18

Jieun let out a smile, feeling amused by Daehyun's surprisement upon finding out that she was already in Busan—even ever since three days ago.

"Yes," she replied, taking a cold coffee out of the vending machine before continued her walk. "It's been days, Daehyun."

"Wow," he gasped, sinking into silence for a moment before saying, "you're really determined."

Determined—Jieun didn't know whether she should felt proud about it or not.

She knew it was useless to argue about the wrong and right things but the only thing that made her regret the most was that she had to hurt so many people off of her decision—particularly, Junhong.

Out of the people that she knew, he was the only one that she didn't want to hurt the most, remembering everything that he had already done to her and every single moments that they spent together—she just couldn't shrug them off and pretend that everything was already in the right order. Though, as much as she wanted to apologize, she realized it was way much better for her to never meet him again.

To never disturb him again.

"Kind of," she pursed her lips, not knowing what to say.

"So have you met him?" he asked, straight to the point.

And for that question, Jieun could only sighed in desperation.

She had already walking around the town for days and asked the folks about where he might be but she still found nothing as result instead. She was totally lost—yet she didn't have any place to turn back as well.

"Not yet," she sipped on her coffee, still wandering her eyes through the crowds. "I don't know his address."

In the other side, Daehyun bit his bottom lips in depth consideration, wondering what he could do to help that poor girl. He didn't know about Yongguk that well—even he got trouble on finding his address to send their reunion invitation before—and the truth that he never talked to him in personal way didn't help anything at all.

But as his eyes rolled to the other side of his working room, where he could see his old high school photos neatly plestered on the pastel-coloured wall, he realized he had been missing something since then. He should have remembered about it earlier—that he and Yongguk got the same best friend.

"Ah," he exclaimed, slowly smiling to see the way out. "I know. I will ask someone about it."

Jieun blinked once, surprised of his sudden idea. "What?"

"I know someone that is really close with him," he explained while shaking his head in disbelief. "I can't believe I forgot about it."

Even though Jieun didn't really understand what he was saying nor who did he refer as someone who is close with Yongguk, she eventually smiled in delightful to hear a little hope that was coming from that former class monitor. Despite it still wasn't clear enough if everything would go like what they hoped, she truly felt thankful of his kindness to help her. Without him trying to dig in why she was really obsessed to find that guy.

"Thank you, Daehyun-ah," she sighed in relief, smile still hadn't leave her face. "I'm really thankful for everything."

"Don't thank me yet," he turned his chair, running his fingers over the computer mouse to open his e-mail account. "I don't think helped that much."

"But still, you are trying to help me," she reasoned, now began making her way through the crowds.

"Alright, alright," he chuckled, giving up right away. "So what are you doing now there?"

"I'm going to take—" before she could finish her answer, she felt someone was roughly bumped into her from the opposite direction, causing her to lose her balance and ended up dropping her phone into the ground—between the crowds where she couldn't stop people from stepping on its screen.

"Oh gosh," she mumbled, trying to find her phone that was poorly lying on the ground but right when she was about to pick it up, the guy that was bumping into her took it first, looking like wanted to fix his mistake.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, giving back the phone for Jieun with his well-mannered attitude.

"No, it's okay," she shook her hand, tilting her head back a little to see his face before she stunned for a short moment in complete surpisement.

She couldn't believe she could met that guy again.

"Yoo Youngjae-ssi?" she made sure, dumbfoundedly.

The guy looked taken aback for a moment since he wasn't prepare to meet someone that he knew personally but after he squinted his big eyes a little to make a better view, a warm smile raised on his face, recognizing that girl who interviewed him about weeks ago. "Jieun? Choi Jieun?"

Jieun chuckled, feeling so happy that he still remembered even just her last name. "It's actually Song Jieun."

"Oh, right!" he let out a brittle laugh while nodding his head, before quickly remembered something that was happened just a moment ago. "I'm really sorry for your phone!"

Half-heartedly, Jieun took her broken cellphone from his hand, little did she knew that there's no way it could be properly working again moreover after being kicked and stepped for multiple times. Yet, meeting one of the people that she respect the most was cost much more than a phone for Jieun so she didn't really think of it and just shoved them inside her bag instead. She believed she still could find the way to save the contact number and would be able to tell Daehyun about the matter later too.

