25

It was a very fun Friday for Sunhwa—not just because she was allowed to dismiss much earlier, but because she could finally order a vegetarian pizza that she had been craving for the whole week and she literally had the quality time of her own.

She put the pizza box to the living room while humming a cheerful song, couldn't throw the huge smile on her face away in the process. After having all the stuffs down the table, she finally sat on the floor and began unsealed the box, letting the good smells of the pizza to come inside her lungs.

"Ah—heaven," she whispered seductively to the pizza right before her hand took one of the slices and stuffed it inside , not going to waste any seconds again.

"Amazing," she cried, feeling disgusted and delighted at the same time. All of the diet plans and bunch of workouts were already completely disappeared from her head. The only thing that she knew was the pizza taste so nice it could literally kill her.

But everything broke down for a moment when she heard her doorbell rang throughout the corrior, causing her to deeply sigh in frustation and totally hoping it would only a prank instead.

She got up from the floor, making her way into the front door still with a vexed up face on until she opened the door and found who was standing there outside. Her jaw dropped in surprisement and she couldn't even speak any single words for real. She didn't expect her to come back that fast.

"Jieun?" she gasped, still didn't really know what to do. "What are you doing here?"

"You don't like it?" Jieun chuckled, looking down at the pizza on her hand before saying, "looks like you got something delicious inside. Can I join you?"

"Sure but," Sunhwa cluelessly moved aside to let her come inside before she pushed the door closed with a hand. "What about your crush in Busan?"

Jieun threw herself into the white couch, giving a relaxation to herback after hours of journey. "He comes with me."

Sunhwa's eyes widened in disbelief. "What?"

"He comes to Seoul with me," Jieun repeated, flashing a smile to her afterwards.

Sunhwa frowned to see her smile—finding out it reflected something different from what it should be and she could tell that those girl was having another problems besides. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Jieun sighed, later straightened up her position and nonchalantly looked at the pizza on the table. "Aren't you on diet?"

Sunhwa put the remaining pizza from her hand to the box before sat beside those girl with a worried face on, clearly showing her attention as a friend. "Did something happen?"

Jieun shrugged. "So many things happened."

"How could he come with you? Didn't you say he is already married?" she carefully asked.

"He left her. He says he never love her either and that they will indeed separate sooner or later," Jieun replied, nonchalantly.

Sunhwa raised her eyebrows, becoming slightly flustered. "Should I say congratulations?"

"I don't know," she laughed, a forced one. "Choi Junhong chased me to Busan."

Sunhwa glared at her after hearing her words, being totally surprised. "What?"

"He says that at least we can stay as friends," Jieun threw her head against the couch back. "Am I weird if I feel like not wanting him to go?"

Sunhwa stared at her, somehow could sense something on her confusion. "Did he say he won't contact you again?"

"No," Jieun sighed, slowly closing her both eyes. "But from our last talk and the way he turned off his phone since this morning—I think everything between us is really over."

"Do you hope Junhong will still remain as your friend?" Sunhwa made sure.

"I don't know," Jieun said, still with her eyes closed. "Isn't that will hurt him more?"

Sunhwa frowned a little, later leaning closer to that girl to mutter, "how do you feel when Yongguk finally choose you?"

Actually, Jieun really wanted to say that she didn't even know about her own feelings as well. Everything was kind of confusingly mixed inside her heart and she didn't know what to feel anymore. Perhaps she wasn't ready for all of this yet or she just didn't think this was a right decision for both of them—she didn't know.

She was so upset with her ownself.

"I didn't feel anything," she replied, after a moment she opened her eyes back. "Maybe I was too surprised and wasn't ready yet but I really didn't know what to do. I was indeed feel happy later, that I've finally got what I really wanted all this time but—I don't think I understand myself anymore."

And that was actually what Sunhwa afraid of before. Something that she really didn't hope for.

"Jieun-ah," she called her to make that girl looked at her. "Tell me, do you really have no feelings towards Junhong at all?"

Jieun looked at her, obviously showing that she wasn't prepare for that question yet. "I like him as friend."

"Are you sure?" Sunhwa raised her eyebrows, looking unconvinced by her answer.

"Yes," Jieun quickly replied, yet hesitancy was still slipping across her voice.

"I don't think so," Sunhwa denied. "I really don't think so."

Jieun leant forward, giving her a confused look. "What are you going to say?"

"I think you misread your own feelings," Sunhwa remarked, absolutely confidence about her statement.

No. Jieun wasn't agree to her.

She was indeed having such confused feelings but it might be because everything happened in one time—and she just wasn't ready for that. It wasn't because she misread her feelings or got something more towards Junhong. She was really sure of that.

"No, Sunhwa," she shook her head. "It's not like that."

Sunhwa shrugged, but later letting out a chuckle instead. "Alright then."

