“Thank you for choosing me over him” Gary found an excuse to give her a call that evening so he did. “Of course I would choose you… we agreed to have a loveline together”

“But you do it so smoothly… you’re a natural! You’re a good actress”

“I am not a good actress… that came naturally because I am comfortable with you” She wanted to put her words differently but she didn’t want to be too obvious. “I feel most comfortable and natural with you too.  At least I can crack jokes now… I don’t want to be the straight boring guy of the show”

“Trust me, you can never be boring…” He was alone at his office but he was blushing with the praise from her. “… I think you’re too humble to notice how much you can do.  Oppa, keep your head up… You are one of the few people I met that have such strong charisma about you”

He was already bending down towards his arm on the desk, shy. “Stop it, jihyo.. my head’s getting so big right now!” She giggled. “It is always fun to talk to you… too bad we don’t spend much time together…”

“It’s good that we don’t spend much time together… I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it. It would look very awkward on the show. The rate we’re going is just nice.” He wanted so bad to spend time with her. But he needs time to gather all his confidence so he can talk to her naturally.  He gets nervous easily. “Yeah… let’s take it as it goes.. we’ll pick up the momentum” she was a little unhappy that he does not want to spend time with her.  But from watching him the past few months, she can understand that he is actually shy around girls.

“Oppa, why are you so shy around girls?” she blurted out the question on her mind. Gary was stunned by the question. She noticed it was an abnormally long silence. “Sorry, oppa.. I think it must be too personal to you” He snapped back to reality. “No, it’s ok… I just didn’t expect the question out of the blue.”

“I was with the same girl for seven years… I guess I lost touch with the outside world during that time.  We hang around the same people.  Rarely met anyone new.” He explained, opening up to her about his past. “So I’ve heard.  Seven years…” she responded. “Yes, seven long years… You wouldn’t want to hear the story… it’ll be hours!”

“I wouldn’t mind, actually.  If you feel like telling me, I’ll be glad to listen… Besides, I’ll get to know you better. You can trust me…” He felt her sincerity.

“We were young and madly in love… we lived a free life. We lived on love. I make my own money with my music to support our lives. People don’t even know who wrote the songs, so I was going nowhere.  It slowly became a strain in the relationship.  I was frustrated with my life and she could not see a future with me, I guess. The last two years were spent fighting with each other, hurting each other. We grew apart.  She found someone else while I was still hanging on to her.”

“I think I can relate to that.  Sort of.  So what finally put an end to it?” She had her share of growing out of love while trying to cope with life. “One day she finally said what both of us have been wanting to say. We just never said it because we were hanging on to the smallest possibility that it will get better. She gave up.  It was terrible.  We were shouting our frustration to each other. Both cried in the end and decided as adults, we should go our separate ways because it’s damaging to both our lives.” He sighed at the end.

“Oppa, are you still upset with her? I heard your songs. I can relate to those feelings. My past relationship is quite similar to yours. But of course it didn’t last that long so I am over it. Are you?”

“She moved on and got married.  I guess what’s left is the feeling that I was left with nothing to hold on to. I do get reminded of it from time to time. It’s like a wound  I can never forget but I guess with time it’ll just be a scar I can ignore.”

They kept on talking about their past relationships comfortably for the next hour.  Gary had never felt so good about the breakup.  He just needed someone to talk it out of his system and get a better view of it like Jihyo is providing to him. She amazed him.  From her stories, she was strong and so positive to have moved on so fast.  Knowing her story from the media, he knew how strong she is but hearing it from her made him so proud of her. “This is the woman I need” he thought.

Jihyo too, never felt so nice after talking about it.  She felt comfortable talking to him.  She can trust him. She wanted him to know her. She wanted to know him too. That was the first time they spent over 5 minutes talking on the phone. It was more than 1 hour. She even had to put him on speaker phone to have it charging. She felt peace and calm in that deep voice. It was therapeutic.

….

Jihyo was crying during filming.  She could not contain her frustration.  She was upset with herself for being too engrossed in the game.  She actually hurt Gary while trying to get away from him.  She didn’t realize it at first. But when they were gathered together, HaHa told her she hit him too hard in the back, he had to take a break and get treatment. “It’s that serious??” she was worried. “He’s been having problem with his back recently.  I think you hit him right on spot.”

