CHAPTER EIGHT: When Divorce Was Never The End.

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Seohyun had always been secretly voted as the dream maknae of every group. Polite, respectful, responsible, and (most of the time) even obedience. Is there anything else that any team member could have asked for of a maknae? Although sometime Soshi members wished that Seohyun could loosen herself a bit, in general, they had thanked Lee Soo Man seonsaengnim so many times for giving them Joohyun as their maknae.

Thus, it came as a shock for (most of) them when they were informed that their ever good maknae, for once, had decided to rebel against them. Or to be more precise, against their request of going to the blind date that they set up for her.

They felt hurt. Since when Seohyunie became like that? Their nice Seohyunied must be influenced by someone. Someone. Those ones.

To prevent her running happened again, all Soshi members decided to drive her to the date themselves. Seohyun wanted to escape the morning of the date, but she was warned that if she did, all of her goguma snack would be taken away from her for a month. A month. So Seohyun gave in. Geez, she and her goguma addiction.

Many people at MBC building that day regretted when the news broke out the next day, because if they paid a little more attention to the present of Soshi members, they might very well get a big promotion by capturing the hottest and best news for MBC.

When Seohyun stepped into MBC, she started feeling uneasy. The memories that the building reminded her of didn’t make her feel any comfortable. Much less the man that she shared all those memories with. The name that she accidentally let it escaped just once the night she stayed up to watch over Taeyeon as her unnie got drunk after a break up.

Looking at her leaders who had insisted on accompanying her here despite the busy schedule, she knew that her most dreaded day had finally come. The day that she could sense its coming since that very moment when she answered her unnie question about her crush.

But sensing and actually meeting were never the same thing. She could still felt her heart beat a bit faster than it usually did and her body started to get slightly hotter than it should be, so she tried to hide her uneasiness by being professional:

- Annyeonghaseyo, Yonghwa-ssi.

- Annyeonghaseyo, Seohyun-ssi. – Yonghwa was taken back by her distant expression, so he unconcisouly repeated what she said. Has my chance really gone?

Taeyeon rolled her eyes, she couldn’t believe that a man could be that stupid. However, because she knew something, she had to hint it to him:

- Yonghwa-ssi, last time my maknae was busy, so she couldn’t make it. As you know through your marriage, she is reserved, so I trust you to help her.

- A-ah, I will. – Yonghwa suddenly woken up from all of his terrible thoughts as Taeyeon elbowed him. As he realized by Taeyeon’s action that maybe his chance may not all be gone, he became determined again. Yonghwa, you did it once, you can do it again.

- Good. I’ll hand my maknae to you now.

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Seohyun could totally predict that Yonghwa would bring her to some places that they went to before, but she didn’t expect that he actually rented the old apartment that they shared. Nor would she expect that the apartment looked almost identical to the one in her memories.

She teared up as Yonghwa pulled her into a hug:

- I have always wanted to do this.

- Yonghwa oppa. – She spoke softly. She could no longer pretend that they were strangers. They would never be strangers because of everything they had. Even after everything.

Seohyun tried to get out of his hug as she still couldn’t get used to intimate contacts with the opposite gender. Yonghwa smiled bitterly, but he wouldn’t get beaten that easily, so he rubbed her hair and helped her wipe her tears away.

- Let’s make something together? I’m hungry.

- I’ve learnt to cook. I can make a simple meal now. – She looked at him and smiled victoriously. – I’m no longer the one who made the horrible kimchi!

- Really? We’ll see then.

Seohyun was a woman of her words. She said that she could cook a simple meal, then by all means she definitely did it. She did cook a meal. And it was simple.

Although the fridge was full of many ingredients, she only made kimchi fried rice with leftover kimchi, eggs, and chicken. She also managed to made a quick pot of kimchi soup with tofu and some vegetable.

- It tastes good. – Yonghwa had always been a nice person and a nice ‘husband’. He would eat up anything that Seohyun fed him.

- You didn’t even try it. Oppa, you don’t trust my cooking?

- I do. But just by smelling and looking, I can tell already. – He immediately defended himself.

- Really? – Seohyun looked at him suspiciously before tasting her kimchi soup. She instantly looked disappointed. – The soup didn’t turn out like what I imagined.

- The kimchi fried rice is really good. Trust me.

He was being completely honest. It was obviously not the best kimchi fried rice he ever had in his life, but it was close, very close. If the best kimchi fried rice wasn’t prepared by his mom, he would have definitely told her that her fried rice was the best one.

- Hmm, I see.

Seohyun did light up just a bit, so Yonghwa decided to try the soup. He had prepared himself, but then he secretly sighed in relief. It was not as bad as he thought.

