Nayoung’s POV

H-Hyukjae...?

That means... this phone is belonged to... Lee Hyukjae?

My heart starts slamming repeatedly against the ribcage.

What happened? Hyukjae had forgotten me. He is supposed to have forgotten me. But this phone, this is his? With my picture as the wallpaper? A-and... the picture was taken a year ago. How could he get it?

Wait. How could Daeyoung contact him in the first place?

No. I misheard it. I did mishear it, right?

“Hyukjae,” Daeyoung’s calm voice slaps me hard across the cheek once again. I didn’t mishear. Shivers run up and down my spine with a torturing velocity. “Nayoung texted me. Multiple times. And seems like she’s... confused. Until when are you going to keep up with this?”

Until when are you going to keep up with this...?

That sounds like... Daeyoung had known this all along. Have they been contacting to each other all this time? Then... he should’ve known Hyukjae would be at the meeting, right? Then why did he...

My head starts pounding. I feel like the pieces of reality are slowly unfolding. But it’s still hard to bring them together into a completed puzzle. What’s going on here?

The business trip to Paris... is that planned? Did he purposefully leave so I’m the only one here to face Hyukjae?

By this time my head is already spinning out of confusion. There are too much questions flooding in my head. The questions are still left unanswered yet I can feel the something burning in my mind.

I close my eyes shut trying to calm the blood that starts raging under my skin. But failed. The thought of my own brother lying to me and planning something horrible behind my back is a little too much to my dismay. Before I know it I find myself snapping at him.

“So... you already know about this?” a bitter tone comes out clear in my voice. A long pause fills the phone line.

“N-Nayoung?” he sounds shocked.

“Is that true?” I blink back the forming tears.

“Nayoung, h-how could you... where is Hyukjae?”

“Is that true?” I press the question through gritted teeth.

“T-that, I...” his stuttering voice answers my question. I bite on my lip hard.

So that’s true. That automatically makes it correct that the business trip is only a made up story as well.

I up a generous amount of oxygen to get a hold of myself. Shouldn’t my own brother be the one who knows it the best that I don’t want to see him? But, how could he?

“Nayoung-ah,”

“I’m... disappointed with you, Oppa.” My quivering lips make my voice sound shaky.

“Nayoung, w-what are you... No. Y-you misunderstand it. It’s not like-”

“Enough. Don’t cover it up with another lies. I knew it. I’m not stupid, Oppa.” I shake my head slightly as my vision goes blurry. The tears start welling up in my eyes. This feeling tortures me so damn much. “I... I just thought you would understand me. I thought you know me, I thought you know what I went through... But I guess I was wrong.”

Just how could he have the heart to give another chance to a man that had hurt me the most?

“Kang Nayoung,” he speaks firmly as the door bell that I’m back-facing chimes. Another customer is coming in but that’s the least of my care. “Please don’t say it that way. I understand you. I can perfectly understand you. I know this is-”

“Perfectly understand me?” one word of his sentence snaps me piercingly. “You think you do? Well then you’re wrong because no! You don’t! If you understand me then you wouldn’t be doing this! You wouldn’t be hiding something behind my back to help that best friend of yours to play with my feelings! Did you not understand what I went through? Did you not see it? Did you think it was just because a shallow, stupid crush that I-”

“Mr. Lee Hyukjae?” I can vaguely hear the waitress says. Every single word in my head that I want to shout out is cut off short in an instant.

Suddenly I lose my ability to breath.

“Yes.” Another voice at the door confirms. My body stiffens. It can’t be.

“Nayoung?” Daeyoung asks worriedly. “Nayoung-ah, are you still there?”

“This way, sir.” The waitress says.

And the next thing I hear is footsteps coming closer, along with my crazy heart rate and Daeyoung’s worried tone, “Nayoung-ah, are you okay? Nayoung-ah,”

Before I can even move, a figure shows up beside the table. “Thanks. Where’s Dong-” the voice stops. I know exactly why but I don’t dare to turn my head. I feel someone shooting their gaze onto the top of my head. “N-Nana?”

That voice. That call.

I slowly look up at him, I bet my eyes are already blood shot red before I can even cry. But I couldn’t careless. And somehow, I’m not surprised with how he is the one showing up here instead of Donghae.

Everything is disclosing now. The moment Daeyoung had to leave for a business trip, the moment Hyukjae stood inside the meeting room, the moment Donghae came to my office... they’re now crystal clear. Of course. This is all planned. Why am I so stupid?

His face goes pale. While my eyes start burning. In tears, in rage, in frustration.

