[CONTENTID3]A YEAR LATER[/CONTENTID3]

[CONTENTID2]Taeyeon - All With You (Scarlet Heart Ryeo OST)
[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID1]“I need to go for a while, Miss Kim.” The nurse nodded to Jihoon. Jihoon had personally picked a nurse to help him look on Seungcheol whenever he needed to leave for his business. It had been a year since Seungcheol was in comma and he at some point knew he couldn’t leave his position to Chan for too long, his brother had his own life too and yet the younger was on the way to finish his degree. So, sometimes Jihoon needed to attend for meetings and other stuffs if Chan needed to attend his college. He had put Wonwoo as his representative for any trips, so for the yearlong Jihoon had never once leave the country. Just he can’t let Seungcheol alone without anyone around for him all the time, he had hired the nurse. The nurse was busy wiping Seungcheol’s hand. “I will be back around the lunch.”

“Okay, sir.” Jihoon grabbed his coat on the couch and walked to the side on the bed. The nurse pulled her hand, letting Jihoon took the hand. She stayed silent as Jihoon said his goodbye to Seungcheol. She had heard about Jihoon before, of how cold and harsh he is. When she was picked to take care of Seungcheol, she was actually afraid but she accepted the offer because she needed extra money to pay her parent’s debt. The first moment she started her work, Jihoon was the same cold person but gradually she stopped feeling afraid and awkward with Jihoon when she somehow noticed Jihoon was just not very good with words and the way Jihoon was with Seungcheol, she could tell Jihoon is just a normal person that used cold mask to be careful with the cruel world.

“I will be back.” Jihoon whispered to the male on the bed before he left Seungcheol’s side. The nurse bowed as he left the ward and continued her job.

“You should wake up soon, Seungcheol ssi. Sir Jihoon is waiting for you.” The nurse smiled lightly.

Jihoon got into the car, Mingyu closed the door for him. His secretary from the company was also present in the car, sitting next to the driver who was Mingyu. “Is there anything more than you briefed me yesterday, Jaehyun?” The guy shook his head.

“No, sir. Oh, Wonwoo ssi was on the phone. Here.” The secretary gave a phone to Jihoon. Jihoon took it, at the same time Mingyu already drove the car leaving the medical center.

“Jihoon. The supplier said they might need an additional week to finish this batch. Will you allow it?” Jihoon heard Wonwoo’s voice. He hummed.

“Okay, I think it will be fine. But you should get a better shipment plan. We’re prioritizing the time and security now.”

“I got you.” Few noises heard behind in the other line. Jihoon waited for Wonwoo’s next word. “Chan had given the permission to continue the improvement for the branch in Shenzhen like you had agreed with. I’m meeting the representative this evening. I will report to you later.”

“Okay. Try to get more feedback if they needed some more. We should actually focus to strengthen that branch.”

“Okay, noted Jihoon. Can you pass the phone to Mingyu?” Jihoon scoffed.

“He’s driving.” Jihoon almost could see the pout on the other line.

“Okay… bye.” Jihoon shook his head as the call ended. He caught Mingyu was glancing behind. The smaller smiled.

“He wanted to talk with you, Mingyu.” Jihoon passed the phone back to Jaehyun. Mingyu rolled his eyes and mumbled something incoherently. Jihoon just shrugged. “Jaehyun, can you put Mr. Ishikawa on the phone after the meeting done later? If he’s unavailable, leave a message to his secretary that I need to talk with him whenever he’s free.” Jaehyun nodded and took note on that order. Mingyu parked the car in the basement when they arrived and Jaehyun stepped out to open the door for Jihoon. The three of them walked into the building. “Mingyu, what is Chan’s schedule today?”

“He will have class until 2 pm. He will come later with Junhwi.” Jihoon nodded. “I almost forgot to tell you master, yesterday night Seungkwan was trying to call you but it didn’t get through. He called me and asked to let you know to call him back sometime today.” Jihoon nodded as he was escorted by the two men to the meeting room.

“Remind me later.” Mingyu nodded. Jaehyun pushed the door opened for Jihoon when they arrived in front of the meeting room. As he stepped in, everyone was standing up greeting his arrival.

“You’re still here.” Seungcheol turned and saw the painter Seungcheol. “It has been a while.” Seungcheol sighed.

“True, I don’t know how much time already passed back in there. Also here…”

“We have no time system here like in the real world. But I guess it has to be longer than you feel you’re here.” The painter Seungcheol invited Seungcheol for a walk. Seungcheol nodded and two of them walked along the lake. “How are you today?”

“Fine, I guess. You guys come to visit me, I don’t feel very lonely.”

“The maknae told us about the touches you feel.” Seungcheol nodded. “Are you sure it was your Jihoon?”

“Yeah, I heard his voice at times. It wasn’t very clear of what he was saying but the voice is his. At the same time, I feel touches on my hand.” Seungcheol stared at his hand. “As if he was holding my hand.”

“Maybe… back in there, you’re in comma or sleeping for long? So he was taking care of you.”

“Is it?” Seungcheol took a breath. “I want to believe it but I’m afraid. What if it was just a dream or a part of me created this? But I don’t know. I’m quite sure it’s true.” Seungcheol groaned. “I don’t know anymore.”

