Episode 3: A long journey after Break up

“Jun?” Suddenly Lee Euijin called him once.

The man turned back and gave him a curious look. “What’s it?”

“May I ask why you are dating Yebin?” he suddenly asked the question that Yebin always wanted to know.

“Because she is a beautiful vocalist.” He answered with a smile and continued leaving.

Jun kept walking and carrying her on his back with his blank mind. He never knew that the girl on his back was awaked all along.

Yebin on his back slowly let her tear out again after hearing his answer.

Is this what she means to him all along? He really used her.

“Jun, put me down.” She tried to make her voice calm in her sentence.

“You are awake? That’s okay. You can stay here I will take you home like this..” he surprised a bit and told her back.

“I told you to put me down.” This time her sound was serious.

He decided to put her down and looked back to her.

*Slap*

His handsome face was slapped to the left side as soon as he turned back to see her.

Jun started feeling confused to what had happened. Why was he slapped?

Looking in to her teary eyes, he couldn’t be mad at her for their slap. Why is she crying?

“What’s happening? You just slapped your boyfriend..” he asked curious.

“It’s the last gift I gave you. Let’s break up.. Go to see someone you like for real.” She pushed him out and began to leave but she was grabbed to return back.

“Let speak first. Can you tell me what happened? Why do we break up? Why did you slap me?” he really knew nothing about his fault.

“So let me ask why you asked me to be your girlfriend?” her question got his back cold.

“Because of what I told Euijin hyung? It was a joke though..” he tried to explain.

“Then what? Am I really your girlfriend? What is the reason you asked me to be your girlfriend?” she kept asking and sending him a serious look.

He was silent.

“Jun, you don’t know what in your mind, do you? You don’t have any intension to love me. We never had proper date. All time you spent with me is about work. I wonder if we are really dating..”

“………….” He kept staying silent.

“You like Euijin.” She stared at him.

“We are friends..”

“Stop saying that word. I’m sick of it. Why aren’t you accepting your true feeling? Go to find out about yourself. I don’t want to see you anymore..” she started whining.

He didn’t know what to act in this situation. He hated himself to make her cry.

Yebin wiped her tear and raised her face to give him a last smile.

“Good bye.. I need time to move one. So don’t show up in front of me again. If you need a vocalist for your work, I can recommend you one. Go to make friend with Im Soeun, the junior of your department. She has a great voice. I’m leaving now.” And she really left him.

The tall man just stood up like a tree, watching her leaving further and further.

………..

The first day of break up gave Yebin a horrible feeling. She was upset and regretted at the same time. The day without him, it took her too long to accept their break up.

She felt so unreal if it was true.

She spent her morning hiding herself in the room and turned off her phone. She skipped breakfast and she skipped class too.

She only felt sleepy and laid herself on the bed. She prayed for the bad day passed by soon. She was sick of the moving on process. It was really bad and she hated this kind of state.

The morning passed, and she was still lying down and hugging long pillow.

Would she being going to do like this? She kept repeating all actions in the past with him.

When the evening came, she decided to leave her room finally. She dressed a black t-shirt, jeans and wore black hat to cover swelled eyes.

She went to a small ramhyun shop in her neighbour to fulfil her stomach. The environment here wasn’t noisy at all. It was weird that it was a bit silent today.

“Oh you are here today. Where is the young man that came at the last time?” the owner came to greet her like before and asked for Jun.

“He has diarrhoea today and he is pooping. He can’t come” she told her with a no-joke glare.

“Poor thing, what do you want today?” the middle age owner continued asking.

“I want very spicy noodles with crab and egg and give me a bottle of soju too”

“Today our cooks have day off and my niece just came to help me. It may take a bit more times. ”

“That’s okay for me.”

5 minutes later, the meal arrived and placed on her table.

“Hey, Yebin! I thought I confused I saw someone else.” The waitress smiled at her and greeted.

