My Secret Lover

Chapter 17

Pov. Park Sunghoon*

This afternoon I had the dance figure skating competition and with joy Namra and I took the first place! As usual, after we won, my parents and hers went to a fancy restaurant to celebrate our victory. My parents had a lot of respect for the Lee family, so sometimes they acted like butlers or something to them, which was very embarrassing for Yeji and me.

Especially today, when we had been invited by the them, the empathic embarrassment was already virtually pre-programmed.

"Honey, is my make-up ok?" my mother asked as she stroked her royal blue dress to get rid of the imaginary wrinkles. My father looked at her and nodded in affirmation. "You always look good!" he admitted, giving Mum a kiss.
Disgusted, I looked down at Yeji, who was busy on her phone. "They're coming!" Dad suddenly said hysterically, waving us together so we could get into our typical spiky family formation.

Children in front, parents behind, with my father's hand on my shoulders.

The Lee family approached us and, as always, their exceedingly expensive and elegant outfits stood out from the crowd.

They liked to show that they had a lot of money.

"Good evening! Thank you for inviting us!" my father greeted Namra's parents, who looked at us with a friendly face. "You're welcome, we love spending time with you!" admitted Mrs. Lee, stroking my upper arm familiarly, her head tilted slightly to one side. "Oh, you look like your father in his crisp old days!" she admitted. Laughter erupted.
I, however, forced a grin as the whole thing made me really uncomfortable.
She then turned to Yeji and raved about her evening dress. After exchanging a little outside, we went into the restaurant and moved towards the reserved table. Yeji sat down at the edge next to me in a flash, wanting to avoid any adult conversation topics. It was also the perfect place to answer the mobile phone. "Is the chair next to you free?", Namra enquired, looking at me questioningly. "Yes," I said shortly, to which she gave me a warm smile. Across from us, there were still two seats free, which made me frown in wonder. Namra noticed this and immediately spoke up: "Hee still has training and will arrive soon. He is training his arms in the gym, you probably noticed that he had a small accident on his ankle. The other seat of for Jakey, but he has normal training on the ice."

So, Jake will be here too?

"Why is Heeseung taking that Jake again? He really insisted on taking him! Can't he bring over a lovely young woman?", Mr. Lee huffed and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Honey don't worry! You know how picky Hee is, he'd rather find the one right one than go home with a thousand women!" explained Mrs. Lee, trying to calm her husband down. "Just look at our Namra! She found just the right one, who is even her figure skating partner. It doesn't get any better than that!"
"Sorry for the misunderstanding but Namra and I are not a couple," I interjected abruptly, scratching the back of my head in embarrassment. Yeji, however, chuckled softly.
The next moment, Heeseung and Jake arrived, both dressed up and standing in front of the table in their suits. "Good evening, Lee and Park! Thanks for the invitation and nice to meet you Park!", Jake greeted the whole group and got caught up in a short conversation with my parents. Meanwhile, Hee looked around for the empty seat. When he realized that the only free seats were in front of Yeji and me, he rolled his eyes in annoyance. Hesitantly, he walked to the free seat and sat down opposite me, Jake also joining him a few seconds later. However, neither of them gave me a single glance and I sighed a little disappointedly.

It's like I'm getting closer and closer to Jake emotionally. I feel strongly attracted to him, to something I didn't even know, without a single thought of anyone else. But physically it was the complete opposite.

(...)

The meal went as blandly, as usual, Yeji and I conceded some very embarrassing moments that we wanted to erase from our brains. When we finally arrived at the desserts, I thought the two families would finally stop talking about me, but I was wrong. And who knew, it was back to figure skating...

"Sunghoon is a very successful figure skater and the fact that our little Namra gets to dance with him on the ice is a great honor!" Mrs. Lee snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked over at her attentively. To my doubts, I had to hear this sentence a dozen times before and, as always, a wave of embarrassment washed over me.
"Oh, stop it!" my mother said flattered, looking at me with a grin.
"Heeseung, can you please stop slurping the melted ice cream like it's an offering? You look like a dried-up flower...", Namra destroyed the mood, who was visibly annoyed with her younger brother. "Then give me water so that I bloom."
Mutely, Namra and Heeseung stared at each other icily, which caused Jake to clear his throat. "I'm going to the bathroom quick!" He rose and I was not about to miss this opportunity. When he disappeared from our sight, I excused myself as well and followed Jake. He, however, did not go to the toilets but made his way outside. "Hey, Jake!"
He looked back and greeted me quietly. "Can we talk?", I asked uncertainly, noticing the sweat running down my neck. "Sunghoon, please let me alone," he just mumbled, taking out his phone to ignore me. "Please listen to me first. Sunoo told me what happened at the party. I have been too dense to remember anything and.... so... how am I going to explain this now...? It wasn't what it looked like!", I tried to find the right words. Jake, on the other hand, just looked at me dumbly. "I see."
He breathed in and out deeply and wanted to pass me. I stood in his way but stumbled awkwardly and heard a soft tearing sound. I quickly noticed that my jacket sleeve had caught on a protruding nail. Now there was a large tear on the sleeve.

Damn it...

Suddenly I felt a slight burning sensation and when I looked more closely at my arm, a fine trail of blood was visible.
Jake approached me alarmingly and looked at the small wound. "Are you all, right?" he asked anxiously. "Back to the subject-," I tried to distract from my mishap and pulled my arm back now that I had his full attention. "-I'm incredibly sorry, I just want to tell you that nothing is going on between me and Namra, the whole thing is, purely platonic!"

Wait, why did I feel I had to justify myself to Jake? Was it maybe because I...

"Why exactly are you telling me this?"

Because I...

"I don't know."
"Did Sunoo tell you anything else?"

Does he mean our kiss?

"Ah yes, that too... I wanted to apologise for kissing you, it wasn't planned and shouldn't have happened. I was drunk off my ass, let's just forget about it..." Jake looked to the side dejectedly.

Shit, I screwed up.

"Sunghoon, bygones be bygones. Happened, we can't change it. I think we'll go back in to the others," he said curtly and ran ahead into the restaurant.

Oh God, can I make it any worse?