Winter Hearts

Hongbin's Hyung

Hongbin came out of his room, showered and dressed for the night. He had already exchanged numbers with Panos earlier in the week, even though they had ended up just meeting for basketball every day in the afternoon. He had often gone with Ken and Hyuk and the three of them had taken a real liking to Panos and his cousins. After playing, if Panos wasn't rushing back home, they would walk down to the jetty and get snacks form the periptero that was open in the afternoon, or they would sit for drinks at Miami.

Panos had just texted him to say he would be there to collect him in a few minutes.

"I'm going, guys," he said in the general direction of the living area. There was no response, and he could hear someone pottering around in the kitchen, banging cabinet doors and jangling with the cutlery.

He walked towards the kitchen, wanting to make sure someone was aware he was leaving.

He found N piling cutlery onto a stack of plates and taking it from the kitchen to the living room sofas in front of the fireplace. Leo had been assigned broom duty, and he was busy shifting sofas to sweep under them. Hongbin was not surprised to see that he didn't look happy, even though he did the task he was given with care.

"Just think of it as making Siana and her father happy, Hyung," Hongbin said with a smile.

"Then why does it feel like I am doing this to make N happy?" Leo asked.

"Well, there it is, the truth of the matter," Hongbin whispered conspirationally to him. Leo smiled as he continued working. "Which is why I said to just THINK of it as making Siana happy. Then it won't hurt so much."

Leo straightened up, laughing and nodding. Hongbin was happy to see Leo was in good spirits, and happier knowing it had to do with Siana. He was seeing her in a better and better light, even though she had already started out by making a great impression on him in the first place. He knew that even though physical attraction had a lot to do with two people coming together, there had to be something else that would attract a somewhat reluctant man like Leo to her.

Hongbin felt that there was a mixture of charm and maturity that she possessed, something that kept her real, and he had seen a moment of that when she had shown a vulnerable side of herself to him at dinner that night in Delphi. He had felt a bit like he was intruding on a private moment that should have been shared with Leo - and he knew that Leo had harboured jealousy about that for a while. But, it was incidental that it was he who had witnessed it, because anyone could have noticed she was not comfortable before he did. He just happened to be the one who did.

Having spent a lot of time with Panos over the past week, he had heard stories and impressions of Siana from the point of view of someone who knew her very well, and didn't hold back from the truth about who she was. He had enjoyed listening to anecdotes about their childhood together as wannabe street urchins playing during siesta, and also about how things had gone for her family when everything started to fall apart, and her eventual leaving of Itea.

It had been a few years before she began returning regularly, and she had grown from a sunny, tomboyish child into a gorgeous young woman whose determination hadn't drowned out that cheery happiness that she brought. Hongbin could tell Panos was very proud and protective of Siana, and that to some extent, they were soul mates.

Much as Hongbin was happy for Leo, and much as he was cheering for them both to be happy, Hongbin was beginning to feel protective of Siana too. Perhaps some of Panos' sentiment was rubbing off on him, but he wanted very much to make sure that Leo would treat Siana right, because the possibility that things could turn out badly for her was still there. She would only have Leo to depend on if things got tough. Hongbin wondered how much Leo would be open to the change that could come.