@yhsiwoo ( somewhere around 2017 )
at this point she’s lost count of how many times she’s practiced this dance. it’s not even hard, her coach would say, but she keeps on messing up at the same damn part again and again, as if her body refuses to get it right even if she’s had the moves perfectly memorized in her head by now. sorry, i’ll start over. she would say, breathe, get back into her position. shit, sorry. i’ll get it right this time. and then comes another sorry, and another, and by the time she says it again, her coach finally stops her and gives her that same disappointed look she’s had during their last practice.
what’s wrong with you? oh, how she wishes she knows. you’ve been doing this for weeks, and the monthly evaluation is in two days. do you really wanna fail it again? you came at me and begged me to help you practice, but if this is how you’re gonna behave… you’re just wasting my time, sujin. i know you’re tired, but everyone’s tired. everyone’s working hard. if you feel like you don’t wanna do this anymore, you can just tell the management you want to quit. nobody’s got time to deal with your attitude, so get your shit together and get the damn move right.
out of all the things she could say, the word sorry falls from her lips again, and for the last time that day. she watches as the coach leaves the room, feels the sting of tears in her eyes as she moves to pack her stuffs. the words cut deep into her heart, but she can’t even blame the coach for what she said. she’s right. lately sujin has been off her game, like she’s losing her focus, like she’s not putting her all in everything that she does. it’s not like she’s not trying, she does, she swears she really does, but nothing just seems to go her way these days. maybe she’s losing her passion, but she’s been through so much for her to quit now. how could she go home just to prove her mother right, that she’s nothing but a failure, even in something that she genuinely enjoys?
lately everything feels so annoying to her, and as soon as she’s met with siwoo upon leaving the company building, she couldn’t help but let out a long, exasperated sigh as her eyes watch him come closer. usually she would be happy to see him, although more often than not their meeting would end up with her yelling at him, but this, this is just not the right time for him to be showing up without any prior notice.
“what are you doing here?” is the first thing she says to him, an unamused look on her face. “if you’re looking for soyeon, she’s already left a long time ago.” maybe she could have at least given him a smile, thanks him for even paying her a visit if that’s why he’s here, but she’s not in the mood to be doing all that at the moment. instead she frowns, looks at him as if he’s not the same man who always makes it easy for her to forget about her issues, as if he’s not the same man that holds her and makes her feel less lonely when they’re together. “i told you not to come see me for a while, didn’t i? the company has been giving me shit for sneaking out at nights, and i really don’t need them to see us here. that’s just… you’re just gonna make things worse for me.”
some say love is blind, but to siwoo, love is like tunnel vision — when they become all that you see, the good, the bad and everything else in between. he sees all of her, or at least, that’s what he believes, and every bit of it so captivating, even the barbed bits that only hurt him. she’s been under a lot pressure, she’s tired from all that training, she already has a lot on her mind, he’ll tell himself. well, there are some truths to that, right? but that isn’t all, he starts lying to himself too, telling himself things like, she needs someone to care for her and to be there for her, worst of all, he started to believe the one thing he never should’ve — she needs me.
siwoo will do anything for sujin. he’s not sure how he has gotten to this point of being a literal doormat for her but he does it all without complains, though there are times he wishes she had more time for him, or at the very least, to try and make time for him. it doesn’t have to be much, just a phone call would do, or a simple meal at a roadside stall near bd entertainment. he’d be satisfied even if all they did was share a roll of kimbap, or a bowl of tteokbokki, before she rushes back for training. he just wanted to see her and that isn’t too much to ask for... right?
apparently not. his eager gaze was met with a look of utter vexation and he tries, with all his might, to not falter, despite how much it hurt to know that she wasn’t as happy to see him, as he was to see her. she probably had a rough day, he tells himself yet again as he closes the distance between them, and that’s exactly why she needs me. ironically, the smile on his face wasn’t an attempt at hiding his true feelings, he was actually that happy to see her, pity she didn’t share his sentiments.
whatever minuscule strength he was relying on to maintain his cheery demeanour crumbled the moment she asked him what he was doing there. his face fell and his gaze darts to his feet, unsure of how to respond to the hurtful question he was posed. “um,” he swallows, “no, I’m not here for soyeon.” he mutters softly, picking his gaze up from his feet and meeting her eyes once again. how she could look at him that callously was something he never understood but he always manages to come up with a reason to justify her actions, even the ones he knew deep down weren’t justifiable. but he loves her and he should accept all of her, even the bad parts, no, especially the bad parts. right?
“I...” he pauses and hesitates, but figures there was no point lying. maybe she’ll be happy to hear that I missed her, maybe not, but it’s ok. “I just wanted to see you,” he spills, “because I really missed you.” his eyes gazed into hers nervously, unsure of how she would react to his confession. would it only trouble her more, having to deal with him after a long day? or would it be like how he wanted it to be, for his presence to serve as a pick-me-up and energiser, the least he could do for her while she was working hard to achieve her goals? he can only hope it was the latter, even if he already had an inkling that it wasn’t.
it was always difficult for siwoo to ignore his heart and follow his mind — things just do not work that way for him. his mind tells him, she already told you not to visit her for now, but then his heart will argue back, but I miss her and I don’t want to be apart from her, and he does just that, whatever his heart tells him. unfortunately, this is a double-edged sword that he might’ve wielded once again, the moment he decided to visit her, even after she had explicitly told him not to. that means he can’t blame her for her negative reaction, he doesn’t have the right to since he was the one who went against her wishes — he was the one in the wrong.
“I know... I just thought, maybe we could go for dinner together since you might be hungry after practicing all day.” he explains, picking at his nails ruefully. “I didn’t know it’ll... make things worse for you.” he whispers the last words, feeling each syllable pierce through his heart like a jagged sword. “I’m sorry.”