- It was a bit bland, but still great. Look, the color is perfect.

Seohyun looked at him dubiously. She was sure that her soup didn’t taste good, but he could be too hungry to be picky.

- Trust yourself, Seohyun-ah. You have improved so much!

- Everybody changes, oppa. – She looked at her food and answered softly, then quietly mumbled – Everything changes, oppa.

Yonghwa pretended that he didn’t hear her last few words, so he could deceive himself that his deepest fear might not already become real. To lighten up the mood, he jokingly took the bowl of soup to his side and told her:

- I’ll eat it all, don’t try to take it away from me.

- Araso. It’s all yours. Yooong-choding. – She chuckled.

Yonghwa looked at her smile and smiled widely. Maybe he wasn’t too late. Maybe something would never change.

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After cleaning with Seohyun repeatedly calling him Yong-choding as he kept played with the water, Yonghwa picked up the guitar and started playing. Seohyun listened carefully, but she couldn’t realize the song at all. However, there was something oddly familiar about the melody and the lyrics that she had to ask right after he finished the song

- Oppa, did you compose the song? Will it be in your next album?

- Yes. And no. It may never be in any album. – Yonghwa looked at her expectedly.

A strange idea flashed through her mind, but she couldn’t believe it. It was impossible. After all these years, after everything. However, his intense gaze made her feel nervous, and she could sense that her idea was possibly right. She was hesitant to ask the question, so she continuously chewed her lips.

- Again, Seohyun?

- Ne…? – Seohyun looked at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

- Every single time. Why don’t you ask?

She kept quiet. So, she wasn’t wrong. Yonghwa didn’t know if he should be angry at her for always playing safe and never dare to cross the line every f***ing time. But she was Seohyun, so finally he gave in, like he always did:

- Why don’t you ask if it was written for you?

Seohyun started tearing up but she tried to hide it by looking up at the ceiling, like it was the second most interesting thing in the world, only lost to the floor. Yonghwa sighed. He knew that she would react that way.

- I wrote it. For you.

- …

- For us. - He whispered tiredly.

Sometimes Seohyun was too stubborn that he didn’t know how to make her open up. He for once thought that he had succeeded in cracked her shell up a bit, but something happened and made he think that he was wrong. And he gave up.

Just a few minute earlier he thought that he was possibly wrong the last time, but at the moment, it could also be very possible that he was right. He might never be the one that she would open up to.

- When? – Seohyun suddenly asked.

- Half a year after we ended our marriage.

This time, she turned to look at him. They saw the unspoken truth in each other eyes: it was written after that conversation.

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The silence fell between them, but neither of them knew how to break it. The truth always hurt. Seohyun shifted anxiously in her seat. The song brought both happy and unhappy memories back, one after another likes strong waves that suffocated her. Unaware, she touched the pink guitar laying next to her and started playing the song.

I want you than I have ever showed.

I want to use banmal with you for years to come.

Take your time but let’s come back home

Let’s be who we were once again…

Yonghwa was surprised at her move, but immediately played along. Even though it was the first time Seohyun listened to the song, she played pretty well as the melody had some influence from both Falling Slowly and Banmal songs. They didn’t have any big trouble playing together, but it wasn’t as smooth as Yonghwa expected. He couldn’t really blend well with her music as she was playing absent-mindedly and only realized that they were having a duet at the end.

They looked at each other and felt much better as the awkwardness had vanished.

- Let’s play again? – Yonghwa grinned. He was amused that everything happened in a similar way to the first meeting, when they felt connected through music.

- Sure oppa. – Seohyun nodded. – And I like the song.

And that. That was the best and highest compliment Yonghwa could ever ask for.

When Yonghwa and Seohyun were about to leave the house to go to CNBLUE practice room to see how the piano and guitar played the song together would turn out, each got a call from their respective manager.

After a brief talk, Seohyun ended the call and turned to Yonghwa, who also just finished. They both looked very serious and asked the same question:

- Can I have your managers’ phone numbers?

- So you knew? – Yonghwa looked at Seohyun apologetically. – I didn’t know that someone would notice us this late.

- Oppa, it’s fine. – Seohyun smiled understandingly. – Manager hyung told me that my oppa and unnie would come here to distract them so that we could go out and mix in, pretending that we went here with other people for another purpose. So he needs to coordinate with your manager.

- Sure.

