Daehyun waited patiently for Hei-Ryung to work up her nerve, then followed the trembling girl through the venue's back door. They were at least thirty minutes late, but Daehyun was unconcerned; though normally he would be beaten to within an inch of his life by Yongguk for holding the practice up, the moment the elder spotted Hei-Ryung he would turn completely around and forgive her for everything. Granted, that didn't ensure amnesty for the crime of tardiness once Hei-Ryung had left the partnership's presence, but that was a bridge Daehyun would concern himself upon actually arriving at it.

     "Yongguk!" Hei-Ryung flinched as Daehyun raised his voice and called out to the rapper on stage. The man's attention was fixated on an obscured female figure helping him move some of the equipment, though, so the only acknowledgement Daehyun received was a short nod from the elder. It was enough to satisfy him, though. After patting Hei-Ryung on the shoulder- and immediately flashing her an apologetic smile when he noticed how she flinched- Daehyun jogged toward the stage and took the steps two at a time. With a broad grin, he slipped into the woman's place and took over carrying the speaker for her. Immediately after he had gotten a comfortable grip on the heavy piece of equipment, Hei-Ryung could hear Yongguk scolding him for a number of things. Daehyun remained unfazed, however, and when Yongguk paused to take a breath, the target of his complaints cheekily apologized to Yongguk for making his girlfriend do the heavy labor.

     As Yongguk stumbled over a variety of curses to begin his denial of romantic affiliations, the "girlfriend" in question stepped off the stage and made her way around to the front. It was the first time Hei-Ryung had managed to see the girl's face clearly, and immediately she recognized the features of yet another young lady that frequented the nightmares of Hei-Ryung's adolescence. The world truly was a small place when you were suddenly confronted with two of the aggressors of your past all in the same month. Biting down on her lip, Hei-Ryung shuffled behind a pillar and tried to plan her escape. She could always apologize to Daehyun later for causing him so much trouble and then bailing before she could even learn anything about the life of a performer. Maybe she could stick to simply interviewing him about his experiences from now on, and thus avoid any further possible encounters with Yongguk and his lover.

     Why had the thought that the Song Jieun of her past and the Song Jieun in the e-mails could be the same person?

     "Because the country is a big place and there is bound to be more than one girl by the name of Song Jieun living here," she immediately reasoned, slowly beginning to back toward the exit. "Besides, the Jieun I know is so... different from the one who sent me those e-mails. She would never be caught dead talking about romance, let alone politely asking for advice about it..." It didn't appear that Jieun had seen her yet, so if she was quiet and quick, she might be able to make it without drawing any unwanted attention.

     Most unfortunately, Hei-Ryung was so nervous that she couldn't bring herself to move very quickly, and Daehyun wasn't exactly known for being a quiet man.

     "Oh, Yongguk, I almost forgot!" Daehyun exclaimed as he helped ease the speaker into its place on the stage. "I brought Hei-Ryung along with me!" Whether he truly had forgotten to announce Hei-Ryung's presence or he had noticed the look in Yongguk's eyes as the elder relieved himself of the burden that prevented him from throttling Daehyun was inconsequential; whatever the motive, he had drawn the attention of the room onto Hei-Ryung, who had straightened up immediately and tried to pretend as though she hadn't been about to make an escape.

     She wasn't very subtle, though, and Yongguk immediately picked up on her discomfort. "Why did you drag her along with you?" He demanded, lightly hitting Daehyun's shoulder.

     "I asked if I could come," Hei-Ryung quickly explained, not wanting to get Daehyun in trouble for something he didn't do. If there had been a way for her to justify getting him in trouble for ruining her attempted escape, however, she would have allowed it. As much as she appreciated Daehyun, she couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed with him for ratting her out. His heart was in the right place, though, so when Daehyun smiled at her she forced herself to return the expression.

     Yongguk, only mildly mollified, nudged Daehyun in the direction of another speaker. "Well, it's nice to see you again, Hei-Ryung," he called over his shoulder, keeping one hand on Daehyun to keep him steadily on course.

     That only left Jieun. Wrapping her arms around her waist to try and keep from shaking, Hei-Ryung turned to face Jieun. Surprisingly, the other girl looked just as horrified at seeing Hei-Ryung. Still, Hei-Ryung didn't feel very reassured by the mutual shock they were experiencing.

