A Second Chance / lee jaehwan (#13)

Chapter 17

HeeYeon

Dinner was finished in 20 minutes and I was heading to the bookstore to purchase more books and also to look at the new releases that they have every week, I wore my slippers and Halmeoni was passing by the living room at the same time. "Buying books again? Do you even read them in the first place?"

"Do I seem that stupid to you? Do you want any new cookbooks?"

She took 4000 yen from her wallet and passed it to me. "Buy me two and keep the change." I took the money and looked around for Lee JaeHwan. Right, he said that he is outside taking a walk around the park.

Just now during dinner, he looked like he has something to say to me but didn't want to mention anything, maybe I can ask him about it if I happened to see him around since we are living in such a small town.

I arrived at the bookstore and they were almost closing. "Welcome!"

"Welcome!" I greeted them back and went to my favorite aisle, the new releases section. I took two books from the shelf as usual and walked over to the cookbook section where there are tons of cookbooks.

There is a tall guy arguing with the poor staff who is trying to explain the difference between one cookbook and the other. "No, I just want one." He spoke in broken Japanese and I knew who he is by that voice.

Lee JaeHwan. "I know that you can't just take pictures of all the other recipes if you aren't buying." She explained.

"Take what?" I sighed, this kid is going to cause so much trouble. I took the cookbook from his hand and apologized to the staff. "Ahn HeeYeon, why are you here?" He asked me and I just apologized to the staff.

"Sorry, my friend here is not very good in Japanese and might not have understood your kind intentions. What was he trying to do?"

"He came in and took pictures of all the cookbooks with his phone and he is not even buying it, these are the new cookbooks that were going on sale tomorrow and I don't want him to spoil it to other people. Did he not see that there is a sign over there at the entrance not to take any pictures?"

Ah, he must not have seen the sign... "I will tell him about that and you can go back to what you are doing," I told her and apologized once again before she sighed.

"Please do so, I thought that I was going to do something that I would regret." She said and left the two of us.

"What did she say?" JaeHwan ssi asked the staff is out of sight.

"Nothing, she is just afraid that you might reveal too much about the new cookbooks. They will be selling it tomorrow so the staff didn't want you to give spoilers."

"Did I ever say that I want to let everyone know about it?" He grumbled like a little kid. "I just don't want to spend too much money on cookbooks, plus there is no cost involved when you take photos."

"I know but don't do such a thing in bookstores, especially this one as they wanted to be as mysterious at all times," I explained to him. "Got it?"

He nodded and looked at the books that I am holding onto. "You're buying books as well?"

"Of course, and two cookbooks for my grandmother." I took two cookbooks for my grandmother from the new series. We paid for it and we are walking back to the place that I called home for the past 3 years but he went into the opposite direction instead, heading to the park.

I was going to ask him but I figured that maybe he has something to tell me and doesn't want anyone else to know about it, he let out a long sigh after a minute of silence between the two of you. "Do you know that my trip here is planned?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe? I don't know about that and I'm surprised that you knew where I lived."

There are plenty of people here in Furano which they accept tenants but why did he choose to stay with my grandmother and me? "I spent 3 years tracking you down and I'm glad that I am done with it."

Did he knew what happened to me? I felt my body tense up a little. "For what?" I tried to deny the fact that I came all the way to hide from reality.

"Go back to Seoul, your mother misses you."

I let out a laugh, a mocking one. He has been bribed by my family. "How much did she even pay you to do that?"

"I bought them coffee and they told me the whole story about you running away from the wedding." He confessed and I wanted to run away.

Why did Omma and Oe Samchon tell him about that? "So they pleaded me to find you and bring you back to them, that's the reason why I am here." He finally looked at me in the eye.

I clenched my fists, trying to calm myself down. Why must he... Why must he do this to me right now? "Move out by the first time in the morning, I'll explain about that to Halmeoni later."

"I'm not going to unless you are going back with me. Ahn HeeYeon, you made them dead worried about you. They even thought that you were dead."

"Then let them think it that way, I don't care if they want me back or not. I am just going to stay here forever."

"Ahn HeeYeon!"

"Lee JaeHwan... I really regretted knowing you as a person." I said tears forming in my eyes. "I should've treated you like an idiot back then..." I walked away and ignored his endless calling of my name. When I thought that he was a nice person, instead he stabbed me in the back. Since 3 years ago.