For someone like Lee Chaerin, maybe it wasn’t any sort of big deal. She lived her life in front of a camera, lived her dreams and her nightmares in front of it, and basically poured her soul into the image she constantly had to present to the world onscreen. Her days were filled with gold-studded earrings and accessories, her nights were full of diamonds and six-inched heels. She was living the glamorous life and Seunghyun was only a tiny little piece in that- basically arm-candy.
They had started off as friends- he was sure. Or something like friends. If people like Lee Chaerin had friends, he might have fit in with that crowd. But most everybody was kept at arms length from her, the paparazzi’s flashbulbs separating her from making any real connections, and that was probably the saddest thing Seunghyun had ever encountered in a person.
Usually he would just let these sorts of things work themselves out; nothing to do with him, after all. But lately, he’d started to become more and more worried about her. They’d kept up this farce between them for a long time now, dating rumors were always easier to manage when it was all faked, apparently. They’d had a turbulent, on-again-off-again passionate love affair for the last two or so years, according to the magazines and gossip rags, which oftentimes seemed more acceptable to Chaerin than to Seunghyun.
At first he supposed it was because she craved the attention, but lately he’d begun to wonder, because now that he thought about it, she’d never actually had any other boyfriends…. had she? She’d never spoken about them to him before, and she’d never seemed uncomfortable or off-put by any of the publicity stunts he pulled whenever they needed to seem closer, or “back together.” The thought of other guys made him a bit sick, honestly, and also angry. At some point, he started to wonder if he actually liked her. He started teasing her more, joking about things or acting a little silly to get her to blush. She mostly just called him weird, but every once in a while, he could get her to blush and turn away from him, like he was just too much to handle, and he knew he’d won.
Today, they sat in an airport for the longest time, holding hands like always and waiting for the plane to call for boarding. Chaerin had had to pay money for Seunghyun to accompany her this far without an actual ticket, but she insisted it was worth it. For some entertainment. Unfortunately, Seunghyun wasn’t much for being goofy right now, he wasn’t in the mood- too preoccupied with whether he should ask about any other boyfriends she might have or not. He wanted to know, but at the same time, he didn’t want to know.
So instead he just sat next to her, staring down at their joined hands, speechless about how well they fit together? For two years, they’d fit together and Seunghyun wondered if maybe… well…. Could they just keep doing this? Forever? Like… what if he wasn’t just a fake boyfriend? What if…
The overhead speaker sounded and they both stood up, Chaerin’s manager collecting all her things. “Welp,” she smiled kindly at him and nodded. “I’ll see you when I get back?”
“Uh yeah- uhh….. Chae…” he started but then his voice caught in his throat.
He paused a long moment, nervous about what to say. Two years of pretend-dating her and he didn’t have a clue how to ask her to maybe be his girlfriend. He just kept thinking about how he didn’t want anyone else holding her hand. He didn’t want anyone else saying goodbye to her at airports or saying hello whenever she returned. He didn’t like the idea of anyone else taking his place in those tabloid photos- as annoying as they all were-
“Tempo? I gotta go, what is it?” she pressed.
He stared at her wide-eyed, thinking really hard about saying it, asking her, but then he closed his eyes and cupped her cheeks in his hands, kissing both her eyelids gently. “Get some sleep okay? And be safe. And come back to me….”
She chuckled, dismissive of his heavy words. “Don’t I always? No worries~”
He stood and watched her until she disappeared, waving back to her as she boarded, before sighing and messing up his hair. Ah fuck.