"If you don't get out of my house in ten seconds, I'm never going to let you go again," he lowly warns as a way of threatening her. It was as if her staying meant that he'd devote his entire body and soul to her, and that was exactly the case.
In wh...
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FIVE YEARS AGO
"BABY, ARE YOU STILL MAD AT ME?" Heeseung's voice came through the other side of the door.
Taelyn stared at the wall without moving. The room felt smaller the moment she heard him, even before he stepped inside. She listened to the knock, then to the silence that followed. He was waiting, but she knew it wasn't for permission. He never needed permission.
"I'm still mad at you." She tried to sound firm. Instead, it sounded distant, even to herself. It did not match the burden sitting in her chest.
The door opened. Taelyn did not turn right away. She already knew what she was going to see. She always did. She knew he did it again; he got into another fight.
His footsteps were slower than usual whilst he walked toward her. There was something careful in the way he moved.
She shifted slightly and glanced over her shoulder. His face looked worse than she expected. A dark bruise surrounded his eye, and his lip was split just enough to draw attention to it. His expression carried that same look she could never fully understand. He looked guilty, but also distant, like part of him had stayed behind wherever he had been.
Taelyn turned back around, her fingers curling into the fabric of her sleeve.
"You broke your promise. You said you wouldn't fight anymore..." Her voice wavered this time, and she hated that it did.
He did not argue. He never rushed to explain himself the way other people did. Instead, he moved closer, as if the truth would follow him eventually. The bed dipped slightly when he sat beside her.
His lips pressed softly against the back of her shoulder, offering a kiss of comfort. Taelyn closed her eyes.
"Princess—"
"Why are you here?" she breathed out. "Just... let me think." The thought had been sitting with her all day, refusing to leave.
Stay with him and keep hurting? Or leave him and miss him anyway. There was no version of this that did not hurt.
"Come here," he said. Two words. That was what it took. Just two words.
Taelyn hated how easily her body reacted to his voice. Her anger did not disappear, but it softened just enough to make her hesitate.
She turned slowly and moved toward him. Her movements were hesitant. Heeseung wrapped his arms around her carefully, holding her like she might break.
Taelyn pressed her face into his chest, her breathing uneven. He planted another kiss on the top of his head. His heartbeat was steady beneath her ear, grounding her in a way she did not want to rely on.
He whispered, "I love you."
Then why does it feel like this? "I'm so sick of it," she sniffled. Her fingers tightened against his shirt. "I'm tired of this."
Heeseung did not interrupt. His hand came up to her face, and his thumb brushed against her cheek, wiping away tears she had not noticed.
"You know what I want," she continued. "You know who I am." Her voice shook, but she forced herself to keep speaking. "You know I want to help people. I want to fix things. So why do you keep choosing things that break you?
If you really loved me, you would have stopped."
"I did."
Taelyn pulled back immediately, her eyes locking onto his. "What?"
"I left."
Taelyn searched his face carefully. Her eyes moved over every bruise, every shadow, every detail that might reveal something he was not saying. His doe eyes backed him up.
Is he lying? No, he promised he'd never lie.
"There's my pretty girl," he said softly, admiring her.
"You didn't start that fight?" she asked.
"Don't question my love for you," he replied. Heeseung shifted slightly and pulled his shirt over his head with visible effort.
Taelyn gasped.
The bruises across his body were worse than she imagined. Dark marks spread across his skin, uneven and harsh, like evidence of something she could not ignore.
This didn't look like the outcome of a petty tussle. In a fight, Heeseung always walked away with the lesser wounds. No. This looked the outcome of a beating he willingly took.
"I was scared before, I knew this would happen if I left." He gestured toward himself. "I didn't think I could handle it back then."
Taelyn's hands trembled slightly at her sides.
"But losing you scared me more," he continued. "So I left... just earlier. They did this as punishment."
Taelyn covered her mouth. "Oh, my..."
He reached up and wiped her tears again. "I meant what I said," he murmured. "I didn't break my promise."
His gaze stayed on hers, steady and unwavering.
He frowned, "Can you stop crying now? You're making me feel worse."
"I'm sorry," Taelyn wiped her tears. The guilt came all at once, overwhelming everything else. "I didn't know. I thought you just... I didn't let you explain. I yelled at you in front of everyone at school and—"
Heeseung let out a quiet breath that almost sounded like a laugh. "You're cute. "Don't worry about it. Just kiss me."
Her eyes dropped to his lips. They were still slightly bloodied. "But your lips are—"
He cut her off. "Forget that."
His hand moved to her jaw, pulling her closer before she could think about it any longer.
He kissed her. The kiss was careless and uneven, but real in a way that made everything else blur. For a moment, everything felt like it could stay that way.
But even then, with his hand still holding her close, something in her chest refused to settle.
