Part 2

Kim Myunghee

The next few days everything was the same, I’d go to work and Myungsoo would bombard me with a million different questions. I couldn’t say I absolutely detested him for doing so, as it kind of felt nice to find someone who actually wanted to learn more about me. It was like Baekhyun was fading from my memory slowly. Something I couldn’t manage to do for the last few years.

I entered the restaurant, and went to my locker and put my apron on. It was one of the busiest nights again. I was a bit earlier than usual having learned that I needed to prepare much more for the rush hour as there seemed to be an increase of customers dining here each week. To my surprise I saw Myungsoo walk in, he too was much earlier than usual.

“Oh, Myunghee you’re here already” Myungsoo murmured as he entered the shop. He seemed depressed. With his eyes glued to ground he grabbed his apron. I puffed up my cheeks, he was always so cheery so seeing him in such a sad state tugged at my heart.

I took a deep breath. “No I shouldn’t meddle with his business” I told myself. That was probably an excuse, maybe I was afraid that I’ll get too attached to him. Getting attached to anyone was never a good thing, well in my books at least.

Being alone with him for even 10 minutes was tremendously suffocating. It was like someone was endlessly prodding my heart urging me to comfort him. I let out a deep sigh and turned to look at him.

“Myungsoo” I called softly. He looked surprised that I had called him. He was usually the one blabbering on endlessly about his life and I would just silently listen here and there. I have never actually started a conversation with him, the only times I would talk to him was when I needed him to do something. “Are you alright?” the words flew out of my mouth, laced with sincerity.

He looked taken aback as he stared at me, as if trying to figure out whether I had said that or not. “Are you alright?” I repeated myself.

“Ah” he uttered when he realised that I had indeed asked him that question. “I’m fine” the sides of his lips curved into a little smile as if to assure me that nothing was wrong. I was not convinced but I didn’t probe into it any further.

We both silently prepared the ingredients. The silence was unpleasant, usually Myungsoo would be chattering away. But now it was just complete silence and for some strange reason I think I preferred him talking non - stop. Even if he was talking about nonsense. It filled the awkward silence with a better atmosphere.

It was finally the end of another day. I leaned against the counter and closed my eyes for a bit. The manager called me and gave me my pay. I bowed in response and placed it inside my locker. By the time I got back to the kitchen everyone had left. Well that’s what I had thought at first.

“I’ll help you clean” Myungsoo replied as he entered the kitchen and began washing the dishes.

Unlike the first day he was here. I wordlessly allowed him to do so. I didn’t know why I suddenly liked his presence. The thought of Baekhyun surfaced, anger began boiling within me. I thought he was beginning to fade away from my memory but I guessed wrong. ‘His doing to do the same thing as Baekhyun. All of them are like that’ I reminded myself.

“They’re all the same” I muttered under my breath.

I had to keep a cage around my heart, I couldn’t let it go wild. Not for anyone, I couldn’t take the risk. It’ll completely destroy me. My hand hit stove that was still hot from being used. I winched in pain and mentally scolded myself for being so clumsy. I bit my lip and turned towards Myungsoo. At this point he was staring at me, his eyes were wide. His mouth was slightly agape as he glanced at my face and then at my hands that had become red from the heat.

“I…” I managed to start but couldn’t continue as Myungsoo had interrupted me. He walked over to me, he held onto my swollen hand as he pulled me towards the freezer where he pulled out an ice – pack. He didn’t utter a word and it didn’t look like he was going to.

I pulled my hand away from him. I held onto it with my other hand as I felt the brief moment of cold before it died down returning to its hot state. It started stinging but I decided to ignore it.

“What are you doing?” I stammered as I held my hand to my chest as if he had taken something that was of value to me.

“You burned yourself” he murmured as he attempted to pull my hand towards him again.

“Let me go” I said quickly as I attempted to pull my hand away once again. But his strong grip didn’t allow me to do so. “Aren’t you going to let go?” I asked louder than before. A hint of anger was present in my voice as I felt him loosen his grip.

 

Kim Myungsoo

I stared at her, her hand was still in my grip. I didn’t know why but for some reason I felt the need to hold onto it. I tightly held onto her wrist, not too tight as to hurt her but tight enough so that she wouldn’t be able to pull her hand out. I placed the ice pack on the burned area.

Unconsciously I began to rub her wrist with my thumb as if it would actually help lessen the pain.

“Let me go” her voice was hard as she successfully pulled her hand out of my grasp.

I was at loss of words. Here I was trying to help her and all she could do was scold me as if I’ve done the wrong thing. However I decided to remain silent. I stared at the tiling on the floor, not wanting to see the expression that was on her face mainly because I hated it. She seemed to have lost her smile but I wouldn’t dare ask.

“Leave”

That single word alone stabbed at my heart. Having not moved she repeated herself for a second time, this time I looked at her. It felt like a knife had gone through my heart and someone was twisting and turning it. Frustration boiled in me as she was staring at me with utter hatred.

