The Age Of Love

Four - Reunion

"I told you, Jeong Hyeok, you can't keep rescuing me. My career was a mess. I was pregnant and alone and you are engaged. Engaged! I needed to figure things out for myself. I needed tp get my life straight for this baby and that didn't involve you. I couldn't."

"That's rubbish. First of all, I am very well acquainted with your ability to make the entire world revolve around you Se Ri, and this wasn't about you. Second, your life is a mess? Well, welcome to the world. Life is messy. If you keep waiting for that perfect life you imagined when you were young, you're never going to be happy, but maybe that's the way you want it."

"You really think I want this?" Se Ri asked, struggling to push herself up into a sitting position. "You think I want to be 35 with no good career prospects, living at home with my parents and taking care of a newborn all alone?"

"You know what? I do. Because as long as you can blame the world for your problems, you don't have to take responsibility. You get to be the victim. Poor Se Ri, so many promises unfulfilled. You think the perfect life is just out there waiting for you," he continued to rant. "You want it all or you won't accept anything at all."

"You're right. I don't settle. Not at work, not with you. I wasn't going to settle for just being your side-piece or your baby mama while you went ahead and married your perfect heiress."

"It's not you ever asked to be anything more. You were the one who wanted Vegas," he pointed accusingly. "You're the one who kept me at arm's length."

"You were with Hye Jin!"Se Ri cried out agonizingly.

"And god forbid you ever asked me to choose between you two, or I might have actually chosen you. And you couldn't have that, could you? God forbid I ask you to settle down or get married."

"Seriously?" Se Ri shrieked. "You're seriously going there? I was too young, Jeong Hyeok. I wasn't ready. You know that."

"Oh, I know. I know all about your wide-open future and your dreams. Only here's the thing, Se Ri-- dreams are supposed to inspire you to be the best you can be, but your dreams are just a trap you use to keep people out. You say you can't be with me until you get your perfect career, but you keep torpedoing your career so you don't have to be with me, or anyone. Because you're scared shitless of letting anyone in."

"Screw you, Jeong Hyeok!" she spat back angrily. "You think you know all about me? You know nothing. I have worked so hard for my career. I have given up on everything."

"Really? Write anything lately? And what about HuffPost? It may not have been perfect, but it was a good platform. But you were too good for that. So you decided to write a book instead. Only what have you done with it? How much do you want to bet that you haven't even tried to shop it around? Can't have that because if the book gets picked up, there will be book tours and publicity. There will be interviews. Then how would you keep your little secret from me?"

"Don't hold back on my account," Se Ri snarked, letting her upper body fall back into the pillows behind her, "Tell me what you really think of me and my life choices."

"Well, when your life choices involve hiding the existence of my child from me, I have the right to tell you how fucked up they are."

Se Ri looked at him coldly, "I did what I thought I had to do for me and my baby," she replied evenly.

"OUR baby," he corrected heatedly.

"Our baby," she conceded. "I did what I thought was best for her."

"Because having me as her father would be so terrible?" he asked. His pain and hurt starting to edge through anger.

"No. Jeong Hyeok, no! You are going to be an amazing father."