Brazen Love [Chapter 10]

 

Chapter 10:

Hwang Bo felt as if she was going through withdrawal. Once, she had even lost her mind and started to dial Hyun Joong’s number. It wasn’t until she was halfway done that she remembered everything that had happened. She was convinced that she must be losing her mind, so she had finally decided to meet again with the guy whose date she had cut short. It was what she was supposed to be doing anyway. Why she had even ended it with Hyun Joong. She now needed to seriously look towards her future.

Jae Won was excited to see Hwang Bo again and was glad that she had decided on another meeting. He ended his shift at the hospital quickly so he could get ready for the date and be there before Hwang Bo so he could watch her walk through the door. He smiled when he saw her coming up the street, the long dark tresses of her hair blowing in the wind which she pushed back impatiently as she opened the door. As she stepped into the cafe, the hem of her skirt swirled around her knees. She spotted him and walked over to settle in the seat across from him. She still looked a lot paler than she normally did from the pictures the marriage agency had shown him that her mother had provided for them, and she looked a bit thinner than she had when they had met last week. “I’m glad you decided to meet me again,” he said, leaning toward her.

Hwang Bo forced herself to be in the moment, focusing on his face. He looked handsome enough. She smiled. “Do you like this place?” she asked. “This is where you wanted to meet up last time.”

He nodded and looked around. “Yeah, I’ve wanted to come here for some time, couldn’t really find anyone that I wanted to share the experience with until now.” He blushed and looked down. He couldn’t believe she could make him feel like this, he was thirty-five years old, right now he felt like he was in high school trying to make his crush think he was cool and a bit suave. Jae Won hurried to change the subject, he fussed with his thick black hair. “So what made you change your mind?”

Hwang Bo smiled politely. “Just...I thought I was a bit rude the last time...” Jea Won waved off her statement hurriedly. “It’s okay. You weren’t feeling well. I understand that.” Hwang Bo smiled at his understanding and then they ordered something to eat. Hwang Bo actually had a pretty pleasant time with Jea Won. He was nice and funny...well...he tried to be funny...and his complete failure at it was the funny thing. But still...after the date when they were getting a taxi and it suddenly began to rain she had hurriedly pulled Jea Won back under the awning trying to save his lustrous hair. After the irrational act, she realized what she had done and felt like laughing and crying at the same time, but she refrained herself not wanting to scare the poor guy away. “What’s wrong?” he asked. Hwang Bo shook her head. “Nothing. Let’s go.” They climbed into the waiting taxi.

Hyun Joong stepped out of the convenience store only to find a small rain drop pelt his face. He hurriedly stepped back under the awning and noticed a couple across the street doing the same. He looked away, then quickly looked back when he recognized the face of the woman stepping into the taxi with a tall handsome man with thick hair. He couldn’t believe it. Hwang Bo was getting into a car with another man barely two weeks after she had shattered his heart with another man from a marriage meeting standing over her shoulder. Now here she was with a completely different man and she looked as healthy and happy as she always did. He remembered their day they had spent together in the rain and the moments that night in the restaurant he would never forget. He dropped his bag of freshly bought sodas barely noticing when the SS501 van pulled up in front of him. Jung Min hopped out with an umbrella. “Did you get the sodas?” He asked as he came closer. He suddenly noticed the bag of burst and hissing soda at his Hyung’s feet. He looked up at Hyun Joong, about to scold him when he saw that Hyun Joong didn’t even realize he was there; he was staring into space his face blank, his eyes dead. Jung Min hurried over and grabbed his shoulder. “Hyung! Hyung!” He shook him slightly. “Hyung,” he said again worriedly. He pulled Hyun Joong by the arm into the van. The rest of the members looked to Jung Min when Hyun Joong didn’t speak to them, but just settled into his seat and stared from the window. Jung Min shrugged and clasped his hands together nervously. There was something going on with their Hyung, and whatever it was, it appeared that he wouldn’t get over it any time soon.

Hyun Joong was lost in thought. ‘This won’t work,’ he thought. ‘Why should she be able to go around doing whatever she wants to do while I have to work so hard just to keep from thinking about her?’ He clenched his fist, remembering her smiling face as she climbed into the taxi. In fact, this probably wasn’t hurting her at all. She had just broken his heart into pieces and now she was going to go on all of her marriage meetings until she found the perfect man and lived happily ever after? No. He had to do something. He had to make her hurt as much as he was hurting.

Hyun Joong clenched his fist. He would never allow Hwang Bo to be happy with another man, he would ruin Hwang Bo’s every happiness whatever way he could; the way she had ruined his.

He made it back to the dorm deep in thought until he had finally come up with a plan. He knew that he couldn’t just approach Hwang Bo without one or he would lose himself to her again somehow. He took out his cell phone, closed his eyes and took a deep breath preparing himself, and then dialed her number. He clenched his teeth, anger overcoming him once again, when he heard her voice answer. “Noona,” he said cheerfully. “I think I acted without thinking last time. I think it would be okay if we can stay friends.” Yes. The same way she had played with his feelings, he would play with hers.

