Main Characters in the Story:

*Kim So Hyun as "Athena" Myung-hee Park

*Tom Hiddleston as Himself

Minor Character in the Story:

*Brenna D'Amico as Marilyn Rivera

Chapter XXIV: I'm Fine. (Tom's P.O.V)

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She decided on ice cream rather than coffee. Something about a craving hitting her out of nowhere. And my love wishes is my command.

I pulled into the parking lot, the back of my car swerving slightly as I do so. I parked in the first free space there is and shut the car off. The ride was awkwardly silent, to my benefit. I wouldn't have been able to say anything. Ever since we left the house, I haven't had a rational thought. No, that's a lie. I had one rational thought.

How could she?

"Are you coming?" Myung-hee asks me through the open window of the passenger door. I hadn't even heard her get out of the car.

I wave her away. I had her the fifty I had taken out sometime while we were on the road. "I've been meaning to give my sister a call. I'll catch up." I start reaching for my phone in the cup holder.

She nodded with a small smile. "Okay." She heads over to the short line at the counter, disappearing from my sight.

I grit my teeth angrily. I stare out the window into a little, green tinted world of my own. The image of Myung-hee appears in my head, as much as I try not to let it.

She runs to a man no more than a meter away from me. There is no face for me to identify him by; I can only see the back of his dark-haired head. He holds his arms out, ready to catch her if he needs to. As Myung-hee gets closer, he reaches out and takes her hand.

She pulls him into a passionate kiss, deep and long-lasting. His hands are all over her, caressing every bit of her being I refuse to touch until she lets me. She doesn't stop. She seems to be wanting him more. The man slowly removes the hem of the white summer dress that l liked from her shoulder and she has nothing underneath, completely revealed and offering everything she has to him.

I can't take it anymore. As I feel my anger rising within me, I begin pounding at my steering wheel with all my force, unrelenting. I fight to keep my mouth shut, not willing to let Myung-hee see me like this. She has enough problems, honestly. She doesn't need to see my anger like this.

Little did I know that it wasn't Myung-hee I should've worried about.

"You wanna talk?"

I spin around as far as my seat allows me and face Marilyn with a face reddened with rage and a bit of embarrassment. She sits and watches me with curiosity. "I thought you went out to get ice cream with Myung-hee?"

"I was too lazy, so I asked her to get me something. I said that, like three times."

"Ah. I didn't hear that. My apologies." I turn back into my original position. I stare down at my now-folded hands. I just threw a fit in front of her best friend. There's no doubt she'll tell Myung-hee. I should have been more careful. I'm such an idiot. A little part of me waits for her to say something, however, because I really do want to talk about this. But the majority of me still doesn't know whether to trust her or not. There's no worse way to find out I'm mad than to find out from someone else.

I hear the back door open, and my heart sinks to my stomach. She's on her way to tell Myung-hee.

But she doesn't, not at all. The passenger door opens, and Marilyn plops down onto the front seat. She gives me a friendly smile and eyes full of pity. "Talk, Tom."

"I'm fine. Really, I am. I'm just stressed from shooting. I don't-"

"Talk, Tom." She raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms over her chest. She's as persistent as Myung-hee described. She hasn't said much, but her whole body language at the moment speaks loud and clear: she's not going anywhere until I talk.

I take a deep breath and let it go. I still don't want to speak to her. I don't want her to run off and tell Myung-hee everything. I stare out the window at a pigeon perched on the back of a bench. "There's nothing to talk about."

Just then, she backhands me hard on the arm.

I flinch away, covering the burning spot with my hand. I look at her, bewildred.

"When I say talk, it usually means I know something's wrong. I can be dull, but I'm seldom oblivious. So I'm gonna try this again. Talk. Now."

I try not to, I really do, but why bother? I have no one to talk to, anyway. So I talk. "It's Myung-hee."

"Yeah, no shit." She smirks, lightening her comment by a lot. "What about Myung-hee?"

I bite my lower lip nervously. She's got to find out sometime. Perhaps it'll be easier coming from Marilyn. "What she told me… it's just really messing with me. That's all."

"Mm." She replies. It's not much, but it's a nice confirmation that she's listening. "I kind of figured."

I know my actions made it obvious, but I'd like to know what she caught on. "What gave it away?" I ask her in such a plain voice.