Jieun sighed, throwing her eyesight into the table for a while before saying, "can I have some?"

Sunhwa even hadn't reply her yet when Jieun already took one slice of the pizza and stuffed it inside . She already got used to that kind of thing though. It was such her habit afterall.

"That's really your habit," she chuckled, stretching her arm forward to take her half-eaten pizza.

"What?" Jieun mumbled between the munch.

"Taking someone's food without waiting for their permission," she pointed out right before taking a bite of the pizza.

"I already asked you though?" Jieun's eyes widened in disbelief, quite surprise as to why those girl suddenly brough up the topic.

"I know. I'm used to it," Sunhwa smiled, hinting at the other thing through her words. "It's such an old habit that is really hard to changed, right?"

It was already six in the morning when Jieun was still lazily rolling on Sunhwa's bed.

She was actually staring at her phone since then, waiting for an incoming call from that person since there's no way she could call him first. She was afraid if he might not accept her again, or if her existence would become a disturbance for him instead. She was really scared, honestly.

"Hey, if you're going to be lazyass and jusy clinging on me to have meals like this, you'd better come with me and go back to your work," Sunhwa blabbered while making her way inside the room, still with her bathroom suit on.

Jieun looked at her. "But I've resigned."

"Your position is still empty, just so you know," Sunhwa told, starting to put on her make-up.

Jieun lifted up her head from the pillow, getting a little excited. "Is boss waiting for me?"

"Uh—it's more like, who wants your position anyways?" she grinned, between her serious session on getting her eyeliner done. "To edit million files and go to meet such annoying client and have an interview even to outside town and write a boring article every single day? No one can stay more than a day."

Jieun laughed, feeling amused and offended at the same time.

"Go and prepare yourself. Boss will kindly accept you back seriously," Sunhwa goes on, taking a quick glance at her from the mirror. "You can take one of my suit."

That was such a good idea for Jieun. She believed she could forget about her tiring problems if she had a bunch of works and she wouldn't have time to be confused as well. Though, it wasn't like she could live off from her saving for the rest of her life either. And it was only time until Sunhwa got pissed of her existence and kicked her out from her apartment, she guessed.

She really had to start her life again.

"Sounds good. I'll go with you."

Her small round eyes widely opened up and stared at those guy in front of her, obviously showing that she was really curiosed about his identity.

"Good morning," Junhong awkwardly greeted her, forcing a wide smile on his face. "How are you, Sarang?"

Sarang blinked her eyes, getting a little softened. "Who are you?"

"I'm Choi Junhong. You mom's friend," he introduced himself, taking a quick glance at Hyosung whose wordlessly standing next to her with an expressionless face on right after he stated that they were friends.

Sarang twitched her lips in suspicious. "Are you my father?"

Junhong's eyes becoming larger after hearing her question meanwhile Hyosung wasn't really surprised of it anymore. She was more feeling kind of guilty to not remind him about that first.

"No, no," he shook both his head and hand. "Just friend."

Junhong could see the disappoinment drawn on her eyes when he just realized that those little girl already knew that Yongguk wasn't her biological father. He thought they were success on faking it but it turned out the opposite instead.

And he began wondering who did tell her first about the matter.

"Junhong ahjussi brought you your favorite apple here. Say thank you," Hyosung chimed in, after a moment of awkward silence between them.

Junhong looked at Hyosung but she refused to look at him back. Guess she knew he would ask her why did she lie about the apple.

"Thank you, ahjussi!" Sarang quickly changed into a cheerful kid once apple was mentioned.

"You're welcome," Junhong muttered, half-heartedly.

"Mom," Sarang turned to her mother, already losing her smile. "Where's daddy?"

Junhong could easily tell that Yongguk was the one that she meant when he saw the way Hyosung's expression changed into a straight one. There's no dominant emotion shown through her eyes but Junhong still managed to feel the clothed vexations coming from her voice despite how hard she tried to hide it.

"Daddy went to work at Seoul. It won't be that long," she replied, clearly showing that she already prepared the answer before.

And Junhong could see half part of those little girl was breaking down.

"Mom will wash this apples first," Hyosung said, taking the plastic bag with one hand. "Stay here with Junhong ahjussi, okay?"

Junhong watched her walked away and disappeared behind the door first before carefully looked at Sarang back. Those little girl was sitting on the bed with her back leaning against the pillows, not really showing any face probably because she was still upset of the fact that Yongguk was already gone.

"He will come back soon," Junhong told her while pulling a chair from under the bed, later putting on his weight on it with a smile placed by his face.

Sarang looked at him, already knowing who did those guy refer to yet she still asked him anyway. "Who?"

"Your daddy," he smiled, genuinely.

But all that he got as response was a sigh instead.

"Daddy always like this though. He's not with me twenty-four-seven so I'm used to it," she calmly replied, totally different from what he thought.

