III
Our Denouement
chapterthree
"I'm so, so sorry," Chorong sniffled, her arms clasped tightly around Bomi's waist. "I really am. I don't know what got into me back then. It just...it just happened, you know? I don't even understand why I did it. I really wasn't myself. You forgive me, right Bom? Right?"
Bomi nodded, rubbing circles into her sister's back. "Of course."
A sobbing Suho stood in the background, wiping off his snot with the back of his hand. Disgusted, Kyungsoo crinkled his nose at the sight, offering his handkerchief to the sentimental man standing beside him. Kyungsoo wasn't necessarily a germaphobe, but he did dislike uncleanliness. Germs are fine, but anything he considered to be visually repulsive was very nauseating to him.
Suho bowed his head in gratitude and blew into the over-priced cloth, which made a noise similar to that of a wailing elephant. When he insisted on returning the handkerchief, Kyungsoo took a few steps back and waved his hands furiously in opposition, urging him to keep it. Suho mouthed a quick thank you and continued to dab at his tears, while Kyungsoo observed the scene playing out before him in amusement. Never had he seen so many people cry at once in his life, and he oddly found it quite entertaining.
"But you never returned my calls, answered my letters, or even replied to my emails," Chorong wailed, her tears now seeping into the edges of Bomi's cotton t-shirt.
"That was me being coward," she sighed, pulling back to wipe away Chorong's tears. "I had already forgiven you even before I stepped foot out of this house. It wasn't solely you that I cut off all contact with. You, mom, Joonmyeon—I refused to speak to everyone."
She shook her head, looking down at her feet. "If only I had known how badly things were going to turn out. If only I hadn't been so stupid. It's all my fault, Bom. I should've told him everything in the first place. That it was you, not me."
"What difference would it have made? It still would've been you. Everything's over now. Let's not worry about it any longer, alright?" Bomi gently squeezed Chorong's arm, her lips curving into an assuring smile. "But about this Kyungsoo guy...you've got some explaining to do."
"Oh, right. You really didn't read anything I sent you, huh? Umm, Kyungsoo and I have been together for three years. We kind of met through a baking class he was instructing and things kind of went from there, and...yeah," she turned to Kyungsoo and hooked her arms with Bomi's. "And Kyung, this is Bomi. She is the smartest dumb person you'd ever meet, and she's also what I like to consider my other half. Like I've told you before, she's been studying aboard in Europe."
"What was her major? Self-defense?" he snickered, earning an eye roll from Bomi.
"I apologize for being so rude, but unnie, how did your taste level go from Jongin to him? You endured this for three years? I had always praised your benevolent nature, but perhaps I underestimated you. So tell me, how exactly did you stumble upon that?" Bomi responded, deliberately looking him up and down in a disapproving manner.
The now emotionally stable Suho stifled a quiet laugh, while Kyungsoo scowled at her with his arms crossed, a look of displeasure evident on his face.
"Jongin? Who's that bastard?" he questioned accusingly, causing Chorong to shuffle her feet.
Bomi walked up to him slowly, the floor boards creaking under her slippers. Placing a hand firmly atop his narrow shoulders, she inched towards him until her lips were in close proximity with his ears. His eyes wavered over to her face, and he braced himself for yet another violent stunt. He internally prayed that she wouldn't cause further damage to his clothes, but then reasoned with himself that his precious body was infinitely more valuable than his current outfit.
"An amazing man that you'd never be able to measure up to," she whispered, before emitting a loud yawn and sauntering up the spiral staircase.
"Whoa, I knew they weren't going to like each other, but this is worse than I imagined," Chorong remarked in a hushed tone.
Suho nodded his head in agreement and sighed. "Much worse."
▲▼▲
"Hmm, so Jongin, eh?" Kyungsoo muttered, scrolling through his phone inattentively. "What is he? First love? High school sweetheart? Your life savior?"
Ignoring his question, Chorong fumbled with her earrings and placed them on the bedside table. She really wasn't in the mood to elaborate on her past, especially after the emotional distress she had been put through earlier that morning. She slipped into the warm sheets beside him, propping herself up on her elbows as she gazed at his face affectionately. He continued to play with his phone, avoiding eye contact with her.
"Yah! Look at me. I know you're not looking at anything on your phone," she asserted in a giggly manner, pinching his cheeks.
"Who is he?" he asked, only to have Chorong climb on top of him and start giving him small pecks on the neck. "Don't you dare try to distract me with that mouth, Park Chorong. Tell me. Now."
Chorong rolled off him and pouted in annoyance, "Do I have to?"
"If you don't want to, I guess I'll just sleep."
As he reached over to flip the switch on the lamp, Chorong quickly snatched onto his arm, which in turn caused a mischievous grin to form on his face.
"Looks like someone isn't too eager to go to bed, hmm?" he teased, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Fine," she huffed, once again defeated by the almighty Do Kyungsoo. "I'll tell you."
Kyungsoo leaned back with a smug grin on his face, satisfied with the easy victory. That's how their relationship worked: Chorong would always give in to Kyungsoo's demands, no matter how big or little the issue was. Kyungsoo was a perfectionist; he liked everything to go his way. As for Chorong, she liked Kyungsoo, and if being perfect would make him like her back, then so be it.
