“Krystal’s sick?” Luna ran into the room, her cup of water splashing all over her hand. She put the cup on the table and sat on the side of the bed, clasping Krystal’s hand. “You’re burning!”

                “She has a fever,” Victoria explained, patting Krystal’s face with a wet towel. “Here, get up just a bit Krystal. I’ll tie your hair.”

                Luna watched with admiration as she saw how motherly Victoria was being. She seemed concentrated, as if her only goal was to make Krystal feel better.

                “Do you want me to cook up some porridge?” Luna thought of what she just said and remembered that she was terrible at cooking. “Let me rephrase that. Do you want me and Sulli to cook up some porridge?”

                “That’d be great but wait a bit,” Victoria smoothed Krystal’s bed sheets. “Amber went out to get some food and more medicine. And manager-oppa will be here any minute.”

                “Alright,” Luna continued to sit there, waving her legs above the floor, occasionally looking at Krystal whenever she coughed. Just as she was humming, the doorbell rang.

                “I’ll get it!” Luna heard Sulli yell as she ran across the living room. “Good morning, oppa! Krystal’s in our room.”

                “Thanks, Sulli. I have news to share so can you come in as well?”

                Luna jolted up.

                “News?” she asked as the manager walked in the room. “Good news?”

                “Well, it isn’t really good or bad,” the manager shrugged as he gently patted Krystal’s head. “I just heard around an hour ago that we’re all going to Jeju Island next week for some SM ‘family’ bonding.”

                “We?” Sulli piped up.

                “’We’ as in f(x), SHINee, SNSD, and Super Junior,” the manager explained. “Next week. So, Krystal, you have to get better by then, alright?”

                Krystal replied with a cough, and Luna was speechless.

SHINee? It’s already bad enough that I have to pretend to like him only a few hours a day, but spending days with him in Jeju Island?

Luna let out a long sigh and shook her head to herself.

-

                A week went by quickly, and before she knew it, Luna was already in the airplane on her way to Jeju Island. Amber was looking out the window, pressing her face against the cool surface. Luna was listening to her iPod, humming to Don’t Cry.

                She suddenly felt the presence of someone staring at her, and she quickly glanced up. Onew was only a few seats away, and he was peeking at her. Their eyes met for a moment, before Luna looked away. Her blonde hair covered her eyes and she looked at her laps, blasting up the volume of the iPod.

                “Hey, look!” Amber yanked one of her earphones off her ear and excitedly pointed at the window. “We’re arriving!”

                Luna smiled to herself and flopped herself on top of Amber’s lap to see outside. Only Amber would be this excited to see Jeju Island.

                “It’s such a pretty day, isn’t it?” Taeyeon spoke, peering back at them from her seat. Her face was glowing and she looked happy. “I haven’t been to Jeju Island for such a long time. We have to go to the beach, and we have to eat crabs, and-“

                 “-hey, hey!” Sooyoung swatted Taeyeon’s face away. “Didn’t we eat crabs a few days ago?”

                “Yeah, but crabs in Jeju taste better,” Taeyeon glared at Sooyoung and turned back to the two f(x) members sweetly. “We’re eating crabs.”

                Amber and Luna just laughed and watched as the two SNSD members talked back at each other. Although she felt happy to be at such ease, she couldn’t help but glance if Onew was looking, and he was. Luna quickly turned back to her SNSD sisters and Amber, facing her back against Onew.

-

                Onew bit his lip. The whole SM group had just finished eating crabs and was walking past the beach back to their hotel. While eating, Onew had desired to talk to Luna. But she had sat far away from him and never looked his way once. Now, as they were walking, Onew stared silently at Luna’s back. He reached out his hand to grab hers, but the people around them would find that weird. Giving a frustrated sigh, he was about to give up, but then he noticed that she had slowed down a bit to get some sand off of her shoes.

                “I’ll be there in a sec!” Luna called out to YoonA and Victoria, who were side by side, waiting for her.

                “Alright, then! Don’t take too long!” YoonA waved at her wildly, before grabbing Victoria’s hand and running to catch up with the others.

                Luna let out a happy puff of air as she bent to fix her shoes. Onew found this as his chance. Grabbing her hand, he lifted her off the ground, until she was standing, and ran. A startled Luna followed him, only because he was holding on so tightly to her hand.

                Onew kept on running until they were on the beach and behind some huge rock. He bent his back, huffing, as he breathed in gulps of air. Luna was panting, too, still shocked and surprised from what just happened. When Onew looked down, he realized that he was still clutching onto her hand.

                I haven’t held your hand for such a long time.

                Luna saw as well and yanked her hand from Onew’s grasp. She gave him a furious glare.

               “What was that for?”

               Onew opened his mouth and tried to search for words to say. He closed it, and opened it again.

               “I wanted to talk to you. No, I need to talk to you.” Onew blurted out.

               “Really?” Luna looked at him with such an intense stare that it startled Onew. He began to reach out so he can touch her face, but his hand faltered mid-air and fell back to his side. She moved her head, so she was staring out at the vast ocean in front of them. “You’re the last person I would’ve thought that would ‘need’ or ‘want’ to talk to me.”

               “It’s been years. Don’t you think we should-“

               “No,” Luna interrupted him. “You just don’t realize it, don’t you? How much pain you made me go through, how much you hurt me…these aren’t things that we can talk about. Do you understand that?”

               Onew reached out to hold her, but Luna scooted back. He looked down at her trembling hands, and realized she was digging her fingers in her palms. Quickly, he grabbed her hands and looked at them. They were red and marks showed that she had been digging her finger nails in her hand palms constantly.

               “Get away from me!” Luna violently tugged her hands away from Onew, making them lose their balance. Luna and Onew fell on the sandy floor, and Luna ran her fingers through her hair.

                For a while, they didn’t speak. The gentle sounds of the waves and the breezy humming of the wind were the only sounds that were made.

                “We never loved each other, did we?” Luna’s sudden quiet voice startled Onew. His heart fell like it shattered into pieces.

                “We did love each other,” Onew whispered hoarsely, his voice thick and cracked.

                “No, you’re wrong,” Luna’s face was far from the excited, hyper girl she usually was in front of TVs. This Luna in front of Onew frightened him. Her face was so sullen and serious. Luna continued, “Our relationship was nothing. If our relationship had meant something to you, you wouldn’t have dumped me as soon as you heard you were going to debut.”

                Onew felt like yelling out all of his frustrations.

               I didn’t want to break up with you. I never wanted to leave you. But what could I do? If I had continued to meet you, SM would kick you out of the company. I’d rather you fulfill the career you always wanted, instead of being with me.