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This relationship had started with impure motives from the very beginning. Therefore, it was right to end it here.
Steeling her heart, she swallowed her tears and forced her voice out.
[Go back. Sienna is probably waiting for you. You two... look good together.]
She bit her lip.
She shouldn't have said that last part. It sounded like she was jealous.
The long-standing self-pity and inferiority she felt while watching Sienna and Hunter together had steadily eroded her self-esteem.
Now, she wanted to break this vicious cycle.
[I'm leaving first.]
Leaving Hunter standing stiffly in the middle of the balcony, Jiyu turned and knocked on the door. Joshua, who had been standing in front of the door to prevent anyone from looking out, turned around and opened it immediately.
After asking Chloe and Benjamin for their understanding, explaining that they couldn't attend the after-party, the two left the Lafayette Hotel without looking back. They walked along the stone wall of Central Park toward the Hamilton residence.
Occasionally, the night breeze blew over the stone wall, coolly soothing her flushed body. Lost in thought, Jiyu walked for a long while, her hair and the hem of her dress fluttering.
As they passed by the Central Park Zoo, she gently tugged on Joshua's sleeve.
[Josh, can we rest here for five minutes? My feet hurt a bit...]
In the chaos of earlier, she hadn't noticed, but as she walked, the backs of her ankles were chafing from the new shoes. Joshua nodded and pointed to one of the benches scattered along the stone wall.
[Let's sit there.]
As soon as Jiyu sat on the bench, she took off her shoes.
[Ah... I feel like I can breathe now.]
She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. Now that she was sitting still, the spring breeze blowing from behind felt quite chilly.
Whether it was the cold or the release of tension, she began to shake so hard that her teeth chattered.
Seeing this, Joshua took off his tuxedo jacket and offered it to her.
[Thanks, Josh.]
Without refusing, Jiyu took the jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
If only she could have been as natural with Hunter as she was with Josh...
But they had never been on equal footing since they first met as children of five or six. That wasn't Hunter's fault.
One cannot blame the sun for shining.
She only felt pathetic for bowing her head, intimidated by that light before she even faced it.
Though Joshua likely had many questions, he asked nothing and silently stayed by her side. Jiyu poured out her secrets to him as if venting a long-held grievance.
[Hunter and I... we were actually dating. For two years. We had to keep it a secret for various reasons. That's why I couldn't tell anyone until now.]
[...Ah, no wonder.]
Joshua, looking slightly surprised, nodded as if everything finally made sense.
[But, I told him we should break up today.]
Jiyu let out a sigh, like air escaping a shriveled balloon.
It was truly over now.
It still didn't feel real. However, after voicing the secret she had suffered through alone, she felt a bit relieved. And hollow. Perhaps she had grown accustomed to the heavy weight she had been carrying. It felt as if a hole had been punched through her chest.
Jiyu hunched her shoulders and lowered her head. As the frail frame that had barely been holding her up collapsed, an overwhelming fatigue washed over her.
Joshua looked at her with a complex gaze, then turned his head away with a bitter expression.
[It's not that I'm not curious... but no matter how I look at it, today isn't the day. I'll keep my mouth shut and my ears open, so call me whenever you feel like talking.]
She was glad that the person she confided in was Joshua. He was tight-lipped, and she trusted that he wouldn't consume her story as interesting gossip.
[Thanks, Joshua. Is your lip okay?]
[Yeah. It's a bit swollen, but it's fine. After hearing your story, I guess I deserved it. Not only did I snatch the girlfriend of the Hunter Hamilton right from under his nose and take her to prom, but I even had the nerve to pull her onto a balcony and hug her under the guise of comforting her. Wow... what on earth was I doing?]
He chuckled self-deprecatingly.
[Don't tease me, Josh.]
When Jiyu gave him a sharp glare, Joshua cleared his throat and changed the subject.
[Have you decided where to go?]
Though there was no subject in the sentence, she understood immediately. Lately, whenever the two met, they worried about the same topic.
[I'll probably go to California. I want to start over somewhere where nobody knows me. On my own, by my own strength.]
[You're talking as if you're never coming back to New York. That's disappointing.]
Jiyu smiled sadly.
Carried by the night breeze, the scent of early spring buds from Central Park drifted over the stone wall. Even in this moment, she recalled the crisp scent that clung to Hunter. She had to shake off the habit of connecting even the smallest things to him.
