Of Kisses and Crushes
Pairing: Ban Ryu x Soo Yeon
Rating: G
Word Count: 1063
He couldn’t stop thinking about her. He knew he must have hurt her feelings with the way he had brushed her off, Soo Ho’s livid roars in his direction after he had walked away indicating he had done that and much more. The memory of Soo Yeon crying after her brother, telling him to stop was enough to cause his heart to clench.
‘Why didn’t you speak to her then, you fool? Why are you letting Young Shil ruin this for you too?’ A part of him snarled and Ban Ryu sighed, pressing his fists into his eyes so hard he saw pops of colour.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ another side piped up, ‘if you can’t even stand up to Young Shil, what could you ever do for Soo Yeon?’
His heart sank when he realized the truth in the words. He was trapped, he couldn’t so much as breathe without Young Shil’s permission and he had fooled himself into believing he could love? And someone like Soo Yeon at that? She was light and happiness and everything that was good in the world. Could he really marr her light with his inescapable darkness?
That girl -- Ah-Ro had asked him if his feelings for Soo Yeon were genuine. As if the very mention of her name wasn’t enough to cause his heart to thunder erratically. As if the sight of her familiar handwriting etched into a page wasn’t something he could stare at for hours on end, imagining her gentle hands curved around a brush, painstakingly tracing out her words to him. The words she had thought out for only him. His hand brushed over his heart, where he kept her letter to him tucked away in the folds of his clothing. It would most likely be the last she would ever send him, considering how he had treated her.
“Master Ban Ryu?”
And now he was even hearing her voice.
“...Are you going to ignore me again?”
He almost tripped over his own feet in his haste to turn and face her when he realized that she was really here and not a figment of his imagination.
She was glowing. The sky blue of her clothing catching the light in a way that made her look ethereal. There was a pregnant silence as they stared at each other. Her, seeking answers to questions her tongue dared not ask, and him drinking in the sight of her, beautiful and in that moment, all his.
“I’m sorry.”
He spoke the words softly, averting his gaze to the dirt, afraid that if he said them any louder she would realize just how foolish she was to be standing here with him. When he glanced up, he found her watching him, an odd softness in her gaze, half a smile playing about her lips.
“For what?”
They fell back into silence again, with him wondering why she wasn’t upset with him and her staring at him with a fond look on her face. She seemed to realize that he wouldn’t be speaking again and heaved a great sigh before she opened her mouth to continue a conversation.
“Consider us even now. I… did that to you and now you brushed me off. The score has been settled?”
Ban Ryu nodded, clasping his hands behind his back in an effort to hide how clammy they were suddenly. Part of him wondered why she was here, why she had come to speak to him. He scuffed at the ground in front of his feet errantly. He could feel his heartbeat in his throat, feel her eyes on him.
“Did you need something?” He asked finally, and Soo Yeon’s head snapped up to look at him, a smile breaking out over her face when she realized he had spoken to her. It began to fade quickly though when she processed what he had said.
“I just meant - you came all this way, was there something you needed from me?” Ban Ryu clarified quickly, his hands clenching behind his back when he realized that he could have ended this entire thing by letting her live with her misconception, but the idea of her thinking he didn’t cherish every second she was in front of him was unacceptable to him.
“Not so much something I wanted from you,” she began softly, a light pink flush covering her cheeks as she wrung her hands in front of her, “as much as something I wanted to give to you.”
The letter tucked against his chest was suddenly burning hot, searing her mark into his flesh. He watched her expectantly, a warm feeling building within his chest as she fumbled about with the voluminous fabric of her sleeves, peeking up at him through her lashes.
“Miss Soo Yeon?” He asked, hoping his voice didn’t squeak on her name or betray his heart’s galloping pace at the way she looked directly at him when he said her name, something flashing through her eyes. Something that he was sure was echoed in his own.
It felt like life was moving in slow motion as he watched her take a step closer to him, and then another, and another until she was pressed up against him and he could feel her breath on his cheek. He was sure he must look like a slack-jawed fool, frozen in time, afraid that one move of his would make her realize what she was doing.
And then her lips were pressed against his cheek, soft and warm, and a jolt of electricity surged through his entire being. In that moment he could have taken on the entire Hwarang house and emerged victorious.
She pulled away from him a few moments later, although he could have sworn they had spent hours in such close proximity, and smiled down at the ground, blushing madly. He would have smiled, but he wasn’t entirely sure he had control of his body yet.
He was staring down at her with an indescribable tempest brewing in his chest, a desire to protect her, keep her close to him, and he made a decision right then that he prayed he would always be able to follow through on that he would do just that.
He didn’t know whether what they felt for each other was love, but he knew that he was only too eager to find out.