Reality isn’t always what you think it is.

~~~

Jinki felt a smile tugged on the corners of his lips as he heard Sunyong’s abrupt question. The smile grew bigger when she looks flustered as she realized she’d voiced it out loud.

Well, well. This is interesting.

Jinki shook his head a bit, amused by Sunyoung’s behavior. She never changed. Always blurting out whatever on her mind first, then think about what she’d said later.

Ah, Sunyoung… Even though I’ve anticipated it, seeing you again is still a shock.

 The reality is, Jinki knew that Sunyoung was coming. In fact, he even knew that she’s the committee member for the school’s charity project. He specifically told the headmistress to send Sunyoung if the school needs to contact him about anything.

Jinki found out all about her life from a trustworthy source, none other than her parents. Since he came back to South Korea 2 years ago, he’s been keeping tab on Sunyoung. But he asked them to keep quiet about it.

The reason he finally decided to get in touch with her again is to settle his unsolved first love. He wanted to see Sunyoung again, to assure that he had no other feelings left for her, aside from friendly ones. He wanted to move on, and to do that, he had to bury his unrequited love for Sunyoung.

There’s no use loving someone who doesn’t love you back.

It all started when his mother launched her matchmaking project. Mrs. Lee was anxious to have grandbabies, and seeing that she only had one son, who didn’t seem to have an existing love life, she put her entire effort in procuring him a wife.

Such a waste, his mother always sighed when Jinki went to visit her, such a waste to have a good face, a good health, and a good job, but no wife. Then she’ll shook her head regretfully and proceed to show him the picture of one of her friends’ unmarried daughter.

Of course, the first person she suggested to him was Sunyoung, whom she assured him was still very much single, a fact she’d known from her former neighbor, Sunyoung’s parents. That’s also how Jinki started to get back in touch with the Parks, but his mother didn’t know that. When Jinki seemed reluctant to discuss about it, since he knew Sunyoung didn’t feel the same way towards him, Mrs. Lee moved on to find another suitable bride for her son.

Wanting to be a filial son to his parents (his father just grinned and told him to “Listen to your mother”, so it can be counted as his father’s wish as well), Jinki participated in his mother’s matrimonial mission resignedly, but each one ended in failure. He can’t help but to compare the women he’d met with Sunyoung, whom he still harbored feelings for, at that time. And always, always the rest of them come up lacking.

He tried dating before, several times really, taking Sunyoung’s advice to meet new people to the heart. But in the end, he always felt guilty since he can’t seem to give his dates the appropriate amount of attention deserved. He will usually become bored with them after a few weeks. No one held his interest like Sunyoung did. So Jinki gave up on dating, and focused solely on his studies, then on his career. Ironically, that made him able to achieve the coveted high-ranking position he held now.

But now, he’s 28 years old, soon-to-be 30. He wanted to get married, to have a family of his own. And when the meeting with the eleventh matrimonial candidate his mother had sent his way ended in disaster (he actually fell asleep because he got so bored with the lady’s unending chattering about her shoes, when he accidently knocked over a glass of water over the said precious shoes. Needless to say Jinki was lucky to get out of the restaurant alive, since the lady was ready to bludgeon him to death with, of course, her shoes), Jinki decided it was time. It was time to finally let go of the past, and move on with the future. To do that, first he had to confront his past, which is Sunyoung.

Jinki looked at her features, absorbing every little detail and changes that age had brought her. She seemed to be the type to age well, getting better in time, like wine. Her features had gentled, giving her a serene and graceful look, making her more beautiful than ever. She was talking animatedly to him, but he wasn’t listening to her words, he was listening to her voice. He always loved her voice; it was so melodic and pleasing to his ear.

He sighed and shook his head slightly.

