“what are you doing here?” she asked staring back at him.

“can I speak to you for a minute?… outside?” siwon asked. 

 

I looked around at everyone before I left outside with him and walked down towards the beach. 

 

“how did you get here?” I questioned.

“I was outside your apartment waiting for you and ended up following you here…”

“so what do you want?… I told you not to bother with me anymore”

“I know… but I cant do it…”

“why not?… you could do it three years ago…”

“______, please stop bringing up the past…”

“stop bringing up the past??…” I stopped and looked at him. “do you know how much I was hurting because of you and you just want me to stop bringing it up??”

“yes!… forgive and forget, don’t you know that phrase?” he asked.

“yeah, I know it well but there’s also another phrase… when your hurt, you remember it so you don’t make the same mistake twice!”

“… I didn’t come here to upset you… I came here to tell you that im sorry for what I did to you and if… I can have another chance…”

“no…” I said shaking my head and turning away.

“_______!… I know why your pushing me away…your scared to tell me that you still love me…” he said taking my hands. “you still love me don’t you?…”

“I did…I use too… not anymore…” I said taking his hands off mine before I started to walk back to the store.

“can I just be a friend then at least?… I want to be able to see your face and know that you don’t hate me that much…” he said with a sigh.

“fine…” I shrugged starting to walk away again.

“wait… I drove all the way here… can you at least spend the rest of the day with me?…I always wanted to come to the beach…but didn’t have time too…please?” he said lightly kicking the sand around. 

“…alright…” I said letting out a long sigh. 

“yes!” he smiled. 

____________________

 

“the waters here is so clear and this sand is just incredibly soft!” he said picking some up. 

“that’s what we’re known for…” I said with my hands behind my back walking along the shore.

“…so this is where you grew up?…” he asked slowly following behind. “in college you always talked about it… now I know what you mean… this place is so quiet and serene…but not anymore… hey _______!” he then shouted causing me to turn around.

“yeah?” I said turning around when a big splash of water hit my face with a little bit of sand. “eeewww… there’s sand in my mouth! Choi siwon! You!!” I pointed before kicking water at him.

“you should have kept your mouth closed!” he laughed splashing water back.

“I hate you!” I cried throwing big heaps of water at him. 

“waiit! Your getting water in my hair!” he cried back.

“you started!”

“… this means war shin ______!!”  he said running towards me then carrying me. 

 

He lifted me up and dunked me into the cold water. When I resurfaced, I knocked him over using my weight, grabbed his hair and pushed him down into the water. When we got tired, we settled down and laid on the sand as the rays of the sun shined down on us. 

“not bad…” he huffed. “I see you’re a lot stronger.” 

“yeah…” I said closing my eyes. “ah! Im so tired… and im completely wet.”

“… so are we okay?…” 

“…yeah… I guess…” I said hesitantly before receiving a kiss on the cheek by him.

 

I quickly opened my eyes and held my cheek. 

 

“what are you doing?”

“… thank you…” he said looking at me. “that was the most fun ive had in a long time…”

“ohhhhh… here you are!! Your on a date instead of working!!” a voice interrupted us. 

 

Siwon and I looked at each other then towards the sound of the voice and standing there was kim jaejoong. 

 

“how long have you been standing there?…” I asked.

“long enough to see the end of that water play and that peck on the cheek” jaejoong answered.

“you again!” siwon pointed as we both stood up from the ground.

“that’s right… its me” jaejoong said snobbishly. “why?”

“what are you doing here?? shouldn’t you be working??” 

“I need to talk to you about last night. I went over to your apartment and you weren’t home! I figured you might have come back here” he said crossing his arms. “and I find out that your on a date instead of working. Slacking off already?? Its only been a few weeks since you started working for us.” 

“well I don’t want to talk about it. Its over and done! So forget it!”

“no! its not done! I need to talk to you right now! Lets go!” jaejoong said grabbing and pulling on my right arm.

“no! I don’t wanna go!” I said resisting when siwon grabbed my left arm and pulled.

