Chapter 21 : Confrontations

Myungsoo didn't know why he was so determined to win her over. After last night, he wasn't sure who was hurt more. Despite all of the drama, he was undeterred from coming to her workshop. But he was still nervous.

He was just waiting outside the door when he heard her speaking to an unfamiliar male and his hand froze on the doorknob.

“It's just a night out.”

“I can't, Jaehyo. You know I don't date my students.” She said to him sternly.

“But Naeun, I like you.” He sounded desperate.

Just as desperate as I am.  Myungsoo thought for a second before concentrating back to their voices.

“What part of I don't date my students don't you get?” Naeun was firm with her answer and turned her back against to him. Myungsoo had began to peep from the opening of the door.

“So… coffee tomorrow night?” He asked suggestively before wrapping his greedy hands around her waist. Naeun froze and Myungsoo saw that there were terror in her eyes and she pushed him away but his grip only tightened around her.

“Stop it.” Part of her was scared but she masked it well with her calm facade.

“You really don't understand what no means, do you?” Myungsoo walked in leisurely, intervening in between the two. Naeun managed to pull away from his grasp and Myungsoo took the opportune moment to step in between them.

“Myungsoo-” Naeun protested.

“And who are you? Her boyfriend?” The guy asked cockily, his eyes daring Myungsoo.

“Nope, but I will be. Anyone else is a waste of time. So I would suggest you stop harassing her before I call my friends down at Interpol.” He pushed the man away from Naeun even further.

“Myungsoo!” She chided him for being so aggressive and tugged on his hand.

“It's okay, Naeun. See you around.” The guy shuffled out, eyes still glaring at Myungsoo.

“What is wrong with you?!” Naeun snapped at him.

“A thank you would have sufficed.” He dusted his shirt.

“Thank you.” Naeun said softly but didn't meet his eyes and instead collected some paint pots from the tables.

“Do you always get confessions from your students?” He asked out loud.

“It's not something I have control over. I don't ask them to like me.” She shrugged nonchalantly, though she did have a few other admirers.

“I understand why they do.”

“You said you only draw things you liked. My birthday present-”

“Oh, you got that?” Naeun stuttered, still not able to make eye contact with him out of embarrassment.

Myungsoo paused before he finally let out what he had been meaning to ask her in the first place.

“Do you like me?”

“Eunji was right. You are conceited.” She scoffed.

“Just answer me.” He might have been more assertive than he wanted to come off as.

“And why would I, when you arrogantly march in here and demand some sort of confession from me? I don't have time to play your games, Myungsoo.” She threw a rag back into the sink.

“You saw me and Dasom kiss." The realisation dawned on him. Her eyes side eyed to the window.

He had guessed that she had saw him, but he never knew she would be so mad.

“She forced that kiss on me! Are you jealous?” His mouth opened at their own accord.

“Aren't you? Why else would you be here asking me to your ego like you're the only man in Paris?” She snapped at him again because of his impertinent tongue.

“Look… whatever she told you-”

“She didn't have to tell me anything. It's obvious what kind of guy you are.”

“And what kind of guy am I?” He challenged her back, unable to bite his words back.

“You're Kim Myungsoo! You're the man every guy wants to be. You're the man that every girl wants to be with. Is that the right description or did I miss something?” Her words were so familiar that for once he felt like Naeun saw him like everyone else did.

The spoilt sheltered rich boy that toyed with girls hearts and threw money around as if it grew on trees.

For just a moment he, grew cold towards her.

“I'm Kim Myungsoo and you're Son Naeun. We both made some terrible decisions that night but that doesn't change us.”

“It's certainly changed our perspectives of each other.”

“Maybe it did.” He shrugged.

He fished an envelope from his coat pocket and placed it on her desk but she paid it no heed.

"Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris are opening season with Swan Lake at the Palais Garnier. I heard from Eunji that you like Tchaikovsky. Or do you even care that I made the effort?”

“Je m'en fous.”

I don't care.

It stung. It really did. Naeun had never spoken such harsher words to him than those.

“I'll be waiting by the grand staircase at 7pm tomorrow night.”

“What if I don't come by 7pm?”

“Then it's my loss.”

“Myungsoo I can't-”

“I don't want to know. Don't tell me. Will you believe that I'm the Kim Myungsoo you heard of? Or will you trust yourself and believe that I'm the Myungsoo you know?”

“I'm not sure if I really know the real Kim Myungsoo.” She shook her head.

“I'm sure you do.”

He smiled at his shoes sadly.

“You're the only one who's seen him anyway. He likes you very much.” She choked on her own breath but was unable to say anything.

Did he just confess to her?

“I should go. Your class will start soon, songsaengnim.”

Naeun felt her heart grow heavy because he was back to calling her songsaengnim.

Naeun sat on her bed that night, mulling over and over again Myungsoo's words.

What had he meant that she was the only one that has seen the real him?

Her eyes glanced at the envelope on her desk and to her pointe shoes hanging on her mirror.

The ballet was the last place she wanted to go to.

She unhooked them off the mirror and traced her finger on the worn fabric and the delicate ribbons that were faded pink; her last ballet shoes.

Eunji came in and saw Naeun, she sat down on her bed, practising caution with her words.

“They were a gift from your mother weren't they?”

“Yes.”

The feeling came back like a tsunami.

Swift and devastating.

How crushed she felt when the doctor told her that she couldn't go back anymore.

The hurt she felt when she had to decline her contract with the company.

The rage that blossomed into hate and then into guilt and lastly into denial.

“Why'd you have to go and tell him I liked Tchaikovsky! He invited me to watch Swan Lake!” Naeun groaned before burying her face in a pillow.

“Isn't Swan Lake one of your favourites? Don't tell me it's not anymore?”

“Of course it's still my favourite. But I'm not sure I can handle it.”

“You're so strong. I know you loved it. But maybe it's for the best because it was not the path you were destined to pursue.” Eunji patted her knee.

“I think I can handle the ballet. But every time I'm with him... It's like there's something sickly sweet just fluttering in the pits of my stomach and it just nauseates me.” She admitted whilst massaging her temple.

“Those are called butterflies.” Eunji said as a matter of factly.

“That's impossible.” She gasped.

“Naeun, you're actually more sincere than you believe you are.”

“I can't have butterflies! They need to be exterminated.”

“Naeun, don't be ridiculous… I know you don't trust him but-”

“It's not just him I distrust... I don't trust myself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I get so tongue tied around him, Eunji. My palms go sweaty and my heart rate increases and I find it more difficult to breath. But what if it's not butterflies? What if it's wasps? What if it's pain awaiting me instead?” The words came out as if the floodgates had burst and Eunji squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“Then, you just have to jump and hope that you won't break into a million pieces.”

She looked down at the pointe shoes and smiled sadly. At that moment, Eunji knew she was extremely upset and it was a wiser choice to leave her to her own thoughts than force her to go.

“He can't break what's already broken.”

"If nothing ever changed there would be no butterflies."

-Unknown

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A/n:

I revealed some of Naeun's past in this chap and i think i showed a more vulnerable side of Myungsoo.

That's it for now guys, I'll update in march during the hols!

Wish me luck dear readers. Comments, as always are appreciated.

High school never seemed so imminent.