Sky High

Bursts

             ⚠️ Mild mature scene ahead ⚠️
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Yoon Se Ri

If we're talking about silence, there's one that makes you uncomfortable – one that makes you feel like you have to break it because it makes you itchy – and there's one that makes you comfortable. One where you feel your surrounding is alive trying to tell you what they feel.

This silence from my mother is none of those two. It's loaded with fertile silence of awareness. Like she's computing what she thought she knew and what's being revealed now. Seeing her face though, ease my anxiousness. Her gaze at me is intense, but not judging. It spells kindness and understanding.

Somehow that makes me even more nervous. I mean... that look kind of saying she knew all this time. And that doesn't make sense.

Now, the silence becomes unbearable for me. Like I wanna rush her to say something. Anything. Just so I can tell her more about my relationship with Jeong Hyeok.

But I'm not. The very least I can do after dropping this kind of bomb is to give her time.

"Is this the same Ri Jeong Hyeok that I know? Your late husband's brother?" She asks me softly.

I nod. "He is, yes."

She's back to her silence. Measuring what she should say next.

"What, Eomma? What are you thinking?" I push her a little.

"He was always so good to us. To you. Even when you were married to his brother."

"He was."

"When you stayed here – when they were on that fateful mission and then after the crash – he called here a few times."

"What?" It was news to me. God, I remembered waiting him to call and nothing.

"He was always respectful. Asking how we were. I knew the most important information he needed but couldn't asked. Even after your husband died, he never blatantly asked about you.

"But I told him about you. About your work, about your routine, about you seeing therapist. Things about your life. But the call stops. About four... or five months ago. I thought he finally moves on."

"He called you to ask about me? Why didn't you say anything?" She looks at me and smiles sadly. "How could I? You were married, Se Ri-ah."

Yeah, there's that tiny detail.

"When he didn't show up here after the crash, I thought... well, it was unconventional and may be less ideal because he was your brother in law, but the tiniest part of me wanted him to be here. Helping you get through the toughest time of your life. But since he wasn't..."

"I thought he would never act on his feelings."

Huh?

What?

"What do you mean?"

"I thought he would continue his stance on this. Loving you from afar, if that terms is right. He is so good at that."

"I don't understand."

"That man loves you so much, he picked me up back and forth for 8 weeks, remember? If you think that was because his brother asked him – nonsense – it was you he was thinking of."

What can I do to make you more comfortable?

That sentiment from him echoes again in my mind. Seems like everyone can see that he loves me. Except me.