Hello! here is the chapter! I hope you enjoy it! thanks for putting up with my irregular schedule; and thanks to Sandy for all her patience and help.

Chapter THIRTEEN : Like The Sun

Six Years Before.

It was entirely too amusing to watch Hae Soo sleep, Wang So thought. The way she scrunched up her nose, the little sounds she made and the smile that played on her lips showed how amused she was with her dreams. Plus, her skin was the smoothest, softest thing he had ever touched.

"Please tell me you're not watching me sleep," Soo mumbled, eyes still closed.

"What if I am?"

"That'll be my luck, I guess. I sleep with a guy and then I find out he's a creep."

"I'm not a creep. I'm romantic," So countered, moving over her now that she was awake and showering her face with kisses.

Soo sighed in contentment, parting her legs for him as he settled over her.

"A. Creep. You're just lucky that I think you're cute," Soo declared, letting him kiss her as both their hands wandered over each other's nakedness. Her little moans and gasps were turning him on like crazy.

It was So's turn to sigh as he slid back into her body, feeling complete and close to her in a way he had no words for.

Hae Soo surrounded him and overwhelmed his senses, and it was like the sun was moving over his skin and warming him from the inside at the same time, and nothing mattered but staying under that sunlight.

-0—0-

Present Day.

Hae Soo woke up to find herself alone in an unfamiliar bed, and it took her a moment to remember she was in So's room. The framed photograph of herself and Seol on the night-table helped her realize where she was though she decided not to dwell on it. (To be honest, So's whole house was full of photographs of the two of them (So and Soo) in their younger days, and of Seol).

Soo stretched slowly, enjoying the ridiculous thread count of his sheets and listening to the sounds beyond the partially closed door (which mostly consisted of Seol's chipper voice and So's rumbly one).

After a moment, she got up, wrapped the sheet around herself and wandered towards the in-suite bathroom. She found a pile of clothes neatly folded on the counter which included her undergarments, and what looked like some sweatpants and a t-shirt from So along with a new toothbrush.

Feeling a little sticky—it was no wonder with the workout So put her through the previous night—she decided to step into the shower for a quick rinse. The hot water soothed her achy muscles. Once out, she put on her undies and decided to skip the bra, pulling on So's baggy t-shirt and tying the string of her sweatpants tight, rolling them at the waist a few times until her feet showed.

When she finally made it to the kitchen, she found a still-mostly-asleep Baek Ah trying to make coffee, Seol setting the table and So manning three different pans on the fire.

"Wow. How long have you been up?"

"Oh, about an hour," So said. "A certain little girl wanted a glass of water and then wanted to play outside, and then wanted to watch cartoons...and then we decided to make breakfast."

"I helped, Umma!" Seol chirped. "I woke up uncle Baek Ah!"

"And it was a lot of help, Princess," So agreed while Baek Ah glared.

"Okay, what can I help you with?"

"Sit and look pretty, I got this under control."

Soo smiled and let herself be pampered, taking the coffee cup Baek Ah offered and waited for So to finish cooking. Soo remembered so many lazy mornings spent with So at his old apartment. When it was just the two of them, they would goof around and she would cook for him. He would eat everything like it was the best food he had ever tasted.

It had been lovely six years ago, and now, with the addition of their daughter and with Baek Ah in tow, it was like a fantasy Soo hadn't known she had always had: sitting around the table with the people she loved, like a real family.

.

After breakfast was done, the dishes were cleared, and Baek Ah left. Soo gave Seol a bath while So took his own shower, deciding that if he asked her, she would spend the day with him... and maybe the night as well.

-0-

Wang Yo was going crazy.

He hadn't seen or heard from Mun Seong since Friday night when she had left the party in the midst of Yeon Hwa's untimely announcement. After So had called to let him know that he and his girlfriend had dropped Mun Seong home, Yo had immediately made his way toward her apartment. However, when he got there she wouldn't answer the door, and she had changed the combination so he couldn't get in—though he suspected that she wasn't home.

