Page 221 of My Ruthless Neighbor

“Please don’t say that,” I whisper.

I always found sadness in Ma and Pa’s eyes. Which mirrored mine. Like they lost someone. Now I know. They lost their daughter. And just like I longed for parents, they longed for the daughter they lost. And we found what we yearned for in each other.

“One month later, when I was going through my stuff, I found Amy’s business card. And that devastated me. Her dreams and hopes were crushed. KIM Advertising had shut down before it could flourish. The NGOs and animal shelters were all in a mess. That’s when I decided I was going to end my life. But not by committing suicide. By erasing every trace of who I was and re-building myself into a new person. A person who is sober. A person who never lies. A person who would help Amy live her dreams through me.”

He bows his head. I squeeze his shoulder.

“With the help of my parents, I checked myself in a rehab. I purposely chose a six-month program. And when I was out, I was a new man. I was no longer the careless teen who took everything for granted. Abeoji was proud of me but I didn’t change for him. I did it for her. My sister.” He takes a stuttering breath. “I worked hard and built KIM Advertising from scratch. Bigger and better. I began volunteering in shelters, picked up her incomplete mission of helping others. But no matter what I did, it wasn’t enough to fill the hollowness inside me. I stopped celebrating birthdays, parties because it was a reminder that my life was going forward and Amy’s wasn’t. Because it was ended by that motherfucker.”

“Was he arrested?”

He nods. “He was killed in the cell five years later. I may or may not have a hand in his death.”

I gasp.

He looks at me then. “I don’t regret it. I shoved money down some people’s throats and told them to make that bastard suffer. Thinking that his death would finally bring peace. That I would finally be able to sleep at night. I was wrong. All it did was made me hate myself even more.” He looks at me then. “Then you came into my life and filled it with colors.”

I bite my trembling lip. He cradles my face. “You made me feel again, Summer.” He touches his forehead to mine. “When you told me about your mom, I wanted to open up too. I wanted to tell you everything but I couldn’t. I wasn’t ready to go through that again. So I chose the easy way out. I let you go.”

He pulls back and stares at me, his eyes glistening. “I am sorry for hurting you, Summer. I really am. I am willing to spend the rest of my life making it up to you if you’d let me. I don’t care if you don’t want me back now. I will wait for you until my last breath. But please don’t say that it’s too late, baby. I can’t live without you. I don’twantto live without—”

I kiss him. I feel the tears coursing down my face but I’m not sure who’s tears are those. Mine or his.

Breaking the kiss, I cry softly. “I love you.”

He clutches my face tightly. “I love you.”

“I can’t live without you either, Archer. These past days have been hell. I don’t want to feel that again. Please don’t let me go again.”

He shakes his head reverently. “I won’t.” Then, “You really forgive me?”

I nod, smiling through my tears. “You are my whole life, Archer.”

“And you are mine.” He presses his lips to mine.

Terrible grief grips me when I think of our pasts. He lost his sister. I lost my mother. We both went through so much pain and when we found each other, we became each other’s strength.

All this time, he was carrying a missing piece of my soul and I was carrying his and tonight, we are finally whole.

We were able to find each other because of the loss. And while we would never completely move on from that, I am content that we are now less hollow than before.

“I hope you know I didn’t leak the ad campaign,” I say after breaking the kiss.

Archer breathes and then nods, his face full of misery. “I know. Despite the proofs pointing at you, I knew you wouldn’t betray us. But I had to do something to drive you to your limits. I had to make sure you hated me. So you could give—”

“So I could give up on you?” I sniffle.

He nods, anguish filling his eyes. “Oh, Archer.” I move to straddle him and grab his face.

“If I had known… I never would have let you push me away. I would’ve fought harder.”

“But you didn’t know.” He smooths a strand off my face.

“No more secrets from now on, Archer.”

“No more secrets.” He agrees.

We sit there for a moment, staring at each other. He cups my head and brings my lips to his. I press my body closer to his as his tongue enters my mouth.

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