Ari’s POV

I really, really, didn't want to open my eyes, because that would mean yesterday did, indeed, happen. And yesterday was a ty day, which brings me back to my original point of not wanting to open my eyes.

I was being childish, I knew that. I also knew that Ji would come pick me up, to do what friends did (I still wanted to roll my eyes at the thought of the word friends), in 2 hours. And, since I looked kind of dead, I knew that I would need every single minute, every second, of those 2 hours to make myself look...presentable, y'know, like I wasn't dead, like I hadn't cried the whole night.

With a sigh, I stood up and walked to my hotel bathroom. As I suspected, my eyes were red, my skin white, my face puffy. Lovely.

I took a long warm shower, and tried to scrub yesterday away. I failed, but at least I was clean.

I tried to find my inner peace while getting ready. I think the distractions helped me forget about the possibility of not being with the love of my life.

I blow dried my hair (and now it took considerably more time, in comparison to when I had my short hair), and put a cooling face mask on to reduce the puffiness.

With a curling iron, I made my hair fall in soft waves down my back. Thankfully, the mask helped, and I didn’t look like a balloon anymore.

I had to remind myself that this wasn’t a date, and because of that I kept my makeup natural. A lot of mascara, some blush, and natural lip-gloss. Okay, I looked alive-ish.

With clothes it was even more difficult, but I finally settled for jeans and a light blouse. I hoped my outfit said “friendly coffee” and not “desperate”. Please God, just not desperate.

I got Ji’s text, and quickly put on a pair of flats and rushed out of my room.

Understandably, he didn’t pick me up in his Lamborghini (that would be a bit to flashy), and instead picked me up in his white Bentley (which was still on the flashy side).

I hoped into the car and froze. Do I kiss him on the cheek? Do I just sit here? Do I say hi?

“Don’t look at me like a deer in the headlights, Ari.” He laughed, and I giggled, kissing his cheek.

“Sorry…I just wasn’t sure, y’know…” I trailed on, but he nodded, and I knew he understood.

“No worries, sweetie.” He said, and I knew that he said “sweetie” out of habit. My heart made a sickly thump, and I had to close my eyes to remind myself that we were friends.

“So, where are we going?” I asked, quickly changing the topic.

“Oh, you’ll see.” Ji replied, a devilish grin playing on his lips.

We stopped before a modern looking building, and as Ji led me in, I wondered what was special about this place. I soon found out. Taking my hand gently (out of habit, again) we stepped into an indoor garden. The tables were placed in what seemed like a small forest. Flowers were blooming everywhere, and a small gasp escaped my lips before I could close them.

“Do you like it?” He said, smiling. I just nodded, and let him take me to one of the more secluded tables. It was very obvious that this was a very high end café, because the waiter didn’t do a double take when he saw Ji. Usually people did the double take and then stared a bit, before stuttering. That, thankfully, didn’t happen here.

After I got my daily caffeine fix, I looked up to see Ji’s attention was on me.

“So, how have you been Ji?”

“Good…life has been good. The comeback was success, and the fans really responded well. The guys and I are really busy at the moment, and to be honest, sometimes I wonder if I could even live without a crazy schedule.” He replied smiling, and kept telling me about the guys, his family, even Gaho and Jolie. The only topic he avoided was the topic of his girlfriend…but I wasn’t going to let him off that easy.

“And how is your girlfriend?” I asked, my face and voice not betraying my true emotions.

“Hana? Oh…well she is okay. She is a movie actress, so she is also very busy.” He finished, looking out of the window like something was bothering him. I on the other hand already saw myself typing her name into google, and probably regretting it when I  would see how beautiful she was.

Ji’s POV

Looking out of the window, it was almost like the buildings were mocking me.

“You fool, why are you letting her go?”

“Are you really that stupid?”

They were asking me, and I couldn’t have agreed more with them. It felt so wrong talking about Hana with Ari. I knew that between Hana and me there was nothing real, just , and some feelings on her side. But truth to be told, no one compared to Ari in my eyes.

Ari tried really hard to hide her feelings, but it seems she forgot that she was like an open book to me, and I hated to see how hurt and unsure of herself she was. She probably thought Hana was more beautiful than her, when in reality Hana wasn’t even half of the woman Ari was. I knew that…I wished Ari knew that too.

That was when I decided that I wanted her to know.  I wanted her to know how much I loved her, even if we couldn’t be together.

“Come on, I want to show you something.” I abruptly stood up, and enter twined my fingers with hers.

She was surprisingly quiet the whole ride to my house, and didn’t even utter a word until we went through the front door.

“Ji…?” Her voice was quiet, but I could hear the curiosity in it.

“Follow me.” I said, and looked back, smiling.

I took her to my star gazing room, and my heart did a funny little dance when I saw amazement in her face.

“Look through the telescope.” She leaned in, her golden hair cascading around her, and while trying not to stare at her body I said:

“You are looking at our star, Ari. I later on called the Observatory and got them to tell me what was the name of the star. It was actually funny how badly I described the location of it, but they still managed to give me its exact location so I could always find it in the night sky. I bought this apartment only because it had a room like this.” I leaned in, now whispering into her ear: “I did it because it reminded me of you, and us, and our love.”

She abruptly moved away and turned her back on me. I heard a quiet sob and stood behind her, my voice practically begging her.

“Please, please forgive me Ari.”

“You, I-I, we can’t. We are just friends…” She turned around, looking up at me with those beautiful big eyes and I wondered. I wondered if I was selfish enough to kiss her.

A/N   Sorry if this is a y chapter, I’m again writing when it’s 2 am, which is not the smartest idea ever :D