Chapter 280 - Hate Me Or You-II

It was empty. Seoyeon felt her heart empty as if a tear had been ripped across her heart and she can't taste what feeling was ruling her mind at the moment. She looked at the ring with her eyes turning bleak. There was a spot of red blood on the ring which she tried to wipe it off but had stayed too long, causing it to turn hard which cause it hard for her to remove it. The more she tried, the more she felt her emotions and nerves going awry.

"Miss Seoyeon?" asked Grandfather Jung when his hand was about to to tap her shoulders, Seoyeon turned her face to look at the man. "Are you alright?" The man asked because he noticed how suddenly she lost her words.

"I am, I was in a little trance," said Seoyeon and she stood up wordlessly. "Can I please excuse myself, grandfather Jung?"

"Of course, staying here in the cold won't be good to you either," said the elder pureblood and Seoyeon returned the smile he showed her.

Leaving the garden, Seoyeon took a walk alone in the hallway. For a few times there were servants who passed by the corridor but upon seeing her they quickly left in fear after the word about her being a witch spread in less than an hour. She didn't mind being alone, instead it was what she currently needed.

She silently make her ways upstairs, not knowing where to go and when she arrived at the second floor, her attention was caught to the glass door which was left open. Walking there, she saw it was a terrace. Seoyeon reached out her hand to feel the wind climbing to her skin giving a nice and cold sensation. Without much thinking, she stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

The sky was black yet somewhere if Seoyeon stared at it for long she could feel that the sky had gone lighter, painted with a faint color of purple and a wash of blue. She pulled her hand that was still holed in a fist and opened her finger to look at the rings which she had taken from the cemetery.

"I thought I saw a ghost," Jung Hwa said. He had just finished the matter he had to take care when he passed by the second floor to find Seoyeon standing alone, her back figure which was blown by the wind caught his attention immediately at once. "Seoyeon?" He asked when he didn't hear her speak.

"Hwa," Seoyeon called his name while looking at the sky without turning her eyes at him. Jung Hwa could sense some emotions from the sound of her heartbeat like how he often do but there was a limit to what he could tell. He didn't know what Seoyeon was feeling or the thought she held in her mind but he could feel that she was unrest at the moment.

"What is it?" Jung Hwa asked, coming closer to where she stood just one step behind her. "Finding comfort in calling my name?" Jung Hwa teased but unknowingly received a nod from Seoyeon.

"Can I ask you something personal?" Seoyeon questioned and Jung Hwa raised his eyebrow higher at the amiss that he felt.

"You have become someone dear to me as my lover, Seoyeon, what is there that is personal between us?" Jung Hwa instead question, he can't tell what emotion she held but knew it was borderline sadness and emptiness which wasn't far fetched. 

Seoyeon took a deeper breath and asked, "What do you feel when you had to kill your mother and brother?" She stared at one insignificant spot on the sky as she speak, "Did you feel sorrow?"

Jung Hwa can't understand why Seoyeon had asked him this but he had truly meant it when he said he wanted to treasure her. That includes to not hide everything from her as he wanted to be transparent. "Indescribably sad and somewhere that sadness created a hole in my heart, making the anger and sadness that stirred inside my heart to pour out from that hole but I didn't know where those feelings went— in the end I only felt numb all over my body."

"Me too," Seoyeon replied sheepishly and she brought her head down from staring too high up to stare at the sky, "I feel numb." and she turned her eyes to look at Jung Hwa. His black eyes looked in expressive but fierce with an affectionate gaze. Warmth always manage to cover Seoyeon's body when she find that smile of his which always make her feel calm as id she was in a place like haven. No matter how cold she felt, with him she trusted she could feel warmth.

"You feel numb?" Jung Hwa questioned, catching Seoyeon's eyebrows sloping down, his steps immediately advanced. He reached his hand out to cover her right cheek. With a frown, he asked, "What's wrong? Do you feel sick somewhere?"

Seoyeon rested a smile on him and she shake her head, "I am not sick. I'm fine, I just had a few thoughts running in my mind."

But Jung Hwa didn't trust her words because right now her expression told him otherwise, "You don't look like you are anywhere fine. I can tell."

Seoyeon can't see her own image thus, asking, "What do I look like?"

"Like you are about to shatter into pieces and that breaks my heart," Jung Hwa rubbed his thumb across her under eyelid. "Was it because you talked to my grandfather? Did he said anything that offend you or hurt you?"

"No, we had a nice talk. He treasured you a lot Hwa," Seoyeon immediately denied. She wondered if she should tell Jung Hwa about it. When she met his eyes, she found him looking at her closely as if afraid that she would break into pieces. 

"Then if it isn't, what is it? What makes you feel unrest?" Jung Hwa pressed the matter continuously. "Would you like me to have gray hairs due to you keep on worrying me and keeping your own distress to yourself? I don't know that you were so jealous that you want me to look older so other women won't come to me." He tried to make her laughed and Seoyeon noticed it.

"I don't want you to feel burdened," she whispered, making her decision, as she stared at her hand that was clenched to hold the rings inside it. Jung Hwa's attention fell there, not knowing what was inside her clenched palm. 

"At the cost of hiding it from me? We are going to be married in the future, Seoyeon and secrets are one way to growing seed of doubts which would put a crack to our innocent love," Jung Hwa run his fingers through her hair, trying to sway her mind as he needed to put his hand deeper to her heart to know what she was thinking of and the emotions that she felt that currently weigh her. "What is it that bothering you that includes me?"

Seoyeon pulled a deeper breath as she stared at him and slowly brought her hand in front of him, unclenching her hands, she let him see the rings that were on her palm.

Jung Hwa's stare settled on the rings that looked a little old as time had ate its luster with the passing days since the death of its owner. A smile slowly crept on his lips, "Proposing me? You should have waited for me to do it instead."

Seoyeon wanted to smile at his usual teasing but she shook her had, placing it on his palm, "This belongs to someone else."

Jung Hwa looked at her with inquiries and he took the rings to his hand, bringing it upward to his eyes before tilting the ring to look the name which was engraved. His eyes went still at the name he read and he looked at her, "Where did you find this?"

It didn't make much sense to Jung Hwa. Seoyeon had only left for a moment as she went to speak with his grandfather then how could she come back with the rings that she seemed to have just found? A faint idea passed to his mind as Seoyeon stared at him with an inexplicable look.

"Your grandfather made a cemetery, did you know that?" Seoyeon asked and that had Jung Hwa to stare at her with a deeper gaze, the wind blew strongly from their left, brushing their attire.

Jung Hwa nodded his head, finally understanding what happened, "The dark witches that my grandfather killed, they were your parents."