Chapter 6 – Intervention Part 1

The three days that Yonghwa had promised to use to forget about the girl in his heart were almost over. He looked over at the calendar in his room and smiled at the date. It was June 28^th, one of the most special days of the year for him. Even his own birthday was overshadowed by the affection he had for the birthday of one of his best friends. Most importantly, today was the day that he would rid himself of the symbol of rejection he held onto for what seemed his entire life. Today, that butterfly would be free to fly to the person that it belonged to in the first place.

“Jang Woo,” Yonghwa called out to the erted young man before leaving the house. “I have a favor to ask of you for tonight. Think you could help me out?”

With the way that Yonghwa had been smiling as if he had won the lottery, it didn’t take long for Jang Woo to realize what this was about. It was clear as day that Yonghwa was going to ask him to help out with something related to Seohyun. Although Jang Woo wanted to smile in response to Yonghwa’s happiness, there was a part of him that felt like not helping. Just like Krystal, he felt Yonghwa was wasting his time with a girl that didn’t have any idea of his feelings. Regardless, Yonghwa was one of his good friends and he had to help him out.

“Yah! Are you listening to me?” Yonghwa called out. Jang Woo continued to be entranced by his thoughts until the other male in front of him jabbed his side in order for him to wake up. “Hello? Jang Woo are you there?”

“Oh, hehe sorry. I was lost in my thoughts,” Jang Woo nervously chuckled.

“Yeah, you were probably thinking of some erted thing you want to do to Eun Jung. Anyway, I need you to help me with something,” Yonghwa asked again.

“Yeah, what’s up? Wait, let me guess… It’s about your darling angel Seohyun right?”

“Yah! Don’t call her that,” Yonghwa cried out while a blush crept onto his cheeks.

“Aigoo! You are such a little elementary school student. You just turned 23 and you’re still acting like that,” Jang Woo teased. Yonghwa didn’t have the nerve to fight back because he was telling the truth. He tried his hardest to not blush and become flustered when it came to Seohyun, but it was much too difficult. It was like trying to get a dog not to bark or to trying to tell someone to read a book with your eyes closed. In other words, it was pretty much impossible.

“Choding!” a cute voice called out from behind. Yonghwa turned around to see Eun Jung walking towards the pair happily. “So what about Seohyun are we talking about this time?”

“Anyways…” Yonghwa angrily growled. “Today is Seohyun’s birthday so I wanted to do something special for her like I used to in high school. Do you think you guys could help me out?”

Jang Woo and Eun Jung looked at each other with a look conveying the idea that they were thinking the same thing. They did want to help, but they also didn’t want Yonghwa to suffer anymore. Why would they help him with Seohyun if in the end, she wasn’t his and he would just be left alone to think about how she wasn’t his? In the end though, they had to give in. it wasn’t up to them to make those kinds of decisions for him. He was a grown man already and it was his responsibility to deal with his feelings. All they were entitled to do was help him out as friends.

“What do you need us to do?” Jang Woo finally asked.

“I need you guys to not come home tonight until really late. I’ll give you a heads up when I’m done here,” Yonghwa explained. Jang Woo and Eun Jung gave each other another glance as if asking each other if it was okay to do that. “Come on guys, please?”

“Don’t tell me… you’re going to do ‘things’ with her tonight? I mean… what kind of guy wants to spend a night all alone with a girl unless they’re doing that?” Jang Woo asked. Both Yonghwa and Eun Jung stared at him with a look that could only be expressed as pure confusion and disbelief.

“Byuntae! Pabo!” Eun Jung yelled while slapping his arm repeatedly. “Not everyone is thinking with their like you all the time. Ugh, why the hell are you such a ert? I don’t even know why I date you sometimes.” Jang Woo flashed her a goofy smile and gave her a back hug to quell her anger. She pouted cutely and gave into the hug without any of the anger she had just a few seconds ago.

“Ahem… so are you going to help me or not?”

“Oh right hehe. That sounds fine. We can go out tonight so you can do your thing with Seohyun,” Jang Woo agreed. He was still was completely against it, but he had no other choice but to give in. “Just call when you’re ready for us. Are you sure you don’t need help with anything else?”

“Nah I’m fine,” Yonghwa politely refused the offer for help. “I’ll see you guys tonight. I promise you that I won’t do anything stupid.”