"No problem," she convinced, with a smile hanging on her face.

"I'll buy one for you soon," he promised, not necessarily wanting an answer. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh," she took a short pause, didn't know what answer she had to give. It was just impossible for her to tell him about her private problems but she couldn't think of any possible reasons at the moment. She could only stay in silence, forcing a smile on her face.

And it wasn't that hard for Youngjae to see things behind her layered emotion.

Though, he couldn't really force her to speak the truth to him as well. The only thing he could do was to take her little time, maybe helping her to feel better with a simple talk—he believed. "Well, what about a cup of coffee as my apology?"

Jieun watched the waiter pouring the black coffee to each of their white cups, feeling nervous to find that she was literally being inside of a small coffee shop with those famous young composer.

Yes—she knew that they had ever talked before and had a cup of coffee too but the whole emotion of both situation was just too different. If they only met for working purpose before, they came to have drink together as friends now—if not, maybe as acquaintances.

It just felt so weird for her—moreover of the fact that she wasn't even a journalist anymore.

"Do you have a good time here?" he opened up the conversation, stiring the spoon inside of his cup to blend the sugar.

"Yeah," she smiled, moderately. "It's good."

"Are you coming here to look for someone?" he directly jumped into the main point, right before she could adjust to the whole situation.

And so, Jieun could only stare at him with disbelief, wondering how he could figure it out that fast.

"You were on the phone," he explained, after taking a sip of the coffee. "For someone that is usually busy in working days, there's no way they would turn on their phone in the middle of their free times."

She knew she must felt terrified by the way he analyzed her appearance in such short time but instead, a smile was shown through her lips as she wondering how could he put attention to detailed things like that—somehow amazed her in a weird way.

"Really?" she chuckled, leaning forward a little to wait for his further observation.

"Two, your fashion looks terrible," he joked, making her giggling as the only response before going on, "and you keep bringing that book since then."

Letting out a brittle laugh, Jieun nodded her head to accept his explanation before stating her reason, "I can't turn off my phone. It makes me feel weird. And, besides my working clothes, my fashion always look terrible."

"So, you do realize it," he grinned.

"I do," she confirmed, before going into his third point, "but you're right about this book."

Pressing his lips together, Youngjae showed off a victory smile to know that his guessing was eventually right. "A guy?"

"A married guy," she added.

And slowly, Jieun saw him losing his smile as soon as he heard her answer, showing that he didn't expect such answer at all.

"You like him?" he made sure, in case he read it wrong this time.

"For the whole ten years," she smiled, a bitter one. "I was referring to myself that time."

Remembering their past interview made Youngjae realized that she was indeed indirectly asking advice from him since those weird questions weren't published in the magazine in the end—which was something that he wasn't really aware of.

"Are you going to confess your feelings?" he asked, a little doubtful.

"I've confessed to him week ago," she replied, later shrugged her shoulders in cluelessness. "But he doesn't reply anything."

"Then, do you think he likes you back?" he asked again.

But Jieun didn't have an answer for that one.

"Maybe he used to," she muttered, yet later adding her answer in hesitancy, "I can't seem to understand him. Never."

With years of creating love songs and involved in several kind of relationship before, Youngjae could see something from her story, that he found to be a little weird but interesting at the same time. "What will you do if you finally found him?"

Truthfully, Jieun didn't know what would happen if she finally met him again as well. She just needed to find him, and be true to her own feelings. That's all.

"I will confess my feelings again," she replied, after a short moment of thinking. "And ask for his honesty too."

"And whether he is really happy or not," she later added, with a smile hanging on her face. "That's the most important thing out of all."

Hearing her sincerity made Youngjae smiled in warmth, didn't know that she was such a kind-hearted woman at first. She looked tough, and unbreakable outside and he always thought she was a self-centered person since her cold face just giving such misunderstanding vibe to everyone, he believed.

"That's a good question, but," he tilted his head to the side a little, "do you ever wondering why does he have to lie to you?"

"Because he doesn't want me to involve on his private life?" she shrugged, cluelessly.

