Annyeonghaseyo, yeoreobun?

Yep, I want to see Shin Hye and Jong Hyun in a drama too. I don't know if they are compatible on screen though... But I guess they are. But of course, between Yong Hwa and Jong Hyun, I want Yong Hwa to be paired up with Shin Hye on screen for the third time.

****

Jong Hyun came home at five-thirty from school, passed by the zen garden, and stopped at the giant tree to look at the jay and her little birdlings. In the pocket of his uniform were some fruit-filled bread that he had bought from the money he had saved for lunch. He was willing to use 20% of his daily allowance for his needs, lunch included, the 50% for his parents, and the remaining 30% for Shin Hye.

"Mwo hae (What are you doing)?" Bo Young suddenly asked him.

"Uhm, nothing?" Jong Hyun said before doing ridiculous and grotesque arm and leg movements.

Bo Young rolled her eyeballs behind her thick mascara-beautified lashes. 

"Ugh! What a lame way to do zen, and you obviously do not know how to do it," she said before stepping to go inside the house.

Jong Hyun heaved a sigh, thinking he'd be busted. He looked at the whole near the wall of the house, and reckoned it indeed was the window to the basement. He got near the whole, knelt, and bent over.

"Shin Hye-ya, Shin Hye-ya!" he called out in a whisper.

Just then, the sounds of shuffling could be heard. Then an outstretched hand. It was her hand.

"Annyeong?" he greeted her.

It was obvious it was her hand. Could there be any other?

"Servant, your gruel is here," a voice farther near the door to the basement called out.

Then, the door closed. Jong Hyun heaved a sigh, thinking he'd be busted again. So, he held Shin Hye's outstretched hand and handed her the pack of bread that he had brought. Then, after taking the bread, the hand disappeared. The awkward nerd smiled as he adjusted his thick-framed glasses and stood up. It felt good to be smuggling food for his famished friend.

*****

Meanwhile, at Jaejoong's condo...

"Anio, anio, anio!" Jaejoong tiredly told the detective. "That girl you brought was a fake."

"But Jaejoong-ssi, that girl had all the clues that we have been looking for," the detective said.

"Anio... It really does not feel right," Jaejoong argued. "Something is fishy here."

Jaejoong had an ace on how to spot the fake Shin Hye. Most of the girls that had been brought to her did not look like the one that Jaejoong had in his picture, and a few had an uncanny resemblance. Jaejoong knew that the latest one was a fake one because the girl said her father was a Park Sang Shin, and Jaejoong knew that Shin Hye's father was Park Gong Chan.

"I think you forgot that I told you that her father was Park Gong Chan, not Park Sang Shin," Jaejoong said in exasperation.

"Joesonghamnidaman, in the first interview, she told me herself that her father was Park Gong Chan. And it is just now that she sang a different tune," the detective argued.

"She is obviously a fake," Jaejoong thought. "Why did she sing a different tone? And by this time, Shin Hye is twenty-two, just like Bo Young. This one looks like she is only nineteen."

So Jaejoong stepped out of his room and into the living room, where the girl was sitting. He knew what to do, and he smiled.

"Shin Hye-ya, are you hungry?" he asked as he smiled.

The girl nodded without maintaining eye contact. Jaejoong frowned in his thought. Shin Hye was a shy girl, and no matter how shy she was, she seemed to like looking into his burning eyes. But seven years had passed. Maybe Shin Hye did change. And he sat down.

"Shin Hye-ya, do you remember the pet name I usually gave you?" Jaejoong asked. "It had been years since we last met, because Aunt Hye Ri said you ran away."

The girl looked at him with questioning eyes.

"Aunt Hye Ri?" she asked.

Jaejoong smiled because he had caught the obvious fake. Why would Shin Hye call her step-mother as her aunt? And it seemed like the girl did not even know who Hye Ri was. But maybe, just maybe, because of the bad things that had happened to her, she chose to forget her past. Jaejoong sat closer to the girl and patted her on the head. The girl leaned back because she did not want someone to touch her head. 

"Did you remember the pet name I called you?"

"Uh... Honey Boo?" the girl asked back.

Jaejoong smiled. He knew she was a fake, and the real Shin Hye allowed him to pat her on the head. He invited her to dinner, and the girl ate just as like all the other girls that the detective had brought. Most of the fakes never got to eat dinner with Jaejoong, and only the few almost credible few had eaten with him. 

