"Sunye! Do you want to go visit your grandparents today?" My omma asked me as I walked down the stairs this morning.

"You're going?" I walked into the kitchen and my appa was sitting there, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. "Appa! You're home?" I ran over and hugged him.

"Good morning, Sunye," he said to me. "How have you been?"

"Good, appa. You? I haven't seen you in weeks!"

"They gave me the day off today. The company's having some sort of promotional advancement day and they told me I didn't need to be there for that."

"Really?" I sat down and looked at my omma. "We're really going to visit halmoni and halapoji today?"

"Mmhm. Do you want to come with us?" she asked.

"Of course! I haven't seen them in so long." The last time I saw my halmoni and halapoji was about a year ago, last summer. "When are we leaving?"

"At around 10," she said. "We called your oppas and Ye Eun and asked them if they wanted to come along, too. Your halmoni and halapoji haven't seen them in a while as well."

"You called them?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah. Your grandparents wanted to see them, too. And it's been so long since they've been on a trip with us. Although only Donghae oppa is able to come."

"He's the only one coming?"

"Ye Eun said she's busy all day because of practice and your Leeteuk oppa has an interview with a broadcasting station."

"Really?"

"Hurry up and pack whatever you need, Sunye. We're staying over night. You're grandparents already have the blankets and pillows. All you need to pack is your pajamas and another set of clothes.  I already have your toothbrush. We're leaving at 12."

"Okay, omma." I hurried up the stairs and got out my bag and stuffed it, neatly of course, with whatever I need.

'A trip with Donghae oppa,' I thought. It's really been so long since we've hung out. I can't help thinking this trip might be a little bit awkward considering whats been happening the past few months.... but.... nothing should ever be awkward with my oppa.

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We were packing out things into the car when Donghae oppa drove up. My eyes were fixed only at him walking towards me. He had on a thick black winter coat and a newsboy hat. He looked really handsome especially with his bangs falling down on his face and his rosy cheeks on his pale white face. He had a sweet smile on his face as he stopped in front of me and politely greeted my parents who were busy hauling stuff into the car.

"Good morning, Mr. Min, Mrs. Min," he bowed to them.

"How are you, Donghae?" my omma said to him.

"I'm fine. And you?"

"I'm good. Is school going well?"

"It is."

"Are you starting to apply for colleges yet?" my appa asked.

"Yup. I've started to apply for a few in Seoul already. I don't really want to go too far from home."

"Oh, really? That's good. Your parents will be glad that you're not going too far, right?" my omma laughed.

"Oppa, let me take your bags," I said as I grabbed them out of his hands. As my parents put the last of our luggage into the trunk, I placed oppa's on top and closed the trunk.

"Okay, kids. If we don't go now, we're going to be stuck in traffic," my omma said.

"C'mon, oppa," I said as I took his arm and lead him to the back seat of the car.

"Ready?" appa asked us.

"Yes," we both said.

It'll take us about six hours to get to Gyeongju from Seoul... if we're lucky. Six hours of sitting besides Donghae oppa with sudden awkwardness between us; it's killing me. Maybe if I just fall asleep...

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I felt the car stop. I heard car doors opening. I felt a nudge.

"Sunye. Wake up. We're here," I heard a voice whisper to me.

I fidgeted around a little bit before I opened my eyes and saw who it was. "Are we there already?"

"Yeah," oppa said to me.

"Sunye-ah!" I turned my head to the left and saw my halmoni looking in the window.

"Halmoni!" I opened the car door and hugged her tightly. "Have you been well, halmoni?" I asked, almost tearing but held them back as strongly as I could.

"The bones are hurting a little bit, but just seeing you is enough to make me forget," she responded.

"Have you been taking your medicine?"

"How could I take such expensive medicine. I was just going to save it."

"Halmoni!"

"Now, now. I will eventually take it," she reassured with a smile and a squeeze of my arm. Then she turned her head and faced oppa. "Donghae?"

"Ne halmoni," he said with a 90 degree bow. "How-"

"It's been so long since I've last seen you! You're so grown up now. Have you been working out?"

Oppa's face turned a little red. "Uh.. just a little," he said, scratching his head with a chuckle.

"Your arms are so large-"

"Su Jin! Are you embarrassing the guests again?!" a voice called with the opening of a door.

"Halapoji!" I ran to the front door and gave him a hug.

He pat my head. "And how is my Sunye?"

