Chaerin sits alone at a private booth in a bar with her long hair cascading onto the tabletop as she rests on her elbows. 2NE1’s Crush plays in the background and she allows herself to smile. The smile fades and she brings her drink to her lips slowly, wincing at the biting taste of the alcohol. She’s not the kind of person who enjoys being drunk or can handle her alcohol very well but tonight is a special occasion.

She takes another drink and glances at her phone for the hundredth time that evening. Soohyuk told her to meet him at the bar five hours ago. He hasn’t called her and didn’t pick up the phone when she called him. Out of drunken frustration she grabs her phone off the table and calls him. She regrets her decision as soon as the dial tone starts to ring but before she can hang up a voice on the other line answers.

“Oppa, where are you?” She whines uncharacteristically into the phone. “I’ve been waiting for you. If you had a schedule you should have told me. Oppa... Are you there?”

The other line is silent until a man’s voice speaks.

“Chae, this is Jiyong.” He tells her and she looks to make sure she dialled the correct number. She did. “Have you been drinking? Where are you?”

“Where is Soohyuk oppa?” Chaerin asks, feeling embarrassed. She hopes that she wasn’t too drunk to dial the correct contact.

“Soohyuk? He came over to my place earlier and fell asleep.” Jiyong tells her, sounding confused and concerned. “Where are you right now, Chae?”

He asks her again but she doesn’t respond right away.

“I’m at the bar we go to sometimes,” She answers after a long moment of silence and then hangs up.

She sits at her table quietly, refusing to cry as she sits alone in a bar after getting stood up by her boyfriend. Her fingers anxiously play with the hem the form fitting black dress she wore for him.

She had her makeup professionally done just for him. She got her hair styled and curled just for him. She wore a new pair of heels that gave her blisters just for him.

She put in so much work, so much effort.

Just for him.

For Soohyuk.

She stares ahead at the curtain separating her from the emptying bar. He’s not coming but it doesn’t stop her from praying that he will. It’s passed last call but the staff allow her to stay and she hates their looks of pity and judgement. She laughs to herself bitterly, wondering what the gossip headlines will say in the morning.

“BREAKING NEWS: CL is going to die alone”

The curtain rips open and she looks up to see Jiyong standing in front of her, panting and out of breath. She stares at him open mouthed as he sits down next to her at the table.

“What’s going on?” He asks her and his voice is dripping with concern and pity but somehow she doesn’t mind. With Jiyong, she never minds.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She mumbles and Jiyong hears the unspoken I don’t want to talk about it with you loud and clear.

He nods and the scent of alcohol on her breath is so dizzyingly strong. He offers to help her up, holding onto her carefully as she stands up and walks out into the main bar space. She leans on him as he walks her back to his car.

“How much have you had to drink?” He asks after they’ve started driving.

She shrugs.

Her head leans against the window as she looks out at the world passing them by.

“I didn’t drink much,” She says finally and he shakes his head in disapproval.

“Yeah, but you aren’t a very good drinker.” He sighs, driving with one hand lazily on the wheel. He focuses on the empty road ahead of them, not letting himself so much as glance at the girl next to him. After a little while he speaks to her quietly. “I’m glad that you were at that bar.

She doesn’t move her head to look at him but his words confuse her.

“I checked two other bars but luckily you were at the third.” He laughs shakily as if to lighten the mood, his insides tightly wound from nerves.

“Why did you do that?” She asks, watching him from the reflection in the window.

“Well, we go to a lot of different bars.” Jiyong tries to explain but she doesn’t understand. “You can’t just say ‘that bar we go to’ and expect me to know which one.”

“But you did know,” She murmurs and a small smile forms on his lips as he drives.

When he decided to accept her relationship with Soohyuk he didn’t know that he’d have to drive her home from bars in the middle of the night. He didn’t know he’d have to break his own heart in order to soothe hers.

He never expected any of this.

Chaerin steps out of the shower and into the steam filled bathroom, her skin burning bright red from the hot water. She takes a deep breath, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated after her rough night. With her hand she wipes the condensation from the mirror and looks at her reflection. The puffiness in her face has gone down but she still has dark under eye circles. She dries her hair and lets the long blond waves fall freely down her back. After slipping on a bra and a pair of underwear she leaves the bathroom to get a glass of water.

She stops as she walks into the living, letting out a startled shriek as she notices a man sitting on her couch.

Her hand holds her wildly beating heart in relief when she realizes it’s Soohyuk.

“Oh, you were in the shower.” He says as he notices her slightly damp hair.

“Lee Soohyuk! You nearly scared me to death!” She yells at him angrily. “Why didn’t you just knock?”

“I did knock but you never answered so I just came in. I’m sorry if I surprised you.” He apologizes with a shrug before looking at her body. His eyes trail from her shapely tan legs to her adorable tummy before travelling up toward her cotton-clad s. Looking back up at her bare face he smiles like a wolf that’s just found lunch. “Thank you for surprising me.”

“Why are you here?” She asks with a raised eyebrow, not bothering to cover herself because it’s nothing he’s never seen. “It better be to apologize.”  