[It's not that I won't come, but maybe I can't for a while. It costs too much to travel back and forth between the West and East coasts.]
[That's true. Still, let's make sure to stay in touch, friend. You never know when or where we might meet again.]
Jiyu nodded with a faint smile.
[What about you? Have you decided?]
Joshua was torn between Northwestern University and Columbia University. Both were famous schools for journalism, the field he was interested in.
[Probably... Columbia? No, Northwestern. No, Columbia. No, Northwestern. Aaaagh...!]
He ruffled his hair with both hands as if trying to tear it out.
Jiyu chuckled and made a suggestion.
[Want me to decide for you?]
[Really?]
He snapped his head up and nodded enthusiastically.
She gathered the pair of shoes she had taken off and lined them up.
[Left is Columbia, and right is Northwestern.]
[...O-kayyy?]
Joshua dragged out his words and tilted his head slightly. He watched her with a suspicious eye, half-smiling and half-grimacing.
With a bright smile, Jiyu sang in a small voice, pointing to the shoes alternately. It was a song she and Daisy always sang whenever Daisy couldn't decide which book she wanted to read.
[Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by the toe, if he hollers let him go. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, my mother told me to choose the best one, and that is... Columbia!]
Jiyu pointed to the left shoe. Then, she lifted her head triumphantly.
Joshua stared at her blankly with his mouth open, then blinked. The headlights of cars driving down Fifth Avenue flickered through his pupils.
Suddenly, he burst out laughing. He laughed out loud with a wide, refreshing smile, then suddenly touched his lips with an "ah." It seemed his split lip had opened again.
Then, he held up his palm toward her, suggesting a high-five.
[Then, according to the prophecy of the shoes, Columbia it is!]
Their palms met with a loud clap.
[To Columbia!]
[Ollie. Now shall we put on Columbia and Northwestern and walk again?]
Jiyu chuckled as she slid her feet back into her shoes and stood up.
She felt that she would miss Joshua when she went to California. She felt nothing but endless gratitude toward him for helping her endure the terrible high school life of the past two years.
✾ ✾ ✾
Jiyu went to bed early, but she tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she pictured Sienna and Hunter entangled on the bed in the suite at the Lafayette Hotel.
If she had known nothing, it would have been hard to imagine. But the deep blue eyes that darkened with excitement, the large hand wrapping around the nape of the neck, the persistent lips, and the rough breath came back to her with vivid clarity.
'I told him to break up, so what does it matter? Let them do whatever. Stop caring now.'
But the more she tried, the more Sienna's hands and long nails, groping Hunter as if he were her own, cluttered her mind. In her imagination, Sienna, greedily embracing his bare shoulders with both arms, mocked Jiyu with a triumphant expression.
It was around one in the morning when she heard Hunter's presence in the hallway. Thinking he had returned earlier than expected, she turned over, only to hear a loud thump, thump—someone knocking on the door. Startled, Jiyu scrambled out of bed.
'Is he crazy! What if he wakes everyone up...'
She opened the door slightly and silently. As expected, it was Hunter visible through the gap.
Her heart sank at his disheveled appearance.
He had left his jacket somewhere; he was in a dress shirt with a couple of buttons undone, and his bowtie was hanging loose across his chest. His hair, messy as if someone had run their fingers through it while kissing, half-covered his forehead.
Hunter, who had been standing with his hands in his pockets and his head bowed, slowly looked up.
[What are you doing at this hour? What if you wake the others?]
Jiyu reprimanded him in a hushed voice.
[I have something to say.]
A low, deep voice echoed through the silent hallway.
After rolling around with Sienna somewhere, he now has something to say to me?
As she stepped back to close the door without replying, Hunter was faster. His hand shot in and gripped the edge of the door.
If he weren't a tennis player, she would have slammed the door shut regardless of whether his fingers were crushed.
Jiyu glared at him through the gap.
[I have nothing to say to you. And lower your voice!]
[I don't care if everyone in this house wakes up.]
Hunter threatened her, taking a step closer and looking down at her through the gap. Because he was backlit by the dim light of the hallway, she couldn't tell what expression he was wearing.
[You might not care, but I do!]
[Then open the door.]
[Haa...]
Letting out a sigh like a lament, Jiyu slowly stepped back.
There was no way 'Jewel Parker' could win against a pushing Hunter Hamilton.
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