"Oh, I don't know. I mean, unless you were intentionally going to kill us, your driving was a big 'I'm fucking pissed off'. But I don't know. That could be just me."

I lick my lips. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Myung-hee's face at the ice cream counter. I look at her immediately, wanting to see her beautiful face and hoping it doesn't anger me more. She's waiting for her order, it seems because she doesn't say anything. She only watches intently. I start to see her lips move, and they barely open enough to get a word out. I smile, amused; she's beatboxing to herself. She does it when she's bored or impatient. She might not know it, but I listen to her do it when she's waiting for me on FaceTime. She's rather good, really. "I don't want to lose her." I say quietly, afraid to admit it myself.

"Tom, it was just a kiss. Really. She told me everything."

"It's not even the kiss. It has nothing to do with the kiss. I kiss a ton of women. It's part of my career. Even she knows that. Or she should. We've discussed it enough times."

"So what is it, then?"

I study her entire body; what a beautiful woman she is. With a shapely body curving in the most perfect ways, her soft skin as white as snow, dark wavy hair falling past her shoulders (Honestly, if there was an upcoming movie about Snow White, she would be the perfect choice for that role) a mask of innocence of happiness to cover how broken she really is. I couldn't ask for a better woman to love. If I lose her, I lose everything. And that just might happen. "She said he, whoever 'he' is, reminded her of me. A lot."

She's silent for a moment. I can only hope that means she's taking in my words. "Yeah, so?" She finally says.

I start playing with my thumbs. I'm saying too much, I know, but I don't want to stop. If I do, I will collapse before we can pull out of the lot. "So that means she has found someone like me. If that's the case…" My heart begins to pound. It's a fact I don't want to accept. But a vast imagination like mine will make me do so, regardless of the possible results. "If that's the case, she can replace me. If the long-distance thing doesn't work out as well as we want it to, as long as I want it to, she'll have someone to run to." My heart is swelling. I know it. And I wouldn't be surprised if it bursts right now. "She'll be able to start again, and I fear I'll have nothing."

The moment of silence is too long for me to handle, but I forced myself to handle it. Myung-hee is paying. She'll be here any second. If I break down enough time to even consider pulling myself back together.

To my surprise, I find two arms wrapped around me and a face pressing against my right shoulder as Marilyn hugs me tight. I don't want to hug her back. I can't. It'll only give me more reason to break down. She pulls back and pats me on the back reassuringly. "Everything will turn out fine. I know that for a fact. You two love each other too much. So much that I kind of hate your relationship with passion sometimes because I don't have it."

I glance at her, and relieved to see a playful smile on her face.

"You two are gonna fuck up a lot. Like, a lot. But once you get through this problem, the next one will be a breeze. You know, assuming you two won't want to kill each other."

I chuckle. This is the first time I really meet Marilyn, and I already liked her. She's a great person. "Thank you." I say to her with a smile just as thankful.

She lightly punches me in the arm. "No problem, man. Now chin up. Myung-hee is coming."

I watch Myung-hee as she walks her way towards the car with two large ice cream cones. She does a silly little victory dance for Marilyn. Her friend opens the passenger door and gets out quickly. "They messed up the order, dude." She says to her. "Free ice cream. I gotta go back to get it." She looks at me. "You lied, babe. You didn't catch up. Do you want the third ice cream?"

I shake my head yes. "Please. I need something cold right now."

"I know how you feel. It's really warm today. Here." She hands an ice cream to Marilyn, and the other one to me. "Take this one. They're the same, anyway this one and the third one."

I take it from her, brushing my fingertips across hers. The little action alone set my heart racing.

"Okay, I will be right back." She runs back to the counter, not bothering to close the door.

As soon as she's out of earshot, "Michael." Marilyn blurts out.

"What?" I ask, confused. It was too random.

"It was Michael, damn it!"

She's getting closer to the car. As she does, I realize what she's talking about. "Michael De Soto?" I'm not sure, but it's as if the guilt pushed the confession out of her. Or perhaps she's just trying to help. I couldn't be any more grateful.

"Yes. Don't tell her I said anything. And your secret's safe with me!"

The car falls completely silent as Myung-hee slides into her seat. She pulls the door shut,

I start eating my ice cream quietly as if nothing happened. In that time, I decided it's time for me to really meet him, face to face. He needs to know of our "little problem".

Someone else's lips were on my girl. I'm going to have to fix that.