“she said that she doesn’t want to go! So let her be!” he said pulling me towards him. 

“who are you to be telling me what she wants to do!” jaejoong shouted as he pulled me to his side.

“im someone whose known her longer than you have, so I know whats best for her” siwon pulling me towards him again.

“I don’t care how long you’ve know her, she’s my dads employee and I say she has to listen to me!” jaejoong shouted pulling me again. 

 

I was pulled left and right for a while until I got sick of being pulled.

 

“STOP!!!” I shouted scaring the both of them. “siwon-ah… I spent most of the day with you like you wanted so I think its time for you to go home…and you!” I said looking over to jaejoong who was stunned at the site of me yelling. “you wanna talk?? Lets go!!” I said angrily walking away as he was now hesitant to follow leaving siwon standing there on the beach alone. 

_____________

 

“what do  you want??” I asked jaejoong turning to look at him.

“yah!… don’t be yelling at me! I should be the one furious at you!” he pointed out.

“I don’t care! Tell me what you wanted to talk about… if not im leaving”

“… fine… because of you, im kicked out again!!” 

“So what?!… your almost 30, why not find your own damn place to live in so you wont be kicked out!?”

“its not that simple!” 

“maybe it is! But you wont try!…or why don’t you just go live with your girlfriend!? Since you love her so much…”

“whats wrong with you?…” he asked.

“nothing… don’t mind it… if you’re here to talk to me about why I told your parents then… fine. Im sorry. I couldn’t take it anymore. I don’t like lying to people. Especially my elders. The more it carries on, the harder it is for us to try and get out of it. Its easier to just let them know when nothing is official yet…if that’s all then I gotta go.” 

“why are you always leaving when a problem arises?”

“what problem? Everything is done and taken care of”

“you always find an excuse to leave whenever it has something to do with us…” he pointed out. “ like the time I asked you to say and explain our fake wedding to sooyoung and right now…is there something that your not telling me? Is there something im missing out on?”

“…we’re done talking right?… that’s all you wanted to say to me?… I have to go” I said leaving him there as he watch me walk away. 

___________

 

Authors pov

 

As night fell, siwon and jaejoong returned home to seoul, while ______ stayed to have dinner with her grandpa. 

 

“where have you been all afternoon?” grandpa asked.

“… I met up with a few old friends…” she lightly smiled as she remembered the conversation she had with hyun-woo. 

 

“hey grandpa?…”

“yeah?…”

“…. theres something that I wanna know…”

“what is it?…”

“…why did you transfer me out of the high school when I was younger?” she asked suddenly.

“what??” grandpa said choking on his food.

 

She quickly gave him water and returned back to my seat waiting for an answer. 

 

“why do you wanna know that all of a sudden?” he asked.

“its not sudden… its something that I have been wondering why since I was in high school…”

 

Her grandpa looked over to uncle james then back at her like she said something wrong. 

 

“honey… the reason why I transferred you out of that high school is because… I wanted you to get a better education at a better school…”

“…oooh… so why didn’t you just tell me that before instead of having me wonder all these years?” she asked with a slight smile.

“because if I told you then, you wouldn’t have understand why…” he simply told her. 

“mmm…” she nodded eating her meal. 

____________________

 

When _______ left to go back home to seoul, her grandfather called james into his office and had a little discussion. 

 

“james…you think what I told her during dinner was bad?”

“… no sir… I don’t think so. You said it was to protect her right?”

“that’s right… to protect her…but what if she finds out the real reason why I transferred her to such a far away high school?”

“im pretty sure she wont… unless miss ______’s mother shows up out of the blue.”

“oh james… this is what im worried about… if she finds out that I transferred her out of the high school here to another one so her mother can’t get in touch with her, she will be so angry at me…” grandpa sighed messaging his temples. “Did I go the right thing 15 years ago? Separating ______ from her mother?… but her mother left us first. First she leaves my son ( ______’s dad) and then her daughter for another man because of some dream that never came true…” he said having his fist in a ball. 

“hopefully miss ______ wont find out one day…” uncle james stated.