Seungyeon sat leaning to the passenger seat of Youngsaeng’s car, again while staring blankly at the road outside the window, on their way home. They spent the times for about four hours wandering around on Lotte World with Kyujong and Jiyoung, tried a lot variety of rides there and visiting several souvenir shops as well.

Everything went smoothly at the beginning until they decided to take a break and went to get something for lunch. Seungyeon who had decided to go ordering the meal together with Jiyoung while Kyujong and Youngsaeng waited for them on the table where they sat, went back in a pale condition, even more pale than before.

There was absolutely no shade of life remaining on her face, as if she were a human being who was born and live without any blood flowing in her body. The food that she ordered wasn’t touched at all until in the end when Youngsaeng told her to eat; she excused her self and went to the bathroom.

But it was only a few steps away since she moved from their seat; she fell and causing her ankle to sprain. So yeah, and that’s where they are, on Youngsaeng’s car on their way to Seungyeon’s house, leaving Jiyoung and Kyujong for granted.

“I don’t want to go back to my home now.”

Seungyeon broke the silence between them. Unlike in the beginning when they went to Lotte World, this time she didn’t try to stare at Youngsaeng. Talking softly, her eyes stick out to the road outside the window; her soul and mind were likely seemed to not be there.

“Where do you want to go then?”

Youngsaeng asked calmly. He wasn’t surprised at all when he heard her words. Actually he had thought that sooner or later she would say something like that. He, more or less, had a better understanding about her character and her way of thought after spending some times with her. She must be afraid to go home in that kind of condition, afraid that her sister would be such a noise.

“Just anywhere will do.”

“Alright.”

Youngsaeng turned the steering-wheel to the left instead of continuing straight ahead which was the direction to Seungyeon’s home. Because she had said something like that, he decided to take her to his apartment for a while, taking care of her sprained ankle and drove her back to her home later.

Actually, he was kinda confused on where to take that girl in such state with her sprained ankle. The only place that he could think of was his apartment. Or should he take her to the hospital? But to see her personality, seemed that it would be useless to take her to the hospital. So the best place so far was his apartment. Moreover, there was still another ‘thing’ that need to be confirmed by her later, he needed to hear it directly rather than just guessing it.

*****

“Get in.”

Youngsaeng opened his apartment door and signed Seungyeon to go get in first before him. Slow and limping, she walked through the doorstep and then walked as close as possible to the wall to prop herself. The pain in her ankle was unbearable, but again the thought of I-could-not-be-seen-as-a-weak-person made her have to withstand the pain.

Youngsaeng approached her, trying to give a help. But she brushed his hand off, just as she did earlier when they go out of the car and Youngsaeng tried to help her to walk to the lift. Youngsaeng’s patience had run out.

“Can you please stop being stubborn?!”

With a little force, he held her by the arm, twisted her body around and ended up carrying her in his arms. He walked into his quite spacious living room and placed Seungyeon on one of the couch there.

“Just wait here. I’ll go take the medication for your ankle.”

Youngsaeng walked away, leaving Seungyeon which appeared to be still in a shock state with the previous act by Youngsaeng. That was for the second time on that day that he saw Youngsaeng blew up and also for the second time on that day she got carried by that guy. Yes, for the second time. The first one was on Lotte World, after Seungyeon fell down and sprained her ankle.

After a while trying to recover herself from the shock, she began to moved her sight around the spacious living room. There were only two brown leather couches with some brown pillows on them, a big one and a small couch that was only enough to be sat by one person only. She looked down, stared at her feet that were still hidden in her boots and found that she stepped on a brown leather carpet as well.

In the middle there was a wooden table with the same color of the apartment floor. Some magazines and books piled on the top of it. While slightly in front of that table, clinging on to the wall, there was a small desk with a flat screened television on it. That place was quite comfy and neat for a man who lived alone.

“Jiyoung just called me, asking about your condition.”

Seungyeon nearly jumped out of her seat when she heard Youngsaeng’s voice that suddenly appeared out of a room while carrying a medical kit on his hand. Put it on the table, he turned back and walked away to a corridor that seemed to be connected to the kitchen and then went back with a small sink filled with ice and a towel on his shoulder.

“She wanted to come when she knew that you’re here, she said she wanted to see your condition. But I told her to directly go back home.”

Not even care that he hadn’t got any response from that girl, Youngsaeng kept talking.

“Take off your shoes.” He asked.

“Eh?”

Youngsaeng put the small sink and then sat cross-legged on the floor.

“Take it off now. Your sprained ankle needs to be treated. You want to let it swollen and walking limply forever huh? Or should I take it off for you?”

Seungyeon quickly pulled her legs upwards when Youngsaeng’s hands stretched out to the boots that she used. Reflex. Too fast that she forgot that she still had her ankle sprained, in the end she grimaced in pain.

Youngsaeng chuckled, ignoring her glare. He pulled the small sink that was filled by ice towards him self. Unfolding the towel that he brought earlier and then he filled it with chunks of ice while Seungyeon carefully opened her boots and socks that she used.

“I can do it by myself…” she said when she was done with her boots and put it beside the couch neatly.