Chaerin turns to go to the kitchen with her head held high as if he doesn’t exist. She pours herself a glass of water and feels his arms around her. With a sigh she puts down the pitcher of water as his long frame leans over her half body.

“I’m sorry,” He murmurs into her ear and she can feel the warmth of his breath spreading from her ear down to her neck.   

She pulls away and drinks her water as she glares at him.

“You didn’t even call.”

“It was last minute.” He shrugs. “I was so exhausted that I just fell asleep. My schedule ended so late that I assumed you would have left by then.”

She stares at him with a strange expression, a look that he’s never seen before on her gentle features.

“Why did you think I would leave?” She asks and her tone is full of hurt.

He drinks from her glass of water without saying anything and she frowns.

“This happens to us all of the time. I thought you’d be used to it by now.”

“I don’t want to be used to it.” She tells him, her eyebrows furrowed in pain.

Soohyuk closes the spaces between them and tries to kiss her but she pushes him away.

“Why are you making a big deal out this?” He asks out of frustration, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You cancel plans on me all of the time. You even missed my birthday.”  

She looks at him blankly.

“Do you really not know?” She asks in amazement.

He shakes his head, drawing lazy circles on her back with his fingers.

“Yesterday was our anniversary.” She tells him sadly. “I thought that you had something planned and that’s why you invited me out to the bar we met at.”

“...Are you sure?” Soohyuk asks hesitantly, looking at her in disbelief.

“I can’t believe you didn’t know.” She turns away from him and stares at the wall. It’s too painful to see his face. “How did we even survive a year when we’re like this?”

Soohyuk puts his hands on her shoulders, massaging the tense muscles reassuringly. His hands slowly slide down her body until settling on the back of her thighs. He lifts her up onto the kitchen counter, looking at her with lovingly forsaken eyes.

“I’m too tired to do anything, oppa.” She tells him as he kneads his thumbs into the soft flesh of her thighs.

He nods.

“I just want to look at you.”

“Why?” She asks him and her voice sounds so broken.

“I just want to remind myself why I try.”

“But you don’t try.” She says with a humorless laugh and he smiles.

She tangles her hands in his hair and he leans over to press his lips against hers.

Jiyong absently flips through clothing on rack in some Gangnam boutique. Nothing interests him anymore. Next to him, Soohyuk leans against a sales display with his hands in his pockets.

“What about this one?” Jiyong asks, holding up a jacket.

The model looks at the jacket with a thoughtful expression, his mind transported to a faraway place.

“Did you ever realize your feelings for Lee Chaerin?” Soohyuk asks suddenly and his friend looks taken aback.

“Fine, I won’t get the jacket.” He jokes shakily but the other man doesn’t laugh. “What’s going on with you?”

Soohyuk doesn’t speak and Jiyong shuffles around nervously as he observes his tall friend.

“Is this because I yelled at you about Chae that one time?” Jiyong asks and Soohyuk looks up.

“No, that has nothing to do with it.” Soohyuk answers and the rapper sighs in relief. “I was grateful to you for driving Chaerin home that night.”

“Then what’s going on, man?” Jiyong asks in exasperation.

“Lee Chaerin and I broke up recently.” The model mentions calmly.

Jiyong freezes, his head slowly turning to look at his friend.

“What do you mean by recently?” He asks him hesitantly.

“Over a month ago?” Soohyuk shrugs. “Maybe two months.”

He casually looks at wrist watches in a display case as Jiyong stares at him in bewilderment.

“Why are you being so quiet?” Soohyuk asks after getting a sales assistant to help him try on a few watches. He inspects the time piece on his pale and thin wrist before looking up at JIyong.

“Are you… trying to give me permission?” Jiyong asks carefully, still standing in the same spot, clutching that jacket.

“I can’t give you permission,” Soohyuk scoffs as he puts on another watch. “I don’t own Chaerin, I can’t just give her away to my friend like she’s a used toy.”

“I’m sorry,” Jiyong murmurs as he looks down at the ground. “Is it really alright, though?”

“I couldn’t make it work, I didn’t know her as well as I thought I did.” Soohyuk sighs and Jiyong sees a flicker of the sadness he must have hiding for months. “I think you could do it, Ji. You could make it work.”  

When Chaerin wipes away the sleep from her eyes and opens her front door, Jiyong is standing there in front of her. He holds out a bouquet of two dozen white roses and she smiles. She takes the roses from him and holds them to her close as if she’s coddling a baby.

“Thank you, oppa.” Her eyes flutter closed in bliss as she lifts the flowers to her nose to take in their subtle scent. Simple, but beautiful. She looks up at him. “What are you doing here?”

He gazes into her eyes and the intensity of his silent emotions makes her gasp.

“Chaerin, I have something that I’ve been meaning to tell you…”

- - -

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has subscribed, upvoted, and commented on this story! I'm sorry for making you all wait so I hope that you like this chapter and that you enjoyed the story! It's my first completed multi-chapter fic so I feel really proud of myself.