"I'm great, halapoji," I said with a smile. "You remember Donghae oppa, right?"

"Now, how could I forget this young man? I'm not getting THAT old," he chuckled.

"Annyeonghaseyo," Donghae oppa bowed but halapoji grabbed his hand and shook it wildly and pat him on the back.

"Now, now. No need to be so formal. I've known you for how many years now, Donghae? Since you were this tall, right?" Halapoji placed his hand to his mid thigh.

"Ne."

Halapoji started leading him in the house. He opened the door. "Have you been working out?" I heard him say.

I laughed.

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Halmoni and halapoji's house, and my old house, you could say it was pretty old fashioned. It has a wooden, yet sturdy, exterior, two floors, a deck in the front which overlooks the mountains and in the back which overlooks the fields.  The interior was spacey with a lot of room to just walk around without having to turn mid step.

Oppa has been to this house so many times that he's pretty much considered the grandson that my grandparents never had, ha ha. You can just make yourself at home, is what they always tell him.

"The drive must have been long," halmoni said. "Come and have some tea. I made Sujeonggwa tea just for Donghae and Sunye and Chrysanthemum tea for us old folks," halmoni smiled widely.

Halmoni makes the best tea in the world. She was once going to open a tea shop but decided not to because she didn't want to leave the farm and everything halapoji and her worked on for so many years. Omma and I tried to learn her tea making skills but no success... yet.

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Halmoni and I rolled out the blankets and pillows from the closet and spread them out in the guest room; omma and I on one side and appa and oppa on the another. Halmoni went to find thicker blankets and I was left alone sitting on the bedroom floor. I rummaged through the bookcase full of books when Donghae oppa stepped out of the bathroom; my heart fluttered: wet hair under a white towel, a sleeveless t-shirt and jeans, a sparkling face... I hope my face wasn't involunarily turning red. I pretended like I wasn't affected by it.

"Oppa! You're going to catch a cold!" I grabbed the sweatshirt that was folded neatly on top of his bag and gave it to him.

He put it on. "Thanks, bunny."

"You should really blow dry your hair, oppa. You're not cold at all?"

"It'll dry before we sleep," he reassured.

I knew it wouldn't. I went to the bathroom and grabbed the hair dryer. "Sit," I told him. He did. I blow dried his hair while using my hands as a "brush". Oppa's hair was nice and soft with a beautiful brownish color to it that I haven't really noticed before until now.

"It feels better now, right?" I asked 3 minutes later when his hair was fully dried. I fixed a few strands of his hair.

"It does. Thanks, bunny," Oppa ran his fingers through his hair.

"Um-"

Donghae oppa's cell phone rung. "Yeobeoseyo?"

It wasn't on speaker phone and I still heard the obnoxious sounding "OPPA!" from the other side.

"What?" Donghae oppa sounded annoyed. "I'm on a trip right now.... I don't know when I'll be back.... I won't have time for a movie tomorrow.... I'm about to sleep right now.... 'Night."

I slumped to the floor. "Gyuri?"

"Sorry about that, bunny. I wouldn't have picked up if I knew it was her. She didn't call from her phone."

"I understand..." What else was I supposed to say?

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12 o'clock was pretty much the normal sleeping time here at halmoni and halapoji's house. Omma and appa conversed so much with them since we don't get to see each other often. I'm usually caught up in reading their books in the bedroom. It's like everytime I come here there's always so much more to read.

It's been 2 hours since I last talked to oppa. We just sat in the room in silence reading and flipping through the books and me walking in and out carrying drinks for us. I could tell he felt the same awkwardness that I did. There were so many moments where I wanted to speak up but didn't know quite what to say.

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I heard house slippers shuffling on the cold wooden floor and the sound of a door opening and then closing. I looked at my cell phone: 5 o'clock. I sat up. Mr Min was there. Mrs Min was there. Bunny was not. Sunrise would start in a few more minutes. Was she going to watch the sunrise? I looked over to her pillow; it was wet with little drops.

"Is she crying?" I said to myself quietly. I got up and tiptoed downstairs. She wasn't in the house at all. I ran outside and saw Sunye walking up the hill and through the woods. I ran after her without being seen.

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I wiped the tears from my face. This place, I used to go to it all the time when I was little everytime I got upset. Everytime I came here, I always came back before anyone even noticed I wasn't in the house anymore. At the very top of the hill was a small field with a huge trunked tree right in the middle. During the spring and summer, this place was gorgeously filled with flowers of all colors. But during the winter it was nothing but a desolate looking place, until it gets filled with snow.

