"Do you know a Song Jihae?" Jongin's gaze was heavily fixated on you, his brows just slightly furrowed and his lips pursed together with worry that he was making a mistake. Baekhyun was right. Telling you the truth about your boyfriend wouldn't make him a hero, wouldn't make you choose him either. But Jongin knew it was the right to do, the non-selfish thing to do. He watched every inch of your reaction, your eyes flicker up, not yet in his direction but at the seat next to him. Your eyes then slowly shifted to his and your hand resettled almost uncomfortably in your lap. 

Song Jihae? It only took you a moment or two to register the name, remembering her from the very few instances that Baekhyun spoke of her. He always had spoke highly of her. How they had once dated years back and broke up because she had to move away. How in a way Jihae had changed him, bettered him. The way he spoke always had made you a bit suspicious, but understandably so. It's never easy to forget your first love. Hell, even you sometimes had trouble doing so, but meeting Baekhyun made a lot of those thoughts of your first love disappear. Sometimes you would wonder what he was up to, how he was doing, but rarely so. Jongin's fixed gaze brought you back to reality, brought you back to question her name again. Why was he asking this? How did Jongin even...

"I know of one, yeah, but she lives back in the states." You weren't really sure where he was going with this, but you were certain that he had to be speaking of a Jihae who lived in Seoul, as that's where Jongin was from. Oddly, his shoulders seemed to tense, then relax as he spoke again. "I do too. She's a family friend of mine, born here, moved to Boston, then Baltimore, right?" If your thoughts hadn't just been racing, then they certainly were now. So Jongin knew Jihae, Baekhyun's ex, and now you're dating Baekhyun, and living in a shared villa with Jongin...Small world. But what made him guess that you knew her? I mean, you didn't even really know her, you had just heard of her because Baekhyun dated her once upon a time. Maybe Jihae had spoken of Baekhyun to Jongin before? And Jongin meeting Baekhyun the other night had made him realize the connection? 

"Look, I'm not sitting here waiting for you to make conversation with me. I'm sitting here waiting for him to recover." You looked at him for a few seconds, making sure he understood before you lifted your hand and began inspecting your nails again. Jongin had no reason to lash out on Baekhyun like that, and for that reason exactly you refused to speak, or even look, at him further.

Jongin sunk back into his seat and rubbed one of his hands against his face in silent frustration, resting his cheek against his palm afterwards and staring at his thighs. The pressure against his wrist brought a throb of pain to it, reminding him again of the fight that took place only hours ago. He sat straight in his seat again and held his strained hand in his left, slowly glancing over at you again and rolling his eyes at the way you picked at your nails. He knew he had to tell you because what if Baekhyun didn't? What if Baekhyun leaves here and you still don't know? It was best to have you find out while he was still here, that way you could both decide together what was going to happen. 

"This isn't an attempt to break the silence, ____. I'm trying to tell you something." He stood from his seat and moved into the one right across from you, forcing you to look at him. You did have to wonder why his question hit so close to home. "I know you're angry about what I did and think it was for no reason, but trust me, I wouldn't just snap and fight him like that unless I had a reason." Your hand lowered once again and you sighed, deciding to listen to whatever he had to say. Deep down, you knew you were avoiding him because the topic of her intimidated you. 

"This isn't easy for me to tell you, but I doubt he will so...Jihae moved back to Boston this year for school. She got accepted at Harvard..." Your heart starting racing and so did his. Part of him couldn't believe he was actually the one saying all of this right now. "When I was helping Baekhyun move his stuff upstairs, he had his phone on top of one of his bags and I heard him get a text. I wasn't going to check, but I had to move the bag anyways...It said her name and naturally I got curious because I knew they both are going to Harvard. I figured, how many Song Jihae's could live in Boston and go to Harvard? He must know her. He wasn't around so I read the text preview and...She was addressing him as 'yeobo'. I don't know, I thought maybe it was joke or something, but I unlocked his phone to read the rest and she wanted to know when she could call him. She knows he's here, but it doesn't seem like she knows that he's here with you."

You stared at him in complete shock and silence. Could you even believe him? This was all so sudden and...No, there was no way. No way that Jongin could have made this up. Jihae was now somehow someone they all knew. Even if there was a chance he could have conjured this up, surely the texts would still be on Baekhyun's phone to prove it. 

"Do you remember the night you went through my phone and you asked me who Jihae was because she had texted me?" Your hands immediately covered your face when you realized it. He was right. Jongin had even told you then the Jihae he was texting back then was going to Harvard. You should have immediately known then. How could you have been so stupid? Your hands remained on your face, covering your eyes so he couldn't see the tears that began spilling without hesitation. She called him yeobo. She knew he was here. She wanted to call him last night. He's been in school for four months now, how long had this been going on? How many times had he lied to you? How many times did you fall for it? Obviously every time. Baekhyun never seemed like one to cheat, but you always wondered if there was more to Jihae that he had told you. You knew she was special. How could I have been so stupid?

When your hands finally fell from your face and exposed your tear-ridden cheeks, he inhaled deeply and fumbled with his hands slightly, not sure if he should leave his seat and comfort you or say something. You're not a hero here, Jongin. He had to silently remind himself, his head hanging a little as he gazed at the space of floor between their shoes. Nothing he could say would make you feel better either, so he settled for, "I'm sorry, ____." It was a quiet mumble, but he knew you heard it because the comment made your shoulders shake and more tears spill. 

"Are you sure, Jongin?" You whispered back in question, looking up at him briefly, covering your face with one hand when he nodded somberly. He even had texts from Jihae sent to him about Baekhyun to prove it. He had been stupid to not realize sooner too.

