"Jinki-yah," you said, peering at the open kitchen cupboard above you. "Jinki-yah, where did you put the salt?"

    The boy chopping leeks beside you paused to hand you a small salt shaker, which you accepted gratefully and began to shake over the eggs you were beating.

    "Too much! Too much!" Jinki exclaimed, and you laughed, pulling the salt shaker away and continuing to beat the eggs with your chopsticks.

    "Don't be such a prude," you teased, pouring the eggs onto the pan on the stove. "If you complain about my food too much, I won't make you chicken anymore."

    "No chicken!" Jinki said, immediately horrified at the thought. He began to cut the leeks more furiously as you giggled and flipped over the egg, folding it into a square shape.

    Your cell phone buzzed, and you glanced down disinterestedly at the screen, used to the noise by now.

    "Is that person still texting you?" Jinki asked, frowning and gently bumping your hip in order to make enough room by the stove for him to put in the leeks he had just finished cutting. "I told you that you should change your number."

    "He seems sincerely sorry," you remarked, letting Jinki take over the stove as you took the time to read the new text. It had been a few weeks since you had first received a text the day that your apartment had been vandalized. In it, the self-proclaimed thief had texted you and offered to pay for any damages if you would just meet him in a café. You would have given this man a chance—after all, cafés are public places—but Jinki had made you promise, probably out of concern, that you wouldn't contact this "thief". But the person had continued texting, and even now he was apologizing. It was really wearing you down.

    "Y-yah!" Jinki stuttered at the stove, waving his chopsticks at you angrily. "You can't believe people like that! He probably just wants you to leave the apartment so he can come back and steal more stuff."

    "But he didn't actually steal anything the first time," you replied quietly, ignoring Jinki's snort. "Ah! Watch out!" You quickly grabbed the handle of the pan with your breakfast as Jinki's hand faltered. "You go get a plate. I'll hold this."

    As Jinki busied himself with getting a plate and setting the table, you glanced at your cell phone again. Honestly, it was a burning curiosity that led you to look at the text message again. The man had set up another meeting time, two days from now at the same café stated before. First of all, why was the "thief" apologizing? Second of all, would he actually pay for the damages that he had caused? Third of all, who was this "thief" exactly? If you could just get his picture, maybe you could report him to the police.

    Still, Jinki and you spent almost your entire lives together now, only splitting up when either of you had separate errands to run, but you were sure that he would see through any flimsy excuse for you to make time to meet this mysterious thief, which is why…

    You quickly made the decision as you typed out the short text to Himchan on your phone and sent it. It was actually only around five seconds until your phone buzzed, and you read his affirmative reply.

    "Jinki," you called, making your way to the table and beginning to spoon out the food from the pan, "Himchan-sunbae wants to have a boys night out tomorrow. You can go, right?"

    Luckily for you, you had hit your milestone mark after having your leg broken and gotten your cast removed. It felt a lot safer to be walking on your own two legs again, even if your running was still a little shaky from lack of muscle use.

    You stood in front of the café, taking in a deep breath and trying to calm your shaking nerves. Now, even if you were a bit crazy to meet this person who had declared himself as your "thief", you at least had the slightest bit of sense to text your friend where you were going, explain the situation in a few brief sentences, and warn her to call on you to check up on how you were doing in around twenty minutes.

    "Your outdoor table is over here," the waiter said, and you thanked him as he led you to the middle of the large cluster of tables outside and sat you down at one near the street.

    You tried to hide behind your glass of water as you took in the man dressed in a suit in front of you. He certainly didn't seem like a thief, and from the way he was looking at you, you could definitely see that he hadn't expected you to show up.

    "I thought you would look more mature," the man remarked, setting down the Blackberry he had been texting with a minute before and picking up his cup of iced tea. "I presume you're the woman living with Onew-ssi?"

    "Onew?" you queried, frowning down at your glass of water. "I don't understand. I'm sorry?"

