Eyes Full Of Stars || Park Sunghoon

22 ¦ Stay with me

"I'm sorry I was so late," Sunghoon apologizes as he takes me home that evening. We didn't say a word to each other during the entire drive, as the mood between us has clearly soured since his attempt to kiss me.

"Why don't you stay for dinner," my father suggests to Sunghoon as usual. "Thank you for the offer, but I'd better pass for tonight," Sunghoon replies, avoiding looking at me any longer than necessary.

My father doesn't seem to miss the dejected mood between us, and immediately all alarm bells ring in his ears. "Has my daughter behaved inappropriately?" he immediately wants to know.

Angrily, he pulls his eyebrows together and glares at me from his eyes, which are formed into narrow slits. By now I'm not even surprised that he doesn't trust me.

"Not at all," Sunghoon replies to both my and my father's appeasement, shaking his head. "It's just that it's quite late and I have an important meeting with one of my father's former business partners tomorrow morning. You know how it is then..."

"Indeed," the middle-aged man with the mottled gray hair replies, patting Sunghoon paternally on the shoulder. At this, I can clearly see Sunghoon tense his jaw, but silently let my father's gesture wash over him.

"I'd like to discuss one more thing with you before I go, though," Sunghoon suddenly changes the subject, briefly eyeing me from the corner of his eyes. Immediately, I feel the blood freeze in my veins. Sunghoon has not said it aloud, but his concern seems to be about me as well.

"Of course," my father replies, perplexed, and asks Sunghoon to enter. "What is it about?" it bursts out of me even before I can curb my curiosity. While my father glares angrily at me, Sunghoon continues to avoid even giving me a glance. It makes me angry, and admittedly, it even hurts me that Sunghoon doesn't include me.

"Sunghoon?" "That should not be your concern," the latter replies coldly. "You should learn when it's proper for you to keep your mouth shut, Dolores," my father reprimands me before turning to the young man I have to marry in a few weeks, yet treats me as if I'm an annoying little girl whom he can withhold anything from when he feels like it.

Annoyed, I brush my sandals off my feet and pepper them into the shoe rack. "Good night," I say, not giving Sunghoon or my father a glance before running up the stairs to my room, where I let the door fall loudly into the lock behind me.

Tears form in the corners of my eyes. I take a deep breath through my nose before closing my eyes. "Don't you dare," I whisper to myself. It drives me crazy that I can't control my emotions. But even more maddening is the fact that Sunghoon is the trigger for these feelings.

Is Sunghoon even aware of this power he has over me?

One moment he treats me as if I were air, the next moment he wants to kiss me, only to treat me like air again afterwards.

A first sob escapes my throat and I feel a tear break free from the corner of my eye and run down my cheek almost unbearably slowly. Shortly after, I feel more tears run down my face before dripping onto the white carpet beneath my bare feet.

How could my life turn into a pure roller coaster ride of emotions and my mind in such a few weeks?

Just two months ago, I sat on my bed with Leela and raved to her for hours about Yeosang while she listened to me grinning and while we dreamed together about studying art next summer.

At the time, that dream felt so real, so.... tangible. But now it lies in shambles at my feet. Every time I reach for the shards to put them back together, I cut myself on them. I feel like a bird that has had its wings cut off. I know how to fly, but I can't.

Sunghoon is right. I am naive. I have been naive to believe Yeosang would be in love with me. And I have been naive to believe that Sunghoon feels something for me that does not exist.

Our relationship with each other is based on nothing more than a contract he made with my father. I don't know what made me consider thinking it was more than that. I feel so foolish.

A loud knock sounds at my bedroom door. "No," I say immediately, but at that moment the door is already swinging open and before I know it, my father is rushing towards me and grabbing me by the shoulders.

"What have you done?!" he yells at me. I contort my face in disgust as I feel his drops of saliva on my face. His grip on my shoulder tightens. "I don't know what you're talking about," I reply fearfully.

Immediately, I feel a burning pain on my cheek as his flat hand hits it and my face flies to the side. Startled, I draw in my breath. Tears stream down my face. "Don't play dumb!" he growls.

Completely shocked, I return my father's blazing stare, because I really have no idea what he's talking about. "You must have done something to make Mr. Park refuse to marry you next month. What if he cancels the contract altogether because you stupid brat can't cooperate!"

For a moment I pause, having to process the information coming over my father's lips. Sunghoon refuses to marry me.... my father won't get any money from him to save his company from financial ruin and our family from bankruptcy?

"I really don't know what happened...", I reply, shaking my head. A punch to the pit of my stomach makes me slump on the floor in front of my father. "Please... stop", I press out.

"You. Are. The. Biggest. Disappointment. Of. My. Life," he roars. With each word, which he merely spits out hatefully, he kicks me in the ribs until I feel dizzy. My pained screams turn into pitiful whimpers within seconds, which are ultimately silenced by the stabbing pain left by his repetitive increasingly violent kicks to my ribs.

"I wish you had been your mother's miscarriage...you're good for nothing!" The fact that my own father, of all people, wishes me dead hurts almost as much as the physical violence he uses against me.

The moment he lashes out at me one more time, Teresa enters my room closely followed by Sunghoon. Immediately, Sunghoon drags my father away from me.

"Have you gone insane?!", roars Sunghoon, pushing my father against the wall by the collar of his tailored shirt, while Teresa squats down on the floor with her face covered in tears, trying to get me to sit up.

"I-", I begin and try to catch my breath, but breathing is unusually difficult. Panic-stricken, I grab my chest and try to take a deep breath several times in a row, ignoring the almost unbearably strong pain, but I find it increasingly difficult.

"Air," I barely manage to squeeze out.  "Dolores," Teresa says, visibly concerned, and puts her hands on my shoulders to get my attention.

"MR. PARK!!!" exclaims Teresa in a panic as she reaches for my hand and clutches it tightly. "Lola, stay with me," Teresa cries. Although she is still kneeling on the ground next to me, her voice is getting farther and farther away. I notice how my eyes gradually go black.

"Dolores." Sunghoon his voice is now just a muffled sound. I don't even notice the touch of his hands reaching for my shoulders anymore.

My eyelids begin to flutter shut. Then everything around me fades and I surrender to the feeling of lightness that begins to envelop me.

A/N: Well uhm this took a drastic turn...