( if the chapter headings is in italics + parentheses, it means that the whole chapter is a flashback. this chapter happens right after the last chapter of ihyn )

( CHAPTER TWO )

A day hasn't even passed, but she couldn't deny the fact that she already misses him.

How could things happen so quickly? It seemed just like a minute ago when she was in Paris with him, and now she was in Boston, in a new apartment just a few blocks away from the university of her dreams. 24 hours hasn’t even passed and just imagine the following days was worrying her. There was this small feeling of sadness inside of her that was telling her to go back to him, but she knew that he had worked very hard to help enter Harvard in just a short matter of time, and it was making her want to stay so he could be proud of her.

The scene in the rooftop hasn’t stopped replaying in her mind. It was actually the first time that she admitted that she loved him out loud. She has been thinking about it, but had no guts to tell him, thinking that he wouldn’t say the same thing. But who would have imagined that she’d add ‘too’ in those three words when she actually said it?

Smiling to herself like a fool, Soojung’s thoughts were ruined when the phone in her hand rang. The caller I.D. ‘Idiot Fiancé’ flashes into her screen and for whatever reason she didn’t realize that it was Jongin after five seconds. She suddenly panics, squealing as she looked at her phone in excitement. This was, after all, their first conversation after their confession and she had no idea what to do, or say. She didn't even notice her mother and the workers helping them move in looking and chuckling at her actions.

“Come on, Jung Soojung. This is just a ing a phone call. Calm down, be cool and don’t this up, okay?” She tells herself before taking a deep breathe and answering the call calmly, “Uhm, hello-”

“Oh my god, Soojung! Have you arrived? Are you in Boston now? Are you with your mother? Are you tired?” In one breathe, Jongin asks all of his questions leaving Soojung utterly surprised. There she was, trying to calm herself down and there’s him who sounded very tense.

“Yes, yes, yes, and no...” She replies. She was about to take a nap as soon as she arrived in the new apartment, but now that she heard his voice, she didn’t feel very tired anymore.

“Thank God. I don’t even know why I’m so worried.” He sighs in relief and she couldn’t help but to giggle.

“Aw, you were worried about me?” The girl teased, and as soon as she did, she heard him scoff.

“I was not!”

“But you just said it.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“Yes you did.”

“No, I did not!”

“No, you did not.”

“Yes I did- I mean, no- Ah, it.” He groans in defeat while Soojung laughs a lot more. Because of this, he finally admits what he said. “I can’t help it, okay? I feel… uneasy now that you’re not around me.”

“Then why did you let me go here?” She asks, even though she already knows the answer. She just wanted to hear it come out of his lips again. But it took him long to speak again.

“You already know why, Jung Soojung.” Jongin groans once again. “Please don’t make me say it again.”

“What? Are you actually ashamed of saying it?” Obviously upset by the tone of her voice, the girl proceeds on scolding him, even when he tried to cut her to expain that he was in no terms ashamed of his feelings, Soojung was not backing down. She only stopped when she heard him sniffing. “Are you… Are you crying?”

“No, I’m not!” He denies, though his voice just cracked. “I never cry…”

“Oh my god, I’m sorry for… uhm, scolding you?”

“It’s not that.” He tells her in between his uncontrollable sniffing. “It’s just, we’re fighting again over the phone and I’m already missing you.”

Stunned by his response, Soojung felt her lips curve into a smile. “But this won’t be the last phone call we will have, right?”

“No, of course not. But we won’t be able to talk that much because of… you know, school and the different time zone.” She hears him sigh, and she unknowingly does the same thing.

Lost in her own thoughts, what he said was slowly sinking in her mind causing her to keep quiet. It was true, and he was right. Sure they had internet and could easily send a message to one another, but it’s not like they would be always free to talk. And to think that they had to start college soon doesn’t really help either.

“Soojung?” He calls out her name, making her finally get back to her senses. “This won’t be my last phone call to you, I promise.”

“Good. Because I’ll be calling you a lot if you didn’t.” She chuckles. “Don’t worry about me too much, okay? I’ll be fine here.”

“Of course.” Even if she didn’t see him, she could tell that he was smiling. “And one more thing,” He pauses for a long time, causing Soojung to anticipate whatever he was going to say. “Don’t forget… that I love you.”

Even though it wasn’t really the first time he hears it from him and she has been lowkey wanting him to say it himself, hearing those three words so suddenly was enough to make her heart weak. She even had to jump to the sofa near her, eventually laying down and squealing as she buried her head into the pillow. It has been so long since she felt that way again – the feeling of being loved and being in love.

She wasn’t very sure if she accidentally ended the call, or if Jongin got so flustered that he ended the call himself. Either way she was glad that he didn’t her screaming in happiness after what he said. She did kind of wish that she had the chance to say goodbye properly though.

"What's with the big smile, darling?"

She looks up to see her mother looking at her lovingly. Never has she seen her daughter act like this before and it was somewhat amusing for her. Instead of answering the second she was asked, Soojung stood back again, her smile not fading away as she hugged her mother and held her hands, "Oh mother, I think I'm in love again- actually, no. I admit it. i am in love again."

