C h a p t e r   12

A  e    S  o  o

I wake up the next day and I’m back in my room. I sit up in surprise thinking how I got back but when I turn to my left, and it’s like everything just got answered. Sehun’s sleeping beside me and he’s lying next to me. He has his left hand over the blanket that is pulled for us and I am sleeping at his arm. My heart is beating fast at the sight. He looked after me the whole night. I was so mesmerized at his sight when I didn’t even noticed that he’s looking at me. 

“You’re awake.”

"Uh, yeah..” I blush looking down at my fingers. He didn’t say anything and sits up next to me. 

“Are you okay now?”

“Okay?” I ask in confusion. Am I in a situation where I’m not supposed to be okay? 

“You didn’t know huh?”

“Did I do something embarrassing?!”

He looks at me and smiled warmly to me this time. Oh god. He’s smiling at me. Anymore of this and I can’t even hold back anymore. I love him so much. “It’s nothing and you didn’t do anything.” He lift the covers up and climbs out of the bed. I have the urge to stop him and tell him that he can stay for a bit longer but I know that’ll be wrong. I watch him as he walks to my door but he stops before getting out. “Ae Soo.”

“Huh?”

“Is..” he stops in hesitation whatever he wanted to ask but he continues either way. “Do you like him? Ae Ryu..”

His question feels like a huge pang in my chest. I hurt him? I don’t want him to be hurt. “No! It’s not like that-“ I gasp because I just answered him with much conviction. It’s embarrassing.

“I see.” Even though he’s facing me sideways, I see a smile across his face. “You have to get up. Breakfast will be in a few.”

He shuts the door close but I think he took my heart along with him with that smile of his.

S  e  h  u  n

“You look like you won from a raffle or something. It’s not you and it’s creepy. Stop grinning.” Baekhyun hyung said as we eat our breakfast. 

I can’t help it. I was too depressed last night when I saw Ae Ryu holding Ae Soo and it felt like my whole world is slowly going down. But she told me that nothing’s going on between them. That’s nice. But it’s not like I’m hoping. I’m just happy being this way. I’m thinking that she has reasons why she didn’t answer me that day and why she left all of a sudden. 

“Ah, I forgot my phone!” Baekhyun hyung stands and runs back to his room. Chanyeol hyung appears and sits next to me. 

“Hey.” He greets.

“Hey.” I say back. He looks around seeing that we’re still the only ones here. 

“The girls are not here yet?” I nod. “Seems like you slept in her room last night?”

I choke on my food and look at him. “You knew?”

“The light in your room never opened. You sleep with your lights on and I saw you coming out of her room earlier.” He smiled. “I believe everything is going well now?”

I smile. “Yeah but we’re not like that. She just asked me to stay beside her that’s all.”

Hyung looks at me, confused. “Stay?”

I nod. “I actually brought her back to her room last night because she fell asleep somewhere. But when I’m on my way out, she unconsciously grabbed me and told me not to go. She kept on mumbling that she doesn’t want me to hate her and she’s holding on tight. I can’t go at that state. It hurts me too whenever I see her like that. I made her think that I hated her when I never for once felt that way towards her.”

When I look back at him, he’s smiling at me warmly and continued eating. “With that I think you know what might happen from now on Sehun.”

 I smile nodding. “I’m hoping but I don’t want to push her. I want things to fall into place in their own way.”

Ae Soo and her friends arrive at the dining area. My eyes fell to hers and she looks at me nervously. I give her a smile to reassure her that we’re good then she gives me a smile of relief. They all sat in front of us and their breakfast was served.

“I’ll never get used to this. It’s already our third day here in this place and the service is even better than that damn hotel.” What Jisoo said made Ae Soo chuckle. I wonder why I am even more attracted to her today than before? Is it because of last night? Damn. I really do like her. I can’t even imagine what I’ll be when I had the chance to kiss her.

“Oh, excuse me for a while.” Ae Soo grabs her phone and looks at the screen. Her eyes squints and stare. “Again?”

“Who is it?” Ae Soo showed the girls her phone and shrugged.

“Yoo Bin. The sem’s already over. I wonder why he’s calling.” He. So it’s a guy. A guy’s calling her? 