Hwang Bo had just gotten home from her date with Jae Won so she had answered the phone without checking who was calling. She had never even thought to hear his voice again. She sat where she stood, her bottom landing hard on the floor, the keys she had just used to open the door dropped from her grasp. “Sh-shillang?” she whispered into the receiver, disbelief clear in her voice and another emotion that choked the sound as it passed her lips.

Hyun Joong choked down his anger. She still dared to call him that? He forced a smile. “Mmm,” he said. “Let’s meet and talk.”

Hwang Bo’s hand shook as she took in a shallow breath. “You-you want to meet me?” She couldn’t believe how her heart raced at the thought, in fear and anticipation. “Where? When?” ‘This isn’t a good idea,’ a voice said in the back of her mind. She chose to ignore it.

Hyun Joong smirked at her voice filled with anticipation. ‘I guess you think you’re getting your toy back. But that’s far from the truth.’ He told her a place to meet. The park near her house. Where she had first invited him at their tenth phone conversation after WGM. “10:00,” he said, wondering if she would be as punctual as he had been that time.
Hwang Bo looked at the time after Hyun Joong hung up the phone. She only had thirty minutes to change out of her dress, fix her hair, and brush on a bit of make-up if she wanted to be on time. She did everything as quickly as possible ignoring the voice in the back of her mind that kept telling her that she shouldn’t be rushing to meet this kid like this, that she had broken it off with him for a reason, that she would end up clinging to him again like she had for the past two years. She glanced at herself in the mirror before she stepped out of her apartment, then slowed her pace so she would look calm and collected when they met. She reached the park exactly five minutes before ten and made herself comfortable on the park bench to wait for Hyun Joong. Twenty minutes later he still hadn’t showed.

Hwang Bo checked her phone again for the time and started to crane her neck to see if he was on his way. She didn’t see him. It was odd. He was usually right on time...no...most of the time he was early. Hyun Joong watched Hwang Bo look for him with a small satisfaction. He was thinking about seeing how long she would wait for him, but he decided against it, ready to start his game. He pasted a smile on his face as he walked forward. “Noona!” he called. Hwang Bo stood and turned around at his voice, a large smile spreading across her face.

How happy she looked to see him nearly stopped Hyun Joong in his tracks, making him want to rethink his plans for revenge. He came to his senses though, if she could still look like this after what she had did to him just showed how much she didn’t care that she had stepped over every feeling he had for her. He approached the bench and sat down as far from her as he could without hanging off the bench and without it seeming too obvious that he wanted to be out of reaching distance of her, at least for now, he didn’t think he could handle it.

Hwang Bo followed his lead and sat back down on the bench with him. She glanced at him and then looked back ahead. Now that he was here, she didn’t know what to say. She waited for him to speak since he called her out. There was silence. She finally spoke...breaking the silence. “Shil-...Hyun Joong,” she corrected. “I...well, I’m sorry for what hap-” she started, but was interrupted by Hyun Joong. “Let’s not talk about that,” he said. “I understand. I must have been crazy to think that we could have something between us.” He forced a laugh. Hwang Bo’s smile faltered and she thingyed her head feeling strange about his sudden compliance of their separation. She remembered how he used to become tense if she even just mentioned a word that implied it it. “Let’s just start over,” he finished, sending her a gentle smile.

Hwang Bo blinked and shifted on the cold metal of the seat. “Start...start over?”

“Yeah! As friends.” Hyun Joong smiled at her expression of hesitation and bewilderment. He offered her his hand.

Hwang Bo looked at his hand as if it were a foreign object, then hesitantly reached out and placed her hand in his for a shake, but he didn’t let go. Hyun Joong grasped her slim fingers gently, but before he knew it, the pressure he put on her hand was slowly building until her hand was pale in his grasp. When he heard a gasp of pain from her he hurriedly let her hand go, he hadn’t meant to hurt her. “Ah, sorry, I just starting thinking about a problem that had been bothering me lately, want me to help you get some ice for your hand?” Hwang Bo cradled her left hand in her right and blinked at him. His smile and his apology seemed sincere enough. She shook her head. “No, it’ll be fine.”
Hwang Bo faced back ahead. There was silence again. “So...” she said. “What should we do now? As friends?”

Hyun Joong laughed. “Didn’t really think that far ahead,” he admitted. She laughed her laugh, the one that involved her whole body and made him want to laugh along with her. He frowned, how often when she laughed had it been at him and not with him. He stood up and walked toward a swing set, idly playing with one of the chains. “I guess we could just hang out like we always did the past two years,” the last came out as a fierce whisper that he knew Hwang Bo could barely hear. “Except it’ll be different.” ‘I won’t be your dog that you yank around and call up whenever you please.’

