Indecent Proposal

Dawning Truth

It was a charity gala thrown in aid of starving children.

A live orchestra played music while crazy rich people danced tangled in each other's arms.

Kimmon looked down at the man dancing in his arms. Tee once refused to dance with him now he can have this treasure all to himself. He's happy Tee himself decided to file for divorce. He also respected Tee's request to stay unattached for a while.

It must be hard, letting go of something you were attached to almost all of your adult life.

So they dated casually.

But Kimmon had a mission to make this beautiful man his, one day.

"You were thinking hard."

Tee playfully pressed his finger on Kimmon's forehead.

"What's on your mind?"

Tee asked again seriously.

"You."

Kimmon flirted shameless, watching in pleasure as the white cheeks tinted pink with an attractive blush.

"Flatterer."

Tee slapped the rich man's chest playfully and moved out of his embrace and walked back to their table.

The dance had ended and the hostess is at the stage with a mike.

"For those who haven't made big contributions to the course of helping starving children, please pick up your check books again, ladies and gentlemen."

She announced cheekily.

The audience laughed.

Kimmon laughed and topped up their glasses with sparkling wine. It suddenly occurred to Tee that instead of wasting so much money on functions like this they could just donate the money wasted here. But then again, this is one way of drawing money from rich people. Rich people like to make spectacle of themselves when donating huge amounts of their hard earned money. And they often did gave away some of their earnings for greater good.

Tee knew for a fact that Kimmon made a big donation.

".............because there's a generous gentleman who wants to donate a huge amount of money..... You all should take a page out of his....."

The words died down. The hostess looked at the check in her hand with a dumbfounded expression.

".....It's a check for..... One million dollars.... From Mr. Tae Darvid."

The crowd gasped with surprise.

Tee lifted his head to see Tae standing at the corner in one of his shabby suits, awkwardly shifting on his feet. He was never good with crowds. Tee thought with a faint smile. And the idiot had gone and given away the money that destroyed their relationship. They lost everything chasing after that money. In the end there's nothing left.

"Thank you for Mr. Tae Darvid for generously contributing to our noble course."

And the audience erupted into a cheerful clapping.

Tee watched Tae walk towards where he sat with Kimmon.

"I really wanted you to have that money."

Tee said sadly. It was all Tae needed to built his career as an Audio Engineer. He could have built a quality studio and make his own album. It was his dream and Tee wanted him to have that dream with or without him in his life.

Tae simply shrugged, stuffing his hands down his pant pockets.

They stared into each other's eyes for a beat or two.

"Maybe you two should talk in private."

Kimmon got up from his seat and offered it to Tae.

In the background music started to play again.

Tae sat and looked at Tee. He looked lot better than he was during their last encounter.

"So...?"

Tee smiled awkwardly.

"How have you...."

I hear you..."

They both stared at the same time but chuckled.

"I'm sorry..."

"Go ahead..."

Tae cleared his throat and laughed.

"Yeah, I'm teaching.... It doesn't pay much but at least I get to talk about music."

Tae rubbed the back of his neck.

Tee tilted his head and watched Tae's familiar gesture. It's been such a long time since they had a civil conversation.

"You have always loved talking about music...."

Tee murmured looking into Tae's almond shaped eyes.

They stared for a long moment but Tae finally sighed and licked his lips.

"Listen, I need to talk to you about what happened, Tee."

"No, don't.... don't..."

Tee begged. He doesn't want to talk about that. He wanted erase that memory from his brain. Why is he bringing hurtful memories back?

"Please, I have to...."

Tae pleaded.

"Just hear me out...?"

Tee gave in with a sigh.

"You know what my mistake back in Singapore was? I thought we were invincible that we could forget about it."

Tae touched the flower arrangement on the table and looked deeper into Tee's eyes.

"But, now I know that things people in love do to each other.... they remember. If they stay together it's not that they forget.... It's because they forgave."

Tee blinked back a tear.

"I was just so afraid that you wanted him...."

Tae lifted a finger and corrected his statement.

"No actually I was afraid that you were right to want him....He's rich, handsome..."

Tae admitted.

Tee shook his head at the absurdity of that statement. He always picked love over everything. Money was nothing compared to what they had. She thought Tae knew that.

"I thought he was the better man."

Tae said mildly and took out the divorce papers sent to him by Tee.

"Now I know he's not."

Tae said mildly and took his pen from the coat pocket.

"He's just got more money."

Tae poised the pen over the dotted line. Tee swallowed painfully. His eyes are glistening with tears now.

Tae lifted his eyes and glanced at his beautiful soon to be ex-husband for a second and stroked his signature across the dotted lines.

A soft gasp left between Tee's parted lips. That signature felt like a slash of a knife across his chest. A deep searing pain that went through to his very core.

Tae slid the signed papers towards Tee, his eyes are wet from unshed tears. When Tae lifted his hand and stroked his thumb down the soft cheek, Tee tried to hold back a sob.

When Tae left with a final look, Tee dipped his head to hide his streaming eyes.

Kimmon watched the whole episode, slow dancing with a rich middle aged woman.