SHIN MIN JUNG’S POV

“Hello~ Min Jung-ah?” Yoon Hee snapped her finger in front of my face.

“Mwo?”

”See? You’re daydreaming again.” Yoon Hee snorted. “I only have 30 minutes for lunch break. If you’re just going to sit down and daydreaming like this the whole time you’re just making me look like an idiot.” She nags as she stirred her drink, looking upset.

Yoon Hee sipped her drink a bit, then moved the glass so that she can leaned towards me. “Tell me, what happened?”

“I... was not daydreaming.”

”Geez.” Yoon Hee rolled her eyes. “I knew already, you don’t even need to tell me. Kyuhyun-ssi hasn’t contact you yet, am I right?”

“What… It’s not like that.” I replied.

But why did you found yourself driving to his apartment this morning?

Yeah. This morning, while I am supposed to go for my ballet’s practice, I unconsciously drove to his apartment. Feeling weird and stupid, I left without getting into the apartment.

What’s for? He’s not there.

“Min Jung-ah, there’s a call.” Yoon Hee said while looking at the phone screen. “Yah~~ he’s calling at the right time.”

“Mwo? Who?”

“The one you have been waiting for.” Yoon Hee showed me the phone screen.

Cho?

I quickly grabbed my phone from her. “Yeoboseyo?”

“Uh… Yeoboseyo.”

“Are you in Seoul?”

“Oh. Actually, I have arrived this morning.”

“Really?” This morning? So it means, if I did come into the apartment, Cho must have been there already.

“How have you been? Why are you not calling me?”

I smiled. So he wants me to call him? “Yah, aren’t you the one who supposed to call me first?”

Yoon Hee mouthed ‘my break is over’ and she gestured that she is going back to work so I nodded and gave her a thank-you-for-accompanying-me smile.

“Because I remembered I told you to call me if there’s something happen…. You didn’t call me, so I thought there’s no need to call.”

“Same here. You didn’t call me, so everything must be okay there.”

“Tsk. What if there’s something happened to me in China and I can’t call you?”

“There’s Donghae. He can tell me.”

“What if Donghae’s not with me?”

“I’m sure the news about you will be all over the internet. I’ll be able to know.”

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CHO KYUHYUN’S POV

“I’m sure the news about you will be all over the internet. I’ll be able to know.”

Shin Min Jung. I'll never win if I keep on arguing with her. Aish, I just want to know whether she tried to call me or not, but it seems impossible to find out.

“Aish, forget it.” I finally said. “So, are you free tomorrow?”

“Well, actually I’m free now.”

Oh? “Jinjja? Aren’t you supposed to be working right now?”

I heard a sigh at the end of the phone. “I’m no longer handling the company. I’ll focus on the ballet concert.”

Oh? “Okay, so, let’s meet up in the evening? At 4? Or should I fetch you?”

“Ani, that’s okay, I’ll go by myself. Where should we meet?”

I cleared my throat. ”Yumkwang High School.”

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I parked my car near the school and walked towards the school after fixing my mask to make sure no one recognized me.

I walked through the front door and noticed he students are playing basketball in the field; it’s probably their break time.

I look around and decided to climb up the stone stairs which is located in the left of the field. The stairs is heading to the school’s yard. There are only trees and bushes in the yard, but in the front part of the yard there are old school benches which are facing the field.

I took small steps towards the nearest bench, and sit down.

Ah, the weather is so good today. not too sunny, and it’s a little bit cloudy.

I look around again, remembering how the girls usually sit here on the benches to watch the boys playing basketball on school events, while me, because I’m quite an introverted kid, I didn’t play basketball and just watched my friends having basketball matches.

The girls will be cheering, mostly because their crushes are in basketball team, but as long as I remember, in my three years of high school, there is one girl who is not part of those girls.

Shin Min Jung.

Ah, talking about Shin… where is she?

I checked my phone. 4:07PM. She should be here anytime soon…

“Cho! What are you doing here?” I turned my head and see Shin is climbing the stone stairs. I smiled and waved.

“How have you been?”

”Me? Good.” She replied while taking a seat beside me.

My gaze is fixed on her. This is weird, is this because we haven’t met for a week? I can't stop myself from looking at her. But why am I feeling like this?

“Cho.” She called me, but she's looking straight ahead. “Is there something on my face?”

Getting caught, I scratched my head awkwardly and replied, ”Aniya, there’s nothing.”

“Hmmm.”

”By the way, do you know why are we meeting here?” I turned the conversation.

”Nope.” She shook her head.

I took a breath, and laid backwards the bench to made myself comfortable. Crossing my arms, I look at her again and asked, “Shin, aren’t we classmates in high school?”

Shin blinked her eyes twice, is she surprised? “Oh. We are.”

I nodded. “Are we close back then?”

Shin turned her head towards me; her expression is indescribable. “Aniyo, we are not close.” She answered.

