Thank you for the reviews. I have been struggling with some writing, hence the fluffy SS501/BOF one-shot I wrote, but also getting the first chapter of my Playful Kiss story started. The past two weeks have been insane scheduling-wise which means writing, unfortunately, takes a sideline. This is a shorter chapter, another filler chapter as it were, but it includes some one on one time for Yi Jeong and Ga Eul, plus it also shows Sung Ho's true colors overall. I will work on an update for The Heart's Prism and Mend These Shattered Pieces and then come back to this one. I want to start amping up the storyline in the next chapter to really get things going on the twisted part of the story, plus the romance portions for all couples involved in this story, misunderstood or otherwise.
"I didn't think that you would do any of your pottery here." So Yi Jeong lifted his head from the clay he was molding to look at Gu Ga Eul, who was standing in the doorway of the art room at Shinhwa. Though the art room was not an accurate description of the large space that had all of the state of the art supplies and was large enough to house all mediums of artwork. Yi Jeong just happened to be in the area where sculptors and potters would spend their time.
"I'm not," he admitted. "Sometimes when I need a change of pace or a means to relax on a stressful day, I'll try my hand at sculpting."
Ga Eul tilted her head as she moved further into the room and studied the smooth expanse of clay that Yi Jeong was currently crafting into a powerful-looking feline. She wasn't sure if it would end up being a lion, a tiger, or some other large cat, but it was still within the early stages of its rendering.
"I would say you are doing more than trying your hand at it, Sunbae," Ga Eul complimented. Yi Jeong actually felt his cheeks warm at the praise the young woman was giving him.
"What brings you in here?" he asked, wiping his hands on a cloth.
"I was looking for an outlet as well," she admitted. "I thought maybe I could sketch or something. Ji Hu-sunbae insisted I go with him to the arts center, but my hip is bothering me a little today.
Yi Jeong stiffened at the mention of Ji Hu, still wondering at his intentions towards her. However, he quickly zeroed in on her comment regarding her hip. He lifted his head with a frown before getting to his feet and moving to her side. "I thought it was doing better?"
"It is," she was quick to reassure him. "But it takes time to fully heal and I probably have been overdoing it a bit as I try to gain strength in it again. It's not a surprise really. I just need to rest it today, but I need something to focus on instead of homework."
"Is everything all right?" Yi Jeong had to ask. "Something with Kang Hee Soo?"
Ga Eul shook her head. "More that there has been nothing from her," she admitted. "But Jae Kyung is over at the house so I want to give her and Oppa time alone."
Yi Jeong's eyebrow arched as he tossed the hand towel onto his stool. "Is that going to go over well?" he asked.
"I asked him to give her a chance," Ga Eul said. "If nothing else, they could be friends with one another, though I did tell him that she likes him."
"Here," Yi Jeong said, taking her bag. "You wanted something to do, so try sculpting."
"Oh, I don't think…" Ga Eul started.
"I'll help you," Yi Jeong said with a smile as he set her bag down. "So Ha Jae Kyung likes Gu Jun Pyo? That's new." He started to show Ga Eul how to set up a work area for herself, working side by side with her to get everything in place before leading her to where the clay was.
"She's been wanting to get to know him once she realized she liked him, but he was-," Ga Eul started.
"Being Gu Jun Pyo," Yi Jeong said as he showed her how to cut a piece of clay off of the larger block supply for her to work with. "He's one of my best friends, but his stubbornness knows no bounds when he has a certain thought in his head."
Ga Eul hummed in agreement as she cut the clay as he showed her. "He was determined not to like her because of the situation with Kang Hee Soo. In a small way he blamed Jae Kyung even though it wasn't her fault," she said.
"Or your fault," Yi Jeong said. He watched her as she paused in cutting before she continued, setting the wire aside that she had used to cut the clay. "Ga Eul, you do know that none of this is because of you."
A soft breath left her as she slowly nodded. "I do know," she said. "But it had all been sitting on my chest like a lead weight since the party." She pressed her thumb into the clay's edge. "It just feels like life has spiraled so out of control since the night of my attack."
Yi Jeong reached over and grasped her shoulders, turning her to face him. He tucked a clay-covered finger beneath her chin, lifting until her gaze met his. "You realize that none of that is your fault, especially the attack," he said softly. "Nothing about what Kang Hee Soo has been manipulating has been your fault. You deserve to be with your family."
