Mr. Kim took in all the details in his son's apartment. He made sure that he'd walk out, carrying bits and pieces of what made Myungsoo, Myungsoo. The house was obviously being used by a single man. There was no warmth, and the furnishing was plain. Myungsoo carefully placed the guitar Sunggyu gave him in a corner before facing his father once again.

   “Make yourself at home,” he said. “I'll mix you a cup of coffee.”

   “Ah,” Mr. Kim sat down on the couch, and his son turned the television on for him. “Have you finally settled in this place?”

   “I didn't have to do much, but Sungyeol helped me with some things,” he replied from the kitchen. The sound of the water boiling bounced against the bare walls. “Like assembling my closet and stuff.”

   It didn't take long before Myungsoo returned to the living room, a tray in hand. He offered a cup to his father before taking the seat beside him.

   “You did well,” Mr. Kim remarked, his voice quiet. “Even if I wasn't around, and even if I didn't set a good example, you did extremely well.”

   There was a long silence between the two, and the young man broke it by saying, “You did show me something good.”

   The father looked at his son, and the latter smiled a little. “You admitted your mistakes, and that taught me to admit mine, too. Humbly. Wholly. And telling me that you want to restart with Daehyun's Mom...I think that's good.”

   Tears welled up from Mr. Kim's eyes. “I never expected that this day would come: hearing such words from my firstborn.”

   “I never expected this, too,” Myungsoo took a tiny sip from his cup. “I actually thought I'd loathe you for the rest of my life.”

   “I wonder what made the difference.”

   The young man looked at his father with a warm stare. “Christ did.”

<:>

   Jieun idealized the day someone would ask her out. She had always dreamed of being rescued by a knight from whatever dull world she was in. What greeted her on her first relationship was just that: petals of roses on her apartment floor, pastel-colored helium balloons touching the ceiling, scented candles and good food. Her fantasy didn't last long, however, because her knight grew sick. And it wasn't long before he lost his battle.

   Jieun idealized the day someone would ask her out. And it happened again, on a chilly November evening, when she had to do an overtime for the sake of meeting her deadline. Only, there were no dinner with candle lights and soft music playing in the background. There was only the rhythmic pulse of the clock hanging on the wall, along with the whirring of her overworked computer. And of course, there was Kim Sunggyu, who made her a cup of coffee.

   “You placed your cup on the highest shelf again,” he remarked, while placing her mug on the coaster.

   “It's a habit,” she replied. “Thanks, by the way.”

   Sunggyu looked around the empty office. “It's eerie when it's just the two of us.”

   “Do you want to turn some music on?”

   He shook his head, and slid back into his chair. His keyboard crisply clacked as he typed away, and it was like that for a while when he suddenly called out her name.

   “What is it?” Jieun muttered, her eyes not straying from her monitor.

   “Wanna go out with me?”

   An abrupt pause. Her hands froze, and she couldn't seem to even look at Sunggyu in the eye.

   “Wanna go out with me?” Sunggyu repeated, this time, slower.

   “Is this your way of joking around?” she asked.

   “I'm serious, though,” Sunggyu replied.

   “How serious?”

   “How would you know if you can't even turn your head to face me?”

   Slowly, Jieun did what she was told. Her eyes widened upon realizing that Sunggyu was already staring at her. With a soft smile playing on his lips, he asked again, “Wanna go out with me?”

   She opened to respond, but no sound came out.

   “If you agree, you have to marry me, though. I'm going to take you seriously.”

   That was Kim Sunggyu. Dry. Unromantic. Straightforward. He was far from her deceased lover, but that only made him more attractive in her eyes. Beneath Sunggyu's apathetic front, Jieun discovered something greater: his warm heart. She studied his every move, and clocked every word that came out from his mouth. Some were too harsh at times, but he was sincere. Her romantic expectations were broken, and instead of receiving a bouquet, she got a piping hot cup of instant coffee; instead of a picturesque setting, she was in her worst condition yet—confined within the four corners of her dull office which smelled of ink and paper.

