MISSION: Love

+ thirty-two +

My eyes squinted as I saw a tall silhouette walking towards me. The sky was already dark and the only light that shined through the night was the light of the vehicle in front of me. Footsteps were getting louder as the figure approached me. It was still daylight when I fell asleep at the bus stop. How could it turn dark so quickly?

When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I saw Sunghoon squatting in front of me to make sure his face was at the same level as mine. He examined my swollen eyes and exhaled heavily, "How long have you been sleeping here?"

"I don't know," I looked around, realising that I was alone in the street.

"Don't you know how dangerous it is? What if someone kidnapped you? What if someone raped you? Your life is at risk if you continue to sleep anywhere you want alone."

I did not want to hear him nag at me. I stood up and walked away from him to escape. I needed to be alone to process what just happened that day.

Just what I thought.

He would just leave me alone.

As I brushed away the thoughts, I kept my gaze fixed on the front, ignoring what was behind me. I heard him getting into his car and driving ahead of me. He stopped the vehicle and got out of it before standing in front of me.

"Hana."

"Sunghoon, I'm fine. You should just leave me alone."

"I know something happened between you and Ahrin. You don't have to lie and say that you have work. You sat here, cried your eyes out and fell asleep."

Thunder started rumbling as he finished his sentence. We both flinched in surprise and looked at the sky, seeing lightning appearing. Raindrops started pouring one by one until they became heavy. I walked ahead and left him behind.

"Yoon Hana!" He chased after me and grabbed my hand, "Let's go home. You're gonna get sick in the rain!"

"Do you know how embarrassed I was when I found out everyone hated me? They all went to reunions, events, and parties. All without me! And I'm known as the backstabber? All these years I wished to meet Ahrin and hoped for us to be best friends again. Although our friendship didn't end well, some memories were too precious to let go. I can't believe she betrayed me like this."

I felt my tears appearing but thanks to the rain, it hid them well. Sunghoon sighed, "She was a bitch to you. Why are you still attached to her?"

I couldn't help but laugh at his words. "Bitch? Attached? Then, what are you? Aren't you a prick? You also betrayed me and treated me like shit. Yet, why are you still here? Comforting me?"

He stayed silent and watched as I panted in anger. I felt my blood boiling and clenched my fists.

"I don't know. Why don't you tell me, Yoon Hana," he raised his voice. He started to take a few steps closer to me, "I did follow Taehyun's plan to deceive you. Yet, why did I feel like a total prick when you found out about our plan? Why did I plan to apologise to you and ask you for one more chance before I found out you had gone to study abroad?"

I stepped backwards and watched as his expression changed from worry to annoyance.

"Why am I here now, standing in front of you? Why am I here, worrying about you? Why am I here, making sure that you're safe and whether you have eaten or not?"

"What? Why? Wasn't I just part of your plan?"

"That's the problem. I should be happy that my plan succeeded. But why do I feel so awful for ten years already? And seeing you again made it a lot worse."

I stood there awkwardly as I tried to understand the information that I just received. He scoffed before saying, "Forget all that. Let's just get you dried up. You're gonna get sick from this rain."

He stormed towards me and grabbed my hand before dragging me into his car.

💌

I dried my hair in front of the bathroom mirror and breathed heavily, "Why didn't he just leave me on the street?"

The white shirt and grey sweatpants he gave me were big, I had to tie the sweatpants around my waist tightly or they would drop. I walked out of the bathroom and saw Sunghoon in his pyjamas, sitting on the edge of the bed. He was also drying his hair with a clean towel before averting his attention from me.

He then sighed and stood up before motioning for me to sit on his spot earlier. I obeyed and stayed quiet, anticipating what he would do next. He silently took my towel and dried my hair.

My eyes widened in shock before I pushed his hands away, "I can do it myself."

He held my wrist before putting it down gently. He continued drying my hair and said, "Just let me do it. You don't even know how to dry your hair properly."

I held his hand before caressing it. He was flustered by the sudden move and stopped drying my hair. We stared at each other for a while before I asked, "All the sweet things you did to me ten years ago, were they real? The place where you said I could practise volleyball with you, the moment where you treated my hand because I served the ball wrong, the time where you comforted me when I was crying my eyes out, were they real?"

He turned around and placed the towel on a table before thinking for a while. I gave up and wanted to leave the room before hearing him answer, "Yes."

I immediately turned my attention to him, looking at him with a disbelief expression. He took a few steps closer to me slowly, "Those were real. My feelings at that time were real too."

"You had feelings for me?"

"Yes, I had feelings for you. Well, I've moved on and I'm sure you did too. We should leave those all behind. It was just a silly high school crush."

He left me alone in the room without even looking at me. I looked around, examining his bedroom. It was huge and it showed that he had succeeded in life to be able to afford all of the expensive items in his room. His bedroom had a dark minimalist theme that looked cosy instead of empty.

I felt my knees weak and sat on the edge of his bed, feeling my eyes becoming watery.

"If I hadn't left him before, would we be together now?"