Seven Times I Drew Blank, Seven Times They Drew Each Other Chapter 09

Seven Times I Drew Blank, Seven Times They Drew Each Other Chapter 09

Three months later, Julian finally found out where I was.

I had gone to a small coastal town up north and joined a documentary crew filming women artisans

in remote communities.

He traveled through the night and found me beside an old pier.

I was wearing a weatherproof jacket, my hair whipping around in the ocean wind as I held up my camera and photographed an elderly woman weaving a fishing net.

Julian stood at a distance and watched me for a long time.

It was the first time he had ever seen me with my camera pointed at something other than the five

of them.

I was smiling.

I wasn’t smiling to humor anyone. Nor was I smiling because someone had told me not to ruin

everyone’s fun.

He hadn’t seen that kind of easy smile from me in years.

When the shoot ended, I turned around and saw him. The smile slowly faded from my face.

“What are you doing here?”

Julian’s throat tightened.

He had rehearsed what he wanted to say the entire way there, but now none of it would come out.

After a long silence, he finally said, “Come home with me.

I shook my head.

“This is my job.”

“Then quit.”

He answered without hesitation, the same way he had always made decisions for me.

“I’ll plan the wedding again. I already left the group chat.’

“Vanessa won’t come between us anymore.”

“From now on, it’ll just be us.”

I looked at him quietly.

“Julian, you still don’t get it.”

His expression froze.

“I didn’t leave to make you quit the group chat.”

“And I didn’t leave to force you to cut Vanessa out of your life.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I don’t want you anymore.”

The ocean wind swept between us.

Julian’s eyes went red.

“Over one game?”

I laughed.

“You really think it was just one game?”

“Seven blank cards were a game. Making me sleep on the couch was a game.”

“Leaving me alone on the boat was a game.

“Taking my ring, wearing my wedding dress, kissing my fiancé-all of that was a game.’

“What about the last seven years?”

I looked straight at him.

“For seven years, the five of you kept shutting me out, sometimes openly and sometimes quietly.”

“And every single time, you told me I was being too sensitive.”

“Trying to fit in with all of you, I became less and less like myself.”

“And in the end, you were calling me the one who came between you and Vanessa.”

“Julian, that game wasn’t what made me leave.”

“It was what finally made me see the truth.”

“For seven years, you never really chose me.’

His lips trembled.

“I chose to marry you. But you gave your love to Vanessa and your time to your friends.”

“All you ever gave me was the marriage itself.”

I asked quietly, “Was that because I was the one who could take care of you?”

The color drained from Julian’s face.

He had said it himself on the terrace once.

One woman was the kind you married. The other was the one you carried in your heart.

He had thought I hadn’t heard him.

“Nora, I was drunk.”

“But it was the truth.”

I continued, “It’s not that you don’t know how to be considerate.”

“You just took my love for granted and dumped every bad mood on me.”

Julian stood there as his shoulders slowly sagged.

After a long time, he reached into his pocket and took out the plain band.

“I spent a long time looking for this. The airport staff told me you turned it in to lost and found.”

“Let’s start over.”

“I’ll get a new ring. I’ll plan a new wedding.”

I didn’t take it.

For the first time, desperation entered his voice.

“Nora, tell me what to do.”

“If you’ll just come back, I’ll change everything.”