Yonghwa gave both of them a thankful glance that had a hint of guilt in it. He knew exactly what they were thinking. The look on their faces was the same look of pity and regret that Krystal wore whenever they talked about Seohyun. Eun Jung and Jang Woo loved Seohyun just as much as everyone else did. However, they also cared about Yonghwa a lot too. They knew it wasn’t Seohyun’s fault this was happening, but they felt they could avoid Yonghwa getting hurt by just keeping them away from each other.

“I know you guys feel guilty for doing this and I’m really thankful for it,” Yonghwa spoke up after momentarily falling into a pit of thoughts. “You guys hate seeing me get hurt but I promise you I won’t get hurt anymore. Tonight will be it. So just believe in me okay?”

“Arasso! Don’t make us feel even worse,” Eun Jung pouted. “Yeobo, go ahead and go to work for today without me. I’m going to stay back and help Yonghwa with his event. I know what kind of stupid things boys will do wrong.”

“Okay, but you two better not cheat on me while I’m gone,” Jang Woo warned. “I’ll see you guys later.” After his goodbye kiss from his girlfriend, Jang Woo let the door close behind him, leaving Eun Jung to help the clueless Yonghwa to set things up for that night.

Yonghwa smiled a bit at the way that Eun Jung looked at the door with a sense of longing. If he were to be completely honest with himself, he was quite jealous of the couple. They had been dating for a long time and their love seemed to get stronger every day. That was the kind of relationship he wished he had with Seohyun. Even when they were fighting he was envious of them. He glanced down at his watch and noticed that time was ticking away. Before he knew it, the time for his event would arrive and he still had mountains of work to get done.

“Well then, shall we get started?”
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Yonghwa explained exactly what he wanted to do for the night and ran the entire plan step by step to Eun Jung as they made their way to the store. Eun Jung had to admit that the plan wasn’t all that bad to begin with. She made a few adjustments here and there but the plan stayed relatively the same. Candlelit dinner, a small serenade, her favorite cake, and most importantly, the gift… all seemed to be perfect for the occasion. It was simple, yet enough to make her feel touched.

“Can you pass me that knife please?” Yonghwa asked while trying his hardest to cut onions without having his eyes water. Eun Jung looked at the way he diligently worked on the food he would serve for Seohyun and couldn’t help but smile. How was it that nobody had noticed a guy like Yonghwa before? He was the perfect catch. She even admitted to herself that if she wasn’t already dating Jang Woo, Yonghwa would definitely be someone that could catch her eye.

“How do you do it?” Eun Jung asked while passing the sharp cutting tool.

“Do what?” Yonghwa asked without breaking his concentration on the onions.

“How are you so perfect?”

“Eh?” Yonghwa asked in surprise, almost letting the knife slip out of his hand. “What did you ask?”

“How the heck are you so perfect?” she asked again. “Why hasn’t Seohyun noticed you before? You’ve been such a good friend for her. You’ve practically been her boyfriend from all the time you’ve spent with her. Why is it that she hasn’t noticed you yet?”

“Well, we've been together since we could barely walk. We were more like siblings than real friends. Joon’s been there too,” he dejectedly answered. He couldn’t even thank her for the compliment out of the pity he felt for himself.

“Joon isn’t better than you,” Eun Jung replied, almost having a touch an anger in her voice. “You think Joon is better than you don’t you? Yonghwa, you’re stupid. Seohyun is stupid. You’re both the biggest idiots on the planet.”

“Eun Jung I’m not in the mood for this,” he answered back. The fact was, he just didn’t want to hear the truth. The truth that he denied day by day was something he had no intention of acknowledging.

“Yonghwa can you please open up to us? All you do is hold in your feelings and we want to help,” Eun Jung pointed out. She was tired of Yonghwa just keeping everything bottled in and not letting anyone else help him through it. They always talked about Seohyun and things related to her, but nobody knew what Yonghwa truly felt. He smiled and laughed about the situation all the time, but he never spoke of the anger he felt because of it. Everyone could tell from a mile away that he wasn’t just all smiles and laughter. Nobody could be like that, not even Yonghwa.

“Later,” he promised. “After tonight, everything is over.” Eun Jung felt like crying out of the frustration she felt at that moment. If she could she would have already taken one of the knives and stabbed him with it so he would snap out of his little world where everything was perfect.

“Get back to cooking,” Eun Jung randomly ordered in an effort to change the subject. She knew that if she continued talking to him about those kinds of things she really would end up stabbing him. As much as she wanted to help, she had to just take his word for it. It was his fight after all; all she could do was sit on the sidelines and cheer him on.

