Insoo's POV,
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" Dayun shouted at me.
"Dayun... I'm sorry, I just-"
"You're sorry?........................... YOU'RE SORRY?!...... If something had happened to my daughter? What about then? Would you have just said sorry then too?!" She screamed clutching my shirt as she shook me hard.
I couldn't say anything.
"What- What would I have done if- if..." Her eyes welled up. Never have I ever seen such an amount of pain in one's eyes before. And the fact that I was one of the reasons for her pain, broke me into pieces.
My head dropped to the ground. I couldn't meet her eyes.
A couple of seconds later, she slowly let my collars free, looking at me, her eyes filled with nothing but anguish.
...
...
"I didn't ask to go to the school..." She spoke after a long pause, her voice showed guilt as she slowly continued. "Or the movies or the park.................. I just wanted my daughter safe. I should've stayed home."
Was all that she said before dragging Iseul away. I watched them disappear into the mist.
I felt numb and kneeled to the ground, not knowing what to feel or do. I just- I just felt my heart sting................ Really bad.
How can a liberty of a few minutes mess things up so bad?
~
~
15 years back,
A small boy is seen crying, sitting at the edge of a fountain that sat in front of the grand entrance of a mansion. The mansion was too huge for his tiny body which trembled due to the cold winds that blew hard indicating the arrival of a thunderstorm.
The horrendous lightning bolts and terrifying thunder explosion did not seem to affect the tiny human a bit as his little heart was very heavy that it failed to feel all of the emotions except sadness, deep sadness. He couldn't feel fear either.
What a little boy like himself would have experienced to feel such a pain, you may ask.
Well... For he... has lost an important person who shielded him from the darkness of the existing world, who would teach him how to survive in here.
He lost his... mother. And... was clueless and broken without her.
And...
It started to rain. Hard. The sky mourned with him, it seemed. His tears mixed with the rain drops and the sound of him weeping was the only thing that showed that he was crying.
He would've stayed just like that... in the rain and would've passed out if a girl hadn't walked up to him holding an umbrella.
Not sensing the raindrops falling on him anymore, he looked up only to see an umbrella over him and the girl who was holding it. She was around his age too, maybe a bit younger, but she had a demeanour that was far ahead of her age.
"You'd catch a cold." Was all that she said before looking at him, her eyes devoid of emotions.
"Who are you?" He'd ask her. To which she replied,
"Ah-reum. Lee Ah-reum."
~
Present day,
"Why did you call me here? Did you change your mind and decided to come to club with me? Tell meee..." Chul-ho opened his buddy's house's front door which was left unlocked and screamed even before he spotted him.
'Finally... That stone has decided to move its ass to the club!'
He looked for Insoo calling his name but got no reply. After some time, searching, he found him at his in-house bar facing the wall.
"Here you are! Why didn't you reply when I called you?" He asked him. He could only see his back. Not hearing Insoo's reply, he continued "That's okay! Come with me... Let's go to the cluuub!" He said elated.
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As he still got no reply, he pulled him by his shoulders to make Insoo face him. But...
What Chul-ho saw made the smile on his face vanish.
Insoo was drunk and Chul-ho could spot two empty bottles of beer in front of him.
'He's drunk? He rarely drinks...'
He looked slightly taken aback at his friend's condition.
"Insoo... What- What is this? What happened?" He asked, his excitement turning into worry.
Only after hearing Chul-ho's voice calling his name did Insoo face him as he opened his mouth to speak, "Chul-ho-ah... You came!" As he looked at him with surprise and he giggled.
What-
He giggled?
Too bad-
Something bad has happened. Very very bad.
"Insoo ah. Don't scare me by giggling like that. Are you going to die? You're too young to die! Oh God, what will I do?!"
Chul-ho was busy making up circumstances that could have caused his all-serious friend to giggle like that. Each thought he came up with was worse than the prior.
Only Insoo calling his name brought him out of his hypothetical circumstances.
"Chul-ho... Chul-ho..."
"Yes, it's me... Tell me. What happened?" He asked him again worried.
...
"Dayun..." Insoo whispered sadly.
'Dayun? Who the hell is Dayun? What did she do to him?'
"Iseul..." He whispered a second name which Chul-ho found familiar and it struck him.
"Ms. Mysterious Past!"
'So, her name was Dayun?'
"What is with her? Did you get rejected already?" Chul-ho asked seriously. He remembered how Insoo had mentioned about going with Dayun somewhere, and he had thought he was making excuses to not go to clubs.
'So, he actually went with her?'
...
Chul-ho somehow got to know everything that happened that day from Insoo's drunk talks. The parts of the story he didn't understand, he filled them up with his power of imagination.
...
"She didn't even let me check if Iseul was alright...", He heard Insoo say.
"I was worried too! She talked like I was the one who- who plotted it. How can she? Why did she?" Insoo stumbled and was about to hit the table when Chul-ho caught him.
"Oww... man. Did she say all that?" Chul-ho asked Insoo to which the latter nodded with a pout. "You got dumped even before you got to date? My poor bro!"
*Chul-ho's intensified cries*
"But............... It was because of me, wasn't it? I shouldn't have left Iseul alone..." He dropped his head and became sad all over again.
"Ohh. My friend... You just went to bring water. How would it be your fault?" Chul-ho tried to convince him.
