A/N: Thanks to Gellyjihyo for upvoting! (i like ur username!!!)

             It was Kwangsoo found her that evening in a private bar room with several opened bottles of soju on the table before her. He sighed, taking off his coat. Jihyo looked up and giggled.

             “Yah, it’s a giraffe! A giraffe has come into the room! What are you doing in a bar, Mr. Giraffe? Do you want a drink?” She put down a glass for Kwangsoo and tried pouring some of the contents from the bottle in her hand into the cup. Soju splashed everywhere.

             “Girin-ah, I can’t seem to get the soju in the glass for you… the cup keeps jumping out of my hand!”

             Kwangsoo gently removed the the glass from her hand and sat down in front of Jihyo. “It’s okay, noona. I don’t hold my liquor well anyway.” He peered at her worriedly. “Are you drunk? Noona, you never get drunk.           

             “Drunk? That I am!” She got up on the table and threw her hands in the air. “I’m a big ole’ drunk!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. Then she took a big swig from the bottle. Kwangsoo pulled her arm, trying to get her off the table.

             “Shh, noona! What if someone heard you?” He got her successfully down beside him in the seat and pried the bottle from her hand. “What happened to you? You weren’t this bad earlier. Did you fail an acting audition?”

             She shook her head.

             “Is it about Gary-hyung?”

             Hearing that name made her heart hurt. She shoved a finger at Kwangsoo’s lips, trying to shush him so he wouldn’t say it again.

             “Shh. Don’t say that name,” she slurred, hiccupping. “It’s got nothing to do with that Kang Gary. But it’s got everything to do with that Kang Gary.” She fell back and slumped down in her seat.

             Kwangsoo frowned down at her. “You’re not making any sense.”

             “Sense?” She laughed bitterly. “You know what else doesn’t make sense? Kwangsoo-ya, I broke up with my boyfriend today. He broke up with me.”

             Kwangsoo’s eyes went wide. “Oh no, noona, I’m so sorry….” She shook her head, cutting him off. She heaved herself upright in the seat.

             “It’s okay, Kwangsoo-ya…... because you know what? I wasn’t even sad when he broke up with me. Not even in the slightest.” She thumped her chest with a fist. “It didn’t hurt right here. But when I think about that Kang Gary bastard, it hurts like I’m going to die.” She let her hand flop down against the cushiony chair.

             “Kwangsoo-ya.”

             “Yes, noona?”

             Her lips trembled, and tears spilled out of her eyes. “I miss him so much. I miss him being there for me when I feel lonely. I miss him buying coffee for me and cheering me up with his jokes. I miss him being cheesy on Running Man, getting on my last nerves for being slow to understand the missions. I miss him walking next to me and talking to me and drinking soju with me; I miss him knowing exactly what I’m thinking or doing when I’m doing it, and me knowing the same thing about him. I miss his smile, I miss his frown, I miss his laugh and his yell. I miss him, him, him!” She put her head against Kwangsoo’s shoulder and bawled.

Kwangsoo watched her, silent. Then he spoke up.

            “Noona.”

            She sniffled and looked up. “What?” She asked crankily, annoyed that he was so calm when she was so worked up.

            “You know what this means, right?”

            “Don’t you dare say that it means that I’m in love with Kang Gary.”

            Kwangsoo didn’t say anything for a while, and Jihyo drew back to look at him indignantly.

            “You were going to say that, weren’t you?” she asked, wiping away her tears roughly with the back of her hand before crossing her arms.                   “Gosh. You’re just like Jongkook oppa. Anyway, what do you know about love, Lee Kwang Soo?”

            He shrugged. “Well, it’s true.”

            She opened to argue, but gave up and slumped back tiredly. They stayed silent for a while.

            “But I can’t be,” she protested.

            “Why not?”

            “Because I promised myself that while the media and the scriptwriters and the fans and everyone else might be able to dictate and dominate my work life, my private life, and my fun time, I would be the one who would decide who I would fall in love with. I want to be able to control my own love life, which I can’t do if I date Kang Gary.”

            “And why can’t you? Unless he doesn’t like you. But I’m pretty sure he likes you.”

            “He likes me. He confessed to me the other day,” she admitted reluctantly.

            Kwangsoo leaned back excitedly. “Well then that’s perfect! You like him, he likes you. Why don’t you just confess your feelings and voila! Happily ever after!”

            She stared at him as if he were dumb. “Because Kang Gary is the one who everyone wants me to end up with! It means that I would be giving in and losing if I actually do go out with him.”

            It was Kwangsoo’s turn to stare. “Noona, that’s the dumbest excuse that I have ever heard.”

            Jihyo had had enough. She got up to leave, stumbling a little bit from the alcohol. “That’s it, Kwangsoo. I shouldn’t have called you over and told you any of this stuff.”

            “Okay, okay. I’m sorry, but hear me out, noona.” He pulled on her arm, and she sat down again. “Noona, who says that it’s a loss if you date Gary-hyung? It’s really your loss if you really do like Gary-hyung but refuse to admit it and make it happen just because of this one-sided fight that you have going with the world around you. You know, you might never get this chance ever again if you pass it up this time. And so what if society tells you that you should go out with him? There has to be a reason why so many people support you being with Gary-hyung, and that’s that we see- we all see- that you two are good for each other.”

            She crossed her arms huffily. “Whatever. You don’t get it, Kwangsoo. You always get rejected by the girls you confess to anyway.”

            “Eii, that’s not fair!” Kwangsoo protested. “I do get it, noona. Listen, even though I always get rejected or my relationships almost always end up in failure, I don’t regret for one moment that I ever confessed. You know why?”

            She shook her head. He grinned and looked her right in the eye.

            “Because at least I know that I didn’t run away. I just let it happen, for better or for worse. Sometimes, it’s okay to let things happen the way they may, to not be in control for once. Falling in love was never meant to be controlled, anyway.”

            She stared at him. Kwangsoo was often like an immature little brother, always hyper and cute, but at times like these she was startled into remembering that he was a grown adult with a lot of sorrow and experience for himself; a young man matured beyond his years.

            “Since when did you become a love guru?” She grumbled, wiping away her last tears. She stood up. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

            As they were stepping out of the bar and onto the street, Jihyo turned to Kwangsoo.

            “By the way, don’t you dare mention to any of the other members, not even Jongkook-oppa and certainly not Gary-oppa, about any of the conversation we had today,” she warned. “Or else I will tell everyone about how you failed your fifth love confession in a row just last week.”

            Kwangsoo’s mouth dropped open. “That’s blackmail!”

            Jihyo shrugged and sauntered off down the street. Kwangsoo ran after her, shouting, “Hey! Wait for me!”

A/N: We're almost over and out! Patience, my friends, is virtue~ Thank you for sticking around!