Forbidden Desire

He stared at me, waiting for an answer that I simply couldn’t give.

“No one!” I intended to focus solely on my studies. I didn’t want to think about dating right now.

“But have you ever had a boyfriend?”

“Not a boyfriend, but I used to go out with some boys in my town.”

“Oh yes! Go out… I forgot that young people don’t date anymore.”

“You talk like you’re old.”

“I’m not young.” He smiled and shrugged.

“What about you? Did you have any other girlfriends before Mrs. Park?” He turned red and put another spoonful of ice cream in my mouth.

“That many?” He smiled and hid his face behind the bowl.

“Well, I can tell you that I was very popular.”

“Look at that!” I said, clapping my hands, and he laughed out loud. I was swinging my legs gently in the water pool and he was doing the same.

“But when I saw Jiji at our engagement dinner I changed completely. There I knew that she would be the woman of my life…” My heart breaks when I hear him say that, and I try to hide the fact that my eyes are full of water.

“I’m so glad it worked out!” He bowed his head and shrugged.

“If you can call it that…” His countenance was now sad, and I wanted to console him and make him forget about her, but the truth was that I didn’t feel able to do that. She was so beautiful, she met all the standards. She barely fit into my uniform, she wore high heels while I could only wear sneakers, she wore feminine and provocative clothes while my style was always casual… I knew I was no match for her and I had already given up before I even tried.

“What?”

“Nothing…”

“You suddenly looked thoughtful.”

“No, I was just thinking that I’d like to be loved like that one day.”

“You will be!” He said confidently and I laughed mockingly.

“How do you know?”

“Because you’re beautiful, hard-working and…”

“And?” He thinks carefully before he speaks, turning his face away, but I can see he’s blushing.

“Go on! Say it! Don’t make me curious!” I said, laughing nervously, and he started laughing along with me.

“No, please!”

“Please! I need to sleep tonight!”

“Good luck with that!”

I get angry, and before I know it, I’ve smeared ice cream on his nose, and he laughs in disbelief at what I’ve done.

“I can’t believe you got ice cream all over me!”

“Well, but I did!” I cross my arms pretending to be a prankster while laughing at his reaction.

“Come here!” He smears ice cream on my nose and I pretend to be surprised.

“Look, this isn’t fair!” I tried to get up to run, but he managed to pull me up and lay me on the edge of the pool. We were joking around, but when our gazes met, I realized he was just a few centimeters from my mouth and I found myself craving those pink lips on mine. We stared at each other in silence and the tension between us was clear, until he broke the mood by rubbing more ice cream on my face and I laughed.

“That’s not fair!” I said it jokingly, but in reality those words echoed in my mind all the time.

“What?” He seemed to understand that I wasn’t talking about the joke anymore.

“You didn’t tell me what you were going to say…” He took a deep breath and seemed to be considering whether to say it until he smiled awkwardly.

“It’s just not something a married man should say to an unmarried girl.”

“Now I want to know!” He smiled, and I could see the mischief in his eyes. He looked back at me and gave up.

“And… You’re a temptress.” He said shyly and I ended up blushing.

“Satisfied?” I shook my head yes and he smiled. He seemed to notice how close our bodies were and moved away.

“We’d better go inside. You need to get some sleep!” I tried to hide my displeasure, and it seemed that I succeeded. In fact, if I could, I’d stay up all night just to spend more time with him.

“Yes! Let’s go in.” We went back to the house and when we were at the kitchen door, I saw my aunt drinking water in the kitchen, so I pulled him in before she saw the two of us there. When I realized, I was leaning against the wall and Jason’s body was so close to mine that my hand was on his chest. I looked at my hand and then at him, who was staring at me in silence, his eyes glazed over, going from my eyes to my lips, and he moved even closer to me. I closed my eyes in anticipation, but just as he was about to touch his lips to mine, he pulled away from me. I opened my eyes to stare at him in confusion and his gaze ran all over the room so that he didn’t have to face me.

“Your aunt’s gone. I’d better go back to my room. Jiji might wake up and miss me.” I looked at the empty kitchen and nodded.

“Well then, good night!”

“Good night, then!” I ran out of there to my room and locked the door. My heart was racing, and I threw myself on the bed feeling silly. How could I have made such a fool of myself? How could I have imagined that he wanted to kiss me? How could it have crossed my mind? Dumb! Stupid! I hate myself! Now I’ll be ashamed every time I see him. Gradually my heart slowed down and as nervous as I was, tiredness gradually overcame me and I ended up falling asleep. I woke up the next day very sleepy, but I got up and tried to get ready for work. When I got to the kitchen, my aunt was already preparing the food that would be served for breakfast and I started to take everything to the dining room. When everything was ready, Jason went into the dining room and sat down at the table.

“Good morning, Jane!”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“Good morning Mr. Park!” He thought about retorting, but just looked at me and then back at the coffee I was pouring into his cup. He started to stare at my cleavage and when he seemed to realize what he was doing, he disguised it by looking at the toast. He sipped his coffee in silence and then left. Some time later, a man rang the doorbell looking for him. The man had black hair and a funny hairstyle, his style was very casual, with baggy pants and a jean’s jacket. Although he was handsome, I didn’t like him.

“I came to see Jason.”

“Yes, of course! Who would you like?”

“My name is Min Siwoo, but you can just call me Siwoo.”

“Okay, sir, I’ll announce you, you can make yourself at home.” I left the man waiting in the living room and went to Mr. Park’s room. Park and knocked on the door.

“Come in!” I opened the door and saw her getting ready, looking excited.

“Mrs. Park, there’s a man called MinSiwoo looking for Mr. Park.”

