Author's note:  I suggest that you read the previous chapters again as it has been a while since I updated. LOL

PART III

It felt the same—only a little bit smaller since they had grown. It was very well-kept. She had not lied about having good hands. Even the small cot at the corner didn't look like a loused-up job. It felt pleasantly comfortable and cozy inside, truth be told. The cold breeze from outside didn't penetrate the treehouse wedged in the oak tree.

She had been a little doubtful when they were climbing up the ladder. She thought it'd creak since they weigh a great deal more when they had last been up there. But it didn't budge at all, not even when they had settled inside.

"Should we toast to this little victory?" She asked, prompting him to sit down on the wooden floor while pouring him wine from the now opened bottle.

"What victory, exactly?"

"You and I in the same place and me not throwing whatever tantrum I have the right to throw." She answered, waiting for his reply.

"And here I was thinking you'll finally get to the latter sooner or later." He commented, raising his glass towards her. "Was it hard for you?" He asked a few minutes after.

She didn't know how to answer. What was he asking, exactly? Was it hard for her? What aspect of her was he asking about? She didn't know but luckily, he had asked her again after.

"Was it hard for you to maintain the tree house?" He repeated. She shook her head, explaining, "I get help from some of the town boys. I mainly ask them to carry the heavy stuff for me. Other than that, I do everything else."

"I see."

"Why did you think I wasn't going to keep this?"

"Frankly, I didn't know what you'd do. Considering what happened."

"Considering what happened? You sound as if everything happened was just nothing. " Dara softly said. "Whatever we had before was never going to be just nothing, Hae."

"You knew I was going to leave eventually," He reminded her, taking a sip from the wine glass before reaching out to refill hers. "You know we had to end eventually."

"Yes, I did. But I didn't know that it was supposed to end really soon." She mumbled, swirling the glass into little circles. Turning sideways, she faced the open window of the tree house. "You know, I've been trying to work out if this is all just a dream."

"Now that you mention it, it kind of is." He agreed, taking another gulp from his glass. There was something in the air then. And he knew what it was. They were escaping the topic of his disappearance and were using drinking as a way out.

But he, in a spur of a moment, decided to confront it.

"I've had you curious, haven't I?" He asked her whilst bringing the glass down on the floor to face her. She was downing her glass then, but her eyes were on him.

"Curious…is an understatement. It's been so long I don't even know what I felt about you anymore."

"That bad, huh?" He asked, a grim smile settled on his face as he watched her avoid his gaze. She shrugged at him nonchalantly, sipping at her wine leisurely.

"No. Just indifferent. I've been meaning to ask. What brings you here?"

"Bom asked—"

"I don't buy that. No one comes back after fifteen years just to attend an engagement party. Else you would've have already—"

"I bought Old Hal's place. The one by the creek—"

"What—"

"Just thought you should know before you begin to wonder why you'll be seeing me more often." He told her, his hand reaching the neck of the wine bottle to refill his glass.

She kept mum, her eyebrow lifting up to ask an unspoken question. Why now?

He didn't answer.

She didn't ask.

***

Her mind raced with seemingly appropriate questions for him, discarding a whole lot of them, one by one, as soon as she finished asking them in her head. They had run out of things to talk about, or so they think.

One would think one night wasn't enough to catch up on fifteen years lost, but in their case, the night consisted of passing the wine bottle to and from one another, filling up their glasses to the brim, and sipping all the wine down until the last drop disappeared in their mouths.

No questions were asked and the later the night became, a period of awkward silence ensued.

Climbing up the tree house wasn't a good idea, she realized.

"You changed the window shutters." he said, glancing at closed window shutters across him. He stood up for a moment, his hand reaching for the little handle, pushing it out to let the spring air in.

"We didn't have any before." She rolled her eyes at him as he plopped back down the wooden floor.  

The corners of his lips tilted up into a knowing smirk. "I was just testing you. It got awfully quiet here for a sudden."

"Funny how we have so little to say to each other after fifteen years, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't say that...To be honest, what's hard for us right now is not knowing where to start asking." He directed at her, his hesitating palm reaching out to touch her softly on her cheek. She sighed and, albeit fearful of what was to come, tilted her head sideways and closed her eyes to feel the warmth he was offering.                                      

"I was very mad at you for leaving me…" She softly whispered, fluttering her eyes open and leaning back on the wall. He dropped his hand and moved his body back, mimicking the way she threw her head back to stare past through the open window and to the open skies. A star shoots bleeding across the dark night and he said,

"I'm sorry."

"You disappeared. Your parents kept in touch. But you never did. I was fifteen then and thought the world of you. At that age, every boy a girl was with is 'the one' but you were more than that. It was difficult at first—one day you were there but the next day…poof! You were nowhere. I wasn't just your girlfriend then, Hae. I was your best friend. Who was going to walk with me to school and sit beside me during lunch? No one did, when you left. Losing my best friend hurt more than if we actually had broken our relationship. If it weren't for Bom and Min Woo who took me under their wing, I wouldn't have survived high school. "

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