“Oh my god! I knew it!” Minah squealed. 

“What do you know?” Jisoo raised one of her eyebrows and looks at Minah.

“We got in a group together! I felt like his stare at Ae Soo is different. I knew it! He likes you!”

I forgot that Ae Soo’s back at her usual routine now. She’s going at a university in Seoul. Far away from here and she’s only here for a vacation. That means, she’ll leave again soon. She’s...leaving.

“Sehun?” Chanyeol hyung looks at me when I stood up putting my chopsticks down. “You done?”

“Yeah. I’m going for a walk.”

“Oh, alright.” 

When I got away from the dining area, my head is floating. It’s all different than how it was minutes ago. I never thought that she’ll go away again. And maybe, she’s even interested at another guy back to where she lives. The thought makes me stop on my tracks. 

“I need to let this out.” I decided to head to the archery grounds and take a few shots but my arrows are not aiming the center. I sigh in frustration when I hear footsteps approaching.

“Oh good...you’re here!” Ae Soo chases after her breath. Her hands fall on her knees as she does. I find that attractive too. 

“Need something?” I aim my arrow again and shoot it. It’s a miss again. 

“Um.. are you okay?” Her question makes me freeze. I look back at her and she’s giving me the worried look again. 

“Why are you asking me that?”

“Are you not? It’s just.. I just got the feeling..” she started mumbling nonsense with all her hand gestures. I can tell she’s nervous and afraid. I’m making her feel that way. When she noticed that I’m staring, she bit her lower lip and stopped talking. “I’m sorry..”

I was first walking slowly towards her but then as I go closer, my footsteps are starting to go faster. I grab her waist and then her cheek pulling her close to me. She gasps at my action and her eyes widened. “You’re asking me if I’m okay?” She nods. “Do you still want to know?” She nods again. “I am not okay. I’m frustrated in so many levels with a lot of reasons. I have a lot of questions that needed answers and have a lot of what ifs. I’m hoping a lot and I’m telling myself not to.” I sigh shutting my eyes closed. This is a first. I never snapped at her before nor talked a lot like this before. I’m just frustrated I don’t know what to do. 

I finally release her in frustration and sighed. My hands ran through my face then to the back of my hair. They stopped at the back of my neck and I turn away from her. I don’t want her to see me like this right now. “Are those questions for me?” I nod. “Alright, ask me.”

I turn to her surprised. Is she really okay with it? “You won’t run away?”

She shakes her head. “Then hold on to me. If I ever make attempts of doing so, don’t let me go even if I plead.”

I walk closer to her and trapped her on the wall with both of my arms in between her. “What do you think of me? Do you even think of me the time when you’re far away?”

Her eyes are looking at mine. Deep. “Yes. All the time.”

I take a breather. I wasn’t expecting that and it came with a huge blow on me. I am hesitant to ask the next question that I want her to answer for a while now but I’m scared I won’t get what I need to hear. Hyung’s right. I’m starting to adapt a human nature. I’m getting greedy. “Do you like me?”

Her eyes lose the confidence that they have earlier. She’s looking at me, scared. “I do. I..” she let out a shaking breath. “I even love you.”

My eyes widen at her reply. She likes me too? “T..Then why? Why’d you left that day? Why did you even avoided me? We both love each other Ae Soo! We don’t have to play pretend! We can-“

“We can’t..” tears started to flow from her eyes this time. They’re nonstop. “We can’t...” she holds my cheeks this time and pulled me close. “We can never will..”

“What are...you saying?” The moment she releases me, she stares at my eyes and she looked like she’s looking for something. “Ae Soo-“

“Sehun, can I kiss you?”

Moments back, I was in cloud nine with the thought if what I’ll do the moment I had the chance to kiss her. This is it. This is the chance I’m waiting for but.. why don’t I feel happy at all? 

“You don’t have ask me. I’ll do it for you.” I lower my mouth to her and kiss her. I don’t want her kissing me. I want to be the one doing it. The moment my lips met hers, it’s like I felt a shiver along my body. Like I found something that’s already a part of mine all along and now I’m whole again. The feeling of her lips on mine is very addicting, I think I’m going crazy. I pull her even closer and trailed my hand from her cheek to her neck. I don’t ever want to stop kissing her. It feels so good. Sadly, she pulled away from me but her eyes remained close. I kissed her cheek then her forehead and rested mine with hers. “I love you.”

