The Way I Loved You

When You're Hurt, My Heart Hurts Too

He hadn't expected to see her there, standing in the doorway as she stared at him, almost in disbelief that he was really there.

Had she been waiting up for him? He'd thought that she would be asleep by now according to her sleep schedule. He'd hoped for her to be asleep so that she wouldn't see his wounds but there she was, waiting for him even in the darkness. Instead of coming over to greet him, she simply stood there, eyes fixated on him as if he would disappear if she so much as blinked.

"Haein."

With trembling hands, she reached out, fingers clutching at the sleeves of his jacket. He could have sworn that he heard a sigh of relief the moment she tugged gently on the fabric, and were those tears in her eyes?

Was she that worried about me?

Wordlessly, Haein grabbed his arm, practically dragging him into the room. With surprising strength, she shoved him onto the bed, her hands on her hips like a mother lecturing her child.

"What happened?" She demanded, her glare sharp as an eagle's in a silent threat for him to tell nothing but the truth or else. "You got off work hours ago, so why are you late?"

Did he know how worried she was? She'd been this close to a nervous breakdown because he was five hours late. FIVE HOURS!

"Well..." He avoided eye contact, tilting his head in a futile attempt to hide his battered face from her. Knowing Haein, she would beat him up for getting into trouble in the first place before hunting down his attackers.

"And what happened to your face?" Her hands darted out, grabbing his face before he could dodge, turning him from left to right as she did a quick visual inspection.

He felt a pang of guilt when he saw her expression contort in pain upon seeing his bruised skin and bloodied lip. She was fully focused on assessing his injuries, hands gentle as she carefully rotated his chin, careful not to aggravate any wounds. As she examined each one, the frown lines on her forehead deepened, her lips pursing into a pout.

"I just... well..." He struggled to find a convincing way to sugarcoat his words. Haein was sharp, she would notice anything he said that didn't make sense which made it hard for him to spin a believable story. Having her find out that he'd just fought a gang of armed thugs was the last thing he wanted. If she knew, she was going to worry every day that he would get ambushed again and wait anxiously for him to come home every night. She already had enough on her plate, he didn't want to burden her any further. Worse still, she would know that he was only getting into trouble because he'd dug too deep into the fraud case, something that he was only doing for her sake and she would stop him when he was already so close.

"Did you get hit?"

"No I didn't." He might as well not have bothered to lie at all because she saw through him immediately as if it was written in capital letters over his forehead.

"How badly hurt are you?" Before he even had a chance to reply, she was already tugging at his tie, making quick work of the knot.

"Haein- let me explain-" He struggled to get a word in but she didn't seem to hear him. She flung the tie aggressively onto the bed as if it had somehow contributed to him getting hurt and pushed his jacket off his shoulders.

"Haein. Please?" His words fell on deaf ears as she worked on his buttons, trying to strip him down as if his clothes were on fire. Her face inches away from his chest, he could practically feel her breath against his skin and he felt his neck heat up, realising the position that they were in. Haein on the other hand seemed unaffected at all. Instead, she was busy trying to pull his shirt off his shoulders so that she could examine his bare skin.