Yebin looked at her and saw she was Im Soeun, the junior of Jun’s department.

She knew her because they had once practiced singing at the same class when her professor had been absent. However, they weren’t close at all.

“Oh, you are working here?” she surprised.

“It’s my aunt’s shop. I am coming for a help because her cook is sick today.”

“Oh I see…”

“Enjoy your dinner okay? I’m going to my aunt now.” And she left.

And she started eating slowly…

“The atmosphere is stress up today. You should do something.. ” the middle aged woman told her niece.

“What can I do? We have less customers so it is no noise today..”

“Sing a song to break this bothersome. Aren’t you artist student?”

“But I am not a vocalist and I am cleaning now. You told me to pop up and sing in the ramhyun shop? They must be laughing…”

“I don’t care.. I am almost sleeping because of this atmosphere..”

“Okay I will go to get my guitar. You are really trolling me today, auntie.”

A few minutes later, guitar tune started attracting the eaters’ attention. They all turned to watch at the little and short hair girl whom was sitting on a chair and playing guitar.

The atmosphere was turning from darkness to brightness slowly.

Yebin looked at Soeun a bit and backed to keep eating.

~ Don’t cry, let cry just a little bit more

No, you can’t do this..

I laugh, but the truth is sometimes it’s very lonely..

I always have to be happy.. ~

 

She started dropping her tear when she heard the word ‘Don’t cry’ at the beginning of the song.

~ It’s lie, it’s all lie, I’m just waiting..

The world doesn’t listen to me..

Throw your throat out and shout..

The world is as hard as rock.. ~

This time she dropped her chopsticks and her spoon in the bowl too. She sat like a rock and let that song into her ears.

~ Someday, when I’m standing, you can reach my heart

I’m sad, I’m lonely, I’m not gonna cry, why are you crying like a fool?

Like a flower that blooms after a cold winter, spring will come to me..

Don’t forget, let not forget like the first time we dreamed, you can walk that way~

~ When you are suffering and tired, for a while.

Think about that time, sometimes I just want to rest after I fall down.

It’s strange, why am I doing this? I’m too lazy to stand up again.~

She felt like that song was sending her a message. She was into it and Soeun’s voice turned her weak mind into emotion.

The day without Jun, she was really lazy to stand up. She didn’t want to meet the other people and hide herself forever.

~ Looking back, every footstep I walk

You can relax along the beautiful flower path

I’m sad, I’m lonely, I’m not gonna cry, why are you crying like a fool?

Like a flower that blooms after a cold winter, spring will come to me..

I have a flower that will bloom in my frozen heart~

 

That beautiful and sad song returned her to the days of their past.

Flashback to a year ago

“Yebin, would you be my girlfriend?” Jun gave her flowers with his gentle smile.

She was surprised because she was confessed by a senior whom she was interested. This existence in her life brought her beautiful days.

Although her friends kept telling her that he had many ex-girlfriends before, she didn’t care about them. It was enough to have him.

“Hey let’s have a group meeting after class okay? Call your boyfriend out too. We all will bring our boyfriends and introduce each other..” her classmates told her before they left class.

“Wait..” she was about to refuse but they didn’t let her have a chance.

Should she try to convince Jun once?

After class ended, she went to Jun’s department and waited for him leaving too.

“Hey, Yebin. Today I get a great score. Professor Hwang really liked my theories.” He kept telling her how happy he was as soon as they met.

She stayed silent and listened to his story.

“Jun, do you have time for a dinner?”

“Oh, I already promised Feeldog hyung for helping him to do research.. What’s matter?”

“That’s okay.. I am just asking..” she had a dried smile.

“Later..” he shook her hair.

Even though he said ‘Later’, this word became his habit. Their time was always ‘Later’ and he spent most of his times with his mates.

All the time, Yebin was dating herself. He only came when he needed her. However, when she needed him, he was never here with her.

Jun always told his friends that Yebin so understood since she kept staying silent and no complaint.

