Brazen Love [Chapter 7]

 

Chapter 7:

Hyun Joong caught Hwang Bo in one strong arm, then picked her up and carried her gently into her bedroom. He laid her on the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. He was still angry and confused, but she was really sick right now. ‘I should just help her get healthy first, then question her later,’ he thought as he made his way into the kitchen. Hwang Bo peeked open one eye and watched as Hyun Joong exited.

She sat up and sighed. ‘This is getting really tiresome,’ she thought. ‘Should I just go ahead and let him go already?’ Right when the thought crossed her mind, her whole being repelled against it. Clenching the bed sheet tight in one fist, she thought, ‘No...I won’t let him go until I’m tired of him.’ She fell back onto her pillow. ‘But what can I say about the dress!?’ She shook her head from side to side and groaned in frustration.

Hyun Joong heard a low groan from the bedroom. Glad that she was finally awake, he hurriedly finished preparing the tea and dropped half of a lemon in the cup. He had heard that a bit of lemon in your tea was good for you when you were sick. He tried to rush back to the room without spilling any of the hot brew. Her eyes were opened wide when he came into the room. He hurried over and put a supporting hand behind her back, placing the cup at her lips and tilting it for her to drink. She sputtered at the sourness and glared at him, but he didn’t notice as he was trying to get her to drink more. “Buin, stop spitting it out. I made it so you could get better.”

'Is he trying to get revenge because he’s still angry about the dress?’ Hwang Bo asked herself. 'Instead of getting better, this can make a person feel worse.’ She would have said something, but she figured complaining about his ability to make tea wouldn’t help her cause. She closed her eyes tight and let him give her one more drink before she pushed his hand away. “Thanks,” she said, holding back a cough. “I feel a little better already.” When he complied, and placed the tea away on the side table she thanked God for small blessings. She was also glad that he didn’t seem to recognize the dress from earlier that night at the club, so she should be able to come up with an excuse for having a dress like this on at this time of night if she could just think!

'Ah!’ Hwang Bo thought. She looked up at Hyun Joong and put on her most desperate and innocent expression. She moistened her lips to draw his attention there so that hopefully he wouldn’t pay too much attention to her words or the lie in her eyes. “Shillang, I had called you hoping that we could have a romantic evening together. I wanted to slow dance with you to some romantic music, but I got sick like this. I even went out and bought this dress to wear it for you, now it’s gone to waste. I’m stuck under the covers,” she coughed roughly, “and you have to attend to me. It shouldn’t be like this.” Hwang Bo pouted and then whined cutely. “Ah-ah, I really wanted to dance with you.”

Hyun Joong ignored the small tingle of suspicion in the back of his mind at Hwang Bo’s words. All of his anger and questions melted in the face of her cute act. “Ahh,” he breathed, smiling. “It’s okay. Maybe you got sick when you went to get the dress,” he said, not realizing he was coming up with excuses for her now. “It’s kind of breezy out there tonight.” He started to feel a bit guilty that maybe she got sick because of him. “But...slow dance?” he joked. “I’m not good with that kind of stuff. Maybe God was helping me out tonight.” He smiled when Hwang Bo swatted him on the arm. “I’m just kidding. We can do it next time.” He looked around. “Whatever you want me to do for you tonight, I’ll do it.”

Hwang Bo knew that she couldn’t just ask him to leave now. She would need to make him forget that the dress incident had ever happened or he would start to question everything she did or said in the future. If she asked him to leave, he might get upset and his doubt and suspicion might outweigh his feelings for her. She looked down and smiled shyly. “Stay the night,” she looked up to see his eyes widen. “Only to sleep though. I feel like I never get to see you and whenever I do, something goes wrong. I should probably change out of this dress first though.”

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Hwang Bo stepped out of the bathroom in a long sleeping shirt and tights. “Hyun Joong...” she started, snapping Hyun Joong out of his thoughts. “What did you do today? I hope you weren’t busy when I texted you all of a sudden...” She looked up to gauge Hyun Joong’s expression.

Hyun Joong’s expression didn’t change. “I wasn’t really that busy. A friend called me out, but it wasn’t very important.”

Hwang Bo nodded and was about to say something, but Hyun Joong interrupted, adding to his statement. “But you know...” he said, smiling slightly. “We met this strange couple while we were there.”

Hwang Bo’s eyes went wide and she tried to cover the expression by turning to the bed to turn down the covers. “Really?”

