Chapter 12 – The old her

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Past

Jinri woke up in the next morning with the beautiful sunshine greeted her, the bright light shining in her eyes from the opened curtain of windows. She groaned softly as she opened her eyes slightly, allowing them to adjust to the light before she opened them any further.

Once her eyes fully adjusted to the morning light, Jinri shifted over in the bed, pulling the comforter tightly around her body trying to keep warm. The weather meant to be in the middle of summer but somehow it was colder than everyone would expect for this season.

When Jinri rolled over completely, a lazy smile graced over her lips at the sleeping body next to her. He looked even better of first thing in the morning. Jinri gently brushed a few loose strands of his hair away from his eyes. Minho looked so peaceful when he slept. She watched him shift slightly as she froze, his groggy eyes opening slowly.

Minho smiled as he looked into her eyes, melting Jinri instantly. "Good morning!" He said softly.

Jinri blushed as his arms s around her waist and pulling her closer to him. "Good morning! Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." She replied gently.

Minho chuckled as he placed a light kiss on her lips, "Riri, there is no need to apologize. You know that I could think of nothing I like better than waking up to your smiling face."

Jinri was about to kiss him again when she glanced over his shoulder at the time on his alarm clock and groaned. "Damn it!" She hissed as she quickly jumped out of bed.

Jinri wrapped one of Minho's shirts around her body, it came down in the mid of her thighs, looking like a y nightie on her but that's why she loved wearing them. She always stole his clothes, there was something about their smell, they smelled so much like him and she loved that feeling of closeness to him whenever she wasn't near him.

"Where do you think you're going?" Whined Minho.

Jinri gave her boyfriend a quick smile as she ran a brush through her mousy black, shoulder length hair. "It's six thirty, oppa. My brother will be here in less than an hour to pick you up for a soccer practice and if you remember correctly he still thinks that I'm staying at Luna's place."

Minho sighed at the thought. "I hate lying to him."

Jinri paused for a few seconds and she heaved a sigh. "I know but we have to wait until the timings right."

Jinri was caught in trance until she saw Minho staring at her, a lustful look displayed in his eyes. "What?"

Minho gave Jinri one of his award winning smirks. "Why is it that my shirts seem to look so much better on you?"

Jinri laughed, shaking her head but she was obviously trying to hide him her blushing cheek.

Minho pouted like a little kid. "Can't you just come back to bed for just a little while longer?" He said and held out his arms to her hopefully.

Jinri shook her head, grinning from ear to ear. "We both know that if I come anywhere near that bed it won't be just for a few minutes and I definitely don't want my brother finding out about us by seeing me in your bed."

Minho laughed as he watched Jinri blew him a kiss. She quickly grabbed her overnight bag and going into the bathroom before she changed her. mind. He was just so hard to resist sometimes.

Jinri locked the door behind her just to be on the safe side, she knew how persistent Minho could be. She shed his shirt, letting it fall to the floor and took a quick shower. Finished it, she wore a pair of tight jeans and a light blue singlet shirt. She dabbed a little bit of pink lip-gloss on her lips. She took one last look in the mirror and that was good to go.

Jinri gathered up Minho's shirt and was about to put it in his laundry hamper when a piece of paper fell out of his pocket, curiosity got the better of her and she opened it. And what the inside she had read filled her with nothing but anger.

By the time Jinri stormed out of the bathroom. Minho was already out of bed, zipping up his jeans. He jumped at the sound of the door hitting the bedroom wall with a loud bang.

Jinri glared at him as she waved the piece of paper in front of him. "What the hell is this?"

His face went white as a sheet when he realized what it was. "Where did you find that?" Queried Minho.

"It doesn't matter where I found it! The only thing that matters is the fact that you didn't tell me!" Said Jinri, her voice laced with offense.

Minho took a step forward toward Jinri, only making her took one shaky step back. He sighed. "Babe listen to me. I didn't mean to hide it from you. I only just found out about it a week ago, so please calm down."

Tears started rolling down her cheeks. "Calm down! How can I calm down? You've been asked to train your soccer skill in England. And then what? You will be accepted in a team there. God! You are going to leave this country, your family and ME. Now you tell me to calm down after I had to find out about this freaking news from a letter instead of from you."

Minho sat down on his bed, his head falling into his hands. "Riri, the scouts were at one of my games a few months ago. My coach introduced me to them but I had heard nothing so I thought it was a lost cause and then suddenly a week ago I got this letter."

Jinri wiped the tears from her eyes. "So that's it. You're just going to leave?"

Minho looked up at Jinri, sadness in his eyes and he didn't even try to deny anything even if it meant to coax her for this very moment. "I don't know what to do! This is my dream Riri and it's being handed to me on a silver platter."

"Then what about us?" Queried Jinri.

Minho sighed. "I don't want to lose you but this is everything I've ever wanted. This is the hardest decision I have ever had to make. So please try to understand my situation too Jinri."

