Lessons From Romance

Things to Say

"You have to lose sometimes Chae Yoon."

"I'd lose Namjoo for you."

Luhan gritted his teeth

"Leave her out of this."

Chae Yoon pressed her lips together, nodding. "Maybe I can if you tell her about us first."

Luhan's eyes hardened.

"After all, she will discover this truth sooner or later, so why not from you? If she hears it from another mouth, the only conclusion she can come to is that you've used her to get to me. Namjoo, who always puts her all into friendship. 'He lied to me, this jerk used my good feelings and stabbed me in the back. After all I've done, he only took me for a fool. How stupid I must have looked and I didn't even know it. I was nice for no reason. I'm such an idiot.' And do you think she'll come back to you after that?"

Chae Yoon smiled, stepping forward again. "Either way, if I tell Namjoo I like you; she'll still drop you just like that. Even if you're the last man on earth, Namjoo will still give you up to me. It'd be shameless of her to pick up trash I've left behind. Namjoo even said it herself."

Luhan felt like biting his tongue. His biggest fear at the current moment was never seeing Namjoo again.

"There's no reason for you to keep lying to her about our relationship. You could have told her just like that, but you didn't. You say you don't want to hurt her, but you're going to be the first one to do it. Who should you be angry at? Me or yourself?" Chae Yoon laughed with a slight smile. "Compared to Ki Chan, you can't even protect point-one-percent of her feelings."

"Is that all? You're going to push me into a corner so that I'd give up?"

"You're scared, aren't you?" Chae Yoon tried. "You're going to regret it at the end. You're going to think you should have chosen me. All you have to do now is count down the days till Namjoo finds out."

Luhan's hand formed into a fist when the devil finally walked out.

He knew Chae Yoon was right. At the very beginning he could have told Namjoo about him and Chae Yoon and she still would have come back. They were too far now for him to do it. If he told Namjoo, she'd tell him to go back to Chae Yoon. He'd never see her again then.

He dreaded every single thought of it. He was too attached and letting Namjoo go wasn't an option for him.

"====="

A twelve hour shift had exhausted Namjoo, but just thinking about how she wouldn't be eating her meal tonight alone energized her. Calmly approaching Luhan's place she knocked and waited. Luhan didn't come to the door as expected so she knocked again and waited. Namjoo pressed her ear to the door, but couldn't hear anyone inside.

Luhan should be inside, she was certain of it. Grabbing the door knob she found it strangely unlocked.

Poking her head inside she called out, "Luhan."

Then turning her head saw Luhan sitting by his couch drinking. He didn't look like he was in the mood for socializing tonight. Namjoo had wanted to eat, chat, and stay over a little while but it didn't seem like it would be happening.

"Are you ok?" She walked in.

He didn't answer. Luhan continued taking sips from his can of beer. She hadn't seen him like this since the very first time she met him. Hesitant to approach she set the bag of fried chicken she'd come with on the table.

"I'll leave this here," Namjoo told, "eat it when you're hungry. I'll go now."

Turning around she took a step toward the door.