“Will you just stop pushing people away? God damn it” I yelled before harshly pushing the double door and headed towards the lockers. I didn’t wait for her reply or waited to see her expression. I knew all too well what it would be.

 

That night, I lay in bed unable to sleep. The pained expression on her face when I held her hand the first time to take care of her burn continued to replay in my head. And for some strange reason I knew it wasn’t because she had hurt herself, but something entirely different.

It was 3:30am before I managed to fall asleep. 4 hours too late.

The next morning I woke up with a fever, I could barely even sit up in my position. I groggily reached for my phone and skimmed through my contacts. There was no one I could call, no one that could look after me until I saw her name; Kim Myunghee.

As much as I didn’t want to call her, I knew she was my only option. Well the closest person that I knew at least. My breathing were heavy when she finally picked up. She didn’t utter the usual “hello” or “how are you” like a normal person, instead I was only met with complete silence.

“Myunghee?” I whispered, almost inaudible.

“Yeah” her reply was rather blunt and cold.

“Could you…” I paused for a bit when I felt the pain in my head. “Come over…” I pressed onto my throbbing head as I suddenly broke into unstoppable coughs. Feeling the urge to vomit I dropped the phone on my bed and rushed towards the bathroom.

I slid down my bathroom wall as I held onto my head.

A loud sound woke me up and I groaned when I realised I had fallen asleep in the bathroom. At this point I felt a bit better, but pain continued to surge through me. I stood up and used the walls to help me as I made my way to the front door. Opening it, I saw a concerned Myunghee stare at me.

“YAH, you can’t just call someone and leave the call” she screamed as let out a huff before she turned around ready to leave seeing that I was fine.

“Wait” I called as I grabbed onto her. The dizziness was starting to get to me. “I’m sorry, I can explain”

“Let go” she said through gritted teeth as she threw my arm off of her. It caused me to lose my balance and fall. Groaning I tried to stand up, but my body felt like it was drained of all the energy. I uselessly tried to get up and fell right back to the ground.

I glanced at Myunghee, everything felt like it was spinning.

“Yah, are you okay?” I heard her whisper before everything went dark. The last thing I heard before passing out was the sweet sound of her voice calling out my name.

 

It was dark when I woke up, I was feeling much better. I turned to my side to see that Myunghee was leaning head against my bed sleeping. I felt the towel on my forehead slide off, I didn’t bother to put it back onto my head. I reached for my phone and silently took a picture of her sleeping face.

She was breathtakingly beautiful. I moved some of her hair that was covering her face out of the way and that’s when I noticed the tears that were evident on her face. Unconsciously I wiped away her tears with my thumb causing her to wake up.

She slapped my hand away as she looked at me in horror. There was still some tears on her face that glistened when the moonlight hit it.

“What are you doing?” she stammered as she abruptly stood up. She took a few steps back and grabbed her jacket. “This was a mistake” I heard her murmur under her breath before she left.

My heart started throbbing, I didn’t understand why she continued to push me away as if was nothing. As if I didn’t care about her. She didn’t even let me show her my gratitude for her help.

Tears brimmed my eyes as I used my arm to cover them.

“Hopeless” I told myself. I bit on the corner of my lip as a single tear rolled down my cheek.

 

I stood in front of the restaurant as I took a deep breath. Honestly I didn’t know what to do or what to say if I saw Myunghee. I twitched when I suddenly felt a burning sensation in my chest as countless images of Myunghee brushing me off surfaced.

It was painful. It felt like my heart broke into two. Even though she didn’t reject me or do such things, her actions alone made the pain unbearable until the point I felt like isolating myself from the world again. I knew the pain of doing that and I didn’t intend to go back into misery simply because of a single girl. I didn’t want to.

What people seem to disregard is the fact that they think they need a partner in order to live, in order to live life to the fullest. I learnt the hard way, during my isolation period, I thought of a lot of things and realised that life wasn’t about finding love, but instead finding things that make you happy or look forward to tomorrow.

It could simply be meeting co – workers or spending time with old classmates. There just seemed so much to do and so little time to do it.

Even though I knew all this it felt like I was going to back to old habits. I was centring my life on this girl who didn’t realise just how special she was.

I entered the kitchen and saw that Myunghee was already preparing food. She didn’t glance up or even acknowledge my presence. It was either she was off in her own world or she was ignoring me completely. I took a deep breath and called out to her.

“Myunghee” I stood in front of her, waiting for her reply. Nothing. No movement whatsoever. I pouted a little and sighed. She made it extremely difficult to remove this burning sensation in my heart.

I pursed my lips and grabbed a chopping board. That night we barely spoke. The only time that we did was when it was to do with work. Other than that she chose to ignore every single other sentence that came flowing through my mouth.

