Defence

57

- - - - -

While reheating the chicken and making new rice in the rice cooker he went in to check up on Victoria. Walking into the bedroom he found her asleep in his jacket. With a knee on the ground he propped both his arms onto the bed and watched her sleep. It gave him a kind of secure feeling to know that Victoria felt so much better at the apartment. And while he watched her sleep he fell asleep himself.

- - - - -

The sun was too bright. Because it shone into the room directly toward her Victoria creased her brows before finally opening her eyes. Her head spun slightly from sleeping too much. She stretched her arms and legs before finally turning her head to see that Taecyeon was sleeping on his arms. Sitting up she glanced at him and could imagine how stiff his muscles would be when he would wake.

Getting off the bed she walked down the short hall toward the kitchen discovering the chicken in the microwave. She wondered if they still tasted any good. When she took them out she found that they had hardened from last night. Without much thought she tossed the chicken into the trash and made some soup for breakfast. After her simple completion she stepped out of the kitchen and glanced down the hall toward the bedroom.

Finally slipping out of the jacket he'd handed her last night she placed it on the couch and walked toward the bedroom. Glancing at Taecyeon again she wondered what kind of a good dream was he having. He looked too peaceful for her to wake up. She stood by the door for a minute and walked back down the hall to have breakfast alone.

After she cleared the dishes she sat down on the couch. She was planning a day in and if anyone else were to stop by she readied herself for a no.

As she sat there in complete silence she recalled Donghae's countless apologies in the hospital. What exactly had he been apologizing for?

- - - - -

"You're just infatuated. You don't have any real feelings toward her. If you do then it's just puppy love, your love doesn't exist."

"What kind of a guy wants to marry a girl he knows nothing about? Only a month after having found her in my home you want to go all out for her?! Are you kidding me?" Taecyeon boasted. "You just want to possess her. You just want to own her. But you don't care about what will happen to her. You're so blind to it all that you don't even understand what you're putting her through. What kind of a guy treats a girl like that?"

Was it really like that? Donghae didn't know. Had he treated Victoria like an object? Something he just wanted to own? Was she just something he wanted to bring around with him wherever he went just to show off that she was his?

No.

Donghae denied it. He didn't treat Victoria like that. He had never treated her like that.

"You're so blind to it all that you don't even understand what you're putting her through."

Why? What was he putting her through? What were Victoria's feelings exactly? If she never told him, how was he supposed to know? Was he just supposed to take a guess at how she felt about him?!

It was so frustrating. The more he thought about it the more he was unsure about where his feelings stood now. Where Victoria stood in his life. Where he stood in hers. What they were to each other. He didn't know anymore.

And again he began wondering...was it dangerous to get close to Victoria? Why? What would happen if their relationship pulled through?

He turned from where he was sitting in his desk chair and stared at the box holding the ring. How had he let his mother chide him into bribing Victoria into a marriage with such an awful piece of jewelry that deserved better?