TOUGH ROMANCE || scoups || BOOK ONE

06

Hani's Pov:

Birds were chirping. Two motorcycles drove by. Across the street, an older couple stepped out of a bus.

How could things have the audacity to look so normal when my entire life had just imploded?

I held the pillow to my face and let loose the scream that had been building. Thoughts flew through my brain like a turbo charged spin cycle. Chenle was right. People didn't change. My sister was still a terrible being, and I was naive enough to fall for her lies. My car was gone along with my purse and my laptop. Not to mention the money I'd brought for Chae. As of last night, I had no job. I wasn't on my way to Paris, which had been the plan a mere 24 hours ago. My family and friends thought I'd lost my damn mind. My favourite lipstick had been ruined on a bathroom mirror. And I had a niece whose entire childhood I'd missed out on.

I sucked in another breath and let out one final scream for good measure before lowering the pillow.

"Okay you can figure this out. You can fix this."

"About done with your pep talk?"
I whirled around and found Seungcheol leaning against the door frame, tattooed arms crossed over his broad chest.

"Yep." I said, squaring my shoulders. "How old is she?"

"Eleven."

Nodding, I shoved the pillow at him and marched back into the room.
"So..Mimi." I began.

There was a family resemblance in the upturned nose and slit eyes. She had the same colt like legs her mother and I had at that age.

"So Aunt Hani."
"Did your mum say when she'd be back?"
"Nope."
"Where do you and your mum live, honey?" I asked.

Maybe Chae was there now, going through her haul, figuring out what was worth keeping and what she wanted to ruin just for the fun of it.

"Over in Hillside Acres." She answered, looking around me to get a better view of the tornado tossing up cows on the screen.

"Need a minute." Seungcheol announced and nodded toward the door.

I had all the damn time in the world apparently. All the time and not a single clue what to do. No next step. No to do list quantifying and organising my world into nice, neat line items. Just a crisis on top of a hot mess on top of a dumpster fire.

"Sure" I said, sounding only mildly hysterical. He waited until I passed him before stepping out after me. When I stopped, he kept walking toward the faded soda machine outside the front office.

"You seriously want me to buy you a drink right now?" I asked, flummoxed.

"No. I'm trying to get out of earshot of the kid who doesn't realise she's been abandoned." He snapped.

I followed him. "Maybe Chae's coming back?" I said.

He stopped and turned to face me. "Mi says Chae didn't tell her anything. Just that she had something to take care of and she'd be gone a long time."

A long time? What the hell was a long time in Chae time? A weekend? A week? A month?

"Oh my god. My parents."  This was going to devastate them.
As if what I'd done yesterday wasn't upsetting enough. I'd managed to assure them last night on a highway in London that I was fine and definitely not going through some kind of mid life crisis. And I'd made them promise not to change their plans for me. They'd left for their three week Mediterranean cruise this morning. The first big, international vacation they'd ever taken together.

I didn't want my problems or Chae's disaster ruining it.

"What do you intend to do with that kid in there?" Seungcheol nodded towards the open door.

"What do you mean?"

"Hani. When the police find out Chae's gone and left Mimi behind, it's straight into foster care."

I shook my head. "I'm her closest living relative who isn't a criminal. I'm responsible for her." Just like all of Chae's other messes until we'd turned 18.

He gave me a long, hard look. "Just like that?"

"She's family." Besides. It wasn't like I had a whole lot going on at the moment. I was basically adrift. For the first time in my entire life, I didn't have a plan. And that scared the shit out of me.

"Family." He scoffed as my reasoning wasn't sound.

"Listen. Thank you Seungcheol for all of the shouting and the rides and the coffee. But as you can see, I've got a situation to handle. So it's probably best for you to go on back to whatever cave you crawled out of this morning."

"I'm not going anywhere."

We were back to glaring at each other, the silence charged. This time he broke first.

"Quit the stalling, Rose. What are you gonna do?"

"Rose?"

He reached up and plucked a flower petal out of my hair with two fingers. I batted his hand away and took a step back so I could think.

"Okay. First I need to..." definitely NOT call my parents. And I really didn't want to get the police involved - again - if I didn't have to. What if Chae showed up in an hour? Maybe the first thing I needed to do was get more coffee.

"Call the fucking cops and report the break in and the child abandonment." Seungcheol said.

"She's my sister. Besides, what if she shows up in an hour?"

"She stole your car and abandoned her own kid. That doesn't earn a fucking pass."

Ugh. He was right.

"Okay whatever fine! Okay. Let me think. Can I borrow your phone?"

He stood there staring at me, unmoving.

"For fucks sake. I'm not going to steal it! I just need to make a quick call."

On a long suffering sigh, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

"Thank you." I said pointedly, then stomped back into my motel room. Mimi was still watching her movie, now with her hands stacked behind her head. I dug through my suitcase to find a notebook and went back outside. 

"You keep a notebook of phone numbers with you?" Seungcheol was peering over my shoulder. I shushed him and dialed.

"Fuck do you want?" My sisters voice always managed to make me cringe inwardly.