“Hey. Don’t stress out.” The painter Seungcheol put a hand on Seungcheol’s shoulder. “Wait until you’re very sure. Try to reach out if you’re confident enough and who knows it was just that to let you back to your place? You can’t stay here forever you know. You’re not dead.”

“I know. I want to go back too but I don’t know how. And if I’m not dreaming and making things, I could feel Jihoon wanted me to come back.” The painter Seungcheol smiled.

“If it’s true, your Jihoon loves you.” Seungcheol stared at the other. “Believe me, there is a thing that never changed in all of past Jihoon from what we had shared between the past lives.” The painter Seungcheol paused. “It was his ego or inability to say his feelings straightforwardly at first.”

Seungcheol smiled. “I think so.”

“There’s something I want to show you. Maybe next time if you’re bored, you should go there instead of staying around this plain place.” Seungcheol raised his brow. The painter Seungcheol smiled and pulled Seungcheol with him. “It’s near there.”

They walked a little while and then the painter Seungcheol stopped. Seungcheol stopped as well. He heard sounds of water falling and he turned around. He was left agape. The lake that was so serene and calm from the place he had wake up to was actually filled by a waterfall, a beautiful one. “It’s not a lake?”

“It is a lake, the spirit lake but the water actually came from above. No one ever go to the upper side to see it’s a river there or something but we all believed this water directly flowed from the heaven.” Seungcheol wrinkled.

“This place is not heaven?” The painter Seungcheol shook his head.

“The heaven and hell is somewhere else. We won’t get in there until the world ends. So we naturally believed it was above there.” The painter Seungcheol said. “You can play with the water or sometimes there are cute pixies stopped by here because there is no spirit bubbles like at the previous place that they’re scare of it. It’s a better place for you to stay here.”

“Thanks for bringing me here. But it won’t be far from the spirit’s cave?” Seungcheol asked.

“Don’t worry, we can teleport.” The painter Seungcheol stayed silent for a while. “Hyungnim is calling for me. I need to go. Have fun here. Don’t worry, the water is nothing harmful.” Seungcheol nodded and the painter Seungcheol left disappearing in the thin air. Seungcheol turned to the waterfall.  He smiled as he approached the river bank, dipping his leg. He smiled when the cold liquid calmed his skin. He slowly and carefully walked into the water, letting himself wet. It was refreshing. He took a careful step towards the waterfall, but not deep into the water. When he was about to hold out his hand to touch the falling water, he felt a touch on his hand and faint whispers that slowly turned off the sounds of falling water. Seungcheol stayed silent to focus on the whispers before the last one became clear.

‘I will be back.’

“What would you like, sir- oh, Jihoon.” Jihoon turned from observing the menu above. He wanted some coffee and asked Mingyu to drive him to a café for his lunch. Mingyu had offered to buy for him but Jihoon wanted to go by his own so Mingyu had waited at the car as Jihoon entered the café. The smaller looked surprise when he noticed the guy who was wearing the uniform behind the counter.

“Inpyo?” Inpyo smiled and nodded. Jihoon had heard about Inpyo leaving his house to be with his assistant, Inho. He couldn’t find them anywhere and yet he was too focused on Seungcheol that made him temporarily forgot to search for them. He thought of helping them as they probably got pressured by Inpyo’s father but the rumour said Inpyo’s father was disregarding Inpyo fully and even erased Inpyo’s name from Lee registry made him believe the father didn’t try to crush his son’s future outside so Jihoon felt glad for them and somehow proud that Inpyo succeeded to break out from his father’s shadow.

“I didn’t really expect to see you here.”

“Just getting a coffee and I want to do it myself. Perhaps the force above wanted me to finally see you.” Jihoon put a light smile. “Give me Americano and a chocolate waffle, two sets please.” Inpyo nodded and put the order into the machine. It was being processed by the other worker and Inpyo took that chance to continue talking with Jihoon.

“I have heard from Doha hyung.” Jihoon nodded and was kind of guessed that made Inpyo becoming friendlier with him. They’re enemies to begin with.

“I have been searching for you after the news hit me. But I caught up with my own problem so I forgot.” Inpyo smiled.

“I handle my stuff well, it’s okay.” Inpyo told the amount to be paid and Jihoon handed his card. Inpyo quickly did the procedure while continuing his words. “I will be glad if you want to help but it’s better for me to solve it on my own. When Doha hyung told me about what you did, I didn’t believe it at first. But then, the news about your mansion was spreading through and I do met one of your maids in the cram school I worked for. She told me everything that happened and that’s the start where I think highly of you. Guess, my rival is way too high level than me so I just give up.” Jihoon chuckled. Inpyo was a bit amused but smiled later on. Jihoon got back his card.

“Well, you’re my rival because of your father. I understand that. I don’t really pry in that. Our family status put us in that way.” Jihoon looked around. “So you work as tutor then cashier here?”

“Oh, no. I work full time as tutor and child caretaker in my neighborhood. This is actually Inho’s workplace but today he was attending an interview for a better job so I replaced him as I had no work today.” Jihoon nodded understandingly.

“How did you get Inho out of his organization? He didn’t serve you more than six years yet.” Ji