Thy Art | Park Seonghwa

7.4

( 🎵 Sasha Sloan - Dancing with your Ghost )

The bell chimes as Eunji walked into the café. The café that she frequently visited but felt colder this time around because her feelings still told her something was up. Seonghwa almost never wanted to meet her first. It has always been her. But she was fine with that, as long as she got to spend time with him.

"This is rare," she greeted him with a smile, pulling the chair for her to seat, "couldn't recall the last time you wanted to see me first."

Seonghwa merely heaved out a sigh, knowing what she saw was true, "couldn't recall the last time you rejected to meet me because of your 'busy schedule'."

"You're not the only one busy, Hwa," she retorted, "I'm busy too." Planning our wedding.

"Yeah, well if that's the case," he began, "I'll cut to the chase, yeah?"

"Sure thing."

"Do you know Kim Taeha?" he asked, making her tilt her head in confusion.

"And who might that be?" she returned the question, genuinely confused.

"An old employee of mine," Seonghwa brought his teacup up to his lips, sipping on it, "broke up with her boyfriend recently and it affected her performance. I gave all the work that was supposedly hers to Yunhee."

"And how does this concerns me?" she once again queried, her tone laced with nothing but bewilderment.

"I don't know, Eunji," he answered her, "you tell me."

"Sounds like you're accusing me of something," Eunji rolled her eyes when he didn't say anything, readying herself to stand up and leave. "If that's all you're going to say to me, then I'm leaving."

"There's one more thing," his voice was small and filled with something that she couldn't make out.

She leaned back on the wooden chair, arms crossed and placed in front of her. "What is it?"

"I don't think I can marry you." Eunji had been familiar of the feeling she felt right then. Her heart has been broken by the man sitting across her, multiple times. Every day during highschool, she could feel pieces of her heart flaking away and maybe some of those parts have yet to come back because right then she felt like the wounds had only become bigger.

"Let me guess," she let out a dry chuckle, "Hwang Yunhee?"

"She was the one who told me to give in to this marriage," surprisingly, she wasn't shocked upon hearing what he said. She knew how that was such a Yunhee thing to do, "but I can't go on with this, Eunji. So I'm asking you to do me a favor and come with me to talk to our parents."

He must've been oblivious of what she felt for him because right then, Park Seonghwa looked like he thought she didn't want this contract-like marriage as well.

"I can't go against the decision made by my parents, Hwa," she was nervous, scared that he would keep pushing. "This is something that has to be done for the sake of both our company."

"But that's it though?" he paused, trying to think of the right way to describe it without having to sound naïve, "it's only for the sake of our company and not us. Marriage is supposed to unite two who loves each other, not for two companies to merge."

"You know how important this is for our parents," she insisted, "and you can think of this as us returning the favor. They've given us a roof, provide us meals, paid our tuition fees. Us getting married could be counted as us repaying for all those."

"But-."

"I'm sorry, Hwa," she looked at him, although he didn't seem like he wanted to do the same to her, "but I don't think I can let my parents down."

~

If Yunhee had learned something ever since losing Kai, is that life doesn't wait for you nor does it allow you to skip through the difficult times. Because once again, she felt like she was running, trying to catch up to everything while also feeling like a complete mess. She really was trying to pick up the remains of her heart and waking up every morning had felt like a task.

Going to the office, finishing all her work, tidying up her table when office hour's over, having to send in reports to Seonghwa. Everything felt heavy on her shoulder and she felt worn out. Yunhee felt like she was back to how she was in highschool. She felt like every single one of her emotion shouldn't be felt when you're already in your mid-twenties.

But 10 days after her last bitter moment with Seonghwa, she wanted to stop feeling like that. At least for the next two days as it was d-1 'till Eunbyul's birthday. Oh how time flies, she thought to herself as she watched her daughter playing around with her stuffed animals; her favorite kind of toy. She was already starting to sit without any assistance needed and crawling around while trying to stand once in a while.

"Should I try baking a cake?" she asked her aunt who was sitting by the couch, a few meters away from Eunbyul's playing mat in the living room.

"Sure you wouldn't burn this whole apartment down?" Minju pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, trying to get a clear look of how certain her niece looked.

"Oh please, I cook for 4 for nearly 5 years," the younger appealed.

"Baking and cooking is a little different, dear," her aunt emitted a small laugh, "but if you want to try then, the kitchen's all yours."

"What kind though?" she asked, "and who's going to eat them aside from us three?"

"No one else but us," the older answered, "but again I wouldn't stop you, it's her first birthday after all. And I have a good strawberry cake recipe somewhere, wait." In a second, she had already disappeared into the hallway towards their room.

Strawberry. Seonghwa would probably love it, she thought. But she quickly shook the thought away, giving all her attention back to her little sunshine who was still having plenty of fun with her toys.

Minju emerge into the living room a few minutes after, holding onto a piece of paper so yellow, it looked like it would break at any moment even with the littlest amount of force. She took the sheet offered to her slowly and carefully. Some of the ink from the pen used had faded, the once black had turned blue. But it was still clear enough for her to use as an instruction.

"I'll try making this after putting her to sleep," she smiled towards the older, "thank you."

"Don't push it, okay?" Minju urged. "You still have to work tomorrow and if you fail today, you can bake it after you get back."

Yunhee put Eunbyul to sleep once the clock strikes ten and as the latter had been exhausted after playing, she knocked out as soon as she touched her bed.

The living room area up till the kitchen was empty. Jiwon had notified her of how she was going to be home late as she was covering her friend's shift and still had to get her assignment done which as per usual, would be at her boyfriend's place.

Yunhee wrapped the strings of the apron around her waist and grabbed the bowl from the top drawer. She had wanted to bake out of the blue but she was glad her aunt always had different ingredients stocked up inside their house.

She started with pureeing an handful of strawberries and then mixing all her dry ingredients which at that point, had been everywhere on her apron. She was about to pour in the wet mixture when her phone rang by the side of the counter. Taking a peek at it, she could only see a series of number which mean whoever called her was no one she knew.

For a second she thought it was Son Eunji but after washing her hands and pick up the call, the person behind the line had not sound like her at all.

"Hello?" she hesitantly greet.

"Is this Ms. Hwang Yunhee I'm speaking to?" the formal tone send a shiver down her spine. Somehow she knew something was wrong.

"Yes, who is this?" she asked, uncertainty lacing her voice.

"We're calling from Seoul University Hospital. There had been a car accident and...."

A/N:
I hope you guys aren't tired yet. I don't know of what measure this spoiler would be but the ending wouldn't make you bite your nails, I promise.