Brazen Love [Chapter 13]

 

Chapter 13:

Hyun Joong squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, contemplating. Whenever she used that voice, he really wanted to stay but… “You should really stop asking a man you’re not attached to to stay with you if you want to get married anytime soon.” He sighed and pulled his hand from hers. “Your mom will be here in a few minutes. I’ll stay in the living room until she gets here. That’s the best I can do.”

Hwang Bo glared up at him, trying to get him to change his mind, but the angry look just slid off of him, although he did give her an amused smile before he turned and walked into the living room. Hwang Bo sank back on her pillows then leaned up to pluck one of the paper cranes from underneath her bottom pillow. She puffed lightly into the hole in the back and smiled as it unfolded again, a bit more tattered than when Hyun Joong had first given them to her. She twirled it around in her fingers and stared at her bedroom door through which the young idol had exited, “Your appa sure has gotten a bit rebellious these days.”

“Oh yeah,” Hyun Joong said, popping his head back in the room. Hwang Bo hurriedly closed her fist over the crane and pulled her hand to her chest, embarrassed. “What are you doing?” Hyun Joong asked at her strange action. When she just shook her head, Hyun Joong shrugged. “I was wondering if you wanted me to make you anymore of the lemon tea I made you last time. To relax you…”

Hwang Bo’s mouth puckered and her eyes watered at the memory, but Hyun Joong was offering to do something for her, something he hadn’t done in a while it seemed, without that angry glare in his eye. She gave a half smile that appeared to be more of a grimace and nodded. Hyun Joong smiled widely and went to the kitchen to make her the tea. Hwang Bo pulled the now crushed crane out again and looked at it sadly. “Did he put that much lemon in it on accident the first time? Seems like he’ll put a whole one in this time just so he can see me cry.” Hyun Joong boiled the water carefully, then dropped a tea bag into the glass. He searched through Hwang Bo’s refrigerator until he found her lemons. He grabbed one and halved it carefully; last time the half of lemon had seemed to help, and she seemed like she was in a lot of pain this time, so it would probably be good to use more, so he dropped in the other half as well, giving them a little squeeze before they hit the water. He smiled happily as he carried the cup in to her. He was a bit confused when he saw her eyes widen and a suspicious smile appear on her lips, but she drank all of the drink without complaint. ‘I hope that helps,’ he thought as he carried the empty cup back into the kitchen, he could hear Hwang Bo coughing and sputtering loudly from the bedroom, though. He looked up quickly when the doorbell rang twenty minutes sooner than he had expected.

His heart started to pound instantly in anxiety at the thought of facing her mother again, but he hurriedly sat everything down and went to answer the door. He opened the door and backed away. “Annyeonghaseyo, mother-in-law…Ah! I mean…” He started to stutter again. ‘Where did that come from!?’ he asked himself firmly. Hwang Bo’s mother, however, beamed at the term. “It’s okay,” her mother hurriedly said, seeing that he was about to start tripping over his words again. “Where is she?”

Hyun Joong pointed over his shoulder. “The bedroom. Since - Since you’re here, I-I’m going to get going.” He froze when he felt Hwang Bo’s mother’s hand on his shoulder. “There’s no need to go on my account. I was just going to stop by to see how she was. Now follow me young man.” Hyun Joong wanted to leave, but he had had a direct request from an elder, so there was nothing he could do. He followed her into Hwang Bo’s room. Hwang Bo was stuffing something under her pillow again, like the first time he had come into her room. Her mother nodded hello to her before going to check out her foot. She poked it, ignoring Hwang Bo’s flinches of pain whenever her hand made contact with the swollen ankle. “It doesn’t look like anything she should see the doctor about. This isn‘t the first time her ankle has been like this,” she said unworriedly, looking toward Hyun Joong. Hwang Bo was staring at him too with ‘I told you so,’ written clearly on her face. Hyun Joong shrugged. “I was worried, she could barely stand.” The older woman nodded and patted him on the cheek. “It’s good to see you worried about my precious daughter, but you shouldn’t go overboard. She will need someone to look after her for a while, though. I can’t do it because I have to take care of some other things. I leave her to you.” She ignored his string of protests as she made her way to the door, giving him instructions on how to take proper care of her precious daughter while she was injured, and before Hyun Joong knew it, he was alone with Hwang Bo again, only this time, it wasn’t Hwang Bo ordering him to stay there, it was her mother.