She never even thought about telling him about the incident between her and Bomi. He knew that their relationship had deteriorated after Bomi left, but he never knew why. Kyungsoo never asked about it, and Chorong was more than relieved to know that he had never possessed a strong sense of curiousity towards others' past. Well, until now.
Chorong's eyelid fluttered shut for a short moment before she heaved in a breath of cold air.
"Okay, so you know how I told you about me and my sister not being on good terms when she was leaving for college?"
"Mmhmm."
"Well, it was because of him ... Jongin."
She paused.
"Go on."
"Ugh, be patient, will you? I'm trying to add some suspense here. Anyways, Bomi...she had always been kind of, well, I don't know how to put it. She keeps to herself most of the time, and she isn't very social at all. Me and Suho are like her only friends. Most people just find the way she speaks and stuff really weird. I mean, she spends most of her life with her face stuffed between books written in some sort of ancient language. It's like she doesn't even bother exposing herself to modern society. Everyone seems to avoid her like some disease."
"I can understand why," Kyungsoo remarked, earning a slap on the arm from Chorong.
"Don't be a jerk! You've barely even met her. She's not an open book, you know. There's more to her."
"What is she then? An 18th century dictionary?"
"Anywho," Chorong continued, ignoring his snarky assertion. "after she graduated from high school, she started volunteering at this one animal shelter pretty much everyday. She's not too fond of humans, but dogs—she loves them. She came home with her eyes beaming one day. Like, you know how those anime characters have those little sparklies in their eye? That's what hers looked like. Well, turns out, some guy walked in there totally drenched from head to toe, because he used his raincoat to cover a basket of puppies."
"Lame," Kyungsoo sing-songed, looking up at the ceiling.
"She was crazy over this guy though. Like, I've never seen her fawn so much over some dude other than Mr. Darcy from that dumb book she always read. Apparently, he lived right across from this bookstore she worked at, and she noticed that he always ate something sweet everyday. I told her to just go talk to him or something, but nooo. Being Bomi, she baked craploads and craploads of stuff for him and woke up early just to set it on his doorstep every morning."
"Wait, wait. She did that?"
"See? She has different sides to her. Anyways, this thing continued for months. Mom was pushing her to go to uni, but she was so obsessed with him that she didn't even care. She suddenly got really sick and was hospitalized for a long time, but even then, she had a huge tub of cookie dough that she had me bake up and give to him everyday. Ugh, I hated waking up early to do all that, but whatever. I guess he became curious on who his secret admirer was, because he actually woke up at four to catch me in the act. He thought I was the one behind this, but the thing was, I never denied it. I actually took credit for everything. I couldn't help it. He was so gorgeous... like a living statue, almost. So perfect and chiseled. He was just yummy."
Kyungsoo grimaced at his fiancee's description of Jongin. "Yummy? What is he? A hot dog?"
"Well, he was, okay? We went out on a date, and then another, and then another. I kept on telling myself that I would stop and tell him the truth, but I just couldn't. I was in love with him, yet I felt so guilty towards Bomi at the same time. I started visiting her less and less, and began to spend more time with Jongin instead. It was like I became my worst enemy. I hated myself. She sort of came home from the hospital at the wrong moment and things went from bad to worse."
"Wrong moment?"
"Yes, Kyungsoo. She caught us going at it like deranged monkeys, okay? Ugh, stop interrupting me. I tried to explain everything to her, but how can anyone even explain that? I mean, I took credit for all she has done and stole the only guy she ever was legitly interested in. That was when she told us that she was going to go to Europe a few weeks later, and to make matters worse, I ed at her for being selfish by studying aboard, since I studied here to stay with her. She was pissed, and I was pissed. It was just bad. After she left, I took your baking classes to try to bake that stuff, but he would always ask me why it didn't taste the same. I just told him that I wanted to experiment, and he didn't think too much of it. I let mine and Bomi's relationship completely shatter, yet I became fully devoted to mine and Jongin's. I started to feel guilty again, especially with Bomi gone. After a few more months, I couldn't take it anymore and just broke it off."
"Okay, so let me set this straight. Your sister fell in love with a guy, simply because he protected a couple of puppies with his raincoat, so she proceeded to bake him sweets everyday for months on end. She fell sick, so she put you in charge of her love confession deliveries, and the dude was so ing gorgeous, you lied to him that you were his secret admirer. She found out, got pissed, left for five years, and you dumped him for a hotter guy who was instructing your cooking class, correct?"
"Pretty much, except for that last part."
"Oh, you know it's true," he said, wiggling his brows and making her chuckle. "I've got to say though, you were quite the back then."
"I know, right? If I were her, I would've been so much angrier. It's just...she suffered a lot, so promise me you'll be nice to her, okay? I know you guys aren't exactly compatible, but she's very important to me. Just try to get along with her, alright?"
"I'll try, but don't expect us to be best buds or anything, because no way in hell am I going to be all dilly-dally with that bit-"
"Thanks, Kyungie," Chorong chimed in sweetly, cutting him off and snuggling into the crook of his arm. "I appreciate it."
"Mmhmm."
Author's Note: I can't believe I've neglected this story for so long! The story has been going dreadfully slow so far, and I continuosly struggle with balancing dialogues and descriptions. I'm hoping I'll be able to regain some writing skills soon. I haven't read anything other than nicrobin's fanfics, since I've been focusing on finishing up my designs for a fashion showcase. My English in general has gotten really bad, so excuse the many, many mistakes present in this chapter. T.T
Comments