❝Chapter Twenty-Seven

Eun Young turned her head to the side and stared wide-eyed at the familiar faces. "T-Taemin Oppa," she stuttered as she looked at each and every member of EXO-K and SHINee before she came across the last familiar face, "Jongin…"

"You two know each other?" Daehyun blinked, his head tilted in a confused manner.

"Y-yo-you're Daehyun's girlfriend?" Kai glanced at their entwined hands.

"You two know each other?" Daehyun asked again.

"W-wh-why are you here?" Eun Young answered Kai's question with a question.

"YOU TWO KNOW EACH OTHER?" Daehyun asked in a much louder voice.

"Um." She quickly looked away from Kai, who only continued to stare at her. "Jongin…" she spoke softly.

There was a really long pause, so long that Daehyun started to feel irritated. She just didn't know how to say it, how to word it without creating even more of an awkward atmosphere.

"…Jongin is my ex-boyfriend."

"Oh…" Daehyun's mouth formed a small 'o,' like all the others. "Really now?" he asked in an edgy tone with a light "huh" in it.

They all stood quietly. Thank goodness there were dozens of annoying hyper children around. Otherwise, there would have been such an awkward silence. Although there wasn't a silence, there was still that thick tension, especially between Daehyun and Kai.

A minute passed. Still, no one spoke. Another minute passed. Then another. And another. And finally, someone spoke; the least expected person, actually.

"Okay!" Daehyun smiled for some unknown reason, "I'm gonna, uh, go get, uh, a drink!" He quickly hurried into the kitchen.

"Oppa…" Eun Young bit her lip and looked at Kai before she went into the kitchen.

Once they were gone, another person finally spoke up.

"Is she…" Jae Hee raised a brow. "Is she really your ex-girlfriend?"

Kai only stared blankly at her before he shrugged. "I'm going out for some fresh air." He just literally walked out, not bothering to reply to her question, not bothering to reassure his worried friends and brother that he was fine.

"Y-Yah." She gawked at him. She frowned and turned to the rest of their friends, "Is she?"

"Uhhh," Baekhyun cleared his throat a few times to just stall, "Oh, look!" He suddenly ran to a group of kids and started to play with them.

"Oh, looks fun!"

"I wanna join, too!"

"Me, too!"

All of EXO-K and SHINee ran off to play with the children, all except for Taemin.

"Well?" She raised a brow. "Come on." She rolled her eyes. "It's just a "yes" or "no" question, not that hard."

"Yeah, but…" Taemin shook his head and sighed, "It's not something for us to tell. Kai's just…" He thought carefully. "If you want to know about them, you'd have to ask them, not us," he adviced, patting her head.

"Aw," she blew a raspberry, "And stop that!" she whined and smacked his hands away, but he just laughed.

"But hey." She suddenly turned serious. "Shouldn't we go after him?" She worriedly looked at the door, nervously nibbling on her bottom lip.

Taemin frowned a bit at how worried she was over Kai but quickly shook it off and looked at the door, "He'll be fine," he reassured her, a soft smile on his face.

"Yeah, but…" Jae Hee bit her lip again. "Aish!" she frowned and rolled her eyes, "Does that guy even know his way around Busan? Seriously, where the hell does he think he's going?" she mumbled other stuff under her breath as she put her shoes on.

"Where are you going?" Taemin raised a brow.

"Well." She crouched down and tied her shoelaces. "I don't think he should be alone," she frowned worriedly, "Just tell my parents I went out to buy ice cream." She hopped out of the house, still adjusting her shoes, leaving a slightly hurt Taemin who was expecting to spend some nice quality time with her.

She glanced around, humming thoughtfully. *Where would he go?* She scratched her head. She walked around for a few mintues, randomly roaming the crowded streets. She knew Kai wouldn't have gone anywhere far, since he didn't know the area well.

*Aish.* She blew a raspberry. *That guy just loves pissing me off, doesn't he?* She grumpily muttered some curse words under her breath before she pulled her phone out and called him.

"What?" he answered after a few rings.

"What?" she quoted him, "Don't "what" me!" she snapped. "Where the hell are you?!"

"Somewhere over the rainbow."

"Yah!" she yelled, annoyed by his sarcastic answer, earning stares from random people around her. She bit her lip and slightly lowered her head.

"What?" he asked, chuckling a bit.

She made a face. "Seriously, Kai. Where are you?"

"Somewhere over t-"

"AISH!" she cut him off, stomping her foot, "Can't you give me a real ans-" It was then she noticed that there was a faint rainbow in the sky, right above the beach.

"Oh." She blinked in surprise. She heard him chuckle again before he hung up on her. She made a face at the phone. *How hard is it to say "the beach"?* She put her phone away and started to walk towards the beach.

It was crowded but not as crowded as it always was, since it was a bit cold.

Sighing, she walked around the beach for a few more minutes, trying to find where he was. She was about to give up and call him but finally spotted him walking along the shoreline. She quickly put her phone away and ran towards him. When she reached him, though, she kicked him in the back of the knee.

"Ow, what the ?!" Kai yelped in pain, falling loosely onto his knees.

"That's what you get!" She stuck her tongue out at him, huffing and crossing her arms.

He gave her a confused look. "That's what I get for what?"

"For running out like that!" She smacked the side of his head, earning another yelp from him.

"Okay!" He glared at her and rubbed the side of his head. "I did NOT run out. I walked out."

"Same thing!" She scrunched her nose.

"What?"he scoffed. "Running and walking are not the same thing. Running is-"

"Shut up." She rolled her eyes at him.

He rolled his eyes back at her before he stood up and dusted his jeans. They didn't really say anything for a while, until Jae Hee remembered what she had come to ask him for.

She nervously fiddled with the bottom of her shirt. She puffed her cheeks out a few times, debating on whether to be her nosy little self or not. "Um," she awkwardly started, "Is Eun Young Unnie really your ex-girlfriend?"

"Why?" he smirked. "Jealous?"

She rolled her eyes again and punched his arm. "No, I'm not," she denied, mumbling half-heartedly.

"Sure you're not," he laughed and patted her head before he walked off.

She made a face at his backside, muttering bad words about him, as she fixed her hair. Satisfied, she quickly ran after him and when she reached his side, she started to walk with.

Neither of them really spoke or anything. They just simply walked, staring out onto the ocean, letting the waves hit their legs, and watching other families and couples having fun in the water.

"Eun Young and I met in middle school," Kai started, staring at the sand below them as they walked.

Jae Hee nodded, gesturing for him to continue.

"Eh, well," he chuckled and sheepishly ruffled his hair, "We were high school sweethearts, I guess you could say, since we started to date when we entered high school."

*How sweet.* Jae Hee smiled softly but felt strangely unhappy with the fact.

"But then I…" he paused. He didn't really want to tell her because he knew she would never be able to trust him, to respect him, to love him, if he told her the reason for their break-up. But he knew if there was one thing Jae Hee liked about a guy, it was his honesty. And being the honest person he was, he decided to not keep from her, even knowing that she may never want to be in a relationship with him after how he had screwed up his first relationship so badly.

Jae Hee's eyes widened in surprise at his answer. I mean, he had always looked like the bad-boy type, but she always thought there was more to him than that. A part of her felt angry. Another part felt disgusted. But most of all, she felt disappointed…

She knew he was a bit flirty sometimes but he at least seemed loyal and honest (very honest, actually), so his answer wasn't really what she was expecting.

"I cheated on her…"

It would have been one thing if he had just cheated on her. But, sadly enough, he didn't just "cheat on her."

"…with her best friend, to be exact."