- four months later -

The pen fell from his hand, rolled around on table in front of him, as his hand withdrew to the comfort of his other at his lap. There was no going back now, it had been decided - he would marry Seonghwa the following year, providing the wedding planners with just enough time to plan such a lavish and luxurious wedding, as was to be expected.

His mother sent him a proud smile, or as close to a smile as could be, but Yeosang simply stared back at her with cold eyes, and his father gave him a squeeze on his shoulder.

Several months of nagging and pressure coming from his parents had worn him down, and with his heart still broken from his first real heartbreak, Yeosang had been too weak to stand up for himself any longer. On top of that, Seonghwa had been so sweet to him that it had blinded him long enough to agree to this outrageous decision.

Both his parents and Seonghwa's, wanted the two of them to commit to each other in a more serious manner than before. But instead of a romantic, unexpected proposal with flowers and sunsets, it was as cold as had it been any other business undertaking set up by either of the powerful families - lawyers and a lot of papers to sign was all he got.

"Cheers," Seonghwa said, raising a glass of champagne as they once were back at the older's place - finally getting away from their parents at least.

Yeosang clincked his glass lightly against the older's, but his eyes didn't move to look at his, now, fiancé - he would get plenty of time to do that anyway, the rest of his life in fact...

"Why the moody face?" Seonghwa suddenly asked, and Yeosang couldn't even come up with a decent lie to cover up the truth.

He had made a horrible mistake, but he had felt so powerless and lost that he didn't know what to do. While it sounded so easy to just marry Seonghwa and continue living the life he was used to, Yeosang couldn't escape the empty feeling in his heart, and the tears that wanted to fall from his eyes every waking minute of the day.

"If anything, I should be the one to feel down."

The sudden cold tone in Seonghwa's voice made Yeosang look up, nervously. The older glared at him, with his brows furrowing down towards his dark eyes.

"W-what do you m-"

"I know what you did." Seonghwa cut him off. "I know all about you and Choi San."

Yeosang froze, and he barely even managed to put down the glass onto the table without dropping it, before his hands started to shake. The look in Seonghwa's eyes were burning into his, angry and full of despise. The older walked around the table to the side where Yeosang was standing, which caused Yeosang to stumble backwards.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Don't disappoint me like that, ever again. Do you understand?" The breath that fell over Yeosang's lips as Seonghwa spoke so close to him, felt like deadly fire, and the growling voice had him swallowing his own.

"S-Seonghwa..."

A cry of shock and pain jumped from his lips, the second he felt a hand colliding with his left cheek. Yeosang fell backwards, bumped into the chair behind him and almost tripped over his own feet. The tears fell from his eyes in an instant, and he barely even dared to look at Seonghwa who was fuming with anger in front of him.

He wanted to scream, to tell the older to go to Hell with his stupid double standards - he had been cheating as well! But in that moment he was too scared. The caring and attentive Seonghwa, who had held his hand and kissed his hair the last few months, was gone. Instead, he was left with an even worse version of the cold-hearted man he used to know - and whom he was now forced to marry.

Ten years of marriage was the agreement, with any breach in the contract would cost his family a lot of money. So many that he knew his parents would hate him for the rest of their lives. But they had agreed to it, assured that their only son was done with disappointing them.

"Honestly," Seonghwa growled at him, almost towering over him like a dark shadow about to tear him apart. "I don't give a shit about what you do. Our relationship will purely be what I want the world to see. But don't think you can just go around acting like a careless whore. Even your mother tries to hide it better than you, you could learn a thing or two from her."

Seonghwa left the room, and as soon as Yeosang heard the door closing to the bedroom, he fell to his knees. He cried as silently as he could into his hands, nearly choking on air while trying his best to keep the sobs soundless. When he finally was able to collect himself enough to go hide in the bathroom instead, he locked the door and slid down to sit on the tiles with his back against the wall.

What had he done...

No matter how many times he tried to dry the tears away, new ones showed up to roll down his cheeks. The collar of his shirt was choking him, and he frantically got the upper buttons opened, while gasping for air. He felt cold, then burning warm, then cold again...

Stumbling around, he got up and grabbed a hold onto the sink, but the reflection that met him was one he would rather have been without. Empty eyes stared back at him, puffed up red cheeks and the left one still more vivid in color, and the tears he had smeared all around his face had messed up his makeup.

Yeosang stroked his fingertips against the birthmark on his face, which had now become visible again, and his face scrunched up by his own touch. His bags were still out in the living room, with his makeup and everything, but he was too scared to even go out and grab it. On the other hand, Seonghwa would hate looking at him with that stupid mark showing - more than he so obviously already did.