   And instead of crying and jumping around for joy, Jieun simply carried on typing, and said, “I agree.”

   “You basically agreed to marry a mess who became someone's boyfriend out of a dying wish. That same jerk got attracted to his own sister. Are you okay with that?”

   “Why do you talk so badly about yourself, Sunggyu?”

   He smirked at her question. “So I'll know if you can handle me at my worst, I suppose.”

   “Is that not just your way of pushing people away?”

   “Ah,” he pressed a combination of keys, and the printer started up. “You know me so well.”

   “Whatever your reason is,” she said with finality. “I'll be serious, too.”

   “You'll have to meet my parents.”

   “Same here,” Jieun replied.

   Silence.

   “Did they meet your first boyfriend?”

   She shook her head no. “That was the reason why I'm not in good terms with them. They didn't want him.”

   “Then perhaps they'll want me,” he commented, without missing a beat.

   Jieun laughed shortly. “You're hilarious.”

   “That's why you fell for me.”

   She took her cup to take another sip. “And conceited.”

   Sunggyu scoffed. “I can kiss you right now—”

   He suddenly stood up and swiped several sheets of paper napkins from his drawer. He gave some to Jieun before quickly wiping the coffee she splattered on her monitor.

   “Such elegance and poise,” he said. “Do you have any spare clothes with you?”

   Face burning, she shook her head no.

   “I have some in my locker. Change into that, and wash your skirt.”

   She quietly took her leave, and with a smile, he looked at the ceiling. Jieun, the timid, sophisticated and meek Jieun, just splattered coffee on her computer. He laughed, and muttered, “Cute.”

<:>

   Suzy yelped before giving Sang Moon a soft shove. “You put soap in my eye!”

   “Sorry,” he said. “You're standing too close to me, that's why.”

   “It's too cold,” she reasoned out. “Here, put this plate in the tray.”

   “Noona, are you okay?”

   “Why'd you ask?”

   “Well,” he rubbed his nose with his arm. “Sunggyu hyung just broke the news. About Jieun noona.”

   “I'm okay.”

   He glanced at her. “For real?”

   She smiled. “For real.”

   “No more one days?”

   “No more one days,” she confirmed.

   Sang Moon grinned, and turned the faucet on, only to direct the nozzle at his sister. She shrieked in return, and as revenge, she threw her soapy gloves on his face. The two siblings realized what the other looked like, and this sent them laughing.

   “Noona,” he said. “I'm glad you're my sister.”

   She planted a quick kiss on her brother's cheek, and teasingly replied, “I know.”

<:>

   Myungsoo opened his door to let Sungyeol in. “What made you visit me in the middle of the night?”

   His friend, with a grin, showed the box of pizza he brought along with him. “Let's eat this.”

   “I've some soda, come in.”

   Myungsoo took the huge bottle out from the fridge while Sungyeol stayed in the living room. When they were settled down, the latter said, “I've decided to go to Daegu. They have a very nice training program in there. It suits me best.”

   “You've really decided on becoming a barista?”

   “Yeah,” Sungyeol answered. He took a piece of pizza from the box. “I also talked it over with Pastor Kang, and he told me about their sister church over there.”

   “How long will you be gone?”

   “Three months at the least,” he looked at Myungsoo with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Will you miss me?”

   “Of course I will,” he admitted. “You're my friend.”

   “You're too honest, really,” Sungyeol remarked.

   “There's nothing to hide,” Myungsoo returned. He opened the bottle of soda, and poured the beverage into their respective glasses.

   “You're right,” he agreed. “That's why, before I leave, I have to tell you something.”

   Myungsoo grew quiet. He began to listen. Not only to the things Sungyeol was about to say, but to his heart, as well.

   Sungyeol his lower lip. He searched for the right words to say. Finally, he began, “I lost my ity at the age of seventeen.”

   Myungsoo's eyes slightly widened, but he didn't speak.

   “I talked my girlfriend into doing it. I basically manipulated her, and the worst thing was I knew what I was doing. I was just...so desperate back then. Not to have , but to feel something I know I lacked.”