“Okay!” Hwang Bo said excitedly, getting up and following him to the swing set. Could they really be as they were before? A stray leaf was separated from the tree limb it had been clinging to and landed gently on Hyun Joong’s shoulder. Hwang Bo smiled at the picture. ‘He looks just like he came from a postcard,’ she thought. She walked forward to brush the unnoticed leaf off of his jacket, but before her hand could reach him he had turned around and caught her wrist in a tight grip. “What are you doing?” he asked fiercely.

Hwang Bo rocked back on her heels. “A-a leaf,” she stammered. “On your shoulder...a leaf.” Hyun Joong let go of her wrist and brushed the leaf away himself then turned away. “You- you just startled me, that’s all,” he said.

“A-ah,” Hwang Bo replied, rubbing her wrist. She laughed it off. “You’ve become paranoid.”

Hyun Joong let out a half laugh. “Maybe.” He leaned against the pole of the swing set and stared down at Hwang Bo. “Why did you decide to be my girlfriend that time in the maze, just to break if off a few days later?”

“Ah!?” Hwang Bo was caught off guard. ‘I thought we weren’t going to talk about this tonight.’ Hwang Bo picked up a leaf from the ground and played with it nervously. ‘Why did I?’ she thought. “I...guess I was just being selfish at that time,” she said truthfully. “And...well...I just thought I should try it before...” she stopped what she was saying. She had been about to say “before getting married.”

Hyun Joong could guess what she had been about to say before she stopped and felt his anger burn brighter than it had at the break up. He nodded stiffly. “Selfish...” He put a hand under her chin and raised her face until her eyes had to look into his. He smirked and broke eye contact, then bumped his foot against hers. “It doesn’t matter. I was just curious, wanted to make sure you weren’t bipolar.”

Hwang Bo rubbed her chin, where his hand had been. He was acting so strangely tonight. She looked down as another silence fell around them. She hoped that this awkwardness would be gone when they next met. In the silence, she suddenly recalled something that made her sigh. Her mom had visited the marriage arrangement place again for them to draw up another list for her. Her mom was determined to see her married in the next year. It was really a burden. Then she gasped as a sudden idea came to her. She looked up at her new friend who was looking at her questioningly. If her mom thought she already had a boyfriend, maybe her mom would find calm and lay off of her a bit. She smiled sweetly at Hyun Joong. “Shillang...”

Hyun Joong felt a cold hand touch his spine when Hwang Bo said his pet name so sweetly, he also felt a longing that no amount of hate could suppress. He swallowed and turned away from her. “You shouldn’t keep calling me that now that we’re... just friends.”

Hwang Bo’s smile dropped an inch. “Ah. Y-you’re right. Bad habit I guess. Hyun Joong,” she started over. “Can you...come to meet my mom with me tomorrow?” She noticed his back stiffen. “Or...it doesn’t have to be tomorrow.”

‘Like the day is important,’ Hyun Joong thought angrily. He turned around. “For what reason?”

“Well...That is...” She stalled. ‘Will he get angry if I mention marriage again?’ she wondered. “My mom keeps bothering me to meet someone. So...I thought...that you could pretend...” she stammered under Hyun Joong’s stare. “If she thinks I’m already with someone, maybe she wouldn’t pressure me so much.” She ended up telling him the truth in the least offending way possible. Or at least she hoped.

A corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile. “So, you plan to pretend to date me in front of your mother while you continue to see other guys?” He said it like it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.

Hwang Bo tilted her head. He had never used such a tone with her before. “I-it’s not like...well...yeah,” she finished lamely. She sighed as she looked at Hyun Joong’s expression, knowing she couldn’t come up with a better excuse. “Look...please help me just this once.” She didn’t notice how Hyun Joong’s teeth clenched at the words. “Her pushing me onto random guys isn’t really helping me right now. I need her to relax...just a little bit.” She squinted hopefully up at Hyun Joong.

Hyun Joong had never felt so dumbfounded in his life. The woman he still loved under all the hate had just asked him to pretend to be her boyfriend until she could get married to some man who obviously wasn’t going to be him. “Just this once,” he murmured. “Random guys.” Hwang Bo watched Hyun Joong mumble to himself, a wild look in his eyes. She took a small step back.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, getting ahold of himself. ‘I have to think...’ He opened his eyes. ‘This could benefit me if it stops her mom from setting her up with guys, but if I start doing whatever she wants me to do again how do I keep from falling into the pitiful hole I was in for two years?’ He studied Hwang Bo. ‘Whatever...I’ll just agree for now, and I’ll think of how to work this to my favor later.’ He agreed. “Okay.”

Hwang Bo smiled happily when she heard his reply, but if she had looked deep in his eyes at that moment and seen the real emotions that were buried there, a smile would have been the last expression that would have graced her face at that news.