Jaemin the Icy Prince on Campus - Na Jaemin NCT

23. Do We Have A Deal?

We sat side by side on the sofa.

"My father stole the money a couple of months ago. He had it credited into his account."

"I sat in my living room, watching him and my mum. They were talking to each other for the first time in as long as I can remember. They had forgotten I was there."

" 'I don't understand. You worked for them for thirty years, and you never took a penny. Why? Why now?' "

" 'For you.' "

" 'What?' "

" 'I did it for you.' "

" 'What? Why? I don't understand.' "

" 'Because you were so sad. You were so sad after he - he died. I wanted you to be happy.' "

"She didn't say anything. She just looked at him, sitting there quietly, her hands folded neatly on her lap."

" 'You'd always been sad. From the first day we got married. I knew - I knew it was him from the start.' "

" 'I fell in love with you the first time I saw you. I remember it like it it was yesterday. It was autumn, a misty morning with a light drizzle. You were with him, you had your face turned towards him, and I saw you for the first time, saw how lovely you were, your hair was flying in the wind, and you were holding an umbrella in your hand. You smiled, and my heart just - burst, it exploded, and I stopped breathing. I saw your eyes, they were shining with love for him, and my heart broke, because I knew I didn't stand a chance, not with a love like that, you were completely, totally captured by him, you had eyes for no one else...' "

" 'But he was such a fool and he didn't make a move, even though he knew he had you, your heart in his grasp. He waited, and that was his biggest mistake. So,' he took a deep breath. 'I moved in, I was so desperately in love with you I took a chance, because I could see in your eyes, how frustrated you were, how resentful...' "

" 'And it worked.' "

" 'You became my girl, and you married me.' "

" 'I was the luckiest man alive, I told myself. But I knew, deep down I knew that I was only fooling myself. You didn't love me, and you never did. It was him you loved all along from the start. It had always been him, and it was clear as day to me the day of our wedding the way he was looking at you, and the way you looked back at him. And then he left halfway through, and I never saw him for years after that. But it hardly made any difference - your heart had left with him, and all that remained for me was an empty shell, a ghost of a woman...' "

" 'Things got better fot a time when Jaemin came along, and you perked up a little, your love for him made you glow, and I was happy, because we were talking about him all the time, and even though we weren't talking about us, it didn't matter because we were talking finally, we had something to talk about...' His voice trailed off."

" 'But when Jaemin started growing, we started running out of things to say, and one day when he was all grown, we - we..." He swallowed, "we ran out of things to say, and we were back to where we started - the long silences, your sadness..' "

" 'That day he came, and you were standing on the steps, and he said he wanted to talk...I turned my back and walked away. You see, I was a coward...' His voice was a whisper. 'I knew that if I stayed, and listened, I would have heard what I'd known all along - that you were staying this whole time for Jaemin, that he had showed up, and you were about to walk out of my life...'"

" 'And so I walked away, and when I came back, I was terrified, I was shaking with fear, I had never been so afraid in my life, I thought you would be gone. But you were sitting on the sofa watching TV when I came back in, and you turned and looked at me. Your eyes were dead, lifeless; but I didn't care, I was overjoyed that you'd stayed, even though I knew that it wasn't me, but Jaemin, that had made you stay...' "