He turned around to see Hwang Bo not even trying to hide the smile on her face. She would have to thank her mother later. Hwang Bo was sure that her mother wasn’t even busy these days. ‘Have to take care of some other things?’ Hwang Bo thought, recalling her mother’s words. ‘Catching up on her favorite dramas maybe…’ She looked at Hyun Joong who stood frozen in the doorway. Hwang Bo was afraid that he was just going to run away if she didn‘t say something soon. “Be my manager for a while,” she said. “My company needs to be informed that I may have to push my schedule back. Can you do that?”

Hyun Joong blinked. “What reason would I give for being the one who knows that? That I happened to walk by and your own manager was too busy, so you guys pulled me over and asked me to call the company for you?” Hwang Bo stared at him. “No. Just call and tell them what I told you, they won’t even ask who you are.” He stared at her. “Why can’t you just make the call then. I’ve never heard of an ankle injury that affects the wrist and the mouth.” Hwang Bo smiled. “Because if I say that I’m going to take a few days off all by myself, they’ll ask me all sorts of questions, but if you ‘my manager’ tells them that I need my schedule pushed back, they won’t think anything about it.” Hyun Joong gritted his teeth. “If you just talk in a slightly deeper voice, you could probably pass as someone else, I’ve heard that you can’t even recognize your own voice messages. If you can’t tell, no one else can.” Hwang Bo wasn’t sure whether to laugh or throw her pillow. “My voice isn’t that deep.” Hyun Joong tilted his head and squinted his eyes to show just how ridiculous that statement was.

“Fine,” Hwang Bo said. “If you don’t tell them to push my schedule back, you’ll just have to chauffer me around everywhere that I need to go.” Hyun Joong wasn’t beaten easily. “Why would I do that? You have your own driver, and I’m sure he’s on speed dial. There’s also the taxi.” Hwang Bo glared. “Rock, paper, scissor!” she shouted. “If I win, you have to be I disagreeistant until my ankle is healed. If you win, you can just leave right now.” Hyun Joong continued to argue, but Hwang Bo could see the anticipation he tried to hide. “Assistant? What happened to manager?” he asked. “You missed your chance,” she retorted. “And if you keep stalling, it’ll go to slave. Let’s go.” Hwang Bo held up her fist, ready. Hyun Joong held his fist up too, hurriedly. “I’m really leaving if I win.”

Hwang Bo threw out her fist in a series of moves until the last call and landed on rock, Hyun Joong picked paper. Hyun Joong pumped his fist in victory. Hwang Bo threw a pillow at him. “It’s obviously two out of three.” Hyun Joong opened his mouth to retort, Hwang Bo cut him off. “Guess you’re just too scared.” Hyun Joong immediately sent out his fist, Hwang Bo responded. His hand was shaped in scissor, Hwang Bo had rock. She licked her lips in anticipation of the final round. Hyun Joong noticed the action and swiped a hand through his hair to try to hold his concentration; this was no time to get distracted. He prayed to all that he believed in and sent out his hands in the symbol of scissors again, hoping to throw Hwang Bo off, but she had somehow anticipated his feint because her hand was once again fisted in the shape of rock. If it weren’t for her injury, Hwang Bo would have jumped to her feet and danced around him in victory, as it was, she tossed her phone to his startled hands and said, “All the numbers you need are listed under business contacts. Transfer them to your phone and make the call as soon as possible.”

Hyun Joong scratched his head in frustration. “Gah!” he yelled. “I’ll call in the morning!” he said irritated. Hwang Bo laughed. “Okay,” she said. “Just make sure you get it done. And I’m going to need your schedule also so that I know when I can have you.” Hyun Joong was feeling very defeated. No matter how he tried, it was like he couldn’t escape her. “Write it down,” Hwang Bo continued. “And don’t lie either.”

Hyun Joong continued to mumble under his breath as he truthfully wrote down what he knew of his schedule for the following week, while Hwang Bo laughed at him with her eyes the entire time, at least, that’s what it felt like to him. As he handed Hwang Bo the slip of paper, she made sure to brush his fingers with hers as she took the paper, he glanced at her, but she appeared to have all of her attention on the paper. She smiled up at him after she had checked it, then said in a husky voice meant to tear through every barrier of resistance he had feebly constructed against her with the hate he held, “Seems like I’ll get to have you a lot next week.”

