STORMY NIGHTS ✓ ⇢ [EDITING]

《CHAPTER 2》[REVISED]

FEBRUARY 8, 2019
ANYANG, SOUTH KOREA
9:47 AM

Yeeun wakes to an agonizing pain in her ribcage. The pain is so intense that she struggles to breathe as she exhales a whimper. The twenty-one year old woman balls into herself, hugging her knees to her chest as she begs for the pain to go away.

"Please-stop it!" She shrieks, her nails digging into her ribs as she writhes on the bed. Her feet are twisted at an odd angle that had it been someone else, would certainly have passed out from that alone, albeit a crack in her ribcage in addition to it.

The more Yeeun moves, the more she feels like both freezing cold ice and a hot flaming iron are fighting inside her. She coughs, which only intensifies the pain, causing Yeeun to clutch her throat. Her eyes widen as the pressure increases in her pupils and body.

Suddenly, Yeeun's hands are pulled away from her throat, and the extreme pressure disappears. She realizes that she is pinned down on her thin mattress between the arms of the man whose only good shoes she had vomited on. Something stirs within her when their eyes collide, his onyx irises filled with fear as he breathes heavily.

"T-take these." The ebony-haired man's voice quivers as he places two tablets into her mouth, his palms trembling. She closed her eyes as she swallowed the pain medication.

As her breathing slowly returns to normal, Yeeun opens her eyes to find that the man silently wipes away the tears on her face. His eyes were filled with pain as he stares at her, his eyebrows furrowed.

There is something about the way he looks at her that makes Yeeun weak. She can never be immune to his smooth hands, soft pink lips, or this indescribable gaze. However, she cannot relish in the fact that he had become a part of her a long time ago. That fateful day that she had met him had a huge red stamp from the angels in a book about her life titled: "A Tragic Ending of Kang Yeeun's Semi-Shakespearean Life".

Yeeun cleared her throat, causing him to jump away from her. "I'm going out." He mutters quickly, before shutting her bedroom door shut behind him.

The first thing she smells when he leaves is his scent. Soft tinges of sweet sweat mixed with forest trees and something else.

Vomit.

Yeeun's nostrils flare as the events from the night before play through her mind. He had come back, right at her doorstep, where she least expects him to be.

The twenty-one year old is alerted to the entrance of someone by the door. Suyoung's pitch black hair is streaked with yellow highlights, her dark eyes hollow from lack of sleep. It seems to be the first time that Yeeun has seen her in days. The latter spends nearly every weekend (and weekdays, too, it seems) at her sister's unwillingly babysitting  the older woman's toddlers every afternoon until her classes begin at the local university.

Yeeun moves to get out of bed, but Suyoung holds up a hand. "Whoa, there, hon. You just puked all over the front of the apartment building. You're not going anywhere."

The younger woman sighs as she trains her eyes on the ceiling. "Who is he?" She has a feeling she already knows the answer, and her stomach constricts as if it is preparing for another round. Sometimes, she feels like God is hell-bent on making her life miserable.

Yeeun is brought back to her reality as Suyoung leans against the door, massaging her temples. Although she is only two years older than Yeeun, she looks and acts a century older the second she she lacks sleep. "My cousin, Lee Suho. He said you threw up all over him." The twenty-three year old woman grasps the engagement ring on her left hand, her head shifting to face the painted pastel walls. This is probably the first and only time she's entered since Yeeun moved in over three months ago. 

Yeeun absorbs the news, the gears in her brain turning.

"My shift starts at noon." Yeeun bypasses Suyoung on her way to the bathroom, quickly stepping into the shower before the older woman can restrain her. she cleanses herself, continuously scrubbing until the scent of vomit is off her. The heat calms her nerves and smoothens her back muscles before another chaotic day at work.

Once she comes out with a towel wrapped around herself, Yeeun nearly screams when she collides with something solid. Warm hands grab her bare shoulders, and she grows still at the touch. She looks up to find him, dark, ebony hair contrasting with fair skin.

The man's onyx eyes grow wider as her dark brown ones meet them. She has a feeling that these so-called coincidential run-ins she seems to have with him are going to be endless during her stay here.

"Sorry." He mutters, turning on his heel and shutting the door behind him, leaving a completely frozen Yeeun in his wake. 

He hasn't touched her in over three months, and her body shivers at the contact his fingers has made with her shoulders.

He shouldn't​ make her crave his presence. She shouldn't feel exhilarated from his callused touch, or his soft breath on her face.

He shouldn't make her feel like he gave her the moon.