The morning seemed brighter at Jihyo’s apartment. She was already listening to Kim Jongkook’s songs while making sunny side up eggs and preparing some kimchi on her table. She ate breakfast quickly without dinning on the table and at the same time picking out an outfit to wear before she went out. After she was done with all that, she went in front of the mirror and groomed herself while putting on some toner and sun screen lotion. She wore a flowery white patterned hem dress while she slipped on white regular flip flops. She checked herself in the mirror, she admired how she looked. “Pretty!” she uttered to herself.

Before she had left her building, she received a call from her secretary Kwangsoo who was whining on the phone about things she left to do for work. She told him that later she’d do all that once she gets home. She was not that concerned about things in work because she told herself that she’d take a break. By the time she went out the building, she hurried to the subway station to meet up with Jaejoong at the Met Museum. She was so eager to go to the museum so she had asked him a favor to go with her there.

Flashback:

“Don’t worry, it’s not a date!” she insisted.

It was that night after they first met when she said to meet her again a week later. “I don’t like crowded places though.” He said thinking deeply about what may happen when they go there.

“Let’s go early at 10:30, there won’t be a lot of people.” She really insisted of going, “I’ve always wanted to know more about the western civilization. I’ve never got the chance to go there.” She said.

At some point in Jaejoong’s mind, it did not really concern him that much, but seeing how Jihyo really wanted to go he thought about it again. “Okay. Let’s meet there next week.” He said.

“Okay! I’ll call you.” She said before she waved leaving.

End

She had already arrived at the museum 30 minutes earlier. The Met had just opened up and there were a couple of people going inside. Jihyo took out her phone and called Jaejoong, “Are you on your way?” she asked him.

For a moment he was silent over the phone, “Sorry, I don’t think I could make it. Did you arrive there?” he asked.

She felt her heart frozen while she started thinking deeply, “A-Ah no, I just got out of my place. I was on my way.” She stuttered while gathering her thoughts.

“That’s good. Something suddenly came up. I’m going back to Seoul…” he paused for a moment, “Everything should have been settled now, so I’m thinking about starting over again with her.” He continued.

Jihyo covered the microphone on her cell phone before she sighed deeply. “O-Oh, okay. Good luck with that!” she tried to empathize with Jaejoong, “As long as you had your mind set to it, you’re going to do well.”

“Thank you, I should have called earlier but I got caught up with things.”

“Alright, I get it.” She exclaimed.

“I’ll see you back in Seoul.”

After she hanged up she stared blankly while thinking. She was being in denial of the fact that she felt shunned, but out of all of that she tried her best to deny that feeling of disappointment. She stood at that staircase while watching every car passing by the road. She had the same thought running in her mind over and over again. “What was I actually expecting?” she sneered at her own self.

-

Jaejoong had returned to Seoul and the first thing he did was wait for Yoona in front of her house.  She should be returning home after work. Surprisingly, he saw her walking towards her house with a man beside her. The tall man held her extra bag while they chatted along the way. By the way they talked to each other, he knew right away that they weren’t just ordinary friends. The tall man beside her was rather more timid whenever Yoona’s eyes would catch his. They were blissful in each other’s presence.

“Yoona-ah” Jaejoong appeared at the corner while making an eye contact with the man beside her. The man beside her was a bewildered with Jaejoong in front of him. He recognized Jaejoong right away after seeing him in TV and so.

Yoona realized that Jaejoong was eyeing at the man beside her, “Oppa, why are you here?” she called his attention.

“Oppa?” the man beside Yoona was dumbfounded, “Kim Jaejoong is someone you know?” he asked.

“Mhm” Yoona turned to the person beside her, “Yoochun-shi, wait for a moment.” She said then walking towards Jaejoong.

She stood in front of him while she had one of her arm crossed holding on to the other. “Why are you here?” she asked without making an eye contact with him.

“Let’s start over, I’m not going to get married.” He said he tried to grab on to her arm but was stopped when she stepped back. “Yoona-ah…” he was confused with the way she was acting towards him.

She bit her lip and said, “Oppa, do you still not get it? Don’t force me with this kind of things, I really don’t like the way you’re acting right now.”

He became silent, her cold words struck everything that he had already set in mind. He wanted to start over, he knew that his feelings would not change but because he still hoped things to turn back to the way it was before he became discouraged. Her eyes showed her she felt, she felt regretful to the words she said. But she knew that the truth hurts, she knew that they wouldn’t be happy together. Jaejoong saw through her, a lot had changed, her feelings where antagonizing her decisions. He didn’t want her to be feeling that way towards him. “Let’s talk another time.” He turned around and walked away.

-

In the club, Jihyo had been letting her disturbed mind go free from all the thinking she had been doing in New York. She thought of the trip to be something she was getting away from but it turned out that she came back to Seoul with mixed thoughts about the good times that she had spent there. That very short time she had spent with Jaejoong there repeated continuously in her head.

She reminisced those times she spent growing up becoming a strong woman. She lived up to her father’s expectations knowing the fact that she came from a chaebol family. She stopped fantasizing about an ideal life, knowing that she isn’t very ordinary because of her family background. She was rational about her decisions especially with making relationships. She never had a close friend or a relative that she got along with. She knew that Kim Jaejoong was no different from her, but she admired that part of him where he was bolder with expressing his feelings.

Her way of getting out of her own complicated world was going far away or going to the club. She followed the rhythm of the beat with her body while she dances her heart away. “Isn’t that Song Jihyo?” a bartender said with a loud tone for his coworker to hear.

“She’s back?”

“Gary-hyung needs to know.” The bartenders snickered while they took out their phone to call their boss.