My lungs stung from crying and breathing hard in the cold. I sat underneath the leafless tree and cried my eyes out. Who would hear me? No one knows I'm here. And then I felt a pair of warm arms around me; one wrapped around my shoulders from the back and the other in the front, its hands gently pushing my head to lay on the shoulder beside me. I didn't even need to look up or have my eyes open to know who this person was. The smell, the gentleness, the breathing pattern; who else could it possible be? I sounded like an idiot trying to stop my crying, trying to lessen my patheticness in front of him.

"Let it out," he told me.

Right then I started sobbing on his shoulder. I sounded pathetic and useless. I wanted to cease the crying but the more I resisted, the more flowed out. He wiped the tears that streamed down while rubbing my shoulders and whispering "It's okay, it's okay" over and over again.

I don't even know how many minutes passed until I calmed down. I didn't even know what to say to him at this point, I didn't know how to begin. My head still laid on his shoulder and his arm around mine.

"How did you find me?" I managed to say weakly.

"How do I not find you, bunny? Did you think I didn't know something was wrong?"

I had nothing to say to that. I wanted to cry again.

"Do you want to talk?"

"No." I sat up and wiped my face until it was dry.

"It's like we don't even know each other anymore."

I looked at him.

"What happened, bunny?"

I turned toward the sky. "I don't know."

"If it's something I'm doing that upsets you... If it's Gyuri, I'll just end it right now."

"I know you'd do just that if I asked you that. But I'm afraid."

"Of what?"

"What she can do.... I feel so inferior." I could feel the tears welling up within me.

Oppa squeezed me closer to him. "No one can harm you as long as you have me around. I won't allow that."

"Thank you."

We sat there like that; his arm around me, my leaning against him with my head on his shoulder, watching the shadows stretching, the sunrise. This would be the perfect time to tell him how I feel, but I just wanted to sit here like this for as long as I possible could.

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"I'll come visit again soon, halmoni, halapoji," I said as I hugged them.

"Make sure to bring Leeteukie and Ye Eunnie as well," halmoni told me. "I miss them a lot."

"I will."

"And bring Donghae of course. You two seem to be talking more this morning than yesterday. Did something exciting happen?"

"Not at all, halmoni," I blushed. "We just had an understanding, that's all." I looked at oppa. He was helping appa load the luggage into the car, such the gentleman.

"Sunye! Let's go. Traffic is gonna be terrible," appa called from the car.

"Alright! Be there in a second! Bye halmoni! Bye halapoji!" I kissed both of them on the cheek and ran to the car while waving back at them. Donghae oppa opened the door for me and I smiled at him. Did I mention how much of a gentleman he is?

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We got home at about 9 pm and were all dead tired. There was about 2 hours worth of traffic with 10 minutes worth of horn beeping.

"Thanks for having me, Mr and Mrs Min," Donghae said while getting out of the car.

"It's our pleasure, my boy. You're welcome to come with us anytime, anywhere, you know that right?" appa said.

"Thank you," oppa replied back with a bow.

"Would you like to sleep over tonight?" omma asked.

"I should really head back. Maybe another night."

"Well, be careful on your way back home." omma kissed his cheek and rubbed his arm. Appa pat his back. Oppa just smiled and bowed.

"I will."

"Well, we'll just leave you two now," omma said while leading appa to the house.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow?" I said.

"Yeah. The same place where we meet in the morning."

I took a step toward Donghae oppa and hugged him around the waste. "Gomawo, oppa."

He returned the hug. "What for?"

"For just being there for me... Since the beginning."


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Little did I know how often you keep watch over me.


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I"M BACK!!
Sorry for the long hiatus. I just really needed to get those applications in.
After the Kyuhyun- Sunye chapter last time, it's a full Donghae- Sunye one!!!
Sorry it was so cheesy XDD

If you want to know what's up with my fanfics and my progress on each chapter, please follow my twitter. If I get at least 3 readers to follow me then I will start tweeting my progress. My username is @momoanita

And I didn't proofread this chapter at all so there might be some spelling errors. I'll get around to re-reading it, but I just wanted to get it posted =]

The OST is getting there XD

Please comment all new, old, and silent readers!!!

12.05.10