CAIA

he is too weak to bicker with her like they usually did, so he just let out a flat sigh, when she told him off at his comment how he just wanted to hang out. “i wanted to see you.” the truth is slipping past his lips way easier than expected and dohwan wasn’t too sure how eunmi would handle it, thinking of the past that connected the two of them. with a suppressed groan he lift up his body that felt like deadweight after throwing in painkillers from the seat. “but if you have plans for tonight, i’ll go.” the dark orbs which usually pooled strength and ruthlessness were dull and cold, as he looked past her like staring at the ghost of foretime. even if he was honest now, he had no clue how to prove it to eunmi so she would believe him.

depite their rather close relationship they always remained at a certain distance which made it hard to actually tell her about the secrets he held onto. the two of them belonged to different worlds, even when they lingered in similiar social circles at times. if she didn’t knew, she wouldn’t be endangered. that’s the kind of logic he had pursued since the day he had started to grow more distant towards her who he had always treated as his top priority. and up to this moment he was still biased towards the idea of her better not knowing about the blood sticking to his hands. so why was he still drawn to her and to the urge to reveal his identity? why, after all these years of remaining silent?

the sharp pain in his side reminded him at once. if he was a less lucky guy, major organs would have been hit and he would have bleeded out like a pig on the spot. “i’m sorry i couldn’t check up on you these past days… i had to… handle a few things.” manhandle to be precise, he thought, as he tried hard to keep his usual body posture that radiated confidence and strength.

          it feels too honest, how he says he wanted to see her, and eunmi would scoff if she didn’t know better, if she couldn’t tell from the moment she saw him that something was wrong. “ stop, ” she nearly huffs, annoyance etched in the details of her face as she watches him. “ why are you here instead of a hospital? ” though she should know the answer by now, she should know what’s going on with him, she could know, and it’s always been there   —   why her father favors him, why her father trusts dohwan to watch over her on his own. she’s never thought he’s innocent in his . . . side hobbies, but she’s never asked either. some days, she’s convinced he’s that one who established that line between him but she didn’t fight to change it. 

          “ you can’t, right? ” not being able to get documented medical treatment seemed to be a norm on the island and she looks away for a moment, walks away into her closet again only to come back in comfier clothes and some for him to change into, even though it’ll only create an additional hassle of him asking why she has spare mens clothes around. eunmi deliberately ignores what he says. if she doesn’t ask, it’s easier for him, maybe even easier for her to pretend she doesn’t like how he endangers himself. 

          it makes her ask too many questions, only voiced in her own mind; like why does her father trust him so much, what has he done if he’s been doing this for years, why is he so badly injured and still coming here like an idiot when she has only the most basic of medical training. she’s no seungjin, that’s certain, could’ve never been pre-med or anything of the sort. 

dohwan’s behaviour was hard to describe, hard to put into words as he was one moody fellow. it wasn’t easy to grasp it by outsiders, since the way he treated eunmi was unreasonable. even he didn’t know why he was going so far for her, when all the two of them was constantly fighting and bickering over petty things. but even when he was confusing as hell, her comment is more than ridiculous. “do you think food is more important to me than- ” the weight of his words hit him at once and he stops himself from ridicule the situation with another spiral of complicated and blurred slurs.

“i’m coming with you.” he insists while picking up his car keys. it was true, even if he had visited clubs on a regular base back then, he wasn’t the type to flounder his body around in the same idiotic ways other club guests did in order to attract the opposite gender. “i’ll be by the bar, getting a few drinks.” him, dancing, that was definitely something she wouldn’t dare to see. the only dance was the one he did with victims that were trying to get away. black orbs muster her, when he walks past her towards the door. dohwan turns around one more time, deliberately making a remark to tease her right back. “got a problem with that, milady?”

standing by the door, ready to take over the night in myeongcho, he gets caught back by her scoffing. if it wasn’t for eunmi, the two of them wouldn’t be able to see each other as often as they did now. if it wasn’t for eunmi, dohwan would have broke apart their bond for the longest time, just like he had done it with other relationships before. “are you coming now?”

          part of her thinks she ought to leave his question where it is, entirely overlook the opportunity to mock him for it when he made it all too easy. but just how easy it is just adds onto the problem with it, onto the problem of asking how important she is. so she scoffs, brows raising only momentarily before she laughs it off. 