    The man's face pulled into a distasteful frown, and he actually tutted at you. "Onew-ssi. You're living with him, correct?"

    Your frown pulled deeper as you finally looked up to lock eyes with the man across from you. "I don't know anybody named Onew-ssi."

    The man across from you's eyebrows rose, and then he laughed, sharp and quick. "Did he tell you his real name then? Lee Jinki? Jinki-ssi?"

    "Jinki never told me any other name," you said, stressing the fact that you were using his name informally. It didn't miss the other man's attention as he pursed his lips and took a long drink of iced tea before replying.

    "So you are living with Onew-ssi then?"

    "If Onew is Jinki, then yes. I am living with him. Why?"

    It only took a second for the man across from you to knock down his iced tea and splatter you with the cold liquid, sending you moving back in your seat sharply.

    "Let's go," the man said, and the next thing you knew the two of you were shoved into the bathroom of the café where the man wrestled you to sit down on the toilet.

    "What are you doing?" you snapped, glaring at the man but quickly falling silent as he began to draw something out of his pocket. Was it a gun? Your blood ran cold, but then you let out a mental sigh of relief as he simply drew out a laminated picture and handed it to you.

    You stared down at the picture and furrowed your eyebrows. It was a picture of a man standing in a prim black suit, shaking hands with a woman in a short white blouse and black skirt. "Who is this?" you asked, but the pit of your stomach was beginning to flip and churn uncomfortably as the man across from you took it back and stared at it as well.

    "That is Jinki-ssi," the man said smugly, and you were suddenly glad that you were sitting on the cold (and probably dirty) toilet seat cover because your knees were shaking.
    
    "This isn't Jinki," you said, staring down at the picture. At least, it wasn't the Jinki that you knew. His face was drawn into a small frown, making it look entirely too small and prudish for your tastes. His hair was also not the beautiful shade of golden-streaked brown that you knew now but an equally gorgeous color of black. Still, his whole entire demeanor was different. Where was his smile? Where was his happiness?

    "This is Jinki-ssi," the man repeated.

    "This isn't Jinki," you insisted, ing the photo back into the man's hands. "He's not smiling. That is not Jinki."

    "You've been led on," the man said calmly, and your stomach began to hurt, prompting you to lean over onto your knees and stare at the tiled wall of the bathroom. Now the atmosphere was no longer awkward but more too heavy, too clustered, too close.

    You swallowed slowly and then asked, "What do you mean?"

    "It doesn't surprise me that you don't know," the man said, pulling out a business card. He handed it to you, and your eyes widened at the name.

    "But this is!" You flipped over the card and then stared at the blank back for a few seconds before flipping it back over and reading the front again. "This is the largest pharmaceutical drug provider…" Your voice trailed off as your brain tried to comprehend what was happening. You had the pieces; you just needed to put them together.

    This man had called Jinki a different name. What was it? Onew. Yes. He had also given you a picture of an unsmiling Jinki in a suit shaking hands with a very professional looking women, and now finally he had given you a business card signaling that he was a representative of of one of the largest pharmaceutical drug providers in the Asian market. There were connections here; you were sure of it…but did you want to make them?

    "Two years ago, sajangnim became successor to his parent's successful company after the two retired. Two years ago, he disappeared, leaving the company to be run by the vice president of the Board of Supervisors."

    "Sajangnim," you echoed, beginning to cough as the nauseous feeling in your stomach multiplied. "Are you saying that Jinki is…the chairman of the company?" It took all you could to stop from crying out as the man nodded. You immediately squeezed yourself tightly, protectively and shook your head. "No, I won't believe this unless you show me definite proof."

    "The reason we found him now was because he made a large withdrawal from his bank account a few weeks earlier. One of our best security men was put on the job to find him, but somehow your apartment was damaged in the process. For that, the company is gravely sorry. Please dial my number at anytime to discuss compensation. The company is also greatly thankful for taking care of sajangnim for this time. We'll be taking—"

    "You haven't given me definite proof yet," you replied, cutting the man off. "Until I have proof, I won't let you do anything with Jinki, and I won't call your number either!"

