Thirty minutes later, she arrived at the front door. Her finger hesitated to ring the doorbell. What was she going to say to him? Should she have brought a gift? Oh no, she should have thought to bring a gift! She her heel to leave, muttering “Stupid…” under her breath, when the door behind her swung open, and out came a man whose face was hidden under a Leessang cap. She stumbled back, almost thinking that he was Gary, but when he looked up, she realized that he was Gil. His eyes opened wide under the brim of his cap.

            “Why…. Jihyo-ssi….” He blinked rapidly. He pulled the door open wider. “Come in, come in!” She stepped inside and took off her shoes.

“I was just about to leave,” he explained, before leaning past the doorway to holler, “Garyyyyyy! Hahaaaaaaa! There’s a visitor!” He winked at Jihyo and moved past her to exit the apartment. Kwangsoo and Haha came lumbering around the corner. Haha stopped in his tracks in mock surprise.

“Wah! It’s Jihyo! She came!” He pointed at her and covered his mouth with the other hand. Kwangsoo, always one to follow bad examples, pretended to stumble backwards in shock.

Jihyo rolled her eyes and shoved past the two fools. She entered the bedroom with Kwangsoo and Haha trailing behind her to find Jongkook and Gary deep in conversation (or at least Jongkook was talking, nagging Gary to take care of his health while Gary nodded and tried not to look bored). Jongkook was seated in a chair next to Gary’s bed, in which Gary hurriedly sat up when he saw her come in, wincing in pain at the sudden movement.

“Yah, watch what you’re doing! I told you not to make sudden movements!” Jongkook fussed, thwacking Gary’s shoulder. Gary cringed some more.

“Hyung! Now my shoulder hurts more than my back!” he cried. Jongkook ignored him and stood up, nodding to Jihyo.

“We’ll get out of your way,” Jongkook told her, then moved past her to leave the room, ushering Haha and Kwangsoo out with him. She could hear the cries of protest from the two younger men, along with two successive thwacks, probably Jongkook hitting them over the head.

“Leave them to talk in peace! They’ll never be able to get a word in with you two noisy kids. We’ll cut the fruit for them while they talk,” she could hear Jongkook say. From the kitchen, Haha grumbled, “Hyung talks more than both of us combined.” This remark was followed by yet another loud thwack and more yelps of pain.

Gary chuckled from hearing that exchange and winced a little.

“Are you okay?” Jihyo hurriedly asked, rushing to his bedside with outstretched hands that didn’t really know what to do, hovering over his shoulder before dropping back to her side. Gary didn’t seem to notice and waved away her concern.

“It’s okay. It just hurts sometimes when I laugh or make sudden movements.”

“Oh.”

Gary settled back into his pillows and looked up at her expectantly. “So?”

She blinked. “So what?”

“Where’s my get-well-soon gift and card?” He asked, holding out his palms.

Jihyo gasped. “I’m so so sorry, oppa. I totally forgot to bring anything with me..” She trailed off when she noticed that mischievous grin on Gary’s face that signified that he was joking. She crossed her arms huffily, and he laughed but winced in pain immediately afterwards.

           “Serves you right for teasing me,” Jihyo told him unsympathetically.

           Gary grinned and stretched his arms. “How was filming? Didja miss me?”

           She rolled her eyes, smiling in spite of herself. “Sure, oppa.” She settled herself in the chair that Jongkook had emptied. “Filming went well.” She proceeded to tell him about how they got Gaeko to fill in for him, about how Haha was the spy, but he got eliminated, and about how in the end the female guest won all by herself, much to their surprise. Gary inserted his own little quirky comments about the events that she narrated for him, making her laugh, which made him laugh and then hold his waist in pain.

          “Basically,” she concluded, “It was all really weird.” At that point Jongkook and Haha barged into the room holding the plate of fruit, with Kwangsoo behind them balancing several glasses of juice (and one cup of tea, probably for Jongkook, the health maniac.)

          “What she means to say, hyung,” Haha informed Gary, “is that it was weird because you weren’t there. That means she missed you.” And as the group of friends ate fruit and chatted and laughed (with Gary almost in tears from the pain of laughing so hard), Jihyo realized that this was probably what she had been missing all day. In some way, she found, she had indeed missed Kang Gary. She’d missed his cheesy one-liners for their Monday Couple segment, his witty rejoinders at Haha’s insults, and the overall light-hearted dynamic that the Running Man colleagues had when Gary was around. He was their silly jokester, full of sudden quips that left everyone rolling on the ground. It was actually more fun, she thought to herself while sipping the orange juice Kwangsoo handed to her, when Kang Gary was around.

Kwangsoo leaned over and whispered, “Aren’t you glad I made you come?”   

She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Whatever," she told him, and then joined the rest of the boys in ribbing Gary and making him laugh on purpose so that he’d cower over in pain, though she was secretly thinking that indeed, she was glad to be there.