Of Love ― Rhys Tarek & Kim Jongdae.
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He couldn’t know of the other’s grudges towards love. Tarek, for his part, was very fond of the general idea of love; he wanted to have someone by his side, he wanted to show them off for the rest of his life and brag about the wonderful decision he had made by promising to stay forever with his counterpart. But he was also perfectly aware of the fact that it took two to get this far. As romantic and dreamy as his illusions were, if he couldn’t find someone else to share these dreams with him then they weren’t going to be realized; it was as simple as that.
❝Is it like that, then? My bad. I was assuming you were like me because I have felt lonely before, even though someone was always around me.❞ Jongdae had a point though: Tarek was beyond ridiculous. It was childish naivity but it was sweet and genuine, something that was hard to find in young people these days. He didn’t use someone else’s thoughts or words against them, instead chose to pick them apart and analyze them in his very own way before comparing them to another situation that would make the other see the error in their ways. The younger was pretty sure that Jongdae knew he wasn’t telling the truth, but he didn’t want to call him out on that. It wasn’t his job to do so.
❝You know, my parents are divorced too. They went their separate ways when I was five. I remember my mother crying a lot about that, and then she got angry. Cursed at him through the phone, wished him to hell and all that but he never let that out on me. He always welcomed me with open arms, never rubbed it into my face that I was a product of an unhappy marriage that had ended in a disaster, even though he knew that I knew.❞ He paused, taking a moment to think of his next words. Sometimes, Tarek was too open for his own good but it seemed like the right thing to share what was on his mind. He had pried too much already anyway, it seemed only fair now.
No matter what argument Jongdae was going to give him now, Tarek wouldn’t let him get under his skin. Years of isolation and hardships faced underneath the wing of his mother and her sickness had molded him into the person he was today, a bright young man with an optimistic streak. ❝If that’s not love, then I don’t know what is.❞
His parents divorced not too long ago and he had handled their case. He’d been told many times that he was heartless for not even thinking about his parents, but in his position-- yes, he had thought about it and for his parents to be happy, they’d adopted him as a mutual decision. Their mutual decision to separate was their choice and he had made it come true. It had been fair of him to repay his adoptive parents that. No one thought of his side of the story, when it was revealed that he had taken the case of his parents’ divorce into his own hands.
Tarek clearly knew his way around words and Jongdae could feel his resolve breaking. The million words of a story he hated to tell began to bubble up his throat, accompanied with the emotions he despised with everything he had. This wasn’t professional of him-- but this also wasn’t... a professional setting where he could whip himself back into thinking in a certain manner. The brunette looked away from Tarek-- he knew he was lying. Rarely did anyone find out the points in time where a lawyer was lying, the look in Tarek’s eyes made him doubt himself.
“Familial love is the only thing that isn’t fabricated,” Jongdae tried to reason “You love your children because they are a part of you-- the continuation of what you were.” But, Jongdae never knew his real parents. He didn’t know who he was to become the successor of. His adoptive parents were well off in a wealthy setting, business meetings and jet-setting across the oceans--it was the reason of their divorce, despite being in love. “Love isn’t enough, though. It never is.”
There’s a quiet moment before Jongdae gripped the ring on his right hand, carefully looking at the hidden engraving . He exhaled quietly, “I’d know.”
