Chained by Expectations | Park Sunghoon

Eight

Haneul was finally able to step away to catch some fresh air. After the scene that happened earlier Sunghoon snuck away without telling her where he was going. 

She stood on the balcony that overlooked the garden maze where she had first encountered Sunghoon a few months ago. She took in a deep breath thinking about how much her life had changed since then.

'i have to be in this fake marriage with someone who wants nothing to do with me...I'm lying to all these people...all because I couldn't just say no...' she thought to herself. She looked out into the garden before looking over at the stairs that descended down to the ground level. Deciding that she would go walk through he maze again to clear her thoughts she made her way to the stairs. Surely things couldn't go any worse than it did last time right?

"mind if I join you?" she heard someone ask from beside her.

"J-Jake?" She said her eye's widening slightly as she turned her full attention to him. He was dressed in an all black suit and she couldn't deny that it only made him look more handsome then he already was.

"What are you doing here?" She asked genuinely curious.

"My parents works closely with SkyLineAir. My parent's attend every year I just never cared to join them until now." He explained walking closer to her.

"oh, I see."' she smiled warmly at him.

"So? can I join you? I really don't want to go back in there." He said motioning to the glass windows where you could see the crowded room.

"Sure." She chuckled as they began to make their way down the stairs.

There was a calming silence that fell upon the both of them as neither dared to speak first. All you could hear was the muffled chatter of the other folks mingling inside and the slight sound of crickets as they approached the maze.

"Congratulations by the way." Jake said finally breaking the silence. "I didn't know you and Sunghoon were married."

"Oh..yeah, thanks." She said laughing awkwardly. "I guess you could say it was unexpected for us too." She faked a smile.

"Did you guys date while he was abroad?" He continued to question. Haneul wanted to continue to lie but it felt wrong doing so with Jake. She could stand in front of all those people and fake being in the happy marriage but she couldn't push herself to do it with Jake. After all they had become close since the night at the convenience store.

"Are you guys close? How did you know about that?" She decided to change the conversation.

"I guess you can say we use to be. I met him when I first moved to Korea. I barely knew how to speak any korean but he became like my best friend. When he moved away we were still kids so we didn't keep in touch. Our friendship ended like that, tragic right?" Jake asked sarcastically.

"You guys never tried reconnecting now that he's back?" She asked as they made their way closer to the center of the maze.

"No, I think we both changed a lot. I'm not sure how well we'd get along. Plus I heard he's a really busy person." He continued to explain.

A silence fell upon them once again as they only continued to get closer to the center. 'Maybe I should tell him?' Haneul debated in her head.

" You know jake...Sunghoon and I... our marria-" She abruptly stopped as they finally reached the center of the garden. Her eyes slightly widened at the sight in front of them.

"o-oh Haneul!" So-he said slightly pushing Sunghoon away from her and trying to adjust the sleeve of her dress.

"We didn't hear you guys coming, how embarrassing..." She laughed awkwardly as she stood from single bench. The air suddenly felt heavy and Haneul couldn't help but feel upset at the sight of the two kissing. Not only because So-he was here but also because she was kissing Sunghoon her husband...well fake husband but no one other than them knew that.