AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart
Chapter 74
written by LoveCR2 -- 2005
edited by All-About-AAE -- 2017
"Love isn't a matter of right and wrong. It's a matter of 'is' or 'isn't' ... and this isn't love." -- Yoon Hyung-Chul
BUNDANG, GYEONGGI-DO ...
"Surprise!"
Hyung-Chul looks out the apartment door at his unexpected visitor...
"Aren't you going to invite me in?" Park So-Won asks sweetly, showing him the bottle of champagne she brought. "I came to celebrate."
"It looks like you've already been celebrating," he remarks caustically at her inebriated state.
"I was, but then I thought how much more fun it would be to celebrate with you."
"It's very late," he reminds her. "You have a shoot first thing in the morning, remember?"
"You don't need to nag... and keeping me standing here isn't going to end the night any earlier," she counters. "Besides, I'm freezing my butt off out here. How about a hot cup of coffee instead?"
Hyung-Chul realizes she has deliberately used the words he'd said to her that night under the Hannam Bridge, when as he held her, feelings reawakened that he'd believed were long dead, conflicting emotions that had confused him about whom he truly loved. Then Sun-Mi's kiss had dispelled that confusion, or so he'd thought...
Noting her bare shoulders, he offers, "Let me get you a coat and drive you home."
She smiles slightly, realizing he isn't going to be easily persuaded to let her stay. "I need to use the bathroom first," she says urgently.
So-Won doesn't wait for his reply, handing Hyung-Chul the bottle as she pushes past him into the apartment. He watches as she makes her way to the bathroom door, keeping a hand on the wall to steady herself.
"I'll be a few minutes," she says as she goes in.
Resigned to wait, Hyung-Chul leaves the bottle on the kitchen table, returning to his living room chair to continue watching the American NASCAR race.
Puzzling over her unexpected appearance, he finishes off his glass of Jack Daniels, and refills it with another dose of courage.
A few minutes later, his glass is drained, and the race is coming off the yellow flags with one lap remaining for the leaders. The speeding cars are entering the backfield curve, jockeying for position, when the bathroom door opens and Hyung-Chul hears the tapping of So-Won's heels as she approaches.
"I'm ready now," So-Won tells him in a sultry voice.
He glances at her, and instantly forgets the cars roaring for the finish...
So-Won has taken off her dress, and is standing in front of him in a black lace bra and thong, stockings, and 120mm stilettos.
"What are you doing?" he demands, jumping to his feet, intending to immediately go and get a robe to cover her up.
"What I should have done a long time ago," she purrs, moving to intercept him. "Recreate what we once had between us."
"As I said before, that can't be," he rejects her intentions, but her point in stopping him achieves her purpose, as he has to look at her, and listen...
"You're a man, I'm a woman... anything is possible," she counters, taking another step closer. "A real, flesh-and-blood woman, here to satisfy your desires."
"But I don't love you," he declares, hoping to dissuade her, and convince himself she is wrong, "I never have loved you."
As they talk, his eyes unconsciously drift, recording every detail of her sensuous body, visually stoking the furnace of desire, building up pressure to the bursting point before he is fully aware of what is happening.
"My love is more than enough for both of us," she encourages him. She takes his left hand and puts it over her heart. "Feel my passion beating strongly for you... there's no need for us to hold ourselves back any longer."
A sudden, ravenous urge springs from the deep well of physical desire, a driving carnal urge that he fights to contain. Hyung-Chul closes his eyes to put So-Won out of his sight, but then his last moments with Sun-Mi come back...
"Forget me... Stop waiting for me... I don't want to carry that burden any longer. Don't look back, only to the future; have no regrets as to what happened. And I'll do the same... That way, we can both be happy..."
He wonders ... is happiness without Sun-Mi impossible?... a future with someone else possible? ... had she foreseen this moment, intentionally releasing him for it? ...
So-Won moves his hand lower, over the cup of her bra, encouraging him to take possession, but he resists the temptation, and his own instincts, and takes his hand away, telling her, "This isn't right."
"It's not wrong, either," she claims, "to see me as a woman, desire me as a woman?"
So-Won closes the distance between them, pressing her soft, pliant breasts against his firm chest, grinding into his groin.
Breathing heavily with her own building passion, she pleads, "It's not your love I need, just you. And you need me."
Hyung-Chul knows he should step away, give the desires surging within him a chance to cool off... but doesn't... he can't... instead surrendering himself...
He groans softly, and she captures his lips with hers, stifling another groan and sending his smoldering fire bursting into flame. As they wrestle tongues, Sun-Mi's final words, etched indelibly on his heart, speak to him....
"When we meet, act as it you don't know me personally, and I'll do the same. We are now just two people who shared a beautiful moment on this bridge, watching the sunset together, before we leave on our separate ways..."
"I'm sorry, Sun-Mi," he voices the regrets to himself, "I promised to be strong, to wait for eternity, but I can't wait any longer..."
His arms envelope So-Won, holding her tightly as their kiss lingers and deepens.
She breaks her mouth free, demanding, "Now... take me now... give me your everything, and I'll give you mine..."
He slides his hands down her back, lifting her effortlessly. In a few steps, they are at his bed. He lowers So-Won down gently. She lays on the bedcovers, looking up at him with aroused expectation.
Hyung-Chul hovers over So-Won, feasting his eyes on her feminine form, caressing her curves...
She reaches up, unbuttoning his shirt, loosening his belt...
He touches her face unhurriedly, feeling her tremble with the brush of his fingers along her cheek...
His fingers are on front clasp of her bra, when the bedside phone starts to ring. He ignores it, releasing the clasp, when the call goes to the answering machine...
"This is Yoon Hyung-Chul. Please leave a message."
"We have an emergency!" they hear Sun-Dal's voice. "Even if you're already in bed, pick up!"
Hyung-Chul looks at So-Won, and she shrugs, so he moves to the side of the bed and picks up the handset. "What's so damn important that I have to take a call at 1AM?" he grumbles into the phone.
"Like I said, this is critical... something just came up on the internet news feeds that we need to verify immediately," Sun-Dal informs him breathlessly. "Do you know where Park So-Won is right now? She's not answering her mobile."
Hyung-Chul glances up at So-Won, and sees that she has curled up under the bedcover, listening intently when she hears her name.
"Yes, I just happen to know where she is," he answers honestly, "Why?"
"As soon as you get the chance, ask So-Won if it's true that when she went to Los Angeles in 1995, she had a baby. And if her answer is yes, ask who the father is."
"What are you getting at?" Hyung-Chul responds angrily. "Are there more rumors spreading, trying to smear So-Won again?"
"Not exactly, it's not that simple," Sun-Dal replies, his tone serious. "If you're not already, you'd better sit down... The story claims that So-Won had YOUR baby, and the evidence proves it..."
Stunned, Hyung-Chul mumbles into the phone, "I see..."
"After you call So-Won, we need to meet and get our response coordinated, if we want to have any hope of keeping this out of the Board's deliberations," Sun-Dal initiates the first step of his plan to do damage control.
"I'll call you," Hyung-Chul promises in a dead voice, and listlessly returns the handset to the phone's cradle.
He turns to So-Won, looking for the truth. Wide-eyed, she stares back at him, and slowly nods her head...