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Late.

The waiter that kept coming to her table shot her another pitiful look before walking off, as if he knew she was being stood up. No, she wasn’t being stood up. Jongin was intentionally making her wait. To torture her? Perhaps. Chorong wouldn’t deny it. She’d struck his cord on purpose that morning to bring him out. It would be the very first time in two months that she’d see him.

That bastard who’d called off their wedding because of some other woman.

Chorong would never forget the desolation that warped her that day she’d been in her wedding dress. The anger was still so surreal she could feel her body trembling from the menacing emotions. She’d been betrayed because her fiancé was bewitched by some snake.

Today she would make him regret his decision, because she’d been the right one all along. She didn’t expect a dramatic drop on the knees, but as long as he acknowledged Kim Namjoo as a cheater that was all Chorong needed.

It was then that the doors opened and a breeze trailed in after her ex-fiancé. The jerk that was still magnificently stunning made her eyes burn.

Even against her will her lips curled up instantly when he sat down opposite her. Instantly, Chorong asked, “What do you want?”

“I’m not here to eat,” he immediately stated.

Without even a bit of effort her insides felt crushed. Refraining from letting emotions show on her face she smiled and opened the menu anyway. Calling the waiter over she finally made her order, even bought something for him and when she did she caught that eye roll that said he was sick and tired of this.

“So, how was your day?” she wondered. They’d been apart for so long and she was dehydrated of news of him. What he did now, how stressful his work days were, and if he was relaxing enough. Chorong couldn’t help but be worried. She was curious about him every single day. Jongin never answered her texts or picked up her calls and it killed her inside. Sometimes all she managed to do was watch him from afar and that was no longer satisfying. She wanted to be near him again.

She wanted him back.

Chorong expected him to say something like, “Nothing new,” but instead he looked at her and said, “Good.”

She was forced to bite down on her teeth not to show her resentment. She rebutted, “I’ve been good, too.”

Feel guilty and jealous. You better feel guilty and jealous. She wanted him to hate her for being well, too. That she had it just as good, even if it was just a lie she wanted to show, but Jongin gave no reaction.

She hated him for that.

“Is that all you wanted me to hear?” he asked without a care in his voice.

No. She wanted more. She wanted to stall for time because she wanted to spend more of the hour listening to his voice, his stories, and learn about how he missed her.

Aggravated, Jongin straightened up in his seat, “Look, Chorong, I’ve already moved…”

And it became as vivid as if it was yesterday. The phone call. The no show. The long wait at the chapel. The rehearsal that turned out to be naught.

“I don’t want to marry you.”And there hadn’t even been an apology. Just a,“It was a mistake.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she muttered through gritted teeth, hands in fists on her lap.

Jongin merely stared at her quietly before pushing his chair back, “I’m leaving.”

Panic driven desperation looped through her chest forcing her to her feet, “No! Jongin!”

The occupants at the surrounding tables turned to stare but Chorong couldn’t see them. All she saw was the man she’d loved for so many years. Then turning he walked out. She followed immediately.

Shooting out of the door she grabbed his arm, forcing him around. “Jongin, I’m sorry.”

He stared down at her before removing his arm. Once again, very gently he tried, “We’ve been over this, Chorong.”

With a shake of her head she denied, “You’re wrong. I can still forgive you. You’ve just misunderstood everything. Didn’t you look at what I sent you this morning? You saw it. That’s why you called. That’s why you came. You know the truth. She’s a liar!”

“Chorong, please,” his voice held weight but she couldn’t calm the adrenaline pumping through him. She just needed to show him how wrong he was about the woman he wanted to be with.

“No, I won’t stop. I can’t,” she persisted, “because you’re with the wrong woman. You know who she is, what her family is like, who her mother is, and what the whole world says about them! Whoever your parents are you, their children grow up like them! Don’t you know it?” She stared up at him pleadingly. She was conscious that she was losing it, but she couldn’t control herself. Warped by desperation, all she wanted was just his comfort.

“Enough, Chorong,” he ordered. His eyes held hers very stealthily. “Aren’t you tired of this? Just look at yourself.”

“No.” she refused. Overwhelmed by her desperation for him she wrapped her hands around his arm and looked down at the hand that used to hold her tenderly. Looking up at him she wept, “I missed you. Why won’t you talk to me anymore? Can’t we talk all night again? Be like how we used to be? I still love you, Jongin. Can’t you just come back to me?”

This time, he hastily drew his arm back. Rejection struck her like an arrow. A sob escaped through her lips.

She heard an irritated sigh from him. “I don’t love you.”