Jinki knew this would happen. He knew exactly what will happen when he met Sunyoung again. That’s why he deliberately didn’t tell the school on who really handled the donation, instead he used Jinri’s name. He wanted to buy some more time to prepare himself before he had to face Sunyoung. Jinki knew just how much influence Sunyoung can have over him, and it scared him. His original plan was to observed from afar first when Jinri discussed with her in the meeting room, mentally preparing himself as he got over the shock of seeing Sunyoung in person again, after 10 long years. Instead, when he walked out of the meeting room, with no warning whatsoever, he had her pushed into his arms, effectively throwing his entire carefully constructed plan out of the window. How was he supposed to withstand an onslaught like that? He’s just not strong enough.

Ah, Sunyoung… You’re making it so difficult. How can I let you go when you’re being like that?

Sunyoung was trying desperately to explain herself, which wasn’t necessary since Jinki wasn’t listening anyway, too caught up with his inner turmoil. After a particularly long explanation on why mixing private and business matters won’t work, she finally realizes that Jinki seemed to lack any sort of reaction.

“Jinki?” She called out, waving her hand in front of him to get his attention.

He blinked, coming back to his senses. “Ah, yes? Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”

Sunyoung rounded her eyes in disbelief. “You mean while I’ve been explaining for about 10 minutes, you weren’t listening to any of it?”

He didn’t even have the grace to look guilty. “Oh, no. I didn’t hear a thing you say.” He answered simply, even daring to smile at her when he said that.

Annoyed, and plenty mad at his cavalier attitude, she rose stiffly from her seat, and abruptly went for the door. She didn’t get far before her hand was caught by Jinki.

“Let go off me, you jerk!” She hissed, tugging on her hand, but he didn’t release it.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Well, since obviously no one took me seriously here, I’m going home. It’s all a waste of time.”

“We haven’t even discussed about why you came here in the first place.” Jinki murmured calmly, unruffled by her irritation.

“You didn’t even pay attention to what I say!” She practically yelled out the words in frustration.

“I’m sorry, but your explanation was too long.” He grinned at her, unrepentant. Goaded, Sunyoung was tempted to whack him with her purse to wipe that smug smile off his face, when the door opened suddenly.

“I’m back! Sorry it took so long, but there’s a crowd – Oh, am I interrupting?” Jinri looked at their intertwined hands with unconcealed speculation.

“N-No…” Sunyoung answered and with one last tug, managed to free her hand from Jinki’s hold. Jinki just stared at her thoughtfully, but addresses Jinri without looking at her.

“I told you to knock first before entering my office, Jinri-sshi.” He admonished, but without heat.

Jinri just grinned as she placed the beverages she’d bought on the coffee table. “I’m sorry, Jeonmu-nim. I got excited.”

Jinki ignored his secretary’s sassy remark since he was well used to it, but Sunyoung looked at them in astonishment.

Well, there you go. It’s obvious that he really is dating her. A secretary would never talk to her boss like that, unless they were really close, or dating.

It didn’t feel good to have her suspicion confirmed. In fact, it made Sunyoung wanted to run away from there even more, to just escape reality and back to her memories, where they’re still 18 and together.

 “Now that Jinri-sshi is here, we can discuss about the donation. Please, sit down Sunyoung.” Jinki said lightly, but it was unmistakably an order. He knew she hated taking people’s order; he just liked to get her riled up, since he really gets entertained by her reaction.

Loathing to obey him, this jerk who was supposed to be her best friend, but not wanting to cause a scene in front of Jinri-sshi, whom she was 90% sure is his girlfriend, Sunyoung reluctantly complied.

---

A/N: Hi~ slow day today, neh?

An update for you guys, mostly in Jinki’s POV…

Hm, maybe I should’ve renamed this chapter ‘Jinki’s reasoning’, since that’s what it’s mostly about…

…yeah, I’m not feeling good today, but I hope you guys are doing fine.

As always, thanks for the upvotes, subbies and comments!

Asarielsims signing out~

P.S – Oh, the next chapter is on the way, and I got a feeling it’ll be better than this, keke~ I’ll update no later than next week, so please wait a bit!!