✓ READY TO LOVE | JAKE

22 - Happiness Is A Butterfly

"Why did you call me?" Sunghoon stepped into the garden as his gaze landed on Jake, sitting alone. 

"I want to talk to you." He said and patted the place next to him before Sunghoon sat down.

"What do you want to talk about? I'm listening."

"Soo Yun." He said. "She turned out to be such an amazing person... She makes me so happy and I think I fell-"

"In love with her? I told you, she's indeed amazing." He ts-ked.

"You're not surprised? Maybe mad or worried? I don't know." Jake frowned as he folded his arms over his chest.

"Honestly, I would have been surprised if you didn't have feelings for her. I knew it since you started smiling a lot whenever she was around. And why would I be mad? You're my friend, I trust you and I believe that Soo Yun is the happiest with you. I think... more than she ever was with me."

"I'm glad you think of me that way. I always saw you as someone reliable and kind too, since the days back when we were studying."

"I never thought that one day you'd fall for my sister."

"I never knew you had a sister, to begin with."

Sunghoon nodded. "Fair enough."

"So..." Jake looked down at his hands. "I actually don't know if I want to date her or just marry her."

That made Sunghoon laugh. "Let me get married first and then you do whatever you want." The two of them fell into silence as they stared at the stars. "Soo Yun is my only family left... Me getting married in a few weeks and her finding someone to love... it makes me quite sad."

"I promise to make her happy." Jake gave him a reassuring smile and Sunghoon scoffed.

"You better do."

"Hm. So," Jake stood up. "I'll go see her."

With Sunghoon nodding, he left the garden and stepped out of Jay's cottage to take a walk with Soo Yun and talk about everything going on. But he couldn't find Soo Yun, and the only person he could find was her.

"Jake," Nabi called, making him stop in his tracks. "Are you okay?"

"I am. Thank you for your concern." He muttered and was about to walk away when he grabbed his wrist.

"Then why are you avoiding me?" Apparently, she still had the audacity to ask him that. "You're still angry. You still love me, you're just filling that void by spending time with-"

"Nabi." Turning around, Jake slowly grabbed her hand as he made her let go of him. "You know I used to love you too much, but honestly, I can't find any feelings towards you right now."

"You're lying."

"I moved on, Nabi. You're standing right in front of me but all I can think about is her. She worries me, but you don't anger me anymore." He smiled and let go of her hand before he started walking away.

"You must think that I'm a lying bitch, but Soo Yun is no better than me," Nabi said but Jake just walked away. "She's lying to you!"

Sighing heavily, he ran his fingers through his hair as he turned and walked towards her. "What did she lie about? Tell me. Is she cheating on me just like you did? Is she deceiving me while I'm blindly in love with her-"

"The letters," Looking at him in disbelief, she scoffed. "I never wrote you letters, Jake. I was never able to do that, because I never really felt that much love to waste my time on a few worthless words just to please you."

"Oh." He let out as he frowned, eyes glistening. "So you didn't write those letters."

"I didn't. But Soo Yun did." She muttered, breaking Jake's heart even more. He could have felt happy that it was Soo Yun, the girl he's so in love with, who wrote them. But he didn't, he just felt pathetic.

"Great." He said sarcastically as he scoffed. "You know what? I don't think I ever loved you the way I love Soo Yun now, because even though I'm angry, I'm still reminding myself that I love her, more than anything and anyone. Something that you have failed to achieve even after we dated for two fucking years. But I let you hurt me more than I deserved because I loved you more than you deserved."

"Jake-" She called, eyes red. Deep down, she missed everything about him. And even when she was dating Dae Jung, she always saw glimpses of Jake in his eyes.

"I don't hate you, Nabi. But I've lost all my respect for you and have nothing to say to you anymore." Jake said and turned around, leaving her standing there as a single tear fell down her cheek. 

But he could care less, all he needed right then was to see Soo Yun and talk to her. He had to know if what Nabi said was true. Because if Soo Yun was indeed the one who wrote those letters, he would feel like a piece of shit.

And right when he looked up, he spotted her leaning on a short-brick-wall. She looked sad, or upset or mad. Jake couldn't tell. But as he approached her, he noticed that she was crying.

"Soo Yun." He called as he walked towards her, and at the sight of him, she gulped. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She smiled, eyes slightly red. "What are you up t-"

"I talked to Nabi." He said, leaning on the wall too. There was this silence surrounding them as she stared at him, afraid of what he would say next. Because she knew exactly what happened. Because she was there when Nabi told him the truth, but when she couldn't listen to them anymore, she just left.

Looking away as her eyes brimmed with tears, she sighed heavily. "I-"

"Were you the one who wrote the letters Nabi gave me?" He asked, not looking at her. 

"Yes." Soo Yun muttered and looked down at her fidgeting fingers as she bit her lip in nervousness. "I wrote them."

Jake just nodded and closed his eyes as he sighed, not a heavy one nor a sigh of relief, just in between. "Where you ever going to tell me?"

"I thought that if I just didn't mention it, neither of us will have to hurt... like now." Looking at him with teary eyes, she shook her head. "I didn't want to lie to you, Jake, but I-"

"But you lied." He simply said and smiled bitterly, as if he was done with everything. "You said that Nabi was the one who wrote them and that made me a little happier because I thought that at some point, she loved me enough to write love letters to me. But that happiness just flew away the moment I realized that she couldn't even think of something to write to her once lover... that the florist wrote them instead, and that they're just meaningless and empty words."

"But they're not meaningless." She argued back, trying to stop the tears from falling down her cheeks. "I thought that the Sim Jake that Nabi couldn't write genuine love letters to deserved to be loved, so I just loved him. I loved you way before you know, Jake. And those words aren't just empty, I wrote them for you."

Jake looked down, his fists tightening. "I love you, Soo Yun. I'm probably going to act like the worst asshole and say something I don't mean, that I'll regret for the rest of my life... I don't want you to see that side of me. And because I love you, I will leave you alone."

With that, he slowly turned around and just walked away.