“No, no,” she shook her head in utter denial. “The picture. Didn’t you see it?”

“A picture proves nothing!” he raised his voice. “Do you think staging something like that will end things between Namjoo and me?”

“Don’t say her name! I hate her!” she yelled in turn. Then when she saw the anger in his face at what she said, felt ten times worse. Her emotions suddenly turned. Her anger now on him. “You’re a fool! She doesn’t love you and you don’t love her! I don’t care what you say, but I know who you are! You don’t love her!”

Jongin’s eyes flared with madness, but he said nothing. He just stared at her intensely. Then he said, “Don’t call me again.”

Just like that he walked off, left her there alone…again.

Distraught by how things had turned out Chorong wept there, unable to walk away. It was hard to wander off the lovely path she’d walked with him. She had to remain on it in case he returned to her, because without him she couldn’t see anything else. Half of her life had been spent dreaming of him. Why was he doing this to her?

Minutes later when the rain in her eyes began to clear away she finally noticed him. She was both embarrassed and ashamed to be found, but she was in public space. Chorong hiccupped. He looked at her with sympathy in his eyes before reaching into his blazer. A second later he pulled out his sunglasses.

What the hell…

“Wear them,” he offered.

Chorong stared at the fashionable sunglasses and hesitantly reached for them. Once they were in her hands and she looked up again he was already walking away.

≈≈≈≈≈≈

It wasn’t an assumption. Sehun knew it. Joonmyun didn’t like him. Something about knowing that made him feel…not so good.

Throughout the whole ride home he couldn’t shove those irritable thoughts aside. What was so bad about him? Sure he had flaws, but he wasn’t worse than the worst. As if Joonmyun’s sister was so great anyway.

With a grunt he punched the wheel. Why did he care anyway? Namjoo was nothing. Sehun wouldn’t let her dictate his entire world. She wouldn’t be this or that.

But damn it.

Lights flashed behind him when he turned into the drive. Looking into the rearview mirror he noted his father’s car and felt like scoffing. For once the old man was home and just at the right on time when his mother would be at the dinner table.

Stepping out of his car Sehun stood by the driver’s door and waited for his father to get out of his vehicle. With a flare in his eyes he watched his father walk toward the house without noticing him. It was flabbergasting.

“What are you up to?” he asked with a tone of skepticism.

His father’s face broke out into a tender laugh when he turned around, “What are you talking about? Lets go inside. It’s late.”

Sehun’s brows twitched, “Who are they to you? Don’t tell me that she’s the other woman who bore your children. Is that why you won’t touch mom?”

Something sparked through his father’s eyes when he tilted his head back to view him better. “Sehun-ah, I just thought it’d be nice for you to have friends. You’re lonely.”

“Do you even know me?” he asked. Sehun was shocked his father now had the brain to think that. Since when had the man ever worried for him?!

His father shrugged, “If you don’t want to, it’s fine. I thought Soobin’s daughter would be a good match for you.”

Now his eyes widened. “You want me to marry her?!”

“Well, only if things turn out well between you two,” Oh Haejin said. “If not, well, you have the whole world to look.”

Something scurried through Sehun as he watched his father head into the home without him. He was…so very appalled.

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Namjoo had never stalked anyone before, but here she was, in her car in front of the Oh home waiting and watching. Today, her main target was Oh Jina. She just wanted to provoke that old woman. For the fun of it.

After taking a sip of her coffee she placed it back into the cup holder, leaned back into her seat, and fixed her makeup for the nth time. Pulling her lipstick out of her bag she carefully smoothed it over her lower lip. That was when she noticed the car pulling out from the high iron gates. Quickly tossing her lipstick aside and smacking her lips she started the engine up and followed.

≈≈≈≈≈≈

“Do we seriously have to do this?” Sehun moaned against the window, watching the scenery pass by. He’d been unfairly woken that morning…and too early for his own liking.

“Of course! If not now, when are you ever going to do this?” his mother scolded from beside him, her voice high with distress. “This time I’m going to supervise you.”

He scoffed in disbelief. “I’ll go. I promise.”

“No, and give me your phone,” she held her hand out.

“Why?”

“Because unless someone is there to watch you, you’re going to call up that nasty Park Chorong again. Now, give it,” she ordered.

Groaning from the back of his throat he pulled his phone out and held it out to her quietly muttering to himself, “Why can’t anyone leave me alone?”

