Chapter Thirty Four – Lost and Found

The air between four of them was practically breezy. They would rather talk to their respective partners than to the four of them. It seemed as if Seohyun’s request to eat together was futile. They didn’t even talk together for once although they sat together in a table.

Yoona tried to avoid meeting Luhan’s ardent gaze as possible as could though she definitely knew the elder was looking at her face despite wearing black spectacles since a while ago. She felt awfully distracted. She should’ve sticked to force Kai to eat somewhere else earlier, though, and Luhan won’t be looking at her as if he wanted to eat her alive.

“Yoona, are you okay?” Kai asked inquisitively, his eyes flickered at the agitated latter queerly.

She took a deep breath, trying to be imperturbable and looking at her partner amicably as possible. “I’m perfectly okay, Kai. Don’t worry.”

He smiled cordially and simply sipped his drink. “I’m relieved then. You looked kind of uncomfortable so that’s why I asked you about your condition. It seemed like something’s bothering you.”

“Nope,” answered Yoona, “nope at all.”

The latter let out a reassuring smile in return.

Luhan, on the other hand, was busy scrutinizing the other couple’s conversation as though Seohyun was not there. Listening to their hearty, amicable chat, jealousy grew ultimately in his heart. His heart ached as he kept on eyeing them.

“Luhan?!”

“Uhm?” He had just realized that Seohyun had been calling for him several times. He was so distracted that he didn’t even care about his partner. “What did you just say, Seohyun?”

Seohyun grunted. She hated the sight of Luhan who had been ignoring her. She did know that he was solely looking at his wife since they sat together ten minutes ago. It looked like her idea to have dinner together was worthless. Luhan didn’t stop looking at Yoona. She clenched her fist sullenly. She shouldn’t have planned this stupid idea, for God’s sake.

“I asked you why you’re wearing spectacles tonight,” she reiterated her question. “Did you hurt your eyes?”

Yoona caught Seohyun’s inquiry and was intrigued to hear his answer. She was curious as well but she didn’t want to voice out her question. If she could, she wanted to stop being caring towards him. It was now worthless, though. Everything had shattered apart now. There was no way they could easily reconcile now. Her heart throbbed so agonizingly over his well-hidden betrayal.

“Oh, actually,” he blurted out, taking off his spectacles and gazing directly (sarcastically, to be exact) at his wife. “A friend of someone had just given me a quite awful blow on my eyes and I felt so, so rejuvenated now. Thanks to the punch that I could be like this.”

Three of them were knocked for six upon seeing Luhan’s left eye. His eye looked really swollen, though. Luhan must have been enduring the agony for a while.

“When did it happen and who is ‘a friend of someone’ did that to you?” Seohyun had the chance to show off in front of Yoona that she was really anxious of the elder’s current condition. “Poor Luhan oppa! If I ever meet that person who punched you, I would’ve kicked him in the !”

“Just before I got here,” answered Luhan and took on his spectacles back, “and it’s not ‘him’. It’s actually ‘her’.”

“Oh, really?” Kai asked concernedly. “It must be hard for you to be hit by a girl, Luhan-ah.”

“I know right.” He puckered his lips grimly and flickered his eyes at his wife. She seemed speechless as she bowed down her head slightly. 

Yoona, on contrast, instead of being alarmed by Luhan’s condition like both of them, bowed down her head as she sent a text message to her friend.

Yah, Sica-yah! Did you hit Luhan this night?

Within a minute, she’d gotten a reply from Jessica. Three of them looked at her peculiarly as they heard a loud vibrate sound from her cell phone. Yoona beamed a jovial smile at them as though nothing had happened.

Yes! I hit your beloved hubby tonight! He’s getting on my nerves after he betrayed you! Ugh I’m so pissed!

She pressed her lips together into a thin line. As she had expected, it was Jessica. If she knew this would happen to Luhan, she wouldn’t have shared the ‘betrayal’ story to her. Poor Luhan, seriously. Although she was now being hostile to her husband, a tinge of humanity was still present in her heart. She couldn’t debate that.

Shoving her cell phone back into her clutch, she went back to the conversation as well hearing their thoughts.

“Seriously poor Luhan oppa! It must be painful, right oppa?” Seohyun strained her voice as loveable as possible as she sent him a worried look.

Yoona couldn’t help but feel somehow nauseous of her overly-exaggerated, nasal voice. It was like she was obviously showing off to her that she now had the right to be caring and concerned about Luhan.

She pursed her lips aggravatingly. It was not like she gave a damn to the latter. Congratulations to her that she could now act so endearing and loveable to Luhan. It wasn’t like she hadn’t done before. It was countless, though.

Luhan gave the younger a weird look. “I’m okay. Don’t be too exaggerated, would you?”

Yoona felt like she won an award upon his response. She could see Seohyun sigh out of annoyance.

Wait a minute.

Why she was being like this? It did look like she was going to be concerned of Luhan. Yah, Im Yoona! Snap out of it! Get back to your sense! You shouldn’t have gotten your heart melt so easily! Luhan was now a poison! An awfully vicious poison!