Mrs. Jung didn’t even have to question with who she was in love with as she already had a clue who it was. Seeing her daughter happy and excited was enough to make her smile, until she realizes that Soojung had said ‘again’, meaning that she had been in love before, something that she had never mentioned about. “What do you mean by again?”

Realizing what she has done, Soojung’s excitement slowly fades but still smiles awkwardly in front of her mother. “Oh, uhm… It’s just… There’s something that I haven’t told you before.”

Fortunately for her, one of the workers asked her preference on something so she had to leave her daughter for a while once again, though she didn't forget to mention about her desire to bond with her that night before sleeping. Soojung just presses her lips, knowing that she would have to finally tell her partying ways back in California. But before she worries about that, she had another thing on her mind.

Starring at her phone’s wallpaper, a selfie of herself and Jongin, she had a feeling that the smile on her won’t be fading anytime soon.

“Mother, please stop crying. The employees outside are probably eavesdropping on us and they’d think that I did something to you.”

In a weird but surprising turn of events, Mrs. Kim had no plans to scold his son for not answering her calls when he was still staying in Paris. Instead, she was so upset when she saw her son as she got reminded by the fact that Soojung was not going to be her daughter-in-law anymore to the point that she started crying. Jongin was just sitting the chair right in front of his father’s table, unsure of what he was supposed to do or say for her to stop.

“I’m sorry, it’s just…” She wasn’t even able to continue what she wanted to say as she started to cry once again while Mr. Kim comforts her. “I really feel like I lost my daughter. I was so ready to welcome her in this family.”

“She’s not going to be your daughter in the first place. She has a mom of her own.” He points out, and it doesn’t help her mother stop. “It has always been her dream to finish from Harvard, and let’s just respect that.”

“I do, love. I really do, and I’m very happy for her.” She says as she wipes her tears away. She then walks towards her son to hug him. “But I really thought you two would make such cute babies-”

“Mother, please.” He groans after she finally breaks off. “Not that again.”

“Can you… persuade her to come back to you?”

“But she’s happier to be studying in Harvard than studying here.”

“If that’s the case then I should have sent you there as well!”

“I’m perfectly fine here in Seoul, thank you.”

“You should have told her then that Yonsei’s basically like an Ivy League university here in the country.”

“She wasn’t even going to Yonsei. She got accepted to Korea University.”

“I thought you liked her?” His father asked suddenly after his long silence, causing both him and his mother to look at him. He didn’t even know that they were look at him as he was busy with his papers, until he noticed that they stopped arguing.

“Is that true?” Mrs. Kim looks at her son shortly after.

Instead of answering clearly, Jongin just clears his throat nervously and pretends to have not heard his father’s question. “Gosh, I’m so hungry. I’ll just grab a bite real quick.”

His parents watched him exit the office, and as soon as he was gone, Mrs. Kim looked back to her husband to say, “Did you see how your son looked? He was nervous!”

“So?”

“That means that it’s true! I know because I’m his mother.”

Chuckling, Mr. Kim goes back to his papers. “Whatever you say, my love.”

“Tell Jongin to help me out in my office. I need to spend more time with him.”

As soon as they found out that Jongin has finally arrived back home after his 5 days of absence, his friends immediately went to see him, and even if he told them that he was quite tired after his 12-hour flight from Paris to Seoul, Jinri, Chanyeol, Luhan, Junmyeon and Sehun still insisted on visiting him on his apartment.

“Did you tell her?”

“Tell her what?”

“Jongin, please. Let’s not play dumb, shall we? Did you tell her that you love her?”

Just when Junmyeon was about to change the topic and let the atmosphere in the living room less tense, Jongin answers Jinri's question. “I did, and she said that she loves me back.”

Surprised and confused by how sad he sounded still, his friends gasp and look at him. Even Sehun had his jaw drop and then grins at his friend as he tried to cheer him up. “Dude why do you not sound happy? I mean, she loves you! That’s like the weirdest thing I’ve heard today considering you used to bully her all the time-” Jongin turns to Sehun to glare at him and it quickly shuts him up. “Actually, I’ll just stay quiet instead of opening my mouth.”

"I don't get how you could just let her go just like that. Don’t get me wrong, but if you do love her, wouldn't you at least want to be with her?" Jinri asks with her eyebrows furrowed. Her boyfriend beside her could only sigh. She hasn't stopped arguing about what Jongin has done, and he was honestly feeling a little embarrassed by how she was acting.  

"Her happiness comes first before anything else, Jinri." If there was one thing that Jongin doesn’t like, it’s when people question his decisions. And by the tone of Jinri’s voice, it seems like she doesn’t agree on how he acted. “You know, I don’t get you either. As her best friend, I suppose you know her desire to go to Harvard. You sound as if you didn’t want her to go there at all.”

Seeing how the two were fighting, the boys start to get nervous. It wasn’t really their plan to go there and argue with Jongin. Even when Chanyeol was telling her quietly to calm down or at least stop answering him and just let him be, Jinri wasn’t backing down when it comes to Soojung.

“Uhm, let’s just talk about something else-” Junmyeon tries to change the subject once more but fails to do so when Jinri speaks up much louder than he did.

“It’s not like that. I just don’t understand why you couldn’t have just married her and then let her go-”

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