Page 59 of A Lab Rat's Guide to Fated Love
“I need to finish packing,” she said softly. “I’m sorry, Sunny. I’ll call you when I reach there. I promise.”
“You promise?” Sunny laughed, raking a hand through his hair. “Don’t you remember how we fell for each other right away? We’re soulmates, Nori. Are you going to throwusaway for a mere science project?”
“Sunny…”
“You can have your lab right here. I’ll help you. I’ll even invest whatever amount you need. We’ll make your project successful. Together.”
Nori swallowed against the lump in her throat, glancing around the room at her partially packed boxes of things. Last evening’s argument aside, he’d always been so sincere, and so good to her…
“I was really stressed out from work yesterday and got carried away,” Sunny whispered. “But you were mean, too. You can’t ignore that. You know I can’t imagine being away from you for a single day. And I know you can’t either.”
“Let me think about it,” Nori said, her temples beginning to throb. “I’ll be back next weekend. We can talk then.”
“Let’s not wait till fall,” Sunny said, ignoring her. “I want to take care of you properly as my wife. Vancouver is a great place to raise kids. I want a boy right away. And then a girl.”
He placed his hand against her cheek. And before Nori could respond, he clamped her mouth shut with his.
A chill ran down her spine when his hand reached under her skirt. He pinched her thigh hard enough to leave a bruise, and she cried out in pain before pressing her lips together against the onslaught of his tongue. He was so much stronger than her, her resistance only spurred him on.
“Stop playing, Nori. I know you want it.” He laughed, pressing her against the wall before unzipping his jeans with one hand while holding her in place with the other.
Nori bit down on his tongue, hard enough to draw blood. It made him briefly pull away from her, blubbering a slur of expletives, and gave her a chance to escape. But she couldn’t get too far before he grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into a wall.
She dropped to the floor to crawl away from him, her vision a hazy red.
“Look at what you’ve done now!” Sunny boomed, towering a few feet away from her. “This is exactly what you wanted, isn’t it? First, you provoke me with your never-ending tantrums and insults, all the while trying to seduce me with that tight skirt like I can’t see what you’re playing at. You manipulative little—I’m fucking bleeding, you sl—!”
He kept going on his tirade, but Nori couldn’t focus on his words anymore. Bile rose in her throat as her back went flush against the wall behind her. She propped herself shakily on her arms while keeping her eyes on the blurry view of his jeans.
Sunny aimed a kick at one of the decorative stands in the corner, making a bunch of small succulent pots come clattering down around her. He gave her one long, hard look before he left, slamming the door shut behind him with enough force to rattle the windows on the opposite side of the room.
An hour later, Nori hopped in a cab to the airport with only a small suitcase of her essentials. She blocked Sunny everywhere and refused to speak with him again. But when he started contacting her with different IDs, she changed her number, too. And that was that. Or so she’d thought.
After several months of quiet, on the evening of her birthday, Nori had just walked into a restaurant with her friends when she received a call from an unknown number.
“Hello?” She took the call, settling into her seat.
“Finally.” Sunny’s familiar baritone sent chills down her spine. “Don’t hang up. I’m right outside.”
“How did you get this number?” All warmth drained out of her limbs as she glanced out of the window and spotted him standing across the street.
“I begged your friend Ryan, and he took pity on me.”
“What do you want?”
“I just want to apologize. I know I’ve been an asshole.”
“Okay,” Nori replied through gritted teeth, her heart racing at the sound of his voice. “Please don’t call me again.”
“Wait!” He waved at her. “If you hang up, I’ll just have to come see you at your table.”
Her throat dried.
“There’s another reason I wanted to apologize to you in person,” he continued. “I have a fiancé now, and I confessed to her about us. She—she won’t talk to me if I don’t apologize to you properly. I know what I did was terrible. Please, just give me five minutes. Right here, outside. Just five minutes.”
Nori hung up without replying. It was none of her business if Sunny wanted to walk in and make a fool of himself in front of her friends and the entire restaurant.
Her foot tapped anxiously against the floor. In her peripheral vision, she watched him take a step in her direction and instantly sprung up from her seat. She excused herself and marched out in the drizzling rain to where he stood waiting.
