26

"Let's go on a date."

Jieun walked outside the hallway, looking directly at Yongguk that was smiling at her, small but genuine one. Like what he always did before. And it hurted her a little to see him being that way.

"I hope your boss doesn't mind about this," he said, as soon as she got into him.

Jieun pursed her lips. "How can you know I'm working here?"

He smiled even wider, being proud of his ownself. "I just know it."

From Junhong—she believed.

"I really want to ask you for a date," he muttered, sounding a little nervous. "I wonder if you would like it."

Jieun looked at him, not really knowing what to say. "Where would we going?"

"Anywhere you want," he shrugged, still not losing his smile. "Movie? Mall? Park?"

"Park," she picked, right away. "I want park."

"Alright. Let's go then," he grinned, slipping his hand inside her palm and entwined their fingers together—which made Jieun's heart to stop for a brief moment.

She looked at him that was walking right next to her—smiling, and lightly swaying their arms in the same rhythms as their steps. She tried to find the beat, to feel how her bloods rushed into her head to feel his touch or to hear her own squealing inside her head—but there was literally nothing to be felt. And she wondered why.

What happened to herself?

She was really being heartless.

"Stop showing that kind of face,"

Jieun suddenly snapped back into the present, and she turned to look at him with wondering gaze.

Meanwhile he was still smiling instead.

"This will be our first and last date," he convinced, taking a quick glance at her before going on, "after today, we will live in our own life and leave the past to where it should be. So, let's just enjoy this moment."

Didn't know why, Jieun felt like being ripped into a thousand pieces to hear his words. He could figure out what she had inward. He could literally see everything and there's no way she could hide it from him either. The least thing that she wanted to do now was to hurt him one more time with her unwise decisions—and she really wanted to set him free from what had been tangled on him.

Including herself.

"Let's talk about simple things," he let out a chuckle, trying to sweep the awkwardness away. "Didn't you resign from your work there?"

Jieun swallowed all the bitterness that she tasted before answering, "they said they couldn't find someone as good as me."

He laughed, not an offensive one she could clearly tell. "Really? But I can see you are indeed a hardworking person. "

Jieun smiled, lowering her eyes to the ground.

"Why did you choose journalism anyway?" he asked again, already finding their conversation line.

"Junhong recommend it to me," she smiled. "You know, I was a very awkward person before so he told me to choose that major to practice my social skills."

Yongguk turned, finding her becoming much lighter when talking about it. "Guess he hit a big success."

"I'm so thankful of him," she muttered, knowing the pain inside her heart was becoming much real by each words.

"Wait—we haven't had our lunch yet," Yongguk casually switched the topic, "what do you want to eat?"

Jieun looked around to see their current location, and easily found those small restaurant that was placed by the end of the intersection with a black banner stood on its front side. A smile automatically came across her face, as she began imagining the good taste of the foods inside .

"Jajangmyun," she pointed at the shop, "I want to eat jajangmyun."

Yongguk smirked, quite amused by the way those girl sparkled in excitement just to have a bowl of jajangmyun. "You like it very much, huh?"

"Junhong took me here before," she replied, as soon as they got inside the restaurant. "And it's so delicious. You won't regret it."

"Oh—it's indeed delicious," Yongguk nodded while slurping the noodle in one go, obviously proving how good it actually was.

Jieun sipped her coffee before saying, "of course."

Yongguk glanced at her before slowly stirring the noodle. "Did you guys often come here?"

Jieun looked at him, a little not expecting the question. "We rarely had lunch together."

Yongguk stopped stirring the chopsticks and looked at her. "Why?"

"We were too busy and even sometimes we would just met twice a week," she smiled, making a little shrug later. "We didn't really think about it though."

"Then," he cleared his throat, placing the chopsticks down. "Why did you decide to find me instead?"

Jieun looked him in the eye, knowing she had to answer him no matter what. "I had a very hard time dealing with my ownself."

Yongguk crossed his arms over the table, waiting for her to continue her answer.

"Whenever I was with Junhong, I felt happy and guilty at the same time. It's because I feel like I haven't fully move on from the past meanwhile he is a person that always look forward—if he decided to leave something behind, he would really do it. I'm just too different from him," she sighed, looking away from his eyes. "And I really want to find the way to end all of this."

To end—Yongguk smiled to hear her point.

"Then you don't have any intention to go with me. You just want me to completely disappeared from your life," he concuded, with a small chuckle slipped off from his lips.

Jieun put her eyes back on him, now with furrowed eyebrows as a sign that she didn't get it.

"When you were with Junhong, you were thinking about how you are different from him and didn't want to hurt him with your past but when you talked about me—you said that you want to end up everything instead," he explained, still with his smile on. "Isn't that mean, you want to end this things up so you can finally look at him with no hidden feelings inside?"

Jieun still wordlessly looked at him, trying to find the truth by herself.

"And, you can easily mentioned his name again and again when you are with me like this. Did you ever say my name even once in front of him?" he later added, right before he took a sip of his already-cold-black coffee to let her thinking about it alone.

For Jieun, it was something that she had never think of before and now that he clearly pointed it out to her like this, she just realized what she actually had inside all this time. She could finally see it clearly now—her true feelings, the one that she really aimed for.

The one that she just let to walk out of her life.

"Today's sky is really pretty,"

Hyosung smiled, taking a glance at the blue sky through the window before turned at her back. "It's just like usual, though?"

Sarang shook her head, tugging a smile on her lips. "Its different."

"Really?" she raised his eyebrows with a thin smile by her face. "Do you want to eat something?"

She slowly shook her head, looking somewhat tired. "I just want to sleep."

