Café Pit-a-Pat - Season 1 (COMPLETE)

Chapter 18

"You should switch your career and be a bounty hunter."

A frown spreading across his face, Kimmon took the empty seat next to Mai. "Well, you're not really a smart fugitive. You always hide in the same spot."

Mai forced out a bitter laugh at that, slurring her next words. "I know right? But, despite that, he never comes. No matter how easy I make it for him, he just never shows up."

Not knowing what to say in response, Kimmon silently watched while Mai slowly finished the rest of her glass of whiskey. He clinched his jaw. Judging by how she looked and acted right now, he could tell that Mai was close to reaching her limit.

"Did he call you again?" Mai asked, breaking the silence.

Kimmon hesitated before giving an answer. "Yeah, he's worried about you."

"Don't give me that," Mai dismissed without a second thought, her hand pressed against her forehead. "If he was really that worried about me, he would have come here himself. Instead of calling you every f*cking time. And I'm so sick of always hoping that it'll be different this time. I'm just pathetic, huh?"

Dropping his gaze down to the table in front of them, Kimmon bit back his truth. If Mai was considered pathetic, then he was surely beyond saving. Despite knowing the torment that he'd be facing, without exception, Kimmon repeatedly came to her side every f*cking time this happened.

At least it didn't hurt as it did when this cycle initially started. Kimmon still remembered all the excruciating pain that viciously ripped him apart when he first witnessed the blatant disappointment on Mai's face. That first time when he looked into those wet eyes that seemed to blame him for showing up in place of Tao.

Ever since the very beginning of this one-sided love, hopelessness had savagely enslaved him. Before he even acknowledged all his feelings for her, Kimmon had to accept that Mai would never see him in the same way that he saw her. That Mai would always be in love with his brother Tao. And if that tragedy wasn't already enough for his battered heart, Kimmon had been expected to play the role of a best friend who comforted Mai whenever she shed tears because of his brother.

For the past several years of his life, Kimmon had to stay by Mai's side while constantly swallowing back his own desperate frustration. Why did you have to give your heart to someone who makes you cry over and over again? He had wanted to yell at her again and again. Because he might have been able to move on much more easily if she was in love with someone else. With someone who gave her endless happiness instead of a never-ending flood of tears.

When he finally arrived that night, just like always, Tao immediately captured a crying Mai inside his strong arms. "Mai, I'm sorry that I'm late," he apologized while softly hushing her sobs.

Kimmon blankly stared at the scene in front of him, which was the last step of this infuriating cycle. Even if he was the one who kept by her side, wiped all her tears, closely watched over her and carefully escorted her back home, Mai always ended up running back to Tao. None of what he did for her mattered in the end because he would never be able to win against the sole owner of her heart. Although he wasn't that affected by this now, Kimmon still bitterly regretted that he wasted so many years to learn and finally accept this obvious truth.