"They say the most beautiful smile hides the darkest secrets." he says ruefully.
Looking at her now, knowing the truth, his heart simmers with guilt. The hatred he had grown to home towards her, now withering away like the sand falling from one's f...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
•••
"What?" The word leaves her mouth before she even had the time to register her tone. Blood rushes up his cheeks, and he opens his mouth to speak, but closes it before any words come out. Flustered, he nods in agreement. The fear of rejection creeping into his bones, but before that, the need for making everything right did.
"Will you marry me, Janice? I....I could make it right."
"You never had it wrong to begin with, Jeongguk." She whispers, tilting her head to the side. The stinging in her eyes returning with a splurge of bygone, unforgotten emotions.
"You did nothing wrong, and it is not your responsibility to make my breach right, either. It is generous enough of you to keep my secret...untold. Whatever uneventful happened in my life was not your fault. In fact, the little time I had with you was blissful. It was something I cannot have again, and you don't need to feel obliged to-"
"I am not saying anything because I feel obliged to, Janice." He says, cutting her sentence. There was a longing, an agitation in his tone. His voice, faint and earnest enough to paralyze the tempest in her head. The sincerity in his eyes, soothing enough to withhold the shreds of her withered hope.
But it was surreal enough to make her believe she imagined it all.
She was so engrossed in the chaos in her head that she hadn't realized how close they were standing now. She could now feel him breathing shallow in her periphery and he had to dip his head to look at her. His heartbeat matched with hers. Drumming against their chests as if the world was near the end. She could feel her throat drying as he took another step forward, the tip of his toes touching hers, and it was now that she realized he had removed his shoes too. Their bodies were almost touching and the whisper of his words fanned her face.
"It's the fact that I want to." He caress her cheek with his free hand, his warmth melting away her doubts.
"I want to make it right even if you think it's not my place to. I want to bring the life I dreamt for us when we were seventeen to reality. I don't want to stay away from you for another second knowing well that I could never forget you and that neither could you. I don't want to spend another day of my life longing for your presence when I could keep you close to me."
She couldn't believe her ears. "Jeongguk?" She calls, searching in his eyes for something she didn't know about.
His hand moved behind her neck to the nape of her head, inclining it further backwards. His eyes promenaded on her face. Her eyes, her nose, the apple of her cheek, the mole on her philtrum, and then rested on her lips. She could feel his throat working as he gulped audibly before speaking.
"Don't make me stare at you like a fool, Janice. Tell me what's going on in your mind. Please." He said the last part so desperately that she had to close her eyes. He rested his head on hers, boring deep into her features as she stood there breathing in the air he fanned at her.
