"Y-You!" Listya was startled when she saw the incredibly familiar figure standing before her. With trembling lips, she truly couldn't believe what she was seeing. She stared at him in disbelief, rubbing her eyes over and over.
"You ... Am I ... dreaming? Why can I see you ... here?" Listya asked reflexively, quickly covering her mouth with her palm because she still couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"No! This can't be happening! You can't ..." Listya turned her face away, still trying to calm her increasingly chaotic emotions.
Meanwhile, the man standing in front of Listya also stared in disbelief at the sight of her standing before him—someone he had run into by accident.
"You?" he said while continuing to rub his eyes, because he still felt as if he were dreaming. It was the same dream he often had every night because he missed Listya's presence in his life so much.
"Tya! Is that really you? You ... Why ... why are you here? And ..." The man looked at the wedding dress in Listya's hands, which she had just finished taking off and was about to hand to the boutique attendant.
Seeing it, the man stared even more sharply in disbelief.
"You! Why are you holding that wedding dress? Is it yours?" he asked curiously, unconsciously walking toward Listya.
At his question, Listya glanced at the dress in her hands, then looked back at the man standing in front of her.
"This? None of your business!" Listya snapped, then asked him in return, "You? Why are you here, Sean? Did you come here to ..." Before Listya could finish speaking,
suddenly,
a woman's voice rang out from outside, calling for a man—the very man standing in front of Listya.
"Sean! Where are you?" the woman called as she continued searching for Sean, who was none other than the man standing before Listya. He was Listya's ex-lover, someone she had parted ways with a very long time ago. And now, after not seeing each other for so long, they had run into each other by accident under circumstances Sean himself had never wanted.
This kind of meeting wasn't what Sean wanted, but there was still gratitude in his heart. He could finally see the woman he had been searching for all this time.
As for Listya, she was completely shocked. This wasn't what she wanted at all. Deep down, she never wanted to see Sean again. Yet today, she truly felt as if misfortune had fallen upon her. In the end, she had been forced to meet the very person she never wanted to see.
And so, right then and there,
Listya stood stiffly, staring at Sean in front of her. Sean was just as stunned that he had finally been able to meet Listya again—the woman who had once been his lover, the only woman who had ever meant the most to him and whom he had loved in the past.
Tya, I'm so happy to see you again! Sean said silently in his heart, unable to voice the words because his mouth seemed locked shut, making it difficult for him to utter even a single word.
For a moment, silence filled the room. The two of them could only stare at each other without saying a word, still unable to believe that they had finally met again after being apart for so long.
Not long afterward,
at last,
they both realized they weren't dreaming. Sean struggled to open his stiff mouth.
"Listya ... Listya, is that really you?" Sean spoke while his eyes remained fixed on her in disbelief. Listya was staring at him just as intently.
When she heard Sean call her name, Listya flinched and quickly came back to her senses.
"Sean! Why are you ... here?" she asked, then placed the wedding dress on a nearby chair.
When he saw the white dress Listya had set down, Sean narrowed his eyes and asked her, "So it really is your wedding dress?" He stared at it without blinking.
Listya nodded.
"Yes! This is my wedding dress. Um ... Well ... I'll be going now. I still have a lot to do," Listya said. She picked up her bag and quickly prepared to leave the room, claiming she wanted to find the boutique attendant who had left her alone inside. In truth, Listya simply wanted to get away as quickly as possible to avoid Sean, whom she never wanted to see again.
"Excuse me," Listya said as she passed Sean, who was still standing directly in front of her.
Until ...
The moment Sean realized Listya had walked past him, he unconsciously reached out and grabbed her wrist to stop her.
"Wait! Where are you going, Tya?" he said, tightening his grip around her wrist until Listya failed to get away from him.
Because Sean was holding her back, Listya turned and glared at him.
"I ... I'm leaving! I ... I have to go right now! Please let go of my hand!" Listya pleaded, trying to pull her hand free from Sean's increasingly tight grip.
But instead of releasing her, Sean tightened his hold even more and roughly yanked her arm toward him.
"I'm not letting you leave, Tya! We need to talk!" Sean said with a sharp gaze. He did it deliberately, then forcibly dragged Listya back into the room and locked the door from inside so no one could disturb them.
Click!
The door locked, and Listya grew even more panicked, afraid Sean might do something terrible to her.
"What are you doing, Sean? Let go of me! I want to leave, Sean!" Listya shouted, struggling to free herself from the grasp of the man she had erased from her memory all these years.
Sean smiled coldly and pressed Listya's body against the wall. Then he moved closer until there was no distance between them at all.
At that moment,
sharpness and deep disappointment shone in Sean's eyes as he displayed them directly before Listya's face.
Seeing this, Listya's entire body trembled with fear, as if she were being intimidated like a criminal.
"Sean! Let go ... Please let go of me! Why are you doing this to me? I ... I want to leave, Sean!" Listya said, turning her face away to avoid his gaze.
But Sean immediately pinched her chin and forced her to look at him.
"Why are you avoiding me? Are you afraid of me because you've committed a terrible sin against me?" Sean asked, his gaze even more terrifying than before. Listya shook her head.
