HOMETOWN - soobin x oc

PART 8

DANBI

"What kind of tea would you like?" Sammie asks as we step through the door. She peels her shoes off and puts them in the cupboard. "I have green tea, herbal tea, black tea... or coffee? I could make you coffee too-"

"Green tea is fine," I smile and place my shoes next to the step going up to the hallway.

She nods and motions for me to follow her. The short hallway leads to a large open living room surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows.The mountains that encircle Seoul stretch out against the horizon while the Han River carves a winding path through the concrete and high rises below.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Sammie says from the kitchen, noticing how I've slowly made my way to the windows to see the city below. "We got really lucky to find this apartment– Jun looked for months but we couldn't find anything inside Seoul-" she explains as she fills the kettle with water. "But then he found out a friend of a friend was selling this apartment-" she sets the kettle on the stove and turns on the heat. "Just based on the location alone I was ready to say yes without even looking at it-" she laughs and pulls out two mugs from the cabinet. "But as soon as we did a tour, we both fell in love with it and thought it was perfect."

I press my lips into a thin smile and nod. "It's pretty perfect- you're only 20 minutes from the office and this view is incredible..." I turn to look out the window again, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear. "Finding a place to live in Seoul is so hard- I looked for months when Soobin moved here, but I couldn't find anything that I could afford, so I had to stay in Ansan and-"

I'm interrupted by the kettle's whistle. Sammie smiles apologetically and picks it up. "Sorry about that-" she pours the water into the mugs and glances at me. "So you had to stay in Ansan?"

"Yeah, it's partly why things didn't work out between us..." I glance down at my feet and push my hair back again. "But now I live in Busan so I don't know..." I chuckle nervously as she brings the mugs over. "Oh, thank you-" I take the mug and she motions for me to sit on the couch.

She blows on her tea, looking up at me through her eyelashes. "That must've been hard for you- when you lived in Ansan, I mean-" she pauses for a moment and sets her mug down over her lap. "I remember when Yeonjun and I first started dating, how hard it was to find time for each other..." she pauses and nods, taking a sip out of her mug. "And we lived in the same city– I can't imagine how hard it must've been if we lived in different places..."

I nod and take a sip out of my own mug as I glance around the living room. I'm about to ask her about some of the pictures on the wall when she suddenly puts the mug down on the coffee table.

"Sorry- I have to take the 20th bathroom break of the day," she chuckles and gets up, waddling over to the bathroom. She closes the door and I'm left alone with the faint sound of the traffic outside and the humming of the air purifier.

Glancing around the living room, I get glimpses into their life. Pregnancy books sitting on the counter, photos of Sammie and Yeonjun next to pictures of their family and friends. I notice some of Soobin too– the three of them smiling at the camera, group pictures of them out and about– memories they share together that I don't know about.

The toilet flushes and Sammie turns on the faucet. I smooth down my pants and grab my mug to take another sip of the tea.

"Sorry- I'm back," Sammie announces, appearing in the living room. She takes a deep breath in and sits back down next to me, grabbing her mug again. "So, Danbi-" she starts. The words send a jolt up my spine but I try to remain calm.

"I wanted to talk about what happened..." she continues, pausing for a moment to exhale. "I, um- I want to apologize for how I reacted..." she glances back down at her lap, rubbing her thumb over the top of her mug. "I think I felt overprotective of Soobin and I let that get in the way of getting to know you... I'm really sorry about that." She turns her attention back to me. The light from the window makes her hazel eyes look almost green.