“Yeah. The woman was the strangest. For one thing, she came to the club dressed in some kind of evening gown...” The growing smile froze on his face and a contemplative expression came over his face as he thought back on the event. “The dress...actually looked a lot like the one you were wearing.” He wrestled the suspicion he was coming to out of his mind. “It must be pretty popular...right?”

Hwang Bo laughed nervously and turned toward him, taking her hair out of the cute pony tail she was going to wear to bed, and let in hang down around her face in silky tresses. “Probably,” she said gesturing toward the bed.

Hyun Joong loved the way Hwang Bo’s hair fell against her cheeks. The brush of the strands against her face swept all thoughts of the strange woman from his mind. 'But...’ he thought. 'Why is she gesturing toward the bed? What does she want?’

Hwang Bo saw that he was no longer thinking about the incident at the club, but his eyes had gone wide in confusion. “Did- didn’t you agree to spend the night?” His eyes leapt from the bed to her, back to the bed, then returned to her face again. His hand went up to cover the bare triangle of flesh exposed by his dark v-neck. Hwang Bo laughed. “We’re just going to sleep, and I know you should sleep on the couch, but,” she lowered her eyes innocently, “I don’t want to be away from you tonight.”

Hyun Joong’s heart pounded. 'This woman is too much!’ he thought. 'She expects me to just stay and sleep even if we’re on the same bed?’ He wasn’t confident in that task. But he didn’t want her to see him as some kind of beast that couldn’t control himself. “Uhh...why don’t we stay up a bit longer?” he asked in one last desperate attempt.

Hwang Bo didn’t bother to cover a yawn, she had been running around in heels all day, and in that fancy outfit, she wanted to sleep. She yawned again and even stumbled a bit as she walked toward Hyun Joong to pull him toward the bed, she was supposed to be sick after all. “I’m really tired, Shillang. Let’s just sleep.” Although she was supposed to be sick, Hyun Joong found himself being yanked up out of his chair and practically dragged toward the bed. Before he knew what had happened, he was under the cover beside Hwang Bo with his head cradled in a fluffy pillow. Hwang Bo snapped off the bedside light. “Let’s sleep.”

Hyun Joong took a deep, resigned breath and turned over, facing away from Hwang Bo. Hwang Bo was also still facing her beside lamp. The minute the lights were off she became fully aware of Hyun Joong’s presence beside her. 'Did I act a little too hastily tonight?’ she wondered to herself. She could swear she felt the heat radiating from Hyun Joong’s back. Or was that just her crazy imaginings? Hyun Joong lay with his eyes open. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep there. He would just wait until she fell asleep and then move to the couch. But...when would she fall asleep? “Buin?” he asked. When she gave a sound to show he was listening, he sighed inwardly. 'Oh, she isn’t asleep yet.’ He knew it had been futile. “Sleep,” he said, just to say something.

Hwang Bo smiled, losing some of her nervousness. She scooted backwards in the darkness until her back was pressed against his. She felt his back muscles tighten. She plucked at her covers. “I’m glad you’re here with me, Hyun Joong. Shillang. Do you promise you’ll always come when I call you? Stay with me when I ask?”

“I promise,” he said without hesitation. Hwang Bo felt a rush of warmth and smiled. She turned over and hugged him from the back. As she listened to his, now shallow, breathing she opened her mouth before she knew it. She had just had the strong urge to tell him something that obviously seemed so natural that it had almost slipped past her tongue before she could catch it. She clamped her mouth down. She couldn’t tell him 'I love you.’ That would be a huge mistake. No...it was impossible. She pulled her arms back from around his waist and turned back over to sleep.

Hyun Joong felt like something important had happened. He and Hwang Bo had been in an almost relationship for about two years now, and he wanted it to be so much more solid. They were just now coming close to that. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, but he remembered how she had looked when he told her seven months ago; her face had gone pale and her mouth had worked soundlessly until she had finally turned away from him, her face the definition of confusion and struggle. He had thought that would be the end of them, that she didn’t care about him the way he cared about her, but she had called him the next day and since then they had kept meeting like they usually do. When he heard soft breathing from Hwang Bo, he turned over wishing he could see her sleeping face. “I love you,” he whispered softly.

