#sesul

She shook her head, ebony hair gleaming under the fluorescent lights. “Nope.” Her lips popped on the last syllable. Yeah, it had definitely been English class. “Come on, we better get started on this: I don’t want to put it off until the last minute.”

“Do you know what the opposite of love is?”

The second time, it’s the summer before they start high school. Their moms, old friends and rivals growing up, had signed them up for the same ballroom dance class. Upon discovering this, the instructor had paired them together immediately, saying since they were childhood friends they should dance together, which he found odd. Sehun had never considered Jinri as his friend before.

He spun her around, noting how often she wore white to these classes. “You’ve asked me that before.”

“I’m asking you again.” She smiled at him as they fall back into the steps, barely making a sound as they twirled across the glossy floor.

“I still think it’s hate.”

“Then you’re still wrong.” He didn’t get the chance to respond before the instructor called for their attention.

“Do you know what the opposite of love is?”

They were walking beside the ocean the next time she asked. He was, at least. Her shoes were hanging off her fingers as she stepped into the salty water. It was spring break, right before college graduation. The sun was starting to dip below the horizon, casting its last rays on the young woman by his side.

Well, they hadn’t exactly been walking. Sehun had been on one knee, a ring box in his hand, waiting for an answer. He sighed. “I still say it’s hate.”

“You’re still wrong.” At this angle, the dying sunlight looked like a halo behind Jinri and he wondered if he was imaging the tears in her eyes. “But yes, I’ll marry you.”

“Do you know what the opposite of love is?”

The last time she asked, they were laying their daughter in her bassinet, just home from the hospital. She smiled as she asked, pressing a kiss to their daughter’s stocking cap-adorned head, allowing him to do the same, before asking.

He sighed, taking her hand. “You always ask me that, Jinri,” he whispered as they made their way down the hall to their own bedroom. “And you always say hate isn’t the opposite of love.”

“It’s not.” She looked away, tugging her hand from his as she began to loosen the braid in her hair.

“How so?”

She releases a long breath. “Because love and hate are essentially the same: they’re both strong feelings towards a certain person who, usually, feels the same way back, and you feed off that energy of each other. If you hate someone, you expect them to hate you back. If you love someone, you expect them to love you back.” Her voice cracked the second time she said ‘love.’ “One is positive and one is negative. They do share a common opposite though.”

“Which would be?” She turned back to face him and Sehun couldn’t help the soft, sudden intake of breath he took.

She was crying, lips pressed in a thin line as she trembled and, for the first time, she was glaring at him. “Indifference,” she spat, not bothering to wipe away her tears as more fell. “The opposite of feeling something so strongly for a person is feeling nothing at all.” A soft sob escaped her as her gaze softened. “I love you and you’ve never been anything but indifferent to me, Oh Sehun!”

“What are you talking about?!” His eyes widened at the accusation. “I love you!”

“Liar! You’ve always been lying!” Her voice faltered for a moment. “You knew they all expected this. You played the part of the perfect son so well, pretending to be kind to me in front of all of them, ignoring me when you saw me at school. Then you chose to go to the same college as me and convinced me it’d be a good idea to share an apartment, and I was stupid enough to think you had finally started to feel something for me!”