Hyun Joong tremored inside. He hurriedly turned away from her eyes, angry at himself. Why was he so weak!? He cleared his throat. “I’m…going to get some water.”

Hwang Bo smirked at his back as he hurried away, then quickly pushed a paper crane back under her other pillow who had come out of hiding when she had thrown one of her pillows at the young idol. She was glad that all of her taunting had kept him distracted enough not to notice the little bird, or else she would have a lot of explaining to do that she just was not ready for, and never would be ready for if she wanted to have a steady marriage with a steady man in the future. She took a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. Hyun Joong, meanwhile, was finding that water wasn’t helping him regain his senses or his strength; he was on his third glass. He ran his hands through his hair and stalked back and forth behind the counter, ‘The longer I stay, the more she’ll realize how much of an affect she still has on me, but I can’t go back in there right now.’ He sighed, he had to go back. He walked back into her room trying to look cool, collected, and charismatic.

He stopped in his tracks at Hwang Bo’s first words when he came back in the room. She had thrown the covers back on one side of the bed. “Let’s sleep!” she announced. When Hyun Joong turned right back around and left the room again, she laughed. She had just been joking around to see what his expression would look like. She couldn’t explain it. Whenever Hyun Joong was around, she always became like this. She stood up from the bed slowly, careful of her ankle, and followed Hyun Joong to the living room. “I was just kidding,” she said, still letting small peals of laughter escape. She stopped laughing when Hyun Joong turned back around to her with a serious expression on his face.

He turned his back on her. “Why-Why do you keep playing with me like this?” He asked quietly. “Why do you keep treating me like a yo-yo that you play with when ever you want, no matter how frayed the string has gotten?” Hwang Bo touched his back. “What are you talking about?” He turned back toward her and grabbed both of her arms. “Not even the yo-yo knows when that string will snap, so you shouldn’t keep jerking it around like that!” That look was in his eyes again, that look when he had found out she was still going on marriage meetings, and also, the one when he had nearly ripped the white dress off of her that night. “I-I didn’t, I was only playing around. I just like-” He shook her, taking the words from her mouth. “Like what? Making me look like a fool every chance you get? Just because I love you you think you can do this?!” His face went pale when he realized the words that had come out of his mouth. He stepped back, “That’s not. I mean, I loved you, I mean-” He put his face in his hands, ‘She doesn’t even have to try to make me look like a fool, I can accomplish that all by myself.’

Hwang Bo froze. Before she could say anything, Hyun Joong rushed out of the house. She started to follow him, but she knew he needed time. And so did she…Why did her heart feel as if it had gone through an electro shock treatment when he said those words? Shouldn’t she have stopped feeling this when she decided to do what’s best for both of them and look for someone else to start a life with? No…this won’t work. What could they do? They couldn’t just ignore each other, and Hwang Bo didn’t want to go through the inevitable pain they would both face if she let them got into a serious relationship. Maybe if they indulged…for just one time…it would work. Hwang Bo went to her door and opened it to find Hyun Joong standing there. She stepped into his personal space. “Hyun Joong,” she said, grabbing his hand. She looked up into his eyes. “Just for one night…” she whispered. She then placed her palm on his cheek, stood on her tiptoes, the best she could with her ankle, and planted a passionate kiss on his lips.

Hyun Joong’s resistance had been stripped from the moment he had accidentally declared he loved her, if he had had any resistance at all, he couldn’t make himself go further than her front door, then she had came out to him. When he let himself fall into her kiss, he hoped to God he wasn’t reading things in her eyes that weren’t there. They said that she loved him as much as he loved her, that she needed him as much as he needed her. She dragged him back inside by the collar of his shirt which was soon lost along with their senses in the heat of the moment. As Hyun Joong scooped Hwang Bo into his arms and carried her into her bedroom, he knew that this was going to be a mistake, but there was no stopping once they had started. When he awoke hours later and found Hwang Bo weeping beside him, he knew that they had both gone somewhere they shouldn’t have gone.

