Soomin awoke in an unfamiliar place. She wondered how she got to the hospital. She closed her eyes and tried to recall what happened but nothing was coming back except flashes of Kai’s face. She sighed. Even after everything all she could think of was Kai. Suddenly, someone sat up and yawned. “Oh? You’re awake?” The blurred figure said sleepily. 
 
Soomin rubbed her eyes and finally she could see who it was. “Jongin…?” Was she still dreaming?
 
He chuckled. “It’s funny how you say the same thing before you pass out and when you wake up.” 
 
She stared at him in disbelief. “What are you talking about? What were you doing there when I passed out?” 
 
He stopped smiling and stared at his hands nervously. He thought of how he should explain the situation to her but nothing was coming to him. It was a difficult conversation to begin. 
 
“Where’s my manager? I need to get back to work!” She pulled off the covers and attempted to leave. 
 
“No! You can’t go outside! Your manager is outside taking care of the reporters. You just need to lie down and rest. Come on…” His voice was gentle but she could tell he was hiding something. 
 
She sat back down and folded her arms. “Why are there reporters outside? Jongin, what’s going on?”
 
He realized that he could no longer hide the truth from her. He handed her his phone so she could see for herself. She looked through the articles and watched videos with her eyes wide open. 
 
She couldn't believe what she saw. They were all over the news! Everyone saw Kai carrying her off stage! News of them dating in real life was being reported on every possible news site.
 
He already confessed to her on screen and yet it wasn’t enough. He wanted more attention by starting a scandal? She pushed his phone away roughly. "Leave. I don't need you here."
 
He stood up and held her arm gently. "Your manager is outside, busy with the reporters and you need someone to look after you."
 
"And whose fault is that? If you didn’t appear in front of everyone, this wouldn’t have happened!" She glared at him angrily. "Just leave, I don't need your help!"
 
"Why do you always have to push me away when I'm trying to help you? I came only because you didn't contact me. Did you not hear what I said during the last episode?" He was starting to get angry too. He just couldn't seem to understand her.
 
"Don't make this my fault. You know you just said that for the publicity and attention. You totally didn’t mean it." She rolled her eyes. "It was the same back then too…"
 
"Back when? What are you talking about?" He turned her to face him. He didn't like where things were going but he wanted to find out what had been making her avoid him all this while.
 
"Back when we were trainees. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about!" She pushed his arms aside and turned away from him.
 
"When you left me without saying anything?" He scoffed. " You just left and what was I supposed to do about that? I didn’t even hear from you. I didn’t know where you went. I tried to contact you but you changed your number. So how is that my fault?"
 
"You kept quiet! That's what happened! I was a new trainee and the other trainees kept bullying me. You came into the studio one day and just stood there with your mouth shut instead of standing up for me, protecting me! Did you want to debut that badly? It made me wonder whether you really cared about me." She was fuming and hot tears spilled. "Well, it looks like you've not changed much since then."
 
He stood there, frozen. He recalled the day she was talking about. His anger disappeared and a sense of guilt came over him. How could he not have noticed she was being bullied? She must have tried to tell him but he probably was too busy to notice. He should have realized something when she left the company without a word. Heck, he should have known way before that especially since they spent a lot of time together.
 
"Just leave, Kai. Don't make this worse." She wiped her tears away. She was tired of this. Tired of dealing with the same problem. If he just left then everything would be resolved. It would be better if she didn't have anything to do with him.
 
"I didn't know. I'm so sorry this happened." He sighed. He couldn’t leave without saying anything especially causing her so much trouble in the past. "If I had known what was happening, I would have done everything in my power to stop it. But I really didn't know and I'm so sorry for that." He took a deep breath and held her hands gently. "I'll leave if that's what you want me to do. Believe me, everything I've said to you during the filming, it's the truth and nothing will change how I feel about you. I'm sorry that everything is slightly crazy and out of control now. I shouldn't have gone on stage. I'll fix it. It'll be okay."
 
Tears continued to flow down her cheeks as she listened to his words. A part of her wanted to ignore him and forget about what he just said but another part of her knew that he was speaking the truth. She knew that he didn't do it for the attention and it was something she chose to believe. Maybe then she was afraid. Maybe even worried. But now, there was nothing else on her mind except him.
 
He smiled weakly before standing up to leave. Without any thought, she grabbed his hand and held it tightly. "What if I don't want you to fix anything?"
 
He stared at her, confirming if he heard her correctly. She looked up at him and smiled slightly. "Would you... please... stay?"
 
He didn't need to think twice to answer her. He could tell she was sorry and she didn't need to say anything for him to know the misunderstanding between them was now gone too. 

Posted 30th June 2014