    "You're a little stubborn, aren't you? If you want proof so badly, why don't you ask sajangnim? If you trust this Jinki so much, then he would surely tell you the truth, wouldn't he?" With a disgusted sound, the man swept out of the bathroom, leaving you with shaky knees, sweaty palms, and a crumpled business card tightly clasped between your trembling fingers.

    "I'm back," you called weakly into the apartment, slipping off your shoes at the doorway and barely making it to the couch before you collapsed.

    "Are you okay?" Jinki asked, moving toward the couch with a tight grip on the pink plastic mixing bowl he was holding.

    "What are you making?" you asked instead, trying to deflect the question. Your mind wasn't exactly in the best position at the moment. If you thought about it…if what that man said was true, then that meant that your entire relationship with Jinki had been based on lies. What about those times he had opened up about his parents? Were those all a lie? What about those times he had gushed about his childhood in the countryside? Were those all a lie too?

    "Chocolate chip cookies," Jinki replied, tilting the bowl so you could see the thick clump of cookie dough. "Would you like to help?"

    You mumbled an acceptance of the offer and unsteadily rose from the couch as Jinki turned his back to you to walk back to the kitchen. It was now or never. If you didn't do it now, you were sure that your legs would give out before you even made it to the kitchen, and how could you explain that?

    "Jinki."

    The golden-haired man turned around and smiled brightly at you, making your legs even weaker. You swallowed and locked your knees before blurting out, "Are you really Onew?"

    The sharp sound of the plastic mixing bowl clattering to the ground made you drop to your knees and stare down at the ground in shock. Overly dramatic, yes, but the way your stomach was churning and your eyes were burning, you couldn't help but feel like the world was falling apart, just a little bit.

    So it was true then. Everything that you had shared with Jinki had been built off a lie. Where was the trust? Why hadn't he told you? Were you not good enough? Was he ashamed of you? What did he think of you? Did he think that you were a gold digger? Did he think that if you knew about it, you wouldn't love him anymore? Love? When had you ever loved him…it was only…it was only just a crush right? Just another relationship…so why did your chest ache so much?

    "I didn't," Jinki said, and his words after that were a blur as you began to cry.

    "I didn't think it was true," you blubbered, pressing the heels of your palms onto your eyes angrily to stop the tears from falling. This was not a good impression. It took you a few minutes to calm down, and when you finally looked up, all you could see was the frown on Jinki's face. "Tell me. Is anything you told me ever true?" you asked, sincerely curious as to how many lies you had been fed and believed.

    Jinki hesitated and then slowly whispered, "I really do want to major in broadcasting music even if I haven't had the opportunity so far."

    One part of you was impressed that he was confessing to his wrongdoings, but the other more irrational part of you couldn't believe that he would lie to you, couldn't believe that he didn't trust you.

    "I can explain," Jinki continued, but you held up a hand to cut him off.

    "I'm tired, Jinki-ssi." The honorific puts put distance between the two of you than any physical separation could provide. "I'll talk to you tomorrow." You couldn't bear to look at Jinki's crestfallen face as you walked to your room and slammed the door behind yourself before sliding to the floor and wondering, with just a few tears slipping out, how you could have been so stupid.

A/N: This chapter...I don't know what to say. I'm just a er for clichés. XD I know that a lot of people probably think that the girl is a little :-/ for getting so hurt about it, but just think about how important trust is in a relationship. I have a pretty firm idea of what's going to happen next (hopefully it won't change), and that means the story should be ending within the next few chapters (hopefully few doesn't mean 10+). Anywho~, I apologize for the insane clichés. There's one more chapter I need to post other than this before I'm off to bed to get ready for the airplane flight tomorrow! I've been insanely busy packing ><"