The Way to a Man's Heart

Chapter 9

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Also, I would like to credit the ideas for this chapter to reader @pg0004. Thank you so much for sharing them with me.

Dome's POV

"I love you, Dome," Tae whispered into my ears during that one hot unforgettable night.

His confession shocked me to the core, but I think I was able to do my best to hide it.

"Don't" was the first word that came out of my mouth after my initial shock.

Of course I couldn't blame Tae for looking hurt. He had just poured out his soul to me. My rejection must have hurt like hell.

"What do you mean 'don't'?" he asked.

I turned my face away. The pain in his eyes was too much for me to handle.

He grabbed my face and jerked it roughly back to him.

"I asked you a question, Dome," he said, his voice gruff with the pain. "Answer me."

How could I tell him? How could I tell him that, even though I felt the same for him, being with him was a losing proposition. My parents had already made plans for me to spend two years in the UK to do apprentice work for my uncle in his real estate company in Yorkshire.

I was not into long distance relationships. I had seen so many relationships fail because of being apart physically for a long period of time. My own uncle was a prime example. After he had left for the UK to start his business there, his very own fiancee cheated on him with his best friend. He had been devastated and had cancelled the wedding plans. Did I want the same thing to happen to me? Hell to the NO.

I was jolted from my thoughts when Tae suddenly got up from the bed and started to put his clothes back on.

"Fine, don't answer me," he had said, still in that very hurt tone of voice. "I am going to sleep in the couch in the living room. You can make yourself comfortable on this bed for the night. If I'm still asleep when you wake up in the morning, just see yourself out."

With those words, he stormed out of the room and I was left with my thoughts, unable to sleep for the rest of the night.

Of course I had eventually caved and against my better judgment I had agreed to be his official boyfriend. Who could resist his charms? Not me of course.

He had promised me that we would keep in touch daily and would do a video call every night in spite of the difference in time zones. We had faithfully done so until close to the end of the second year of my apprenticeship abroad.

It was not a sudden change on his part. But the excuses for not being available for our nightly video calls became more and more frequent. Like a fool I fell for his excuses every single time. He was so good at hiding the fact that he had been seeing someone else. The shock of finding out that I had been replaced by someone else was too much for me to handle. I came back to my Yorkshire apartment every night after work dead drunk. During my drinking sessions with my coworkers I vowed that I would forget Tae and would never get involved with anyone again.

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"Dome?" my father's voice jerked me back to the present.

"Huh?" I felt my cheeks reddening at getting caught at straying from my conversation with my father.

"So will you help save our family business?" he asked, looking expectantly at me.

I hung my head.

"I can't do it, Father," I replied, my voice barely above a whisper.

"Damn it, son!' my father bellowed, his fist making a big angry sound as it made contact with the surface of his chocolate brown mahogany desk. "Do you want our business, our livelihood, to crumble to nothingness?"

"There must be some other way, Father," I pleaded.

"Tell me," he said. "Tell me what other way is possible. My ears are open."

I sunk into the sofa that was in one corner of his office.

"Whose idea was it in the first place?" I asked.

"Mr. Kreepolrerk's son, Tae," my father replied, watching me closely for my reaction.

"All the more reason for me not to fall in with your plan," I said resolutely.