Thy Art | Park Seonghwa

2.2

When Yunhee left, Seonghwa had told himself multiple times, how he'd love again. He'd fall in love again somewhere along the lines with another girl and he'll wake up one day, realizing just how happy he was even without the presence of the former. He had hoped to fall for Son Eunji when the engagement happened.

But there he was, 2 years after the engagement and 5 years after Hwang Yunhee left him to pick up the pieces of his shattered heart. There he was, finding himself still madly in love with her. And as he watched her shake the lunchbox in her hands, struggling to not let it spill, he knew there was no way he could've loved someone else.

Seonghwa was willing to let go off the last piece of hope he had to have her back in his arms, if he could see her smile before him again. He was willing to become merely a friend, if with that, she'll stay by his side without having to feel like she's carrying the weight of her guilt. Because after what felt like forever, he could be with her, and not sense how thick the air has become.

"Don't you think we ordered too much?" she asked as all the food was served on the table. There was a plate of cutlet, a pot of ramen and each of them had a lunchbox for themselves.

"I think we did," he chuckled, "it's fine though, if we eat slowly, I'm sure we'll empty these pot and plate." And he was right. Though it took them nearly 2 hours, by the end of it, the ramen was finished, so was the cutlet and the lunchbox was empty. Both of them leaned back as they felt like their stomach was about to burst.

Yunhee found herself still being a little wary around the man sitting across. She had tried her best to not look like she still felt some kind of guilt but as much as she tried pushing it away, it was all too heavy. That was probably why, almost close to no words were uttered as they both chow down their food. But this was certainly an improvement for her relationship with Seonghwa.

"I'll go and pay, wait here, okay?" the lass had wanted to object, she wanted to pay at least half of the meal they ate, at least the portion she had, but the man had quickly stood up and went over to the cashier. All she could do was wait like how he told her to.

They were both ready to leave by the time Seonghwa finished paying but was stopped when from the door, came in a woman with nude heels and red bag. The two piece of clothing had been easy for the lad to recognize and as he did, a small groan of frustration left his lips. Yunhee was slightly confused but as she followed his line of sight and found Son Eunji walking towards their table, she could only mentally curse in her head.

The first thing Eunji did as she reached their spot was link her arms with Seonghwa before kissing him on the cheeks, "surprise." He was not able to greet her as her sudden action had took him by surprise. She has never done something like this in public before but the fact that Hwang Yunhee stood less than a meter away from her fiancé, must've stirred something inside her. "Oh? Yunhee, it's you."

The said girl wanted to scoff at how fake that sounded but she knew, she was the one who went to eat lunch with someone else's fiancé so all she could do was give her an equally fake smile before greeting her back. "It's been a while, Eunji."

"Did you two have a good catch-up session?" she was straight to the point with whatever was inside her head. There wasn't a moment of 'oh yeah, it has been awhile, how have you been?' exchanged between the two lass. None of them she mentioned had able to answer her though. They saw her eyes darting back and forth between them before smiling again at the lass, "if you're done, I would appreciate it if you'd leave me with my fiancé for a moment." Seonghwa was about to say something but before he could, Eunji was already pushing a wad of cash towards Yunhee, "here's the money for the cab."

Yunhee pushed her hand back, knowing how if she took the money, Son Eunji will look down on her even more than she had already. "Thank you but I have enough cash for a cab back," she said with a smile, "I'll see you back at the office, Mr. Park," she bowed slightly at the both of them. Seonghwa opened her mouth to call out to her but in a rush, she had turned away and walked towards the door. And there goes the first day of him trying to better their relationship.

"You couldn't just wait in my office?" he said immediately to the lass who still had her arms wrapped around his, "you had to show up here? And how did you manage to know where I'm at?"

Two years and that was the first time Seonghwa had ever sounded like that. That was the first time he ever talked to her with such a tone and it was all because of Hwang Yunhee. "You told me to have faith in you. How can I when you're literally having lunch with ONLY her and no one else?" her volume was raised, catching the attention of some others sitting inside.

"Don't do that, you're embarrassing yourself," the lad said, "let's not argue here."

"Oh, so you want to argue with me? Why are you suddenly like this huh?"

Seonghwa walked pass her, heading towards the door. He knew she was startled by how he was just going to leave her there. She followed suit from behind and once they were out, he turned around to face her. "Look, I was just having lunch with a friend and-."

"A friend?" Eunji cut him off as she scoffed, "yeah, right."

Seonghwa ran his fingers through his hair, not knowing what the girl standing before him really wants him to say. "She's a friend, Ji. She really is." When she stayed quiet, he took her hand in his, making her look at him before pushing his query, "don't you trust me?"

Eunji bit her bottom lip. She wanted to shake her head no but that would prolong the scene the were making and people walking by were already staring, but yes would be a lie. Nonetheless she chose to answer with the latter as she could only regret ever showing up to the restaurant. She had expected him to react in a different way, convincing her with all his might and telling her the only one he loved was only her but even at times like these, he wouldn't use the word with her.

"I don't have any meeting scheduled for today, so we can go out for dinner. How does that sound?"

A/N:
To everyone reading, I promise you a better chapter tomorrow. And good job for surviving the week!