"Yes!" He stood up with fire. "I just went to bring water and I only turned for like 20 seconds... I- I swear!", he said only to fall back in grief, "But... I should have at least waited for Dayun to come..." His face fell again. This debate continued for hours. After which both of them fell asleep.
~
~
The next day,
Dayun's POV,
I was anxiously waiting for him at the office. I had come 15 earlier today. Just 5 more minutes for work hours to start. He always comes at least 5 minutes earlier. But he has not come yet.
I regretted shouting at him the moment I stepped out of the park. I shouldn't have done that. Anger and worry got the best out of me yesterday. I would never have done such a thing if I was in my sound mind.
But yesterday, everything happened so rapidly. Seeing Iseul getting kidnapped right in front of my eyes, made me lose control. I was angry, guilty, worried, and scared at the same time, and took it out on Insoo. Which I regret the most.
He did nothing but help me yesterday and I did this to him. The guilt I saw on his eyes kept me up all night. He didn't deserve any of that. I came here early to apologise to him before anything. Apology is the least I can do.
I paced back and forth near my table which was right next to his room. I glanced at the clock. Ten minutes had passed but no signs of him. This is so unlike him. He's never late.
With each passing minute, I grew more guilty.
Before I went completely hopeless, the sight of him entering the office filled my body with relief.
I had planned to apologise right away after I saw him. But before I could approach him, he went inside his room, pretending to not notice me.
My heart ached at that. He must be mad. How can he not? After everything he has done for me yesterday, I acted like a bitch. It's already surprising that he allows me to enter his company after what I did yesterday.
...
I carefully opened the door of his room and peeked inside.
"Good morning, sir", I did the first thing I always do after coming to office.
He looked at me and nodded as he said, "Good morning." And none of us spoke anything after that.
He just asked me his schedule which I gave him and we just went on with the day like nothing happened.
I wanted to apologise to him so badly... But how would I start?
What would I say?
Should I say, "Hi, I'm sorry for shouting at you yesterday."
Or "I'm sorry for blaming you when you did nothing wrong."
Or "You did a lot of things for me but I acted like a bitch, I'm sorry."
What would I even tell him? I felt very guilty to even meet his eyes.
...
Half of the day passed and I still haven't found a way to apologise to him. It was lunch already. He was avoiding every eye-contact and I didn't have the courage to look at his eyes either.
After informing him of his after-lunch schedule, I turned my heel towards the door to leave but...
I stopped mid-way.
This is wrong. I must speak with him no matter what. After all, I'm the one at fault.
With that thought I turned my head to face him.
"Uhm-" He was about to tell me something when I too had just opened my mouth to speak with him. "You go first." He quickly offered.
I mustered my courage to speak..., "I- I want to speak with you. Would you have lunch with me?" To which he nodded slowly and "I do too..." He whispered.
~
~
We settled at a table in a nearby restaurant and gave the waiter, our order.
And waited.
...
After sometime, it became awkward. Neither of us said a single word. We just sat there. He was looking at the walls while I found the tiles interesting. It was hella awkward.
How awkward we have become from how comfortable we were yesterday. And... I am to blame for this.
...
I couldn't take it any longer. I must say something. It's now or never.
"I'm sorry-" I said.
But...
What surprised me was that he too apologised at the same time.
? ?
"What are you asking sorry for?" I was slightly taken aback and genuinely wanted to know. If anything, he should be angry at me right now.
"I- I shouldn't have left your daughter alone. You have trusted me with her but I failed you as well as her." He said and his eyes showed guilt.
What?... He has been blaming himself?
"I should've known better. I'm at fault. And... you said you didn't want to come, but I insisted you to come and this-"
"Please..." I couldn't hear it anymore.
Call me selfish but him apologising made me feel even more guilty. It pained me that he had been blaming himself when everything was my fault.
"Please don't. Please don't blame yourself for things that happened yesterday. You just went to water for her, you did nothing wrong. That time, I- I wasn't in the right state of mind and had no control over my words. I'm sorry for the things I told you yesterday. I immediately regretted it. I'm sorry. I really am." I said everything I wanted to say. I couldn't meet his eyes though, I felt too guilty to do that.
...
Dayun watched Insoo carefully listen to everything she said. After she finished, he looked at her for a long moment before turning to the other side only to let out a heavy sigh. Then, he looked back at her as he spoke, "How's Iseul?"
Insoo asked the thing he's been wanting to ask for a long time.
"She's fine. She just got small bruises, nothing to worry about. And... She has gone to school."
"SCHOOL?! You sent her to school?!"
"Actually, I wanted to bring her with me to the office but she wanted to go to school. My daughter is a bit too valorous that it scares me." Dayun sighed.
"Just like her mother" Insoo said mostly to himself and thought back to how Dayun fought that huge man within seconds. It still gave him goosebumps. Thinking of which made Insoo remember what she said at that time, 'It's not them' she said something like that. And he suddenly asked her, "Who are them?" And after noticing her puzzled expression he quickly added, "You were glad it was not them? You said something like that yesterday."
...
His question made Dayun took a deep breath, she never thought she'd tell this story to somebody again but she decided to do that...
"Hyun Hee-sung..." She spoke carefully.
To be continued...