D-11; 20.08.2016

Weirdo stared at me and patted my back.

"You're okay Hye Won-ah, I'm here now."

I broke away from the hug. Weirdo took me by the arm and began helping me to walk away from the bus stop that began to get crowded.

We stopped at an empty cafe nearby and entered, taking the most secluded seat.  He got us some drinks, and an additional cup of cold water for me.

Once I've calmed down, I told him everything Soojung had said. From 'giving' me Jay to the apology that's a few years late. Sung Hwa oppa's face was unreadable throughout. I couldn't make out what he was feeling. I mean he grew up with Soojung, he's bound to know what all this means. I needed clarity and I thought he would be that person to give it to me.

He remained silent for the next minute and I was slowly getting impatient. He should've responded with something, anything, by now.

"There's something you need to know, Hye Won." His voice was low and serious.

I motioned with my eyes for him to carry on.

"It wasn't by chance we met or got to know one another. Almost a year ago, I received a phone call. I owed someone a favour and that person wanted me to keep tabs on you, and so I did. I wasn't needed to befriend you or anything like that, just to keep an eye on you from a far and give updates whenever necessary."

My heart twisted into a knot.

"What the ? So you're just a ing spy?" I clenched my hands.

"No! I admit in the first few months I did 'spy' on you. But it didn't feel good y'know. I didn't want to be caught in between the two of you but I couldn't not honour a favour. But there was something about you that drew me in. I noticed how you enjoyed taking short walks at night to the park. I noticed how your brothers were very overprotective of you. I saw that you had chosen to carry the weight of your feelings, your problems by yourself. I didn't see you hanging out with anyone but your brothers, this one male friend and that one female friend you met the other day."

By this time, I had already drank half the cup of cold water to keep my cool.

"And I am sorry. I should have asked what the favour was before blindly accepting it. But I mean you no harm. I didn't get close to you on purpose. Heck, i didn't even intend to get close to you. But we crossed paths quite often in school and it was hard to stay away. Trust me, I've tried. You don't know how ing hard I tried to stay away. But we kept crossing each other's paths. Do you know how messed up I've been since we were paired up for the school assignment?"

"Oh wow. So you're saying I messed up your life?!" I gritted my teeth as I said that.

"No that's not what I meant at all, Hye Won! I-I just wanted to say that you are like a magnet. And you opened up to me through us working on that assignment together, like that time when you told me you had PTSD. You rarely talked about your problems or your feelings so every time you decided to share them with me, I felt so grateful."

"I had my suspicions in the beginning but I couldn't be sure.  It intrigued me. If you really were the person from Jay's past, shouldn't I help the both of you finish the chapter before moving on? I honestly thought I was helping you both but now I know I've made a mistake." He avoided making eye contact with me.

He lied. He lied to me in my face. He said he wasn't sure if I had something to do with Jay but that clearly wasn't the case.

"Hye Won, I am sorry things became this way. Can we please just sort this out? I don't want us to-" He reached out to my hand

"We've been friends a long time and we had only recently reconnected with each other. We were close enough to have fallen out with each other. We are close enough for me to know whatever he's been through the last couple of years." He relented and answered.

I stood up and splashed his face with whatever water I had left in my glass. I didn't care if we weren't alone in the store but I couldn't take it anymore. I don't think the person is Soojung, don't tell me...

"It's Jay isn't it? The someone you ow