Who knew? In fact she didn’t understand him at all. She just tried to hide her feeling.

When Euijin showed up, all his attention was for her.

Yebin felt like herself as a leftover.

“Oh, Euijin. She is my friend. She is sweet and good……” he kept telling her how another great in everything.

Yebin only faked a laugh to his description.

Did Jun ever notice her mood once?

The way he looked at Euijin, Yebin knew that glare would never be hers. She was wondering why they were dating when he kept dating all his friends both male and female and left her alone.

………………..

Yebin found herself on the bridge pave walk after awaking from a long flashback to her past. Now she realized that she shouldn’t hold onto the relationship which wasn’t for her.

She decided to let Jun go.

She promised to herself that she would love herself more than anyone.

Wind blow coldly, she could hear river was running under the bridge she was standing on.

Sniffing, she really liked fresh air now. She moved her feet closer to the bridge and held its arms.

Long-time no see the river like this.

“Lee Junyoung!!” she screamed out his name all her energy.

“You will regret what you have done to me. You will never find someone cute, beautiful, sweet, gentle, and good at everything like me. ” she continued screaming.

Now she felt relief.

“Hey, Miss. You can’t jump to the river. Let go to police station with us.” A few policemen came to her and tried to drag her out.

“What’s happening?” she blinked surprisingly to them.

“You are reported to destroy the river environment. Let come with us..” and they kept dragging her away.

The girl’s mind went blank. WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED HERE? She just wanted to get fresh air. Is it a crime too?

At police station

“You are planning to ruin the environment by jumping to the river. Someone reported you now you need to be charged for having a bad intention to ruin the environment. ” The policeman was writing the document.

“Ahjussi! I really didn’t have any intentions to commit suicide there. I just sniffed fresh air. How many times should I tell you? Can’t I go to see the river?” Yebin frowned and looked at the police annoyingly.

“Are you sure? Why did you go there alone and scream out someone’s name like you were saying good bye?” the policeman asked

“I just broke up with my boyfriend.” She told them.

“So you wanted to kill yourself after break up..” another policeman kept writing the report about her.

“Yah, I’m not. I want to see who report me?” she asked around.

“That young man..” they pointed to another young man who was eating a box of noodle at the witness’s seat and he was covering by a newspaper.

Yebin walked angrily to that man and took off the newspaper in his hand.

‘Euijin oppa?” she was surprised to see him here.

“Hi, Yebin. Long-time no see” he grinned at her.

 

An hour later, both of them left the police station after the truth was out.

In fact, Euijin saw Yebin walking alone by the chance and he was worried about her. He followed her and saw she was watching the river. He thought she was about to jump; thus, he called the police to catch her with a purpose of helping her.

He never expected that Yebin was only watching the river.

“You really got my mood ruined oppa. I‘m supposed to be broken heart and enjoy myself in my dark drama. You ruined everything. You made police catch me. I was sad after break up and now I was sadder to be caught by police. I had never been caught to the police station like this before. ” she messed her hair and frowned at him with her grit.

Staring at her, Euijin unexpectedly laughed at her.

Unknowingly, she laughed too.

“How do you feel?” he asked all of a sudden.

“I was sad all day, but you are a mood maker. I was pissed till I forgot how sad I was.” She spoke up

All day she had been in darkness and surrounded by sorrow and pain. Now, Yebin was relief. She thought she could move on though.

Smiling to herself, she raised her head to look up into the sky.

Stars were shinning beautifully, and making her feeling motivated.

She realized that she shouldn’t have abandoned herself because of a man.

“I decided. Tomorrow, I will go for audition again.” She smiled and turned to Euijin.

“Which company?” he asked.

“To another smaller company..”

“Go to the same studio. I heard that the producer Kim committed corruption and now he was found out. So the first audition was cancelled after the investigator discovered that they handed money to producer Kim.” He told her.

“Really? So can I really go back to have my audition there?” She jumped happily.

