23

"Daddy, daddy! Will you stay here with me today?"

Yongguk glanced at Sarang, still with both hands peeling off the apple. "Yes. I've promised, right?"

"You're usually busy! Did you leave your works because of me?" she excitedly wondered, showing off her reddened puffy cheeks.

Yongguk chuckled. "Daddy trashed them all."

"I want to visit the agency too! You said it has a lot of fun things—is it something like doll or toys?" she innocently wondered, keeping her eyes fixed on her daddy.

"No," Yongguk sat on the chair next to her bed, putting a slice of apple into before going on, "it's like instruments. Piano and violin. Aren't you love singing? You can sing all you want there."

Sarang munched on the apple with her eyes rolled up into the ceiling, somehow showing that she had some thoughts inside her small head. "I think it's not fun."

"Why?" Yongguk smiled, stuffing another slice into .

"Because I can't sing," she mumbled between, "my friends say I have a terrible voice."

Yongguk let out a soft laugh, didn't expect her to being that honest.

"You have a nice voice, though," he later stated, caressing her light brown hair with his right hand.

"Really?" she tilted her head aside, "was father good at singing?"

Yongguk paused for a short while, yet he immediately put back his smile on like he was already being used to that kind of sudden question. "Not really."

Sarang blinked twice before muttering, "what kind of person he was?"

"He's a nice person," he smiled, looking straight into her eyes. "I guess he was."

"Mom never wants to talk about him," she pursed her lips, showing her little annoyance.

"Are you that curious about him?" Yongguk chuckled, stuffing the apple into again.

"How am I supposed to not care?" she asked back, with a serious expression on.

Meanwhile, Yongguk just wordlessly stared at her, wondering whether he should feel proud or sad of the fact that a kid her age having such mature thinking like that. It hurted him so much—but little did he knew he couldn't play on the role for the rest of his life as well. She had the right to know, and he had his own right to continue his life.

But even when those kind of thoughts crawled into him like this, he found no way out for both of him and Hyosung to be free from the things that tangled them together. Perhaps it just wasn't the time yet—or he was just afraid if he might took another wrong decision in the end.

His biggest opponent was his ownself afterall.

"Do you love Mom?" those words slipped off from her small lips in a sudden, breaking all of his thoughts down in one instant moment.

Yongguk looked at her, smiling. "What do you think?"

Sarang shrugged. "How can I know if you didn't tell me?"

Then, Yongguk could only laughed at her bluntness. It wasn't like he didn't know the answer but he just felt amused that a kid like her could read through him even after all of the shields that he built, for all this whole time.

And it was the first time he saw the resemblance of her father on herself.

"What should daddy say, seriously?" he grinned, resting his head on his palm against the bed.

"Ahjussi," she corrected him, slowly forming a smile on her face afterwards. "I should called you that way, right?"

Jieun was wandering around the convenience store alone that morning, after she sneakily left the motel when Junhong was still asleep.

She just wanted to pay off everything that he already did to her with preparing breakfast for him—something that she had never done before and although she could only served him a pack of coffee flavoured bread and a can of milk, she hoped that her sincerity would delivered to him somehow. She literally felt bad for him afterall. She didn't even deserve his kindness like this yet if she was allowed for being honest, she didn't want him to completely erase her from his life as well—and she wouldn't mind being called selfish for that.

After having all of the items she looked for on her hands, Jieun was about to go to the cashier when her eyes accidentally met with those girl's cold, and unreadable gaze.

She was looking different from what Jieun remembered and she had to take a second before figuring out who that girl was.

Jun Hyosung.

They didn't move, nor exchanging smile. They just looked at each other, and it felt like forever for Jieun. She really wanted to just run away instead yet she didn't know why her feet wouldn't want to move at all. It was like both of them got something to say, but none of them wanted to take the chance first.

Until Jieun awkwardly threw her a thin smile.

But it didn't seem to melt the situation yet.

"Why are you here?" Hyosung asked, without even a little smile on her face.

Jieun bit her lip, knowing she must already knew her reason from the way her expression remained straight since then. "I got something to do."

She smirked, "with Yongguk?"

The truth that she was Yongguk's wife made her unable to answer her question. She literally made her felt like a disturbance of their marriage—yet Jieun didn't have any right to against her thoughts.

"Don't worry," Hyosung said, taking some apples from the counter into her cart. "I don't mind about it."

Jieun looked away, still didn't know what better to say at the moment.

"I'm sorry if he couldn't see you often," she continued after she finished picking up the apples. "Our daughter is sick. He is now staying at the hospital to accompany her."

Jieun looked at her back, both her eyes widened a little to hear it. "Daughter?"

"Yes. He didn't tell you?" she tilted her head, "she is already five this year."

Jieun didn't know what to say, how to response her statement, or what kind of face she should have showed—but one thing that she was sure of, she finally knew where her exact position was.

"I don't really understand what happened between you and Yongguk," Hyosung sighed, walking closer to Jieun whose still standing there wordlessly. "But I don't like it if you keep looking for him like this. I'm sorry for being too selfish."