   Sungyeol stared at the blank television screen in front of them. “I got her pregnant. I told her to lose the child, but she said no. I broke up with her. She transferred out of our school, and she basically erased me from her life. I did the same for her.”

   Silence danced around them. Tears were threatening to fall from Sungyeol's eyes. “But now, Myungsoo, I want to find her again, and to see my baby. I want to do better and succeed, so I'll be able to protect them. Abandoning them like that and committing something I knew I shouldn't have...I never want to do it again. Is it too late for things to take a turn? Did I miss the timing?”

   Myungsoo looked down on the floor. “I asked myself the same question, when I didn't get to meet Suzy the first time. But look where that situation brought us. I also thought it was too late to reconcile with my Dad, but through this I learned...that God has the final say.”

   The two stayed quiet to ponder on what they said to each other. Sungyeol then concluded, “If I ever see her, I'll accept her decision. But I want to apologize to her—to them. I want to tell them that I won't do what I did...ever again.”

   Myungsoo smiled a little. “You're really mature, now that I think about it.”

   Sungyeol shook his head slowly. “Myungsoo, you know what?”

   “What?”

   “That empty feeling in my heart got filled,” he wiped the trail of tears away from his cheeks, and added, “If it didn't, then I suppose I wouldn't even think of these things.”

   “It got filled,” Myungsoo echoed.

   “It did,” Sungyeol sniffed. “It's awkward for me to say this, but this is what I know: that shallow space was intended for God.”

   They both talked for a while, making the most of the time they had to spend together. Sungyeol was about to go to Daegu after three days, and due to their clashing schedules, they wouldn't be able to see each other. Sungyeol opened up that his girlfriend may have moved back to Busan, where most of her relatives lived. He said he was trying his best to secure any ties he could get a hold of in Seoul. But her relatives, whom he knew, refused to even see him.

   “That's why during my free time, I may go to Busan to search for her,” he finished off.

   “Do you even know which part of the city you'll go?”

   Sungyeol smiled a little. “No.”

   “Then how will you know her whereabouts?”

   He thought for a moment. He looked at Myungsoo in the eye, and said, “You and Suzy found each other. I'm confident that I'll find her again, too.”

   “Your girlfriend...what's her name?”

   “Hara,” Sungyeol closed her eyes, and let her name roll in his tongue. “Goo Hara.”

<:>

   Sunggyu checked the time in Seoul, and decided to contact Sunye's parents. He did it by calling, because he knew they didn't set up an account for video chatting purposes. Three rings later, her mother answered the phone. “Who is this?”

   “Mother,” Sunggyu began.

   A warm laugh echoed in his ears. “Sunggyu-yah! How are you?”

   “I'm doing fine, and how about you and father?”

   “Ah, we're doing okay, especially now that it's winter. Our niece decided to stay with us so we aren't having a difficult time.”

   Sunggyu thought for a moment, trying to look back at the past conversations he had with Sunye which involved a cousin of hers. He couldn't recall any. “That's nice to hear.”

   “And how is London? It's your second Christmas being alone in there, Sunggyu-yah.”

   “I have friends, so I'm okay,” he replied with a smile.

   “Oh, but you're using the phone! Won't it be costly?”

   “It's fine, Mother.”

   “It's not fine at all! Spending money you shouldn't spend...I'll ask my niece for help, hm? You go talk to her for a bit, since I'm no expert when it comes to this Interweb...whatever.”

   He was taken off guard, but upon hearing a young woman's voice, he told her his I.D.

   “I'll call you once I've set up an account,” she said.

   “You don't have to hang up,” Sunggyu sat on his swivel chair and turned his laptop on. “I'll just wait. And thank you for staying with them, uh...”

   “Hara,” the young woman replied. “Goo Hara.”

"Oh, thank God—he’s so good!
    His love never runs out.
All of you set free by God, tell the world!
    Tell how he freed you from oppression,
Then rounded you up from all over the place,
    from the four winds, from the seven seas."

- Psalm 107:1-3