There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Seventy-Five

'Are you sure?' Hitomi asked from her perch on the edge of the bed. Rose was curling her hair carefully in the mirror, her back rigidly straight and thoroughly exposed in a low dress which draped around her slim frame elegantly. It was the first time Hitomi had ever seen her friend in such formal attire and, honestly, she'd hoped that when Rose did finally find the confidence to make the most of the body she'd been blessed with, it would be for something far more worth remembering than the night she publicly dumped a celebrity.

It was fair to say that Rose's mother Lily had high hopes that her daughter would be moving in high-class circles while abroad. While most of her daughter's luggage consisted of jeans and t-shirts, Lily had slipped in a few Silver Lilies designs with matching shoes. The hope that her child might suddenly transform into a swan and step out in them was a vain one, but Lily knew that a taste for fashion ran in the women in their family, and she wasn't about to stop trying to capture her daughter's interest and lure her into the family business.

In this case, the navy a-line chiffon gown with a halter neck had appealed to Rose, not because it was a gorgeously elegant and dramatic piece which hugged the waist and floated gracefully with every confident stride she took, but because it was a show-stopping and memorable piece. Even if she was about to dump Tae-won, she wanted him to remember her above all the other women who'd walked into his life, and that she did honestly love him before she'd come to realise just how bad they were for one another.

Selfish, perhaps, but the idea that he wouldn't forget their time together was the only thing that gave her the confidence to end things now, because she wanted to be imprinted on his heart as much as he was on hers.

Rose didn't reply until she'd finished perfecting the final ebony curl. She switched off the tongs and slipped them back inside of their heat-proof jacket before reaching for the mascara. 'I'm sure. If I don't do it now, I'll keep putting it of until we're at the airport and he's telling me that he'll see me in Tokyo.'

'There's nothing wrong with that,' Hitomi said. 'I know I keep telling you to dump him and this makes me seem like a total hypocrite, but if you know that you're going to split when we leave anyway, is there any point in doing this early?'

Taking a deep breath, Rose turned in her seat. Her expression was pained – tormented – and it wasn't at all the look of a girl at peace with her decision. 'If I wait and he does or says something kind to me before we go, I'll never be able to leave him. I can't think straight when I'm around him. When I look at Tae-won I can see a future, but it's not a future I want. I see him hiding me away and wrapping me up in cotton wool like I'm breakable and never letting me do anything for myself.'

'That's not always a bad thing, though, right?' Hitomi asked. 'I mean, obviously when it's Tae-won it's always a bad thing because he sucks. We both know that. But wanting to protect another person isn't the worst thing in the world.'

'It is for people like us, 'Tomi,' Rose said quietly. 'We cut ourselves off from everyone because it's easier than trusting people. I mean, name one person we were friends with in school that we honestly, genuinely liked completely and spent time with.'

Hitomi opened her mouth and promptly closed it. Rose could almost hear memories replaying like an old cine-film reel in her head as she raced through their time in school, searching desperately for a single person from outside of their tight social circle who'd made a lasting impression and proven to be a decent human being.

'See?' Rose asked after giving Hitomi sufficient time to reach the same conclusion. 'You're going to meet so many new people in university and make hundreds of new friends just by being yourself. If I hole up in Tae-won's apartment and make him my whole world and do everything my parents tell me to do then my life would be way, way easier for me. I'll never have to try hard at anything or think for myself ever again. But... what kind of a life is that?'