Jieun shook her head, slowly. "No, it's okay."

Hyosung smiled, taking one more step closer to Jieun before gave those girl a hug. Jieun couldn't hide her surprisement of her sudden act and was about to move away when she felt something warm was slowly absorbed into her clothes.

Which made Jieun's heart aching a little to realize what she has done to their small family.

"Thank you, Jieun," Hyosung whispered, with her slight trembling voice. "Thank you."

"I guess I'm wearing too formal," Jieun whispered to Junhong, just a moment after they arrived at the charity event where Jieun found out that it was actually just a simple event held on a park—totally different from what she expected.

Junhong smiled, examining her pastel blue dress and white flat shoes for a moment before saying, "not at all. You look really pretty."

Hearing his answer made Jieun lightly hit his arm, but only got his laughter as response instead.

"Why? You look so happy," Junhong asked, in the middle of their walk around the park.

Jieun glanced at him with a smile on her face before pointing at a takoyaki stand in the front. "I want to try that."

"Let's try it, then," Junhong agreed right away.

"Ah—Jieun! Song Jieun!"

Both of Jieun and Junhong turned upon hearing someone called out loud that name, finding the composer Yoo Youngjae was throwing his hand in the air at them.

"Let's go," Jieun pulled his hand with her, aiming to go to that guy's direction.

"He must be really like you," Junhong said, sound a little jealous somehow.

Jieun chuckled. "We have a lot of similarities."

"I see," he muttered, didn't have any chances to say more as they were getting closer to that guy.

While Jieun could only gave him a glare.

"I'm so happy you two can come here!" Youngjae said, showing his genuine smile that could completely warm up everyone's heart.

"I'm so excited when Junhong gave the invitation to me," Jieun grinned, feeling a little awkward.

"I hope you enjoy this event," he said while handing them two voucher cards, which originally just given to the membership or staffs. "This is my treat. Don't tell the others."

Jieun chuckled, accepting the cards without thinking twice. "You just made my last day here becoming so memorable."

Youngjae looked at her, a little surprised. "You will go back to Seoul today?"

Secretly, Youngjae glanced at Junhong that was standing behind her without saying anything before looked at Jieun back. "Did you already find that person?"

Jieun let out a smile before answering, "I did."

"So?" he asked through lips movement.

"It's over," she patted his back once, wanting to convince him that she was truly being honest. "Everything's already over."

Youngjae opened his mouth, wanting to ask something more but he cancelled it anyway since he didn't think he should jumped into other person's life like that. No matter how much he actually cared about those little girl.

"I hope you enjoy your time here," he finally said, before taking a quick glance at Junhong and realized something was being left forgotten since then. "Ah—you want to see my friend, right?"

Junhong glanced at Jieun whose cluelessly looking at him first before putting a thin smile on for that guy. "Yes. I would like to."

"You should come with me. He won't stay here for a long time so we have to be hurry," Youngjae told him, later making his way ahead first for Junhong to follow.

Jieun was about to ask him what did they mean by that when Junhong cut off her unsaid question with a smile. "Stay here. I'll be right back."

"Do you love Mom?"

Yongguk looked at the plain blue sky from the side of the park while leaning against the chair alone, deeply filling his lungs with the smokes from cigarette between his fingers. His eyes tiredly followed every slight moving of the thin clouds—getting farther and farther from him, slowly but sure. And he found himself actually sinking into his own world without he realized.

Deeper, and deeper.

"Did you ever like me?"

"Ah—here you are!"

Yongguk turned, finding Youngjae was walking closer to his direction with his wide steps and he began wondering what happened. He thought that hyung wouldn't need his help on those event like what he always said to him ever since weeks ago.

"What?" Yongguk muttered, with both eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"Someone wants to see you," he smiled, turning his head to look at the guy behind. "Come here."

Yongguk tilted his head a little to peek behind Youngjae's back, before slowly raised his eyebrows in surprisement to find out who the person was.

"How are you, Bang Yongguk-ssi?" Junhong smiled, slightly bowing down his head.

"Uh," Yongguk stood up, clearing his throat once before replying, "how are you?"

"He is my friend's boyfriend. He has huge interest to underground music and I think you can share your experience with him, right?" Youngjae explained, unaware of the awkwardness that was built up between the two. "I'd better leave now. Take your time."

Yongguk carefully waited for Youngjae to walk away first, making sure he was already out of their sight before looking at those tall guy back.

"So you really come here," Yongguk muttered, pressing the cigarette down against the bench as soon as he sat down back.

Junhong smiled. "So she did tell you."

Yongguk didn't say anything until Junhong casually walked closer and sat on the other side of the bench, not taking even a glance before saying, "why do you want to see me?"

Junhong stared at the half-burnt cigarettes on the ground, knowing the guy next to him must be on a problem somehow. "Smoking is not the way out."

Yongguk chuckled, slowly looked away to the other side. "Didn't you guys already broke up?"

"Does it even matter to you?" Junhong asked back, wasn't even planning to act nicely.