She nods and started shaking as she cries. I don’t know why she refuses to be with me. She even refuses to look at me. “I’m so sorry..”

“No. Ae Soo, look at me.” I hold her cheeks and stare at he reyes that were shut closed. “Ae Soo, please?” I whisper and pleaded. She releases a sigh and gave in. The moment our eyes met, tears immediately flowed from hers. “Can you at least tell me why?”

She bit her lower lip and shake her head no. “I’m really..so.. sorry.” She steps away from me and was about to go when I grab her arm and pulled her back against me. I bury my face on her neck and hugged her from behind. “Sehun-“

“You told me not to let you go even if you beg me. I’m not letting you go.” She continued sobbing as she holds on to arms that are holding her down. “Tell me again. Tell me that you love me.”

She shakes her head no and cried harder. I’m making this hard for her whatever the reason is. I don’t want that. I don’t want her to suffer. My arms slipped from Ae Soo and I release her. She apologized for the last time and took the chance to get away from me. And it happened again. I let her go.

A  e    S  o  o

Staring at my luggage, I shut it close and headed out where Jisoo and Minah are. Three days have passed ever since I told Sehun how I feel but we decided not to do anything about it. Honestly, it’s very awkward these past few days. I’m half glad we’re about to leave now. 

“Had everything in there?” Jisoo asked and I nod giving her a smile.

“You’ll visit again won’t you Ae Soo?” Baekhyun asks with a frown on his face. Not only him, but everybody is frowning. Except Sehun, because he’s not here. He’s not seeing me off huh?

“I will. Maybe on Christmas break I can go here.” 

“Really?! Then we’ll wait for you okay?” I nod at Jongin.

 “Let’s go.” 

“Okay!” Minah entered the car ahead of me but I can’t seem to go in yet. I look back hoping that Sehun will at least arrive but he doesn’t. My heart is hurting knowing it. “Ae Soo?” 

“He’s at the archery grounds.” I hear Chanyeol say and smile at me. His words are like a bait waiting for me to bite on it. 

"Go. Take the time you'll need." Jisoo smiled at me from the driver's seat.

“I’ll be back I promise!” I ran back inside the compound and head to the archery ground seeing Sehun fire arrows. He seem to see my presence because he stopped but he doesn’t look at me. "Sehun-"

"You forgot something?" He still refuses to look at me then shoots his arrow. 

"I-"

"I made up my mind. I won't push myself on you anymore Ae Soo. Baekhyun hyung told me the reason why you don't want to be with me." He releases his bow, setting it on the table. "It makes sense. I understand already so go. Don't worry about me okay?"

He's not going to be okay. I know it. "Look at me and say it again."

"Why'd you came back?" I bit my lower lip. Now my defenses are starting to go down. If this continue, I might not be able to care anymore. "Look at me in the eye and answer me."

His words are like a final blow to me. Like he hammered my wall down into pieces. "I love you."

He's looking at me intensely this time. "You know what those words do to me right?"

I nod. "I love you Sehun."

"I warned you. There's no turning back Ae Soo. One more and I'm not going to listen to the words you say. Be it that I may be the one who might kill you or not, I won't hold back."

"I love you."

"Now you've done it." I gasp when he suddenly appeared in front of me and grabs my waist pulling me towards him. His hand slides through my neck and kisses me. He's kissing me passionately that it's making my knees go weak. He felt it so he holds me tight to support me as I hold on to him. "God, I love you." I wrap my arms around him as I kiss him back. 

"I'm sorry. I really can't hold back anymore Sehun.." He smiles meeting my forehead with his.

"You're not the only one." He kisses me again but this time, Sehun kisses me slowly. Like he's taking his time to memorize every bit of me. "I'm going to ask you again," he grabs my hand and brings it up to his lips. "Yang Ae Soo of the fox clan, can you me my bride? The bride of the heir of the wolf clan?"

I smile and hold his cheeks as I stare at him. "You don't even need to ask."