Chapter 31

Yonghwa didn’t noticed that he was holding his breath until he actually had to cough. He took the bottled water and drank it straight up. What did she say?

“What?”

She chuckled then blew her nose

“Oh Yong, you’re funny”

“I’m sorry J, I didn’t mean to confuse you more” looking down guiltily

She eyed him suspiciously “Really?”

He smiled to himself “No, I did mean what I said, every word of it”

She just nodded and both just drifted into comfortable silence until he spoke

“Were you the one to call off the wedding”

She nodded

“I can’t go along pretending that everythings okay, no matter how much I try to make things work around me they all seem to fall apart one way or another but you know what? When I talked to Seunggi oppa about it, he just smiled, he said he was just waiting for me to say it. I guess he noticed it already, he said that if I didn’t do it, he’ll be the one to do it eventually” she sadly smile as a tear descended down her cheeks

“I did love him Yong the best way I knew how, and I can say I was sincere, I really was but I don’t know, I do pray for his happiness. I never had the intention of using him to get over you, he was a perfect gentleman from start to end, I will forever be guilty to what‘ve done to him. No one deserve that pain and the fact would remain true, I was the one who inflicted it”

He understood her completely and as much as he wants her right now in his arms, he knew she had to settle this issue with herself.

“I wanted him to swear at me, shout at me, curse me, hurt me but no, he smiled at me, it was the most painful thing he could ever do and I guess that’s what he was aiming for” she was not bawling, nor sobbing, but tears just won’t stop to cascade.

He rubbed her back to calm her “But you will be hurting him more if you lie to you and to him. You do know that it hurts the most to find out that there was no love to begin with”

“I know” she took a deep breath and continued “He was the one who announced the cancellation of the wedding, he took all the blows for me up to the last second he was such a beautiful person, mom and dad kept quiet same as the twin oppas I guess they don’t know what to say or maybe they are as guilty as me, oppa said it was his fault since he was not ready excuses like that but there are people who are sincerely happy with the cancellation of the wedding, his family. I’m not a chaebol and I will never will even if my family sold all our properties plus our internal organs, it won’t add up to even ¼ of their riches, it won’t even come close. Do you know that they had to pay the media?

“That rich?”

“Yeah, they we’re supposed to cover our wedding but when we called it off, they paid so to save their family’s name, they paid them and viola! The wedding, I mean the planning didn’t even exist and we all go back to how things were.”

“What about the dress and everything”

“I don’t know what his family did to them, but in our side the girls just kept it, charge it to experience as they say”

“Oh yeah what did they say?”

“They didn’t buy it, turns out they know what’s happening to us, did you tell them?”

“No”

“I also didn’t, maybe they just put the puzzle pieces together, and they are our friends after all”

He just shrugged “Where is Seunggi now?”

“Back in the US I guess, he left two weeks ago, I locked myself up ever since, now my family will always look at me as the one who got left behind and I’ll take that but if they say anything bad against oppa then I’ll protect him even just by this, I’m not trying to redeem myself. I said sorry too many times to count and he said that he will only forgive me once I learned to forgive myself. That’s how much he love me Yonghwa”

“I know, I’ve seen it there’s really nothing you can do but pray that he will eventually find someone who will reciprocate that same love that he’s able to give. Wait do the family know where you are?”

“Nope I just left”

“Joohyun! What are you a teenager?”

“I just don’t feel like it, I needed to breathe, I needed to feel, today was the first time I cried, when I was telling him that I can’t go on with the wedding, I didn’t even cry, not even a single tear fell but maybe I just needed you, you of all people know me and everything just came at me all at once”

“You do know that I need to let them know that you’re with me?”

“You, coming home only means one thing, I bet they already know that we’re together”

“Still” he took his phone from the night stand and sent a single liner message to her mom

She’s with me eomma

And within seconds a reply came

Take care of her

“Did I do the right thing here Yong?” she lay down the bed and faced him and he too did the same

“I’ll be saying this as Yonghwa the bestfriend without any hint of feelings for you”

She chuckled and slightly his arm “Okay go”

“Joohyun, I’m your bestfriend and whatever you do I will one hundred percent support you as long as you’re happy. A lot of people think that love is enough for two people to be together, they miss out on compatibility and sincerity. How can you be with someone without sincerity? How long will you last? In a way you are just inlove with the idea of love, and even that fades. How will you be happy then when it’s gone. We all have to be true to ourself and you yourself know that. And by now you should know, that we only want the ones we love to be happy, we’d do anything for them to be happy”

“But what do I do now?” frowning and scrunching her nose

“Well you can start by living your life again, don’t drown in guilt Joohyun, he gave you up to be happy atleast make his sacrifice worth it eventually trust that he too will find the love that he has been looking for”

“I’ll take your word for it”

“And Joohyun starting now be true to yourself, feel what you need to feel, speak your mind the more we pretend the more people we hurt”

“Thanks Yong, for once you know the right words to say” she laughed a bit

“Yah!”

“That army service really does wonders!”

“Yah Seo Joohyun!!!”

“Arasseo, gomawo Yong let’s sleep”

They looked at each other until her eyes slowly close. Yes now what he need is to give her time. That’s what he gotta do now. He needs to set aside what he feels, especially now that he knows that the feeling is mutual. She need to let go of what just happened between her and Seunggi. This is h