Hwang Bo cried because it didn’t work. She had woken up with the sun streaming in and still felt a need for the man beside her…maybe stronger than it was before. If anything, she had now cemented a place for him in her heart. What did she have to do? Hyun Joong wanted to reach out and wipe her tears away, but he was unsure. Now that he was awake, questions began to flood his mind. He became unconfident, wondering if she would push him away again. She had said that this was just for one night. Could she just disregard what they had just done so easily? He cleared his throat to indicate that he was awake. Hwang Bo hurriedly wiped her tears and tried to pretend that they didn’t happen at all. She looked at Hyun Joong and wondered…Should she just forget about all of her doubts about their future and try? She opened her mouth to ask him about what he felt they should do. If he still wanted to try with her, she was willing. But when Hyun Joong saw her mouth open, he was sure that she was going to say something to hurt him. His heart couldn’t take another rejection from her so he cut her off. “Well,” he said. “It’s time for me to call your company, isn’t it?” With that, he got up from the bed and went to the living room.

Hwang Bo felt another wave of tears overcome her and she had to put a hand to her mouth to stop the cry of pain that that comment had nearly torn from her. Hyun Joong heard the patter of Hwang Bo’s bare feet as she ran to the bathroom and the slight limp that slowed her steps the longer she was on her feet. He grasped his hands around his phone, just for something to hold onto as emotions shook him. He wanted to know why she was crying, he wanted to comfort her, he wanted her to comfort him, he wanted to ask her what last night was all about, he wanted to tell her what it had meant to him, but all he did was gather all of his desires within himself, and made the phone call to her company like he said he would. When he walked back into the bedroom, Hwang Bo had gotten dressed, but she didn’t turn to face him as he came up behind her to report what her company had said. She sat back down carefully on the bed, her ankle throbbing again, her eyes red and swollen, she had purposefully left her hair down in hopes to keep that fact from Hyun Joong. “You should put your shirt on or something, and since you don’t have a schedule until later afternoon, you can go ahead and use my shower. I have an old pair of your clothes from… a while ago, I washed them and left them in the bathroom. Can you get me some breakfast?” She said this all in a quiet murmur that Hyun Joong had to strain to catch. ‘What’s going on with her?’ He wondered as he showered and dressed. She was still quiet when he came back with two pieces of buttered toast for her, since that was about all he could manage besides an elaborate soup that she didn’t have the ingredients for. She mumbled ‘thanks’ as he walked away, and only bit into a corner of toast before putting it to the side, she couldn’t swallow, her throat felt raw from holding back her tears. Hyun Joong looked at her over his shoulder with concern. ‘What’s going on?’

“Is your ankle bothering you?” Hyun Joong asked. Hwang Bo glared at him. ‘Is my ankle bothering me!? Is that all he can say after last night!?’ She put the toast down. “It’s fine,” she said. “Hey,” she said. “Can you reserve a spot for me at La Sina’s?” She wanted him to show some feelings. To prove that she hadn’t imagined those words from him last night. “Why?” he asked suspiciously. “I have to meet someone.” She watched him, to see if he would show any signs. She assumed he knew what she meant. ‘Stop me. Yell at me. Tell me not to go on anymore dates, and I won’t,’ she pleaded silently.

He felt himself shutting down. “Someone? Another marriage meeting?” His voice was winter. Hwang Bo smiled inside. “Yes.” Hyun Joong glared at her. “Are you so desperate to get married to someone that you’ll go out with your ankle like that? How exactly are you going to walk into the restaurant? You’re not well enough to get your own breakfast, but it’s fine when you have to go meet some man?” Hwang Bo swallowed, it wasn’t supposed to go like this. “Never mind,” she mumbled weakly. “No,” Hyun Joong said quietly. “If you really need to go, you should go. What’s the number?” Hwang Bo pressed herself into her pillows. “Get out. Get out and don’t come back until I need you.” Hyun Joong felt like everything he had been suspecting had been confirmed. He turned on his heel and left without another word. Hwang Bo lay on the bed blinking back more tears. ‘Why didn’t he try to stop me? Why did he just leave when I told him to? What was last night?’ She turned on her side and pulled out the cranes, puffing into them, then lining them up on her night stand. “Did it mean anything at all?” she whispered aloud.