"I... I...," Shin Hye started, her voice breaking, her tears falling.

Yong Hwa held her hand tightly.

"Tell me..." he begged. "Jebal..."

"Why... why did you ask?" she pointed out to him.

"Please answer me first," he begged. "Are you my best friend?"

"Geuge... Seohyun's your best friend, right?"

"Ani! She lied to me. I have been living in her lies all these times. Some of the things she said just doesn't make sense," he explained. "And I met the man betrothed to her."

"M...mwo?" she asked.

"That... that guy who boxed me... the man she called Marcus, he told me that you are my best friend... He told me that the next door neighbor is his aunt, and the son is his cousin..." came Yong Hwa, his words in a rush.

He explained how the event occured, how Marcus aka Kyuhyun told him.

"If I had not known, I could have courted Seohyun already... I love her, Shin Hye-ya, but she lied to me... and with my current condition, I think I find it hard to forgive her," Yong Hwa said.

Shin Hye froze when he said that he loved Seo, but she was relieved when he said he might not forgive her.

"I tried holding her hands several times, but it seems they don't fit with mine... they... they don't coincide with the memory of my hand being held by someone in the dark room... and... and I cannot even remember where it was, who it was, but I can still feel her hand on mine..." he shared in tears.

Seeing how difficult it was for him made Shin Hye remember her chat session with Jong Hyun. He had wanted to meet her before she came, and she realized it was because of this ordeal. Good thing, all were confessed in the chat, so there was no need for that session. Besides, it gave Shin Hye time to let the information sink in.

"Why... why did Jong Hyun and the rest withold the truth that you are my best friend?" he asked her.

Jong Hyun, that liar, he shared.

"Ani... Jong Hyun did not mean to hold back the truth," Shin Hye explained.

"But why?" he asked her, gripping her hands tight.

It was evident that he was hurting, but she was hurting too. She grimaced in pain and yelped.

"Ah...mianhae..." he said.

Shin Hye placed her hand on him, holding his in reciprocation.

"Jong Hyun was worried that since you remembered him a year later, there might be a chance that you will not remember me at all," she shared. "I, too, was angry when he confessed, but I tried to stand in his shoes to see why he did that. And it not only hurt you, it hurt him too."

"Shin Hye-ya..."

A knock was heard, and Shin Hye told that someone to come in. The door opened and in crept someone's head. Jung Shin.

"Omo, are the two of you fighting?" he asked.

"Ani..." Shin Hye said as she wiped her tears.

"Lunch is ready," Jung Shin told them.

"Ara. I cooked it," she told him back. "Just eat... and just let Seohyun eat as well."

"Uhm... arasseo," Jung Shin said before closing the door.

Finally, the two could have a moment to themselves. Yong Hwa, this time, held her hands again and looked into her innocent eyes.

"Shin Hye-ya, if you are my best friend, can you lead me back to where we started? Can you lead me to everything that we have been through? Can you tell me what things we did and why we did them?" he begged.

He felt Shin Hye's hands shaking in his grip, so he asked her, "Gwaenchanha?"

But she cried all the more. She could not tell him that she had been in love with him for long, best friends though they were.

"Ne... ne... I am your best friend, but things are too difficult for me, even from the start," she confessed.

"Too...difficult?"

But she cried still.

"Hokshi... niga nareul johahae (By any chance, do you like me)?" Yong Hwa asked.

One of the difficulties of being a girl is not being able to confess your feelings, no matter how many times you suffer. And in the process, Shin Hye shook her head.

"If you are my best friend, you tell me anything," he assured her.

He sealed her lips with his fingers, but he did not realize his face was closer to hers. As he felt her warm breath, he saw her blushes hidden behind the tears.

"Don't lie to me," he whispered. "I may not remember anything, but my heart had been telling me so bad that there was something or someone I was missing in my life... that there was this someone who had been there for me to hold my hand. And even if you are not the girl who held my hand in the dark, I feel that you are that someone that my heart had been shouting. Otherwise, it will not be bothered by your tears and your concerns for me."

"Yong... Hwa..." she sobbed, choking her voice. "That is just a feeling. What if I am not that someone?"

"Even if you are not that someone that my heart had been searching, at least I have a best friend that I can lean on," he said. "If it were not meant for me to be in love with another girl or get married, at least I have a strong friendship with my best friend, the one that can replace a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship."

Shin Hye still witheld the truth about her feelings for him, but what he said was just enough for the time being. There were many things to dwell, and getting into romantic mode immediately might spoil the essence of searching all the "missing pieces."

Yong Hwa wrapped his arms around her and caressed her back, and Shin Hye arched her neck so that she can rest her chin on his shoulder. And taking the lead, Yong Hwa slowly lay her down the floor, still hugging her so that both of them can lay side by side. Shin Hye brought up her leg to his leg like she was straddling him, and she, then, hid her face on his chest.

"Let's stay like this for a bit, Shin Hye," he assured her.

"We are acting not like best friends, but this is better than seeing this wonderful man wrapping his arms around somebody else," Shin Hye thought.

Then, Yong Hwa brought one hand to her thigh and patted it gently, rhythmically, like a mother putting her child to sleep.

"Let's just sleep, Shin Hye-ya," he whispered. "Let me enjoy my time with my real best friend."

Shin Hye did not know if he and Seohyun had been doing things this intimate during Seo's lies, but hearing that from Yong Hwa, she was relieved. As for Yong Hwa, he was glad that Seohyun was not the type of girl to get this intimate because she did not like too much skinship when alone. And Yong Hwa was glad that, if he had to give his heart, it will be to Shin Hye.

But Peter Pan did not end up with Wendy because she married. And good thing, Peter began to remember Tinkerbell.

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By the way, Chingudeul, this is not the "alone in the room" scene in the poll because the one in the poll will be in Shin Hye's room. So, vote now!"

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