My Shining Light

Chapter 7

Lucy got home, went straight to her room and lay down flat on the bed, happy to finally close her eyes and let her muscles relax.

Ping! Went her phone.

She groaned with the effort of moving as she reached for it, thinking it was probably her older sister Hannah who'd heard her arrive home. She rolled over to check the text. It was Hannah.

Have you eaten?

The kids are in bed already, I'm gonna have a wine. Care to join?

I have dinner here for you too.

Her phone kept beeping with messages. Now Aera was texting asking about how the program had gone and her assistant was texting her about work. Lucy replied to Hannah, the other messages could wait. 

No I'm keen to eat! Be down in a sec.

She exited her house through an internal door that linked to the main house where Hannah lived with her husband Junhyuk and two young children, Eunjae and Youngsoo.

She walked down the cool marble floors to the main living area where she found Hannah lounging on the leather couch with her head back and feet up.

Hannah was the same height and build as Lucy, but had dark hair and eyes. She was like a porcelain doll with well manicured nails and hair fresh from the salon. She looked every part the chaebol's wife. 

Hannah's eyes were closed but they flicked open at hearing Lucy come in.

"Long day Hans?" Lucy asked, slumping down on the couch next to her.

"Argh yeah, hectic. I'm exhausted," Hannah moaned.

"When you texted me I was lying on my bed, I'm wrecked too."

"Ohh great you can join me in lying lazily on the couch. So, how did the program go today?"

"The program was good... I um, saw Dongmin."

"What? Lee Dongmin?"

"Yeah."

"Oh my gosh. How is he? Did you talk to him?"

"Sort of... I think I made a fool of myself though," Lucy sighed and put her head in her hands.

"Oh no, what happened?" Hannah sat up straight to listen.

"I told him I missed him, and I said it like, in a really heartfelt way." Lucy groaned.

Hannah grimaced. "Heartfelt? Like in what way?"

Lucy just looked at Hannah for a moment without saying anything and started to bite her lip.

"Oh my gosh. Do you still like him?"

"No, I never liked him!" Lucy argued.

"Lucy... come on. You guys spent all of your spare time together "practicing" or whatever it was. What kind of 15 year olds of the opposite sex hang out alone like that unless there's something going on?"

"It wasn't like that. Nothing happened," Lucy insisted.

Hannah looked at her in disbelief, "So you never liked him but you were always either on the phone with him, with him or talking about him?"

"I... cared about him. I liked being around him... We were really good friends."

"Okay, but what did he say when you said you missed him?"

"Nothing.."

"What? ...Oh. That's not good." She reached out to touch Lucy's arm, "Are you okay? So then what happened? Did he just walk away or something? It's so weird not to say anything."

"He hugged me. Really tight."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, confusing right?"

"For sure. Hmm..." Hannah pondered.

"The other guys showed up around then so we kind of got interrupted."

"Hmm, but still... it's odd behaviour. Who knows what's going on with him. Maybe he has a girlfriend. Or maybe he... I don't know. I don't think this is good. You've been through this before with him, haven't you?"

"Dongmin acting like I mean everything to him and then going to parties and hooking up with other girls? Him telling me that I was his closest friend and then asking Haewon to go with him to his graduation ball..."  

"So you did like him?"

"I... cared about him."

"I think you loved each other."

Lucy looked at her feet.

"I wasn't going to give him my heart after all that."

"So today you just... forgot?"

"Today I was just... it was just seeing him again! Argh," she said in frustration, remembering how good it felt when he held her.

She lifted her chin and asserted, "I only want to be friends with him."

"But if you feel that way then maybe you can't. You know what you should do, don't you?"

"What?" Lucy asked earnestly.

"Stay away from him," said Hannah, watching Lucy closely for her reaction.

Lucy thought for a moment, then heaved a big sigh and slowly nodded in agreement.

...

Lucy finished her dinner with Hannah and went back to her room to get ready for bed. She turned off the light and jumped under the covers.

Just as she was closing her eyes, her phone rang. Disturbed again!

She had forgotten to text Aera back so she was probably ringing her but their chat would have to wait until tomorrow.

She reached over to silence her phone when she was surprised to see the caller's name on the screen.

Dongmin? Why would he call her at this hour of the night?

Lucy took a moment to recall her conversation about him with Hannah earlier and her finger hesitated over the green answer button.