two days ago. I nearly stayed up all night thinking about this and I barely got any work done, which made me feel stupid but yesterday, when I saw Seonghwa, with distraught painted all over his face, it somehow became clear how I just.. really want to be by his side and let every single ounce of my feelings flow... even despite the fact that he's engaged," she confessed, her voice only audible for the lad to hear.
"You know just how much he still loves you, right?" he inquired, "he doesn't want to be engaged and he'd do anything to have you back but when you look at him with so much discomfort in your eyes.... so much guilt trapped inside such a small orb, he thought to himself maybe it's better for him to back off. Maybe that was going to make you happier," Yunhee looked down at her crossed leg, her eyes no longer placed on the red-haired boy who was talking, "and although he's not necessarily happy with merely looking at you from afar, that's alright for him. He doesn't have to be okay, for you to be happy."
A lump form in Yunhee's throat, and that was the only thing stopping the tears from spilling although it was already on the brim and threatening to flow. But when Jongho walked out with Jiwon walking behind him, she quickly wipe off the tears with her hand.
"Eunbyul's asleep," Jiwon told her sister as they both reached the living room.
"Hyung, we should go," Jongho told the older and the latter then stood up. Yunhee unfold her legs and got up on her feet as well to send them off.
"Thanks for coming today," she told both the lads, "and for the cake."
"You're welcome, and Yunhee, come to me anytime, yeah? If ever, whatever's inside your head gets too loud, I'm here for you," Hongjoong urged. He knew she was never the type to talk about what she had in mind before someone decides to point it out.
"I will, thank you again," she replied.
"Oh and, since Kai was my cousin, that technically makes me Eunbyul's uncle right?"
~
Yunhee felt like she was back in her last semester of college when day and night, all she does is revise and revise and kept revising until she's fed up with the said word. And right now, as she work under Seonghwa, she felt like he was starting to sound more and more like her professor. The man was an Aries too, which made him a little impatient.
She lost count of the amount of times she had to go back and forth from his office just to have small details rejected. And that was exactly the case for his secretary, Yeo Hwanyoong. Although he admitted the amount of corrections he had to do has certainly lessen by a lot and he was getting closer to finishing the proposal, it still was a hell of an exercise to go up and down the stairs and taking the lift would snatch their precious time away. Hwanyoong had told Yunhee how she was lucky to be in the creative team which means she only had to take one flight of stairs while even despite the privilege of having a personal office, he had to take two flights of stairs.
Yunhee held her laptop close to her body as she walked through the hallway to reach Seonghwa's office. That was her fourth visit for that day and she had wished that would be the last. The latest revision she made, had everything he asked for and she was certain there was no way there's more to be corrected.
When she reached the door, she was surprised to see it ajar. Seonghwa had never left his door opened before, or maybe he did but she has yet to see it happen. If anything, at times, he'll lock the door.
Impulsively, she decided to knock and push the door open wider to make her presence known which soon became her biggest regret as she stumble upon the sight of Son Eunji, sitting on his lap with her hand by the side of his cheeks. Their lips were connected with each other's and it looked like they were so into it. She couldn't stop her pupils from dilating at the sight and when Seonghwa pulled away upon sensing her being there, but she took a few shaky steps back as she muttered, "I.. I didn't mean to.." she was not able to finish her sentence as her legs took control and hastily walked out of the vicinity.
Yunhee didn't know why she could feel something break, she didn't know why it felt like something was stinging inside her chest but she couldn't get the image out of her head. And so she continued moving her feet, ignoring how Park Seonghwa was calling out to her name from behind and how his voice got clearer and clearer as she was getting further and further from where she witnessed their kiss.
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Thy Art | Park Seonghwa
Fanfiction"You are the finest, loveliest, tenderest, and most beautiful person I have ever known- and even that is an understatement." - F. Scott Fitzgerald . . . . . . [ ATEEZ's Park Seonghwa ]
