anathema (ə-na-thə-mə) n. - someone or something intensely disliked or loathed

Mihyun pressed her ear closer to Sehun’s chest to listen to the rhythmic beats of his heart. The two of them had been lying in bed for quite a while now despite the fact that the sun had set long ago. The events that occurred earlier that day completely exhausted them, yet they still couldn’t find themselves giving into their fatigue.

"Can I ask you something...?" Sehun asked quietly, interrupting the lull.

Mihyun hummed in agreement, paying more attention to the invisible lines she drew on Sehun's large hand. It was interesting to see the vast contrast in size, for Sehun’s hand was nearly twice as large as her own.

"Why did you do this for us?" Sehun asked, his tongue darting out to his suddenly dry lips. Mihyun stilled her movements with Sehun’s hand, and he quickly continued on, "The rebellion, I mean. Why were you so willing to sacrifice everything you had for people you knew for less than a month?"

He glanced nervously over at the girl, worried that she might have taken offense to his honest curiosity. The pregnant silence after his question burned into the air, and Sehun was just about to take back his question until Mihyun finally responded.

“Can I… can I tell you the truth?” Mihyun asked quietly as she placed Sehun’s hand aside. Sehun took this as a bad sign.

“Yeah,” Sehun nodded his head firmly. He watched as Mihyun pushed herself into an upright position. She turned away from Sehun, fearing that she wouldn’t be able to finish her words if she was staring at him. The silence continued to stretch on, and Sehun propped himself up with his elbows just enough so could see the girl, “Mihyun?”

“The reason I did this… the reason…” Mihyun murmured as she ran her hand through her long hair, disheveled from lying on Sehun’s chest for the past few hours. She took a deep breath of air, as if to calm her nerves before coming completely clean with the boy.

"Because... Because this rebellion, it wasn't just a rebellion for you all. It was, I guess you could say a rebellion for myself as well; a rebellion against the world I had grown to hate. I wanted to tarnish the world’s perfectly operating society,” Mihyun began slowly, her words beginning to pick up pace as she spoke, “I hated my life at the time. I hated the servants that would greet me whenever I came home. I hated the expectations and responsibilities bestowed onto me by my father. I hated acting like the perfect child I knew I really wasn't.”

Mihyun glanced over her shoulder, but quickly looked away once she met eye contact with Sehun. Her palms began to sweat from how hard her heart was beating, and she quickly wiped them against her pajamas.

“And then you guys came along and I... I guess I saw it as an opportunity to change. I was so eager to run away from the life society had dictated for me that I carelessly put all of yours in harm’s way. I was just being a selfish, rebellious teenager who used her money and power to get everything she wanted - I didn't think I would grow as emotionally attached to everybody as I am now," Mihyun chuckled bitterly. "I'm not as selfless as you guys think I am, you know. I've been saying that from the start."

She tensed at the uneasy silence that answered her, and stole a glance at Sehun’s expression, "Do you hate me now?"

Sehun’s eyes widened at her words and he quickly waved his hands back and forth to deny her claim.

"No I'm actually kind of satisfied that you initially did this for yourself," Sehun admitted after a beat of silence. Mihyun turned to face him with eyes widened slightly from disbelief. He chuckled at her reaction and reached out to touch her arm. "That means you got something out of this for yourself too."

Mihyun pursed her lips and tapped his forehead with her finger, “Yeah, I got you."

Sehun let out a loud snort. "You have a way with your words, you know that?" Sehun muttered lovingly under his breath as he pulled Mihyun into his arms. He rested his chin comfortably on top of her head, "All of that doesn't matter to me, Mihyun, whatever your initial intentions were.”

Sehun flushed a bright color of red as he murmured his next few words, “It… it makes me love you even more, to be honest, because it makes you human. I don’t want you to be perfect, you know.”

Mihyun’s heart pounded against her chest as his words processed through her mind. It was the first time Sehun had verbalized his affection for her, other than the time he had confessed, and the word love sounded so foreign to her ears. She tried pulling away from him so she could look at his face, but he protested by wrapping his arms tightly around her waist.

“I’m embarrassed so don’t look at me,” Sehun muttered as he tightened his grip around her to a higher degree. He flushed even darker when the sound of Mihyun’s tinkling laughter met his ears, “Don’t laugh.”

“Such a cutie,” Mihyun teased as she pinched him gently on the side.

“Stop it!” Sehun whined as he knocked her gently on the back of her head with his knuckle.

Mihyun laughed even harder at his childish antics, and wrapped her arms around his waist to snuggle even closer into his hold, "Do you know why I chose you Sehun? That day in the hallways? It was because you had the defiant look in your eyes that I wished I could have in mine.”

Sehun scoffed, “So all of that you're beautiful stuff was just bull?”

“Initially yeah," Mihyun confessed with a small laugh. She pulled away from his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck to stare straight into his eyes, "But in the end I was right. You are beautiful.”

“Boys don't want to be called beautiful, Mihyun,” Sehun responded matter of factly, pressing his forehead against hers, “We want to be called handsome and manly.”

Mihyun hummed in agreement as she pressed her lips against his. Despite her consistent nagging for him to start using chap stick, she still felt his chapped lips mold against her own. Still, she didn’t mind it, for she loved everything that made Sehun who he was – chapped lips and all.

Surprising it was Sehun who pulled away first, and he smiled lovingly at the flushed state of her cheeks, “We have a long day tomorrow, or really today, so we should get to sleep. If we continue this any longer I don’t think I’ll be able to restrain myself.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled the both of them down to lie across the bed.

Mihyun hummed in agreement as she pressed her head against his chest, searching for the familiar beating of his heart.

“Good night, Mihyun,” Sehun murmured as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. He hesitated for a few seconds before shyly muttering, “Love you.”

Mihyun closed her eyes, enjoying the sound the word made in her ears – especially when made with Sehun’s voice. She took Sehun’s large hand into her considerably smaller one and intertwined their fingers. Bringing their hands up to her lips, she pressed a soft kiss against the back of Sehun’s hand.

“I love you too, my handsome Sehun.”

Mihyun met eyes with Jaemin the second she walked into the courthouse, and she grimaced at how smugly he was staring back at her. He leaned over to whisper a few words into the ear of his attorney, and they both glanced in her direction before letting out a chorus of obnoxious laughter.

Mihyun took a deep breath of air to clam her nerves.

She wanted to rip his face off.

“Ignore those s,” Jaesuk whispered as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “They won’t be laughing by the time this day ends.”

Mihyun glanced gratefully back at him before letting out a small breath of air, “You think we can beat them, Jaesuk