“And so?”

“And so I left,” Jonah sighed.

“You left?” Kim Sunggyu frowned, “what do you mean you left?”

“I left the restaurant and went to my best friend's place. I didn't answer my phone and didn't call him either, I was just... I don't even know how I felt... I really wanted to have a date with him, you know?” the counselor nodded his head, “but when he told me we were going to eat at the restaurant he proposed to me, I didn't like it. I knew deep inside that it wasn't what I wanted and that I wouldn't like it, but I didn't tell him. He... he tried so hard to organized it that I wasn't able to tell him that I didn't want to go to this restaurant especially.”

“Though you should have,” Sunggyu linked his hands under his chin.

“I know! I know that I should have told him and that's why I mad at myself more than I am mad at him!”

“Then why did you run away instead of calmly telling him that you didn't want to eat there and that you wanted to go somewhere else? You had the whole night just for you two, it was the perfect occasion to talk.”

“I-I thought about it but then his father called him, so I told him to just answer and I didn't have the courage to stay and face him afterward. I'm so stupid...” she sighed.

“You were scared Jonah, but you're far from being stupid. It happens to a lot of couple, you know? And your situation at the moment is really complicated, you were about to go on a date with the man who is your husband but since you want to divorce things are obviously harder for you. You panicked at the wrong time.”

“I shouldn't have agreed to marry him,” she stopped for a while and swept away the few tears that had appeared into her eyes, “we shouldn't have gotten married. Myungsoo and I... we were too different from the beginning for our couple to work.”

“Why did you chose him at first?”

“W-what?”

“Why Myungsoo? You could have anyone else back then when you were in high school, and yet, you've chosen him.”

“I was... I had just arrived in Korea. I was in a new high school, I didn't know anyone and I was barely speaking the language. He was quite famous at that time since you know, he was rich, handsome, clever and everything. All the girls wanted him. But my best friend Sungjong told me to stay away from him, that he was just an and a player. I trusted him obviously, since I didn't know how Myungsoo really was. And one day... one day I bumped into him. I was late for my lessons and I was lost in the corridors and I bumped into him somehow quite violently. I nearly fell but he helped me so I didn't even touch the ground. And he also helped me picking up my books since he had dropped them.”

“And...?” Sunggyu fondly smiled.

“And then...”

*

“Are you alright?” Kim Myungsoo asked her with sightly knitted brows, visibly concerned.

“O-oh yes,” she mumbled and looked down, “I'm fine thank you.”

He stepped back and smiled yet at the same time he was frowning. He didn't seem concerned anymore but positively surprised.

“You have a cute accent!” he stated.

“O-oh?”

“Yeah! You're not Korean are you?”

“No no no,” she blushed, “I am but... I'm also Japanese, I come from Japan.”

“I really love your accent,” he complimented her and smiled, dimples appearing on his cheeks.

She bowed her head since she didn't know what to say and then she apologized since she had to go to her lesson. But before she could move, he stopped her.

“What's your name?”

“Sorry?”

“Your name,” he repeated but in Japanese this time.

Unconsciously her smile grew wilder just by hearing someone speaking Japanese in this country.

“Jonah. Lee¹ Jonah.”

“I'm Kim Myungsoo,” he politely introduced himself in her mother tongue², “nice to meet you.”

*

“It was really y to hear him speak Japanese,” she said with a nostalgic smile, “I really liked it. And later, he asked me if I would accept to give him Japanese lessons and in exchange, he would help me with Korean. I accepted and that's how our story started.”

“So it had started because he liked your accent,” Sunggyu chuckled, “that's really a cute story.”

“He used to say that he could listen to me speaking in Japanese for hours and even days, that he wouldn't get tired of it.”

“But you mustn't speak Japanese really often since you're here, in Korea.”

“Only when I called my father or when he comes or also when I read stories to Jisoo before he goes to bed. He is just like his father, he apparently loves my Japanese.”

“And I just have a random question popping into my mind right now, but do you feel more comfortable being in Korea or in Japan?”

“I really like both countries, I really do,” she admitted, “but... I grew up in Japan, all my childhood memories are there and I feel like home whenever I'm there. Here, in Korea, it's just like a second home.”

“Have you ever thought about going back to Japan?”

“Yes, I often think about it in fact. But I've got Myungsoo and Jisoo here... I just can't leave...”

“Well, you can, I mean it's obviously up to you, but don't you think you would be happier in Japan?”

“I would, certainly, but... my husband and my child...”

“Jonah... listen to me please,” he cleared his throat and sat straight in his chair, “you married very young, you were just out of high school and you never went to the university. You never did what the other girls of your age did, you never had several boyfriends, you've never experienced heartbreaks, you've never... you know, went crazy and just live your life like a normal twenty-three-year-old young girl would do. You've never went to the university either! You don't know anything about life! So if you feel like it would be better for you to be in Japan, then just go. I know I shouldn't say this, my job is to help your couple, but you can't become one with another person if you're not one with yourself, don't you understand what I mean?”

“I-I think yes...” she frowned.

“You need to love yourself to love someone. For a while, when you arrived here, you probably found comfort in Myungsoo but now that you know what the life is here, you just need to get free and to be become yourself and if it's not in this country, than go abroad.”

“But Myungsoo and-”

“Jonah... this is about you... for real,” the counselor said with a really serious tone, “think about it. Think about your feelings and what you really want for you and then for your couple. You know... I tend to believe that Myungsoo doesn't really know you in the end. It's hard to be yourself in an environment you don't know, with people who don't speak the same language as you do. He probably only knows the shy and uneasy you who relied on him. He doesn't know the real you.”

“But... it's me... I mean... yeah you know... me...”

He raised a brow and looked at her, waiting for clear explanation which never came since she burst out in tears.