Yongguk finally looked at him in the eyes, sticking a forceful smirk on. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here with a 'friend'," Junhong carefully replied, "isn't this such a perfect coincidence?"

"Why—" Yongguk sighed, clenching his teeth for a moment before going on, "I don't even understand whether you come here because of Jieun or Hyosung."

"I don't even understand why do you even put Hyosung's name on," he scoffed, obviously showing his disapprovement. "I'm here because of you."

Yongguk looked at him, giving him a questioning stare.

"Your indiscreet," he added, hanging on a humourless smile. "Don't you know what's the reason of our break up?"

Getting thrown those question made Yongguk shifted his eyesight to the ground, little did he know the answer somehow yet he didn't want to admit it anyways.

"Because of you, Bang Yongguk. She left her career in Seoul and even threw me away whose been with her for this whole eight years just for you," Junhong told him, quickly taking a pause for a moment when he felt his voice getting louder. "But what are you even doing now with that girl?"

"That's none of your business," Yongguk muttered, taking out another cigarette from the box but right before he could light it up, Junhong already snatched it away from his hand.

"I stopped smoking for a reason," he said, word by word. "Because Jieun can't stand smokes. Do you even know about it?"

Yongguk snorted, shaking his head in disbelief. "I don't understand why do you really want me to get back with her. If you really love her that much, you should be thankful of my decision."

"I don't want to rob an empty house," he stated, "and I don't want to win just because there's no other opponent too."

"Weren't you the one that left her alone before? And now you blamed me because I left Jieun?" Yongguk raised his voice, getting controlled by his temper.

Junhong smirked, already knowing that he would brought that thing up. "I left her because I was her trauma."

The frowns on Yongguk's forehead slowly disappeared, replaced by his confused gaze that was indirectly asking what did he mean.

"It's not because of her father—it's me. She expected me to save her that time.She cried my name over and over again but I was nowhere to be found. She thought that I didn't save her," Junhong pressed his thin lips while feeling those memories slowly corrupted his mind back, yet he refused to take all of them and quickly changed the topic instead. "That's why I don't want to leave Jieun no matter what—even after we broke up like this."

Everything was so different from what Yongguk thought before. All this time, he always thought Junhong left Hyosung because he didn't want to take part of her dark side but he was proved to be completely wrong now. And he didn't even know what to say anymore.

"Maybe you are thinking that you are the right person to protect her after everything that she went through but you may be wrong," Junhong said, with his low and straight tone. "She will never be able to live by her own. She will always need someone to protect her and to give her support whenever she need it and you can't stay with her for the rest of your life. She needs to start learning how to protect her ownself—not using someone as her shield instead."

Yongguk sighed, knowing what he said was somehow true. "But this is harder than what you thought—"

"Because of your 'daughter'?" Junhong guessed, showing him a huge grin. "Do you even sleep on the same bed with her?"

Done. Yongguk felt like he could see through him somehow and he couldn't find an answer to deny his words. He was completely being read by him.

"I saw your daughter and I don't see your resemblance at all, to be honest," he chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. "What you are doing now is not the right thing. You know it yourself, right?"

Yongguk looked away, still having so much doubts inside his head. "I can't leave her alone. I don't think I will ever could."

"I will take over her if you want," Junhong said, without thinking twice. "It's only if you really love Jieun—I will take over Hyosung so that you can go."

Yongguk turned, couldn't believe what just he heard from that guy's lips at all.

While Junhong just smiled and landing a pat on Yongguk's back once to send him the strength. "Make her happy, okay?"

Jieun looked around the crowds, slowly swaying her legs back and forth as having those simple thought on that she was actually on the same place with Bang Yongguk—but strangely, she didn't feel like want to see him. It was her last day in Busan afterall and she didn't think she had anything left to be said anymore. She had enough and the only thing that she really wanted to do was to take a break from all of this things.

She really wanted to go away.

Far, far away.

"Are you waiting for someone?"

Jieun immediately turned, utterly surprised to see that guy whose been on her mind since then was already sitting on the other side of the chair, looking at her with his hesitate smile on.

And she literally couldn't make any sound at all.

"Hello," he greated, awkwardly.

Jieun opened , automatically going to reply to his greeting but she ended up closed her lips back to make up her mind. "What are you doing here?"

Yongguk pursed his lips, rolling his eyes to fake a thoughtful face before put his eyes on her back. "Talking to you?"

Jieun frowned, didn't understand his sudden playfulness at all. "I don't feel like talking a lot now."

"Why? Are you mad at me?" he asked, lowering his head to take a look on her face.

Jieun glared at him, feeling irritated by the way him dramatically changed like that. "Are you on the right side of your mind?"

"I am," he replied right away, yet a grin on his face showed otherwise to Jieun.

Though, Jieun couldn't deny how she secretly felt something inside her ribcage was going to burst out—moreover when the grin on his face slowly disappeared, leaving only his serious expression there for her to be stunned.

"Jieun-ah—let's run away together."