He sat outside her apartment door, trying to figure out who to call but then it hit him: he had no idea who her friends were. The few times Mun Seong had tried to introduce him to them early on in their relationship, he had cancelled on her number times and after a while she stopped trying.

The only person he knew Mun Seong was friends with was Park Soon Deok but that was too obvious. Not that he didn't give in and call her the next day when he still hadn't heard from Mun Seong. Soon Deok didn't know where Mun Seong was: "And I wouldn't tell you either, if I did," she had added.

On Sunday, he had even called So and asked him to ask his girlfriend. But those two hadn't been of any help either.

So now, on Monday, he had resorted to ask Won to go through his various sources to see if she had any work engagements. And that's how he wound up basically stalking her outside the offices of one of the magazines she often worked for.

He waited, and each passing minute drove him a little crazier. Which was probably why he was currently measuring time by how often certain ads showed up on the advertisement screen near the elevator bank. Starting his count each time a quote from a recent novel flashed on the screen (" He looked at her like she was the sun, in that he never looked at her except in frustration…"), and each time he read another line.

("He basked in her warmth, he complained when she was gone, but he never looked.")

Yo almost missed her, not recognizing the clothes she wore, nor the way she had styled her hair today in a low-ponytail. She usually wore her hair loose when she was with him...probably because he had told her once that he preferred it that way. It was strange, the way she held herself: the little space behind her ears making her look younger and more vulnerable somehow.

("On days she was muted, he complained.")

"Kang Mun Seong!" He called out, perhaps too loudly and then took a step back when she turned to him and glared. ("On days she was stronger, he hid from her.")

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"We need to talk."

Mun Seong looked at him for a moment, tilting her head to the side. Considering him as he were a subject she was about to photograph; as if she was looking at him for the first time. "I don't think we need to talk," she said finally. "I think you need to listen."

"Fine, then, I'm listening."

"I'm ending our engagement."

"Don't be silly, you can't do that."

"Why can't I?" She said calmly as panic began to settle over him. "I've been thinking about it a lot these last couple of days… I thought, what kind of person would I be if I stayed with you after what happened at that stupid party, about what kind of life would that be for me-"

"If this is about Yeon Hwa-"

"Of course it is."

"She's just a friend."

"How stupid do you think I am?" Mun Seong laughed bitterly. "Did you honestly think that I didn't know who she was all these years?"

"You never mentioned it."

"I hoped it would go away but that was foolish. But it doesn't change the end result: I can't do this anymore."

"Look, if you're angry-"

"I'm not angry," She said firmly. "I'm sad." That shut him up, and she went on. "I'm always sad, feeling like I'm lacking somehow. Always wondering if you're thinking of her or if you're blaming me because you can't be with her. And I've tried my best to be whatever you needed me to be, so I would mean something to you, but you don't want that… and perhaps I don't want it either. Maybe I convinced myself that I did in order to cope—I don't know anymore."

"Mun Seong–"

"I'll pack whatever things you left in my apartment and send them to the Wang Estate. And I'll tell my parents the engagement is broken. You can tell yours."

"Wait!" He grabbed her wrist as she turned to leave, but she just twisted away.

"Goodbye, Yo."

("He never looked at her until she was leaving, and in the beauty of the sunset he wondered how he'd never seen her before.")

-00-

Kang Mun Seong held it together as she made her way home. She would not cry in public and give Hwangbo Yeon Hwa the metaphorical satisfaction.

Once in her apartment, she began to slowly weed Yo out from her space: she gathered his clothes from her closet, his razor and aftershave from the bathroom cabinet, his extra pair of reading glasses from the night table and the book he read before bed; one of his laptops, a few files marked "CONFIDENTIAL" and the watch she had bought him when he turned thirty.

Lastly, she took off the engagement ring he had given her last winter when they had gone to Switzerland for a holiday. Proposing would have been pointless, but he had seen her admiring the ring as they passed a jewelry shop and gone back to buy it while she was distracted buying chocolates.