The silent cooking resumed after their little fight, lightening the heavy tension that had been created. Yonghwa’s cooking skills had far exceeded Eun Jung’s expectations. It was almost as if she was watching her mom cook her one of her fabulous home cooked meals. When she cooked, she would usually freak out when something went wrong or she would call her mom a few times to ask how to cook a certain part of the meal. Yonghwa just stood calmly and quickly finished everything he had to do without even one mistake.

“Is this what you were learning when you were away all those years?” Eun Jung asked full of surprise. She couldn’t believe her eyes at the feast that was laid out on the table in front of her. She promised to stay back and help him cook but in the end, she didn’t really need to. If anything, she was more of a burden than a help.

“Nah this is nothing,” Yonghwa replied with a sheepish grin. “It’s just a little something that I learned from living alone.” While he didn’t find it extravagant, Eun Jung sure did. If she were Seohyun, she would be extremely touched at the way that Yonghwa had slaved away at the stove an entire day just for her.

“How is this nothing? You have enough to feed twenty people here!” she exaggerated. The food in front of her was a mix of Korean traditional food and Western food he had learned how to make during his stay in the United States. “What is all of this?” she asked out of curiosity. She had never lived abroad so some of the food was brand new to her.

Yonghwa explained each one of the dishes for her, leaving her wishing she could stay for some of it. She knew what pasta was, but the white alfredo sauce with shrimp mixed in was something she wasn’t familiar with. He had a salad prepared with ingredients that weren’t too different from how Koreans made it, but still different enough to be considered foreign. He had prepared a small steak, just enough to have a good taste of it, but not enough for them to be filled before trying the other food. After a while she stopped paying attention to his explanations and just stared at the food hungrily.

“And of course we have food you should be familiar with,” he continued to explain. There was kimchi jjigae, a reddish stew that had many delicious favorites floating around in it such as kimchi, green onions, tofu, and beef. Many little plates surrounded the main courses containing a wide array of side dishes, each adding a different color to the rainbow of food on the table. And of course he couldn’t forget the two most essential foods in every Korean home: rice and kimchi.

“You’re lucky Jang Woo is waiting for me at a restaurant right now or else I would be tempted to eat this all up myself,” she commented while still staring hungrily at the giant spread of food. She would have continued to compliment his cooking skills. “Oh !”

“What? What’s wrong?” Yonghwa asked in surprise.

“You forgot to make seaweed soup you idiot!” Eun Jung exclaimed. “Without seaweed soup, it doesn’t matter if you made the best meal in the world. Aish, how did we forget that?”

“Damn it!” Yonghwa cried out in frustration. Of all the things he could have forgotten, it had to be the seaweed soup. He might as well not even have cooked anything for today if there wasn’t going to be any seaweed soup. It was pretty much the one thing that had to be present at any birthday dinner, no matter how extravagant it was.

“Yah Ham Eun Jung! Are you going to keep me waiting forever?! I’m hungry and I won’t wait for you much longer!” Jang Woo yelled when Eun Jung picked up her phone.

“Arasso, I’m leaving now,” she replied before hanging up. “You better get cooking Yonghwa. I have to go but I’m sure you’re more than fine with how you’re handling things right now.”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Tell Jang Woo I’m sorry I kept you here so long.”

“Nah, it’s no big deal, just let the big baby cry. Good luck today alright. Fighting!” she cheered happily before she threw her shoes on and darted for the door.

“Aish, Jung Yonghwa, why are you so stupid?” he asked himself. Seaweed soup was by no means hard for him to make, but time was not on his side. He told Seohyun to come over at 8:00pm and it was already 7:45pm. She was probably already on her way and she would be there any second. All he could do was get to work and hope that she arrived a little later than the time they agreed on.

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Seohyun looked down at her watch and noticed that she only had ten minutes to arrive at Yonghwa’s apartment in order to not be late for her appointment. He asked her to meet him right after the business club’s event at the university, but she still had no idea why. It sounded urgent at the time he asked her, but if it was so urgent why had he decided to meet up so late at night? Either way, she was happy to go hang out with him since she hadn’t truly been able to talk to him since he had gotten back.

