Let's Date || Kim Sunwoo

~ 13 ~

When Seolhee entered the café she was supposed to meet Hyunjae in, she was surprised to find it almost completely empty. There was only him, sitting at a table in the back with a bored expression on his face as he drank his coffee. Just him, and a few staff members who quickly rushed to take her order.  

"Why are we the only ones here?" she asked, approaching the table. 

"I rented the place for the day," he said, shrugging. "I own the building, after all." 

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him as she took her seat. "There were certainly better ways you could have spent that money." 

"What better way than to ensure privacy for me and my dear fiancée?" he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

Seolhee scoffed, shaking her head at him. "Dear fiancée. Yeah right." 

Hyunjae smirked, leaning forward on the table. "So, dear, what do you want to do today?" 

"First, I want you to stop calling me dear. Never do that again. I'm not your dear," she said, wrinkling her nose at him in annoyance. "Second, I want to discuss something with you." 

"Does it have to do with your boyfriend?" he asked. 

"What?" she said, her eyes widening and her voice almost a shout. She blinked, unable to hide her shock, and was annoyed when Hyunjae's expressions stayed the same. He was unfazed and unbothered by everything, and it infuriated her. "How did you know about that?" 

"Doesn't everyone know, at this point?" he said, taking out his phone and typing something in it. "There was even an article posted the other day," he said, sliding his phone across the table to her. 

An article. She skimmed through it, her blood boiling with anger. Were they serious? Didn't people have better things to do than stalk her? Didn't people have lives of their own? Why was everyone so concerned about her love life?

She gave Hyunjae's phone back to him, not daring to read the comments at the end of the article. She was scared about what they might be saying about her. 

"So, you know," she said, her voice flat. 

"Yeah. But you don't have to talk about that with me. You know I don't care-" 

"I want you to call off the wedding," she said, holding his gaze. At that, she saw surprise flicker in his eyes. "I want you to break up with me." 

He held her gaze for a long moment. Then, "but, why?" 

Seolhee laughed, rolling her eyes at him. "Are you kidding me? I have a boyfriend. I like someone else. I don't want to marry you." 

"Our marriage was never about loving each other. It was never even about liking each other. It's business." 

"Even if I didn't have a boyfriend, I wouldn't want to marry you," she told him, practically begging. Tears were welling in her eyes, and she hated that. But panic flared in her chest, and she leaned forward, hoping her eyes would convey the intensity of her emotions. "Hyunjae, I want to marry someone I love," she whispered. "We don't love each other. My mom won't let me call off the marriage. Please... don't make me marry you," she said softly. 

He stared at the table. "Seolhee, I'm sorry, but-" 

"No," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "Please Hyunjae." 

"It's business," he said again after a moment. "I'm not expecting you to love me. I don't love you either. I'm not even expecting you to be faithful. It's just for business. You know that as well as I do." 

"Don't you hate that our personal lives always become business?!" she screamed standing up so fast that her chair fell to the floor behind her. She glared at Hyunjae, though her tears were making her eyes so blurry that she couldn't even see him properly. "I should have known better to expect anything better from you," she snapped. "Cancel our plans for today and tomorrow," she ordered, spinning around on her heels and leaving him. 

When she left the shop, when she was out of sight of it, she ran. 

She ran not knowing where she was even going. 

She ran until somehow, she found herself at the overpass that Sunwoo had taken her to. It seemed like an eternity ago. She stayed there, watching the cars pass by. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she buried her face in her hands, her body shaking with sobs. 

"Seolhee?"