Structural Damage

Chapter 21 - Past

Warning: No 🍋 for the day, but there is plenty of ☄🔥 🎢 🌪

Jeong Hyeok had asked her point blank, "Who exactly is Cho Cheol Gang?" He felt as if she was hiding something, the fear in her eyes when she came walked away from him at the gala to go outside. The rattled nerves when she came back inside, although she was doing her best to hide it from him. He wasn't blind, and he definitely wasn't stupid, something was bothering her, and he wanted to know what it was. But as she stared out the window of the car, the words she spoke were not the ones he expected. He had not been prepared to hear, "He's my ex-husband."

Those words were crushing and he could barely breathe. It was as if every bit of oxygen had been sucked out of the car. He had never thought to ask Se Ri if she had been married before. He didn't have an issue dating a woman who had been divorced. The issue was that she had never told him, she kept this a secret, even when they had the discussion of no lies or secrets between the two of them. And evidently, there was more to this than just a divorce, the exchange he had witnessed between the two of them was heated and angry.

The silence between the two of them was stifling. Se Ri broke first, "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"What would you like me to say?" He offered quietly, the words barely audible and again, there was no emotion in them. He was shutting down.

"I would expect you to yell or something," she admitted, finally turning to look at him, "It's what you want to do, isn't it? You want to lash out at me with all the questions that are swirling through your mind."

"How long have you been divorced?"

Se Ri was taken aback that this was the first question he would toss her way. She figured there were a million other issues that would come first, "Almost three."

The car stopped, they had arrived in the parking garage of the Lotte World Tower building. Se Ri opened the door before the driver could and let herself out, she wanted to escape what felt like a prison. She didn't wait for Jeong Hyeok, she walked toward the elevator and pressed the button. She silently cursed it for being slow, when in fact, it was one of the fastest elevators in the city. But when you want to escape, everything feels as if it is moving in slow motion.

Jeong Hyeok was suddenly behind her. She could feel the heat of his body. He didn't touch her, didn't say a word, he just stood there. She wanted nothing more than to turn around and kiss him, tell him she was sorry for not telling him about Cheol Gang earlier. But she couldn't, she was paralyzed. The seconds ticked by and felt like minutes. The doors opened to the elevator, and they stepped inside. The silence was beyond awkward, she wished he would yell at her, anything but the silence. Then again, she could speak up, but she didn't know what to say or even how to say it.

She rushed out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened. Her keys were in her hand, and she deftly opened the door to the apartment, swinging it open far enough so that Jeong Hyeok could walk through without her having to hold it for him. She placed her clutch on the entryway table and stepped out of her heels. He had rushed past her to the kitchen where he was pouring himself a tall glass of whiskey, neat.

He downed the drink in one gulp, she knew it had to have burned on the way down. Most likely he didn't even notice. The tension seemed to suddenly disappear from his shoulders. He poured another drink and took a seat on a barstool, his arms stretched out in front of him, encircling his glass. Se Ri stood nervously at the other end of the kitchen, watching him, waiting for him to say something. Finally, he did.

"I'm going to guess you had an excellent reason for not telling me about this Cheol Gang? I mean, we discussed not having secrets and not lying to one another, right?" He raised his eyes, taking in the slight tremors in Se Ri's hands. He didn't know if the tremors were because she was scared of him or if the situation with Cho Cheol Gang had her scared. Either way, he needed to find out. Also, he wasn't sure if she was going to answer his question, but he was going to give her a few minutes before he asked a second time.