AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart
Chapter 222
written by LoveCR2 -- 2005
edited by All-About-AAE -- 2019
"Even if you get hurt, isn't it better to live openly with the truth? That way you'll be able to take a step forward." -- Yoon Hyung-Chul
YULDONG LAKE PARK, SEONGNAM ...
"So beautiful... the grand finale of a wonderful day," Sun-Mi remarks at the fiery orange and red sky dappled with gilt-edged clouds.
She rests her hands on the wooden bridge railing, gazing across the still water of the lake. Next to her in the stroller, Ha-Eun is napping, cozy under a blanket after being fed and changed.
"It was a beautiful sunset the last time, too," Hyung-Chul recalls.
Sun-Mi turns from admiring Nature's glory to ask, "You still remember?"
"Of course. You asked me to, so you could forget," he states, recalling her words...
... 'Can you retake that picture you took of me with your eyes? This scenery and my expression, I'd like you to take care of it for me. I'm going to forget it all, but I'd like you to remember it for a long time instead. Would you do that for me?... You can't ever forget' ...
"... and now, here we are... You and me, the same place, the same scene."
"Not exactly," she points out. "We're not the same people as we were then."
"True," he agrees. "But fundamentally, a person's nature doesn't change. The way I see it, what happens in life just reveals sides of ourselves we didn't know existed," he opines.
"Senior, what are you trying to say?"
"That day, you weren't being completely honest with me, right?"
She lowers her eyes guiltily, "How did you know?"
"It's not difficult. The expression on your face always reveals what you won't say," he explains his insight.
"That was a long time ago," she maintains. "Why bring it up now?"
"Because like then, there's something you're not saying," he asserts. "Am I right?"
Sun-Mi contemplates the sunset as she recalls the past...
"Though I claimed to give up on Woo-Jin, actually I couldn't let go," she confesses. "The truth is, I wanted to flaunt dating someone wealthier to make Woo-Jin jealous and win him back..."
She pauses to sigh at her duplicitousness...
"I was afraid that, on learning the truth, you'd reject me," she explains. "For every step we took closer, the guilt of being found out pushed me a step backward."
"But I accepted that you still carried feelings for Woo-Jin," he reminds her.
"It took me a long time to believe you truly meant that, Senior," she reflects on her indecision, "and by the time I'd figured things out, I thought it was too late... that you had let go of me."
"Sun-Mi, look at me," he requests.
When she does, reluctantly, he says, "Despite that, and everything else that's happened since we were last here, we can find a way to move forward. You just have to want to."
"Some things can't happen, even if we want them to," she replies vaguely, quenching his hope.
"I don't want to lose you, Sun-Mi," he pleads.
"How is this losing me? Isn't it enough to know we love each other?" she offers a thread of consolation. "To hold that certainty for tomorrow?"
... two hearts, entwined together at creation, and fused for eternity...
Hyung-Chul looks longingly at Sun-Mi. In the soft, warm light, her face is radiant, and his heart does a flip...
"Don't you have the same yearning in your heart as I have, that longs for more, today?" he appeals for her to reconsider. "Don't you need me, as much as I need you?"
Gazing into his dark, intense eyes, the longing to fall into his arms, lose herself in the depths of his love, aches in her heart, as everything else fades in comparison...
... she does need him, as much as life itself ...
Seeing only him, Sun-Mi takes a step closer, her voice breathy, "Senior... I... I do need..."
From the stroller, Ha-Eun stirs, and immediately cries for attention.
Her maternal instincts triggered, Sun-Mi blinks, refocusing, "To take care of Ha-Eun."
Dipping her head apologetically, she reaches down and picks Ha-Eun up, rocking her in the cradle of her arms. "Shhh.. Mommy's here for you," she coos. "She hasn't forgotten her precious Ha-Eun. Everything is going to be all right, I promise..."
Watching mother and child, Hyung-Chul concedes, "You're right, Ha-Eun needs you, more than I do. I'm sorry, I didn't consider what I was asking..."
Sun-Mi puts Ha-Eun back into the stroller, and starts pushing it toward the car park, as Hyung-Chul walks beside her.
"Still, I don't want to give up on the possibility for us. While you take care of Ha-Eun, let me take care of you," he changes his emphasis.
"I appreciate that, Senior, but you have a greater responsibility, a filial duty to carry on your family legacy to the next generation," she reminds him.
"By wanting my own life, you think I'm being immature and selfish?"
"How else should I see it?" she bluntly states. "This is not the responsible person, that I thought I knew all these years, speaking."
Hyung-Chul gazes off into the rising mists from the lake, recalling his father's apt remark...
... 'You chose Jin Sun-Mi over MBS, but the outcome was the same. It seems that fate can't be cheated, after all' ...
"Okay, I'll call my father," he accedes to her position, "but on one condition... You call your parents, too, and tell them about Ha-Eun."
Sun-Mi stops walking, and turns to face him...
"You're asking too much! What if they reject Ha-Eun? Or me, for taking Young-Mi's side?" she presumes the worst.
Seeing the pain in her eyes, Hyung-Chul takes Sun-Mi into his embrace.
"Don't worry, everything will be all right," he comforts her, advising, "Even if you get hurt, isn't it better to live openly with the truth? That way you'll be able to take a step forward."
She rests her head against his shoulder, drawing from his strength...
"Like you told me, don't be afraid to do the right thing," he encourages her.
"Okay, I'll call my parents," she accepts his advice, "with one condition. Do you agree?"
"You're copying me," he chuckles. "What is it?"
"Come with me," she requests. "I need a shoulder from my 'Chief Spare Tire' to lean on, just in case..."