She stared happily at the picture she had on her car’s dashboard and gave out a small chuckle. It was the same picture that Yonghwa had on the nighstand in his room. It was taken on the day of their graduation by the fountain in her backyard. She remembered how shy Yonghwa had been when she hugged him from behind just as the flash on the camera went off. Seohyun sighed as she wished days like those would return. Now things were so hectic with school and work that none of them had the chance to hang out like they used to.

While at a red light only a few blocks from Yonghwa’s house, the light piano music otherwise known as her ringtone went off, startling her out of her thoughts. “Yoboseyo?”

“Seohyun come fast! I need your help!” Joon yelled into the phone through ragged breaths as if he had just run a mile or two.

“What’s wrong?” Seohyun worriedly asked.

“I can’t tell you the full details right now, but you have to come here fast. I was having dinner with your dad and he’s having trouble breathing. We’re at that fancy restaurant we went to last year when it was his birthday.”

“Arasso! I’ll be there as fast as I can. Did you already call an ambulance?” Seohyun whimpered into her phone. The girl sped through the red light as if it wasn’t even there, hoping there was no police around to stop her. All thoughts of meeting Yonghwa had disappeared. The only thing she could think about was making sure that her dad was okay.

“Everything is straight, just come here. Don’t tell anyone either. You know your dad likes to keep this stuff private. Hurry!” he yelled for the millionth time that call.

“Alright, I’m hanging up.” Seohyun usually never drove anywhere above the speed limit. She was one of the calmest and most reserved people on the planet. However, her father, her only family in the entire world, was in danger and she had to be there for him. Not even five minutes after receiving the call from Joon, she was already at the restaurant. She didn’t see an ambulance around which further fueled her worry.

She stormed into the restaurant without even greeting the young woman at the front and ran over to the table where she managed to see Joon at. “Seohyun, glad you could make it,” he greeted once he saw her. The distressed woman looked around the restaurant only to see that there didn’t seem to be any disturbance. Everyone present was eating their meals quietly without any indication of there being a sick man in the room.

“Where’s my dad?” she asked in a tone laced with suspicion as well as worry.

“What do you mean?” he asked innocently. “Your dad isn’t here.”

“You just called me telling me my dad was having trouble breathing while you were eating dinner with him,” Seohyun angrily answered. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Joon had played her for a fool. All the people around were looking at the couple as if they had two heads, leading Seohyun to believe Joon had used that excuse to get her to come.

“Oh, that… well…”

“Ugh you’re an idiot Joon!” Seohyun exclaimed and headed towards the front door. Before she could get too far Joon grabbed her arm and prevented her from leaving.

“Don’t leave. I’m sorry that I had to lie to you like that but it was the only way that I could keep you from finding out about tonight,” Joon apologized. Seohyun turned around to give him a look filled with as much venom as she could, but ended up softening her stare. He was truly sorry that he had to lied to her and she could sense it.

“What’s so important about tonight that you had to pull this kind of trick?” she questioned in a low voice. Instead of answering her Joon led her over to their table and sat her down gently. He proceeded to walk over to the small stage present in the back of the restaurant and sat down at a piano that was used to entertain the guests as they ate.

“Hello everyone,” Joon spoke into the microphone. “I know you all wish to finish your meals in peace so I apologize for being selfish with what I am doing tonight. There’s a special girl here tonight that I really need to say something to so please forgive me for interrupting you.” The crowd however didn’t seem to mind him being on stage. If anything, they all wanted to congratulate him for having the courage to go up there and sit on that piano bench.

“Joon…” Seohyun whispered as he began to hit the delicate ebony and ivory keys on the piano. A melody familiar to everyone rang throughout the room, putting a smile on everybody’s faces. Joon nodded to the small orchestra also present on the stage and they followed his lead.

Saengil chukhahamnida~

Saengil chukhahamnida~

Saranghaneun Seohyunie~

Saengil chukhahamnida~

“Happy birthday Seohyun,” he finished. “I want you to know that for all these years we have been together, every moment is unforgettable.” To anyone else that small little song on the piano would have been nothing. There was nothing special about what he had just done at all. Anyone could play the same few notes over and over to play that birthday song. Anyone could have sung her that song without being special. However, to her, it was a touching moment.

“Joon, I don’t know what to say,” she happily said to him when he came down from the stage. “I didn’t even remember it was my birthday.”

“There’s nothing to say,” he replied to her before bringing her into a deep kiss. As public displays of affection were unusual in their country, the crowd went wild with cheers and jeers as they expressed their love for each other.

