AAE -- For Better For Worse

Chapter 30

by LoveCR2

edited by All-About-AAE

 

 

 

Since leaving the restaurant, an uneasy silence had separated Hyung-Chul and Sun-Mi. Hyung-Chul occupied himself with watching the road and traffic, while Sun-Mi watched the passing scene, dreading the moment he stops at her gate. It held too many memories that would only get in the way of a clean goodbye.

 

Just minutes away from Sun-Mi's home, as the car approaches a familiar intersection, Sun-Mi speaks up, "I'll get out here and walk. I don't have the will to part in front of my house."

 

Seeing she is serious, Hyung-Chul pulls the car over to the curb and stops before the crosswalk, turning on the emergency flashers. He turns to look at Sun-Mi, hoping for one last opportunity to connect eyes with her -- and perhaps more -- before she leaves his life, possibly for good.

 

But Sun-Mi looks away, fearing she will break down in front of him. ... For this final scene to be believable, she has to be strong.

 

"I'm always thankful to you," she begins slowly, reciting words she had parsed and memorized over days, preparing for this moment. "No matter how many tantrums I had or thoughtless things I said, you always took care of me ... Tomorrow ... please don't come out to the airport. I don't want to turn my back to you as I leave. I feel like this is something I have to do right now, or I won't be able to ..."

 

Pausing, she glances at Hyung-Chul, to ascertain his response, but his face is a blank.

 

"I'll try to be strong and make my own way in London. I'm grateful for everything ..."

 

She smiles sadly as she looks over at Hyung-Chul for the last time, and means it when she says, "Goodbye, Senior."

 

Hyung-Chul turns to watch Sun-Mi, lost as she removes her seatbelt and gets out of the car. ... What can he do, but let her go?

 

 

After exiting from the car, Sun-Mi waits at the curb for the signal to change. She again avoids looking at Hyung-Chul, as she recalls how they had first met by chance -- or Fate -- when she obliviously stepped into a crosswalk years ago.

 

The "Walk" signal lights up, she takes a deep breath, and starts off slowly across the street.

 

Hyung-Chul rivets his attention on Sun-Mi as she passes his car, taking his last pictures of her with his eyes.

 

Sun-Mi starts to tear up. She struggles to keep from crying, trying to maintain her facade just one more minute until she is out of sight.

 

 

Hyung-Chul ponders what he should do. As Sun-Mi nears the center of the crosswalk, he comes to a decision ... Quickly alighting from the car, he calls out loudly to attract her attention, "Sun-Mi!"

 

When she hears her name, Sun-Mi is startled. She stops and turns back, wondering what he is doing.

 

With a few bounding steps, Hyung-Chul is standing in front of her. He takes a deep breath to catch his wind and steady his nerves. She stares at him, still wondering at his intentions. ... What does he want to say?

 

"I feel like this is something I have to do right now, or I won't be able to," he repeats her words from just a few minutes before.

 

Puzzled at what it is he has to do ... right now, Sun-Mi regards Hyung-Chul curiously, reining her hopes back, lest she be disappointed. His eyes drill back into hers with a depth of emotions she has never seen from him before.

 

Taking Sun-Mi's left hand in both of his, Hyung-Chul holds it gently. Her eyes move down to their hands, now joined together. She holds her breath, feeling a queasy sensation stirring deep inside -- those butterflies again! Anticipation of what is about to happen next, and where it will take them before the night is out, sends a shiver running up her spine.

 

Hyung-Chul removes the engagement ring kept in his pocket since the night of his first aborted attempt to propose. It slips easily over Sun-Mi's finger like it had always belonged there. She stares at the ring, as if fearing that by closing her eyes, it might disappear.

 

In the whirlwind of emotions, Hyung-Chul can't recall his prepared proposal. He simply croaks out breathlessly, "Will you ... marry me?"

 

Mindful of his situation with Joo-Hee, Sun-Mi looks questioningly to see if he is serious, seeking confirmation of what she has just heard. Hyung-Chul gazes deeply into her eyes with a sincere expression of love, pleading almost desperately, "Don't go..."

 

Then, not leaving anything to chance, he moves to preempt the last objection he fears she still has ...

 

"Don't go to London... without me."

 

 

Sun-Mi can't believe what is happening. This is the stuff of TV dramas and Cinderella fairytales, not real life, not HER life!

 

Tears of happiness and relief and long-awaited hopes, now fulfilled, wet her cheeks. Overcome by a deluge of sheer happiness, it is all Sun-Mi can do to smile weakly and hold back sobs of joy as she nods her assent.

 

"I love you, Sun-Mi," he verbalizes what she cannot say in her overwhelming joy.

 

 

For several long seconds, they hesitate, gazing lovingly into each other's eyes, allowing the magnitude of what they had just promised to become cemented into their minds.

 

Then mutually, they come together for their first kiss. Electricity crackles as they touch, shooting sparks that excite and amaze, driving a hunger for more. As the kiss lingers, every thought is focused on the other, and awareness of their surroundings dims as the intensity builds. Sun-Mi's office tote drops unnoticed to the pavement with a dull thud.

 

They part for a few short, gasping breaths. Sun-Mi moves her hands up to his shoulders. His arms tighten around her slender waist. Hyung-Chul finds her lips again, and the sparks explode with an intensity that melts the last vestiges of Sun-Mi's uncertainty and inhibitions in the heat of awakening passions.

 

Again they part for air, but the smoldering embers they kindled burst into flame. Hyung-Chul takes Sun-Mi into his arms. Sun-Mi circles his neck, embracing Hyung-Chul as fully as he embraces her, abandoning themselves into a mutually rapturous euphoria.

 

 

The crosswalk light changes and traffic surges forward, coming dangerously close as car horns and shouted warnings attempt to notify the unmindful couple of their precarious situation. On the sidewalks, small groups of curious passersby stop to take in the unusual scene. Some look around for hidden cameras, certain that this is a prank being pulled by one of the on-the-spot TV programs that try to embarrass unawares people with their response to ridiculous or surprising incidents.

 

But all the surrounding commotion barely registers with Sun-Mi ... For a few fleeting moments, a thought that it might all be a dream, an illusion she has imagined, passes through her endorphin-sotted brain. But the strong arms holding her tight, the eager searching lips pressed against hers, and the sizzling sensations coursing throughout her body are too real for a dream, too wonderful to be just imagination.

 

Then just as in the TV dramas that fostered the romantic expectations of her imagination, the world begins to spin, and Sun-Mi knows for certain that it must be Love ... True Love ...