Destiny ┆Joo Seok Kyung ✗ Han Seo Jun

03

"Everybody hurts or leaves anyway.", he lightly replied back.

She felt her stomach clench. Yet, head up high, she walked away leaving the boy gaze in awe. He couldn't understand her. One moment she acted so unbreakable and then, fragile and soft the next. He kept gazing at her until his eyes couldn't trace her anymore and the clacking of her heels were inaudible. 

His eyes were now drowsy. Not that he wanted to sleep. He didn't had any energy to stay wide awake. In a completely empty space, he felt oblivious. He was there where she had been earlier. Under the bed of stars, questioning life, alone. He could still not forget about those mysterious black eyes. His depressing thoughts were now replaced by her.

"That person, he seemed like a nice person. I can understand him. I can feel his pain.", Seok Kyung thought to herself. She was zoned out, walking on the sidewalk. Seeing the boy in the same situation made her feel normal. The street was gloomily lit and the wind was making all sort of noises. There were not a lot of people. Just few of them who seemed like returning to their homes. But she didn't knew where she was heading. Her house? She had a large luxurious house where anybody would die to live in. But home? She didn't have one. 

At the end of the street, she saw a small restaurant. She could see people eating tteokbokki with their families. Her stomach growled. Never in thousand years she thought that she would be starving someday and would be on the streets, gulping to see other people eat. She thought of the numerous times she threw away all her food and left the dining table after eating a bite or two. The pantry, the kitchen and the food at her penthouse, she missed eating good food, or rather any food. She ate instant ramyun most of the time. She was broke. Till now, she slept at saunas and cyber cafes, selling her accessories and clothes.  But now, she ran out of everything. Her body was giving up from hunger. Holding her belly tightly, she crotched down still looking at the food place, drooling.  She could not believe how pathetic of a life she was living. Her life out of the Hera Palace had turned her into a different person.

Shivering in the cold wind, she hung her head low, wanting to not exist. That is until she felt a warm something cover up her back. She pulled the material close to her chest and crunched herself as she tilted her head up.

The same small, cat-like hooded brown eyes. She stared at those glossy eyes for a hot second before the reality hit her. It was the guy she met ; or saved; or almost choked to death up there. It was quite contradictory for it to be so tangled when they had just seen each other for the first time in their life, just half an hour ago. 

Seo Jun was returning to his apartment. The cold up there was unbearable. As he was going on his bike, he saw her by the street. She was shaking due to the chilly wind. Without any second thought, he immediately halted. Not that he was very kind but, seeing her made him wanting to help her. He took off his rusty looking black jacket and wrapped her in it.

"Wh-what are you doing here?", she uttered still shocked.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you this? huh?" he replied as he gently put his arms around her, picking her up from the ground. He noticed her pouty but chapped lips and thin stand of hair over her eyes. 

"Uhm, I- i was just um- enjoy, ya enjoying the cool wind.", She lied, fanning her hand trying to make him believe. "Oh yeah? With goosebumps all over you?", he gushed out.

"No, I mean, yes uhm i-" She was cut off by her stomach growling. Widening her eyes, she added," Um sorry its just-" She sighed out loudly as her face blushed with embarrassment.

He chuckled cutely. "Um, seems like you got some problem right there. Do you wanna have something?" he asked politely showing genuine care. He still had his arms around her, holding the jacket around her. "Okay sure, if you insist." she blurted.

 "I wasn't really insisting but okay, let's go there?", he hinted pointing his fingers at the tteokbokki place. She nodded.

Sitting opposite to each other, both of them could sense the awkwardness. Complete strangers who knew each others name, 1 pm at night, sitting down to have tteokbokki and pork ribs. Quite eccentric. 

Seo Jun seated down with a straight posture waiting for the food while, for her, the restaurant felt as if she had entered a dreamland, the sizzling of pan, the fragrances, the easy and natural colors. For her, this moment was more lavish than sitting in a red vinyl booth at the top-rated international Italian Hotel, picking at her tuna salad and listening to classical music; just the way her father liked. Who knew a mere place like this could be so dazzling?

As soon as the food was placed on their table, she dug in. Gobbling as much as she could in on go, she finished eating within a few minutes. Seo Jun was stunned. Whenever, his friends ate messily, he would get disgusted but seeing her eating with more relish than the food warranted, he was smiling without his knowing. Still giggling, he began to eat up too. 

He grabbed the pork ribs with his hands, devouring and getting sauce on his lips. But she, even though was trying to gulp everything at once, very elegantly cut the pork ribs with a cutlery knife as if it was a steak . He noisily sucked each and every one of his fingers clean of all that sticky barbecue sauce but she was nibbling daintily at a rib, holding it delicately between her fingers, and wiping them clean with linen napkins. But speedily rather than elegantly. 

He couldn't help but giggle and smile looking at the girl in front of him. She looked so innocent and full of love, no one could imagine her to be in a state that he saw, an hour ago. To him, that didn't matter anymore.

He was a full introvert but still trying to stir up a conversation, "Do you have something to say? About yourself or about anything else?" he asked breaking the ice between them.

Mumbling through a mouthful of ribs, she glanced but to meet his eye level. Then with a tight lipped smile, she replied, "NO ."

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