Chained by Expectations | Park Sunghoon

Twenty-seven (M)

Haneul sat on the couch, the warmth from the quick shower slowly seeping into her body. Dressed in Sunghoon's pajama pants and an oversized shirt of his, she curled up with her knees to her chest, gazing out of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The rain continued its relentless storm outside.

Sunghoon approached her, holding two mugs of tea. "Drink this; it'll keep you from getting sick," he said, placing one mug on the coffee table in front of her. He took a sip from the other, the room falling into a thoughtful silence.

Resting her head on her knees, Haneul let out a sigh, trying to find comfort in lightly dimmed room. As her eyes wandered, something caught her attention. Lifting her head, she focused on a set of picture frames across the room. Sunghoon followed her gaze, and she turned to look at him.

"I didn't want to get rid of them. I remember you were excited for me to come home and see them, so I assumed you found them cute," he explained, taking another sip of his tea. Haneul's eyes lingered on the pictures, memories of their wedding day captured in those frames.

The room held a weight of unspoken words and emotions, the images on the wall a silent testament to the shared past that still lingered between them.

As Haneul gazed at the pictures adorning Sunghoon's penthouse, a swirl of emotions engulfed her. Her eyes, lightly glossed over, as she began to wonder why things had to go wrong between them.

"You were perfect," she began, her voice a fragile whisper that hung in the air. Memories of their life from two years ago flooded her mind, the sweetness of those moments a stark contrast to the bitterness that had unfolded since. "Sure, you were a little mean sometimes, but I loved you."

A tear brimmed in her eye, escaping to trace a delicate path down her cheek. Swiftly wiping it away, she turned her gaze to the rain-soaked world outside, seeking solace in the rhythmic dance of droplets against the window.

"Why did you have to do what you did?" she questioned, the words a breathless plea that lingered more with herself than Sunghoon. In the quiet of the penthouse, Sunghoon watched her quietly feeling the hurt behind every word and the plea for understanding behind her eyes.

Sunghoon's earnest attempt to explain himself found him sitting beside Haneul, seeking eye contact as he poured his heart out. Setting down his mug, he took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry for everything, Haneul. I am. There's nothing I've regretted more in my entire life than ruining what we had," he confessed, his sincerity evident in his eyes. "I didn't send those pictures to your dad, and I wasn't trying to get rid of you. Someone framed me, and since that day, I've been trying to figure out who. At one point, I even thought it was Jake. I wanted to kill him that night, just at the thought that he might be behind everything, but that was quickly cleared up."

He continued his explanation, diving into the complexity of the situation. "A few days before everything, I met with your dad to try and terminate the contract, but the way it was laid out, it would've ended in a divorce either way. I knew that at that point, I had to tell you the truth and hope that we could still work something out."

Haneul's reaction, however, was far from receptive. She scoffed at the mention of working something out, unleashing the pain and anger she had carried for so long. The mention of So-he brought a new wave of resentment.

"And So-he? When were you gonna tell me about that, huh? After we worked something out? Or when I got served with the divorce papers?" she demanded, her tone laced with frustration.

Sunghoon, genuinely confused, asked, "W-what do you mean?" Haneul, however, didn't back down, 

"Don't act like you don't know Sunghoon, it'll only irritate me more." She said sternly, revealing that So-he had spilled the truth on that fateful night.