Apology
Who Will It Be?
Eun Mi
“Hello?”
“It’s me. Let’s hang out today.” The voice on the other end was completely easy to recognize.
“Alright. Why don’t you just come over, Dari? You can help me grade some tests.”
He laughed. “No way, I’m not letting you rope me into that again. I’ll come over and watch TV while you grade tests. Sound good?”
“Kay.”
“I’ll be over soon.” He hung up.
Shutting my phone, I refocused on the test before me. Just a couple days ago, I had given a fractions test to the sixth graders that I was now teaching. These kids were all pretty smart, so it wasn’t going to take too long to get through all the marking.
I finished four more when the door rang. Moving the pile of papers from my lap to the couch, I got up and went to the door. I pulled it open without looking through the peep hole. But it wasn’t Dari.
“Can we talk?” Dayday had a sincere expression on his handsome face. One that I almost couldn’t resist. Almost. I slammed the door in his face. Dayday was too fast, though. He wedged his foot between the door and the doorframe.
“Please don’t make this hard.”
I took a deep breath, and in a voice void of all emotion, I said, “You have three minutes.” I pulled the door open and left it there, walking back into the living room. Settling on the couch, I crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for him to start.
He sat in the chair across from me. I could tell he was sort of nervous by the way he kept his lips and fiddling with his thumbs, looking like a kid in trouble. For a moment, my heart softened. Just as fast as the thought came, it went, and once again, my walls went up. I would definitely not let him get under my skin. Anything he said would just bounce off me. I was wrong.
“I’m sorry.”
Those two words nearly shattered my walls. I had thought he’d come here just to try and get me to talk to him, to be an annoying pest. But instead, he’d come to apologize. And the reason for why he was apologizing… Well, it brought back painful memories. Before I could take a trip down memory lane though, he continued.
“For what I did… three years ago. I’m sorry.” He winced, sensing how lame it sounded even to his own ears. “I never meant for things to end that way. It’s just… things were so messed up back then, I couldn’t handle everything.”
“What things?” My voice came out tiny. I was trying to choke back the fast coming tears, willing myself not to cry. I concentrated on the cushion that was in my lap, trying to block the memories from flooding my mind.
Dayday did some more thumb twiddling before answering. “My parents were filing for divorce since my mom cheated on my dad. Their relationship didn’t have any trust. When you accused me of cheating with Sun Hee, I was so hurt. I couldn’t believe that you didn’t trust me.”
He rubbed his face with his hand. “I knew that if we didn’t have any trust, we’d end up just like my parents. So I thought, why not end things now?”
“What about Sun Hee?”
“She was the one hitting on me. I swear, I never did anything that gave her the wrong idea. You just always came in at the worst times. I nearly went crazy with her always around me.“
I clamped a hand over my mouth to hold back a sob. Dayday was finally revealing the reason why he’d left me and what had actually happened with Sun Hee. It was my fault. My insecurities. My wild imagination. Jumping to conclusions.
“It’s all my fault,” I whispered, tears pouring down my face.
“No, baby. No. It’s not.” Dayday came over to me, and took me into his arms. He made soothing sounds, trying to calm me down.
When the tears had subsided, I managed to say, “Then what are we gonna do now?”
“Will you take me back?“ Dayday stared into my eyes, hopeful.
That’s what I was afraid he was going to say.
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