Landed on Us

The Memories

Seri woke up and saw the wood ceiling on top of her. She blinked several times, and the ceiling was still there. From below her bed, she heard the sound of someone breathing and she moved so she could see who the person was. Ri Mu Hyeok was looking back at her; he definitely didn't sleep as he said he would.

"Why aren't you sleeping, Seri-ssi?" he asked gently, to which Seri smirked, "Why aren't you?" she asked back.

Mu Hyeok chuckled, then he sat up and put his hand on the bed right beside her.

"You know we have to start very early tomorrow, right?" he asked her, and Seri raised her eyebrows. She glanced to the clock beside his bed and smirked, "You mean today?" it was already half past 1.

Mu Hyeok also glanced to the clock and smiled wryly. Gently, he nudged her temple.

"Still, you should sleep" he said while gently caressed her cheek, "Or you will torture Jeong Hyeok by being grumpy the whole flight"

Seri snickered but then grew silent. The flight meant it would be almost impossible to meet Mu Hyeok again in the rest of their lives.

She then spent the next moments looking intently at his face as he rested his head on top of his elbow on the bed, while his other hand caressed her cheek. She breathed gently and slowly reached out her hand too to caress his face.

Her slender fingers gently map the contour and shape of his perfect face. His eyebrows which had been the source of her envy since day one, then his perfectly sculpted nose, his slanted eyes, his cheeks and then his lips. Much like he did earlier, she slowly grazed his lips as if trying to map his lips into her mind.

Mu Hyeok was looking at her intently, then slowly moved his fingers to also graze her lips. Seri closed her eyes and felt his fingers probe her lips even further. They stayed like that for a while, with fingers attached to each other's lips until Seri opened her eyes and found Mu Hyeok stared at her with that intense gaze of his, but this time with beads in his eyes.

She understood why he did that, his utmost reluctant to do anything with her physically. It was not because he didn't want to, which was evident in his fingers' insistent way of probing her lips, but because he was simply a stand-up guy. A stand-up guy who had a fiancé that he would marry in the next couple of months. No matter what was in his heart, his principle dictated him to save himself for his future bride.

And Seri understood. She would leave him in the next 12 hours, with no prospect of meeting again for the rest of their lives. Who was she to demand such sacrifice from him after everything that he'd done for her?

It was highly unusual for her who used to almost always get what she wanted. She was born to one of the richest family in her country, and that was saying something coming from the South. There had been very little luxury of this world that she had never tasted. And she never lacked any drive to strive for what she wanted.

So, this state of surrender, of letting what she wanted (and clearly wanted her too) flown away from her was very new to her, and not to mention heart-wrenching. But she'd gladly do it if it was for Ri Mu Hyeok's sake. It was the least she could do.

~

"What's your favorite color, Ri Mu Hyeok-ssi?" she asked him, and he chuckled. They had forgone all of their effort to sleep and instead, asked each other trivial questions about each other. So far, she had managed to dig the fact that he preferred tea over coffee, and that he had taken his undergraduate at Political Science in Shanghai. That was how his father groomed him to be his successor in the office.

Mu Hyeok then took his time to ask about Seri's past, but so far, she had managed to dodge his question about her family and instead focusing on her experience in studying in the US for her undergraduate and graduate.