Jinri let out a sarcastic chuckle. She glared at Minho with tears damped her eyes all over again, she then grabbed her bag and shoving all her belongings in it. "Fine, I will understand. So to make it easier for you, I'm out of here! Good luck with your dream."

Jinri started to walk out but Minho stopped her, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I know our situation is already hard for us and it only makes thing worse because of this offer but Riri, I don't want to slip the chance as much as I don't want to lose you."

Jinri wiped her tears. "Then choose it oppa. I know, you know, that you can't have both at the same time."

Minho seemed to loosen his hug a little but his arms still wrapping around her waist. "Please Riri I really love you."

Jinri spun around facing his sad face, his eyes pleading for understanding. "No you don't. If you really loved me, this would be an easy decision to make. Goodbye Minho."

Jinri pulled herself from his grasp, running out of his house as tears flowing uncontrollably from her eyes.

She couldn't stop the tear from coming, no matter how many hours she cried. She had shown up at Luna's place three hours earlier and nothing she did could stop the pain in her chest. Jinri could perfectly remember his sad eyes that clearly told her his decision and pain just kept increasing. How could Minho do this to her? How could he decide to throw everything they created away and leave her?

Her phone started ringing again and Minho's favorite song filled Jinri's ears, the song that had the lyric related to their relationship. When they first got together, Jonghyun was a touchy subject between the two of them. Both hated the fact that they had to hide the relationship from him. One day Minho was playing with her phone and the next thing she knew this song became her phone ringtone. At first Jinri was angry at the fact he was trying to make fun of their situation but the more she listened to it the more she liked it.

From that day forward it was their song, Minho's personalized ring tone on her phone, a little joke to lighten the tense situation in their relationship. It was a comfort whenever she had a bad day and hearing her phone go off just knowing he was calling her, before she even looked at her phone, it already made her smile, she knew he was going to say exactly what she needed to hear and make her feel better.

Now Jinri had been hearing that ring tone over and over again for the past three hours but all she wanted to do was throw her phone against a brick wall. And as if Luna could read her mind, she turned it off before pulling her dear friend in for another hug.

And Jinri could do nothing but started crying again. She was waiting for the tears to dry up but they never did.

- - - -

Present

Luna wrapped an arm around Jinri. "Come on Jinri lighten up and just enjoy your night."

Jinri rolled her eyes, chuckling. Yes, it was truly the night her sister, Sooyoung, Luna and her bridesmaids was throwing for her before marriage. Apart from them, Luna had also invited the few high school friends who stuck with her when they found out she was pregnant.

Luna stood up and cleared to get everyone's attention. "Okay everyone, now we are all here tonight. In exactly one week, my best friend Choi Jinri….." She trailed off her speech and the girls began to coo. "Will be joining the dark side and becoming another old, married lady."

"Hey!!" Sooyoung and Jinri cried out in protest while the rest of the girls laughed.

Luna chuckled along with the rest of them. "Okay as I was saying. Tonight it is up to all of us to make sure that she gets a lifetime worth of partying tonight. So let's all raise our glasses and make a toast to Jinri."

"To Jinri!" Everyone repeated, mimicking Luna's actions and taking a sip of their drinks.

Jinri raised her own glass. "And here is to all of you girls for helping me celebrate and to me getting so drunk tonight that whatever you guys have install for me, I will be guaranteed not to remember any of it in the morning." She joked and everyone laughed before raising their glasses again.

By the midnight, Jinri had been offered phone numbers by around ten guys in the club. She constantly rejected them said that she already had a fiancé and one of them even tried to talk her out of getting married and be with him instead.

Jinri left the dance floor and stumbled towards the lounge suite that Sooyoung was sitting on. She collapsed on top of it, completely breathless. Jinri looked over at her blurry shape and smiled. "I love you. You know that, don't you unnie?" She slurred.

Sooyoung chuckled. "You're drunk Jinri, you love everybody right now."

Jinri was going to protest but felt so dry. She leaned forward to grab Sooyoung's glass. She raised the glass to her lips and proceeded to skull the drink but to her utter shock it tasted nothing like alcohol. Jinri gave Sooyoung a weird look. "If I wasn't drunk I might think this was lemonade unnie but I guess my taste buds must be shot because of all the grog."

Sooyoung shifted uncomfortably in her seat, confirming Jinri's suspicion that her taste buds were all fine.

Jinri's eyes narrowed in her direction. "Ten minutes ago you were dancing around drunk like the rest of us."

Sooyoung sighed. "I actually haven't had a drink all night."

"But why? This makes no sense unless you're pregnant." Questioned Jinri as then her eyes connected with her sister's and dropped. "Oh my god! You're pregnant! When? How? Well, I know how but why didn't you tell me?"

"I found out the other week. I'm just over ten weeks along. It's just with everything going on with you, with the wedding and I didn't want t