...

“Eunji?”  Myeongsoo squinted his eyes, try to get a better vision of her. For a second time, he find her alone in the middle of dark abbys of the night. Just like the first time when he saw her. A beautiful back profile of a girl around his age, looked so young, so fragile yet in the same time seems so strong. A back that looked so sad.

And just like that time too, he see her strecth her hands, as if trying to reach the glistening stars above her. An enchanting stars that so far yet seems so close.

“Hi...” he tap her shoulder and sat closely beside her. “What are you doing here, princess ? It’s so damn cold out here.”

“Eoh?” Startled Eunji tilted her face and found him smiling at her. she don’t even realize him until he speak to her. “Myeongsoo oppa? I thought that you already go back to Seoul.”

He looked at her. And it’s just like the first time he saw her. A beautiful face that stained by the tracks of tears. A beautiful orbs that full of agony, a pain. A beautiful husky voice that cracked a little, in the verge of breaking down. Voice that exactly heard like his late mother. A mother that they took from him a long year ago. His father remaried and gave him a new sister.

For truth, his step mother didn’t treat him badly, or differently from her own blood. She love him so much. But still, he missed her somehow. And Eunji remind him of her. her gesture, the way she talk, especially her voice. Maybe that’s why he feel so attached to her. And he willingly to do anything to make her smile.

“Don’t you feel cold here ?” he asked her. wondering why he always found her in the cold, after cry.

“No, it’s not that cold, oppa.” She smiled faintly to him. His present make her heart calm down a little. He make her miss all her friend back there. “But how can you’re here now, oppa? I thought that you’re already home.” She ask him once again.

“Doesn’t it because I know that you’re gonna miss me?” he . She finally laughed at his chessiness. She find it weird, because it’s not like him at all.

Suddenly he grab her hand and make her face him. “Seriously, Eunji-a. Why I always met you after you’re cry?”

“I’m not cried, oppa” she stubbornly said.

“Okay, speaking lie to a ghost. Your face bloating and your eyes red and swelling. More over your nose, red all the way to Rudolph. Ah, it’s must be because of this cold winter night in Jeju, huh? And you bother to get out in this cold night, for a scenery, huh... Brilliant, Eunji.”

“Oppa...!!”

“Okay then, just tell me already. Are you just fight with Hoya hyung? Is it because of me?”

“Oppa...” she looked at him. Don’t know what to say to him. All this time, he looked like a friend, a little brother that need a protection. But right now, she just see a new side of him that she didn’t know he has. Tonight he seems reliable, like a big brother. And he remind her to her Yoseob oppa. And she miss him.

“It’s just...” she bent her head down. Too afraid that she’ll burst on tears if she looked at his demand eyes. The deep orbs that force her to face the truth.

He tap the top of her head lightly. “You know you can trust me. At least I can be a good listener for you.” He smiled at her, assured her. “Is Hoya hyung still jealous at me? I bet he will punch me the next time we met. What do you think, Eunji. Is it better for me to not being around him anymore?” he tried to lighten her mood.

She lift up her head, looking at him, and smile faintly. Tears already b in her eyes. “We’ll divorced, oppa. As soon as we arrived in Seoul. He told me that he will release me.” She don’t know why she tell him all of this. But maybe he is right, she just need to tell someone about her feeling that she always burried inside. The feelings that she had denied.

Myeongsoo look at her. Frozen in his place. His hand still at the top of her head. “W-what? Divorce? Are you kidding me? But why? Is it because of me?” He risen up. “Let me talk to him first. Hyung or not, I will knock his sense a little.  That mad idiot jealousy. Our relationship is not like he think.”

“Oppa !” she grab his feet, hold him in his place. “Don’t, please don’t!” the tears that she hold flowing effortlessly.

“But why, Eunji?” Frustrated but don’t want to see Eunji crying like that, he push himself to sit down beside her once again. “It’s not make sense that he doing all of this. I think his jealousy is too much, and he just overreacted.”

“No, oppa. It’s not because of you. It’s just... I think it’s just us.” She bent down her head, still crying.

“But why, Eunji. I don’t even have a thought before that he’ll ever let you go. Not after all that he had done to have you back again.”

Hearing his words, she look at him perplexly. “How... how can you know...?” she murmured under her breath. Can’t believe that he know their story all along. She never told him anything regard her past. Their past.

“Sunggyu hyung told me, the day after all that happened in my house. He told me that he fells bad about what Hoya hyung done. But he told me his story to make me understand him more. And maybe he knew that you kind of remind me of my mother. He just want me to take care of you, just as a friend. And so do I. I like you, Eunji. From the very first time I saw you cried. But as a friend, nothing more. I really think that Hoya hyung must know that and stop his non-sense jealousy towards me.”

Her eyes that already round with shocked just get rounder. She trying to figure out the words that just she heard. Did she just hear that Sunggyu is the one that told him? How can Sunggyu know all of that? Mother? Whose mother? Myeongsoo? She saw her that night, and think that she don’t even bit look like her at all.

He looked at her, as if knew what running around her mind. “I’ll tell you about that later, for now, let me just talk to Hoya hyung first.