I my lips as I tried to calm now. I was furious. My deep breaths served as an indication that I was annoyed, yet she still continued to disregard my very presence.

Work was finally over, I grabbed my belongings and left without a single word. About halfway home I stopped walking. I let out a sigh and turned around and headed towards the restaurant once again.

I saw Myunghee walk out and made eye contact with her. As soon as we did she looked away. I ran up to her and grabbed her arm.

“Myunghee” I called suppressing my anger.

“Let go” she seemed to always manage to stab me straight in the heart every time she opened .

“Did I do something wrong? Why are you ignoring me?” I dared myself to ask. I awaited her reply but her answer wasn’t what I had wanted to hear.

“Did you not hear me? I told you to let go” she harshly yelled swinging my arm away in the exact same manner she had done the other night.

I grabbed onto her arm once again. “Just listen to me god dammit” I screamed. She seemed taken a back as she tried to step backwards. Seeing how people started to crowd and dragged her to a secluded area.

“Yah, let me go” her voice wasn’t as hard as before. Yet there was still a hint of harshness evident in her voice.

That was when I finally lost it. Everything came pouring out of my mouth one after another.

“WHY DO YOU KEEP PUSHING ME AWAY AS IF I’M NOTHING?” I screamed even though I hadn’t intend to. I could feel the tears starting to brim my eyes, yet I didn’t both to wipe them away. “Do you not realise how much it hurts me?” I loosened the grip on her arm and clenched onto my throbbing heart. It was crazy how much I felt for this ignorant and stubborn girl.

 “I…” she started but I didn’t let her continue.

“It hurts Myunghee” my voice softened. “I keep trying to get closer to you, learn more about you but the only thing I get in return is your hateful glare and you pushing me away. Am I really nothing to you?”

At this point tears were cascading down my face like no tomorrow. “I really wish you wouldn’t do that” I whispered as I dropped her arm. I slid down against the as I buried my face in my hands.

“I’m sorry Myungsoo” I looked up, this was the first time she had spoken in this particular tone. I couldn’t pinpoint it but I caught a hint of guilt.

She bowed her head ready to leave when I grabbed her arm again. This time she didn’t resist, she stood there with her back turned towards me.

She paused before she started talking, “I dated this guy before and he betrayed me. I don’t know how long during my relationship with him, but he was seeing another girl. He used me for his own benefit”

“Do you think I’m that guy? Do you honestly I’ll do that to you?” I asked as she had lumped me in with him.

“I don’t want to take any chances” she whispered.

“You’re not the only one with a past, I have one too and a damn sad one as well” I started. “Because of just one girl I isolated myself from the world for 2 years. Nothing could make me smile, nothing. No one was there for me, no one helped me stand up again. I had to do that myself, I told myself every day that everything was going to get better and that the past is the past…”

Myunghee didn’t speak but she stood there listening.

“Slowly I realised what a mess I had become and asked myself why I sacrificed my entire life for just one girl. Why did she have to be at the centre of my world? Why did it have to be that when she left my life was meaningless? True, months after coming out of the world again, I didn’t trust anyone, I didn’t let anyone in. But you know what I realised that I won’t ever be happy that way. Even if it meant falling for the wrong girl again, or losing someone that I love. At least than I’ll learn what to do and what not to do or even experience a moment of happiness” words continued to pile out of my lips.

Myunghee still had her back towards me but I noticed that she was shaking.

“I also want you to learn, that it’s not the end of your life simply because you got betrayed once, or even twice or thrice. I just want you to be happy Myunghee. How much do I have to do to prove to you that I won’t be that guy…?”

Silence encapsulated us, as I heard the soft sobs coming from Myunghee. I slowly stood and turned her around. Tears had been streaming down my face like waterfalls, but I let it. I slowly turned her around and pulled her into a hug.

Her sobs grew louder as she clenched onto my shirt. After a while she slowly looked up. She bought her hand to my face, her thumb wiped away the tears that had rolled down my cheek. My lips curved into a small smile as she stepped backwards and grabbed onto my hands.

She searched my eyes and slowly and she reached her arms around my neck and pulled me into yet another embrace. Savouring the feeling I hugged her tightly.

After a minute or two she let go and looked directly in my eyes.

Her lips curved into a small smile, a smile that I had never seem.

“You look much better when you smile” I whispered. She grabbed onto both of my hands again, as her smile continue to grow before she whispered loud enough for me to hear.

“Kim Myungsoo, love me like no other”

 

 

A/N: in every story about Myungsoo, he was always the cold hearted guy but was actually really nice deep inside. To break this particular cliché I decided to make him more outgoing and bubbly instead of the usual cold exterior. I really really hoped you liked reading my story. I really enjoyed writing it for you guys, so I hope you guys could tell me your thoughts on it! (:  

Also if you guys would like, could you check out my other story featurting Park Jihar (OC) and Oh Sehun

The Ballroom