[Hellion Brothers : Book#3] Gaia's Aegis

sixteen

*

         

D.O is nervous. Hell, he is on the verge of a panic attack now.

He had asked Inha to meet him in a coffeehouse just around the corner of her dorm at 3, and now it's five minutes past three. He was here an hour early because he's too anxious about the meeting. He had chosen a table in the farthest corner of the coffeehouse where he thought will provide them privacy. D.O has never been in this coffeehouse before, so nobody there recognized him, which is actually the main reason why he chose the place. He doesn't need other curious eyes watching over him.

Fifteen minutes past and no sign of Inha. D.O has ordered another cup of coffee because he finished his third cup out of anxiousness.

She probably decided to not come.

She's just five minutes late, Kyungsoo. Don't be a prick.

But why would she come anyway? She hates me.

She will be here Kyungsoo. She just needs time.

When he comes again to the counter to order his fifth cup, it's already half an hour past three. Maybe D.O shouldn't drink that much coffee. It does nothing to help him calm down. Instead, his palms starts to sweat, his feet bounce uncontrollably under to table, his heart beats even faster than his previous nervous state, and his mental monologue only makes him feel worse. He feels like he wants to throw up.

D.O rubs his sweaty palms on his dark ripped jeans and takes out his phone. There's no message or whatsoever from Inha informing whether she decided to cancel this meeting or not. But just when he opens his messaging app to type a message to Inha, the shop's bell chimes. It has been ringing for God knows how many times since D.O sat at his table, but it never fails to jolt him up in nervous expectation. This time, the person that comes through the shop's threshold is finally the one that he's been waiting for.

Inha wears a washed blue skinny jeans pair with a soft over-sized pink hoodie. It looks like she just carelessly tied her hair in a ponytail and put on a sunglass. D.O strongly suspects that Inha wears it to hide her swollen eyes. She looks around for a few seconds before she turns to his direction and starts to make a beeline to his table.

D.O takes a really long deep breath.

Don't fail this Kyungsoo. You have to fix this.

         

Inha slowly takes the seat in front of him without saying a word. D.O couldn't see her expression behind her sunglass, although he is sure she's not thrilled to be here. Maybe that's the real reason she wore the sunglass in the first place—to hide whatever she's feeling inside at the moment. She leans on her chair as far away as the chair allows without tumbling over. She folds her hands in her chest. She looks unapproachable this way. The soft and friendly vibe that she usually had around her was gone. Not that D.O deserves it anyway.

D.O agitatedly starts to talk, his palms sweating again. "Hi Inha, thanks for agreeing to this when you have all the rights in the world to avoid seeing me. I just need you to listen to me for a bit."

D.O takes another deep breath, hoping that it'll make his shaky voice steadier.

It didn't.

"First of all, I apologize for what happened the other day. I have no other words to explain nor any excuse to justify that incident. I'm guilty as charged. You can hate me all you want. What I don't want is for you to ever feel like you don't deserve me. Which is really ridiculous, because you deserve more than just me. You deserve the world. And don't you ever, even for a second, think that I choose her above you. If I can choose, I'll choose you above everything else in the world."