          “ what if i don’t want to go with you? you scare off anyone that wants to dance with me. you could burn holes into the dance floor, ” which she supposes is at least better than bullet holes but still. “ you’re so inconsistent. one minute, you concede to the fact that i’m not a lady and the next you think you’re so clever by calling me one to taunt me. do you think i’m that easily provoked? did you think i would really go if you do? ”

he sits with the back towards the door, where she is coming in from, but he hears her nonetheless, slightly turning his head, when she walked past him towards her closet. at the sight of the towel that barely covered her bare body, dohwan turned his head away, partly out of politeness and partly out of fear to be called a pervert. she greets him with a wave of her hand so he returns the gesture weakly, absentminded. things didn’t go well these days. never had he believed that there was a traitor among hydrus member, and of all people it had been their second-in-command as well. the trust among the members had been completely destroyed and grim was actually one of them. drifter had been loved by everyone, had been charismatic and bright like a flame to lure in moths to come to close to its killing heat.

but to him those who were blinding shouldn’t be on top. in order to be king’s right hand man, one had to become a monster. that was why he had been tempted to offer himself. only someone who was loyal to hydrus and was willing to give his all to the gang, was suited to become the new sic. however he saw it, things had turned against him, despite his work and efforts to prove himself, the position had been snatched away like a snack by someone grim would have never imagined to be eyeing that position. rage had consumed his heart since then, and along of it, the pain of his wound sent bolts throughout his whole body whenever he did a step. he was sure that it was a dark age of hydrus and who knew how things would end up for them with that kind of guy as king’s right hand man.

eunmi returns fully closed and dohwan can relax as soon as she comes up to him, mustering him. his eyes reflect tiredness and he can barely keep them open, and how much he would love to let himself fall into a good, recovering slumber, the wound wouldn’t let him. “no, things had calmed down mostly.” he utters short-breathed, not making eye contact with her at all because he felt that she would sense easier what was going on with him and the piercing pain in his side. “i’m just here to hang out, so don’t overthink things.” dohwan attempts to tease her like he usually did, but it rather sounded pathetic because in fact he wasn’t here to just hang out. the urge to see her, in case he wouldn’t survive the night, had pushed him forward to his estate after all. “and your house looks better than mine.”

          she isn’t foolish enough to believe he hasn’t had enough on his mind with the recent events but that doesn’t make her courteous enough to forgive it just yet either; to forget that someone so concerned with her well-being to the point of not allowing her to drink or go out clubbing or to any place deemed unsavory or not ladylike ( whatever the hell that means ) didn’t check on her through all of the chaos. eunmi is selfish that way, bratty, a little too pressed when it comes to dohwan and how he spends his time or company. unknowingly, he’s one of her easiest triggers and thinking that she’s annoyed by him is the full extent of his knowledge of her feelings. it’s how everything between them is brushed off   —   annoyance, a burden, some kind of hidden, secret, and unspoken obligation because of childhood attachment. 

          “ hang out   —   i’m not some host or something. i’m not here to entertain you at whim. what if i had plans? ” and, truthfully, even if she did, she cancels, ironically, at whim. she is the one who treats others as if they are to entertain her on whim and she does so shamelessly. if anything, eunmi is good at it for absolutely no reason other than she utilizes power to her advantage, loves to see how far people are willing to go for her favor, for her father’s favor, and, most of the time, in terms of entertainment and that only, people don’t disappoint. in the end, it’s boredom that determines her time limit for someone. so the very concept she mocks dohwan for is what she’s guilty of. 