     When both girls had recovered, they sat down in the middle of the floor- making sure to keep a decent amount of distance between themselves- and avoided making eye contact while behind them, Yongguk and Daehyun started setting up the microphones. The boys' practice would give them an excuse to refrain from speaking to one another, but as technical difficulty after technical difficulty prevented them from starting, Hei-Ryung realized with a sinking feeling that she was going to have to speak with Jieun.

     "So... how have you been?" The sentence came out as words thrown together with no real meaning to glue them together, leading to a choppy mess that barely managed to clumsily flop its way out of Hei-Ryung's mouth. Immediately, she regretted having opened at all.

     "Alright." The response was abrupt and to the point. Nodding, Hei-Ryung focused on breathing and abandoned any hope of keeping up a conversation with Jieun. The girl was obviously unhappy about seeing her again, and if Yongguk hadn't been there, Hei-Ryung might end up just as bloody and bruised as she had back in high school. Closing her eyes, Hei-Ryung began to silently thank God for creating Yongguk when her thoughts were interrupted by Jieun. "Why did you help me? You should hate me, and yet you still did so much for me. Why didn't you just ignore my messages?" She was hesitating. Raising her eyes to snag a glance of Jieun, Hei-Ryung was surprised to see the other girl looking genuinely concerned about the answer she might receive. Jieun was scared... of Hei-Ryung.

     Blinking, Hei-Ryung took a moment to gather her thoughts. Worried about the pause in their discussion, Jieun opened to apologize for bringing it up but quickly snapped it shut again when Hei-Ryung began to speak. "I never suspected that the Jieun who was sending me the e-mails was the same Jieun who had tortured me in..." she trailed off and widened her eyes. She most certainly should not have worded that sentence the way she had. Scrambling, Hei-Ryung began frantically paging through her brain's thesaurus, questing for a word that could be used to quickly and tactfully replace the one she had just used. "I- I just m-meant to s-s-say that you... that I..."

     "It's okay. You should be angry at me." Jieun agreed matter-of-factly, crossing her legs so that she was sitting more comfortably. "Back then, we were a bunch of stupid kids- not you, me, Sunhwa, Hana, and Hyoseong. Shouldn't have mattered, though; even for a bunch of morons, we were out of line," she scoffed at the Jieun of the past. "We treated you like garbage, and yet here you are forgiving us for it." Glancing over at Hei-Ryung, Jieun noticed the confusion beginning to etch its way onto Hei-Ryung's face. "Sunhwa told me about her meeting with you and how you forgave her for everything. Do you really forgive us for everything we did to you? I mean, I know we almost drove you to do something that no one would be able to forgive us for... not even God, I guess. Are you really okay with all that?"

     Hei-Ryung shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She still felt like the little girl with the sopping wet uniform, surrounded by a bunch of students much bigger than herself. That was in the past, though. She had moved on. But... "No. No, I am not okay with any of it. I am nowhere near being alright with even the smallest aspects of what you did to me." Jieun nodded meekly and moved to stand, realizing that this conversation was going to a very bad place. "But I do forgive everything you did." Jieun froze and stared at Hei-Ryung. "I forgive you, and all the other girls. I will never be okay with what you did, but I recognize that you're trying to move on. It would be unfair of me to leave you behind while I continue moving toward the future. I won't be the reason you remain in the past."

     "You really are a writer, huh?" Jieun chuckled, sitting back down. "Never thought I'd hear something like that in an everyday conversation."

     "I wouldn't exactly call this an everyday conversation," Hei-Ryung hazarded, peeking over at Jieun from the corner of her eye.

     "True." And with that, both girls went silent. Though neither of them had never believed they would be in a position to hold this conversation in the first place, they must have had some sort of expectation that had failed to be met. The heart-to-heart they had just experience seemed far too blunt and short to have actually counted, yet neither of them felt like rehashing through it to try and find the hidden nugget of gold their minds suspected to be there. So they remained quiet and listened to the grunts and complaints of Daehyun and Yongguk as they manhandled their equipment around the stage.

     After the two had finished setting the stage, they disappeared into a back room for a moment. This allowed for a complete silence to fill the room, and immediately put both girls on edge. Clearing , Jieun glanced around the room for some sort of a conversation starter. Hei-Ryung, on the other hand, took the opportunity to address something that had come to mind during the silence.

     "So you and Sunhwa are still in touch? How is she?"

     "The is doing well enough for herself," Jieun replied offhandedly, shrugging her shoulders. Shocked that Sunhwa's former friend would refer to her in such a way, Hei-Ryung didn't attempt to prevent her jaw from dropping. Catching the expression, Jieun chuckled. "Right, forgot who I was talking to. I didn't mean that in a bad way," she amended. Immediately, Hei-Ryung closed and pretended as though she had known that all along.