“Sure why not?”

…………..

Next day

Yebin woke up early and dressed up beautifully. She would have the audition this afternoon, but she couldn’t help herself not to get excited for that event.

Today morning, she went to have her health check because she was learning to love herself. To be a good vocalist, she needed to be healthy and balance her mental mind too.

She completely checked all disease for her whole body.

“Baek Yebin?” a nurse called out her name to get a result.

Yebin stood up and went to get the result.

“I’m Baek Yebin.” She told the nurse.

“Enter the room. Dr. Yang will consult your conditions.” The nurse smiled and let her in the room.

Entering the room, Yebin met a beautiful doctor. She had a brighter smile than her future.

‘Dr. Yang Jiwon’ name was on the table. Yebin admired her beautiful name too.

“Please have a seat. You look younger than your age, Ms. Baek” Dr. Yang admired her.

Yebin rolled her eyes. She was already 20; so younger than her age meant that she looked like 16 or 17 years old?

Thinking about this, she blushed.

“Ms. Baek it looks like you are having a cancer stage 2B. You need to have your surgery before it turns into the stage 3 and risk your life.” Dr. Yang recommended her and showed her the pictures of her cancer.

“WHAT? I have cancer? O_O” Yebin opened her eyes surprisingly and her jaw dropped.

What did she just hear? Her life completely ruined for three days. She failed audition and her boyfriend dumped her. She tried to stand up on the 3^rd day of failure, now she had cancer.

“Yes, it’s really bigger now. We need to do operation in a hurry.”

“Wait, you meant I will have my cut off?” she breathed slowly, and asked her clearly again.

She wishes it wasn’t true.

How can she live with no ?

20 minutes later, Yebin ran off the hospital with her whine.

“No I can’t accept this. What the heck happened to my life? God, are you hating me?” she cried all along the road.

She watched the time, and audition time was almost coming soon. However, today she had no mood for audition.

She couldn’t imagine her life living such a sinful life.

She sat in the park and cried out.

“I thought break up with Jun was the most painful moment in my life. But it wasn’t at all after this disease happened to me.” She covered her face and cried out.

A few hours later, her phone was ringing and she saw it was Euijin’s number.

She picked up with her sobbing.

[Where are you, Yebin? You lost your last chance to audit in this company.] he was complaining.

“oppa…” she cried out and continued with pout “I don’t want to live anymore. My is going to be cut. I can’t be a singer anymore.” She spoke straight to him.

[WHAT? What happened to you? No, where are you? Is someone kidnapping you for kidney?]

“I am……..” she told him where she was.

Now, she really needed a friend to comfort her.

20 minutes later

Euijin showed up and sat next to her. Yebin handed him a result of her health check and kept crying.

“I can’t read the doctor language ==” he told her.

“They said I had a stage 2 B cancer and they are going to operate with my . I can’t live with a single .. haaaaa….” She cried again and hugged his shoulder.

She even wiped her running nose with his shirt too.

“Yah, Baek Yebin, why are you so disgusting?” Euijin pushed her head away and looked at his shirt disgustingly.

He never expected this beauty become a dirty woman in a second.

Because of his guilty toward her, Euijin decided to accompany her and comfort her.

Euijin blamed Yebin’s breakup because of him. He prayed for his friend’s happiness and forgot about this innocent girl. Currently, he didn’t talk to Euijin because he was in a moving on process.

Unexpectedly, he kept running to Yebin whom was a very sad woman involved with many problems after breakup.

To reduce her stress, he took her to wonderland and played around.

While Yebin was eating ice cream, he started speaking up

“You know happiness isn’t based on if you have big s or what. Some human doesn’t have , you see me? My chest is smooth like land.. ” he pointed to his chest.

Yebin stopped eating and glaring at her “Do you marry with a woman who had no ?” she asked once.

“How come I marry her? How will my baby feed?” he surprisingly spoke up without notice things.