Eunji shakes her head, “No...No... oppa. I told you that it’s not because of you. It’s just us. Me and him. All of the problems lies with us.”

“Okay.... but why, Eunji. I still don’t get it. For I think I know him. The Hoya hyung that I know would never leave you.” Feels so frustrated, he runs his fingers through his hair. But she just shrugged her shoulder as an answer, then crying harder.

“I don’t know oppa...” she said between her sobs. Look at her, feel pity of her, he hug her tightly. Tap her head and her back. “Shh...Eunji-a. Don’t cry. Please don’t cry anymore.”

...

After a while, she find her composure, she feels calmed. With him hugged her. With him in her company. And feels that she’s not crying anymore, he released her.

“Actually, oppa. It’s nor like that I don’t know why he told me to leave. It’s a lie to say that. A lie that I try to tell t myself, to confince myself.” She speak slowly, her voice still hoarse from her cry. She look up, her eyes gazed at the stars that far beyond above the.

He just silently listening her. “It’s just too much pain between us. Our past is too tight holding us. Our guilt is too strongly haunted us, it’s just like a deep ravine when no bridge can put it together.” Then she silent again, drown in her own thought, and then she hear him speak.

“Do you love him?”

She know she love him. She already knew and accepted that fact the moment Hoya kissed her that night. The moment that she asked him to divorced her. The moment when she feels how much it broken her heart when he tell her to go.

Silently she nod, not even care if Myeongsoo sees it or not. But he already know that. Everyone else beside Eunji and Hoya them self knew. Everyone else that close enough to them can clearly saw how much they loved each other.

Everyone else beside them. They that just too blond to see their own heart. Too fool to not trust them self. Too coward to admit that they need each other.

“I do love him, but it doesn’t matter anymore. I guess he’s right, we’re done.” Eunji note a final answer in her remark, and get up.

“Why...?” Myeongsoo’s question stop her. “Why?”, she look down to meet his eyes. He look up and ask her again, “Why? If you love him, why it doesn’t matter anymore? Is it love that only thing matter?”

She averted her eyes and look at the hotel in the far side of that beach. “Why? Because our past still haunt us.”

He gets up, hold her hand. “You’re lie, Eunji. You just too scared to trust yourself. To trust him. To put a little trust of your love.”

He stand before her, face her properly, locking her gaze with his. “Look at me. You said that you love him. And I know for sure that he loves you. Even I can see it clearly, Eunji-a. So, what’s left now, Eunji. For the truth is your love that matter most. More than anything. Have a little faith in your love. In him. In yourself. Let love that will healed both of your pain.”

“Don’t dwell in your past. It’s already done and over. You don’t live in your past, but you live here, now, in present. You must learn to let go that already gone. But you have to protect what you have now.”

“Be brave, Eunji-a. I know you’re a brave girl. You, as him, you both deserved a new beginning, a happy one. Be smart Eunji, don’t be such a pathetic fool. Don’t let your past haunts you, don’t let your guilt consummed you. Those are not your fault, neither him.”

She looking at him, his words as a spell that rewind in her mind, trying to knock her heart. A sense to her head.

“Can I , oppa? Can we?” she ask him. He can see something that growing stronger in her eyes. Hope. He put his hand in her shoulder. Face her and stare her deeply. “Yes, you can. Trust yourself.”

She nodded and smile at him, slowly turn his back to face him. Hesitantly take her first step, then run to the different side of the beach. Toward him.

...

“Hoya oppa!” Eunji shout his name as soon as she open their hotel room. Her eyes wander around the room, try to find the face that she miss the most. She wants to bravely tell him now, that she love him, and all that she wants is to be with him. That she willingly to trust him, to trust herself. To have faith in their love. And nothing else matter.

She searched for everywhere, but how much hard that she looked for him, she just can’t see him. Devastated, she moved to the bedroom, and sit still in their bed. There’s nothing thatshe can do rather than stay there and waiting for him. Then her eyes stop at something in the night table. Some small piece of paper. A note. Quickly she grab it and read it.

Eunji-a...

I know that the word ‘sorry’ can’t erased anything from your scar. Neither do the word ‘I love you’. But if all that I’ve done to you just made you cry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of the pain I put you through. For all my words, for all my acts.

I’m sorry that I’ve hurt you, hurt the one that you love. If you allowed me to make an excuse, that’s must be because I can’t being myself or my old self if it’s involved you. I’m really sorry.

And I love you. All that I want to say is I love you. Words that I never can bear to say is I love you. Right from the first time I’ve met you, I think I fell in love with you. So does our child. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her, with you, the first time I heard her heartbeat.

But I’m just too coward to  admitted it.

The day when you both left me is the hardest day of my life. I think that the thought of death is nothing rather than that. And I don’t think I want to get through the same pain again.

But... here we are. I try to hang on you, but all that you feel is pain.

Do you know that I fell in love with your smile? Your contagious smile that make me think that everything will fine after. And do you know you gradually lost it? I never wanted that for you.