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It was late at night, but everyone in SME was on full alert. An unclear picture of Yonghwa and Seohyun walking to their old ‘house’ was leaked on the internet half an hour ago by an anonymous fan. Although there was no proof that the two people in the picture were Yonghwa and Seohyun, it didn’t make thing any less serious as the media and fan had surrounded the area, waiting to catch a precious moment for the news the next day. More importantly, the image of Seohyun needed to be maintained and protected at all cost since SNSD would have a comeback soon. As the final detail was checked before the plan could be executed, Kyuhyun rushed in the meeting room:

- I’m going.

- Kyu, your manager already told you that all of you who were on the list are not going. And don’t try to sneak in.

A senior manager looked up at him and shook his head, warning the evil maknae.

- We have enough distraction: YoonA, Siwon, Chanyeol, and see it for yourself. – He pointed at few other members who were there. – And we had planned everything.

Kyuhyun looked around, everyone was shaking their head at him, implying that he had better followed the instruction. However, finally, he met with the same expression as his on Changmin’s face. They shared an understanding quickly. They wouldn’t give up that easy.

An employee rushed into the room, running out of breath:

- Sunbaenim, we got a call from the employees there. The numbers of reporters and fan exceeds our prediction. The road starts getting blocked that it can be hard to get all the members in.

The manager furrowed his eyebrows, but he quickly made the decision

- Get some of the members there first. Try to capture the attention of part of the reporters. We’ll find another solution in the mean time. If there’s nothing else, we will execute the plan as it is.

- Use us. – Changmin and Kyuhyun stepped up and spoke at the same time. – Create a bigger scandal.

The room became dead silent. The manager sighed heavily. He had thought of making another scandal, but wasn’t sure if it would worth it. And who to pick. Who would be willing to take that sacrification. They could hate Seohyun for that and the situation could be worse than it had already been.

- Are you sure? – The manager looked at them solemnly. – You know what scandal could mean to your career, right? And to your group?

They had been in the industry for too long to not know that once a scandal broke out, it could escalate to the point out of control quickly and unpredictedly. That's why everyone hated scandal, even the big 3 avoided it at all cost unless they were specifically paid enough for it. Or in special situations, like that night.

Changmin looked at Yunho apologetically, while Kyuhyun kept silent. He could care less about his image, but Super Junior would be different.

- Use me instead of my maknae. – Yunho calmly spoke, his eyes filled with determination. – And no need to feel guilty, Minnie. We all know who we are doing it for.

- We’ll always do what we need for our family. – Leeteuk stood up straight, next to DBSK’s leader. – You could tell the members that I will be responsible for everything.

- Then, let’s do it. – The manager nodded.

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Seohyun and Yonghwa peaked through the curtain to see what was happening when they heard loud noises from all around the houses. Some black cars could be seen in the middle of the crowd, and people were stepping out of them. Seohyun could instantly tell that they were her unnie, DBSK and Super Junior oppa and dongsaeng from EXO and f(x).

She felt terribly guilty. They had to rush out in the middle of the night to get all the camera pointing at them in this cold weather. All because of this date. Of her and her selfishness.

She almost wanted to walk out immediately and become the one who got all those undesirable attentions. The anger and sadness rushing through her veins, and she didn’t realize that she had pulled the curtain to the side to the point that she almost revealed herself. Yonghwa had to pull her away and into his body:

- Seohyun-ah, don’t worry. The plan will work out.

- It’s not about the plan, oppa. – She sat down quietly as she tried her best to regain her usual composure back. – Not at all.

Yonghwa mumbled another sorry, and again, Seohyun gave him a weak smile, telling him that it was not his faults. It was crystal clear whose faults it was.

- It’s all my faults. – She whispered

- Seohyunie, it would never be your faults. – Yonghwa sat down in front of her and rubbed her hair. His heart ached at how sorrowful her eyes looked, and it made him want to slap himself because he was the very cause of it.

His voice was so comforting that Seohyun almost broke down into tears. She buried her face into her knees so he wouldn’t be able to see her miserable state.

- O-oppa, I’m no longer the Seohyun you knew. – Her voice was shaking. – I’m sorry.

- I may not know everything that happened to you, Seohyun.

Yonghwa admitted bitterly. They both knew that neither of them was the same person they were when they first met. But saying it out loud still hurt. Tremendously.

- But no matter what have happened and will happen, I will protect you. – He held her hand tightly. – I promise with…

- No need. – A voice full of sarcasm suddenly echoed in the house. – It is our responsibilities to protect her. Not yours.

Seohyun immediately shot up. She couldn’t believe who were standing in front of her own eyes. Her knight in shining armor. Her guardian angel.

- Let’s go home, Joohyun-ah. – They held out their hands and smiled brightly.

And like that was the only thing she had been waiting for, as Seohyun ran toward them and broke down in their warm embraces.