“Yoona?” Kai furrowed an eyebrow. “What were you wondering? You’ve been silent for a moment.”

Luhan furtively gazed at her out of concern. He was wondering why she seemed out of energy today. She didn’t talk much. Maybe because of his appearance that made her feel annoyed? Well, that maybe true.

She bit her lips as she realized she was now caught red handed. She shouldn’t have let her guard off. “Uhm…” she hummed, trying to arrange a decent sentence. “Actually I-”

“Yoona unnie must have been thinking about how handsome Jongin today!” Seohyun chimed in happily. She looked at the startled Yoona for a second before gazing her eyes back at Luhan. “Right, oppa?”

“Oh,” Luhan hummed as he looked at Yoona and then to Kai. “I… I suppose.” He then his drink restlessly. The ambience was getting hot. He felt rather uncomfortable.

“Was it true, Yoona?” Jongin chuckled amusingly. He played along Seohyun’s words even though he perfectly knew that it wasn’t what the woman in front of him was actually wondering. “That I look handsome today?”

Instead of answering Kai’s words, the younger looked at Luhan, trying to see what was he thinking right now. When the elder noticed her gaze, he glanced at the other direction at once. He looked kind of pissed.

“Yoona unnie? Jongin’s waiting for your answer! Please answer it fast!” Seohyun chirped delightfully, as if she were the matchmaker of the night.

When words were about to flow out, Luhan cut her in first. “Seohyun, you know what?”

Everyone met Luhan’s eyes as curiosity drove them crazy.

Smiling sweetly, Seohyun peered at her partner. “Know what, oppa?”

“I’m wondering why you tend to call Kai-yah as ‘Jongin’. I suppose everyone does call him with the name, ‘Kai’, doesn’t it?” He glanced questioningly at the befuddled said guy before looking back into the latter’s eyes. “It seems as if you do know Kai-yah more than Yoona know him.”

Seohyun jolted at his surprising words. Her lips trembled fearfully and her fingers felt quivering. She avoided Luhan’s gaze and bowed down voicelessly.

She felt as though she were now freezing to death, literally.

***

Thank God the intense conversation was brought to an end when the food were ready to be served. Seohyun could now heave a sigh of relief. She was bailed out at the very crucial moment. For heaven’s sake, she wouldn’t want anyone especially Luhan to know about her past, painful memory with the guy named Kim Jongin.

Yoona, on the other side of the coin, fascinated by the variety set of food on other table. Three of  them seemed to prefer local cuisine meanwhile she opted to devour western food. She had no idea why since she got pregnant, her appetite seemed to have changed completely. Plus, before this, she wasn’t a er for sweet food like confectioneries and pastry, but now, she adored them. If she those food weren’t at home, she would drive to supermarket or bakery to have them without Luhan’s knowledge.

She didn’t ask why her family, family in-law or Nana about this matter because she didn’t want them to know about her pregnancy. Instead, she asked Jessica because she was the only one who knew about her being pregnant.

Jessica laughed when she voiced out her thoughts. She said she shouldn’t have been pregnant because of her density about pregnancy. Even she, who hadn’t been pregnant before yet she had gotten married, did know a little bit of the matter. A pregnant woman would have gotten her emotion, physical and appetite change wholly. That was why she inclined to eat food that she used to hate before – or even food that were nonsensical, didn’t make sense to be found at once.

“Yoona?” Luhan eyed a sight of Yoona who was immersed in eating. He quirked an eyebrow in confusion.

“What’s the matter?” she questioned back cluelessly. She didn’t know why Luhan seemed to look at her in peculiarity.

“Usually, you wouldn’t eat lasagna. Everytime we eat outside, you’d never choose it,” expressed the elder, “so it’s kind of weird, you know.”

His remark did make her want to choke while eating. She was taken aback. She never thought her husband would be pretty concerned about her eating.

Seohyun and Kai automatically flashed their gazes at the speechless Yoona.

“Oh, really, Yoona?” Kai chuckled, trying to relax the mood. “I’ve never thought about it. Seems like Luhan does know about your favourites quite a lot.” He glanced at Seohyun and continued, “am I right, Seohyun?”

Despite being sort of flustered, she did nod in agreement. “Ah, I suppose.”

“Well, I’m her husband, after all,” Luhan answered, smiling smugly at the fact that Kai had lost to him.

Yoona puckered her lips in irritation. Her husband? She would love to laugh out loud of his words. Since when he was his husband? A real husband wouldn’t have thought to stab his wife’s back.

“Anyway, Luhan,” she deadpanned, a significant smile twisted on her lips as she looked at him, “I used to dislike lasagna but now, I’ve started to eat it. So there’s no link between my favourite food and you being my husband.” At the end of her remark, she flaunted him a glare.

Taken aback, he quacked mildly. His eyes grew wide for a second before he got back to normal.

Trying to lessen the intensity of the conversation, Seohyun initiated another topic. She pointed out her finger at her partner to display her bracelet. “Oppa, look at this. It’s beautiful, right?”

“Uhm, yes it is,” Luhan answered nonchalantly.

Seohyun tousled her bracelet jubila