AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart

Chapter 236

written by LoveCR2 -- 2005

edited by All-About-AAE -- 2019

 

"Whether Kim is your father, or not, it doesn't matter. So you've nothing to lose, and everything to gain." -- Min-Cho Atwater

 

 

SUN-MI'S HOME, SUBURBAN SEOUL...

 

"Min-Cho? ... Are you awake? ..."

 

The uninterrupted sound of steady, soft snores beside her answers Sun-Mi's whispered query...

 

"I shouldn't have let things come to this, " she confesses, the words coming easier in the darkness. "We have a special bond that I'll cherish always in my heart -- but as hard as we worked, and hoped, and tried -- now do you understand this wall I can't cross?"

 

She wipes dry the tears rolling in her eyes...

 

"I'm sorry, Min-Cho, that it turned out this way ... but I can never be the woman you deserve ... I hope you can forgive me..."

 

 

Unable to sleep, she decides to get up. Careful not to disturb Min-Cho, Sun-Mi turns down the sheet and slowly eases over to the edge of the bed.

 

A thin sliver of light from the door's threshold orients her as she starts across the room. Padding silently on the smooth floor, she pauses to pick up the floral DKNY A-line skirt and button up V-neck blouse from where she had dropped them on the floor.

 

Another few steps and Sun-Mi is at the door, opening it soundlessly. Light spills in, illuminating the room. She looks back at Min-Cho, grateful for the broad shoulders and strong arms that had been a respite of comfort, then closes the door with a soft click of the latch.

 

The air outside the bedroom is chilly, raising goose bumps on her bare skin. Exhaling a long sigh, Sun-Mi leans against the wall, giving her mind time to clear...

 

By the vestibule door, her black patent Jimmy Choo's -- sleek pointed-toe pumps with pencil-slim 105mm heels -- are parked beside Min-Cho's cognac-brown brogues, a reminder of an enchanting evening of dining and drinking and dancing. On the coffee table, crystal tulip stemware and an empty bottle of Tarlant Brut Cuvee Louis give mute evidence to the subsequent revelry, lapse of caution, and where it had led...

 

... as her Mom always said, when a man and a woman are alone together, you can't be too careful, anything can happen ...

 

"Jin Sun-Mi, how could you forget that?" she reproves herself, "What are you going to do now?"

 

 

She starts for the stairs, but changes her mind, going instead to the kitchen for a cup of coffee while she contemplates her choices.

 

After draping her clothes over a chair at the table, she is filling a cup from the coffee maker, when the click of the bedroom door latch alerts her...

 

Min-Cho appears in the kitchen doorway, wearing last night's pinstriped dress shirt, unbuttoned, over his white boxers.

 

"Sorry I woke you," Sun-Mi apologizes, "I couldn't sleep... too much on my mind."

 

... caught unprepared, she doesn't want to say more ...

 

 

Catching her drift, and hoping to feel her out first, Min-Cho casually leans against the doorway frame, waiting while she fills a second cup for him, unasked.

 

Attempting to direct the conversation away from what she'd rather not discuss, Sun-Mi hands the cup to him with her irate admonishment, "Don't you have anything to say? Or did you just come out to ogle a woman in her lingerie, like I'm a manikin on display in a store window?"

 

Min-Cho deflects her charge with humor, playing off her words as he scrutinizes the black satin slip that loosely skims her svelte figure...

 

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she demands.

 

"Trying to decide ... alluring angel, or seductive siren?" he smirks, conjecturing what secrets her slip might cover. "Let me guess..."

 

"Tsst! ... she hisses her displeasure, shooting sparks from her eyes toward him.

 

"You left that door open yourself," he chuckles at her exasperation. "What did you expect?"

 

 

She glares at him, irritated more with herself than his frivolity -- after all, this is the man whose first observation was 'you have nice legs' and cracked 'what did you intend for these to reveal?' while browsing her lingerie...

 

"Should I take it off, so you can see if you guessed right?" her reply drips sarcasm.

 

"Why do that?" he jokily counters her prickly attitude, "Anticipation is half the fun, so I've been told."

 

Realizing he isn't going to let her off, she concedes, grumbling, "Can't you be serious, even for a minute?"

