before & after ‣ 엔하이픈

014 ; present

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AERI

"Jake? Aeri?" Bora's voice echoed through Aeri's ears and it brought her back to reality.

Aeri immediately let go of Jake's hand and took herself out of the situation.

She wasn't going to stand there next to Jake as he continue to look at Bora and his date as if he was challenging them, as if a competition even existed at that situation. 

Somehow everything started to make sense to her, why he abruptly would ask her on a date, why Sunghoon reacted in such a way that he did when he heard the two of them would be having a date today, and why he would be so intimate with her in such a public space. She has never felt like a fool. She wasn't exactly the smartest, but that never equated to the fact she was emotionally dumb. 

Aeri knew when she was being used. 

As she glided her way through the mall, hoping to find the exit before Jake could catch up to her, she felt a tug on her arm that quickly prompts her to turn on her heel and face the one responsible for that much force. Disappointment and pain rushes to her chest as she comes face to face once more with the man who moments ago was stuck in a staring contest with his ex, right in front of the person he once claimed to have feelings for. She would've expected regret on his face, but to see pure anger on it meant that his emotions had nothing to do with her anymore.

"Aeri! Why did you run away?" Jake asked the most absurd question she's ever heard.

"Did you really just ask me that?!" Aeri hadn't meant to raise her voice.

When Jake realized this wasn't going to be a quiet argument, he had grabbed her arm and guided her to the parking lot where they were just minutes ago before Bora showed up with her date. "Aeri, what's wrong with you? Why would you just run away like that? Without even uttering a word." He was so obviously angry, angrier than she had ever seen him.

She felt her eyes burn. "You brought me here because you knew she'd be here! You knew what you had to do to get back at her for dating someone else! And I was the perfect tool, right?" 

"Aeri, you're making up things again about me and Bora! So what if we managed to catch her here with that date of hers?! What has that got to do with you?!" He has never raised his voice like this at her, never in the summer they dated.

"Why do you still have a picture of her in your room?" If he wasn't going to see her point, then she was going to make him see it. The question alone made him stagger, made him freeze as his angry face transitioned to a confused one. "Tell me, why is that picture frame of her still at your top drawer?" 

"H-How-" Jake stuttered as if he didn't expect Aeri to know about the picture frame.

"This is what I mean, Jake! You're still..." She paused, unable to say the next part of the sentence as the burn from her eyes had truly developed into tears. "Y-You still have feelings for that girl! Every time you see her, it's like I'm nothing at all! As if I'm not the one you're with right now!"

"Aeri, I-I don't-" She cuts him off.

"Don't you dare say you don't have feelings for her!" She says, looking at him dead in the eye as she watched his anger dissipate for every second she shares how she truly felt. "You never held my hand in public, Jake! You... You never do what you just did with me and I-I thought we were getting better but it was all just a show to you." 

And when Jake had no more to say, Aeri sighed. "I should've just went with Sunghoon." She mumbled the sentence she'd never thought she'd say as she turned her back on him and left him alone at the parking lot.