Love is Only a Feeling

Chapter 2 - Dignity
For your sake

The three friends sat across Hwang at the local teahouse. Their eyes bore into him, but he refused to meet their gaze. I can't believe I'm doing this, he thought for the umpteenth time.

"Look, Hwang, you sounded so urgent in the letter, we threw aside everything to come over," Kilik began impatiently. "And now you won't so much as utter a word."

"Yeah, you think we have too much time on our hands?" Maxi sneered almost threateningly. In a moment however, he was distracted by a fairly attractive woman walking past their table.

"Did something happen to Mina? Or did she run away again…" Xianghua burst out suddenly. She had momentarily stopped wringing her hands, preferring instead to look expectantly at Hwang for an answer. "Just say it. We – we're prepared to help."

Hwang straightened himself slowly. The past ten minutes he had rephrased the question he had in mind at least fifty times, but none of them sounded better than the last. Slowly, he let the words out: "I would like to ask of a favor from all of you, since you were once her companions."

Xianghua relaxed at once. Kilik broke into a wide grin, while Maxi's sneer was replaced by a curious smirk.

"You needn't be so uptight about that, man," Kilik gave Hwang a firm pat on the shoulder. "With your serious face, we thought something terrible had happened!"

"Yeah well…" Hwang wished Kilik would stop doing that – giving him unnecessary pats, as though they were best of friends. In fact, Hwang still subconsciously bore a grudge against the trio, for aiding Mina in her escape from home, even though that had been years ago. He was here today with a clear objective – to get them roped in as part of the plan that his teacher had in mind. After a grueling half hour, he managed to explain to them the plan in detail. Maxi and Kilik looked interested, if not eager to help. Xianghua however, had a shadow of doubt cast across her face.

"I don't know… should we be deceiving her like this?" she gave Hwang an apologetic look. "I don't mean to say that you're not good enough for her or anything…" she added hastily.

"Xianghua, we're doing your friend a favor here!" Maxi exclaimed. "At the end of it all, she'd be most grateful to us – her friends who helped her find happiness!" Hwang thought his line of persuasion was a little on the dramatic side, but Xianghua seemed to falter slightly.

"Yeah Xiang, we've found our happiness…" Kilik turned a light shade of pink. "We should help her find hers."

"But…" Xianghua looked even more perplexed than before, though Hwang could see that she too was a faint hue of pink.

"Look, just cut the crap if you're not interested in this alright?" Hwang said quietly, his fists balled up in a tight bunch. He knew he shouldn't be losing his temper, especially not when he was asking for a favor. Couldn't they appreciate the fact that he was throwing whatever dignity he had left to ask them of a favor, instead of airing their opinions as though he was invisible? Almost immediately after he had said that he wished he hadn't. Now there was no chance that they would agree to the deal, and he had to admit, he wasn't acting particularly friendly to them.

"Cool it, dude," Maxi scowled.

The three of them huddled together in hushed whispers, and occasionally, one of them would dart their eyes towards him, all the while whispering ceaselessly.

That one minute felt like days.

I'll weasel my way out of this. Just like every other time, right? Mina thought to herself calmly. As usual, she would make a racket and possibly scare the man away for ever. Ha! That'd show them to mess with me.

The afternoon sun shone high and bright. Mina strolled across the courtyard in a yellow and red hanbok, feeling unusually optimistic about the day. The warmth of the summer sun on her skin felt like no other. Summer was her favorite season; she would certainly not miss the harsh winters that plagued her land at the end of every year.

Mina knocked on the door of her father's study. She could hear the muffled whisperings of the people already inside fall silent, then the sound of footsteps nearing.

"Father," she greeted him cheerfully as he opened the door. Over her father's shoulders she could see the matchmaker and the back of the man in question. He was fairly large, with short, spiky hair. From under his vest, what looked like a tattoo – she gasped – peeked out.

There was only one person she knew who had such a unique tattoo. He stood up.

"I'm sure you have met before," her father's words barely registered. Mina could not see her father's brief smirk. She could only stare hard, knowing deep down but not confirming if that man was indeed…

"Hwang."

AN: I tried to make it longer! I really did! But I can't because well it would disrupt the flow of the story! But I promise to update more often! Thanks to everyone who reviewed!