Kira could hardly believe the words that came out of Mark's mouth. "Your father is the reason why we can't be together," he said softly, trying hard not to let his anger show through his tone. That sentence was more deafening to her than the previous shouting match they had just 10 minutes ago. At that moment, all the anger, the frustration turned into confusion.
"What has my father got to do with us? You haven't even met the man yet. Was it the article?" she asked, suddenly filled with curiosity. "It wasn't just the article, Kira," he admitted, referring to the the profile piece published by the Economist, a candid interview with her father. "It is everything else he believes in, his values, the way he treats his businesses and how he talks about his family... it is all too much. I can't be a part of it." As he was explaining himself, Mark was already heading to the door, his dufflebag slung across his body.
"But I'm not asking you to be part of it! I'm not even part of it! That is why I'm here, far away from him!" Kira begged, the tears started flowing again, this time the tears flow slowly down her cheeks, warm just like how his hugs feel. "You don't have to be.." "I'm sorry Kira, I.. need to leave."
Just like that, Mark closed the door behind him. Closing on the life he built with Kira for the past 9 months, in that little flat just above a Korean snack bar. He closed his eyes and breathed. Part of him wanted to try and work it out with her but another part sighed in relief that he left before things got ugly. The less Kira knows why he did what he did, the better. At least, that is what he keeps telling himself. "It's for the best," he assured himself and left. He had unfinished business to deal with.
On the other side of the door, Kira sat by the coffee table, a cup of freshly brewed coffee in her hand. The nutty aroma of the beans soothes her as she tries to go through the last hour, the last month, the last year. She knew that crying out loud would not bring Mark back, she knew it would make her feel weak. The last thing she wants to feel right now is weak. "I shouldn't have told him about my family. Mother was right," she sighed. Thinking back to that conversation when her mother sat her down, a few days before she left. "It'll be hard for people to accept you and your family, just don't get your hopes up," her mother so brutally put it when Kira explained that she was going to 'settle down there'.
"I guess love is out of the window for me then," Kira finally admitted as she finished her coffee. "Now, time to move on," she said out loud, in the way her father would order her.
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