Believe Again: A Favor
A/N: Lol sorry guys, I wanted to do a Valentine's day extra before continuing with the next chapter, but I couldn't finish it because of all the work I had to do, and it's already way past Valentine's day... Oh well.
You had always thought that your daily meetings with Saeran were a secret kept only between the two of you, more or less. At least, that was what you had wanted to think. It just sounded more special that way. It wasn't as if your meetings needed to be intentionally hidden; it wouldn't be hard for anyone close to either of you to figure out that you were meeting someone every day at this time, anyway.
Well, you supposed someone would figure it out eventually. Even your parents had some suspicions of their own, except they never really pressed you about it when you offered them an acceptable excuse. You just didn't think the situation would come to this, and on a Friday, to boot.
Right now, standing in front of you, was a beautiful woman you had never seen in the vicinity of the park before today. If you had, you were sure you would have remembered someone as striking as her. Her bright, straight red hair that cascaded to the small of her back looked almost shiny beneath the dim evening rays. She was wearing a long, flowing white dress that stopped mid-calf, as well as a sun hat that cast a shadow over her eyes. It made the beautiful golden sheen in her eyes stand out, like glittering topaz stones. You wondered what a person like her would be doing in a common place like a park. She looked like a celebrity, and for a moment you had to rack your brains to see if you recalled any celebrity you knew who looked like her.
She raised a hand to tuck loose strands of hair behind her ear, and offered you a coy smile. It dawned on you then that you had been staring at her quite foolishly for the past minute. You had gotten so used to staring at Saeran you had forgotten that it wasn't exactly polite to do that to other people as well.
"Could you... could you perhaps, repeat that?" you asked, having yet to fully register her words when she introduced herself earlier.
Her lips stretched into a wider smile as she let out a small breath of laughter. "My name is Mary Vanderwood 3rd, and I'm Saeran's girlfriend."
Girlfriend. So you hadn't heard it wrong. You hoped that the sinking feeling in your chest was because you were seriously craving that ice cream which Saeran was taking an abnormally long amount of time to buy.
You couldn't even bring yourself to register the peculiarity of her name. (Was her last name 3rd, or was it Vanderwood? Did she come from a line of royals?) Perhaps it was from shock. You hadn't expected Saeran to actually have a girlfriend. Granted, the topic never came up between the both of you, but you had always assumed otherwise.
"I see..." you said, not quite sure what to say. You didn't know her, nor could you grasp the feelings that were stirring uncomfortably within you. You felt sick, and it felt like your heart was slowly being dragged down to the pit of your stomach. Why? You couldn't possibly have fallen for...
Unless, you had already... before you even realized it...
You tried to shake those thoughts from your head, attempting to ignore the dull ache that was growing in the base of your throat that made it hard to speak and breathe. There was no point in thinking about that. His girlfriend was here, and she was probably looking for him. You hoped that she wasn't upset about you meeting him here every day, even though he was already with her, or that this would be the last time you would get to meet Saeran in the park like this.
"Have you been meeting Saeran here every day?" she inquired in a gentle voice that you were not expecting. You couldn't detect any disdain or malice in it whatsoever, so you raised your head to meet her in the eyes. All you saw was kindness and genuine curiosity in them.
You could see why she was a good fit for him. Saeran needed kindness, and you were glad that he had found someone who could give him just that.
"Yes, I have," you replied with a small dip of your head.
"I'm glad," she grinned, closing her eyes and raising her head to face the sky. Her shoulders dropped and she released a big sigh of relief before looking at you again. "I'm glad he found a friend."
Friend. You weren't really sure about that. You supposed that would be the closest definition of your relationship, but it wasn't exactly it, either. There were still so many things you didn't know about him — you never really spoke much about yourselves. Talking was minimal with the both of you; silence was the bond that tied you to him when you were together. You learned about each other through keen observation, staring matches, to pick up on the little details. It was far from your typical friendship.
Then there was the fact that you didn't know if he even regarded you as a friend. He wasn't as cold as he used to be, but you wouldn't object to him talking more and opening up more to you. Of course, you had a feeling he didn't do that with most people. The fact that he wanted you to be here as well was good enough for you, so you were already a minority in a way.
You checked the time, and realized that Saeran would be getting back with the ice cream soon. You didn't want to be here when he came. Maybe it was because you didn't like being a third wheel, or maybe a part of you didn't want to see what kind of expression he had reserved just for his girlfriend to see. You knew it would spark off something rather unpleasant in you, and you didn't want to hang around for that to happen.
"Saeran should be back soon, so I guess I'll get going so you two can have some time together," you stated then. There would be little meaning in staying since she was here now, anyway.
You turned around, ready to leave, when she stopped you. "W-Wait!"
With a raised eyebrow, you peered over your shoulder at the woman who seemed to be deliberating on what else she could say to you. Her face lit up when something clicked in her head. "Since he'll take a while to get ice cream, we should talk more!"
