[A/N] Thank you for your comments, guys! Keep the comments coming. I'd like to know what you think of this story. And here it is, a slightly long chapter for a late update. Yes I know I'm late. Forgive me? :)

Seven.

Her presence was familiar and calming to him.

Kyuhyun looked away once again as Jinhee’s gaze burned him.

“I really don’t know what you want me to do, Jinhee.”

“It’s not about what I want you to do.” Jinhee sighed before nodding at the waitress who was delivering a bottle of red wine and two glasses on their table, watching as Kyuhyun scowled at the drink in front of him.

Red wine was usually his favorite when he came here; however this situation probably wasn’t so usual to him, because earlier, instead of wine, he had ordered a bottle of vodka. Jinhee had to reprimand him that now wasn’t the best time to get drunk, which seemed to have worsened his mood significantly.

“Then what is this about?” Kyuhyun snapped. “I’ve tried everything I could do. She just doesn’t see me. All she sees is him. Which part of that do you not understand?”

Jinhee narrowed her eyes, rolling the ball of question back to him. “Are you really going to get over her?”

“Can’t you tell? I’m trying to.” he grumbled.

“And how are you feeling now?”

“I’m coping with it.”

“Kyuhyun,” Jinhee said sharply, prompting him to look straight at her. “How are you feeling now?”

Kyuhyun turned to her, frowning. He knew he could never lie to his best friend. And he didn’t really have to, anyway. Son Jinhee was his best friend since they were in diapers, and she could just see right through any masks he was putting on.

Jinhee’s eyes softened at the sight of him scowling at her, because despite the deep frown on his face, all she could see was her vulnerable best friend.

“You know what I want?” she finally said, gently, when he refused to answer her question before. “What I want is for you – my two best friends in the world – to not ever get hurt. Ever.”

“She loves him, Jinhee.” Kyuhyun said weakly, defensively. “So much that she can’t reject him even after he walked away from her life.”

“I know. I know.” She took his hand in hers and squeezed it. “But that’s also the reason why I’m afraid she’s going to get hurt if she's with him – and it would probably be the second time this time, by the same guy. I don’t know that Hyukjae guy. I don’t exactly know what it had taken him to have left her, even though he's back now. But I know you, Kyuhyun.  I know you won’t hurt her. I know you won’t walk away. I can’t risk giving her away to a man that had once left her and let you go through the hard time of forgetting her.”

“Then what do you want me to do? What do you expect me to do? She is in love with him. Not me. She’s welcoming him back into her life, and that's her decision. I can’t do anything to change that even if I freaking want to.”

Her eyes hardened at him. “Then if it’s your choice, don’t confuse her. Don’t shut her out of your life so abruptly like what you're doing right now. She’s completely confused as to why you wouldn’t answer any of her texts and calls.”

He sneered. “It wouldn’t be so easy to forget her if I kept in contact with her, don’t you think?”

“Regardless of your feelings for her, Kyuhyun,” she exhaled slowly, trying to hold onto the last bit of her patience. He could be really stubborn sometimes. “Nana is your best friend first. Our best friend.” She said. “If you’re ready to let her go to that guy, then let her go. Gently. Shutting her out will do nothing but confuse and hurt her. You know you don't want that.” She kept the eye contact as she said this, “But if you’re not, then I guess you have to fight for it. She’s worth it, Kyuhyun. Fight for her. You don’t want your chance gone.”

For the rest of the night, Jinhee’s words kept playing in his mind. Kyuhyun tried drowning the thoughts in the haze of alcohol in his wine, chugging on it every time the unwelcome thoughts of her getting back with her ex-boyfriend pierced his mind.

It was a few minutes later that Jinhee sighed and got up, thinking she had tried her best to shake some sense into him. She would want to be by his side throughout the night, but she just got a phone call from her mom telling her that she needed her to be home soon.

It only half registered in Kyuhyun’s jumbled thoughts that Jinhee told him she had to go home, and asked him if he could go home by himself. With only a bottle of wine, Jinhee knew her best friend wouldn’t get drunk. After all, Kyuhyun could handle his alcohol pretty well.

He just nodded his head, his eyes a little unfocused on the dark redness of the wine. He vaguely heard Jinhee sigh and tell the waitress not to give him anything other than non-alcohol drinks, before patting his back and walking off to the exit.

What she didn't know was that Kyuhyun had downed an entire bottle of red wine at his apartment before he came here, and the amount of two bottles of alcohol in his system now was starting to take a toll on him.

Seyoon shook her head slowly when Junho asked if she would like a dessert. Actually she had wanted a piece of tiramisu cheesecake earlier – the picture of it had looked so mouthwatering when she first flipped open the menu – but now, for some obvious reason, she had completely lost her appetite.

She just barely finished her steak, she didn’t think her stomach would allow anything – not even her favorite dessert – to be stuffed in there.