A small sparkling suddenly caught his eye, from behind the open collar which shifted around as he moved. With a shaking hand, Yeosang carefully pulled out the necklace he and San had brought together, even now he was wearing it, although it hurt him whenever he looked at it.

With a sharp exhalation, he ripped the necklace off and threw it into the toilet, it was over - it had been over for a long time, but Yeosang had had a hard time accepting that. San had ignored him every day since the day they came back from the Christmas Holidays, and Yeosang had tried to stay busy with school work and seeing Seonghwa after classes. But as he now watched the silver crescent disappear, he knew for a fact that it really, truly was over.

Everything he had ever wanted was gone.

♡

Graduation day came faster than imagined. The finals had flown by, with excellent results, as expected from Yeosang - who had no other thing to do anyway, than to focus solely on getting the best grades possible.

As at any other important event, the Kangs had showed up with proud looks on their faces, supporting their beloved son. Yeosang hid his real feelings behind a fake smile, as Seonghwa stood next to him, posing for the million of photos Mrs. Kang insisted on taking.

"Congratulations," the older smiled, with a kiss on Yeosang's cheek.

Showing disgust in public would go against the contract, as it would flaw the perfect image both his parents and Seonghwa were working so hard to maintaining - and so, Yeosang did what he could to play along to their charades.

But when Yeosang noticed how San was there all alone, his heart broke all over again, and the fake smile became even harder to keep on his face.

With his father in jail, and his mother still hiding to avoid the humiliation of being seen in public after what happened, San had no one.

The younger disappeared soon after getting his diploma, and although Yeosang was dying to go find him, he knew that he couldn't.

♡

A few hours later, of speeches, cheering and goodbye hugs, Yeosang had excused himself from his family to take a quick stroll around school - to relive the good memories, or so he had told them. But all he really wanted, was a chance to breathe.

He scoffed at his own thoughts, as the speech he himself -as the school body president - had held, talking about this not being the end, but only the beginning. He felt so stupid, since all he felt inside, was this being the beginning of the very end.

"Great speech."

Yeosang froze, with his eyes widened up and the air getting caught in his throat. The voice behind him had shivers running down his spine, and he barely dared turning around in the empty hallways, afraid that it might only be his own imagination.

But sure enough, there he was, looking back at Yeosang with tired eyes and his diploma crumbled up in his hand.

"San..."

"You know what my favorite parts were?" San asked, slowly walking towards him with a deadly cold stare. "I really liked the ones about embracing life and its opportunities, making the most out of everything and never stop chasing your dreams. Because that is exactly what you do, isn't it, Kang?"

The sarcasm was not hidden at all, and Yeosang couldn't even find the words to snap back at him - because what San so tauntingly was telling him was the truth.

"But I guess, double standards are just your thing?"

"W-what do you mean?" It wasn't that he wanted San to actually answer that question. Whatever the younger had to say to him now, could only hurt him more - but Yeosang felt like he had to say something. At least, San was talking to him now...

"Like you kept calling me a liar? But who's the real liar here?"

"If you're talking about the speech, it's what's people expected me to say, I-" Yeosang closed his mouth shut, noticing the change in San's face at the word expected. Disappointment was flashing through the brown eyes staring back at him, as a clear reflection of what he felt inside himself.

"No," San then said, and the angry expression slowly started to fade and his features softened up. "You said I wasn't just a rebound. You said you loved me. But it doesn't even matter now, does it? Guess you really are a liar, Kang. Or should I say, Park?"

San passed by him, his shoulder bumping against Yeosang's - and although it didn't physically hurt, Yeosang was falling apart on the inside.

Not wanting to be caught crying in the hallway, Yeosang hurried towards the door to the nearest classroom, not realizing it was the one he and San had shared the most classes in - the one where all those stupid paper planes had once been the biggest problem of his day.

And through the tears which blurred out his vision, he saw a distorted silhouette of the one thing he once used to hate.

On the top of his usual desk was a small paper plane, but this time it wasn't made out of a page ripped from a notebook. It was folded neatly, in pretty pink paper. Hesitantly, he walked towards it, and his hands were shaking as he reached out for it.

His fingertips barely even touched it, before he promptly pulled his hand back, at the sound of his mother's voice coming from the door.

"Yeosang? Oh, there are you! If you're done here, the car is waiting for us."

Yeosang bit his lip, still staring at the small folded piece of paper in front of him. He then, discretely dried the tears away before turing around.

"Yes, I am done here."

♡

[ END OF PART ONE ]

♡