hell or flying | Chaelisa

Chapter 2

A/N: I won't be putting trigger warnings at the start of each chapter because literally every chapter will probably have something triggering in it and there's a big chance I'd accidentally oversee things. So just REALLY bear in mind the contents of the "Warning" chapter before you read and if there was anything you're not comfortable with reading, just stop now.

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I tried not to focus on the buildings we passed by in a blur. They were all the same, anyway. Tall, shiny, expensive. The only thing that differentiated them was color or the style in which they have been built-in, but other than that, they were all alike. Nothing special that breathed life into them, nothing that made them unique. I was sure that no one could tell the difference between each one unless they've lived here for a while.

But of course, the building lacking diversity wasn't the reason I refused to look elsewhere but out of the window. They weren't the reason I haven't looked up from my lap since the car arrived in the city, cruising through bustling streets, passing the typical yellow taxis.

Maybe if I were here for a different occasion, with a different person, I would've paid attention. Maybe I would even gasp as I tried to take a peek at the top of the skyscrapers from the window, but failing miserably as they were too tall to see them whole no matter what angle I looked at them from.

However, this wasn't the occasion at which things would be different. The person sitting next to me wasn't one that I'd love, that I'd enjoy spending time with nor felt comfortable with. Heck, I'd be more comfortable in the driver's presence alone, rather than this scumbag's sitting next to me tapping away at his phone screen furiously.

Others might have found it irritating when their partners paid their phones more attention than to them. To me, it was a blessing. Well, as long as things haven't turned ugly for him because that's when blessing turned into accusations and punishments.

Knowing him, as soon as we touched down in New York and got captured by the relentless photographers waiting for us outside, he was bombarded with text messages and business proposals, and other things I did not know of. I knew I was right though because he wasn't on his phone at all unless it was absolutely necessary. Also, the undying sound of tapping against the screen was a pretty dead giveaway.

And even the texting was replaced by a phone call every once in a while. And of course, each time he'd speak to the person on the other line, the car was no longer submerged in a somewhat comfortable silence that maybe would've even felt relaxing, has it not been for the feeling of my breathing constricting the further we entered the city. But no, each time he spoke, his edged voice filled the car, threatening whatever poor soul was on the other side of the phone call.

Chaeyoung of the past might have cowered in fear at the tone of his voice, but seeing as I was used to it by now, I didn't as much as flinch. Rather, I tried not paying it much attention as I tried to focus my hearing on the sound of the engine. That might have sounded strange to others, seeing as people tended to focus on the sound of their breathing, but when mine was barely there, there was not much to focus on.

Yet again, the silence only interrupted by his fingers hitting the keys, was cut off by another call of his assistant's name with a warning tone to it. I might have felt bad for the probably not over twenty-year-old sitting behind a desk back in Soul, but seeing as this was something I grew accustomed to, it no longer phased me. It's as if I steeled myself against it and unless hits to my body accompanied it, I was no longer affected by it. And somewhere along the way of turning off my emotional side, realizing it was something I could no longer afford, I subconsciously thought everyone should have done so too. Somewhere along the way of steeling myself against the emotions, I thought of as weak; I thought whoever who often found themselves in his presence hasn't, just wasn't strong enough.