Chapter 27: Too late

“Hana, come out and eat!”

Sehun shouted from outside as he knocked –not so soft – as I was convinced I might need to dig my savings in case the door broke down. Or I might as well sleep without one.

I dragged myself out of the bed with heavy heart and open the door as he wished to. Right when he saw my head poking out with a slight irritation, he smacked my head with his fist that made me yelp. I wasn’t expecting that coming and his knuckles were no joke, it hurt like .

“How many times do I have to remind you that I’m your elder?”

“Elder, my . You’re acting like a kid. Have you given up on life now?” he scolded me and turned his heels back to the kitchen. I could sense a faint smell of food and tried to figure out what it was but my nose were not in the best state so I slipped myself through the little space and followed in suit.

“I’m on diet. I wasn’t like you, no matter how much you stuff yourself, you’re still looking as skinny as ever. I got bloated even by filling myself with water.”

“Since when did you start gaining weight so easily?” he questioned and my eyes roamed around anywhere but him.

Busted. “What do you even know about me?” I rolled my eyes at him as I walked pass him, making me leading the way to the kitchen. “I wasn’t skipping on purpose. I fell asleep. I would’ve searched for food later when I woke up even without you’re forcing me to.” I gave another excuse and my steps halted in the middle of the way when I saw how clean the table was except for two cups of ramen.

I was starving, honestly but nothing felt good every time food went down my throat so, what was the point? But seeing how Sehun was trying to make me eat, I actually kept a little hope that it might be feast. Not literally a feast but at least ordering a pizza would’ve been better than a cup ramen. What a cheapskate.

I sighed. “Is this the best you can do?” I sat and pulled the foil lid just to meet with bloated noodles.

“Don’t blame me. I timed it correctly but you were late.”

“Tch,” I groaned silently under my breath as I watched Sehun slurped on his and reluctantly began to eat mine. Our humble dinner went on without so many words as I would’ve expected since usually I was the one who did most talking, ranting, blabbering – because that’s my expertise – and he would be the one doing the listening and groaning in feign annoyance when he actually took note of everything I said.

I knew so well he was trying to make me feel better when he asked me to join him watching tv, agreeing on my preferences instead of fighting over tv channels. It actually did lighten me up when I purposely chose to watch a beauty show without much consideration for him and I can see he was trying to resist his irritation at me for making him watch the stupid program.

There was this one segment where the hosts had to guess which beauty products was used most among ballerinas as they were reviewing on each of the products and I can see how deeper his frown had gotten.

“I think it’s choice number 1. What do you think?” I asked him and the response I received was a look that said “Do I look gay enough to you to know such things?” which I just shrugged in return and continue stared on the screen, away from looking at his intimidating face.

“Isn’t everything the same?”

“It’s different. It depends on your skin.”

“Then, how would you find out if it suits your skin?”

“That’s what we called trial and error.”

“Ah, no wonder your skin isn’t that good. It needs a lot of money to be pretty.”

And now I have the urge to beat the hell out of him. We continued watching the late night movies airing on tv and it wasn’t so bad after 30 minutes of watching so I decided to stay awake until the end despite I had to wake up early and be energize enough to think straight and work.

“I should’ve gone achieve the independent woman status that I aim instead of falling in love again. I think that is less hurt. I guess love is not meant for me. Maybe because I’m better off living on my own.” I spoke up out of sudden as I watch the heartbreaking scene. In a movie, conflict happened around about 70% of the movie progression. It took around 30 minutes for the characters to get back on track and has the ending everyone was expecting. In those 30 minutes, it showed the grievance, sadness, sorrows each character had to themselves, handling the situation that happened.

I wished mine was a movie. The reality that I had to face every 24 hours again and again, feeling grievance, sadness and sorrow by myself,and plus, with my life had no certain end that it’ll be good. What I was going through could be a complete waste of time, yet it could be leading to hope that I believed.

If Byun Baekhyun was a man that I bumped on the street, it would’ve been better. If he happened to be the person trying to fight over the only kimchi left in the supermarket and we fought until we had to meet the authorities for causing public disturbances, it would’ve been better. If he was not Yerin’s, it would’ve been better. But I knew better that wasn’t the case.

So, why did I let myself fall for him? Why did I fall in love with him? Why didn’t our meeting ended at that wedding? It would’ve been way better.

Sehun’s long arm slung over me bringing my small figure over to his bigger one, securing me in his embrace when he heard me sniffing. I swear I was just crying over the movie, it’s too sad. The pats on my back were a little too hard for my comfort that it made me burst into small chuckles with my face was wet with tears. This idiot seriously only had his looks that attracted girls because he seriously didn’t how to treat girls well at all.

But it was comforting enough though.

~~~

Taehyun and I were in serious discussion, pinpointing things he needed to know at one corner of the store while Kyungsoo and Jinae are just being sick at the other side of the store. We are in the middle of working, for god sake.

Bringing Kyungsoo along was not a good idea. Sorry, that was a mistake. I meant I should’ve insisted Jinae to stay behind because at least Kyungsoo was helping enough since it was his project but I should’ve left that behind her computer doing the monthly account.

We must be doing well lately that it actually had been a while since I last heard her nagging about money.

“You have a big company today, Hana.” Yixing showed up by our side, his tone was slightly in a teasing manner as he nodded towards the lovebirds.

“I do. They never let any chances off. Even a furniture store seems to be a perfect place for them to date.” I mocked in return. “This is Taehyun, by the way. He’s the one handling the project in Gwangju.”

They greeted each other casually – well, only Yixing since Taehyun was naturally awkward all the time – before Yixing spoke to me “Then, what are you doing here if you’re not the mastermind this time?”

“I’m just helping around whenever I can.”

“You seem to be doing well.”

I hummed happily. “I’m going to head to lamp sections to see the fitting choice for the room. If you would excuse me,” Taehyun carefully spoke.

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Just make sure it