Hwang Bo’s heart kicked into high speed when she heard Hyun Joong’s whispered confession and for a reason she could not explain her eyes became awash with unshed tears. She closed her eyes over them and hurriedly pretended to be asleep. When Hyun Joong didn’t hear any kind of noise from her side, he assumed she was asleep. He sighed, stroked her hair away from her face lovingly, and then slipped from the bed. Hwang Bo didn’t try to stop him. 'Why doesn’t he understand as I do that this relationship can’t go on forever?’ she wondered, feeling guilty that his sweet words lay wasted on someone like her. She then drifted off into a dream where she herself didn’t have that understanding.

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Hyun Joong quietly snuck into the SS501 dorm and closed the door softly behind him. He slipped his shoes off then tried to fumble his way to the bedroom in the darkness. He had decided to leave Hwang Bo’s house since he risked a higher chance of getting caught if he waited until morning. He was nearly to his bedroom when his foot connected with something solid. He barely managed to catch himself on the nearby wall. He fumbled to flick the light on to see what he had tripped over and was shocked so see a messy haired Young Saeng rubbing sleep from his eyes while pressing the other hand to his bruised side.

Hyun Joong hurriedly turned the lights back off, but Young Saeng turned them right back on. “Why are you getting in only now?” Young Saeng asked. “It’s 5 AM!”

Hyun Joong looked around the room for some escape but couldn’t find one. He turned to go into his bedroom a mere foot away but found his path blocked by his annoying band mate. He pushed a hand through his hair as Young Seang continued to stare at him with wide eyes and a crooked smile that said if he didn’t hurry up and tell him the real story or something that passed as the real story, Young Seang would come to his own conclusions. He sighed, “I was upset about something so I decided to drive around for awhile. Before I knew it, a couple of hours had passed. Did you guys manage to help Amber have a good time?” he asked to change the subject and distract Young Seang.

Young Saeng nodded, deciding he would let him go for now. He knew where he had been anyway. “She had a good time...even though I think she would have liked you to be there.” He gave Hyun Joong a meaningful look, but he could tell from Hyun Joong’s blank expression that he didn’t get what he was implying. “I think she really looks up to you. She said that you just got a text message and you were out of there.” Young Saeng squinted. “You know Hyun Joong...it’s not good to give everything in the beginning. Sometimes you have to act like the bad guy. You’ll get better results in the future.”

Hyun Joong shrugged him off. “You don’t know anything about it,” the young idol stated, thinking about all of the years that he and Hwang Bo had shared. She called him whenever she needed him, and she had just agreed to be his girlfriend without Young Seang’s help or advice. “We’re doing fine.”

Young Saeng nodded, understanding that things weren’t really that fine and Hyun Joong knew it or he wouldn’t be getting so defensive right now. “Okay,” he said, backing off. “Just tell me if you need anything.” He looked at Hyun Joong’s eye bags. “You should get the little sleep you can...we don’t have a schedule until eight in the morning tomorrow.” Young Saeng glanced around and then looked at his bedroom door. “Why am I sleeping out here anyway?” He walked back to his room mumbling. “Aii...did I drink too much?”

Hyun Joong had seen the doubt in Young Saeng’s eyes. 'Things with me and Hwang Bo really are fine,’ he thought, thinking of the night he had shared with Hwang Bo. But that immediately led his mind back to the evening dress she had been wearing and how similar it had looked to the one he had seen on the woman in the club with some weird man. He shook his head. “Things are fine,” he murmured aloud, not knowing whether he was denying the doubts in his band mate’s eyes or if he was trying to reassure himself.

He went into his bedroom to get some sleep, but before he closed his eyes he sent a text. “I left a little early to make things less suspicious. And even though it’s late and I know you’re already asleep...Good night Buin.”

Hwang Bo stared at the lighted screen of her phone in the darkness and read his text. “I don’t deserve him,” Hwang Bo murmured, the tears that were coming one at a time while Hyun Joong had been beside her quickly turning into an unstoppable flood. “He doesn’t deserve me,” she whispered bitterly.

She cut her phone off. ‘One more day...’ she thought. ‘I’ll keep him as mine for one more day. Then, after the date tomorrow, I’ll end it with him. I will!’ She demanded, fighting the negative feelings that welled up inside of her at the thought...telling her that she should hold onto him forever. She went to sleep, hoping that she would have the courage to actually go through with it tomorrow and ignoring the memories of the many times she had already resigned herself to let him go but never actually followed through with it.