Youngsaeng ignored her words and pulled her sprinkled left ankle and started to compress it with the towel that was filled with ice cubes.

“Youngsaeng-ssi…”

“Just be quiet! I’m telling you, there are lots of girls out there who are willing to die to be treated like this by me.”

“But I’m not…”

“YA! I know I know, you’re not one of them. But can you please just once stop arguing with me? Please stop being stubborn just this once. I’m just trying to help you. I don’t want you to go back home with that swollen ankle, your sister…”

“Can you stop using my sister as your reason?”

Youngsaeng took a deep breath. He felt really tired that day. And he cursed Kyujong for all the things that happened and for the changing attitude of Seungyeon. That girl was quite fine and ‘benign’ before Kyujong came between them.

“What did my sister tell you actually?”

“Nothing.”

“Stop hiding all those things from me!”

Youngsaeng’s hands that were still working compressing Seungyeon’s swollen ankle immediately stopped when he heard her words.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

Seungyeon stuttered, hesitated for a while between really went do discuss about ‘it’ or not.

“N-nothing.”

In the end she decided to not to talk about it. She wasn’t sure whether she was ready or not and she was afraid that she would be look even weaker in front of him. But unfortunately, Youngsaeng had a stronger instinct than ehat she expected.

“You heard it right?”

“W-what do you mean?”

“I’ve guessed that you did hear it when you went back with a pale face. You heard it, did you?” once again, Youngsaeng stopped from his work compressing Seungyeon’s swollen ankle that had begun to get smaller. He raised his head, looked up at her. “My conversation with Kyujong,” he added.

Youngsaeng went back to his work. Removing the towel, he took the medical kit and took one of the bottles there. He started spraying some medicine that was usually used by the injured athletes around Seungyeon’s ankle.

Meanwhile Seungyeon, again, lost in her deep thought of what had she heard that day. At that time, when she should have gone ordering their lunch together with Jiyoung but had to go back because she left her cell phone on the table. She didn’t feel safe leaving her personal belonging just like that, so she went back to the table where Kyujong and Youngsaeng waited for them. And everything that she heard was enough to totally destroyed her world.

“Stop it Kyujong-ah, I don’t want to argue with you. Morever, aren’t you the one who said that you want to stay away from her? So now, it has nothing to do with you if it’s true that I have a relationship with her!”

“Yes! Right! I do want to stay away from her. I actually don’t even want to see her again. Okay, I’ll take this as your help for me. I can stay away from her in peace now. Thanks yo man!”

When she heard those words, it felt as all the joints in her body became weak. Words like that were too painful for her. What had happened to Kyujong actually? What was her mistake actually, that he could changed like that toward her? She didn’t understand.

For the entire years of her life since she met him, she always had her trust on Kyujong. When she felt weak and afraid and Kyujong told her that everything would be fine, then she would believe that everything would be fine. Even if in the end, everything would end up as not fine, then she would still think that it was nothing as long as Kyujong was with her, by her side.

She wanted to cry until her eyes became puffy, shouted until her voice was gone. Anything! As long as it could reduce the pain that she felt. But she didn’t do it, at lease not before she got in her bedroom. So, she swallowed it all, pretending like she knew nothing. But she failed to fool Youngsaeng.

“If you feel like crying, then cry.” said that guy suddenly, as if he could read what was on Seungyeon’s mind. His hands were busy wrapping her swelling ankle with the elastic bandage.

“Well, it’s done. How’s it, still hurt?” he said after finished wrapping the ankle while rotating the ankle. Seungyeon shook her head as response. It wasn’t that hurt anymore.

“That’s good. One problem’s solved. Think about ‘it’ while I clean this all up.”

Youngsaeng began to clean up everything, took the medical kit and the towel also the small sink filled with ice cubes, and then stood up on his feet. “You know what I mean right?” he said before he started walking toward the kitchen, placing everything back to its original place.

He returned five minutes later and found Seungyeon was still sitting quietly in the couch on his living room with the same position as before he left her.

“So, what’s your decision?” he asked as he threw himself sitting on the couch beside her. “You want to cry now or not? While it’s not too late, so when you go back home, your eyes aren’t so puffy anymore.” He added.

Seungyeon just stayed quiet, kinda confused at how to respond to it. That was the strangest advice that she ever heard in her life. That guy wasn’t crazy right?

“Are you sure you don’t want to cry? Or at least being angry maybe? Yelling at me because I hide it from you?” He asked again, trying to tempt that girl’s emotion.

“I’m all fine. Stop act like you know me.”

And it worked. Youngsaeng made it. Those words, though was spoken in a flat and cold tone, but it was more than enough for him to explain about her feelings at that time. Without waiting any longer, he immediately moved up from his place and carried Seungyeon on his arms.

“Heo Youngsaeng-ssi! What do you think are you doing now?! Put me down now!”

He kept walking, didn’t even bother about Seungyeon who was struggling on his arms, trying to get out of his embrace.

“Ya!”

He took her into the bathroom that was located in the corridor to the kitchen, opened the door and then put her in the spacious-dry bathtub and then began to talk.