Finally, when the girl left, Jaejoong said to the detective that the latest was really a fake.

"So, is Jaejoong-ssi going to give up?" the detective asked.

"Anio. If Jageun Eomma was driving her away, I will be the one to take care of her even if she is not relative," Jaejoong said.

****

After dinner, Bo Young rushed to her room because she hated the sight of the nerdy guy. Hye Ri was with a socialite friend, and they stayed in the living room. Jong Hyun was supposed to study for a long test for tomorrow, but Hye Ri had him play music on the piano.

The geek tried playing classical music, much to the delight of the socialite friend. Next, he tried trot, and many other old songs. Because the songs were pleasing to the ears, the socialite friend smiled and felt her nerves calming down. She had been stressed lately becauseh her husband was investing stocks in the stock market, eyeing Samsung.

As the two ladies went on to talk, Jong Hyun looked at the watch. It was nine-thirty already, and he had a lot to study for. So he excused himself politely. He was able to get away but with some earful of harangue from the madame.

****

Jaejoong lay on his bed. He was not wearing a shirt up because he was feeling so warm, and his milky skin and choco abs were exposed for readers to swoon over. He leaned to the table next to his bed and opened the drawer. Then, he grabbed Shin Hye's picture and stared at it wistfully.

"Pretty Girl, eodi?" he asked with a sigh.

He had wanted to give up looking for her, but should a good family take her in, he would be grateful. However, he wanted to be the one to take care of her... and send her to a good school.

And perhaps, introduce her to his younger friends... and a wedding then for her and his friend.

Then, his thoughts went back to the geek residing in his aunt's house. If Shin Hye were found, Jaejoong would surely pair her with Jong Hyun. He had a liking for the younger man just as he was fond of Shin Hye.

"Pretty Girl, I hope you are all right..." he thought as he spoke to her in the picture. "I will not give up looking for you. You are one of my reasons for living."

****

The girl in question was listening to the piano being played upstairs. She was beginning to be impatient because it was near the time when Jong Hyun would come and visit her. However, a good hour passed, and the moon had moved from the sky, yet there was no sign of Jong Hyun. She was starting to be agitated because she had wanted to be with him already.

"Patience, patience," she thought as she crouched by the window, carving the wall with her revenges.

"Jong Hyun... eodi?" she asked.

****

Jong Hyun bit his lips in worry, so he slipped out of the room. Mdm. Hye Ri was still there with her friend, so he slipped to the back door to go to the zen garden. He knelt down the hole of the house and whispered to Shin Hye.

Shin Hye got up from her crouching and let go of her fork. Jong Hyun indeed was there, waiting for her.

"Mianhande, I cannot visit you tonight," he whispered. "Mdm. Hye Ri has a visitor, and if I visit you, she will punish me, and she will also punish you. She did not know I know about you."

Shin Hye looked at him in the darkness, yet he could not decipher because he could not see her face. He extended his hands so she could hold it. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently.

"Gomawo... I will sing for you," he told her. "Please wait for me and my song."

And she let go.

****

Jong Hyun sat at the corner of his room and started to strum his guitar. His soulfoul voice then sang to HowL's "Love U," theme song to "Boys Over Flowers."

He wanted to sing to her a lullaby, to show her his love in his own way. Of course, he had started to feel some sort of affection for her, more than a friendly one, though less than love. It was not pity too. It was not also love that we know of. And he wanted to show her that tonight, she was not alone. No more, Sir.

Shin Hye heard the strums of guitar and his soulful voice and looked up the ceiling. Her heart was moved to his voice that tears began to fall down her eyes.

"Alone, never again," she thought. "Gomawo... Jong Hyun..."

After the song, Jong Hyun sang "Illa Illa" by Juniel, and Shin Hye heard it again. After the second song, Shin Hye lay on the floor and wrapped the blanket around herself. She felt very comforted with the flimsy blanket, making use of it. She imagined it was Jong Hyun's warm comforting hug around her. And she closed her eyes for the night.

Hyunnie, meanwhile, yawned as he kept his guitar to continue studying.

****

And in Jaejoong's bedroom, he was still holding Shin Hye's picture in his hand...

~~~~