By Zephyria “Hey? Why are you throwing the flowers…”
Because Sung Se-han was handling the precious flowers carelessly, a wrinkle formed on my forehead. Regardless, Sung Se-han took me to the bed and pressed my shoulders to sit me down.
And the moment Sung Se-han sat down next to me with a thud, my legs automatically tensed up. My heart thumped and my face grew hot at the mattress swaying with Sung Se-han’s weight, not mine. To hide it, I had to turn my head as if looking elsewhere.
“It was hard to get.”
“Huh?”
I was so busy cooling my face that I missed Sung Se-han’s first words. When I looked up at him with wide eyes, Sung Se-han took something out of his inside jacket pocket.
“It’s a limited edition with only a few released in Korea, so I barely got it with Robin Hyung’s help.”
What Sung Se-han held out was a square box with a silver logo.
Ah…! A groan escaped my lips. I had to blink my eyes several times to make sure I was seeing it right. Before my eyes got hot again.
S. Caylen. It had left my hands a long time ago, but I had never forgotten it. I had desperately tried never to forget the weight that flowed down my wrist.
“Do you like it?”
Sung Se-han opened the box and held it out to me. The white gold bracelet, sparkling as if sprinkled with silver powder, my lost bracelet was back in front of my eyes.
“Ah.”
Sung Se-han suddenly sighed deeply, so I took my eyes off the bracelet and looked up.
“Did you want this so badly? Enough to cry?”
Sung Se-han’s eyes were cold, as if he didn’t like something, and he tilted his head to the side.
I never wanted to cry in front of Sung Se-han, but the tears flowing now were not something I could control.
“Did I… ask you to give me the bracelet too? When I was drunk…?”
Hmm. Sung Se-han took the bracelet out of the box and then grabbed my left wrist.
I wanted to see clearly the scene of Sung Se-han putting the bracelet on my wrist, just like back then, but my vision kept blurring, which was really troubling.
“Flowers, a bracelet, and you also told me to release a solo song quickly.”
“So, a solo song?”
The tears that had been welling up fell in drops the moment I blinked in surprise. Soon, a large hand covered my wet face.
“I told you. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Sung Se-han leaned in, and our foreheads were so close they almost touched.
“It’s a bracelet that I hate to see and want to burn, but I can’t help it since you want it. I have to give in.”
I couldn’t believe that I could feel the weight of a real object, not an illusion, on my wrist, so I grabbed my left wrist with my right hand. In that moment, I could be sure. This is mine. This is my bracelet. The bracelet had returned to me.
Only then did I look into the most beautiful brown eyes in the world with clear eyes that had stopped crying.
“Sung Se-han, I don’t really understand what you’re saying.”
Sung Se-han closed his eyes as if savoring my whispering voice. I stared mesmerized at the way his long, full eyelashes trembled.
When Sung Se-han opened his eyes again, the cold light that had confused me was gone.
“The posts with your pictures will all be taken down today.”
“…!”
My heart felt like it was falling to the floor with a thud. I had forgotten the reality that the pictures of our Mom crying were still circulating on the internet, but from the moment I saw Sung Se-han who had come to find me, from the moment I met Sung Se-han who had prepared flowers for me, I really thought everything was going to be okay.
“The pictures will all be taken down, and I’ll find all the writers who wrote those dirty rumors.”
But, even so, Sung Se-han’s one sentence seemed to have quickly removed the rock that had been weighing on my heart. I couldn’t remember the last time my breath felt this easy.
“Uh, how will the pictures be taken down? They wouldn’t take them down even if I reported them… And it’s hard to find them because they’re anonymous…”
Even though I thought it was impossible for the pictures to be taken down today, I believed his words. Because if Sung Se-han said it, it would definitely be true.
“I’ve listed all the anonymous communities, big and small, hidden away, and told them to go directly to the site operators. Meeting face-to-face is the fastest way.”
“No, how can you do that? How do you know who the operators are…”
I wasn’t asking because I was curious. If Sung Se-han said so, it would be so.
“Um, there’s Robin Hyung’s Hubae in the information management team at Shinhwa Construction. Hyung says they can find even the people buried in drums…”
“Hey, hey! Wait a minute…! Sung Se-han!”
Even if it wasn’t the information I heard from Kim Hyuk-soo that Shinhwa Construction was a gang-related company, it wasn’t something I could just brush off.
“You really, don’t even joke about that! Do you want to see me faint?”