     "So... she's doing better?"

     Jieun sighed. "She decided she wanted to be a model."

     The implications behind that simple statement hit Hei-Ryung hard. She had suspected that Sunhwa was still afflicted by the disease that had laid claim to her body back in their high school days, but there had been a sliver of hope that maybe Sunhwa really had just needed to use the bathroom for usual bathroom activities. Tucking her hands into her lap, Hei-Ryung fought back the urge to cry. She was outraged with the universe for being so unfair. What had been the point of putting herself through all those years of misery if Sunhwa never got better? Hei-Ryung had done everything she possibly could have for Sunhwa, and yet nothing had changed. She hadn't gotten better. She was still suffering. None of this was fair to either Hei-Ryung or Sunhwa.

     "Why can't life be like books? People may go through hard times, but they're always rewarded in the end. They always find their happy ending." Sniffling, Hei-Ryung bit down on her lip to stop it from trembling. She wasn't going to start blubbering in front of Jieun over something like this. Yes, it hurt, but Sunhwa wasn't her problem anymore. They had no relationship now that they had graduated. They weren't classmates, or friends, or even acquaintances. They were total strangers who happened to bump into each other. "Still... I wish I could help her."

     While Hei-Ryung composed herself, Jieun watched the boys return to the stage and start testing out the microphones. Yongguk mumbled a quick "testing, testing," into the microphone and was satisfied, but Daehyun... Currently, he had both microphone and microphone stand in his hands and was parading the two up and down the stage, spouting the worst jokes she had ever heard before so they would be heard throughout the entire room. Shaking her head, she avoided making eye contact with Daehyun in the hopes that this would discourage him from continuing his display. He was unfazed by how unresponsive his audience was being, however, and it wasn't until Yongguk forcibly removed the microphone from him and replaced it that he realized he hadn't been as funny as he believed. Grinning sheepishly, Daehyun bowed quickly to the two girls- only hesitating for a moment when he saw the look on Hei-Ryung's face- and took his proper place. Behind the stage, someone pushed the play button and started the music.

     After listening attentively for the first verse, Jieun began rummaging in her purse and pulled out a book. Though the title was obscured by Jieun's hand, Hei-Ryung recognized the cover art as belonging to one of her older books. Blushing, she turned her attention away from Jieun and hoped the girl hadn't noticed Hei-Ryung's expression. Although she knew that people throughout the country read her books, it was an entirely different- and embarrassing- matter to actually see it in person.

     "Would you mind signing this?" Suddenly, the book had materialized in front of Hei-Ryung's face. Leaning back in surprise, she followed the arm holding it and found Jieun. "I mean, since you're here and all." Turning sheepish, Jieun began retracting the book but was stopped when Hei-Ryung carefully removed it from her grip and opened it to the title page.

     "Do you have a pen?" Hei-Ryung hesitantly asked, but Jieun had already produced the requested writing utensil from within her purse. Smiling, Hei-Ryung accepted the pen and began carefully writing down a message.

Song Jieun,

Although we've met in the past, I feel as though I'm just now getting to know you. Everyone regrets at least some of their past, but very few people are willing to acknowledge and seek forgiveness for their mistakes. If I were in your shoes, I'm not sure I would be able to approach myself; you're very brave, and I appreciate that. Thank you for apologizing for what was done in the past, and I hope we can both keep heading toward a better future.

Wishing you happiness

~ Cha Hei-Ryung

Author's Note

It's been a while, hasn't it? Honestly, I meant to update more frequently during May, but things got so hectic that I could never find a moment to sit down and write. If I could have, I would have just stopped going to school and focused on this; writing updates for DDTTD is much more enjoyable than endless high school graduation nonsense. Still, everything is finished, and I now have three long months of summer to look forward to! ^-^

Since I slacked off for so long, I was thinking I would try and update more frequently than every Saturday (hence today's update!). I won't make any promises I may not be able to keep, but that's the plan so far! Thank you all for bearing with me! I've missed all your lovely comments while I've been gone! TT^TT OH! And I've almost reached forty subscribers for the story! *cheers* Thank you to everyone who is supporting the story! I'll do my best to not disappoint you! <3

EDIT: Well... Not doing a very good job with that whole don't disappoint thing, am I? I hadn't even realized his ridiculously short this chapter was. Hopefully the next one will be better!