Dear. My Darling | Gongfourz / Taehan

Chapter 48

"Woonhak? Where the hell are you? I've been waiting for hours, you told me you're already here?" Taesan angrily said over the phone, the frustration in his voice unmistakable.

He paced back and forth in the lobby of the water park, his hands clenched into fists as he tried to calm the rising irritation inside him.

Woonhak had called him earlier, promising that they'd meet here, and now Taesan was stuck waiting, alone and restless.

He'd hoped that today might be a small escape from the chaos of his life—the arranged marriage, his father's demands, the relentless pressure weighing on him—but instead, it had become just another reminder that nothing ever went the way he expected.

Woonhak, the youngest of their group, had always been impulsive, unpredictable—sometimes to the point of irresponsibility. And now, it seemed like his typical antics were going to cost Taesan another moment of peace.

"Hey, don't yell at me. I’m on my way. Just... hold on, okay?" Woonhak’s voice came through the phone, sounding slightly out of breath.

Taesan growled in frustration but didn’t respond. Woonhak had a tendency to disappear at the worst possible times, leaving everyone else to pick up the slack.

He glanced around again, expecting to see his friend, but there was no sign of him. Taesan sighed and hung up, leaning back against the wall, his mind wandering to the countless other things he should be thinking about. Things he didn't want to think about.

He looked at his phone again, his mind heavy with the conversation he still needed to have with Leehan. He hadn't been able to put it off any longer.

The marriage was happening. His father had made sure of it. And though Taesan had fought tooth and nail, trying to reason with him, trying to carve out a future where he could be with Leehan, it had all been futile.

“Taesan?”

Taesan looked up at the familiar voice, his heart skipping a beat. Standing there, looking equally as confused and awkward, was Leehan.

Taesan froze for a moment, caught off guard. Of all the people he could have run into, it had to be him.

Leehan looked as surprised as Taesan felt. His eyes widened as he took in the sight of Taesan standing by himself, phone in hand, with no sign of Woonhak anywhere.

“What are you doing here?” Leehan asked, his voice laced with the same confusion.

“I... I was supposed to meet someone,” Taesan muttered, his frustration slowly dissipating.

The awkwardness of the situation hit him all at once, but he couldn’t help the small chuckle that escaped his lips. "Seems like we both got stood up."

Leehan smiled faintly, shaking his head. “Yeah, same. Jaehyun and Riwoo promised me they'd bring me here to check out the water park. Guess they had other plans.”

For a moment, neither of them knew what to say. The air was thick with the unsaid things, the tension between them palpable. Taesan felt a pang of regret.

This wasn’t how he’d wanted to see Leehan, especially not after everything that had happened. But now that he was here, now that their paths had crossed, he knew there was no escaping it.

“You... you were meeting with them?” Taesan asked, his voice softer now, trying to gauge the situation.

Leehan nodded slowly, his gaze dropping to the floor as if unsure of what to do with the unexpected encounter. "Yeah. They said they had something fun planned, but now I'm just here, alone... guess it’s better that way."

Taesan took a deep breath, feeling the weight of his own silence pressing on him. This wasn’t just an awkward coincidence—it was fate pushing them together when they had both been trying to avoid each other.

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, unsure of how to start, but knowing he couldn’t run from this conversation any longer.

“I guess this is the right time to talk,” Taesan muttered, his heart sinking. Leehan looked up at him, his expression unreadable, but the tension between them hadn’t eased. “Leehan, I—I don’t know how to say this, but I’ve been... avoiding you, and I hate that I’ve done that. I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you the truth, but it’s... hard.”

Leehan didn’t say anything right away, his brow furrowing as he processed Taesan’s words. “The truth about what?”

Taesan hesitated, taking a step closer to him. He could feel the anxiety creeping up his spine. “I’ve been forced into something, Leehan. Something that I didn’t want, something I’ve been fighting against for a long time, but I... I don’t think I can keep fighting it anymore.”

Leehan’s eyes narrowed slightly, and for the first time, Taesan could see a flicker of the old Leehan in him—the one who didn’t back down, the one who asked the tough questions.

Taesan sighed, his throat tight with the emotion he could barely contain. “My father... he arranged it. I didn’t have a choice. I tried to fight it, but I couldn’t win. It’s... it’s happening, Leehan.”

Leehan’s expression hardened, and Taesan could see the hurt, the confusion, the anger bubbling beneath the surface. “How could you not tell me? How could you keep something like this from me?” Leehan’s voice shook with the force of his words, the accusation clear in his tone.

The memories from days ago flashes before Leehan again. The ones that he tried his best to move on to. And they're hunting him again.

Taesan’s chest tightened. “I didn’t want to hurt you,” he whispered, his voice full of regret. “I didn’t want you to know about this because I knew how much it would tear you apart. I didn’t want you to think that I chose them over you, because I didn’t. I never did. But I couldn’t risk losing everything. My father... my family... they don’t give me a choice, Leehan. I’m stuck.”

For a long moment, Leehan didn’t say anything, his gaze dropping to the floor. He looked like he was trying to gather his thoughts, trying to make sense of it all.

Taesan could see the way his fists clenched at his sides, the way his jaw tightened.

“This is all too much, Taesan,” Leehan finally said, his voice low. “You can’t just pretend like everything is fine when it’s not. You can’t expect me to sit here and accept this, to be okay with this... with you marrying someone else.”

“I don’t want to marry her,” Taesan said quickly, stepping closer. “I never wanted this. But... I didn’t have a choice.”

Leehan shook his head slowly, as if he couldn’t bring himself to fully understand. “Maybe you didn’t have a choice, but I sure as hell did. I could’ve chosen you, but you didn’t give me that chance. You pushed me away, Taesan.”

Taesan’s heart shattered at the words. He had pushed Leehan away, hadn’t he? For the sake of his family, for the sake of everything that was expected of him, he had shut Leehan out.

And now here they were, standing in front of each other, both broken in ways they didn’t know how to fix.

Leehan ran away again, out to the beach, and Taesan chase after him. Again.