“Yeobo! How come you don’t do things like that for me?” a cute voice pouted. “Look at how they’re kissing and the crowd is going wild for them.” Eun Jung and Jang Woo had just walked into the restaurant they had reservations at and they only barely heard the piano playing and singing when they were in the lobby.

“Uh… Eun Jung ah… don’t those two look familiar to you?” Jang Woo pointed out, completely ignoring her pouting. Eun Jung had been a tomboy who would never be caught dead doing anything that had the word aegyo related to it. Once she started dating Jang Woo, that had all changed. He loved the aegyo and naturally brought it out of her. She knew that if he was ignoring her aegyo, there was something seriously wrong.

“Oh my god…” she whispered when she saw the sight in front of them. “Is that Joon and Seohyun?” With a look of pure horror plastered on her face, she looked up at Jang Woo and tried her hardest not to run over there and make sure her eyes weren’t deceiving her.

“What the hell are they doing here?” Jang Woo asked nobody in particular. “Aren’t Seohyun and Yonghwa supposed to be meeting tonight? What happened?” Eun Jung looked down at her watch and noticed that almost thirty minutes had gone by since the time that Yonghwa said they would meet.

“Yonghwa didn’t tell her why they were meeting,” Eun Jung pointed out. “He just asked her to meet him, they never specified what was the reason for the meeting. Aish, Yonghwa you’re an idiot.” She could tell that Seohyun hadn’t even remembered it was her birthday. All of her friends knew Seohyun always forgot and it was up to them to remind her. If Seohyun had known that Yonghwa wanted to meet her because of her birthday, Seohyun would have ran to him regardless of any problems in her world. However, since Yonghwa hadn’t told her anything, everything had been ruined.

“Ugh, this is not good,” Jang Woo sighed while trying to get Eun Jung to sit down at their table. “Hey, what the heck are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Eun Jung answered while pulling out her phone. “I’m going to call him and tell him what’s going on.” Jang Woo reached across the table and snatched the phone away from her. He swiftly pulled the battery out and threw her back the now useless phone.

“Don’t call him,” Jang Woo ordered in a threatening voice. Eun Jung stood up from her seat and tried her hardest to rip the battery out of his hands but he was much too strong for her. “Eun Jung, sit down. People are looking at us like we’re crazy.”

“And? I really am going crazy with what you’re doing right now!” she yelled. “Give me my battery back!”

“Eun Jung!” he yelled at her, finally bringing her to her senses. “What are you going to accomplish by telling him that the girl he likes and his best friend are celebrating her birthday together?” Eun Jung tried her hardest to come up with an answer to his question but in the end she gave in and sat back down. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Jang Woo, we have to do something,” Eun Jung almost sobbed. Even though she wasn’t the one being stood up, she felt a stab in her heart. Yonghwa was a good guy, he didn’t deserve this. She watched just how hard he had worked all day in order to make everything perfect. Since he would never have her, it was days like this that made him feel better. There had to be something they could do in order to make everything right again.

“We will do something: ignore this and let them deal with it. That’s all we can do in this situation.” Eun Jung felt angry at her boyfriend’s negligence but she had to agree with him. Even if she wanted to do something, there was nothing she could do. If she called Yonghwa at that moment, what good would it do? “This is something he has to get through. He went into this knowing he would get hurt. Yonghwa is a big boy now Eun Jung, so I think we should let him fight his own battles.”

“AIsh! I hate this!” Eun Jung cried out. “I hope you’re right Jang Woo.”

“It hurts me to do this to him, but he has to learn. Seohyun isn’t going to be there for him in the way he wants her to be,” Jang Woo explained. It did truly hurt for Jang Woo to speak like that about his friend, but there was no other way. “Let’s just hope he knows how to deal with it.”

Author’s Note: Yay, yet another chapter of Seohyun looking like a … Except that’s not what I was going for. Ugh, the more and more I write, the more I turn her into a bad person. Seohyun is good I promise! Can you blame her for standing our poor little Yonghwa up? I mean, she was tricked and all and of course she would rather spend it with her boyfriend.  This chapter is a little shorter than usual by a couple pages, but I think that’s what I’m going to do from now on. If I had written out everything I wanted to this chapter could take up as much space as three chapters. Anyways, next chapter should be good so look out for it :)

This was a shorter chapter than usual by a little bit and since this is a 2 part chapter sort of, I'll be updating it tomorrow as well.