Ga Eul offered a shaky smile, sniffling to keep the tears from falling. Yi Jeong tugged her forward and wrapped his arms around her. He rested his chin on top of her head as she pressed her ear against his chest, listening to the strength of his heart beating beneath his skin. She began to measure her breath intake to the rhythm of his heart, finding it to be incredibly comforting. They stood that way for close to ten minutes before Ga Eul finally pulled back.
"Thank you, Sunbae," she said. She looked at the clay she had cut off thanks to his instruction and poked it. "Sculpting?"
Yi Jeong grinned and nodded. "Let's go," he said, leading her back to their workstations. Ga Eul put on an apron before Yi Jeong was explaining how to work with the clay. Once Ga Eul was starting to mold the clay in her hands, Yi Jeong retook his own position where he was working near her.
"Do you do any other forms of art besides pottery?" Ga Eul questioned.
"Mm," Yi Jeong said. "I do draw as well, which is necessary sometimes to sketch out ideas for some of my pottery designs. My eomeoni was a fantastic painter, in fact, some of her pieces are in the Woo Song Museum." He smiled, shaking his head. "I guess now it all makes sense why Song Lee Bin always loved seeing those pieces. I always wondered why he was such a fan of her work."
"Could've also just been a fan if she was such a good artist," Ga Eul pointed out.
Yi Jeong inclined his head as he molded the clay between his large hands, his slender fingers working at kneading the material. "True, but it seemed more," he said. "I briefly wondered when I was younger if maybe they had known each other when they were younger in an intimate fashion before she was forced to marry my abeoji. Obviously, the idea of Lee Bin-samchon and Eomeoni being related never came to mind."
"How… have you been doing with that bit of information?" Ga Eul asked. "I got the impression from Oppa that initially you and your hyung had drifted apart, but with this new family information, you two are growing close again. But what about the rest of your family."
Yi Jeong paused a moment, thinking. He let out a soft sigh. "I don't think much has changed," he admitted. "Eomeoni and Abeoji still seem to hate each other. Abeoji hasn't changed his womanizing ways, in fact, I think he's increased them." He poked at the clay before he began rolling it in his hands to create a ball.
"I'm sorry," Ga Eul said quietly.
Yi Jeong shook his head. "Lee Bin-samchon has been talking to Hyung and me more, explaining that Eomeoni was always a less than stable individual," he said. "He called it delicate, but I knew what he meant. It was inevitable that whoever she married would have their hands full. Unfortunately, she was married to my abeoji, who never loved her. I knew that something was always off, but it wasn't until I was older and started to understand what loving relationships were to see that my bumonim did not have one. I, honestly, thought that Lee Bin-samchon and Bon Ha-sungmo were an anomaly."
"You really don't believe in love, do you?" Ga Eul asked, pausing in her clay rolling.
Yi Jeong paused a moment, staring at the clay before he smiled at it sadly. "I wouldn't say I don't necessarily not believe in it, but my experience with it has not been the best," he said. He pressed his fingers into the clay. "My hyung's girlfriend was the first person I ever thought I loved."
Ga Eul's eyes widened and a piece of clay slipped from her fingers. "Sunbae..."
Yi Jeong shook his head. "I'm all right now," he said. "But when I first found out, it gutted me. Honestly, I will admit that it was the straw that broke the camel's back for me when it came to love." He glanced at her with a wry smile. "And why I scoffed when you talked about soulmates. I once thought Eun Jae was mine, but she didn't choose me."
"Then she wasn't your soulmate," Ga Eul said. "Soulmates don't walk away from each other. They fight for their love. Remember I said if I ever found mine, I would hold on and never let go?" She turned back to her clay, kneading it and forming it into a ball. She often wet her fingers in the bowl beside her as Yi Jeong showed her.
"How do you do that?" Yi Jeong asked her. When she offered him a confused smile, he continued. "Knowing things as I do now, how do you remain so optimistic, especially about things like love. I mean I grew up with bumonim that have essentially been in a broken marriage, but they were still together and I knew they were my parents. You grew up with the knowledge that your caretakers weren't your parents. And from what you said made it clear they…"
"That they didn't want me, I know," Ga Eul said quietly. She offered a sad smile. "Honestly? Geum Jan Di's parents and movies made me continue to believe in love and soulmates."
"But from what I've heard, Geum Jan Di's parents are flaky at best and movies aren't real," Yi Jeong pointed out.
"But they each gave me hope," Ga Eul said. She never took her eyes off of the clay as she kneaded and poked aimlessly at it while she spoke. "It gave me hope that the life I was living was not what people actually experienced. That children were wanted and loved by parents, not just biologically but adopted as well. It gave me hope that despite dysfunction because of quirky personalities, love shown through and held people together through the hardest times. It gave me hope that maybe one day I would find someone out there that would not care where I came from or how I grew up, that they would see me and love me for who I was regardless of all of that."
