Falling From Grace

Chapter 8: Conversations

If there is one thing that Yoon Se-ri absolutely hates about herself, it's the fact that she's a stress crier.

Whenever she's overly happy or incredibly angry, the waterworks turn on. Although she knows that it's a natural response to high-stress situations, that doesn't erase the fact that it is terribly inconvenient, not to mention extremely embarrassing.

As the front door closes after Mu Hyeok, Se-ri feels the familiar stinging in her eyes.

The idea of having to meet Jeong Hyeok's parents as his girlfriend, coupled with the feelings that she was starting to develop for him conflicting with her instinct for self-preservation and her fear of having her heart broken all over again,—all of it is just all too much to take for one morning.

For some reason though, the tears came a little more easily this time, further upsetting Se-ri.

Not wanting Jeong Hyeok to see her cry, she makes a beeline for the wine cooler that's built into the far side of the counter, making some flimsy excuse about wanting a mimosa.

She sits on her haunches and opens it, inspecting each and every one of the 20-odd bottles in it, both looking for an appropriate dry sparkling wine for her mimosa and hoping that the cool air coming from the wine cooler would stem the tide of tears that were threatening to flow.

Having selected a bottle of La Vostra Prosecco, she stands up, only to come face to face with Jeong Hyeok.

"Are you alright?" he asks. The concerned look in his eyes and the tenderness in his voice is just too much to bear for Se-ri, and the first traitorous tears start falling from her eyes.

"I'm sorry for putting you on the spot like that earlier. I wasn't thinking." Seeing Se-ri cry made Jeong Hyeok's heart ache in a way that he had never felt before. He feels compelled to do everything humanly possible to try and stop those tears from falling, no matter what it is.

"It's fine. I'm fine. These are just stress tears," she says, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand and hating the fact that they still kept coming.

"I think I can help with that."

Jeong Hyeok takes the bottle of prosecco from Se-ri and puts it back into the wine cooler. Just as she's about to protest, he carefully takes her face in his hands. He pauses for a moment, looking deep into her red-rimmed brown eyes and brushing away her tears with his thumbs.

Ever so slowly, he kisses her left cheek, and then her right. He pulls away and pauses again, looking into her eyes as if to ask for permission. When Se-ri gives him a small nod, he closes the distance between them.

He kisses her carefully, tenderly, as if he's trying to melt her worries away. The kiss starts out sweet and languid, and Se-ri feels her hands automatically coming up to rest on his hips to hold on to him. They kiss like that for a while in the middle of the kitchen, their lips getting intimately acquainted with each other once again.

Then, all of a sudden, it's as if Jeong Hyeok couldn't get enough. His insistent lips and tongue coax her lips apart while his right hand moves to the nape of her neck and his left moves to the small of her back to pull her close. She opens her mouth to him willingly, her hands grabbing onto his shirt to pull him closer to her still.

His tongue slips into her mouth, gentle yet demanding, and Se-ri slowly feels herself melting into his embrace and getting lost in the kiss.

Too soon, all too soon for Se-ri's liking, Jeong Hyeok pulls away with one last nibble on Se-ri's bottom lip. He rests his forehead against hers before whispering, "Now you can make yourself that mimosa... But I'm not done with you yet."