“And you dared to say I can live well without ..” she cried out again and threw ice cream to his face before she was running away.

“Yah? Cry again?” he wiped his face and looked at her with his sigh.

“What should I comfort her?” he shook his hair messily.

 

After that he took her to a bookstore to find normal for reading. It was said that women could release stress due to the storyline in the novel.

Yebin was reading a story and now she could have fun. Whereas Euijin was searching some books for her as his first present.

“3 stages of cancer, cancer journey, cancer after treatment, and how a woman live with one …” he kept reading the titles of the book and nodded to himself.

“This is helpful for Yebin. I should gift them to her.” He brought all book to put at her cashier’s desk and paid the bill.

“Yebin, are you done?” he asked her.

“Yes I am. I will buy all these manga.” She put her manga and some novel on the desk and paid bill too.

She looked fresher after reading the book though.

They left the bookstore together.

“I have some presents for you.” He handed her a package of books.

“Wow oppa, you are accompanying me today and now you gifted me presents. ”she was so excited and took out the presents for a look.

Her smile disappeared after she read the first title of the book.

‘How a woman live with one ’

She gritted her teeth and slapped his head with that book immediately.

“How can you do this to me? You are teasing me right?” and she ran away again.

“Aigoo.. this woman -_- I knew now why Jun couldn’t love her.” He waved his head.

Euijin spent around 30 minutes to get along with her back. He tried so hard because he was a wise man. He couldn’t leave depressed woman alone.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” he asked with a smile.

“A cancer movie? Just stop it. You don’t know how to comfort a woman. You keep reminding me of what I want to avoid. I won’t do any operation with my . I will die beautifully, I swear.” She told her.

Why is she so stubborn? Euijin sighed. He couldn’t watch her die.

An hour later, the sky was turning into dark.

Yebin and Euijin were drinking soju and eating grilled meat at a small store. Firstly, she looked alright while he persuaded her to go seeing doctor again.

But when she was sober, he realized she was a total Baek Yebin in his college.

“I prefer to die. I don’t want my cut. Are you happy now?” she cried out while many people were watching them.

“Yebin, speak softly. They are looking at us now.”

“My life became a . I failed the audition, I broke up with my boyfriend and now I have stage 2B cancer. How to go on my life? If I have my surgery, who will marry me? Those women in my class will say I was a transformed woman. My career will end too. Hik hik hik ” she cried and hugged the bottle.

“Aigoo this young man, you asked your girlfriend to break up after she had cancer?” the seller looked at Euijin in disgusting way.

“No, I’m not her boyfriend..” the young man tried to protect himself.

“Are you marry with a or woman? A woman has no is also a woman. You can’t do that to her” another middle aged men started speaking.

“No… it’s not like this…”

“Aigoo, this poor girl. She is really beautiful but she is blind to pick up a handsome lad with no morality. He loved her because she is a woman with .” Another people waved their heads and looked at Yebin pitifully.

Euijin was speechless and stooped down his face to the table.

He was supposed to be broken heart too. Why did they do that to him?

Then she was completely drunk. Euijin was the one who carried her on his back and walked slowly.

“Did she eat elephant? She is too heavy. She has been ruined me all day. She shouldn’t have broken up with Jun or I could call him to take this responsibility.” He kept murmuring on the road.

At the moment, he could hear Yebin’s phone ringing.

He moved his hand to take a phone in pocket and watch the name.

But there was no name.

He decided to pick up.

“hello, this is Ms. Yebin’s phone. She can’t pick up right now. You can tell me and I will pass the message to her.”

[Hello, this is Dr. Yang from XXX hospital. Ms. Yebin had a check-up this morning, but our nurse mistook her with another patient whom had the same name but different age. I would like to confirm that Ms. Yebin had no cancer and the result be long to another Ms. Yebin who is in her 30s. We are sorry to make the mistake.]

After Euijin heard this, he dropped Yebin’s body to the ground while his hand was shaking.

