"I know she has hurt me and I know that she lied to me but the fact that I loved her and I wanted her to still be well is the thing that kept me from hating her."

"Wow! What an ending! Really, I don't understand why they rejected your stories. If I were the CEO of the company where you sent this, I would've contacted you right away and asked you to sign a contract with me." I admitted and she just laughed it off.

"Ajeossi, you're overreacting." She commented.

"What about you send them to a publication I know?" I suggested and she looked away.

"I already sent it to all publications there is." She confessed and I can sense a tone of defeat in her voice.

"Come on, that would be impossible. Try this publication; I'm sure you haven't encountered it yet." I insisted and wrote it on a notepad I saw from the living room table.

"This is kind of unfamiliar." She stated after looking at the publication name. Sure it is! it's the publication I and my friends put up while we were in the university and we’re still maintaining it.

"Try sending your stories there later," I said and she smiled at me.

"Thanks."

"Off to your café?"

"Yup. Let's get to work."

--

I helped her open the café and even organized some of the books that were placed on the reading area table. I was still placing some of the books from their respective shelves when two little boys and two little girls came in the shop. They raced towards the counter and said their greetings to Seulgi. She smiled and greeted them back before giving each of them the same kind of textbook.

"You have to answer all the activities on the page I marked, okay?" She instructed and they happily nodded.

"Okay, go sit there at the reading area." She pointed towards the area and everyone abided.

"What was that?" I asked when I returned to the counter.

"Korean Letters tutorial. I only have few customers since this town is small, even the population. So I get paid from teaching these children about the letters and literature." Seulgi answered and I nodded.

I was about to ask her where to put the last five books I was holding when she looked outside. I turned to look at where she was looking and I saw a guy waving towards our direction.

"Can you please watch over the café and tend to the kids for a moment?" She asked and I immediately agreed.

Seulgi went out immediately and the guy placed his arms around her neck as he messed her hair. Seulgi just elbowed the guy and they laughed as they parted. I looked at him again and he kind of looked familiar. I shrugged it off; I'm probably just thinking a lot of things.

"Hyung, can you help me here? I don't know how to write this word." One of the boys tugged my shirt and raised his book towards me. When did this little boy get here?

I lifted him and we went towards the others.

"Let me see," I said and he pointed at the picture of water inside a pitcher. I helped him spell it out and he cheered in victory.

"Anyway hyung, who are you? It's my first time seeing you," the same boy asked.

"Me too," the other boy agreed but the two girls stared at me.

"I saw this oppa yesterday here, though," they said in unison.

"So who are you, hyung?"

"Me? I'm that agassi's boyfriend." I joked, pointing at Seulgi who was still talking to the guy.

"Eyyy. That can't be. Unnie should've let you talk to Gary oppa if you were her boyfriend," one of the little girls said.

"No way. You can't be noona's boyfriend. She promised to marry me when I grow up," the "water" boy shut me a glare. I just chuckled at their cuteness.

"Anyway, who is that guy with her?" I asked them and they all looked outside.

"Unnie's older brother."

"He is Gary oppa."

"Gary hyung often comes to visit noona."

"He also gives us banana milk, sometimes."

"Do you know why he only visits? When they can actually live in one house?"

"Gary oppa is from the other town. My mom said he isn't really Seulgi unnie's brother."

"Seulgi noona was from Gary oppa's town but noona came here a year ago. They said she was the daughter of Kang ajeossi."

"Kang ajeossi?"

"Kang ajeossi was the owner of this café and he was teaching us but he brought Seulgi noona one day and told us she will be our new teacher."

"Then the week before last week, Kang ajeossi died and we thought Seulgi unnie would close this cafe but she still opened and came here."

"Ever since the death of Kang ajeossi, Gary oppa came here and would talk to noona outside."

"He was here yesterday too, just after weird looking oppa came in and slept."

I guess I heard enough from the kids and I saw Seulgi going back inside, waving to her brother.

"Aigoo! You guys are talkative, eh? Just do your work and call me if you need help, okay?" I pretended as Seulgi entered the café.

"Yes," the kids shouted and I smiled before getting up and meeting Seulgi halfway.

"Everything alright?" I asked and she smiled a forced one.

She went at the counter and placed a paper bag beside her sling bag. Then she opened a book which I saw from the living room table this morning. I just studied her for a few moments.

So the reason why she was crying last night was probably because she misses her dad and she had to celebrate her birthday without him. I know from the crying or wailing I heard yesterday, she'd been through a lot, I can feel how sad she could've been and how hard it could have been for her to survive alone after taking in the reality of her life.

I just watched her as she read and flipped the pages of the book she was reading.