THE START [성훈]ᴇɴ⁃VOL.2

22: admiring distant star

It's late at night, Soori locked herself in the room and stared at the ceiling silently. Her eyes were swollen after crying too much. She was out of energy and had no interest in talking to anyone.

It's been hours since she hasn't eaten and left the room. Her mother and her sister tried everything to comfort her, but she pushed them away and decided to cope alone. Again, tears rolled down her cheeks when she thought of Mr.Han's words towards her at the restaurant.

She was humiliated by Mr.Han and Jieun in front of her student, Park Yesol. She was so embarrassed to meet the little girl and talk to her comfortably again. She hurts her mother. She fell in love with her dad. She felt so embarrassed and disappointed in herself.

After a moment, she received a call from Sunghoon again. It's been several times since he's tried to approach her and fix everything between both of them, but she always refused to talk to him.

Sunghoon would only apologize for his wrongdoing, he would never apologize for not accepting her being a part of his life. He would never apologize for giving her hope and he would never apologize for everything he had done to her.

The reason he wanted to approach her, is to not feel guilty over his mistake towards her. He doesn't want to live with guilt and he doesn't like to be seen as a bad person. He did that for both of them, he did this for himself, for his benefit.

At the same time, Jaeji knocked on the door of the room and talked to her softly. Soori gazed at the door for a long time and listened to Jaeji carefully without opening the door for her.

"Are you awake?"

Jaeji cleared her throat and continued,
"I don't know what happened to you, but Sunghoon is waiting for you in the front yard. He wants to talk to you, Choi Soori."

Soori sighed heavily. It's two in the morning. She couldn't believe that he would come to the house to talk to her and also, to fix everything between them.
Soori walked out of the room and gazed at Jaeji for a long time. The lady was surprised to see how swollen her eyes were.

"Are you okay, Soori?"

Soori slowly nodded. Without wasting any time, she walked out of the house and went towards Sunghoon who was waiting for her in the front yard. He gazed at her for a long time and approached her nervously.

"Your eyes." He muttered and reached his hand to touch her face. He gently caressed her face and was surprised when she suddenly brushed his hand away from her. Soori lowered her head and took a step away from him.

"What do you want to talk about, Sunghoon?"
Soori spoke up. She continued,
"It's two in the morning. I'm too tired today. I want to take a rest. Please be quick."

"Your eyes are swollen."

"Please apply a cool compress and massage the area--"

"Is this the reason you wanted to talk to me?"

Soori lifted her head to look at him. She slightly laughed and shook her head in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, Choi Soori."
He spoke up with his gaze fixed on her. Soori shut her eyes and tried to calm herself from reacting in front of him. It felt so heavy in the chest. It felt so heavy. It hurts her. Soori couldn't handle this anymore.

"I'm so sorry for my words. I shouldn't say that to you. It wasn't my intention to hurt you. I should be careful with my words."

Soori smiled, "I know you will say this, Sunghoon."

"I know you will apologize because of your words to me. You will never apologize for not--" Soori sighed and changed the topic,
"I'm sorry. Have you done?"