The two of you sat there for several minutes in silence while you broke down, Jongin still sitting on the edge of his seat in hesitation to comfort you. When someone who came out of the room next to Baekhyun's and sat almost next to Jongin, you lifted your head and looked to the side to wipe your tears. You never liked it when someone saw you cry and hated it even more when they stared at you when they did see you. You glanced over at the curtain surrounding Baekhyun's hospital bed. Knowing it was the only thing that kept you from bursting in there was too tempting. Way too tempting. You jolted out of your seat and walked swiftly towards the pale yellow, swinging it open at your grasp. Jongin's head snapped up when you moved from your seat and he was behind you almost the second you stood. 

The sight of Baekhyun with stitches in his lip and his head resting against a pile of pillows rendered you silent for a few moments. You waited and watched him, expecting some sort of glimpse of guilt to show on him. But it didn't. His eyes shifted from the TV and to you, widening a little at the force displayed on the curtain. "Yeobo?"

"Don't! Don't you ing call me that! Stop lying to me. Stop acting so calm! How could you?" You took a step forward and Jongin grabbed your wrist, keeping you at bay. Baekhyun sat up and immediately tears of his own began to form, glancing once at Jongin before back at you again. He couldn't say anything. What could he say? He had no right to fight for you. No right to apologize. "Huh?!" You struggled against Jongin's grip as new tears formed and you fought to approach Baekhyun. You wanted so bad to slap him, to show him what he deserved, to make him realize how much you didn't deserve this. But Jongin kept his hand on your wrist and fixed his arm around your waist. You went limp against him and sobbed, staring at him through blurred vision and a pained expression. "Why wasn't I good enough? Why did I deserve this?" The words even pained Jongin to hear them, causing him to let his guard down for a moment. A moment was all you needed to break free from his hold. You reached with your right hand and slapped him across the face as soon as he looked up at you. Jongin quickly ran over as a nurse ran in, having heard all the commotion. He grabbed you again and turned the both of you around, wheeling you out of the room and past the curtain. 

"Get a hold of yourself, please." He tried to calm you as you fought against him, finally pushing away from him to take a few steps away and down the hall. Everyone around you was staring and that was enough to make you realize your place. Jongin watched you walk away with furrowed brows, the nurse rushing next to him to ask him what had happened. "Nothing. Your patient can explain it himself." 

He kept his distance as he followed you down the hall, making sure you weren't about to do something unstable. But when you lead him outside and to his car, he realized then that you knew he had been following you. 

"Take me home." You said behind you and waited at his car for the doors to unlock so you could get in.

---

The ride home was a silent one, as to be expected. You got out of the car before he did and went inside, up to your bedroom. When you saw everything of his there and remembered the events of late last night, you left and closed the door, heading into the second bedroom that belonged to Jongin. You're sure he wouldn't mind. You closed the door behind you and began to quietly cry again, crawling into his bed and pulling the comforter on top of you. 

Jongin sighed as he left the car and went inside, seeing your shoes near the door already. He figured you were in your bedroom when he saw you weren't around and the house was too quiet for you to be anywhere downstairs. He locked the door and slowly made his way up the stairs and towards his bedroom. Both of their doors were shut, stopping him for a moment to question it. Their doors were almost always left open when they weren't in them. He ignored it, guessing he must have shut his sometime this morning. He opened his door and stood their in surprise when he saw you laying in his bed. The sight rendered him silent, but tugged at his heart and feelings again. You went to his room to cry. Maybe he didn't understand why, but he knew for sure that he couldn't resist comforting you anymore.

The door shut behind him and he made his way over, pulling the comforter open on the side you weren't on to crawl in next to you. He lied there, unmoving, for a few moments, just to see how you would react to him in the bed with you in the first place. No reaction. Slowly, he slid closer and gently, but securely, wrapped an arm around you, fixing you against him. The least he could do was at least be there for you. Maybe he didn't have the right words to say, but he could at least show you that you weren't alone. He'd cry with you if it made you feel better. Call in sick from work if it would help. Maybe you'd realize his feelings for you like this, maybe it wasn't the best of times to realize, but the probability of you moving back to the states after this was nearing by the minute and he couldn't ignore that fact. If you didn't at least know, then he'd never know what could have been, and that wasn't something he wanted to live with wondering. 

"____?" He whispered and furrowed his brows, knowing there wasn't going to be a better time to tell you after this.

"Hm?" The sound broke slightly in your voice and he looked at the back of your head before closing his eyes and moving his forehead against it. "I didn't tell you all of this because I'm selfish and because I like you. I know the thought of you even being able to form feelings for me after this, or ever, is probably impossible but...I can't have you leave and then never know." 

Your eyes squeezed when he spoke the truth that you already knew. You were sick of hearing the truth. 

"I know," You swallowed your tears for a moment so he could hear you, "I know." Maybe there was a part deep down that felt the same way for him. Maybe you were meant for him. Maybe this all happened for a reason. Maybe you left Boston and Jihae returned for a reason. Too many maybes and not enough definitelies. You couldn't give him a definite answer. "I don't think I can stay here, Jongin, but I don't think I could go back either. Too much of Boston would remind me of him." Seoul was your dream and here you were living it. There was a man who loved you here, a complete new start here. But back home was everything. Your family was there, your friends, your life. It was home.

You sighed quietly as you outweighed your options, wanting most to just sleep and forget all of this for awhile. 

"Please just be here for me, Jongin."

Your words pained him several times over, but he nodded against your head, wondering to himself what the right option for you was. Either way, it seemed he was right. Maybe you would stay, maybe you would leave, but you definitely couldn't love him. He was finally faced with the reality that Baekhyun pictured for him, but that was the risk he took in telling you. If it was him, he'd most likely go home, just to feel like he was somewhere he belonged, where he knew people and they knew him. Where his family was and always would be. Whatever you'd choose in the end, he'd understand.

"I will."