Race To Your Heart |Lee Heeseung|

39

"That's cute." Angel said in approval, making Rea scrunch up her nose.

"This?" She questioned, holding up the polka dotted shirt in question. "This, Angel."

"Yes. It's nice."

She stared at the shirt with a tilt of her head, wondering if she could see what he saw, but it didn't work no matter what angle she looked at it.

"Wow, look at that, there's only one left, maybe someone else will want it. Let me be nice and put it back." She gave him a pushed out smile as she hung the shirt back on the rack.

Angel couldn't help but chuckle as he continued following Rea around the women's section of the store.

They had been shopping for a couple of minutes so far. Angel realized that Rea really did like shopping now.

When they were younger, Angel would be the one that would go to stores with their mother and Rea would be the one that always chose to stay behind.

"Since when do you like shopping?"

"I've always liked shopping." She spoke absentmindedly as she searched through the racks.

"Really? Rea, you never wanted to come to the store with me and Mom."

Rea grimaced a little, before picking a random skirt.

"What do you think of this one?"

Angel noticed her avoiding the topic and he couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows instead of responding to her question.

Rea looked at him for a couple of seconds, before sighing and putting the skirt back, continuing to look.

"I liked shopping. I just didn't like shopping with you and mom." She shrugged as she spoke honestly, picking another skirt and looking at it.

"Why?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he continued following her, seeing her place the skirt on her elbow.

Rea stayed quiet for a bit as she continued to walk slowly, looking around the store.

"Mom got along better with you than with me. So, it was just awkward for me to be there." She said softly.

Angel raised his eyebrows in shock as he looked at the back of her head.

"What? Mom always liked you better."

"Oh come on, Angel." Rea said as she turned to look at him. "Mom was always with you. She barely even looked at me for more than a second. It was always Angel goes first."

Angel kept his mouth shut as he acknowledged she was right to an extent.

Their mother had a tendency to pick favorites on different days, but Angel always got the better end of the stick.

Rea sighed as she turned and continued looking through the racks.

"I always liked going to stores with mom, but whenever you were there, it was always what you wanted to do, or what you wanted to buy. If we were in the mall and I wanted to go to see the water fountain, you would say you wanted to go to the candy store, and that's where we would go."

"If you said you wanted a dog plushie, you would get it, but if I said I wanted the same thing, she'd buy it but with disdain."

Angel was hearing these words for the first time.

When they were children, they'd always end up arguing about favoritism, but he thought she was exaggerating then. Now that he's older, he's realizing how much of her words are true.

"Why don't you like hanging out with me?"

Rea wanted to ask him this question since they had that small conversation in their hotel room, but she never had the courage to ask him again after his answer before was so vague.