A Chance Encounter. Chapter Thirteen.

I retrieve the blanket I had hurriedly shoved in my bag and spread it on the sand. It’s half past one. I’m secretly praying we don’t get beheaded or shot by the local mafia or something. Only recently did the police bust some gang heist down the harbor. It’s always better to be a little cautious, isn’t it? Yixing looks extremely drained; I don’t even know why he was so adamant on coming to the beach. Maybe he did have plans on getting killed!

Yixing settles down on the blanket and sighs softly. “I find this quite relaxing,” he says. “To sit by the shore, listening to the waves.”

I hum in response and lie down on the blanket. If I had to think of a way of relaxing, it’d probably be sketching my Webtoons. Not when I’m on a deadline though, because that can get very stressful. “I’ve never really done this before,” I tell him.

“Well,” Yixing turns around to look at me, “now you have.” He then lies down right beside me, placing his arm under his head as a pillow. He seems to be at ease, his frown lines have diminished. He’s probably realized how I’ve been scrutinizing him for the past two minutes. He doesn’t seem bothered though. He probably gets gawked at by women every day, must not be anything new.

I feel comfortable now. My restlessness has disappeared. I must admit that it is quite pleasant, lying down on the shore. Maybe I should try it more often. There’s no one around, no bustling traffic, no loud honking noises or people yelling, nothing. It’s just the soft rumble of the waves, otherwise it’s eerily calm. If I closed my eyes, I’d probably drift off to sleep.

“I thought you had to go to work tomorrow,” I say after a while.

“Not really. I was supposed to be working from home this month,” he sighs again.

“Oh, yes, you did mention it.”

We fall silent again, he hasn’t uttered a word. I don’t really know what to say. But there isn’t anything awkward about the silence. I feel like I’m temporarily avoiding reality. I wish I could just lie here on the shore and not think about anything else at all. This seems a lot more effective than Yoga by the way. I would have fallen asleep, but there’s this gnawing feeling at the back of my mind which wants me to actually face what happened today with Chanyeol. I suppose I’ve been avoiding it in some way. Maybe I could confide in Yixing. They always say talking to someone else and voicing out your thoughts is a good way to solve your issues.

I take in a deep breath. I had to do this someday or the other. “I think Chanyeol cheated on me,” I say silently. All I can hear the mellow crashing of the waves as they glide over the rocks. “I’ve thought about it a lot…” I continue, “And I can seem to deduce only one thing out of it. I think he saw Bona behind my back, perhaps for several months. I…I d-don’t really have any proof, but I just know. I somehow t-think I know.” My breath’s slightly erratic. Now that I’ve let out everything on my mind, I feel more burdened. I don’t think talking solves anything, it just adds more anxiety. This is what I had been avoiding in the past two months. That conversation with Chanyeol was all I needed to confirm my suspicions.

There’s no other explanation is there? He had to have cheated on me, seen Bona behind my back – that would have given them sufficient time to get to know each other, fall in love and get married. It all makes sense now – why Chanyeol seemed so distant later on, how he always made excuses about working late at night, and even refusing to accompany me for my doctor’s appointment, which he’d always been keen on doing otherwise. These are the cardinal signs of a cheating boyfriend, aren’t they? Maybe I had known, I was aware of the way the dynamics of our relationship was changing, but I simply chose to turn a blind eye towards it. Just like I pretended that my parents were still in love when all they did was fight. I’ve always done that, I pretend as if everything’s fine by ignoring the truth. It cost me my relationship with Chanyeol. Perhaps I should have confronted him and maybe tried to save our relationship. But a part of me didn’t want to. And that puzzles me. I was in love with him, wasn’t I?

Yixing turns sideways to face me. His gaze is rather overwhelming, I wish he wouldn’t look at me this way. I can’t seem to make out what he’s thinking. I don’t know if he’s sympathizing with me or if he’s thinking of some comforting words to say. I don’t know what I want to hear from him. I just hope he’d simply say something that would make me feel less burdened and miserable. I don’t wish to cry again, I’ve had my fill in the past two months. Besides, it’s never solved anything. My heart would still ache, and my mind would still be distressed. There’s nothing I could do which would help me get over this feeling. People say time would eventually cure it. And I’m anxiously waiting for that time to come.

“Would you hate me if I told you I already knew?” he mutters softly.

I sit up immediately. What did he say? I had to have heard it wrong. “You mean…you knew?” I stutter. Why didn’t he say anything then?

“I instantly figured,” he says, looking at me sternly. “And Bona, being the huge blabbermouth she is, confirmed it for me. I thought it was best if you didn’t know.”

I can’t believe this. He knew and he didn’t utter a word. I don’t even know what to think anymore. He must have thought of me as a pathetic girl who was cheated on by her boyfriend. He probably thought I was clueless about everything, and that I was helpless since I’d even agreed to be her maid of honor. Here I was thinking he genuinely found me interesting, when he’d just wanted to find out more about the pathetic girl who’d agreed to be her cousin’s maid of honor – the cousin who’d got together with her boyfriend behind her back. No wonder he finds everything amusing. He’s probably never seen anyone like me before – me, the clueless, vulnerable girl who lives in her own happy bubble, being perfectly unaware of everything that happened behind her back. I must have seemed like such a fool in his eyes. A gullible fool.

“Is that why you asked me out?” I ask sternly, although my voice is barely audible. I’m not going to cry, it’d just prove that