“I don’t know what had exactly happened to you in the past that you became a girl like this. You’re trying too hard to look strong, but just so you know, it’s eventually only show that you’re actually way weaker than this; maybe other people can’t see it but at least I can see it. Believe me, pretending that you’re strong and holding everything by yourself will not help you at all. Now, I’ll leave you alone here. Take it all out, everything. This is a soundproofed bathroom, so you don’t have to worry. Even if you’re crying and shouting like crazy, no one would hear you. Remember what I said, take it all out.”

With that said Youngsaeng stood up, walked out and closed the door of the bathroom that wasn’t soundproofed at all behind him.

*****

Youngsaeng stopped his car on the road side in front of Seungyeon’s house gate. Turned to his right, he found her still sleeping peacefully in the passenger seat. Tired and weary clearly printed in her not-so-pale-anymore face and her eyes were not as swollen as the first time when she came out of the bathroom on his apartment earlier.

“Even in her sleep she still seems to hold everything in herself,” Youngsaeng mumbled as he saw her sleeping with her furrowed forehead.

He took a deep breath before daring himself to nudge her shoulder slightly, trying to wake her up.

“Han Seungyeon-ssi.”

There was no response.

She seemed to be really tired. Earlier after Youngsaeng left her in the bathtub on his bathroom, she just sat there silently, desperately trying to prevent herself from crying. But the more she forced herself to not cry, it made her defense became weaker instead, everything was just too painful for her. And the fact that she was alone on that bathroom made all the shields that she put on herself get loosened.

And she ended up crying hard and quite for a long time. She didn’t really know how long that she had spent for crying there, until she realized that she had to get home first before Gyuri. She didn’t want her sister to see her in that kind of messy condition.

Youngsaeng found here walking out of the bathroom weakly, the combination of the dizziness; the effect after a great cry; her still hurting ankle and her condition that was weak as mentally.

She went along really well when Youngsaeng said that he would drive her home. Maybe she realized that she couldn’t travel alone in that kind of condition, and that she had to get home quickly. On their way, she fell asleep without realizing it, seemed to be really tired.

“Han Seungyeon-ssi.” Youngsaeng called her once again, this time with a higher volume and adding a little bit more nudge on her shoulder.

But still there was no any response.

Actually he felt sorry that he had to wake her up, but he also couldn’t simply just carry her into her house. People could misunderstand them even more. What should he do? Youngsaeng tried to think.

Ah!

“Seung…Seungyeon-ah…” he didn’t even know what made him think that calling her like that would work, but the fact was it really worked. That girl squirmed a little bit in her seat.

“Gyuri unnie, I’m still sleepy.”

Youngsaeng chuckled to hear her whine. The way she spoke when she slept was really different from her usual way of talk; there was absolutely no cold or flat tone.

“Hey! Sleepy head; wake up! We’ve arrived at your home already. And I’m not your sister. Did I sound like a girl huh?”

Youngsaeng’s long babble finally woke her up from her sleep. Opening her eyes slowly and then blinked a few times to get a focus for her view. She found that the state outside the window was getting dark already. Shocked, she then realized that she fell asleep in a stranger’s car. Immediately she sat upright and tidied her clothes up.

Perhaps because she felt ashamed, so she acted recklessly. She hurriedly took off her seat belt, opened the car door and hastily went out. She was about to close the door when she realized that she acted impolitely. So she went back into the car.

“Err…sorry that I have troubled you a lot. I…I’ll try my best to not trouble you again.”

She bowed before actually moved out of the car and closed the door behind her, leaving Youngsaeng who just could smile to see that girl’s actions.

Han Seungyeon. That girl sometimes could be so cheerful, and then turned become a cold one, expressionless, then became someone with a sincere smile in her face, on the next moment she became timid, weak and suffering, and she could be someone with ridiculous behavior as well.

He couldn’t help but being curious at what more that she could be.

He waited until Seungyeon disappeared behind her house gate before he decided to start the engine and went drive back to his apartment. But before he could push the gas pedal, he saw a motorcycle stopped not too far from Seungyeon’s home and saw a girl with a pretty familiar face got down from it.

The girl opened the helmet that she wore and then gave it to the guy sitting in front of the motorcycle, who then also opened his helmet. They talked for a while and the girl’s face filled with a bright smile.

“Isn’t that Gyuri-ssi?”

****************************************************

Author's note:

Finally I could get to finish this chapter. I'm really sorry for the late update.

This chapter is the most difficult one to be written. I've started to write it since 2 weeks ago, but ended up deleting it and started writing it over and over again. I have much alternatives, choices for this chapter storyline and was kinda confused on what storyline that I should choose. so I have to take much times to think about it. If I take A stroyline, then what would happen next? or if I choose B storyline, could the ending be the one that I wanted? and etc and etc.

so I've took much consideration to choose "this" storyline above. I hope that you guys will enjoy it ^^ I'll try to write a better and better chapter in the future. Thank you for your support ^^

PS: I feel sorry for making Kyujong became a bad one~ sorry~and...who's the guy that gave Gyuri a ride home??? dun..dun..dun..dun..! ^^

and comments will be really <3 <3