it takes a while for him to register her words, the overwhelming pot of self-pity cultured by years of brooding over the reason why she left making him reflexively doubt his own ears. it’s the truth, the part of him that’s hopeful zooms in on the first half of the sentence–believe in the fact that she wants to ask you out. it sits like a hopeful angel upon his shoulder, even as he stares at her and drowns in the simplicity of her actions–how beautiful she seems, seated upon the floor, eyes lifted and hair falling slightly over her shoulders, the white ball of fluff that was once supposed to be theirs frolicking happily in her arms.
“i’m not that ridiculous.” he mumbles, shaking his hair slightly, allowing his fringe to fall right over his eyes as he avoided her stare, stiffening as she drew close, hands wrapping round his middle, wetting his shirt with her wet hands.
he stares almost incredulously at her, both unable to comprehend her affection and the ease of it that shouldn’t have been the case, especially in the narrative of his own reality.
“uh…” clearly, he was equally as stupid as years before, when his crush on her was still fresh as hell, and just being around her could reduce him into spewing plain stupidity out of his mouth, even though he played it off better back then as arrogance. “there’s the five second rule.” he blinks at her, grabbing the ramen back from her hands. “besides–” a slight huff formed in a pout upon his lips. “the hot water kills all the germs, right? it’s not as if i cooked it and then dropped it on the floor and decided to grandly munch on it for lunch. it’ll be fine. i’ll have this ruined packet, and open a new one for you.”
it’s genuinely rare for them to communicate like this, he thinks to himself, taking the packet of ramen from her hands and slipping it into the pot of boiling water, crushing the empty packets between his hands and throwing it into the dustbin.
he used to be–no, he was always angry around her, even more so, now in the present.
“what are we doing, haeni?” the chopsticks poke the cooking noodles, his head tilted slightly and eyes fixed upon the boiling food before him, lips pursed and the ache in his heart returning quickly as he avoided her stare. “remind me again, what exactly are we doing here, in this place, acting like lovers or friends when we’re supposed to be friends?”
he hated the word when it came to her, teeth biting down upon his lower lips, the swivel of his hands stirring the boiling ramen therapeutic, as he afforded himself the distraction, choosing not to confront her or look her in the eyes. he couldn’t.
after all, he wouldn’t know what exactly to say if their eyes met.
i love you? i missed you?
i don’t care that you left back then? he didn’t even have the right to do something like that. they were nothing to each other but friends back then after all.
“so why didn’t you ask me out back then?” the words echo sorely between them, filled of memories of watching her fall into the arms of an older man and return, with her bright, and his heart and sense of inferiority crushed below. “i was available. and i doubt that i was ugly in your eyes.” he leaned back against the counter, dropping in the new packet of ramen and crossing his arms, focusing his eyes upon the furball that now clambered up onto haeni’s shoulders. “i mean, you didn’t even flinch when i ruined my looks with that half and half dyed hair. so clearly, you don’t think i’m that ugly.”
years of stifled subsistence, as if hands had been wrapped around her throat. bruised marks labelling her pinky flesh a sombre mauve, though it was nothing compared to the aching in her joints. a wheezy breath of disappointment that barely sustains her, one might even refer to her as a walking corpse at this stage with how she so wearily holds her head. it hangs low, feeling the muscle pain against her shoulders as she forces herself to perform as the confident ex trainee that she was morphed to be. oh how miserable she had become after his departure, no - after her departure. it was almost unfair as to put the weight of her exit of their relationship on him, as unfair as how she felt he had put all the blame on her without understanding a single thing. the harshness of his words, how coarse and bellowing they were in her reverie. a shudder takes over her for a moment, gaze lost in the sharpness of his features.
a chuckle escapes her salmon tinted lips, her own features soften as he spoke - nodding. “sure, the hot water will kill all the germs.” though she doesn’t discount the fact that all the dirt would remain in the soup, knowing that he probably hadn’t taken the most care in ensuring its cleanliness. a gentle sigh following.
and it was moments like this, that gave her a sense of hope. the same chorus that they had shared crescendos to a reminiscent time of when her tears fell out of happiness and not out of sheer grief. then, it inevitably stops. it shatters - the harsh reality of their past seeps into the tattered papers that she had tried so hard to keep wrapped in by feigned ignorance. perhaps if she had tried enough to ignore it, their shared reality could be misinterpreted as something beautiful, as something worth having - as something more than this suppressed hostility.
what are we doing, haeni?
silence befell in between each of his syllables, failing to find the right words to fill in the stillness of their conversation. though her gaze never fails to trace the outlines of his features, something about the way he holds himself still mesmerises her, even in tense moments as these. she felt as if he were trying to elicit some sort of reaction out of her, some sort of validation to confirm the tempestuous scenarios in his mind. she remains silent, her gaze finally falling to the floor beneath, no longer able to gaze at his features. a sense of stinging penetrating her chest, fingers curl almost instinctively and nothing but a slow, deep inhale takes place of empty words.
she doesn’t want to accidentally spew something amidst all the chaos of her emotions. unsaid words that had been left silenced for good reason, and she suppresses the urge to scream - one, that she knows will follow by a ceaseless tirade of tears.
“why didn’t you ask me?” she finally manages to hush between tinted lips, “i waited but-” she pauses, digits lifting to take bitna (or was it female hyuk? she has yet to decide) “... but nothing ever happened. i was young and i did what i thought was right, even if now - those thoughts have changed, i can’t change what i’ve chosen to do.” she feels like she was going in circles, having sworn she had said the exact thing at one point or another to him, or perhaps, it was her therapist. a clouded judgement and an even cloudier reverie, keeping her from having anything productive with him - especially when both players had lost their controllers.
“i would never think you were ugly.” her gaze lifting to meet with his again, “never.” the sincerity bleeding from her voice was evident in the way her hues almost glistened with regret for having not stuck by his side. villainising herself. “but... you’re right. i shouldn’t be here, we’re... we’re nothing.” not even friends but rather distant colleagues who frequented the same shows, representing opposing companies.