You supposed that was true, but... "How did you know he's getting ice cream—"
"Ahahaha! Wow, I know my boyfriend so well it's like we're twins! I-I mean, twin... aliens born from outer space! Yes yes, that's it!" She continued laughing nervously, and you couldn't help but suspect she was hiding something from you. Apart from that, beneath her coy appearance, she seemed to be rather talkative and friendly. The polar opposite of Saeran. The thought of them on a date together... It rather amused you.
It also upset you. Just a little.
She then ushered you towards the bench, and you frowned a little when you noticed her take your spot on the left side. You quickly brushed it off though, mentally chiding yourself for being so petty and taking a seat next to her.
"Are you sure about me not leaving? I don't want to impose on anything."
"It's okay, I don't plan on staying here. You two just carry on with whatever you were planning to do," she grinned, nodding a little too enthusiastically. It looked like her sun hat would fall off her head at this rate.
You shot her a look of puzzlement. "Didn't you come to meet him?"
She shook her head. "No, I just came to see what sort of person you were, and I'm glad to know that it's you."
"Oh." Your response was lacking, but you couldn't really understand her. She was an eccentric person, that was for sure. Kind of like him, but eccentric in a different way. For a while, there was an awkward silence between the both of you, neither of you having much to say to the other. You used the sky to distract yourself, hoping that she would start a conversation soon.
Thankfully, she was a fast thinker, and before long she was chatting again. "So, what's Saeran like when he's with you?" she asked.
"Pardon?" The question had caught you off guard slightly.
"How does he behave? Does he talk a lot? Smile? Laugh?"
The corners of your lips lifted upwards. "If you're concerned about anything, there's nothing going on between us," you stated wryly.
She blinked twice, taking a moment to comprehend what you had just said, before her lower lip protruded in a pout. "Really? That's such a pity..."
You cocked your head to the side, confused. "...Sorry, what?" Had you heard her wrong?
"I-I mean... Ahahahahaha!" The loud laughter that burst out of her all of a sudden made you lean away slightly. She was definitely a strange one. "My brain malfunctions on an average of 0.5483 times a minute, sorry about that," she continued, apparently trying to cover up for the mistake she made. It didn't really help to ease your confusion. Then she waved her hand dismissively at you. "I'm not the type who gets jealous easily," she grinned. "I was genuinely curious when I asked you that."
"Oh..." It was nice that she was so easygoing. You could feel yourself warming up to her already. Saeran must have found it easy to open up to her too. "We don't talk all that much when we're here. And... he doesn't smile or laugh very often."
You suddenly felt a hand on your shoulder, and you jumped.
"Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," she said. Her expression had morphed into one of shock and wonder, for some reason. "In other words, you've seen him smile before? And he... he laughed?"
It struck you as odd why she was making such a big deal out of it. Shouldn't she be used to seeing him do those things? "Yes..." you replied, "he never really laughed, but he's chuckled a couple of times before."
"I can't believe it..." It was almost scary how wide her eyes had grown, and she looked away, as if seriously contemplating something.
"Is anything the matter?" you inquired, but she didn't seem to hear you. Her eyes were darting about as she pondered over your words, the skin on her forehead crinkling as she furrowed her brows in deep thought. Eventually, she managed to gather her wits about herself and then she spoke again.
"I have a favor to ask of you."
Your eyes darted to hers, and you found that all playfulness in her face was gone, replaced with stark seriousness. Almost as if she had transformed into a different person altogether. "Please, stay by his side." Her voice had softened, and it sounded a few tones deeper. If your eyes were covered, you would have easily mistaken her for a man.
Your lips parted, but you couldn't voice an appropriate response. She took your silence as an indicator that she could continue. "Saeran, he... doesn't have a lot of friends, and it seems that he's comfortable around you, so... I hope that you'll stay with him. He may not say very much, and he can be pretty cold around people, but deep down, he's a kind person. He's just... scared of opening up sometimes, because he's been hurt before. And he suffered for a long time, and at some point, he gave up on people..." she trailed off, her eyes clouding with moisture. She lowered her head then, the sun hat hiding her eyes from your line of sight. It took her a few moments to regain her composure, and then she raised her head once more, offering you a wide smile.
"Please, help him believe again, in the kindness and warmth that people can give him. Help him... so that he doesn't ever feel alone again."
A/N: Splitting this up so the funny will come next chapter. :D I would have updated this earlier but I got an idea for another Saeran fic just a few days ago and I've been busy drafting the first chapter and doing up research for it. I won't publish that new one until "Believe Again" is finished, which could take a while...
But, I'll probably post the first chapter for that new one on my tumblr when I'm done to see how the feedback is. :)
Oh, and just a head's up, I'm getting my A'level results back this Friday so I'm not sure whether I'll be too affected to write and stuff. So I can't tell you for sure when the next update will come, but I hope it won't take two weeks again haha.