The latter smiled, finding out that she never thought about it beforehand.

"According to me, he only did it for two reasons," he stated, confidently. "One, he just want to respect his partner in such way or,"

Jieun stares at him, curiously waiting for the second point while that guy was only smiling thoroughly, clearly showing his general calmness.

Which somehow made her feeling like he could literally read everything that she had on her mind.

"Or two—he wants to nicely disappear from your life."

"Ah—hello? Hello, Yoseob?"

The latter finally replied through the phone, sound a little careful to accept those unknown calls. "Hello, who is this?"

Daehyun smiled widely, leaning his back against the couch in complete relief. "Hey, it's me, Jung Daehyun."

"Wh-Daehyun?" Yoseob squinted in confusion, surprised to suddenly hear those name. "Is this really you?"

"Is there someone out there that wants to be my faker?" Daehyun mumbled, a little vexed up. "This is totally the real Jung Daehyun."

Daehyun could hear his laugh—and some random mumbling that he couldn't really hear clearly before his voice got into the speaker back. "How can you get my number?"

"Because I'm fabulous," he quickly replied, grinning so wide to acknowledge his own ridiculous side. "But honestly, I only want to ask you something."

"I should have already know what type of person you are," he mumbled, before coming back into his normal voice, "what is it?"

"It's about Bang Yongguk," Daehyun sighed, resting his head on the couch. "Do you know where he lived now?"

"Bang Yongguk?" Yoseob parroted, a little surprised actually. "Why?"

"Well, I have an important things to do with him," he reasoned, randomly. "It's just really urgent, really."

"Ah," Yoseob nodded, knowing the latter didn't feel like telling him about the matter. "I don't really keep in contact with him lately but the last time I talked to him, he said that he is working in an agency now. Not sure about his position, though."

Daehyun's eyes quickly opened up in excitement, later pulling himself to reach for the ballpoint and paper from his desk. "Can you tell me about the agency's address?"

"Wait a minute," Yoseob said, carefully put the phone between his ear and shoulder while his both hands busily running through the files. "Are you going to congratulate him? Or sending him special gift?"

Daehyun blinked, both eyebrows lifted up a little. "Why would I?"

"You don't know about it or you're just being timid?" he chuckled, still struggling to find the address.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Daehyun frowned, becoming confused.

"Birthday," Yoseob pointed out, slipping his hand under the books to find the paper. "Yesterday was his daughter's birthday."

Daehyun, who didn't expect Yongguk's secret marriage before literally had no idea about what did Yoseob mean by "his daughter". It surprised him to the point where he had to take more than five seconds to process everything inside of his head only to say "what" as the response.

"You really have no idea about it, right?" Yoseob laughed, starting to type the address through the e-mail messanger. "Check your e-mail."

"Wait," Daehyun straightened his sitting position, got completely clueless. "So, Yongguk really has a daughter now?"

"Yes," Yoseob nodded, even though the latter would not see it.

"Then I'd better tell her about this first," Daehyun muttered, more likely to his ownself yet it turned out that Yoseob could hear him somehow.

"Who?" he curiously asked, both eyebrows slowly raised.

"Jieun," Daehyun answered, hesitantly. "She wants to meet him so I help her to find his address."

"Jieun?" Yoseob furrowed, feeling so much familliar to that name. "Song Jieun? That high school rose?"

"Right," Daehyun sighed, tiredly. "I think she got important thing to be said."

No—Yoseob could slightly figure out what was Jieun going to say to Yongguk. He was there behind them when they were both still teenagers and he saw how complicated their feelings were at the moment. Even though it was already years ago, even though most people had already consider it as the past—just from what Yongguk said to him when the last time they met, Yoseob knew both of them were still clinged into that memory, without any efforts to leave it behind.

Or actually they did try.

"Don't tell her about his address," he finally said, slowly.

Daehyun frowned, "what?"

"Don't tell her," Yoseob repeated, now sound so much explicit than before. "Just don't tell her anything about Yongguk. He won't like it."

"Eeyyy, I got a lot of money~~come here, I'll give some to you,"

"You're so drunk," Junhong hardly groaned, dragging his fellow working friend into his apartment room. "Hey, where's the key?"

