CHAPTER TEN: THE FINAL PLEA
1127 Words
He showed up without warning.
I heard the buzzer, looked at the clock, and knew deep in my chest that it could only be one person. My body recognized him before my mind could form a name. Jae-min. Always Jae-min.
I opened the door without asking who it was. His eyes met mine, and for a moment, the silence between us weighed more than all the words we’d said and left unsaid. He was standing there with his hands in his coat pockets, a nervous breath leaving his lips as if he’d been practicing the courage to come here for hours.
“I had to see you,” he said, voice low, like he didn’t trust it not to shake.
I didn’t step aside to let him in. I just stood there in the doorway, arms folded tightly across my chest, bracing myself for whatever he was about to spill.
“I shouldn’t have lied,” he said. “I shouldn’t have kept her a secret. It was wrong. I thought what we had would stay simple... that it wouldn’t matter.”
“It did matter,” I said quietly.
He looked down.
“She came to my office,” I added. “To thank me for being kind to you. To tell me how much she means to you. Imagine how I felt, standing there, realizing I didn’t even know the person I’ve been giving myself to.”
“Eun-mi...”
“No.” I held up a hand. “I let this happen. I made it easy for you. I told myself I didn’t care. No strings, right?”
He looked like he’d swallowed a blade.
“But you do care,” he whispered. “Don’t you?”
“I care enough to stop.”
I turned around and walked back into the apartment. Not inviting him in—just giving myself space so I wouldn’t fall apart in front of him. But he followed anyway, like I knew he would.
“I know I messed up,” he said, closing the door behind him, “but what we have... it’s not casual to me. Not anymore. I didn’t think it would be, but then it was you, and it just... changed.”
“You cheated on your girlfriend, Jae-min.”
His face crumbled. “I know. And I hate myself for it. I hate that I lied to you too. I was selfish. I thought if I kept everything in different compartments, no one would get hurt.”
“But you hurt both of us.”
He nodded slowly.
“I’m not just your escape,” I said. “I won’t be your dirty little secret. And I definitely won’t be the reason someone else cries herself to sleep at night.”
He took a step toward me, then stopped when I didn’t move.
“I came here because I needed to say it to your face,” he said. “That I was wrong. That I love you.”
I closed my eyes. God, those words. They had the power to break me. But I wouldn’t let them.
“You don’t get to love me like this,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “Not when it’s convenient. Not when it’s complicated. And definitely not when you’ve got someone else waiting at home.”
“She left.”
My eyes opened.
“She found out,” he said, his voice breaking. “And she left. It’s over.”
I stared at him, heart clenched, jaw tight.
“Then maybe now’s the time for you to be alone. To sit with what you’ve done. To figure out who the hell you are without someone holding your hand through it.”
“Eun-mi—”
“I’m not her,” I snapped. “I’m not the woman who’ll stay and patch you up just because you say the right words. I’m not the comfort you fall into when everything else burns down.”
He didn’t move. He just stood there, breaking piece by piece. And for the first time since I met him, I didn’t reach out to catch him.
“I want us to go back to how things were,” I said finally. “You work. I work. We coexist. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“That’s not possible.”
“It has to be.”
He swallowed hard. “You’re really ending it.”
“I already did. The moment she walked into my office, it was over.”
He stepped back. Like my words physically knocked him off balance.
“I’ll go,” he said, his voice hoarse.
I nodded.
He lingered at the door, one hand on the knob. “For what it’s worth... I meant it. Every second with you. Every look. Every touch. I meant it.”
And then he left.
The door closed, and with it, a chapter I never meant to start.
I stood in the silence afterward, letting it wrap around me like armor. No tears. No breakdown. Just breath. Steady and slow.
Because this time, I chose myself.
And that was the most human thing I’ve ever done.
.........
Jae-min’s brows tightened. “What did you expect me to do?” His voice, louder now, cracked through the quiet in the room. “You kept me at arm’s length, treated me like some toy you could use and put away. And now you’re angry because I tried to feel something real?”
I froze.
Not because of what he said but how he said it.
There was heat in his tone. Not desire or disrespect. That single moment shifted something in my chest, like a snap, like a wire pulled too tight finally giving in. I stepped back, slowly. The silence between us thickened.
“Don’t you ever raise your voice at me again,” I said, quietly. But every word cut sharp and clean. “You don’t get to shout at me because I didn’t fall the way you wanted.”
His jaw clenched.
I moved to the door, opened it, and kept my hand on the knob. “I won’t let this become something ugly. But I’m not someone you get to disrespect. Not here. Not ever. I want you to leave, Jae-min. And don’t come back to my apartment again.”
He stood there, stunned, lips parted like he still had something to say—but didn’t dare.
I didn’t flinch. I didn’t soften.
Eventually, he walked past me, the air between us colder than winter. And when the door clicked shut behind him, I let the silence swallow me whole.
This was the end. Not because I hated him.
But because I couldn’t afford to love him.
- Writer