                                                                            ( * a kiss for you … @mieunmi !! )

jessica likes pretty things.

it’s one of the more materialistic attributes she has. she likes nice jewelry, clothing that’s so soft against your skin it lulls you into sleep. she likes pretty faces with nice complexions and even sweeter smiles. she likes things with gemstones and accents that are fit for queens and kings. she didn’t grow up with these sort of things, but oh, how she loves them, and god does she have an eye for the aesthetic.

even now, trailing her eyes down the girl’s body in thought, head tilting to the side as she hums idly. she studies the fabric over the fair skinned girl carefully, teeth worrying her lower lip. the lavender looks lovely against eunmi’s complexion, pretty enough that it makes jessica relax a bit. sharp fingernails tap a rhythm on her arm, digging into her skin when she gets caught up in a thought.

          if anything, eunmi ought to see jessica as a role model. ought to being the key words because eunmi hardly thinks anyone is worthy, detests the concept of a role model when she only strives to be herself one day, to make her own decisions one day. 

          that said, she’d deny it to her absolute core that jessica is a role model to her but, in another life, she could admit so with ease, that jessica is a powerful woman who acts of her own will. what else could any woman aspire to, truthfully, in a world so predominantly biased towards men? “ anything could, ” she jokes with a light tone, feigned boredom when really she adores styles like this, adores being styled like this. so few people know her taste this well. 

"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is."

@mieunmi

the zooming sound of the surveillance cameras on him, as soon as he stood in front of the gate to eunmi’s home, brought back memories from the past. when he was younger, he had been here more often, had tagged along with the other two of their group of four to visit eunmi, when they felt like it. now it was rather rare for him to be the one at her door, as he was usually too busy to come over just like that. she however looked for him on a more regular base, since eunmi usually was the one who entered his house without his knowledge because she had easier access to his estate than he to hers. it was obvious that the shim family was more careful about their surroundings than a unimportant family like the woo family, so dohwan waited patiently in front of the gate, holding his face up to be identified. he might appear suspicious, wearing all black, cap pulled down and being a tall and broad hunk, but he had been here often enough for the housekeeper to know his face. silently he followed the staff member inside, into the wide rooms of the shim family’s residence, before he took off his cap and settled down on a seat in eunmi’s bedroom.

          she expects her room to be empty when she steps out of the bathroom and so when she spots a familiar figure casually sitting in her room, she tries not to show her surprise   —   if it were anyone else, she might’ve panicked, might’ve yelled at them to get out without invitation but it is dohwan after all. he is the last person she would expect to try to take advantage of a situation and so she’s nonchalant as she walks over to her closet, barely acknowledging him with a wave of her hand despite holding onto her towel a little tighter. good thing she had chosen to wear one today of all days. 

        “really?” minji asks without a second though to eunmi’s words, a gentle smile forming on her lips. it was hard for her not to feel almost completely enamored in the other woman’s presence; she had to remind herself constantly not to overstep the boundaries of friendship. even if she can’t help the way her heart flutters in her chest as the other brings the sunflower closer to her face, her smile growing a little brighter, “you have a good point… but I just love seeing your smile, it makes me happy.” she admits, smile still resting genuinely over her features.               

      “oh?” minji perks up a little more at the request, one that she knows she doesn’t have to think over — for someone that showed such a love for flowers, and such a kindness towards her, there was no question on whether or not she could do the work, she’d do it. no questions, no complaints, because that’s what friends do, right? “I would be honored to help. Making arrangements is always more enjoyable when it’s for you.”

     and perhaps it would be a way for them to grow closer to one another — although, naturally, their friendship had been growing wonderfully already. minji just wanted to learn more about eunmi, and spending time to help her was always welcome in her book.  in all honesty, minji felt like she would do just about anything for her; floral related, or otherwise.

    “do you need help in figuring out a theme? the shop has some new arrivals, if that might be of any help to get any ideas?”

          normally if eunmi were to be told such sweet words by anyone else, she wouldn’t take them past face value. normally, she just writes them off, automatically determines it’s part of some ploy but, with minji, she acknowledges the sincerity. there’s just something about her that eunmi actually trusts compared to others and there’s rarely anyone she trusts now that she hasn’t known for years. minji happens to be an exception to that particular unspoken rule. 

          not many know of her love for flowers either   —   it’s not exactly something she wants to advertise, that she does enjoy them because of the possible misconstruction that she likes them purely for the romantic aspect. it’s always been a shame to turn down flowers but she wasn’t foolish enough to entertain just anyone who tried to court her when she was younger. her father wouldn’t stand for it and his high standards had become hers in stead. for ease, she would say she preferred more “ unique ” gifts and she does admit the attempts were quite amusing. again, minji is an exception to yet another rule.