The wind breezed by on that dim, dull morning and the grey clouds huddled together amidst the darkly lit sky.

It was going to rain soon and Tiffany hated the rain.

The dampened moods and the irrevocable fear of something tragic happening had always went well with the rain. It was what you can say, a mood let down.

Today, however, the girl wasn’t allowing the weather she loathed so much to take a toll on her. Today, she was happy.

A sudden flashback of Byun Baekhyun planting his kiss on her lips whizzed her by and for a moment, she blushed. Was it really so wrong of an older woman to take a liking to a much younger man?

A much y younger man.

As she made her way to a certain familiar door, her heart sunk a little knowing that she wasn’t supposed to be this cheery. Another young man lay in hospital with total amnesia, and here she was being all gleeful by herself.

Get your priorities right, Tiffany.

Her hands made its way to the door knob and she slowly turned it; hoping so desperately that the young man was fast asleep.

But he wasn’t.

He was surprised, probably from the sudden intrusion, before lighting up at the person before him. What was different today may have been the fact of how his eyes flashed 3 different emotions; the last being that of sorrow.

“J-Jongin ah. H-Hi!” Tiffany stammered while taking a seat by his bed. “How are you?”

Silence.

All the young man did was to look straight into her eyes and the girl shifted uncomfortably knowing something was amiss.

“Have you eaten?” She tried again, this time as brightly as possibly.

Again nothing.

“Uh…” The girl trailed on. “I bought you hot chocolate!”

“Stop it… Noona. Just stop it.” The man whispered softly while still staring at the girl.

Tiffany’s mind wandered as to why Jongin was behaving this way. What wrong had she done? Just a day ago, the man had attempted aegyo on her. Aegyo for goodness sake! And now he was a little cold, probably from…

Probably from knowing the truth.

It hit the girl that Luhan might have told Jongin of his accident, seeing how she went against him to be close to Baekhyun.

“You… know.” The uncertainty in her voice implied that she wasn’t so sure but that she was taking a risk.

“Of my accident?” Jongin muttered quietly.

Oh Luhan. How low of you. How could you?! Tiffany angrily thought to herself. And here I thought I could have depended on you.

“So it was you?” He asked the girl, his eyes never once leaving her figure.

“Jongin ah. I can explain.”

“It’s okay. I remembered everything.” His voice as solemn.

“Y-You what?”

“I remembered everything. It came to me and the doctor certified that I had my memories back.” The atmosphere turned grave.

“Luckily for you, Luhan hyung was there to explain why you would keep such a huge matter from me. Honestly, I think it’s a little too much. Hiding secrets from a brother for a friend. Even if it’s you, noona.” He continued.

Luhan…. Tiffany felt guilty for thinking bad about the man. It seemed he meant good after all.

“I can explain.” She croaked, her eyes averted to the floor.

“Please do.” Sarcasm hinted in his tone.

“I was afraid.”

“Not good enough a reason, don’t you think so?”

“No… it wasn’t. And I hate myself for that. For being a coward.”

Silence dawned again upon that small room and the man could have sworn he heard the loud beating of her heart.

“I hated that I wasn’t brave enough to take responsibility. I dreaded every waking moment where I would have to spend time with you. I especially despised the fact that you had been so welcoming to me into your new amnesiac life while there I was, the major villain that stripped everything from you.”

“Then why noona? Why did you hide it from me?”

“…I was afraid. I was afraid that if I told you, you’d hate me through your entire existence. I was afraid that we can never be the same. I was afraid of being distant.”

The man kept mum and for the first time, he lifted his gaze to the ceiling above; an obvious attempt of masking his tears.

“You were afraid of losing me.” Jongin uttered after some time, fully making sense of what the girl had just rambled on.

To be honest, Jongin was angry. Not only was he angry, he was frustrated. It hurts him knowing that an important figure in his life could have blatantly lied to him thinking he was a fool. He was also disgusted at the fact that the girl had tried bringing his brothers down with her.

But it hurts him too much seeing the state of the girl right now.

It hurts him knowing her side of the story and actually understanding where she was coming from. As much as he wanted to hate on the girl, he couldn’t. He was furious, yes, but that only showed how much he adored her.

That only showed how unwilling he was to lose her as well.

“I’m sorry, Jongin. I really am.” Tears were streaming down her face and the girl hiccupped on her words. “I don’t know how else I can beg for your forgiveness than to say sorry.”

“There is… a way.” Jongin grunted, mentally slapping himself at the ridiculous idea.

When the girl made no form of movement, he continued.

“I’d like to see the letters that you wrote when I was unconscious. I remembered you saying that you’d hand them over once I remember, right?”

He saw how the girl scuffled with her bag, definitely in a rush to find the letters that she wrote quite some time ago. His heart softened for a moment knowing that she’d kept those letters close to her all these while. It meant that she knew and was ready if he ever woke up.

“H-Here you go.” She handed them nervously. “I think I should come back later, d-don’t you think so?”

“No. Stay.” The young man commanded. “I’d like for you to be here.”

Each passing minute was like a death penalty for the girl. She saw how his fingers flipped through each paper delicately and how immersed he was at reading the contents. Tiffany felt insecure knowing what he was reading were her innermost thoughts but she guessed it was only just. After all, her thoughts could have never been traded for his life.

She saw how he reluctantly lifted his head up to have his eyes meet hers. The girl trembled and in that second, she realised how full of life his eyes had been.

“Thank you, noona.” The man heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank you for worrying.”

“N-No! D-Don’t thank me.” Tiffany was appalled by the man’s selection of words. “I… I almost killed you. How could you thank me for that?!”

“I thank you, not because you almost killed me. I thank you, because you took responsibility, noona. You lived.” The man clucked in disapproval, remembering the suicide contents of her thoughts.

“That doesn’t mean a thing.” She replied softly.

Tiffany felt her tears falling again. She definitely didn’t deserve his kindness.

“But it does. I think we both have learned a lot from this incident, don’t you think so, noona?”

“Jongin ah….” The girl sobbed her heart out.

“I know this may have come off as being sudden, but here.” He handed her a piece of paper along with her other letters. “I want you to have this.”

The girl received it hesitantly and her eyes widened with surprise at seeing what it was.

“E-Earth II ticket?” Her eyes went to meet his again. “But why?”

“Call it punishment.” Jongin laughed at his own bitter joke. “I want you to go there and think about life. I honestly think you need a break.”

“J-Jongin. I can’t.”

“You can. And there’s no way you can decline. It’s your punishment, remember?”

The girl looked up to her companion who smiled at her and she knew then that this was more than she could take in. Why was he so…. So nice?

“Jongin.”

“Okay, now go. I think there’s 2 other people that deserves an explanation.”

“T-Two?” Tiffany stuttered. As far as she could remember, she only had to apologise to Luhan for making his life a living hell.

“Yup. Go on.”

“O-Okay.” The girl replied robotically while taking her bag out to the door.

“Oh, and noona?” Jongin called out to the older woman.

“Please know that I have long forgiven you and that you need to forgive yourself. I… I love you, noona, so never ever contemplate about suicide again, do you understand?”

His words daggered into her tiny heart; its impact huge but unnoticeable.

The girl broke down at hearing such a warming statement from the man she had almost killed. Tears formed in her eyes again and rolled down her beautiful face; her expressions nothing but a wreck. She hurryingly got out of the room, relieved that she was able to breathe again. Her heart that was once suffocated loosened up and she found her lips turning slightly upwards at the goodness within the man.

“Thank you, Kim Jongin.”