“Is Siwoo here? At this hour?” She smiled, but tried to cover it up.

“Well, Jason’s in the heated pool! Go and get him!”

“Yes, Mrs. Park!” I went out to where the indoor pool was, looked around, but didn’t see him there. I tried to look inside the pool to see if I could find him, but I couldn’t see anything.

“Mr. Park?” He suddenly came out of the water, startling me. I overbalanced and tried to steady my foot on the slippery floor, twisting my ankle and falling into the pool. I felt my body sink into the pool, and it was deeper than I had imagined. I tried to swim, but ended up hitting my head on the bottom of the pool. Before I could get up again, I felt arms lifting me and the next thing I knew I was in Jason’s strong arms, looking at every detail of his wet body, his hair dripping small drops of water that ran down his tattooed chest, leaving me completely breathless. He stared at my completely wet body and, because of the cold, the nipples of my breasts stood out. I gasped with desire and I could see his eyes roaming all over my body until they stopped on my mouth.

“Are you all right?” Unable to say a word, I just nodded. He took me in his arms to the edge of the pool, giving me a boost so that I could sit in it. He got out of the pool and tried to help me stand up. I almost fell when I put my foot on the ground due to the pain of having twisted my ankle, and he held me again.

“Ouch!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I twisted my ankle when I slipped in the pool.”

“Wow, I’m going to take out a life insurance policy on you because every day you hurt yourself differently.” He smiles at me, scolding me as if I were a child.

“Come on! I’ll take you!” Before I can react, he grabs me in his strong arms and takes me away. I cling to his neck and he smiles.

“Were you looking for me?”

“Yes! Mr. MinSiwoo is waiting for you.” He rolls his eyes and looks annoyed.

“Unwanted people already at this time of the morning…”

“Unwelcome? Why is that?”

“I don’t like him. I invested in him because Jinhee asked me to as a personal favor, but he’s a slacker, lazy, always late, produces almost nothing and just keeps asking me for money. In fact, I bet that’s why he’s here!” The shortest way from the indoor pool to the kitchen was through the living room, so when we arrived in the living room with Jason carrying me in his arms, Jinhee and Siwoo were shocked, while my aunt, who was serving coffee, looked like she was seeing a haunting.

“Oh my God, what happened?”

“She twisted her ankle and fell into the pool.” Jason put me in an armchair and put his hands on my ankle, pressing them lightly. I groaned in pain and he looked worried.

“I don’t think it was just a sprain. I’d better take you to the doctor.”

“Not Mr. Park. Park, don’t worry, I’ll take you.”

“No, Mrs. Amelia, I’ll make sure of it. Just help her put on some dry clothes, so we can go to the hospital for an X-ray and see if anything’s happened.”

“But I’ve got a lesson soon.”

“No, you can’t go like that!”

“But…”

“But nothing Jane, I’ve already said it and I won’t say it again.” I felt a stare at me and when I looked up I saw that Siwoo was looking down at me while biting his lip. I crossed my arms in front of my breasts, covering my cleavage, feeling uncomfortable with the way he was looking at me with a dirty face. Jason and Jinhee seemed to notice my discomfort and followed my gaze, noticing the way the man was looking at me. Jinhee seemed to get annoyed and Jason immediately picked me up.

“Yeah, get that girl to the doctor!” She said and glared at the man, who shrugged and gave her a naughty grin in return. She turned her back and walked out of there, stomping her feet while Jason got me out of there as fast as he could. He led me to my room, followed by my aunt.

“Put some dry clothes on and I’ll come and get you.”

“Okay.” He left, and my aunt looked at me, seeming annoyed by our proximity, but didn’t say anything. She just went to my closet to get some clean clothes and I decided to take a shower before changing. When I got back, Jason was already waiting for me, he had changed and was sitting on my bed. When I looked at what was in his hands I almost had a heart attack. It was my sketchbook and I despaired, going over to him with a limp and taking it out of his hands, leaving him totally confused.

“What? There’s no need to be shy. You draw very well!” Luckily, I got there in time, he was in the middle of the notebook and hadn’t got to my drawings of him.

“Thank you!”

“I’ll want to see the rest later! Now let’s go!”

“Let’s go!” He tried to pick me up, but I wouldn’t let him.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can walk, slowly, but I can.”

He ignores what I’ve said and takes me in his strong arms, making me feel butterflies in my stomach.

“I don’t want you to force your foot!” He left with me and when we arrived at the main entrance, the man from before was waiting for him, leaning against Jason’s car. Jason opened the car door, carefully putting me in the back seat and then turned around, sighing angrily at the man waiting for him.

“What do you want, Siwoo?”

“I wanted permission to leave the company for a few days next week. My mother had an accident, and it looks like she’s going to need surgery.” Jason’s expression changed completely to one of concern, while the younger man had a look of sadness that to my eyes seemed like pretense.

“Of course! I wish your mother well!”

“Thank you, as the hospital costs are very high, I was wondering if you could give me in some salary advance.”

“Of course! As much as you need! Talk to my secretary Melanie and I’ll ask her to make out a check for you.”

“Thanks, boss!” He gave a smile that made me sure he was faking it and Jason didn’t seem to notice.

“Now I have to go!”

“Of course!” Jason turns the car around and gets into it. The man bends down close to the driver’s window and I can smell his strong perfume, which bothers my nostrils.

“Get well, Jane!” He says in a mocking tone as he speaks my name and I feel disgusted.

“Thank you, Jason.” I said, without even looking him in the face, and Jason seemed to notice. The man turned away and walked back to his car, and it was only when I looked at the car for the second time that it hit me. That was the same car as the day I caught Jinhee. He was her lover!