Perfect Match Chapter 5 [Monstar fanfic]

5.Explanations

It was already dark as he peered outside the window next to his seat. Sunwoo wondered if he would have enough courage to come back again tomorrow. The chances seemed bleak since his resolve was already shattering slowly, as he fought with his inner urge to get down at a random stop before reaching his destination. It was a now or never situation for him, but there were high chances that even if he were to still go to his intended destination, the person he wanted to see would not be there.

Nana had suddenly turned up at his college to return his book, which made no sense to him. He was damn sure that she had come for a whole other reason, like she had something to say to him. If that were true, then he would love to hear it because her casual attitude on their last meeting irked him.

The past few days were a blur in his memory, as he was always preoccupied in thoughts which were a rare occurrence in his otherwise busy life. He was always focused on his work or studies and rarely distracted. He was set on his goal but on a sudden day his past caught up on him.
The fact that the said girl had possibly taken the first step to have a clear conversation pleased him. The only thing he could hope now as he reached his final stop was of Nana still being there. The sound of doors opening alerted him as he quickly grabbed his bag and got down from the bus.
It did not take him long before he found the store and was glad to find it open. He pushed the glass doors silently praying and scanned the interior of the store. It looked like they were about to close when he spotted the petite figure at the end of aisle of apparels.

He watched her as their gazes met and noticed how eyes turned from recognition to that of surprise. At least she looked pleased to see him as she walked towards him with a smile.  He offered an awkward smile in return not knowing how to  actually talk to her. He had boldly rushed to meet her and demand answers but never sure where to start.

“Hey.”, she greeted surprised at his sudden appearance.

“Hey.”, he replied unsure.

“What are you doing here?” She asked in confusion though she was glad that she got to see him today. She had missed meeting him at his university despite waiting for a long time.

He raised the book in his hand as some sort of reply hoping that she would draw her own conclusions without having to explain himself. When he realized that she was not getting his point, he thanked her instead and began making excuses.

“I wanted to thank you for coming all the way to return it. I remembered that you work at a clothing store and I needed to get a coat for my mom’s birthday. That’s why I thought I could kill two birds with a stone.”

“Oh. That’s good then. I can help you with that, I’m sure we have something that you can give your mother. And you don’t need to thank me, it was nothing.”

They managed to find something good enough as a gift for his mother and Nana had personally tended to him even though it was way past the store’s regular closing time. Sunwoo was glad he was quick enough to come with an excuse before he ended up making his intentions more obvious. His mom’s birthday was over last month but he was sure she would love to receive another present, though it made a hole in his pocket.

He offered to wait for her till she closed the store , since his intention of coming to see her was to get some explanation. As she caught up to him, he learned that her home was a walking distance from the store and he offered to walk her home. He was glad when she did not refuse his offer. As they began walking, they were silent with only her asking irrelevant questions which he replied to curtly.

Anger and irritation began to build up in him at her nonchalance  and causal manner again. He thought that she had come all the way to see to him because she had something say, it was obviously not for a book. He hoped that she just did not come to show that she now wanted to become friends  and just be causal with forgoing the past. He clenched his fists in frustrations while heaving out a deep sigh and stopped in his tracks, causing her to turn around and stare at him in question.

“Are you going to continue behaving like this, Nana?”

“What do you mean?”

“I know you did not go all the way there, just to deliver a book! You definitely had something to say.”

Her silence and down cast eyes confirmed all his suspicions. But her prolonged silence agitated him further as his patience was withering thin.

“Tell me the truth Nana. Why did you come to see me? What did you want to say? Even that day you acted so casual as if there was nothing wrong or weird about it. You want us to be on friendly terms, is that it?”

“Maybe. But it’s just not that.”

“Then what is it? If you want to be friends, then I can’t do it. It’s weird to me.”

“Why can’t we? Why can’t we be on normal and friendly terms with each other? ”

“Its not easy……It’s weird and I can’t do that. How can be just forget that we had a past and act normal. It’s not a necessity for us. We can just become strangers to each other since we do not have a real reason for it.”

“I’m not asking for us to be best buddies. I just want to civil enough where we can ask how the other is doing.”

“No. I don’t want that. You had five years to contact me  and ask me how I’m doing. You can’t just ask me to forget that you suddenly broke all contact with me and I had to just accept it.”

“I know that I’m at fault. I’m sorry that I even asked that from you.”

“Of course. We never even technically broken up with each other. I just had to accept that. Do you know how hard it was for me?”

“Of course I know. Did you think that it was not hard for me? What did you expect, did you think  we could manage a long distance relationship? It would make things harder.”

“One last call or goodbye would have been fine.”

“You could have called me as well. It was too difficult for me to even hear your voice. I was scared that I would drop everything and come running back to you. It was the same reason you did not try to contact me as well, because you knew that.”

Her confession seemed to shut him up and she looked on the verge of tears. H seemed to calm down and tried to calm her as well. He must have upset ted her too much.. He was too upset to even notice that they had caught attention of a few passersby.

“I’m sorry too, I was too upset and vented it out on you. But I really want to know why you wanted to see me. ”

” After that day, I kept thinking about you. So I wanted to talk with you, catch up with you and know how you have been doing. I wanted to apologize as well.”

“Me too. After seeing you, even I wanted to meet you again.  But the fact that you were so causal, bothered me a lot. I felt like an only idiot holding on to the past.”

“I behaved that way because I did not want it to be awkward than it already was. ”

Sunwoo let out a small laugh at her reply because he really was idiot. Nana could not be that insensitive but he was glad to know that the feelings was mutual. Slowly they really began catching up, filling in all the gaps regarding their life and family. They particularly left out asking details about the eachother’s love life, since it would just lead to awkwardness or disappointment. They had met each other on a blind date so it was dumb to think that they would have not thought about other people since each other. Though it was true in Sunwoo’s case where he refused to commit to a relationship.

“I have younger brother now.” Nana surprised him.

“Woah. When did that happen?”

“Two years after I left. He is three now. Thing’s turn around after he was born. My family has never been happier.”

“That’s great news. But wasn’t it difficult for your mom?”

“Yeah it was. It took a toll on her health because of her age. We were struggling financially too. Even, I had to work  to bring in some money. Those were such hard times, that I just wanted to run back into your arms. ”

That statement from her got Sunwoo’s heart racing and he cursed at himself for this was not the time to have such thoughts.

“But I couldn’t do it. My parents had given up their money and power filled life for my demand of having a normal life. They did so much for me since then. But when he was born, my father’s business that he set up with a friend began to pick up. I received a scholarship for my designing school and I began to sell a few of my designs. Our family has gotten closer as well. I never had been so close to my parents. They even came all the way to my aunt’s to convince me and promise me to start a new life, but that couldn’t have happened here. ”

Now that he heard her side of the story he understood that he had been such her jerk who only focused on his hurt feelings and disregarded her feelings.They slowly picked up their pace back till they reached near her home.

“So how long are you going to be in Korea?”

“I moved permanently. My parents and brother will be moving back here soon too.”

“I’m sorry Nana. For being such a jerk. I promise I will try so that we can be on friendly terms.”

“I missed you.” She whispered to him while embracing him in short hug before he could react, she backed away and bid him farewell before returning home. Sunwoo gathered his thoughts back as his frustrations all went away and he felt relieved. He admitted while smiling to himself.

“I missed you too.”