While Jong Kook and Ji Hyo sailed on the catamaran, the boat rocking in its glide across the ocean waves as the sun, centered in the sky at high noon, beamed down on them, Gary was just waking up on the other side of the Pacific, almost five thousand miles – just over seven thousand kilometers – away. He was hung over. He and Gil, his partner in Leessang, had stayed up all night drinking Soju.

Gil had done everything he could over the course of the night to stop Gary from driving drunk to the airport. While Gil hated seeing Gary hurt, he knew that going back to Hawaii and chasing after Ji Hyo was a bad idea. “You just need to see how this plays out,” Gil had said. “Let things be.”

As Gary woke up now, he thought about what Gil had said. But he couldn’t just let things be. What if she fell in love with Jong Kook while she was there? He had always sensed that there was some chemistry between them, but he knew that Jong Kook was too shy to do anything about it. Besides, Jong Kook had known all throughout Running Man that Gary was secretly in love with her. If he hadn’t made a move then, Gary thought, then he wouldn’t make one now. Still, Hawaii was like Korea’s Jejudo. It was a paradise. And the thought of the two of them out there together made Gary jealous, and that jealousy then turned into guilt for thinking such thoughts.  

His head hurt. These thoughts were too heavy to have first thing in the morning after a night of drinking. He turned over and opened his eyes, seeing Gil’s feet directly in front of his face. “Aish, hyung!” He sat up, noticing Gil’s body sprawled across the bed. Gil yawned and then promptly ran to the bathroom. He kept the door ajar and called out to Gary while he urinated. “Gary-ah,” he said. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder! I know that sounds cliché, but remember, it wasn’t until after Running Man had ended that Ji Hyo called you.”

“Hyung, don’t talk to me while you pee!” Gary got up and closed the bathroom door. “Aish,” he said, collapsing back on the bed and burying his face in the pillow.

When Gil was done, he returned to the bedroom and rubbed his stomach. “I’m starving,” he said. “You want me to get you some food?”

“I feel sick,” Gary said.

“You’re just hung over. You need some good hangover soup. I’ll call those fan girls who’ve been hanging around the studio and have one of them make us some haejangguk.”

“Whatever,” Gary said, his voice muffled by the pillow.

When Gil left the room, Gary rolled over in the bed and reached for his phone to see if Ji Hyo had replied to his email. He sighed when he saw that she had not and then stared up at the ceiling. The more he stared at the whiteness, the blankness of that ceiling, the more he imagined Jong Kook and Ji Hyo together. It would start small, he thought. A slight touch of their hands, a stolen kiss. As he closed his eyes again, his imagination began to run wild. He envisioned Jong Kook pulling the engagement ring off Ji Hyo’s finger with his mouth, spitting it out across the room, and then ravaging Ji Hyo’s body afterward, her face in the throes of passion as Jong Kook lay atop her, loving her.

What a ridiculous, hideous thought, Gary said to himself, rubbing his eyes now to try to wake up. He needed to get these ideas out of his head. His girl and his hyung would never do that to him, he thought. But the image of the two of them together was burned inside his brain.

“Hyung!” Gary called out. When Gil answered from the other room, Gary said, “When you call those girls, tell them to bring more Soju.”

After the catamaran returned to shore late that afternoon, Jong Kook and Ji Hyo walked over to a nearby tiki bar, where they drank mai tais.

“I’m surprised you’re drinking,” Ji Hyo said.

“I’m going to start exercising again tomorrow,” Jong Kook said. He smiled and paused a moment. “Ji Hyo-yah, let’s talk about your wedding. You must be excited.”

“We don’t have to talk about that.”

“You’re not excited?”

“Of course I am. But…”

Jong Kook interrupted. “I’m okay,” he said. “You don’t have to hide your happiness in front of me.” He shifted on the barstool to be closer to her. “I want to hear about your plans. It’s been too long since I’ve thought of happy things.”

“Jong Kook-ah, you seem like a different man from this morning. Your face is nice and fresh.”

He thought of that morning, of what he had seen in bed, and his expression fell.

“Oh,” Ji Hyo said. “I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?”

“Aniyo,” he said, trying to smile again. “So, did you buy a wedding dress yet?”

As Ji Hyo talked about the upcoming wedding, she smiled widely, surprised by how much delight had been contained within her. The more she talked, the more she realized how much she loved Gary and how happy she was to have him in her life. She may have felt something pulling her toward Jong Kook earlier, but that feeling had dissipated since leaving the house. All she could think about now was her jagiya, Gary. She truly loved him.

“You should call him, Ji Hyo-yah,” Jong Kook said. “He must be miserable without you. Don’t leave that boy hanging like that.”

“I’ll call right now,” Ji Hyo said, excited. She pulled her phone from her bag and called Gary, but it rang and rang and then went to voicemail. “What time is it in Seoul?” she asked Jong Kook.

“Should be… late morning, I thi