“Lets get you a new shirt to wear. I don’t like the shirt you chose today. What is wrong with you?” she chided when the car pulled up by the mall. “Hurry or we’ll be late for your date. Her name is Seo Yuna. Her father is Chief Executive of the bank. Don’t forget her name. She’s really pretty and really nice. You won’t find anyone else like her…”

Sehun swore his mother was out to talk his ear off as they headed inside the store.

≈≈≈≈≈≈

Why, this was a surprise. What was Sehun doing here with his mom? Shopping? Together? The sight had Namjoo raising her brows. Instead of letting it look like she was following she went off on her own for a few minutes and bought unnecessary items before walking into the store Sehun and his mother was in. He had wandered off from his mother who was talking to the store associate about a specific item she wanted.

She had to admit that he surprised her yesterday by so boldly initiating close contact. Perhaps he did like her, but she didn’t believe it. For a man she’d never met before to suddenly wholeheartedly convey his feelings to her like that.

Love at first sight?

Bull.

Namjoo didn’t trust him. You couldn’t trust anyone but family.

If Namjoo had to think about it on other terms, Sehun was probably stringing her along in his own game. What he wanted from her, she didn’t know. Most likely she’d have to find out by herself first-handedly. If he was like the others; out to make a fool of her and prove that she was just a lowlife then she may just give him his game, because she’d played this game one too many times.

Recalling those times made her heart burn with hatred.

Namjoo moved through the store with her eyes on Sehun by the suits and jacket corner. Keeping her footsteps quiet she approached. Distaste sat on his face as he observed the expensive fabric without interest. Too into his otherworld he still hadn’t noticed her. Namjoo stopped a foot away from him and ran her hand over the cold metal of the hangers then intentionally dropped a few of the button-downs onto the ground. As expected, he turned.

“Oops, sorry about that,” Namjoo bent down to pick the clothes up. When she noticed he was watching she added, “What a small world we live in. Fancy seeing you here.”

Sehun just stared. Without waiting for him to speak she returned the clothes back onto the line. “I was planning to get a tie. Want to be my model?” then turned to head toward the tie section. Stopping in front of the table with various patterns set out Namjoo randomly picked one up and held it up against Sehun.

“Who are you buying it for?” he wondered. Returning the tie Namjoo chose another one to measure against him and made a face, debating whether she wanted to get it for Jongin or not.

“Oh well, you know,” she said, “I can’t buy it for my father now, can I?”

“Then, Joonmyun?”

Namjoo felt something short snap within her. For a second she lost all cool and finally looked up to meet with his cool eyes. How did he know Joonmyun’s name? Who exactly was he?

Regaining her posture Namjoo looked away. “No.”

“Jongin?” he guessed.

“Well…” she let the word linger for a tease.

“Another man?” he provoked. “You have someone else out there?”

Swinging along with him she added, “Yes. There’s just so many of them out there. Maybe I should buy a couple different ones.”

“Then buy for me, too,” he said. Turning from her he grabbed random pieces, “I want this one. This one and this one. Oh, this one looks good, too.”

Within a flat second he shoved five or six ties into her hand. Namjoo scoffed before looking up at him. Firmly smiling he raised a brow. Clearly today he was in the mood to really play along. Namjoo hadn’t foreseen this. Oh Sehun hadn’t seemed like the kind of man to put up a fight with a woman coming on to him.

“I don’t think this one suits you,” Namjoo slapped one of the ties back onto the table.

He stubbornly slapped it back into her hand, “I want it.”

Their eyes locked into a erse battle of wits before the loud footsteps of heels against floorboard made them turn. The familiar Oh Jina who had attacked her mother days earlier stood some feet away, her eyes deep and dark. Her red colored lips turned into a hard straight line when she glanced at Namjoo.

“Hello,” Namjoo smiled after quickly shoving on her mask of polite.

“Wh…what are you…” she gritted her teeth.

“What are we?” Namjoo’s lips curled up higher. Get at me was all she could think of. Get angry. Hate me even more. Suddenly clinging onto Sehun’s arm she grinned, “He’s my boyfriend.” After a second when she witnessed how his mother’s jaw dropped with bitter shock Namjoo asked with a tone of concern, “Oh no, you didn’t know?” Then turning to Sehun, “You didn’t tell her?” but what she saw there, too, was blank momentary shock.

Hurled to the side Namjoo heard, “Get away from my son! You despicable…” she would have sworn if they weren’t in public. Then she hissed, “How dare you?” In the very next moment the sharp slap that hit her face sent her ear ringing into oblivion and Namjoo lost all trace of her angry thoughts.

What she saw flashing before her eyes in black and white were the people that had lured her out laughing and mocking her. And it echoed constantly inside her head.

I am not weak.