He was Falling Inlove | Choi Seung Cheol

Chapter 8: He's Your Past, I'm Your Future Part 1

(2 years ago)
Eri stares blankly at the playground where her parents envisioned their future kids to play around. But even they had been together for months, she was told by her gynecologist that her pregnancy probability rate is low since she tends to get stressed by work so much.

Which is a real thing. She gets stressed by her work so much but she still loves her profession. It was what she has been living for ever since she learned of what she wanted to do in life. It is what she was born for and no one can deny that.

But today is one of those days that she feels like she just want to sleep and not think of anything. She messed up with her deadlines, mistaking it to be still a week so she even had a date with Eros last night. So today, when her data did not show up with the company email, she was scolded by her boss as she was summoned to go to the company.

"Eri, What's wrong?" Eros says as he kneel down the playground, leveling himself with Eri as she sit down calmly on one of the swings. She was just so calm that anyone will tell that she was just zoning out but Eros knows her. She won't zone out and rather just do her work or read a book, she is just not the type to waste her time like that. "You can tell me what's bothering you. You know that right?"

Instead of answering him, Eri's eyes fall on Eros' white sweatpants that is now covered with dirt.

"Eros, you're staining your white sweatpants with dirt. Why are you still kneeling down?" She asks, looking directly on his face. He smiles. That smile. That smile that never fail to make her want to live every day of her life, the smile that makes her keep everything together everytime she's about to crash down.

"Because I want to? I'm kneeling down in front of you because I want to. I believe people will always choose the less evil that doing something good." he smiles. "I'm kneeling down in front of you to console you, my wife. In return, I'll stain my own clothes. There's a chance that this won't go back in to it's normal color but who cares? I'll choose to lose this clothes rather than let you cloud with your thoughts. It's lesser evil than letting you suffer by yourself, right?"

Why is he so smart? He always has his way with words. Pick the less evil, he says?

"Is that so?" she asks.

A thought then showers her mind. If Eros is the type of person to choose the lesser evil, then maybe that's the reason why he asked her to quit her job and just suffer without it because it's lesser evil than not having a child because of her stressors. That makes sense now.

This is how he thinks every time.

Eros then worriedly wipes her face. "Why are you crying, Eri-ah?"

Eri bursts into tears. She cried as if she's a little kid deprived of all the emotions she wanted to let out and this was the very first time she could blurt them all out. She couldn't even say in words why she was crying in the first place, but it was as if the sun understood her demise and hid under the clouds. Rain then started pouring and the two of them soon become drenched.

"Eri, tell me what's wrong. Come on." Eros says as he take his shirt off and temporarily wrapping it to Eri's head to prevent her from getting drenched too much. She always sleep late and is deprived with rest, she could get sick easily if her head gets too drenched but he just can't tell her to go inside with him, if this situation comforts her, right here in this playground while the rain pours, then he is more than willing to give this to her.

If she's going to pick the less evil in order for her to live as free as she want and pursue her dreams. There's only one variable that she could eliminate and even just thinking about it breaks her heart.

Her work stress is something she couldn't help but to have. It's normal. But the stress she has accumulated due to Eros' words weeks before could always be erased. But she cannot do that when she sees Eros. Every single time she sees him, two things come to her mind.

1st is that how she loves him so dearly, it's so beautiful it hurts.

and

2nd is how he loves her so dearly that he never think about anything but her.

She could eliminate him from her life.

She could live without him. With that, she's gonna be free and will have more time for her work and would probably erase his words about how he wants him to quit engineering.

She's selecting the less evil option.

It will hurt her but she's surely furnish as a better person in her field, as a great engineer.

Because she could never think of herself less of what she strived to be right now. She can never be what he wants her to be.

"I won't know what's going on if you're not gonna tell me, Eri-ah. Please, you know that I love you and you can trust me with all the burden you have in your heart, right?" Eros says as he hold her hand firmly. "I cannot lift all those burden out of your system, but I could carry it would you. What do you think? Isn't that better?"

"Eros." Eri finally says. She looks at him right in his eyes as the two of them shiver with the coldness of the rain.

"Yes, Eri.. my wife. You can tell me anything you want." Eros assures with his sincere smile.

"I want a divorce, let's break up."