AT A DISTANCE, SPRING IS GREEN - BAE IN HYUK a.k.a NAM SOO HYUN

Part 12. The Reason of Love

사랑에 빠진 이유를 묻지 마.

Don't ask me why I fell in love with you.

"He's like a thorn pricked in my heart." The sentences remain rang in her ears. Aeri stopped her steps. The sight of her boyfriend made her heart sink.

"Pick up my phone calls!" Young Ran raised her voice at Soo Hyun. "Why are you getting worked up? This isn't the first time." Soo Hyun said softly as Aeri pressed her tight chest and hid her body behind the wall not far from them. She know, she shouldn't have been eavesdropping on them but her feet froze, refusing to go.

"Nam Soo Hyun, want to grab some ramyeon?" The words that came out from Young Ran caused Aeri to clench her fist while holding her breath. "I have a plan." Soo Hyun's voice immediately ran into Aeri's ears. She let her body up from the wall and turned to them with wide eyes. "Right now? With whom?"

"With who." He smiled faintly as Young Ran knitted her eyebrow and Aeri glued her eyes on him. "Isn't there anything you want to say to me?... Probably not."

"I don't have a place to stay, by the way. And...Nothing, I'll tell you later." Now he extended the same smile and laugh he always painted in front of Aeri to the other woman standing in front of him, and even another side she had never seen before. Young Ran head-locked the whining Soo Hyun.

"Where are you going?"

"Why would I tell you that?"

"Come on. Let me go with you."

"No, You can't."

"Am I funny to you?"

"Just calm down."

The closeness of the two shocked her. But unlike jealousy, the emotions she felt were confusion and sorry. 

She felt a sting in her eyes. She blinked several times soothing her tears to fall. "Young Ran eonni...what should I do now?"

*** 

Aeri was sitting idly on a bench under a tree, so immersed in the scene she was just watching. "What should I do now?" "Should I tell him?" "No. It's eonni's heart, I don't have the right to say."

"Hah. I'm going crazy." Aeri's hands drooped on her lap. Didn't know how many times she took out a deep breath, but her chest still felt tight. The mixed feeling couldn't go away. Confusion. A guilty.

"Aeri-ya." She lifted her head to her right when she felt a warmth caressing her hair. "Eo. Oppa." Her voice came out in a whisper, she froze once again locking her sad eyes on him. "Nam Soo Hyun. I can't be without you. I'm scared."

"Saranghaeyo. (I love you.)" Suddenly, she threw herself in his arms, whispering the three words. The reason for her complicated feelings.

"Aeri-ya. Wae geurae? Museun il isseo? (What's wrong? What's going on?)"  Confusion and worries become one with his soft voice, he lingered his hands around her waist.

"Saranghandagoyo. Neo saranghago isseo Nam Soo Hyun. Saenggakboda neomu gipeotnabwa nae maeum. (I said I love you. I'm in love with you, Nam Soo Hyun. My heart to you is deeper than I thought.)" She loosened their hug, dropping the formality, and glued her eyes on him with convinced eyes. She said every single word without hesitation.

"Wae gabjagi gobaekhage geurae? (Why are you confessing all of a sudden?)" He said slowly, gripping her shoulders. Aeri found a hesitation painted faintly on his eyes. Her mind became uneasy.