Revamped! 131020. Holy crap while I was writing this, towards the end there was this crazy- strong aftershock so I was like freaking out for a while. Haha. Anyway, enjoy!

Chanhee's eyes take in Eun Seo, walking into the recording studio and towards him, and he can't help but grin. His heart flutters slightly, even after all this time, and he pats the empty space next to him, gesturing for her to sit. Eun Seo takes her place next to him, legs brushing against his as she leans in to press a small kiss on his cheek. 

"Hey, I missed you," she says, smiling. "How was your day, hm?" 

Chanhee bites his tongue to keep from spewing out some cheesy line about how it was terrible until he saw her, instead pulling her closer and leaning against her small frame. “Tiring," he sighs. “With the comeback and everything, it seems like everything’s so exhausting. It’s hard to stop just to take a breath.”

Eun Seo looks at him sadly, eyes scanning her boyfriend's expression. Slowly, she leans down and rests her head on his lap, poking his nose. “It’s okay, oppa is strong. Be strong, Chunji!” she smiles half-heartedly. “Don't make me worry about your wellbeing more than I already do!”

He shakes his head and laughs tiredly, raising a hand to mess up her brown hair. "Cutie," he says. "You have nothing to worry about, Eun. I'm just tired." Her smile fades slightly and she closes her eyes as he plays with her hair absentmindedly.

The two stay in silence for a while, her head on his lap as the sound of his steady breathing gradually lulls her to sleep. She'd already begun to think he'd fallen asleep as well when his voice breaks the silence.

“Let’s get married.”

Her eyes widen, but she does not move. 

They'd talked about this before, but the thought of marrying someone now, Chanhee especially, scares her. She knows she loves him, more than anything in the world, but they're young, they're reckless, and their relationship means so much to her that she wouldn't even risk jeopardizing it. “I don’t know…” she whispers as she bites her lip, unsure. “Maybe, but not now.”

He takes her hand and pulls her close, looking her in the eyes, the emotion in them raw and completely clear. Her heart thumps as she hears his words. “Marry me, Eun Seo. Marry me next month, next week, tomorrow, even later today, damn it. I couldn't care less. I just want you to marry me.” She blinks, looks at him as if he's completely lost his mind, but he doesn't let go, doesn't say a word, just waits for her to respond.

She looks down and struggles to speak, unsure of what to say until her heart reaches up and shoves the words out for her. "Why?" Her heart racing, she turns his gaze to him. "Why me?"

“Why not? I love you," he says with a forlorn smile. "I love you and I know you love me. Isn’t that enough?” There's still so much he could say, but he stops himself. He knows very well that in her heart is Lee Chanhee, but all the same, he knows he's somewhere in there too. 

"I j-just –"

"Marry me. I’m not even asking you to, I’m begging for you to.” He turns away from her, eyes closing in an attempt to soothe his anxiousness. He doesn't even realize he's holding his breath until her lips fall onto on his.

She wraps her arms around him and he feels as if he's flying. She's his. And even though he had always been second to Lee Chanhee in her heart before, now she'd just agreed to spend her life with him. “Yes,” she murmurs. “Yes, Lee Sungyeol. Yes.”

They are quiet as they sit across each other in the nearly deserted cafe. She crosses her legs and uncrosses them in anxiety, contemplating on whether or not she should speak first. He is simply staring at her, trying to decipher her expression. 

She had called him that morning, and he answered quickly. Since he had said he'd miss the wedding, she'd told him, they should meet up. He continues looking at her, and she continues avoiding his gaze, instead twisting that eyesore of a ring on her finger. He's not sure what he wants to come out of this conversation. Even if he manages to win her back – which is highly unlikely – he couldn't do that to his best friend.

Deep down, he knows that this meeting doesn't mean she wants to be with him again. It's so she could give him what he needs, what will keep him from asking himself questions day after day, night after night, it's what will keep him sane. Closure.

They ended with a promise that would eventually be broken. 

"I'll come back. And we'll be together again."
"We will. And I'll wait for you."

He had left her with his best friend, and she ended up marrying the guy.

Lee Chanhee was always a masochist at heart.

He inflicted this upon himself. It was his fault that he was dying inside.

It is a cloudy afternoon that day. She does not fail to make notice of the fact and smiles at him awkwardly. He wants to laugh at her attempt at making small talk, but the second her eyes meet his, his mouth opens and out tumbles all he'd ever wanted to ask her ever since he heard the news. He leans, forward, hand falling onto the table with a small thud.

“Why?” His voice nearly cracks, but he goes on. “Why couldn’t you wait for me, Eun Seo?” His hand curls into a fist on the tabletop, and it's as if he's squeezing her heart. She shakes her head and puts her hand over his soothingly.

“Because it turns out that you weren’t the one I was supposed to wait for.” she says softly.

“You said you were going to marry me,” he says, looking at their hands. She pulls away almost immediately when she notices his gaze, and his hands become cold at the loss of contact. She knows she never said she would, but she just sighs.

“That was before,” she shakes her head. “When I was younger, I said I would marry my prince. I was convinced you were my prince and I was your princess.” She pauses and smiles halfheartedly. “And you really are my prince.”

He should be happy with that. He should let her go, let her get married and live out her life, have kids and – “Then what is Sungyeol?” 

She looks down at the familiar ring that shines under the light on her finger. “He’s the one," she smiles and turns back to him. "Chanhee, you'll understand. When you see that one girl you're supposed to spend the rest of your life with, you won't be able to see anyone else. That's what Sungyeol is to me."

Well, . He feels like someone stabbed him in the gut with a knife, twisting it through his insides with every word she said. His eyes gaze at her diamond engagement ring, heart sinking in his chest as it glares back at him. He swallows the lump in his throat and takes a deep breath, looking up. “I love you. You know that, right?”

“I love you, too. Always have, always will.” And when she says that, he knows. He knows that it's the end. It's now definite. No longer just an 'I love you' with a peck. Definite. Because after that, she would no longer be around to tell him that anymore.

He smiles lightly. “I know you do.”

He ends up going to their wedding after all, without her knowing, but even so, he can only handle going to the ceremony. Again we must mention, Lee Chanhee was always a masochist at heart.

She kisses Sungyeol, and it's as if she's soaring. She smiles brightly, and that feeling swelling in her heart reassured her that yes, Sungyeol was, in fact, the one, and all of her pain, all of Chanhee's pain fades away, just for that moment, allaying their hearts briefly.

Her eyes wander the room and she senses that Chanhee is actually there. When her gaze meets his, she smiles, and it's almost as radiant as how she smiles at her husband. 'Thank you.' She only thinks it, but Chanhee nods and smiles back as if he'd heard her.

And he thinks, if he's the cause for his own pain, he's also somehow the cause of her lifetime of happiness.