So I just doing a single thing that left to do. A single thing that seems so right yet so wrong. At least for me. The hardest thing yet the last thing that I can do on your behalf. To let you go.

Let me say sorry for the last time. This time only, let me go first. I’ll take care of all the document and others. And sorry for not brave enough to tell you all of this my self.

Please take your time here and I hope you can find your smile again, without me.

Please be happy, that’s all I want from you

-Hoya-

Her tears burst since she read at the first word from his letter. The way he expressed all the word that he wants to tell her all those times. But sadly, that are when he bid her goodbye.

She read his note once again. Then once again. Until the words smeared from her tears. She take a glimpse of it once again, mustered up her courage and take her phone to call him, and running outside.

“Oppa...please pick it up.” Eunji said for the fifth time as she called unconnected number.

“Ahjussi...please hurry up. I have to chase the last plane to Seoul.” She’s in the taxi now, to the airport, to chase after him. This time, she promise her self that she will be brave. She will overcome all, including herself, to have him once again.

“I know, miss. But we can’t go too fast, the rain earlier made the road slipery. My friend just told me that there was an accident earlier, he rushed to the airport too, I guess.”

“What? He? Is the passenger is man?” she feels her heart drop suddenly when she hear that. She can’t chase away all the bad thought of he being in an accident.”

“I think so, but it’s not clear though...”

...

“Miss... We’re arrived.” After a while, the taxi driver tell her. His state bring her back from her wild play of thought. She shakes her head, trying to erased all of her imaginary fear. “Thank you, ahjussi. Be safe.” She pay the fare, quickly hop outside the car and rushed inside the airport.

It’s already 11 pm, and fortunately the airport is not crowded. Frantically she moved her head, right and left, try to search for him. She pray in her heart that she can find him now. Until she found the deaparture board that’s say that the last plane to Seoul is already boarded and will fly in 10 minutes.

She hold her last hope, praying that he still there, she search for him once again. “Oppa...Hoya oppa...” she chants while running here and there. “Oppa... Hoya oppa...” she look again to the board that say it’s already fly, and she begins to sobs.

“Eunji? Jung Eunji?” then she heard a voice, faintly, called her name. In a split second she turned her head to search the source and face him.

...

Hoya don’t believe his eyes. He looked someone that really similar to his wife frantically looking for something. He was about to leave the coffee shop that time. He has already buy the ticket to Seoul but ended didn’t boarded at all. He still can’t leave this place, after all. He still can’t leave her.

Roughly he rub his eyes, don’t believe his vision at all. But then he heard sh murmured his name. Just a hissed, but for him, that’s all he can hear, so he brave him self.

“Eunji, Jung Eunji?” and when he looked at her eyes when she turned her back to face him. He know that he’s doing the right thing. To preserve. To stay.

“Oppa?” finally found her voice, she call him. She just too relieved. But all that she can do is burst in tears. She didn’t even care that people start to looking at her.

“Eunji... Eunji-a. Don’t cry, shh... don’t cry.” He approach her, almost running, and hug her tightly. And all that she can do is just crying harder, and hug him more tightly.

He just grin sheepishly, feels beyond happy that she’s looking for him. And for this moment when she feels her in his embrace.

“Shh... Yeobo, people are staring at us.” He release her and cup her face. Her severely swollen face. She must cried much today, he thought. But he can’t help to smile.

“You... how dare you leave me. With just a letter.” She yelled at him, added a punch to his chest with every word she said. Her tears still flowing, though she’s stop crying. “I thought you were already left. I thought of you being in an accident earlier. I’m so scared. You don’t know how afraid I’m to lost the one that I love once again.” She still yelled at him, poured her fear, her anger, her anxiety, and her relieve when she found him. When otherwise Hoya just agaped. Too shocked to hear all that she said. Is she just said that word? Love? Did she just said that she love me?

“Don’t. You. Dare. T-...” she can’t continue her threat for her lips sealed by his. He kissed her sweetly. Taste all the tears that stained their lips. Taste all the love that they feel for each other. They just so lost in their own world when he hear people hissed and clapped around them.

He broke the kissed between them and rest his forehead on hers. He smile to see her smiled. His eyes find her beautiful orbs that he loved. Finally see her soul. Finally see the thing that he always yearn from her all this time. Love in her eyes.

He release her but his hand still in her waist. So does her hands, still encircling his nape. “I won’t dare to ever leave you again. With or without your consent.” He said and he look that she’s smiled. Lightly and shyly she peck his lips, and averted dow her eyes from him.

Hoya is all smile. “Ah... and Hyerim?” he gently raised her chin, make her eyes locks with him. “I love you too, Lee Hyerim.”

ANnyeong everyone....!!!!

I'm very sorry for the extremely late update *sobs. And thank you thank you and thank you for all of you

for all the comments and all my subscriber..... Thank you so much and may God bless you

ps : - I already have some story in my head, still with Hoji, bit of woorong, and I want to add Myeongeun. You know I'm deeply in love with pinkfinite... ^^       please read it favourably....

       - this fic just left with an epiloque ^^ so please wait for a while,