“Junho-sshi?” she called him quietly after dabbing the corners of her lips with a napkin.

“Yes?”

“Um, if you don’t mind, can we go home now?”

She shifted in her chair, hoping he wouldn’t decline, or ask her what was wrong, or insisted that he still had another place for them to go to, so that the date could go as he had planned it to be. That was how her dates usually went with the other rich guys. They usually reserved more than one place just to impress her with their wealth.

Fortunately, though, Kwon Junho didn’t. He just went with it, shrugging. He didn’t seem to notice her dropping mood either, which she inwardly was grateful for. She didn’t think she was prepared to answer any inquisitive questions right now.

Seyoon gathered her purse and stood up from her chair, willing her eyes not to drift to a certain direction and look for a certain guy–

But they did, automatically. She wanted to curse herself. She was just so curious when she saw the woman leave without Kyuhyun. But earlier, she didn’t dare looking behind her to see him. For some reason she just didn’t want Kyuhyun to see her face and find out how affected she was for seeing him with another woman.

Now, however, her eyes widened at his state when she gave a not-so-subtle glance at his form. He was alone, his body hunched over, and his head was rested heavily on his arms on the table. She had to blink several times to make sure that it was really him, the ever impeccable Cho Kyuhyun she knew.

“Seyoon-ah,” Junho called impatiently. He was already at the door, with a waiter opening the door for him.

Seyoon whipped her head back to him, startled. She actually forgot that he was still there. “Oh, hey. I, um, you go first. I need to take care of... something.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’ll be waiting in my car.”

Seyoon nodded, inwardly thanking God that the guy wasn't sensitive enough to ask anything. After watching him walk out the double doors, she rushed up to Kyuhyun, her face twisted with concern.

“Kyuhyun-ah,” she shook his arm gently, slight panic gripping at her. He didn’t budge. She tried again. “Kyuhyun-ah,”

“Ugh,” his arm moved in a weak, futile attempt to brush her off. “Leave me alone.” He grunted hoarsely, his face still buried in his arms.

“Kyuhyun-ah, are you drunk?” she tried lifting his head so she could look at him. He pried her hands away.

“No, I’m not. Go away.”

“Hey,” she gently pulled his arm. “It’s me-”

He lifted his head suddenly in break-neck speed, she was afraid he would get a whiplash. He let out an angry exhale before turning to her drunkenly.

“Agasshi. Thanks for giving a for my condition, but didn’t you hear me? I told you to go...” he trailed off mid-rant as the alcohol induced haze cleared from his eyes.

He stared at her, shock falling over his face. Even though his vision were still a little blurred and his head could hardly focus on one thing because there were so many thoughts running in there, he could easily recognize the big, hazel eyes and her every other angelic features. Her presence was familiar and calming to him.

Seyoon cautiously reached for his hands when the surprise had faded away from his face and all that was left was the hollowness in him. His face was blank and his eyes were bloodshot red, exposing something in between vulnerability and pain.

Seyoon swallowed tightly when she felt this unexplainable urge to wash the pain away for him.

Suddenly she didn’t care that he had stood her up two days before. Suddenly it didn’t matter that she was actually afraid of her growing feelings for this man.

She focused on his palpable pain. She didn’t have to ask. She knew a broken heart when she saw it.

She felt him turn his hands upwards so he could have her hands in his instead, all the while without breaking eye contact. He squeezed her hands in his cold, trembling grip.

She was watching him crumbling in front of her, and, oh God, she couldn’t.

Taking her hands out of his, she gingerly slipped her arms around his waist and held him, resting her chin on his shoulder, hoping this would make him feel better. And at least, this way, she wouldn’t have to watch him struggle to keep himself from falling apart.

He didn’t embrace her back, but she could feel him relax slightly in her arms.

“I think I’m drunk,” he murmured after a moment of silence, his lips so close to her ear, brushing her hair gently as he spoke. “My brain is not working. I can’t figure out why, but I’m feeling somewhat guilty to you.”

“It’s nothing,” she brushed it off gently. He was drunk. It must have slipped his mind that he had stood her up and made her wait for more than four hours on Thursday, which must have made him feel guilty towards her. “You did nothing wrong.”

His head turned to bury his face into her hair, and finally his arms surrounded her, enveloping her into an embrace.

“Have you ever been in love, Seyoon-ah?”

His question came out of the blue and almost stopped her breathing, her hands that were rubbing up and down his back to ease his tense body stilled suddenly. That was a good question; one that she found herself couldn't answer to right away.

She had never been in love. But the possibility that she was currently falling deep into that feeling now couldn’t be ignored.

Oh God. Why now? And why him? Considering his state, he probably just had a bitter breakup with his girlfriend, she thought.

Seyoon knew from the moment on, that it was going to be complicated for her.