"No! I'm not afraid of you. I just ... I just don't want to see your face anymore because you're part of my past, and I've already forgotten you. So ... why should I ... I think about any of that again?" Listya said firmly.
Yet deep in her heart, she felt intense resentment whenever she looked at Sean—the man who had once cast her aside and abandoned her after staining her, despite his false promise to take responsibility. Instead, he had simply disappeared without a word, as if he had vanished from the face of the earth, leaving her without the slightest news.
It had left Listya utterly devastated. For years, she had been broken because Sean had shattered her heart—the ex-lover she had loved more than anyone.
But as time passed, her wounds slowly began to heal. Listya started a new chapter and closed away all the wounds in her heart. Eventually, she met a man who, in her eyes, was kind and deeply understanding toward her. That man was Devan, a manager at the company where she worked, who was now her fiancé and the man she was going to marry.
But fate seemed to be playing games with her.
Just as she had begun to find happiness with a man who treated her with respect,
Sean suddenly appeared. His arrival reopened the wound she had closed long ago, and as it slowly split open, it made her heart ache.
And the worst part was not the wound.
The worst part was how quickly her body remembered him.
It remembered the scent first—cedar and rain and something warm underneath, the same scent that used to cling to her pillow after he left her rented room at dawn. It remembered the low roughness in his voice when he said "Tya," the way no one else had ever said it, as if her name were a secret he had been keeping in his mouth for years. It remembered the exact height of his shoulder, the place where her forehead used to fit.
Listya hated that. She hated that her pulse had leapt the moment she heard him, and that it was still racing now, loud enough that she was afraid he could hear it. Six years. Six years of stitching herself back together, and one look from those dark, furious eyes was enough to make every stitch ache.
"I don't feel anything," she told herself silently, pressing her back harder against the cold wall, as if the wall could hold her together. "Not for him. Never again."
But her trembling fingers, curled tight against her own palms, did not believe her.
Meanwhile, Sean grew furious when he heard Listya's words. He couldn't accept seeing Listya marry another man.
"Oh! So you've forgotten me, and I'm nothing but part of your past? Tsk, tsk, tsk ... Good! Very good, Tya! You've really forgotten me," Sean said angrily, deeply disappointed in Listya.
Then Sean moved toward Listya's lips, intending to kiss her.
But Listya immediately dodged him.
"What are you trying to do, Sean? Don't touch me like that!" Listya refused harshly.
Her words made Sean even angrier.
"I ... touched you like that? Have you forgotten that I've already touched this body of yours ... and what part of you have I never seen, Tya?" Sean said, looking at Listya with contempt. His words made her hate him even more.
"Enough! Please don't say that again! Our relationship is over, and you've already found happiness in your new life, so please ... Please stop interfering in my life and just live yours peacefully," Listya said, glaring angrily at Sean.
"Sean! I never want to see your face again! From the moment you left and broke your promise, I forgot you. Please! Just live your own life and stop interfering in mine!" Listya said, then pushed against Sean's chest to free herself from his increasingly tight hold, which was making it difficult for her to breathe.
"Sean! Please let me go! I'm begging you! Let me ... Leave, Sean!" Listya screamed, continuing to struggle free from his embrace.
But Sean stubbornly refused to release her.
"No! I won't let you go until you tell me what bastard is brave enough to marry you and ... tell me, were you pregnant afterward?" Sean demanded.
Listya immediately stopped hitting Sean and stared at his face as he looked back at her without blinking.
"Why do you want to know about my fiancé? Do you want to ruin my life again, Sean? Aren't you satisfied after watching me suffer all this time, huh?" Listya shouted through her tears, her heart aching as she remembered that terrible past.
Sean fell silent for a moment, saddened by the sight of Listya crying.
"Tya! How can you say that to me? I ... I would never want to ..." Before he could finish, Listya interrupted him.
"Enough! Please don't bring that up again! I don't want to remember any of it. Please let me go immediately! I have to leave right now," Listya said, wiping away her tears.
Sean shook his head.
"No! I won't let you go until you answer one last question. Were you pregnant when I left? Answer me, Tya! Were you pregnant when I left?" Sean demanded.
Listya refused to answer.
"I don't want to answer! So please let me go! I want to leave, Sean!" Listya snapped, stubbornly refusing to respond.
That made Sean even less willing to release her.
"Fine! Since you refuse to answer, I'll keep you locked up like this until you do," Sean said. He tipped Listya's chin up and leaned in.
"Tya! If you won't answer, then look me in the eye and tell me I mean nothing to you," Sean said, lowering his lips until they hovered a breath above Listya's.
At that very moment, Listya pressed both fists against Sean's chest. "Don't," she whispered. "Don't you dare, Sean."
Sean froze. For one long, trembling heartbeat he stayed there, so close that their breaths tangled and Listya's chest grew tight, but he did not close the distance.
"Let go ... please ..." Listya whispered, her voice breaking, though her body had gone strangely still against the wall.
At last, even Sean had to stop his madness.
A woman's voice called his name, and Sean finally drew back, his lips never having touched hers.