♥ Min: Future ♥
Lady Love
♥ Min ♥
I'm not the kind of person who has great interest of people's past. If they want to tell me, they would. If they don't want me to, they won't. It's that simple and I don't have any intention to change that habit of mine.
However, for this one time, I do pay more attention about Ai's past, considering how she reacted so cold towards Joon's request and the guy who kissed her yesterday. She didn't say a word but I know her mind was somewhere else.
So here I am now, enjoying the chocolate croissant while she has her time as Lady Love with a new requester named Kim Hyoyeon, a professional street dancer who wants to make up with her ex-boyfriend.
Sipping the lime juice with a straw, my eyes are fixed on Ai, a girl who would do anything for people she barely even knows but she refuses to help my cousin for having a second chance.
I don't know exactly what's going on between them while I was at the kitchen but I could hear the word 'fiancee' slipped out from Joon.
I remember that my parents once brought out the topic of engagement, something about Joon's parents went to bankruptcy or something and they received helping hands from an acquaintance and their chidren were promised to be husband and wife in the future.
My brother and I felt relieved that our future were not decided like him. However, as the time went by, I actually thought it was just a mere promise since I never saw my cousin with his fiancee.
When we met again and he told me about Hwang Miyoung, I came up to the assumption that it must be impossible for him to be tied with a girl he barely even knew.
Joon said his fiancee made him realize what love really is. Doesn't it mean he just met his fiancee lately? But when? During his attempt to win Miyoung's heart, the only girl he usually met is...
"It can't be...," I murmur to myself, looking at the only person I have in my mind at the moment. "Could it be... Hyung and Ai..."
Come to think about it, Ai did mention about her fiancee, a man she never met. The conversation just happened when we were talking about random topic including how we would love to free in making decision of our future.
Ai smiled bitterly, saying that she didn't really have option when her parents wanted her to be someone else's fiancee. She is their only child and she bears quite some thoughts for the future of the family too.
The shock on Joon's face when they met for the first time at the park. He actually knew her name but Ai denied the fact that they knew each other.
All of them make sense now.
So it's not just me who is keeping a secret from Ai, that Joon is actually my cousin. It's not just me who doesn't tell the truth to Joon, that I'm actually not Ai's boyfriend.
Each of us is keeping a secret from another.
"Hyuk?" Ai's voice calls for me. She stands in front of me with a plate of cheese croissant, looking at me with confusion. "What is it? Is there something?"
I shake my head and smile, "Nothing. How's Hyoyeon?"
"Good," she puts the plate on table, sweeping the whole room with a quick glance before returning her gaze on me. "How's the croissant?"
"Perfect," I retort, grinning from ear to ear. "Ai, are you free after seven tonight?"
Ai raises her eyebrow, tilting hear head slightly, "After seven? Why?"
If I tell her that Joon actually asked me a favor yesterday, so Ai would meet him and listen to what he wants to say, she would reject my request right away.
He came to my brother's florist shop, asking me a favor if I could persuade Ai to talk with him. He would try this just one last time, he said.
Now I understand why he said that I could throw tantrum at him later yet he didn't tell me the reason. It's because he thinks that I am Ai's boyfriend.
I prop my chin on palm, looking to her eyes and smile, "Let's go on a date, Ai."
Ai frowns and scoffs lightly, "What? Hyuk. Seriously?"
"Seriously," I reply calmly, feeling amused somehow. "You didn't deny that we're a couple before, right? So, just for tonight, would you mind to call for a date with me?"
Her cheeks turn pink and I feel amused with her cute reaction. Ai fakes a cough, "It's just for... There's no need to pretend as a couple anymore..."
"Ai," I mention her name, making her to look directly at me. "Just this one time. Please?"
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Ai sighs heavily, "Fine. After seven. You'll help me close the cafe then."
Even though she agrees, I actually feel guilty. Perhaps it's because I know she will be mad at me later or it's because I don't know what to tell Joon when I know there's a guy, both of us don't know, who is probably so much closer to her than we are.
Joon sounds both excited and anxious on phone when I tell him that I will bring Ai along to the place I have decided. Joon will be waiting for us first there.
"Ai," I open up a conversation on our way to the secret place we're heading to. "Can I ask you a question?"
It's seven at night already. Heart Garden is closed already and I picked her, asking her to follow me. She gives me a questioning glance but doesn't ask anything.
"Sure," she puts her hands inside of jacket pockets. "You're acting a little bit strange today, Hyuk. Is there something going on that I don't know?"
"About your fiancee...," I stop for a moment, noticing that her facial expression has changed. She stops on her stand and I do the same. "Do I know him?"
She clenches her fists slightly but loosens them as she states, "Why does it matter?"
Why? Because he is my cousin. Because he thinks we're a couple. Because perhaps he just realized that he loves you. Because...
"Is he... The guy we met at the cafe when we're following Joon Hyung and Miyoung?" I wrap up another question, the one I also don't know the answer for.
I don't know how to explain it but the way she looks at me change somehow. She looks away and mumbles, "Where are we going actually, Hyuk?"
I push her to the edge already.
Heaving a sigh, I bow and apologize, "I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to ask such a personal question. You'll tell me if you want to."
"Now let's go," I straighten my body, hoping that she would just let the tension disappears. After all, Joon is already waiting for her. "Come on, Ai."
Two steps away from her, she suddenly blurts out a statement I didn't really expect to hear now.
"My fiancee's name is Lee Joon."
Turning around, my eyes meet with Ai's. With a serious expression, she continues, "That day when L.J. became my requester, it's the first time I met him in person. He noticed me as well but... We came to an agreement that if I could help him and he found his love... Our parents would probably consider to drop the engagement."
"That's why I refused to help his second request," Ai tells me her concern. "If he is the kind of person who would change an important decision so easily, I can't imagine my future, Hyuk."
So I was right.
"I'll help someone with all I can do but helping a person who doesn't even know what he really wants... I can't do that," Ai takes a step closer to me. "If you're actually going to meet me up with Joon tonight, you can send him my greeting."
Ai was going to take steps back from me but I grab her hand, holding it tight but gentle. She flinches a little but she doesn't run away.
"Everyone deserves to be loved," I quote her favorite words. "Could you just listen to Joon Hyung first?"
"I'm doing this so he can have the time for himself, to think clearly, to know that whatever he's thinking is not what he really wants," Ai speaks. "Meeting me is not an option to what he wants."
I don't throw any words back since I'm not good in arguing either. I reach out my left hand to touch her cheek, moving her hair behind ear, "You think too much, Ai."
All I was trying to say that she should just try to talk. Besides Joon probably would give up and get a clearer answer if Ai told him by herself, not like this.
However Ai's reaction surprises me. She suddenly drops her gaze to the ground. Her right hand grips on my shirt as if I just said something wrong.
"Ai?" I hold her by shoulders. "W-What's wrong?"
She pushes me away slightly, muttering, "I-It's nothing... You... You just said something that... Words someone said to me before. About me being too serious."
Before I could ask her who that someone is, Joon's voice cuts in.
"Ai? Minhyuk?"
He stands metres away from us, catching up his breath, looking at us with shock on his face. I know exactly what he has in mind with this kind of situation.
He gasps, looking at me with disappointment, "You never planned to let Ai meet me..."
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