Sad, Beautiful & Tragic // Love Next Door

Three

The beach was tranquil just how she remembered it to be. It was as if yesterday San-yeong and Seung-hyo had taken the fastest route to find Seok-ryu after she ran away from their house. It triggered old memories of how Seok-ryu had hugged her and cried her heart out after which San-yeong bought a new phone for Seok-ryu using the money she saved for a French exchange programme.

"Do you remember this place?" Seok-ryu asked, to which San-yeong laughed drily. "I was the one who introduced you to this place..." The younger woman rolled her eyes and sat on the soft sand. San-yeong crossed her legs and sat beside her. "Do you remember that you used to come up with stories and have me and Choisseung enact your main leads?" Seok-ryu laughed reminiscent of their younger days.

"That was the reason I brought you two here didn't I? Though after that I was beaten with sandals by mom..." The younger woman laughed again and rested her head on her elder sister's shoulder. "We both fucked pretty bad didn't we..." Seok-ryu stared at the blue waves crashing the shore and sighed. "You leaving America wasn't your fault." San-yeong felt her sister freeze.

"How would you know? It's not that I told you anything..." Seok-ryu scoffed not meeting her sister's eyes.

"You've lost weight after the surgery. Was Song Hyeon-jun not taking care of you?"

"He did take care of me! But I was asking for too much. I couldn't let him go through that much..." San-yeong snapped and looked at her stupid younger sister. "He's supposed to be your fiancé! Someone you would marry and he can't bare the fact that his oh so perfect fiancé could get sick?! How was he going to spend his entire life with you if taking care of you was that hard for him?!" San-yeong shouted at her sister, ruining the peace between them.

"Why are you back then? You didn't have a reason to come back. A perfect daughter, a perfect lawyer and now you would have been a perfect wife t---"

"Turns out that being perfect is not always acceptable..." San-yeong breathed shakily and blinked furiously to push back her tears. "I'll buy banana milk for you so sit here..." San-yeong stood up and walked to the nearby convenience store to purchase the drinks.

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San-yeong had refused to stay at her house and had instead booked a hotel but that didn't calm her beating heart as well. Every single time she closed her eyes, the horrible flashes of her Luciano holding a man on gun point rushed to her brain. She was more than thankful that Luciano had willingly broken their engagement which saved her from being a criminal's wife.

She hates that man and she hated the fact that all those years she spend on him were nothing but lies. All this time he and his law firm was using her to cover up their crimes and she hated the fact that she might have made terrible mistake by winning all those cases given to her.

Even though San-yeong had revealed their illegal activities to the government and to the Italian mafia's family who were wronged by her law firm, she still felt the guilt course through her veins. She hated how happy she was all these years while ruining people's life with her hands.

After tossing and turning for another thirty minutes, San-yeong finally decided that she couldn't sleep and decided to go out on a stroll.

The summer breeze was lukewarm but it wasn't suffocating and it was helping her relax. She remembered the park quite well too. Choi Seung-hyo had once hurt his back on a barbed fence and had bled a lot. San-yeong still couldn't understand how this boy got hurt at such different places.

She looked at the colourful jungle jump and her eyes twinkled. The image of Choi Seung-hyo sat on top with a runny nose came floating into her head. She clearly remembered how frantically Seok-ryu ran to her when Choi Seung-hyo had gotten himself stuck on top of the jungle jump.

She laughed at her memory of his streaming eyes and nose.

"Oh my she really has gone mad..."

San-yeong let out a loud gasp. Choi Seung-hyo stood beside her in green sweat shirt and gray sweat pants.

"Oh look it's the mannerless boy..." Seung-hyo smirked softly and looked at her. "Are you ignoring me noona?" He raised his brows amused when a triumphant smile spread on the older woman's lips.

"This is exactly how you should've greeted me earlier! I would've not lashed out at you then!"

San-yeong saw the amusement on Seung-hyo's face and stopped smiling. "H-Have you been well?" She asked. San-yeong wasn't sure if this was the perfect moment to make small talk but she had to try or things would get awkward.

"I've been wonderful. I have my own car too now..." San-yeong chuckled when he showed her his car keys. "My god you've grown up haven't you?" Seung-hyo bit his lower lip and smiled. It took her ten years to acknowledge him as a grown up.

"Why didn't you come home? Where are you staying?" He asked "At a hotel. If I came home then either you would be arranging for my funeral or you and I both would have been arranging for my mom's funeral." Seung-hyo laughed and walked closer to where she was standing.  "Aunt Mi-suk said that you were on a break..." San-yeong looked at him and pulled at his ears.

"This punk! Did you think I didn't see you this morning eavesdropping on our conversation?" Seung-hyo struggled to remove her grip from his concerningly red ear. "Fine fine fine! Leave me please!" He finally managed to tear away from her grip.

"Still scared of the Jungle jump?" She hit his arm and started climbing up. It had been too long since she had given her body proper exercise and it clearly showed when she was struggled to pull herself up on a measly jungle jump even kids managed to climb on.

"Need some help?" San-yeong looked up to see Seung-hyo sitting elegantly on the top with his hand extended towards her. She looked at the boy. Not a boy. She looked at the man smiling down at her and suddenly something strange happened. Her heartbeat slowed down. She felt peace and as if everything around her had faded. It was just her and Seung-hyo.

Just her and Choi Seung-hyo

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A/N

Guys this isn't my favourite chapter and I don't think I like it very much because guess what? I broke my right hand and I just wanted to get my mind off of the pain so I decided to update this fic.

Not ranting about anything more for this chapter. Do tell me how do you find Seung-hyo had San-yeong's dynamic also what is your take on the sister duo?

Hope you enjoyed reading ♥️