Landing in Your Inbox

86.5 - ebb and flow

Disclaimer: It's a point 5. You guys get the drill. The episode contains mature situations and themes. Reader discretion is advised. This is another supplemental episode and you can choose to skip to the next one.

March 28, 2021 10:38 PM
Cafe Badalo, Gangneung, 3rd floor

It would have been symphonic if the night progressed without an intermission. But the ever perceptive Jeong-hyeok already caught some potential distractions and he decided to get those out of the way.

First things first he deposited Seri to bed, then he gently untangled himself much to the heiress's protests. But they died down as soon as Seri had seen him open the lamp and pull the thick drapes close, shuttering their windows from outside view--including the neighboring police training center. As he made his checks, Seri loosened her hair bun, letting her locks bounce down her shoulder.

She checked herself in the long oval mirror, considered where to part her hair until Jeong-hyeok blocked her view.

"What are you doing?"

"Fixing my hair, so I don't look like a madwoman."

"So what if you do?" Jeong-hyeok sat at the edge of the bed beside her.

Seri narrowed her eyebrows. "Don't you care if your girlfriend looks crazy?"

"First of all, you don't." He replied. "Second, there's only two of us."

"You shouldn't say that." Seri continued minding her hair. "I have to look pretty all the time so you won't get tired of me."

Jeong-hyeok stopped her hand from touching her hair. "It will be morning when you're done." He chose to part her hair somewhere near the middle but not quite on it, a natural, effortlessly stylish division. Seri couldn't be more wrong, she could wake up next to him every day with her hair in wild disarray and she would still take his breath away.

Seri was enamored with how he paid attention to her and was careful that he didn't yank her hair too hard. If she thought too hard about how caring he was three months into their relationship, she could cry on the spot. Previous experiences taught her that horns would already start to grow by that time frame.

If anything, she was only discovering what a rare breed he was every single day. This was the same man who was choking back and fighting tears hours ago when she left for the shower. She stayed by the hallway to listen to him apologize to his absent brother over and over again. He had been through so much pain and she never wanted him to go through that again.

She wanted him close, she touched the hem of his shirt lightly pulling it up. Jeong-hyeok took the cue to take off the sweater, leaving his black undershirt behind. She crept closer so her knees could touch his thighs. Her arms encircled around his neck, hugging him fiercely, wanting to keep him there.

Jeong-hyeok put her head down to his shoulder, smoothing her hair, pressing her smaller frame tight against him. For all her worries and anxieties in the past weeks, she could finally feel at ease, safe in his harbor. He made it his personal mission to remind her of that. Seri had been lonely for most of her life and Jeong-hyeok was starting to think it would also take a lifetime to convince her that she was loved. It was a challenge he accepted.

They could stay in that embrace and go to bed and that would be okay. But Seri thought back to the jet contrails she saw earlier that day and the man she held in her arms. He would be gone soon and she was already missing him.

So no, she would not go straight to bed yet. She wanted them to be on the here and now and make time pass as slowly as possible...while taking something from him and giving something from her. Something they could pack away in their memories for the quieter nights that would follow.