She usually refused to take a nap on that kind of time and it surprised her a little to see her got sleepy that bad. Though, she believed she was just too tired and she really wasn't going to distract her anymore. She had to let her rest so she could recover soon.

"Alright," she pulled the cover up, carefully placing it down her small body to keep her warm. "Have a nice dream."

Sarang's droopy eyes fixed into her mother's face for a brief moment, like wanting to draw it inside her mind first before she closed her eyes and whispered, "it's okay, Mom. I love you."

Hyosung paused for a moment, staring at her sleeping face which somehow causing her heart to aching a little before she put on a smile and planted a kiss on her forehead—something that she rarely did before and she really regret it now.

She wished she would have enough time to show her love to that little girl.

Her pretty daughter.

"Have a nice rest, Sarang."

The sun was painted in bright orange when Jieun and Yongguk arrived at the park, where almost everything was still the same as eight years ago—and she could literally find herself sitting on the chair alone, hopelessly waiting for him to come.

"I was waiting for you there," she muttered, pointing at the chair that was placed on the right side of the road.

Yongguk looked at its direction, could picture the moment precisely on his mind somehow. "I'm sorry."

Jieun smiled, thinking about it as a laughable memory instead. "Why you couldn't come though?"

"My step-father has heart problems," he sighed, burying his both hands deeper inside the pocket. "And it happened at the same time you waited for me."

She knew it.

He was indeed always like that—having a lot of burdens on his back, whether from Hyosung, her parents, and even from her. He was like the support of everything and she couldn't imagine how his family would be like without him.

Though, she believed, everyone should learn how to live without him in the end—just like what she did now.

"How much did you suffer? How much pains that you feel? What should I do to help you out? What do I mean to you?" she blurted out, slowly. "I should have asked you this things and be more blunt."

Yongguk looked at her, putting a thin smile down his face. "I have way more regrets than everyone. That's why, I decided to just disappear from your life before."

No. She knew none of them was actually on the wrong side. Both of them has suffered, confused, lost theirselves, and even ended up hurting other people in order to forget the past and she couldn't blame him for that. He didn't have any options left and it wasn't like she would be one of them as well.

She would never being included in the options.

"You broke your promise twice," she reminded him, while showing a huge playful grin.

He faked a vexed up expression to hear it, yet later it replaced with a smile instead before he bowed down his head a little to be on the same height to her face and saying, "you can hit me."

"I won’t break my promise. You can hit my head if I did it again.”

Ah—that was what he said that time.

And the fact that he still remembered it made her heart softly touched.

Jieun raised her hand, turning it into a fist before she hit his head with all the strength that she got until he groaned in pain yet before he could move back in surprise, she caught his head with her both arms and put it inside her arms, embracing him tightly.

"I liked you. I really liked you," she whispered, right into his ears.

Secretly, Yongguk could feel his right-side-ear burnt upon hearing her soft voice coming into his mind, making his heart aching and hardly thumping against his ribcage at the same time. Loving her was never an easy thing. It hurted him more than making him delightful—and he believed she felt the same way too.

There's just too much pain for them to be together.

"I like you. And I will always be," he replied, genuinely from inside his heart.

Jieun nodded, afraid if she might break into tears once she opened her lips.

She wanted to make a beautiful farewell.

She really wanted to look back into this moment with a smile on her face.

"Thank you for all this years. From now on, I hope you will live a happy life," he said again, before playfully added, "and please stop thinking about me too."

Jieun chuckled, feeling the tears finally escaped her eyes. "Don't appear in my dreams again."

"I can't guarantee you," he joked, later breaking into short yet liven laughter with her.

"I think you should let go of me now," she told him after a while, just realized how many eyes were darting on them since then.

"You hugged me first, though?" he blabbered, finally letting go of her.

Jieun narrowed her eyes, faking a disgusted face. "I just don't want to make you go home with huge disappointment."

Yongguk giggled, shaking his head in amazement. "Guess Junhong did really change you a lot."

Jieun pursed her lips, wasn't really sure what to feel about it.

"Alright. I think I've done my business here," he heaved a sigh, looking around the park for a moment. "Should I send you home?"

Jieun shook her head. "I will go back to my work. Don't worry."

Yongguk looked at her again, finding a stronger and tougher Jieun standing in front of him—giving him a smile that was sincerely showing her respect towards him. And he didn't think he should be worry about her again.

"Be careful, okay?" he tapped her shoulder once before making a step backward and saying, "good bye Jieun."

Hanging a smile on, Jieun raised her hand to make a little wave, watching him turned around and walked away from her.

Farther and farther—just like the way he walked away eight years ago.

But for this time, she finally could send him off with a smile.

No confusion, no painful feelings inside, no unsaid things left, no hatred and no hardly held back tears—literally nothing to hurt both of them. And she was really thankful of everything.

Either the pains and the happy times—everything, that was shaping her into like she was now, that was showing her how something might not work the way she wants but still ended up beautiful anyway.

And how it still ended up with a smile as well.

"Good bye."

I can't believe I wrote this heartbreaking chapter on a beautiful day like this lol. Today, 15th July, is my birthday and I'm finally turning 18 now yeaayy!! I want to share my happiness with you guys so I decided to spent almost half of my day to write and edit this chapter and I really feel happy to be able to give an update today ♥

And everything's getting clearer, right? Jieun is not end up with Yongguk but will she end up with Junhong? Or they will just remain friends instead? Well, we'll find the answer soon.

Last, thank you for everyone that read, comment, and even upvote this fic! I even saw this story being recommended by one of my readers in Twitter and I was really really happy lmao I'm really thankful!

Have a nice day!