“Yahhh!!” he screamed out and yelled all his anger “Do you know how I have been through today due to your mistaken result?”

And the phone was turned off.

“yah, hello? Why did you hang off when I haven’t finished yet? Holy!” he cursed at the phone.

Turning back to Yebin, he saw her lying on the ground like sleeping beauty.

“Go to sleep in your room. Why are you doing this to me?” he really wanted to cry out now.

He suffered too much for today.

………..

Next day, Yebin was so happy because she had no cancer. She even offered to treat Euijin a beautiful breakfast for letting her lean on him yesterday.

But he just said ‘No, thank you.’

She wondered what made him completely different person from yesterday.

Whatever, at least she can save some money. Now Euijin’s gifts work for her. She could start reading the cancer books happily in order to easily notice later if she would have a cancer in the future.

While she was eating, she received message offered her for audition.

“Yah, they still accept me for audition?” she looked at it surprisingly.

The audition time was at 10 am and now it was 9 am already. Looking at her dress, she dressed up like ahjumma because she was only eating at a small store in her neighbour.

She had no enough time to dress up though.

“What the… how am I supposed to audit with this dress?” she looked at herself in the glass wall.

She was no different from a famer.

! The world was really unfair to her.

She paid the bill and started running to the audition without thinking of anything. She couldn’t leave this last chance again.

At the audition

Yebin was watched surprisingly by the producers with her dress code and makeup style.

“Are you sure this young lady we saw a few days ago?” Producer A asked producer B.

“Yeah it is her.” He nodded and asked Yebin “Why did you dress like this? Are you auditing for a comedian?”

Yebin gulped. She didn’t know how to solve this situation.

She must be dismissed again for being careless in this audition.

“No, this is her new concept, Professor. She is going to audit with a farmer song” someone suddenly jumped to the stage and protected her.

It was Lee Euijin again.

“What are you doing here?” Yebin asked softly and hit his hand.

“I tried very hard to let my professor see you. But look what you have done. Just shut up and follow me.” He whispered back.

Yebin just only grinned.

“What song are you going to sing?” the Producer asked.

“Kimchi song” Euijin answered for her.

“Wtf..” Yebin almost cursed him.

Is he trying to again?

“Okay, let hear first.” And the music started.

Yebin stood still like a tree while Euijin was clapping his hands next to her.

“Just sing, come on I will help you. Do you still want to be a singer?” he pushed his shoulder to hers.

~ Really really like Kimchi, really like crunchy kimchi…~

~ Kimchi kimchi salty salty, very very salty salty ~

~ starting from crunchy radish to clean and nicely kimchi ~

~ Spicy Spicy, sweet and sour… ~

Now she started singing with Euijin and clapped her hands too. The audience was enjoying the show.

………..

Yebin got back home and threw herself to the bed.

What the heck she did today? She must lose herself. How dare she sang such a stupid song on her audition day?

T_T

If she really passed, the producers would be a stupid man.

Tingting…

She got a message

‘Glad to see Ms. Baek join this audition. We all are having fun and we would like you to join our team’

“What? Did I really pass?” she woke up and watched the message surprisingly.

Are all of them really stupid?

She laughed at herself for being stupid for the past few days.

“hahahaha…” this time she found what was more value to herself even she broke up.

The old person passed by, the new people came. She shouldn’t have regretted to let Jun go.

“Okay, Lee Junyoung. I bless you for the happiness.” She unblocked his number from her phone.

And she immediately texted to Euijin

‘Oppa, this is crazy. I passed the audition due to Kimchi song and ahjuma dress code. Do you want to have Kimchi meal with me? It’s on me.’

A few minutes later, she got a reply

‘No, thank you. I have enough Kimchi at home. Enjoy by yourself.’

“huh? Why is he No thank you again? ”

Yebin may not know how Euijin really annoyed with her hahaha

 

Wait for last episode 

It's Jun's chapter.