Even as I grabbed Sung Se-han’s shoulders and shook him, cold sweat was running down my back.
“Promise me! Don’t do anything! Just… take down the pictures! Don’t do anything else besides that! Do you understand me?”
“Of course, I understand.”
Sung Se-han, who had been accommodating me as I shook his shoulders, gave a bright smile.
“I’ll do everything you want, exactly as you want it.”
His eyes, smiling with a slight tilt of his head, looked so innocent that I felt a chill instead. I could only stare at Sung Se-han with a dazed expression.
“Sung Se-han, we really… have to live virtuously. We have to receive a lot of blessings…!”
“Hahaha.”
Sung Se-han laughed cheerfully as if my words were funny. I couldn’t hide my anxiety and bit my lip before pulling myself closer to Sung Se-han.
“You can’t take my words lightly. We…”
“Ah, Tae-kyung is so cute.”
Sung Se-han’s thumb brushed past my cheek.
“You’re pretty, cool, and even this cute, how can I not fall for you?”
His light-filled brown eyes were looking at me without missing a single moment. Even if this wasn’t on my bed, I probably wouldn’t have been able to maintain my composure.
Because I was so close to Sung Se-han’s solid body, smelling his Cologne scent mixed with his body odor.
“Sung Se-han.”
I took a deep breath to hide my nervousness, but it only made my breathing more difficult.
“If you like me just for my looks, you might be disappointed later.”
The Sung Se-han in front of me doesn’t know me yet. He doesn’t know that I’m jealous and greedy, even if I don’t seem like it on the outside.
That I didn’t have the generosity to sincerely congratulate a friend with extraordinary talent on their success and instead burned with ugly inferiority.
“Our fans also say I seem cool to them. But actually…”
“It’s all okay.”
I frowned deeply to concentrate on his low voice, and Sung Se-han’s hand stroked my hair.
“Just don’t cry anymore. I really hate seeing you cry.”
“Uh…?”
It’s my fault for constantly showing myself crying in front of Sung Se-han, who said he wouldn’t make me cry. But the direct words that he hated it came as a shock.
“If you hated it that much, you should have said something sooner…”
Even though I was so flustered that my head went blank, resentment popped out. I subtly moved my butt away, but Sung Se-han gently grabbed my wrist.
“I’ll say it again.”
I couldn’t lift my head at his voice, which was whispering as if to soothe me. I couldn’t think of anything because of the fingers stroking my grabbed wrist.
“I don’t want to see you crying because of other guys anymore.”
I reflexively looked up at his tone, which had turned cold again.
“You’re saying weird things again.”
Why does this guy believe that I have dating experience? He said he was stalking me, but it’s completely wrong, isn’t it?
“Sung Se-han, let’s make this clear. I, besides you…”
Suddenly, a ringtone started ringing from somewhere. I looked around, and Sung Se-han took his phone out of his inside jacket pocket.
“It’s late.”
Sung Se-han, who hesitated for a moment with the phone in his hand, put it back in his jacket. I must have been looking at Sung Se-han with disappointed eyes without realizing it.
“Should I stay a little longer?”
I made a firm expression at Sung Se-han, who was asking in a subtle voice.
“I heard you have a personal schedule today, and you came out because of me. You should go quickly.”
“Just go?”
Sung Se-han, resting one hand on the mattress, leaned his shoulder towards me. His narrowly opened eyes felt sharp, but the playfulness on his face couldn’t be hidden.
“Aren’t you even going to give me a kiss?”
“Hey, Sung Se-han…!”
I urgently pushed away the shoulder that had touched me and looked at the door.
“Don’t joke around. Really, Mom and Tae-min are outside…!”
“Hahaha!”
It seems like today is the day I get to hear Sung Se-han’s laughter to my heart’s content. My heart kept fluttering because of Sung Se-han, who was laughing so happily that his eyes were bent.
“Okay. I’ll go quickly.”
Sung Se-han, who stroked my head, got up lightly. I sat there blankly, staring at his broad back as he strode away.
“Sung Se-han.”
Because he would never look back unless I called him. I called his name to hold him back.
“Yeah.”
Sung Se-han, who had stopped at the door, turned to look at me, but I was sitting on the bed as I was, thinking that I wanted to capture this moment in my eyes.
Sung Se-han is looking at me in my room, but why do I keep feeling anxious that he’ll slip away like sand in my hands?