North - South

Date

From that final part of the corridor which flowed into the living room, it was just needed to turn his look left to catch her figure. There she was. Standing in front of the window, the light of the dawn chiseling her traits in a game of light and shades. It came natural to him, he didn't even think of it, taking the camera which was gathering dust in the library, and snapping a photo.

"Uh?" The man lifted his head from the coffee cup.

"Oh?"

"Did you say something?"

"Who? Me? No!"

"Ah. It seemed as if..."

Damn, that was by far the most embarrassing breakfast they'd ever shared.

Se-ri placed her cup on the table, her face in the middle between condescending and sweet. "Ok. Let's talk about it. We have three options. One: pretend as if nothing happened and act like before. Two: pretend as if nothing happened and never talk about it."

"Aren't they the same?"

"Ani," she shook her head no, "they're slightly different."

At first sight, nor the first nor the slightly different second sounded good. "What's number 3?"

"Honestly, it's not like we're teenagers. Don't pressure each other over such a trivial thing."

"Is that also slightly different?"

"Of course it is."

"Let's go with number 3." Neither this one was of his liking, though at least it wasn't about pretending that no kiss had ever happened.

"You want to go with number 3?" Se-ri kept her face straight as she gave him time to reconsider. About his reply and about his survival, even if the innocent man was unaware of that last part.

"Yes."

That reply had to be somehow – somehow he was totally unaware about – wrong too, though, because Se-ri's face froze. She did that thing she often did, like pretending that she was ok but actually not being. The smile she cast him felt astounding and frightening, indeed, in spite she was clearly trying to keep her expression cool.

"It looks like what happened last night is pressuring you a lot."

"You told me to choose one, so... "

"Right, I did say that, you made a good choice," then why her face was so scary? "But anyway, you did feel pressure, right? But it's nothing. I mean, there was the rain, you were concerned, I was scared, things like these can happen. It's not really a big deal to me." And with it, she left the table and then the room. "There's the lunch for you in the fridge.

There he stayed, finishing his coffee in solitude. In the other room, it seemed as if she was giving a hard time to her beauty products for a reason the man really couldn't detect. Besides, he felt slightly offended too. Not really a big deal. Not a big deal. Umpf.

It had been a good kiss, instead. Or at least it had seemed so, on the night before. Good, long, tasty, with all the feelings a kiss was supposed to hold. She had stroked his hair. She had hugged him. Didn't it mean that she was liking it? 

Or did it simply mean that she was kissing back, like many other times she must have done? Hundreds of men at home... he remembered her words. She probably knew how to kiss, while he - a proper man of his age, always acting decently - didn't. Ishhh! Shameless brat! Shameless western lack of decency! Then why she was the one upset? It was supposed to be him the upset one!