"Think of it as your engagement ring," He had said, sliding it into her finger to see if it fit.

She loved the bloody thing, and her hand felt alien without its familiar weight. But that was all over now, she thought as she put the lid on the box she had been using to collect his things. She took it down to the concierge desk and asked for it to be sent over to the Wang Estate.

Then she would put on a sad movie—the kind Yo didn't like to watch—and throw on some sweatpants—which she never wore around him—and would get herself well and truly drunk.

And when she woke up in the morning, the next phase of her life would begin: Her life without Wang Yo.

000

Other than Yo's occasional calls, it was a lovely weekend at Wang So's house. On Saturday, they took Seol to the zoo and spent the whole day out, returning home tired but happy. After putting their daughter to bed, Soo and So snuggled on his bed and fell asleep comfortably together… after having sex (because now that that aspect of their relationship was back on, he couldn't get enough).

On Sunday, they stayed in. Soo cooked them breakfast this time and then they played in the garden for hours until Seol said she was tired. Then they went back inside and piled onto the couch to watch cartoons.

It was such a perfect weekend, but the mood soured a bit when Soo said it was time she and Seol went home. So wasn't happy about it but drove his girls to Soo's apartment, complaining the whole time about how they should just move in with him, and that it was stupid they were living apart.

Soo held her tongue until they arrived to her apartment. So carried a sleepy Seol who clung to him like a baby koala and who also demanded that her father tuck her in.

"I love you, Appa." Seol mumbled sleepily.

"I love you more, Princess." He answered, rubbing her head until her breathing became slow and even.

Soo watched them and tried to control her growing temper. She loved this man, and nothing soothed her heart more than seeing how much he loved their daughter, but he was so pushy when he wanted something, to the point that he didn't see her boundaries.

She hated when he complained about their living arrangements in front of Seol, who was impressionable and still adjusting to the recent changes in her life. She did not want to fight him, but she wished he saw things from her perspective.

"I'll be going now," So said after a while, carefully tucking the sheets around Seol one last time.

"Sure," Soo answered, opting to be neutral and not let her temper get the best of her.

"Bring some clothes over tomorrow so you and Seol can stay, okay?"

"I'll think about it," Soo replied noncommittally as she walked him to the door.

"What's wrong? You sound angry."

"Please, don't mention our living arrangements in front of Seol. I don't want her to get confused or start complaining about coming here. Okay? I mean, it's already hard that she gets whatever she wants when we're with you."

"Yah, it's not that bad. She doesn't even ask that much."

"Maybe for you it's not a lot, but you do realize that we have a severe monetary imbalance between the two of us, right? I can't afford the things you can."

"You could marry me for my money," So winked.

"Wang So. We said we would take things slow," Soo said firmly. "At least where the two of us are concerned."

"May I remind you that we spent all night having sex last night? And the night before?"

Soo blushed and shrugged. "I enjoyed it too but…"

So stopped her with a kiss and a hug—which was comforting and Soo felt herself relaxing against him—but he wouldn't let it go. "Overnight bag, tomorrow," He kissed her one last time before leaving, determined to have the last word.

Author's Note:

All right, so the quote that I used ... i tried to find the original author, to give it proper attribution, but while I searched it always came back to a tumblr post. Sandy tried to find the origina, and we think it was this one:
post/151350538874/silentthevoice-petition-to-change-he-looked-at

If anyone knows where it's really from, please let me know. Some said it might be from a Tolstoi book because he also has a "like the sun" quote, but I don't know.

Anyway, from the next chapter:

It was true that Wang Eun was her best friend and her rock, and that she had had a crush on him probably from the second he rescued her lunch box twenty-years ago, but she had always thought it was rather one-sided: Eun liked everyone and always tried to make people happy, and sure, Soon Deok knew she was special to him but just as a friend.
Or so she had thought.