“Jinjja? Ever since I saw you for the show filming, I always have the thought that we were close.”

“Why… why are you asking me this? You know the exact answer yourself.”

“I lost my memory.”

“Mwo?” Shin looked at me.

“You know, I had accident back then in 2007, and I actually lost some memories. Only some, but the memories actually recovered as my health recovered. But there are still, a little part of the memories that I can’t remember.” I confessed.

Shin nodded. “So that’s what happened.”

“The doctor said there’s nothing to worry because the memories I lost is like only 1% of my total memories, but after I met you, I don’t know… I feel like I’m forgetting something’s really important.” I continued. “Like there’s a piece of puzzle is missing.”

Shin took a deep breath, then she said, “if you forgot it, then it means the memory is not important to you.”

“But…” “Dwaesseo, I’m hungry. Let’s have some tteokbokki!” She suddenly stood up.

“But…” “Kaja~” She pulled my arm, asking me to go with her.

“Arasseo.” I stood up, but then, like a flash of memories come into my mind, like a déjà vu…

I see myself in uniform, stood up from being pulled by a girl. “Stop doing math, I’m tired.” The girl said. “Let’s have some tteokbokki!”

“Shin, is that you?” I said in a low voice, more like whispering to myself. Yes, I’m quite convinced it’s her.

“Eh? What?” Shin looked confused.

“Aniya, it’s nothing.” I grinned. “Let’s go to eat tteokbokki~”

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“Ah, yeoksi*~ street tteokbokki is the best.” Shin said happily while eating her tteokbokki.

“Do you like tteokbokki?” I asked, taking a bite of it.

Shin nodded. “So much. And let me tell you, restaurants don’t make tteokbokki well. The street ones are always better.”

“Excuse me, did you guys bring umbrella?” The owner of the shop who is an ahjumma asked.”It’s starting to rain.” She pointed at the road.

I stopped eating and looked outside. We are at a small shop near the school, and we could just run to the car but if it rains, we will still drenched.

“Shin, it’s raining.” I said.

“I know. Let’s stay here. We haven’t finished eating, and we don’t bring umbrella, anyway.” She replied coolly and still eating her tteokbokki.

“Okay then… if that’s what you want.” I replied. I don’t have schedule anyway, and I am pleased to be with her. We don’t go out often like this.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

“Yah, the rain is stopping. Let’s run.” Shin said.

We have been sitting in the shop for two hours now, and it's still drizzling outside.

“You sure? We’ll be wet.” I said.

“Gwaenchana. If we want to wait until the rain stops, we might wait until tomorrow.”

I’m wearing a sweater with a shirt inside, so I took off my sweater and gave it to her. “Use this to cover your head, you might get sick.”

She was about to protest, but I held her hand quickly and get out of the shop, running towards the car.

“Oh, you’re drenched. Mianhae.” Shin took tissues from her bag and helped me to dry myself.

“Gwaenchana, are you wet?” I look at her from head to toe, remembering how she gets sick easily.

“Only a little bit, thanks to you.” She smiled, handed me my sweater. “It’s weird, don’t you thing we have been in this situation too before?”

I look at her, my eyes searching out hers. No one talks for some time. Then suddenly, I seem to remember something.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Someday in high school, I was walking home from school with a girl after having tteokbokki. It was drizzling, so I lend my blazer to her and I walked her home.

“Aigo, you’re drenched.” She rummaged around her back, and took out some tissues. “Mianhae.”

“Gwaenchana.” I took the tissues from her and wiped my face. “Are you wet? Imo will be angry.”

“Don’t worry. It’s okay as I long as I’m not sick.” She laughed off.

“See, I told you not to eat tteokbokki anymore and just go home.”

“You are not happy to spend time with me?” “Aniya, it’s not like that.”

“Then dwaesso, as long as we are both happy.” She smiled.

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“I think you remember something…” Shin said in a curious voice.

”Oh, I think I remembered.” I gladly answered. “And, Shin, were you lying when you said that we were not close back then?”

She shrugged. “Let’s go now. ah~ I don’t think I can go to practice with my appearance like this.”

“I know you’re trying to divert the conversation but it won’t work. Shin… it’s weird. How come I remember it easily when I’m with you?”

She fixed her hair while looking at the front camera of her phone. ”I don’t know. Now let’s go~”

Shin is acting like she doesn't care, but I know she's actually helping me to get back my memory. The tteokbokki thing...

“You’re going to go for practice?” I look at her. “But you’re wet. You can catch a cold.”

Shin looked at her shirt and bite her lower lip. “Aish.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Shin’s eomma is still having meeting in the company, so no one’s home. I drove Shin to her own apartment, and wait for her to take a bath and get changed.

We planned to go out for dinner, but Shin’s face looked pale and the next thing I know is she fainted right in front of me when we are about to go out from the apartment.

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*yeoksi = indeed