"He's not always home?" Junhong asked, pulling his own conclusion.

"Yes. He always work outside the town for days to weeks. But it looks like he cut off his works a lot for me lately," she smiled, a thin one.

Junhong smirked, feeling relieved and sorry at the same time. "Really? Why?"

"Maybe because I will die soon?" she shrugged, totally not making it as a big deal. "My health is becoming worsen so I think he may be worry about it."

And for that moment, Junhong just realized he never asked Hyosung about what happened to this little girl. What made her had to stick in hospital for days like this.

"Are you sick?" he bluntly asked.

"I have pneumonia," she replied right away. "I can die anytime it happens."

She was still a little kid, but more to his surprise, she was really strong on facing anything—even way stronger than Hyosung on this case. She may seemed playful outside, and even could pretend like nothing really matter to her but from the way she dealt with everything on her life showed him that she had one identical side to her mother. To fake their ownselves.

"Do you want to know who your father is?" Junhong smiled, leaning a little closer to her.

She looked totally excited. It was seriously obvious. "Do you know him?"

"You remind me of him," Junhong chuckled, looking into her big eyes that were sparkling in hopes. "Even from the first time I saw you, I already know who your real father is."

"Mom said he is a bad person," she slowly lost her smile, suddenly being washed away by her mother's words. "She even said that it would be much better for me to never go to find him."

"Well," Junhong took a breath, pursing his lips into a line before telling, "its not like you can meet him in real life, though."

Sarang's eyebrows slowly lifted up, wondering what did he mean by that.

"I met your real father twice before. Even though he seems a little arrogant and careless, he is actually a very nice man. He even told me to call him "father"," Junhong chuckled, suddenly being swept by the past. "The only bad thing about him is—he likes to drink. A lot. And when he did, he will ended up beat someone too."

Of course, being a five-year-old like Sarang wouldn't make her fully understand what was he talking about and how bad it was actually in real. And it's not like he would like to make her understand either. There's just something that was needed to know and some that weren't afterall.

And he believed she didn't have to know about her father's bad side.

"In short, no one's perfect. Including your father," he concuded, to make it clearer for her. "I believe he will love you as much as you need if he's still here with us."

Sarang smiled, somehow feeling much better after talking to that guy. "Are you a santa claus? Because you suddenly came and give me happiness like this—you must not be a human."

Junhong tilted his head to the side, letting out a soft chuckle. "I'm indeed not a human. I'm Choi Junhong."

Sarang laughed, causing her both cheeks got reddened to add her overwhelming cuteness. Which felt so contagious for Junhong in the end.

"Wow, Song Jieun-ssi, it's already lunch break."

Jieun glanced at Sunhwa between her endless bustle in front of the computer screen, not showing any sign to stop soon. "One cup of spicy Shin Ramyun."

Sunhwa rolled her eyes, totally not buying her answer. "How can you turned into your old workaholic self in a sudden? This is ridiculous."

"Fine, fine," she nonchalantly muttered.

And it made Sunhwa's mood gone worsen to know that girl was paying no attention to what she just said from the way she replied. "Seriously, come with me. Just fifthteen minutes, I promise."

A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she clicked the save button and pulled the chair backward. She knew it was useless to debate with that girl anyway so she chose not to stretch it longer. She'd better save up those time to stuff herself.

"Thanks God," Sunhwa sighed, lazily walking away first. "I miss you but totally not the workaholic you."

Jieun was about to give a reply when suddenly, she felt her phone softly ringing from inside her pocket. Instantly, she took out her phone in no time and hastily read what was written on the screen only to lose all the tension on her neck in a second. Every single of them.

"You got a new phone?" Sunhwa peeked on the screen, later wasn't able to hide her surprisement well to see the caller's name. "What the—it's Bang Yongguk?"

Jieun nodded, and didn't say anything until she picked up the phone and pressed it against her ears. "Hello?"

Sunhwa looked at her, curiously waiting to see her further response.

After a short moment of silence, where Jieun just listened to every single thing that those guy said through the phone, her eyebrows began knitted into one and she eventually gasped a silence "what" to worsen Sunhwa's curiosity there.

Without saying anything, Jieun walked away—towards the window which precisely faced the front side of the office, and began wandering her eyes around the sidewalk until she found him standing there, looking into her whose got so much surprised from behind the glass.

Yongguk was there, outside her office, waiting for her.

Only her.

I guess everyone will start hating on Jieun starts from this chapter on and don't worry because if I were the reader, I will totally hate her too lol. There's a lot of heartbroken comments that I got since I decided to end up the 'thing' between Jieun and Junhong but believe me, I love to troll. That's all I could say.

And oh, I just reopened my ask.fm! It looks like I'm really bored lately lol so come and ask me questions! You can ask me here!

Thank you for reading this fic and prepare your heart because we're getting near the end! Thank you so much!