Chapter 5: Antagonist to Another Story

Hayi stomped out of the restaurant furiously, her mother trailing behind. The luncheon turned out to be full of tension. Jinhwan, Suhyun, and his parent’s excused themselves and bid goodbye knowing the sudden change of atmosphere. 

While Hanbin was talking down with his parents, Hyeyoung and Hayi discussed their own outside.

“Will you listen to me first, Lee Hayi!” Hyeyoung called at her back.

Hayi turned and that was then when her mother realized the tears that were threatening to flow down her eyes. “Why are you doing this to me, Mom?!”

“It’s for your own good!”

“Bull!” She never said curses in front of her mother. There is first time in everything, indeed. 

“Lee Hayi!”

Hayi stopped glaring at her mother when the dam finally broke. She was choking her sobs because she never cried like that in front of her mother even when her father divorced her. Now, she was making herself vulnerable in front of the first person whom she learned how to be put her head up and be strong. 

“After divorcing Dad and taking half of his properties, you’re planning now to use me to get their’s?!” she exclaimed. It was fortunate for them to be the only one in the parking lot or they would be the talk of the town.

“Hayi, mind your words.”

“I don’t want to be the antagonist of another story, Mom. I want my own so don't think of me as something you could just decide whether to sell them of or not.” Hayi decided to leave.

Her daughter’s plea had left Hyeyoung speechless, guilty and worried. She calmly ordered the chauffer to take Hayi but Hayi called for a taxi and left. Soon after, Hanbin exited the restaurant with a gaunt. 

Hyeyoung called after him yet Hanbin just stopped to tell her, “I’m sorry Auntie, but I can’t do this.”

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Everyone was on each other’s ear to peer at the most amusing thing they had witness – Hayi finally cried.

After the luncheon, Hayi got back to school to get her things and planned to not attend her afternoon classes. As she packed her things, everyone was silenced when Hanbin strode up to her. “Let’s talk.”

She ignored him and took her leave, never intending to stop even if Hanbin told her to. She didn’t want to talk, not now. She called for a taxi thinking of going home but instead she gave the only address she knew apart from her mother’s house.

Her brother’s house was six blocks away from their company. After her brother married three years ago, they rarely saw each other unless it had to be a family gathering. Jiyong had also been the chief executive of the company thus making it harder to fit driving around to her house. 

It was her brother’s wife, Dara, who answered the door and let her in. “Jiyong is still in the office. What happened, Hayi?”

She was never close to her brother’s wife so she just brushed her question. “Can I stay here for the meantime?”

“Of course!” Dara immediately ushered her to one of the guest room and let her rest to call her husband in the office.

When her brother got home, they had a talk. She was still sitting in the bed while his brother was sitting on the couch facing the bed. Her brother knew the story, however, since Hyeyoung called hours after the burst and thought that Hayi may crash into their house. However, Hayi never gave anything away about the issue after she just stated she objected on the engagement. Jiyong never asked further, knowing her sister. He let her alone for her to rest and sleep.

She woke up at 11 when her phone was vibrating like crazy for a call. 

“What?”

“Let’s talk. I’m at the gate. Come out.” He said before he hung up.

Topping only a robe over her pajamas, she went out to meet Hanbin whose back was turned at her. He was wearing a cap leaning back on the car, hands on both pockets, while looking at something that he kicked on the ground. When she went around the car to him, he lifted his head up to see her before he looked forward.

No one talk for quite a minute.

When Hayi got impatient with the silence she turned to go back inside but stopped when Hanbin cursed. She scoffed before turning to him only to see him struggling with a gum caught in his shoe.

Hanbin looked at her to see her furrowing her eyebrows. “Sorry, I didn’t mean you.”

She couldn’t wait any longer to go back inside the house so she asked him up front. “What do you want?”

Hanbin straightened up and turned to face her, hands still in his pockets. He paused and stared at her face for quite some time to see her bloated eyes. Hayi raised an eyebrow at him. “What?”

“You…” he began but looked away. “Never mind.”

“If this is about that stupid engagement, I’m not doing it.”

“I know.”

“Then what?” 

He sighed. “I concede to it.”

“You what?!” 

He could see that Hayi was fuming in anger but he did what he did. “They wouldn’t stop pestering us about this anyway. So I thought, for us to have the freedom to break the engagement we could at least get engaged and to shut my mother’s mouth about the issue.”

“Does your girlfriend know?” she asked, merely holding on her last strand of patience.

Not waiting for his answer, she continued before she got back inside the house. “You know what you’re making me into with this? Another .”

Being left standing outside, he let out a long sigh before leaning back against the car. He knew that asking her to concede was going to be a lot difficult. He knew of the circumstances and Hayi’s point of going against it since she just got out from a relatively similar circumstance of being in a triangle. He kicked the small stone on the side of his left foot before getting in the car and drove off.

From the room, Hayi was still heightened in her frustration. She remembered being overly possessive and obsessive with someone she thought she owned. Knowing what an engagement would offer her, she said to herself, I will never go through this again.
Being in a school where most students came from the elite society in the neighborhood, news – anything that involves any name of someone in their society – was always big news. And it requires a great effort and power to either spread, stop, or postpone a rumor. 
The minute Hayi sat on her chair, she was well aware of the possibility that she and her mother’s confrontation at a fancy restaurants parking space will set her to be on everyone’s mouth again as if she never were. But she heard nothing. It somehow quiet minus the usual snickering of girls at her.

The day goes on pretty quiet on the issue. Maybe they’re still mum about it., she concluded.

But when lunch break arrived, Lalice came up to her and asked her to have a talk with her. She just ignored her but Lalice didn’t budge. “I just want to know that you’re not going on with this.”

She didn’t like the idea of being a threat to Lalice and Hanbin’s relationship which she didn’t even care about it. So she looked up and answered her with a flat expression. “Honestly, I don’t care about you two but for you shut your trap about the matter, I will assure you that I wouldn’t go with it and I will never.”

Lalice seemed to calm down. “Thank you, Hayi.”