Hye-jae - Book 1: New Beginnings

Sweet Reunion Part 3

Seated in the taxi, the golden sun streaming inside, Seon-jae and Hye-won didn't speak very much.  After a few quiet questions from Seon-jae - 'are you tired?..are you hungry?' - to which Hye-won just smiled and briefly shook her head, - they leaned back against the taxi seat for the journey.  Seon-jae had not let go of Hye-won's hand even for a moment and their hands were clasped together between them on the seat.  After a couple of minutes when the driver was occupied with the growing traffic, Seon-jae pulled Hye-won's hand into his lap and placed his other hand around hers too.  He moved his body so that theirs were touching all along each other.  So often when watching him play, Hye-won had noted how large his hands were - long, strong fingers and broad knuckles.  She had told him how lucky a trait this was for a pianist but she was struck anew at how massive his hands were in comparison to hers.  His hands are so warm around mine.  And so soft too.  Were they always like this?  She let her eyes just rest on this sight now.  It filled her up somehow, that even on this car journey, with just his hands, he was encircling and protecting her.  

Seon-jae, after his initial quiet questions and after taking Hye-won's hand in both of his, remained still, silent.   To the driver, it might have seemed that he was merely calmly watching the traffic out of the window but Seon-jae's heart was pounding loudly and his breath was heavy in his chest.  She's here.  She's here with me.  He had to keep reassuring himself that he wasn't dreaming, with gentle strokes of her hand with his thumb and pressure from his encircling fingers.  He kept his eyes to the front windscreen for the first part of the journey, as he struggled to stay calm.  He was acutely conscious of where her shoulder, arm, side and thigh pressed along his.  Her warmth was impossible to ignore, his body wouldn't let him.  Still though she was, he could feel the strength in her, the vitality of her.  The feelings intensified within him til he could no longer help himself and turned his head towards her.  She felt the movement and turned her head towards him.  Their eyes locked again, as they had in the airport.  The response Seon-jae felt was as strong as before.  His tongue was dry, his pulse raced.  

'I..., I'm...'

Seon-jae tried to speak then, to tell Hye-won how precious this moment was and how much he had longed for her to arrive, even how excited he was that she was here with him now but the power of her eyes on his and the strength of the feelings that her look rose in him made it impossible for him to express these thoughts clearly.  When he really looked at Hye-won now, her eyes tenderly spoke to him -  I know how deeply you are feeling this.  I feel the same - they seemed to say and this reassured him.  He moved even closer to her again and lifted her hand to his lips to place a long, tender kiss along her ring finger.  I'm never letting you go again.  No matter what happens from this day, we are together.

For her part, Hye-won struggled to remain calm.  All through the plane journey and disembarkation, she worried that there had been an error, an oversight on the lawyer's part in the release documents, additional charges trumped up by the opposing side that she didn't know of, anything that would delay and prevent her from leaving Korea and joining Seon-jae in Germany.  When the plane landed, she almost expected to see armed police board the plane to take her into custody.  Again at customs, her expectation was for a refusal even though her lawyer had repeatedly reassured her that all necessary paperwork had been completed.   The customs official checked everything thoroughly but after just a couple of minutes, nodded cursorily and looked to the next person.  Walking through the exit gate had felt unreal, like a scene from a movie.  Still she expected a tap on the shoulder, a shout - stop.  Nothing.  Then she saw him.

Seon-jae.

His beauty struck her forcibly.  He was unmissable.  His tall frame and wide shoulders made him stand out in any crowd but his face was the most remarkable.  Large, dark-fringed eyes and chiselled cheeks.  Full, sensual lips and straight, strong teeth.  Skin sun-darkened to a honey brown.  An all-over buzz cut emphasising that strong jaw line.   Hye-won's breath stopped in her throat and she jerked to a halt.  He hasn't seen me yet.  God, he is so beautiful.  I almost forgot how...

Her thoughts were interrupted as Seon-jae's eyes fell on hers and she saw his intense reaction on recognising her.  He looked as if a physical jolt ran through him, then all motion ceased and he just held her eyes intensely.  She couldn't have said if it were a few seconds or longer for in that moment, she was unaware of anything but his eyes on her and her breath held like a secret within her.  How he closed the distance between them, she couldn't say, only that he was suddenly right there in front of her, saying her name over and over.  'Hye-won.  Hye-wona.'  When he took her in his arms and held her so carefully, a shudder ran right through her.  Months of no human contact, months of being locked away, months before that of remand cells: all wiped away in one instant - of him, of his arms wrapping all around her, his body pressed all along hers, his head on hers, his breath shaking in him as hers now shook in her.  She couldn't have spoken if she had wanted to.  She felt like she might fall if he let her go but there was no chance of that.  She closed her eyes and felt her breath still within her.  Home.  I'm home.  He is home.  The feeling was so perfect, so fulfilling, that she felt herself rise on a wave of happiness.  She could almost feel it rise up within her, filling every part of her from the soles of her feet to the very tips of her hair, like she had just taken a powerful, mood-altering drug.  When Seon-jae held her slightly away from him to look at her and then slowly dropped his lips onto hers, every movement, every feeling felt magnified and intensified.  His face was intensely beautiful, his voice deeper than she ever remembered, his body blocking out all other sights.  

Sitting now, Hye-won was aware only of his hands on hers, his body pressed to hers, his breath, his scent, his eyes.  The shock of the reunion, the visceral joy of seeing, feeling, touching Seon-jae was hard to take in.  The waves of euphoria that still pulsed through her and the complete, contented happiness that she felt made words impossible and unnecessary.  She would have been content for this journey to never end, so long as they were together like this.  Seon-jae.  Seon-jae.  My beautiful Seon-jae.  Like a mantra, his name ran through her mind, grounding her, filling her with clear joy.  She could never remember feeling like this in her life before, had thought such extremes only occurred in romance novels.  She could have cried out, laughed, fainted but she just smiled to herself and allowed the blissful feelings to take her over completely.  Just for now.  Just for today.  We can plan and organise everything tomorrow.  Today is for...this.

The taxi continued to speed along the busy motorway towards the city, its driver unaware of the tumult of feelings which the couple in the back were dealing with.  Freiburg rose up on the horizon and the golden sun climbed to its peak in a high, blue summer sky.