MISSION: Love

+ twenty-nine +

I carefully held a box of fried chicken as I pressed the penthouse passcode. The door opened and revealed Heeseung cleaning the house with a vacuum. I forced out a bright smile and showed him the box, "I brought food!"

He turned off the vacuum cleaner and approached me, "How's work today?"

"It's fine as usual. But I feel like we should celebrate it. So I bought some fried chicken from our favourite store."

He stared at me attentively as I served the food on the coffee table. He knew I was having a bad day but chose not to ask any more questions. I took a deep breath to prevent my tears from falling and clapped my hands, "I can't wait to taste their new flavour!"

He exhaled heavily and put down his chicken on his plate. "Are you sure you're okay?"

I nodded and felt my eyes stinging due to the tears that were threatening to come out. "I'm fine, Heeseung," my voice breaking. "I'm just tired. And all I want is for us to have a happy dinner. Don't mind what happened today. It's fine."

I finally gave up and let the tears trickle down. He immediately scooted closer to me and pulled me into his embrace. I sobbed silently in his arms and let his warmth calm me down.

The memories of Sunghoon sleeping in the same tent as me during camping flooded my mind. How he was keeping me warm due to the cold rain. And how my heart fluttered when I thought I had fallen in love with him.  I tried to shake off the thoughts but failed. I reached my hands to hug Heeseung back and whimpered, feeling my heart breaking over and over again.

He patted my back so tenderly that I felt I was about to go into a deep slumber. I pulled away and wiped my tears, "You can finish all the chicken. I'm going to rest for a while," I said and got up to go straight to my bedroom.

I locked the door and went to the closet. I searched for a bottle of liquor that I hid behind the hanging clothes. I opened the bottle and gulped down the alcohol. 

💌

My head was spinning as I opened my eyes slowly. I realised I was still in the closet with an empty bottle of liquor next to me. I stood and made my way to the bed with weak legs. The clock showed that it was already two in the morning. The house felt empty and silent, signalling that Heeseung had already gone home.

I put on my coat and went out to buy some hangover pills after remembering Heeseung had taken the last one. As I made my way to the pharmacy, I felt my sight becoming blurry and shaking. I held a lamppost and hit my head with my free hand.

"Shit," I cursed under my breath and waited for a while to make the headache go away.

I shouldn't drink a whole bottle of alcohol.

I tried walking again and ended up falling on the ground. I felt myself giving up and just laid there while looking at the stars in the sky.

"You always cry whenever things don't go your way."

"That's what I thought."

"Ugh! I'm so frustrated!"

"You shouldn't sleep on the ground, miss," I heard a voice approaching me. I groaned out of annoyance and saw a familiar man putting out a hand to help me get up. I held it and felt him making me stand up effortlessly.

My eyes widened when I realised it was Jay. He still had no idea who I was. I didn't want him to see me in that depressing state. I looked away and hid my face with my hair.

"Thank you, sir."

I bowed and ran away. "Wait!" I heard him running after me. With my head still spinning, I sprinted as fast as I could, searching for a nearby pharmacy.

"Hana!" He surprised me by calling my name. I was about to stop when I accidentally bumped into a lamppost. I fell to the ground and held my bruised forehead.

"Hana!" He ran towards me and held my forehead, "Are you okay? It's going to leave an awful bruise."

"You knew it was me all along."

"I recognise you by the way you walk. It's still the same since high school," he chuckled and blew on my bruise to make it less painful. And it did help.

I glanced at him and waited as he checked on my purple bruise. He helped me stand up, "Come, I'll treat your bruise."

We went to a pharmacy and I waited for him to buy some medicine to treat my bruise and also hangover pills.

I stared at the lake in front of me as Jay was dabbing medicine on my bruised forehead. "Didn't expect for you to see me while I'm a mess," I breathed out. He laughed and held my hand, feeling it tightening around his as the pain was stinging my forehead.

"You look like you really needed some help."

I rolled my eyes and looked away, "How's Jihu?"

"We broke up five years ago."

"What happened? Did you cheat? Did she cheat? You both can't find some similarities?"

"She left me for a wealthier guy. They're married now."

I looked at him and saw him still smiling but deep down I knew he was in pain as he recalled the sad memory.

"Well, look on the bright side. You don't have to love that bitch anymore."

"You really hate her, huh?" He laughed and put away the medicine. "I don't know. Just trying to comfort you."

"So, how are you? You look like you're doing well."

"Yeah," I nodded, "What about you?"

"I'm a doctor."

"That's great!" I smacked his arm as he chuckled. We both talked about random things and I was surprised I enjoyed his presence that time. To be honest, I needed him to be with me at that time.

Sunghoon

I inhaled my cigarette and blew the smoke out as I admired the lake scenery. I looked around and caught two familiar figures talking while sitting on a bench. My eyes widened when I saw Hana with her forehead bruised, laughing with Jay.

He was carefully treating her bruise as he laughed with her. It felt funny, seeing how she was talking to the person that made her feel bad and cry every night. I chuckled and threw the cigarette on the ground.

Watching them wasted my time. I stormed back to my car and drove away from there.