“Nana...?” I repeat, he was just confirming something to me.

He remembers me. He does remember me. He just acted like he didn’t.

His eyes are shifted to the phone in my hold. “I...”

“What is this?” I manage to ask, Daeyoung is still talking on the phone but I ignore him. I stare at the guy before me. The guy who used to be beside me and now is trying to play with my feeling.

Hurt. Sad. Angry. Pained. Broken.

They all crash down onto me at once. But the hurt feeling dominates.

I can’t help but let the memories of those years without him rolling like a documenter film in my head. It felt like I lost my happiness, I lost my world. He was the one whom I trusted the most. He was the one who made me feel the happiness in each fibers of my heart. But he was the one who could make me cry a bucket of tears out of longing as well.

And the moment I confessed to him, I wasn’t joking. It wasn’t a childish crush that could disappear in a matter of months, or maybe years. No, it wasn’t. But did he understand that all? Did he even take those three words I hardly spilled into his heart?

He left me devastated and comes back clean, as if nothing had happened. Is it that easy for him just to start over? For God’s sake he was giving me a full torment. I know it was my fault to depend myself too much on him. I know he doesn’t have anything to do with my dreams that’s always been involving him in. But... isn’t this too much?

I loved- love him deeply. I always have. But it’s not fair if he forces me to be in this. You don’t force someone to be back to you when clearly you don’t know what that someone had gone through without you. He makes me his business partner for what? So that I won’t have the way to escape from him?

I just can’t comprehend any of this. I hang my head low. The phone- his phone is still safely kept in my trembling grip.

“What game are you trying to pull out, L-Lee Hyukjae?” I ask softly as the tears brim quickly under my eyelids.

“Nana, I-”

“I’m so stupid... I should have known.” I brush past his shoulder and walk towards the door. But a hand pulls my wrist quickly. I almost freeze there, feeling his cold fingers around my wrist. I squeeze my eyes closed. Get a grip, Nayoung.

“I... I can explain-”

“Get off me.” I twist my hand to yank off his grasp, but end up hurting myself. His hand is too strong. “I... I can’t do this.”

“Nana, please listen to me.” He pleads with a cracked voice.

“No, save it. Please, just... let me go.”

“No.” He tugs on my wrist to make me face him. “I’m not letting you go. Not this time.”

I lift my head up to come face to face with him. I can see tears pooling in his almond shaped eyes but I can only ignore it, and let tears slip out of my watery ones instead. The feelings feel so overwhelming in my chest.

I long for that voice, I long for that figure, I long for his touches. I...  I long for this guy. I can’t deny it. But then again, he can’t just play with my heart like this. He can’t treat me like a toy that he would take if he likes and throw away if he doesn’t feel like it.

“At that time...” I start softly. “I was trying not to let you go. I was trying to hold onto you. Did you realize that?” I stare straight into eyes. Hyukjae stays silent. His breath unsteady, his curved jawline trembling. “But I failed. You went away on your own.”

Slowly he drops his gaze to the floor. I can feel his hand trembling on my wrist. “It’s not your fault, you had chosen your way to achieve your dreams. And you have the rights to choose it. But...” a sharp sob cuts me off. “But you can’t do it like this, Hyukjae. You can’t walk away from my life and then coming in as you want.”

My voice sounds too soft. Why can’t I just scream at him? I really want to burst all my frustrations out at him and wake him up into realitzation that he had hurt me a lot. I want to scream all the emotions piling up in my chest. But for some sick reasons, I just can’t. I can’t even manage to set up a furious glare at him. Not when he is standing there with tears filling up his eyes. As if he could feel the same pain with me. As if he could feel the same exhaustion.

None of us talks but the silence roars at us. I can’t even hear my heart beat now. I just stare at his figure in stillness. His shoulders are deflating and trembling. It feels numb, everything feels numb.

His soft heavy breaths are too deafening to me. The sight of him hurting rips my heart apart. But when he lets his hand fall limp by his side, I feel at loss. He... he’s letting me go.

 “I... I should go.” I pull myself together, turning around on my heels.

My back immediately feels cold. And it feels like my feet are planted firmly into the ground. My steps feel so heavy, but fortunately I manage to do it. I wipe the tears that seem to run down my cheeks endlessly.

Take your decision, Kang Nayoung. Don't turn back. He needs to learn his lesson.

I'm soooorrry for the heart-breaking chapter! And sorry if it's crappy. But it's for the drama, their moment will come very soon, don't worry! >.<

And guess what, I'm preparing for the chapter to reveal the reason behind Hyukjae's leave. 

Heehee just wait for it :D