The Age Of Love

Sixteen - The Trust Bank

Let me remind you this again-- Se Ri's feelings are valid. Jeong Hyeok's feelings are valid 🧡

"So, I move into my new place on Friday," Jeong Hyeok informed their therapist from his spot on the couch.

Seo Yeon looked back and forth between the couple before landing on Se Ri who was fidgeting uncomfortably next to him.

"How do you feel about that?" Seo Yeon asked Se Ri.

"Crappy," Se Ri replied.

Seo Yeon nodded her head. "You've gotten used to having Jeong Hyeok around again."

"Well, yeah," she replied with an eye roll. "We have a newborn. It'd be nice to have her dad around."

"You weren't planning on having Jeong Hyeok around at all though," Seo Yeon reminded her.

Se Ri crossed her arms and let out a harrumph-- Jeong Hyok was pretty certain he literally heard the word come out of her mouth. "I really wish people would stop bringing that up."

"You made a bad choice," Seo Yeon advised her, raising her eyebrows and looking at her over the tops of her glasses. "Now you have to learn to live with the consequences of that decision."

"I didn't make the decision in a bubble," she defended.

"No, you didn't. But you still made it. You knew it was wrong and you made it anyway."

"I did not. I thought I was doing the right thing," Se Ri protested. Seo Yeon stared at her unblinkingly. "I did!" she insisted. "What if he knew about the baby and chose to go ahead with the wedding and he ended up in and out of our life all the time? I didn't want that for my daughter."

"Well, I don't do that, do I? I am my own person and you don't get to put that on me." Jeong Hyeok broke in.

"You're leaving," she gave a derisive shrug. "You flew back into our lives and now you're moving out."

"What am I supposed to do? Move permanently into your parent's house? I dropped my entire life in London to be here for our daughter. And don't you pretend you ever thought I would do anything else. Your decision was never about being worried I wouldn't be present enough. You were probably afraid I'd propose again." he rolled his eyes.

"Oh my god, enough with the damn proposal!" Se Ri threw her hands up in exasperation. "I know rejection is a concept you're not that familiar with in your rich, privileged life, but it was ten freaking years ago-- can you please get the hell over it?"

Seo Yeon cut in here, just as he was about to snap back. "It's been over a decade since Se Ri rejected your marriage proposal, Jeong Hyeok," she replied coolly, "and yet, you keep coming back to it as evidence she didn't want a real relationship with you. Why do you think this is such a sticking point for you?"

He took a deep breath, trying to escape the amygdala hijack that had him itching for a fight. The memory had faded over time but there were still bits that felt as vivid as though they were yesterday. The sad, longing look in her eyes-- the feel of velvet as he plucked the box out of her hand, the stabbing pain in his chest like a half dozen broken ribs skewering his lungs and making it almost impossible to inhale.

He'd hated that he'd felt that way. That he'd let another person make him feel that way. He'd never intended to fall in love this hard. Though he knew from the moment he saw her that she could be the one to make him. He tried to stay away but it was a futile effort and when she'd offered no strings, he could tell he was entering dangerous territory. But what was life without a little danger?

And she changed him. Being with Se Ri had helped him to accept the hand he was given, to take responsibility for his actions, to take charge of his own life, to become the man she knew he could be. She had helped make the man that had the strength and fortitude to leave his preordained destiny behind. She was supposed to be his parachute and when he pulled the ripcord, she hadn't opened, and he had gone splat.