Eyes Full Of Stars || Park Sunghoon

14 ¦ Lonely

Sunghoon looks at my body extensively before his golden eyes linger on the bruises on my ribs. His face does not reflect any emotion. Instead, he silently surveys the discoloration caused by my father's kicks.

"Say something," I murmur softly. "What do you want me to say?", Sunghoon wants to know from me of all people, looking me in the eye again with raised eyebrows.

Sobbing, I tie the ribbons back into a bow and wipe away the tears that are making their way down my face with the back of my hand before I turn away from Sunghoon and want to storm out of the living room. But suddenly I feel his hand grab mine and pull me back to him.

"I really want to be alone right now," I say softly, avoiding looking Sunghoon in the eye. He runs his fingers over my blue-stained cheekbone. "I don't know what to say to that," Sunghoon begins quietly, his chest rising and falling erratically.

"There was a clear agreement between your father and me," Sunghoon begins in a serious voice and turns away from me, shaking his head, stroking his chin with one hand and clenching the other into a fist at his side.

"What kind of deal?", I want to know. "It's none of your business," Sunghoon replies with a dismissive wave of his hand and paces the room angrily, keeping his eyes fixed on the floor at all times.

"I'm being forced to marry you and just leave my whole life behind as if it never existed.... But it's none of my business?", I ask, upset, tears welling up in my eyes. "My father never beat me until you suddenly show up and demand that I marry you just like that."

Furious, I lunge at Sunghoon and slap his hard chest with my hands before he grabs me by the wrists and pushes me against the window.

"You're the reason my life has turned into pure hell!", I angrily accuse Sunghoon, tightly squinting my eyes from which tears are making their way down my face.

Sunghoon still presses me against the window and I feel his fingers continue to grip my wrists. "You treat me like an object that you can just push around as you like. However, you forget that I am only a human being.... I had friends, plans for the future. You and the selfish father I have, have robbed me of all that!"

"Dolores..." continues Sunghoon. "There is nothing you could do to ever make me love an ignorant, selfish asshole like you!", I interrupt Sunghoon before he even has a chance to say what he wants to say.

Immediately, Sunghoon lets go of me and takes a few steps back. His golden eyes scrutinize me expressionlessly before he turns his back on me.

My chest rises and falls erratically as I watch Sunghoon silently carry our luggage, which is still in the entry, upstairs.

Although my father will definitely disapprove of my behavior and punish me when he finds out about it, it has done incredible good to let out all those pent-up negative feelings. Let Sunghoon call my father and tell him about my inappropriate behavior. There's nothing left for me to lose anyway.

About fifteen minutes later, I hear Sunghoon coming down the stairs again. By now I'm sitting on a small armchair right by the window, watching the seagulls circling in the sky. I wonder how it feels to be a bird. Free and independent. The feeling of freedom seems so foreign and untouchable to me.

I avoid looking in Sunghoon's direction and even when he comes to a stop right next to me, I don't look at him. "I spoke to your father on the phone," Sunghoon informs me.

Now I do look at Sunghoon and my eyes widen in surprise when I realize he is standing in front of me dressed only in swim shorts with a beach towel tucked under his arm.

"What did you tell him?", I ask, trying not to let my panic show. "I told him we arrived safely," he replies, shrugging his shoulders. "And what else?", I want to know.

"You ask too many questions," Sunghoon sighs in annoyance, glancing out the window. "I'm going to go swimming now." He then opens the patio door.

Surreptitiously, I watch him spread his beach sheet on the light sand near the water before walking to the water and entering it. When he is about up to his belly button in water, he finally submerges before emerging from the water a few seconds later.

I think about the words I threw at Sunghoon. That he was an ignorant, selfish asshole and that he destroyed my life. It may be true, but if I'm honest, my life wasn't any better before.

Although I had all these plans in my head, hardly any of them would have come true. For the studies, which I hoped to start next summer at the university in Madrid, I have already applied this year and received a rejection, because I was exposed to so many mean things from my classmates in the last year of my graduation, which is why my grades suffered.

Yeosang, who I thought really liked me, turned out to be a vindictive liar.

And last but not least, there is my father, who has never really been there for me when I needed him.

Sunghoon, on the other hand, has played with his cards on the table from the very beginning. In addition, his life doesn't seem to be exactly dazzling either.

At only 16, he lost his father and almost his own life in a serious traffic accident. He then had to be rehabilitated and, at the age of just 21, took over his father's legacy and turned it into one of the most influential companies on the market today.

Sunghoon must have put all his time and heart and soul into it. Maybe Sunghoon isn't the ignorant, selfish asshole I think he is. Maybe he's just lonely.

A/N: And maybe he needs someone to love him like he deserves it