Yi Jeong watched her as she spoke, admiring the length of her neck where her hair fell away as she studied the clay, even as she mindlessly worked at it while she was speaking. On a physical level, he knew she was attractive. Despite all his claims to Woo Bin when he had said he did not like "cheap things", he had found her adorable when they met. It was hard not to, with her rounded cheeks, sweet smile, and sparkling eyes. When she showed the steel of her backbone to him, it had stirred something deep down that he thought long ago locked away after Eun Jae walked away from him and took up with Il Hyun. Since then, he had seen her in a variety of ways, between the New Caledonia trip and recently with discovering her true identity. What probably had sealed his fate was seeing the ease in which she had slipped into what he had often referred to as his world now that she was a member of the Gu family. He had never seen anyone look more beautiful as she did the night of the party where she was introduced to society.
Until now, when he watched and listened to her speak of the hope she had that somehow, someday, she would find someone that would love every part of her regardless of her past. It was in that moment that he hoped beyond infinite belief that he could be that person, despite his own shortcomings.
"Do you realize how amazing you are?" he asked softly without thought. He watched her cheeks flush with color, her dark eyes turning to him with a wide look. He couldn't quite decipher what he saw in those dark depths, but he still found himself slowly leaning towards her unconsciously. He was encouraged as he saw her eyes flutter closed. Their lips were a breath away from each other when a loud clatter of items falling pulled them apart. They looked towards the noise, seeing an empty easel laying on the floor, obviously having collided with a can full of extra brushes, which were now rolling on the floor. Neither saw anyone standing nearby that could have caused the items to fall.
"How odd," Ga Eul said. She and Yi Jeong glanced at each other, laughing nervously as they wiped their hands and rose, moving to pick the items up. Neither spoke about the kiss they had almost just shared.
Choi Jin Hee stormed into Park Sung Ho's apartment, heedless of the mostly naked woman currently draped over the young man, kissing along his neck. She threw her purse onto the chair nearest the door, her gaze blazing as she stared at him.
"You are supposed to be getting that little tramp away from So Yi Jeong!" she all but screeched at him.
Sung Ho eyed the furious teenager. He watched her as he gave the woman above him a long, lingering kiss before slapping her backside roughly and waving his hand, indicating he wanted her to leave them. Pouting, the woman straightened and gathered her discarded dress. She haphazardly tied the wrap-around dress, snatching her purse and jacket off of the back of the couch before walking towards the door, shooting a glare at Jin Hee. She gave one last look to Sung Ho, glowering as he ignored her even as she grabbed her shoes and slammed the door shut on her way out.
"Take care how you speak about my future fiance," Sung Ho said to Jin Hee. "And take care how you heedlessly come in and out of my lair."
"Oh please," Jin Hee said. "Your lair? You are not one of the F4, don't think you have the clout to make demands the way they do."
Sung Ho's face quickly darkened and he shoved his tall, muscular body to his feet and advanced on Jin Hee faster than she could react. She found herself pinned against the nearest wall, Sung Ho's handsome face mere inches from hers.
"I have the clout to do whatever the hell I want," he growled in a menacing tone. "The F4 only got so far because of the family names they have at their disposal. That's the only power they have."
"They have money as well, do not forget that," Jin Hee said back.
"Money which you will never see if you do not do exactly what I say," Sung Ho reminded her.
"I have been doing exactly what you have said," Jin Hee hissed. "You aren't holding up your end of the deal and if I hadn't strategically intervened, So Yi Jeong and Gu Ga Eul would have ended up making out in the art room at Shinhwa!"
Sung Ho smirked. "Let them," he said. "It won't change the plans."
"I don't want that commoner trash's mouth anywhere near-," her words were cut off as Sung Ho backhanded her.
"I am warning you, Choi Jin Hee," he said in a low voice. "Take heed how you speak of my future fiance."
Jin Hee turned, her eyes full of fire as she spoke. "If you dare allow the chance for Yi Jeong to be intimate with her, she will never become your fiance," she said. "His reputation precedes him and there is a reason he is called Casanova. The moment she gets a taste of him, she will never be satisfied by you."
Sung Ho's face grew cold and Jin Hee felt her blood go cold at the pure look of hatred that washed over him. A slow, dangerous smirk crossed his features. Before she could react, Sung Ho had ripped her blouse open and threw her on the couch, pinning her down with his body.
"I'll show you who the true Casanova is," he said darkly before attacking her neck.