Sancutary | 박성훈

3. Sooner Or Later

Maena didn't even give a second thought where'd she go after running away from meeting Mr. Park's son. Bora's place. Every support she could receive could come from there. She lives alone in a student apartment and Maena has visited there often. She would like a studio apartment herself too, but since her parents live nearby and have a big enough expensive house, why not live there.

She walked up the stairs a couple of floors and knocked on a very familiar door. Bora soon opened it and widened her eyes in surprise. "Mae! What are you doing here?" 

Bora let her in even though she didn't answer yet, but could almost see her exhausted and distressed look. "I ran away." 

"Ran away? Why?", Bora asked in confusion. 

"Mr. Park came to our house with his son. And I just.. just wasn't ready to meet him yet.", Maena answered, a little out of breath.

"Ah, I see. Have a rest.", Bora urged calmly and took her to her sofa. She went to her small kitchen and started making something to drink. Her specialities were making really delicious smoothies.

Maena sat for a while in silence. Just enjoying being with her best friend, not with her demanding parents. Soon she had calmed down enough. "But I saw him. From a window. He did not look like a nerd, no.", she informed.

"Really?", Bora got curious. "Was he then handsome?"

"Yeah, I guess he was. And tall. But anyway, he looked awfully cold and even mean.", Maena described.

Bora walked to the sofa and placed two glasses of juice in the small living room table, before sitting next to Maena. "I think you're now judging the book by it's cover, Maemae. What if he's like super nice?"

"Yeah, but even if he'd be nice or not, it still doesn't make me want to marry him. I'm not ready for a marriage yet, Bobo..", Maena pouted and rested her head on Bora's shoulder.  "Can I stay the night here? I don't want to go home.", she asked tiredly.

"Of course, Mae.", Bora said and patted Maena's head.

-

In the morning, Maena had received messages from her father telling her to visit his office again. She could only guess how angry he is. But she wasn't afraid of that, so she still thought about going to the office after school. Bora and Maena got ready for the university day together. Maena just went with the same clothes, even though Bora did offer to lend hers.

Again, Maena walked to the company building after school. She really should pursue the driver's license, but she hasn't gotten time for it now. Or maybe she just wasn't too interested.

After entering the company, she went to the top floor and to her father's office. The door was already slightly ajar so she just stepped inside. This time her mother wasn't there.

"You came.", her father said calmly, without turning around to her direction yet, but she could almost hear the bitterness in his voice.

"Well, you told me to come."

"Yes.", he replied and turned around to face her for now. "What was that yesterday? Where were you the whole night?"

"I- I went to a friend's house."

"Is that so?", he queried, then sighed deeply. "You knew very well that the Parks were coming so you ran away to avoid meeting them, am I right?"

Maena didn't know what to answer, so she stayed quiet for a while. "Don't do that anymore. You can't avoid meeting Sunghoon forever, and if you keep behaving like this I will stricten your boundaries.", her father said sternly.

"What do you mean?", she inquired, willing to know what he meant by 'strictening her boundaries'.

 "Sunghoon owns a house of his own. You'll move there if you can't behave yourself."