In Between Heartbreaks » TaeRoseKook

I

Chaeyoung stared intently at her phone, willing for it to ring. She looked antsy as she repeatedly checked the time. Feeling dejected, she gulped down what’s left of her last glass of wine. She was about to rise from her table when a waiter approached her with a bouquet in hand.

She immediately beamed upon receiving the bouquet. She settled to examine the flowers, eyeing a mix of purple hyacinth, asphodel and cyclamen. She looked alarmed as she cautiously picked the card inserted between the flowers. When she read it, her eyes welled up with anguish tears.

She laggardly walked her way to the restroom. Attempting to compose herself, she bitterly wiped away her tears and touched up her appearance. When she went out of the restroom, she dithered about going back for the bouquet she left on the table.

She eventually went back to the table to get the bouquet. But when she was about to grab it, her hand stopped short. Instead, she tucked a bill under it as payment for the wine before storming out of the restaurant.

She stopped by a convenience store on her way home. She bought a bottle of wine, wishing to drown her sorrows with alcohol. When she got home, she carefully concealed the wine as she rushed up the stairs to go to her room. She went back down to get water from the kitchen where she found her mother washing the dishes. She hugged her mother from the back which startled her mother.

“What is this?” Her mother asked.

“Nothing. Am I not allowed to hug my own mother now?”

Her mother turned to face Chaeyoung, “Alright. So how was your date?”

Chaeyoung froze at the question. Putting on a forced smile, she impassively answered, “It was great!”

She then moved to pour herself a glass of cold water, wanting to calm her nerves. Before her mother can ask her more about the supposed date, she excused herself feigning a headache. She skedaddled with the practically empty glass in hand.

Chaeyoung collapsed on her bed, exhausted and gloomy. She emptied the glass she brought from the kitchen to replace the contents with the wine she bought. She filled the glass to the brim before drinking it all at once. Discontented, she put the glass down and drank straight from the bottle instead. As she was slugging the wine down, fresh tears started to pour down her face. Unable to hold it together any longer, she freely wailed out muffling the sound with a pillow. She unceasingly cried till she fell asleep hugging the now empty wine bottle.

The next morning, Chaeyoung woke up with a heavy hangover. She wanted to skip work because she was not feeling well. But considering the fact that she just started her dream job as a marketing specialist at Hephaestus Furniture Inc. last week, she cannot afford to be absent. Intending to make a good impression at her new company, she needed to show up no matter how she was feeling that day. Thus she prepared to go to work shiftlessly dragging her feet around her room. She put on her makeup in such a way that her listless face will be overlooked.

Chaeyoung was having a hard time at work because memories of Taehyung kept haunting her. When she was using the photocopier, she suddenly remembered how Taehyung voluntarily accompanied her whenever she needed photocopies for their thesis paper back in college. Then upon seeing the virtually empty vending machine in the rest room, she remembered a time when Taehyung had to embarrass himself buying sanitary napkin for her because she belatedly realize that she had menstruation and the vending machine in the restroom was already emptied.

Even looking at a whiteboard in their office reminded Chaeyoung of the times when Taehyung tutored her concerning her accounting class. Chaeyoung was already on her last straw when while playfully brushing her feet under the table, she remembered an instance when Taehyung bought her socks because her new shoes were hurting her feet. Frustrated at herself, she took off her socks and threw them in the garbage bin. Then she hurriedly went to the restroom and cried out her fury.