Suddenly she was crying and got everybody worried. She let out her frustration.  “I am not going to do this anymore!” she was sobbing. “I hurt Gary”.  At that moment Gary felt like giving her a hug to tell her it’s alright.  It’s the first time he sees her tears. From their phone conversations, he doesn’t expect her to cry just because she hit him. He decided to talk to her later.

She went to him after filming ended. She held his arm to make him turn and face her. “Hey, it’s you!” Gary said cheerfully.  She smiled weakly, her heart filled with guilt. “Oppa… I’m so sorry.  I should not be too rough with you.” Her hands still on his left arm. His right hand patted her hand. “It’s okay.  I am fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“But HaHa oppa said I really hurt your back you had to take a break just now.” He pulled her to his front and untangled her from his arm. “I had it looked by the medics… Don’t worry.  I came on this job assuming the risk.” He was trying to calm her.  She looked into his eyes to see if he was lying.  He looks honest. She still felt sorry. She went in closer and gave him a hug to his surprise. “I am sorry” she whispered.

“Ya! Are you two dating already??” Jongkook walked in on them hugging. They instantly broke the hug. “No, hyung.  She was apologizing for hitting me. This girl is so worried” He explained. “Jihyo yaaa.. your boyfriend is strong, he doesn’t get hurt easily.” Jongkook trying to help Gary out. She nodded “Thank you, oppa.  I’ll get going” She was actually still embarrassed about the hug, she quickly left them.

Jongkook saw the look on Gary’s face. “You must like her a lot, don’t you” he had his arm on Gary. He smiled his gaze is still on her back. “She is just amazing, hyung.”

“I think it’s about time you give love another chance… but please, this time, be careful. I don’t want you falling too fast and hurt yourself” He nodded agreeing to the big brother. “I think she’s a nice girl and will treat you well. Go for it!” Jongkook loves seeing them together.  He has been observing them together.  They complement well.  He’d be happy if they end up together.  He had known them both before the show existed. They had similar past.

…

“Am I interrupting?” Gary heard some noise over the phone and though she must be in the middle of something. “No, it’s fine..” She stood up, excused herself out of the room.   “I am just having dinner with my staffs” The noise disappearing from the background. “So u left them to talk to me?” he . “I wanted to talk to you.  I was planning on calling you after dinner. But since you called..”

“No wonder my heart received a missed call just now… I called back and got you” he is quick to come up with cheesy lines. Both laughed at the same time. “Do you talk to all girls like this, oppa?” She was curious. “of course not! You’re the only one.” She likes that. “Good… I’d be jealous if you do” she hinted.

Gary caught on the hint instantly. “Seriously?? You’d be jealous?” She simply said yes to his question.

“So it’s true that you find me attractive?” he was trying to digest it. “Would the lie detector machine lie??” He can’t believe what he was hearing. He was already punching his fist in the air a few times.

“So can we have phone date from now on?” He had to ask. “Hahahaha! Phone date?? Is there such a term??”

“I don’t want to scare you off… so let’s take it slow and have phone dates first.  If you’re comfortable with me… then you ask me out on a date when you’re ready” He is talking in his gentleman voice, very serious with his proposition.

“That sounds good. So is this our first date?” She was smiling into the phone. She was out on the restaurant’s second floor balcony. The ambiance is just perfect for a date. “Yes, it’s our first date.  What do we talk about on first date? I have not dated for so long… You’ve been on a lot of first dates” he remembering her telling him her dating stories previously. “Well… you know why all my first dates never progressed to second dates?”

“Why?”

“Because we talked about the weather” he laughed. “OK, I was just going to talk about how nice the weather is tonight! I’m glad I asked!”

They didn’t talk about the weather. They talked about music. His music.  She was laughing at all his jokes. 30 minutes was all they had before her staffs came out looking for her. “I have to go now. I’ll text you later?” That’s the sweetest goodbye he had ever heard from her.

She was still smiling when she put her phone away. She turned around and saw the manager staring at her. “So you’re dating again?” She smiled and walked on to leave the restaurant. Her manager knows she goes on dates often but rarely a second date afterwards. So he doesn’t meddle much into her personal matters.  He’d ask from time to time but it changes every time so he stopped asking much.