 

Min-Cho takes up the opening she has finally handed to him. "About last night ... let's talk."

 

"All right," she allows, still reluctant...

 

 

They go over to the couch, deposit their cups by the champagne glasses, and sit down together. Min-Cho offers his arm around Sun-Mi's shoulders as she snuggles close for warmth.

 

"Where are we ... now?" she probes for his position.

 

"Sorry, I went over the line," he concedes preemptively, accepting full responsibility without reservation.

 

"It wasn't just you," she disputes his assertion. "We both let the alcohol blur our judgment, and allowed some regrettable things."

 

"I have no regrets," he challenges her assessment. "Sometimes things just happen. We have to accept that, be willing to take the next step forward."

 

But Sun-Mi isn't convinced...

 

"Let's accept that mistakes were made, forget them, and take a step backward ... to how things were before," she counters.

 

"Is that what you really want?"

 

"Umm..." she affirms curtly.

 

"I think I deserve more than that," he requests.

 

"Now that you've seen everything for yourself, can't you see that it's hopeless to believe things can ever change?" she laments, despairing. "All this is hopeless! I'm hopeless!"

 

"Nothing is hopeless," he replies confidently.

 

"It's been a week, with no progress to show for it," she expresses her frustration.

 

"The nightmares have stopped," he points to a positive outcome. "That's progress."

 

"If you say so," she admits.

 

"You've just started with APHRA. This takes time," he encourages her. "After we get to Santorini, give it a couple more weeks before you decide."

 

 

Sun-Mi turns her head to look at him, her eyes uncertain...

 

"Min-Cho, about that..."

 

"You've changed your mind," he anticipates what she is about to say.

 

"I only guaranteed this week," she reminds him, "with no promises for the future. Especially after tonight, I don't want you to be hurt anymore because of me."

 

"Nothing like that has happened, or will ever," he assures her unequivocally.

 

"You're my best friend, the person I turn to when I can't count on anyone else. I don't want to lose that," she replies. "And after this week, you know me like no one else ever has. Yet..."

 

"... there's still that wall between us, that can't be crossed," he finishes, revealing he'd been awake to hear her entire confession

 

 

"As long I hold any hope for Senior and me, that's how has to be," she insists, affirming her stance.

 

"But yet, you won't move to bring that hope to fulfillment, nor to end it," he criticizes her avoidance.

 

 

Sun-Mi rest her head against his shoulder and sighs...

 

"Aren't I an idiot?" she chastises herself. "I know what I should do, but I can't... not yet."

 

"Then you'll understand how neither can I... not yet," he echoes her.

 

"What to do now, Min-Cho?" she admits her confusion about the impasse, and where they can go from here.

 

 

He posits, "If a DNA test came back 95% certain you were not Kim's daughter, would you go back to Hyung-Chul?"

 

"In a heartbeat!" she vows without hesitation...

 

"But why would he take me back?" she reconsiders. "Now he has Ha-Eun, and Young-Mi ... I'd only be a spare tire."

 

"And if Kim is your father?" he moves to the alternative.

 

"I'll accept the shame, and go on with living," she replies dispassionately, resigned to the possibility. "What other choice do I have?"

 

"Then whether Kim is your father, or not, it doesn't matter," he concludes, hoping to persuade her. "So you've nothing to lose, and everything to gain."

 

"I need time to think," she holds back, still doubtful. "I hope that's all right with you."

 

"Meong-meong," he barks, declaring his unqualified support, aware that 'no decision' is the best he'll get for now.

 

 

Reassured that everything is good between them, Sun-Mi stands up...

 

"We have a wedding to attend today," she reminds him, "and I have a lot to do, so I need to get started right away."

 

"Sure," he acknowledges a woman's need for more time than a man. "Go on, I'll clean things up here, and make breakfast."

 

 

He expects her to head upstairs immediately, but Sun-Mi lingers...

 

"What is it?" Min-Cho asks, wondering if she'd made a snap decision after all.

 

"First, about these sensors that you stuck all over me," she prompts, her tone a bit peeved.

 

"Sorry," he apologizes for the oversight.

 

"Nothing I've tried will get them off," she complains, "So I'd appreciate some help."

 

 

He smiles with his play on words, "I have just the 'solution' for your problem..."