"I will beat the supervisor's face with my ! Choi Junhong is my !" the drunk guy exclaimed, later loudly laughing until he choked and coughed.

Hearing his honesty from the drinking impact made Junhong threw the elder into the floor, right in front of his room's door. It wasn't the first time for him to hear such hates that was coming from his own partner afterall but it still felt so hurtful somehow—moreover when he was in a bad mood like this.

Without saying anything, Junhong turned around and leave the apartment still with his own clouded mind, not aware of the people around him at all. He drove his white car through the night street, following the route from behind another cars, swaying between the sparkling lights from the skyscrapers and busy stores on the side of the street—everything on his way to the place that he thought was home.

No. He knew what made his days gone worser was not because of the backstabbing from his teammates, nor his tight schedule that causing him to have no time to come back home. It was because of something else—that he tried to hide with a bunch of continuous works, that sometimes he would try to pretend that he never had before.

Something that he willing to forget the most.

Coming out of his car, Junhong walked inside the apartment's lobby in such slow yet steady steps, barely showing his liveliness. It was when he was about to press the lift button that the receptionist called him for multiple times, before he finally turned to see what was she up to.

"Song Jieun-ssi came here days ago," she informed, not really showing any expression. "And it looks like she left something on the locker."

Junhong's eyes that had been slightly drooping since then slowly got its light back, even just for a short moment. Without replying her nor simply saying thanks, he walked towards the locker and slowly opened the case, getting a little nervous to know that she was coming here after their break-up—which was something that he didn't expectat all.

Until he saw what was actually placed inside of the locker.

A small black velvet box.

Junhong had already know what was actually there inside of the box but still, he took the box by his hand and opened it, only to see the perfectly crafted ring that he bought for her before. The eternity ring that he thought might be able to represent their relationship.

But he was wrong.

Everything was already over.

They weren't together again—and perhaps would never met each other anymore.

Everything has passed.

And nothing's left anymore.

"Choi Junhong-ssi?"

Sweeping his thoughts away, Junhong turned after heard someone was calling his name, finding a young delivery guy was standing in front of the receiptionist desk, looking like still in the middle of the talk with the lady. Junhong kept looking at him, wondering if the person that he was looking for was really him or not, yet he didn't remember ever order anything before.

Soon, he watched the receiptionist lady pointed at him followed by the delivery guy's stare that was precisely arrived at Junhong, making him sure that those guy was indeed looking for him.

"Excuse me, are you Choi Junhong-ssi, lived at room 814?" he asked, peeking on a small piece of paper that he held for several times.

"Yes," Junhong muttered, still trying to figure out who might send him a gift when he wasn't celebrating any important days.

"Ah, please sign here," he gave him a black ballpoint, later pointing at a small space below the printed words.

"I didn't order this," Junhong told him, just in case that guy was wrong.

"Yes. This is Song Jieun-ssi's order. But she told us to give this to you once it arrived," he explained, taking back all of the receipts as soon as Junhong finished signing them all. "Thank you."

Great. Guess everyone was trying to remind him of Jieun.

Junhong's eyes slowly running through the specific date of the transaction, and got a little surprised that it was ordered around months ago—a typical limited branded stuff of course.

Moving the receipts aside, he unwrapped the pack in a quick move, before finally found out that it was actually a pair of black dress shoes—surprisingly.

"You really need a new pair of them."

Ah—he did remember.

She ever mentioned about how worn-out his shoes became and that might be the reason of why she decided to buy a dress shoes for him. She was indeed such a caring and loveable person—and it hurted him a lot that he had to receive this kind of warmth after their break-up.

It hurted him so much.

"I want to believe in us."

"This mean a lot to me."

"I can't love you this way."

"Let's just break up."

No.

Junhong realized he had already make a wrong decision.

He should have prevent her from leaving, should have acted much tough that he didn't want them to separate.

He should have fought for his own feelings too.

They would survive if only he tried a little harder—if only he was being a little patient.

He had choose the wrong decision.

The worst one.

That causing him to regret about everything.

And now, he would try to fix it.

He would fix everything in order to make her come back to him again.

He promised he would.