STRAWBERRIES & CIGARETTES

CHAPTER 25

They said finding your solitary contentment is the realization that you don't need to be perpetually worrying over something that will make you doubt yourself. To be satisfied with what you have, of who you are, and of what you can do.

Sometimes, people choose contentment over riches, which I believe. What would you do to your billions of riches if it didn't genuinely satisfy you?

Finding contentment in anything will help boost your positivity, which in Harae's case can be more complicated.

She doesn't care about her riches, and what she can further have is that she'll stay in the family. Or how can her life change if she accepts her stepfamily? Or her position if she does follow her grandma's orders.

Harae wanted peace and contentment. But she doesn't know what could satisfy her.

Or maybe who?

The cold breeze from the AC hitting her feet made her squirm a little, folding her legs until they came into contact with the sheet, covering it.

A familiar mixed scent made her nose scrunch, bringing a hand up to rub her eyes and fluttering them open.

Once her vision cleared, Harae caught sight of a bare chest in front of her, which simultaneously rose and fell.

Looking up, she saw his peaceful sleeping face, his lips slightly parted as his warm breaths brushed her forehead.

The close proximity made her lips curl up in a smile, eyes wandering through their naked bodies that's being enclosed under the duvet.

His arm was lazily dropped on her waist, while the other settled under her head as a pillow.

Harae's eyes landed on the wall clock, reading 9 a.m.; her eyes widened.

A light whimper made her snap back at him, seeing him shut his eyes tighter.

"Le?"

Her soft, soothing voice made him calm, and the throbbing pain in his head was shrugged off as he slowly opened his tired eyes.

"Morning", he said, his deep, hoarse voice ringing in her ear, thinking about how hot it is.

Wondering how it sounds every morning, he'll wake up beside her.

"Le, it's 9."

Chenle fully snapped his eyes open, his eyes finding the wall clock, and when he saw the time, he left out an 'oh'

"Sorry, it looks like we'll skip the entire morning."

"Is it true?", she interjected, her mind wavering at the words she swore she heard from him before she finally dozed off.

"What?"

"That you,", with a little hesitation, she looked at his eyes directly, "would rather marry me?"