HEAL || Lee Minho

20. A Chance?

Trigger Warning : detailed mentions of violence, domestic abuse

*✧⁠*✧⁠*✧⁠*✧⁠*✧*✧⁠*✧⁠*✧⁠*✧⁠*✧⁠*

"You don't have to hide.. from me atleast.", Minho spoke, a tear escaping Haejin's eye simultaneously.

Haejin felt devastated. The secret which she had been trying to hide for a big span of her life, Minho knew about it. Not even Hyunjin had an idea but Minho legit knew. Tears formed in her eyes but only one escaped her eye. It had been almost two months since they got married, and he had known all along.

What would have he thought after knowing?

Haejin's mind was going blank because of the innumerable thoughts, all getting mixed up.

"How?", Haejin asked. "How did you know?" Her voice had a hint of complain, as if she was complaining about the fact the he was aware all this time. She was angered and her tone was the proof.

"Oh, wait- let me guess. It was my mother right?", she rolled her eyes, scoffing. "She really went overboard with this one, taking this marriage too seriously."

The disapproval in her tone made Minho upset. He was unsure what to do, how to calm her down. More than upset, she seemed furious. Judging by her reaction to the revelation, it was an extremely sensitive matter. But, he knew, what she was having was an outburst of emotions, and that he should be careful with his words and actions right now.

"I don't think she did anything wrong.", Minho stated firmly, trying not to upset Haejin any further, but her wounded heart only saw the negative in every word and action, always. This is how her life had been till now, no matter how much she tried to ignore the negative thoughts, they always managed to make their way through her mind and dominate the slight positive thoughts she has ever had.

"You're saying that because you're not in my place.", Haejin replied as she raised her voice a bit.

Minho sensed, how defensive she was being, not only by her words and tone, but also by her physical state. She brought her knees close to herself, hugging them close and burrying her head in them.

"Yes, I'm not in your place, neither I'm trying to invalidate anything you're feeling but the only the reason your mother did that was because she knew she was dying and she knew... that you need someone.", Minho replied, sounding genuine but Haejin did not look up. She didn't reply. She understood what he said, in one go, she did. She just did not want to accept it, accept the fact the he knew about her biggest insecurity. At this point, she did not care whether Minho was close or trustworthy.

Some minutes had passed but Haejin just sat there, not wanting to confront Minho on this topic. It was not like he would force her to tell him everything, instead she knew he would help her sort her emotions out but something inside of her stopped her from doing that, the trust issues given by her father which were now worsened because of her mother.

"Hey..", Minho scooted a little closer to Haejin as he spoke while keeping his palm on her elbow but Haejin flinched from the sudden contact.

"It's me, it's me, Minho.", he tried to calm Haejin down, who was a bit scared and taken aback.

Haejin looked up, to see Minho whose face was full of gentleness, worry and many such emotions and she thought maybe, he was genuine.

"I mean no harm Haejin.", Minho spoke, as he noticed she had calmed down a bit from the sudden outburst of emotions, her breathing a bit stable and how she was not looking away now. He figured out that minutes ago she wasn't in a state to comprehend what just had happened, but now she was gradually getting there.