Banner by: rachel02 

Thank you for this!!!

CHAPTER 24. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

"What are you on about about?" I started as I opened the door. .

And there he was standing--with a stupid grin on his face.

“Have dinner with me?” he asked as he raised in his right hand that was carried a box of take-out Yeolbong chicken.

“You haven’t had dinner yet?” I asked suddenly side-tracked.

He was pouting, “They only served drinks…and hors d’oeuvre.”

I glanced at the empty apartment behind me for a second before turning back towards him.

“I’m alone.” I said as I frowned.

“So.” He remarked with one raised eyebrow. 

She mulled on it for a minute while chewing her lower lip, sighed, then nodded her head then stepped back to let him in.

Seunghyun looked down the floor and looked at the angry birds slippers neatly lined up in the foyer in color, yellow, red, green, orange and whites.

“Those are extra slippers…the white ones.” She said.

He nodded his head and donned a pair while mumbling something about our angry-bird-themed slippers.

And while he was doing that I peeped my head out the door, looked left and right, making sure no one witnessed him going inside the apartment.  

The coast was clear.  A relieved sigh came out of me before I closed the door. 

Seunghyun caught on what I was doing.

“You are legally allowed to have visitors right?” He asked with a withering look.

“I am.  But I'm an idol and so are you.  I don’t want anyone to think I’m easy.” I replied as I pushed him towards the dining area.

“Oh no, you’re anything BUT easy.” He added as I yelled in protest and pushed him harder.

“It was just like this…” I said after I gulped down cold water to wash my searing throat. I was thinking about the time we started to become friends when we shared an early morning snack with an amicable conversation in Jiyongs’ Vita Dolce kitchen.

“What was like this?” he asked as he devoured a big chunk of chicken and fixed his glasses that slid down his nose that looked a little red because of the spicy flavor. “I'm seriously going to miss outside food.” He said pointing at the food.

Dara pouted then looked at him crossly.

“What?” he said amusedly knowing all too well how she felt but persist on teasing her.

She pushed her plate aside suddenly loosing her appetite.

She looks down at her lap.

Silence envelopes them both.  Both of them have many unspoken and unanswered questions in their head but no one dares say it.  And for Dara it felt like it was an acknowledgement of her fears coming true, that they were really going to drift apart.

She swallowed the lump that formed in , but she couldn’t help the tears that fell out of her face. She didn’t want Seunghyun to see her cry so she stayed looking down soaking her lap with her tears angrily wiping them away with the back of her hand.

She heard him sigh then the his chair scraping the floor.

The next thing she felt was Seunghyun standing beside her turning her chair to face him.  He squat in front of her and looked up at her face.

She looked at him sadly not saying anything just letting the sadness pour out of her eyes and he looked up at her with a pained expression. He put both hands on each side of her face to wipe her tears with his thumbs, and then he reached up and placed a tender kiss on her forehead. The moment he did that she put her arms around his neck for a hug.

Seunghyun slid his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured his voice rumbling in his chest as he run his hand over her hair. He felt her nod her head. “I’ll be back don’t worry.” He felt her nod again. “I won’t change…I promise.” He said and he felt her hug him tighter and he realized it was what she wanted to hear all along.

And they stayed like that for a long time.

“Hey Dara, I think I’m gonna cry a lot these days.”

It was aready 4:30 in the morning. It was time to send him off.

We were waiting for his manager to pick him up.  There wasn't anyone else on the road at that time except the two of us.

“You’re gonna miss me that much?” I ask.

He smiled. “Actually, I was just thinking I might receive a dose of tear gas at training.”

I punch him in the arm and he acted in pain exagerratedly.

The streetlights splashed all around us like brilliant pools.

He frowned, checked his pockets and dumped his bag into an untidy pile on the road. 

“I don't think they'll let use our phones much of the time there.” He said as he looked at me with furrowed eyebrows.

I smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll try to visit you as often as possible.”

“Nah…I’d rather you didn’t.” He said.

“Yah…Choi Seunghyun.”

He chuckled. “Let’s just see each other after two years.” He looked at his watch again then switched his weight from foot to foot, he would rub his eyes, then would look up at the sky and sigh.

He was anxious.

“Dara…why is it so difficult for me just to say this?” He says suddenly. She looks up at him curiously.

“Say what?”

He shrugged his shoulders then gave out a dry laugh. Then they both looked the same direction as his service car came into view at the end of the street.

I gnawed my lower lip, far more disturbed than I cared to admit.

When I looked back at Seunghyun he had already moved closer and he was pulling me towards him for a hug. I settled my hands lightly at his waist and breathed in his scent, feeling his warm body against mine.

“I’m gonna miss you…”. I mumbled my head nestled at the side of his neck.

She felt him hug her tighter then he moved his chin from resting at the top of her head to her shoulder. “I know you probably don’t believe me. I can’t blame you. I mean…I have planned this grand romantic gesture with roses and the stuff that you like…but I chickened out. That’s why I joked around in the party…because…because I was half hating myself.” His whispered in her ear and Dara could only dropped her jaw in surprise. “When you walked out.” he said remorsefully, “I realized…I didn’t want to end this way. I do want you to know…I’m…sort of in love with you.” he breezes through the last sentence very quickly.

And as quickly as that he had already pulled away from the hug, and his face moved down to claim her lips. His lips were warm and tender and a little bit frustrated. Dara's head was spinning with everything he just said and how sudden things were happening. And how warm and secure she felt in his arms, and how he smelled like her own bathsoap. And without realizing it she was answering his kiss with the same desperation and longing in his.

After, god knows how long, he slowly pulled away and rested his forehead against hers. She knew he was looking at her, with that same smoldering look she caught him giving her sometimes, but something she always pretended she doesn’t notice. And she was looking at his lips and it was shaped into a half smile.

Once again he quickly gave her a peck in the lips before stepping back.

“Remember when we had a deal about the driving lessons…that if I don’t learn anything by the end of you’ll grant me one wish?” He asks.

“We didn’t even get to do one lesson!” She exclaimed laughingly. 

He waves his hand off at what she said. “Let’s just forfeit the driving lessons…I just want to get the wish in the end.”

She waits for him to continue.

“So in the two years while I’m away…will you seriously try to think if you…if you think you might like me…not just as a friend or a brother…because I want…I want something more than that. ! I’m not used to this?! But when I get out of the military after two years…would you seriously consider dating me? You don’t have to answer now…but after two years…you can give me your answer.”

Before she could open to answer his lips swooped down on her again. Then he quickly pulled away and turned his back to her and walked stiffly to the car and went in closing the door behind him. Dara was only vaguely aware of his manager getting out of the car and greeting her as he picked up the bag Seunghyun left on the road beside her then the manager went back to the car waving and they drove away until they were out of sight.

Dara remained standing outside her apartment, a hand on her thoroughly kissed lips, and her heart hammering like crazy on her chest.

Choi Seunghyun was a wonderful--wonderfully attractive man, and I owed everything to him.  I loved him but I wasn’t sure if I was in love with him.  I was in love with his friend Kwon Jiyong, and Seunghyun was definitely in love with me.  He had fought it, tried to deny it, I knew, that he had finally acknowledged the truth to himself. What was I going to do then?

Well…I have two years to figure that out...

THE END✌️