That Fateful Closet Scene

“The problem with fate is that no matter how many times you call out to her, she has her own timing that’s irrelevant to whatever anyone else happens to be doing”

Amy Neftzger

Yonghwa was walking through Shinhye’s apartment restlessly while waiting for her to come back from her filming schedule. It was already past midnight when he finally heard her opening the front door.

He was trying to calm himself but it seemed like there was just no way of forgetting her latest kissing scene that aired only a couple of hours ago. He was so damn angry, he felt like beating up Lee Minho for what he did to his girlfriend.

When Shinhye entered the living room, she looked exhausted from her long day of work. As soon as she recognised Yonghwa, her face automatically light up, happy to see him. She hadn’t expected to meet him tonight since he had an early flight in the morning. However, once she looked closer at him her smile automatically vanished. She sensed that there was something wrong with him in one short glance.

“Yong-ah” She called out his name worriedly, wondering what happened to him.  No, he definitely didn’t look alright...

Yonghwa was slowly moving towards Shinhye, still trying to figure out how to behave around her. He knew acting was her profession but this was just too much. It didn’t look like acting at all to him. It felt like Lee Minho had just locked her up in that closet, enjoying kissing his girlfriend for real like there was no tomorrow while Shinhye actually responded to him. How could she? He had never seen her do anything like that in any of her other dramas before. He never thought she would go that far. It was definitely too much. What made him even more upset though was that he didn’t understand how she could just let the incident slide while talking to him about her daily work. Did she not learn anything from their past arguments?

Really, he wanted to be calm and mature about what he just witnessed with Jonghyun and Jungshin. He wanted to understand what happened behind the scenes. Surely there had to be an explanation for it, at least that was what he kept telling himself when he was driving to her apartment at this hour despite having an early schedule tomorrow.

However that green monster in the depth of his stomach kept roaring like it was going insane at the mere sight of Shinhye, asking him how his very own girlfriend could open up to another guy like that – even if it was onscreen.

“What were you thinking, Shinhye-yah?” Yonghwa asked sternly, trying hard to keep his emotions in check. He just didn't get it. They had been arguing about skin ship these past few weeks, so how could she do this to him?

“What do you mean?” Shinhye replied confused. Just a couple of hours earlier everything seemed to be fine when they spoke on the phone. Now Yonghwa’s dark aura was filling her living room. She didn’t understand what changed after her filming break ended.

Yonghwa was minimising the space between them, causing her to subconsciously move backwards. Something was definitely off. He didn’t look like himself at all. She had never heard this strange sound in his voice before.

“Yonghwa…” She started but stopped when her back slightly hit the wall.

He had closed the distance between them and was towering her now, caging her between his arms and the wall behind. His eyes where burning with conflicting emotions. She felt alerted, almost intimidated by his presence.

Just when she couldn’t hold his gaze anymore he suddenly pulled her towards himself with one swift move, forcefully crashing his lips onto hers.

Shinhye gasped in shock, unable to even move a muscle. It wasn’t a soft and tender or even passionate kiss that showed how much he loved her. It was a rather rough kiss, like someone was trying to mark his territory. She didn’t like it. It reminded her of that terrible shooting day a while ago.

In the back of his mind Yonghwa knew he was taking it too far but he was not able to stop anymore. He had completely lost control now.

When Shinhyes legs gave way, all he did was to bring her even closer to him, capturing all of while holding onto her even more tightly.

Shinhye’s mind went blank. She didn’t know how to react. The man kissing her right now looked like her boyfriend, even smelled like him but he still seemed like a total stranger to her. Yonghwa had never treated her like property. He was usually very loving and caring about her. He could be possessive at times, but not like this. The guy kissing her now however somehow scared her. Where did the man who claimed to love her more than anything else in the world go; the man who swore to protect her, no mather what?

Shinhye started to struggle against Yonghwa’s embrace. She felt suffocated by his sudden attack. However, Yonghwa wasn’t ready to let her go yet. All he could think about was how he wished his kiss could cover the invisible mark Lee Minho left on his girlfriend. He could feel his stomach burning with anger by the mere thought of the guy.

“Yonghwa-yah…” Shinhye whimpered, while trying to push him back.

The way she pronounced his name left a stinging pain in Yonghwa’s heart, suddenly bringing him back to his senses. He could clearly hear that she was about to start crying and – even worse - it was his very own kiss that caused it. The realisation of it finally made him stop. He pulled himself away from her as if their physical contact had burned him.

“Does this still seem like acting to you?” He eventually asked, his voice being thick with emotions while he was staring at her reproachfully. They were both breathing heavily.

Shinhye was powerlessly leaning against the living room wall, trying hard to get her senses back together. Her mind was all over the place trying to figure out what just happened. And then it finally hit her. Yonghwa must have seen the closet kiss scene with Lee Minho. He must have severely misunderstood something... again.

“Yonghwa-yah…” She started, fighting down the unpleasant feeling of being treated like an item by him. It had been bad when Lee Minho kissed her that way but she realised back then that it was ordered by the film director and she understood the intentions behind the scene. Yonghwa however had acted that way all by himself, treating her like an object not caring about her emotions at all just now, which somehow felt even worse.

“It is not like how you think it is.” She managed to say with a weak voice, while trying to figure out how to accommodate this very strange side of him that she had never witnessed before.

Yonghwa chuckled ironically. “Isn’t that how all great lies are introduced in movies?”

“Please, Yong-ah. Minho Oppa only got the order to really kiss me a minute before we started shooting that scene. I wasn’t given any notice at all. We just improvised.” Shinhye tried to explain, but it was of no use.

Yonghwa looked at her like she had gone mad.

“I don’t believe this.” He mumbled to himself while looking at her in disbelief.