I stared at the ceiling above me dejectedly. The ceiling fan clicked and whirred as it turned against my every will. It had officially been three days and my fiancé hadn't called. Maybe he had cold feet like I did or we just broke up the moment I got on that plane. I didn't particularly like either option. 

 

"Youngjae, I'm coming in!" I called as I kicked open the bathroom door. 

 

"What part of 'I'm in the shower' do you not understand?" Youngjae asked, bewildered, as he poked his head out from behind the curtain. 

 

"I understood all of it. You're in the shower and I'm out here. Pass me my face wash?" I said matter-of-factly. 

 

"I hate you. Usually when people are in the shower, other people know not to barge in." I could practically hear him roll his eyes as he stuck his arm out of the shower with my face wash. 

 

"You should know by now that I'm not usual." I laughed and turned the sink on. 

 

"I try to ignore it." Youngjae laughed. 

 

At that, my heart ached. Those were the words I had said to him about his feelings for me. He probably hadn't meant anything, but the pain was real. Despite the way I acted, I really regretted leaving Youngjae. If I had stayed, I wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe if I stayed, I could have been happy with Youngjae doing all the crazy things I always did. But maybe if I stayed, Youngjae wouldn't have followed his dreams to become a singer. There was no way to know anything and the uncertainty killed me. 

 

"Dinah, I didn't mean it," Youngjae said softly when I didn't respond with my usual banter. 

 

"I know. Sorry, I've just got a lot on my mind. Char didn't call and I'm a little hurt even though it's my fault." I laughed shakily. 

 

"Char?" Youngjae asked as he turned the water off. 

 

"My fiancé," I said and washed the soap off my face. 

 

"Ohhh." Youngjae sighed. 

 

"I'm leaving now. Sorry for barging in, brat." I smiled and closed the door behind me. 

 

"I hate you!" Youngjae called after me. 

 

I smiled and headed over to the couch. When had that become our script? For as long as I could remember, he was always a brat and he hated me. Those words were so familiar as if we were part of a play that hadn't been rehearsed in ages. Through all this time, we were still so similar to how we were. Sure now he was an adored star and I was an emerging fashion designer, but we were still the same high school kids we were before we parted. 

 

"Hey, let's go out today." Youngjae spoke from behind me, making me jump. 

 

"Put a shirt in first, dummy." I smirked when I turned over to look at him. 

 

"Jae's trying to show off!" Daehyun shouted from the other side of the room. 

 

"Daehyun, I could hit you right now!" Youngjae tried to look menacing, but laughed instead. 

 

"Tryna show off your abs, buddy boy? Huh? Huh?" I teased, poking him in the stomach. 

 

"Dinah, stop!" Youngjae laughed, doubling over. 

 

"Never!" I cackled evilly and began tickling him. 

 

"I won't buy you ice cream if you continue!" Youngjae warned to which I immediately stopped. 

 

"Brat." I muttered. 

 

"I hate you." he huffed. 

 

"So where are we going?" I asked, grinning from ear to ear. 

 

"Wherever you want. You need a day off from yourself," Youngjae said, patting my head. 

 

"Let's go back in time!" I exclaimed, plopping back down on the couch. 

 

"I'm going to correct myself: wherever you want that is possible." Youngjae rolled his eyes. 

 

"No, I mean go back and do all the things we did before. Like go walk around and window shop, buy some ice cream, then eat it at a park until the sun goes down." I stood up excitedly with a hopeful glimmer in my eyes. 

 

"Sounds perfect." Youngjae smiled easily as he pulled a shirt on. 

 

"Let's go then!" I exclaimed, pushing thoughts of my absent fiancé out of my mind. 

 

~~~

 

The sun was setting as Youngjae sat at a bench finishing his ice cream and I swung by my legs on a set of monkey bars. A cool breeze was starting to blow and tickled my face with my hair. This here was perfect. I wanted to freeze this moment in time and stay forever. This life with Youngjae that was simple with no strings attached was perfection. I couldn't help but long for our childhood to come back to us as I stared at the horizon. 

 

"He didn't call, did he?" Youngjae's voice called me back to Earth. 

 

"No, he didn't." I laughed easily, trying to brush it off. 

 

But as I hung upside down, tears began to stream down my face in a torrent of emotions I couldn't understand. Wiping hastily at my face, I hoped Youngjae wouldn't notice. Of course, that was a stupid thing to hope for. 

 

"Hey, hey. It's alright. You can call him and I'm sure he'll pick up. He's probably just nervous about calling." He comforted, grabbing me in his arms and carrying me down to the bench. 

 

"Youngjae, shut up you aren't helping." I sniffled and wiped my face with my sleeve. 

 

But he was helping. I was just afraid to admit that I was wrong. I didn't want to delve into this realm of rocky emotions where I had to compromise the things I wanted to do. My way of life was to always do what I wanted when I wanted to. This whole engagement thing was really throwing off all of that. 

 

"How did you and Char meet? I know you're not the type of girl to be nailed down to a single person. I'd like to know how this guy tied down such a free bird like you," he said and my hair softly. 

 

"I didn't want to date him." I huffed. 

 

"What?" Youngjae's brow furrowed as he looked down at me. 

 

"It was a publicity stunt to explain how I got on the runway at the Paris fashion show." I explained. 

 

"You got on the runway? Wait, the Paris fashion show that got you all of your recognition? Dinah, something tells me you getting your design out there wasn't part of the itinerary." Youngjae sighed. 

 

"Yeah. I kind of snuck on during the finale as the last design in my own dress. I didn't even know how to model and I just strutted out there like I belonged!" I laughed. "Of course, I got in big trouble. But my design was all the press could talk about."

 

"That still doesn't explain why you're dating Char," he said curtly. 

 

"The company needed to come up with an excuse as to why I was on the runway because everyone knew I wasn't a model. They said I was dating one of their models who taught me how to walk the runway." I shrugged. 

 

"So that's when you and Char had to start pretending to date?" Youngjae asked. 

 

"Yeah. He actually had a crush on me and as we got deeper in, I started liking him. Then he proposed and I was an idiot and here we are now." I sighed. 

 

"That's quite the complicated story you little devil." Youngjae laughed and flicked me on the forehead. 

 

"It is indeed..." I sighed again. 

 

"Let's call him tomorrow and we can see what happens then," he said and grabbed my hand as he stood. 

 

"We won't have to wait that long..." I bit my lip. 

 

Youngjae turned and raised an eyebrow at me. I simply held out my phone for him to see. The illuminated screen flashed a name as the phone buzzed. 

 

Char