Title: In Your Arms

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything, nor do I have any affiliations with Running Man franchise. The plot is solely mine.

Author: Sa_ligercouple

Pairing: Kim Jong Kook/ Song Ji Hyo

Rated: T

Summary: The couples that are meant to be are the ones who go through everything that is designed to tear them apart and come out even stronger than they were before. Will this be the case with variety stars Kim Jong Kook and Song Ji Hyo?

Author’s Note: I wrote this two piece one-shot when I heard the song Chau Chau by Deli Spice once again on episode 207. It’s been featured on Running Man before. I couldn’t stop myself from writing about Spartace in a heartbroken state of mind. That’s what came to my mind when I first listened to it, and of course, my mood feels exactly like this. I hope you all like it. I highly recommend you guys listen to this song while reading this one-shot. I had to listen to it –even writing the one-shot - to catch the essence I’m trying to portray in this fic. The rhythm of the song pretty much says it. To me at least. I felt like even crying haha. Thank you guys for all your support and devoted attention as my fans. I’m a fan of all your words and encouragement. Anything that says flashback in highlighted black and italic words are memories of Spartace. I hope you guys don’t get confused by this.

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“I told myself: 'I am surrounded by unknown things.' I imagined man without ears, suspecting the existence of sound as we suspect so many hidden mysteries, man noting acoustic phenomena whose nature and provenance he cannot determine. And I grew afraid of everything around me – afraid of the air, afraid of the night. From the moment we can know almost nothing, and from the moment that everything is limitless, what remains? Does emptiness actually not exist? What does exist in this apparent emptiness?” ― Guy de Maupassant, Complete Works

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Flashback

He sat on the chair in her little kitchen without eating his food as he waited for the right time to say the words he knew would shatter her world just like his was breaking into little pieces as the seconds passed. He knew what he had to do was the right thing for them and for her. She would understand. She was the most understanding person he’d ever had the chance of meeting.

 His favorite food stared back at him cold. Just like his insides were feeling. She had cooked his favorite grilled chicken s. His hands tightened underneath the table in fists. His stoic features gave nothing away of what he was going to do. Day and night his thoughts lingered on them till the most reasonable conclusion regarding them made its appearance like a nasty cut he couldn’t cure. He felt sick. His bent head lifted leisurely, dreading the words that undisputable refused to make their way out of his mouth. His fringe shadowed his eyes as he opened his mouth to destroy their reality. He felt like the coward he was at the moment.

“Ji Hyo… we can’t be together with each other anymore. This relationship has to end…”

End of flashback

Seoul, Korea (a month later after the breakup)

Walking endlessly without purpose singer Kim Jong Kook bumped into the shoulders of people as the crowd around him closed on him with each unhurried step he took forward to the unknown lane his feet were walking him steadfast. The impetuosity of the intersection bustling lively with its people and lights on the busy night did nothing to deter the singer who seemed like he could have been a ghost as he walked ahead with lifeless eyes and a black mouth mask to shield his identity against others. One step after the other. There was pain like no other. He felt lifeless. Without a worldly purpose. Driven to destruction by his turmoil mind and endless thoughts of her.

Her tear-stained face flashed in his eyes. His mind tried to push her image away. Yet it prove to be fruitless. For her features will be forever imprinted on his mind. He was an apparition of wondering endless dreams that once upon a time were everything to him. Faceless people passed around him. His road proved to be infinite as he kept on walking. To where? He didn’t know. Anywhere but where the memories of them couldn’t chase him. Like a phantom in the night he wondered looking for the unknown. The vortex of feelings closed in the uttermost corner of his memory reflected the insignificant life he was presently living. It had proven to be more than he could ever imagine, if in the past before he met her he had felt lonely, he could just image the loneliness that would eat him alive as time passed without her. He was alive and dead inside. The emptiness wouldn’t disappear no matter how much he tried. The loneliness that ate him day after day grew bigger as did the love he felt for the person who he was missing more than anything.

Thunder rumbled above him. His ears toned out everything around him as his comatose gaze kept on aimlessly staring ahead. A drop fell soon followed by another. Blackness surrounded the sky, lightning lightened South Korea’s tallest skyscrapers and buildings alike. Their shadows dancing in the night with every lightning that struck the stormy atmosphere. Rain poured unceasingly on the occupants walking the busy streets of downtown Seoul. Puddles of rain formed as it kept raining endlessly. Soon people scattered around looking for a dry and warm place to stay dry from rain.

Laughter and giggles could be heard from couples as they shared an umbrella.

A bitter smile appeared on Jong Kook’s face.  She loved the rain. How cruel was faith. It seemed vent on reminding him every day of what he’d lost. Taunting him without mercy. He didn’t need it. He had no one to blame but himself for he was the coward indeed.

Drops of rain eloped his being. The wetness that stained his face shadowed his own pain. His tears mingled with the sky’s pain. His heart skipped a beat as he recalled Ji Hyo’s love for the rain. She had once said when the sky was in pain, it would rain. When it thunders the pain would be unbearable. However, even in the darkness, there’s always a ray of sunshine. The rainbow that comes after the storm proves to be the reminder that not everything is lost in the end. He had laughed then at her perception. Silly Ji Hyo-ah…

He shook his head wielding for her words and presences to disappear from his mind.

Every step he took was a memory lane.

Flashback

“What do you mean we can’t continue our relationship?” There was desperation in her voice laced with the beginning of fear apparent for the man in front of her to hear with clarity. “Oppa, did I do something wrong? Is it me? I know I eat a lot. I know I’m not the most feminine woman you’ve met. I can cha-“

“Ji Hyo, stop... it’s not that,” he said with firmness without looking at the woman who was staring at him with a look of hopelessness.

The scrapping of chair being pushed back echoed in the suddenly-suffocating kitchen. Footless steps appeared on his downturn vision. He couldn’t look at her in the eyes. It would be his doom.

“Why? Why?” He heard her asking repetitively with apprehension. Anger and despair clouded his better judgment. He wasn’t fairing any better than she was. Couldn’t she see? Couldn’t she see it wasn’t easy for him to even have uttered those words that broke his heart like hers was breaking? He wasn’t inhuman. He may be Sparta to all Running Man Fans worldwide, but at the end of the day, he was a man just like any other man.

He stood up unceremoniously making the chair fall behind him, towering over her small person. Her fierceness was something Jong Kook admired about her. No, he didn’t want her to change for him. He loved everything little thing about her. From her funny hats, to her sleepiness sleeps she’d fall into once in a while when she was exhausted, to her -pinching, leg-grabbing and hair-pulling tactics. She was everything he’d ever wanted and much more. How could faith be so unreasonable? How could it give him everything in a single platter to taunt him with something he knew was impossible from the start?

“Don’t make this anymore harder Ji Hyo,” he said coldly through gritted teeth. He wanted to be anywhere else but here watching in slow motion as he hurt the woman he loved for their sake.

“But why? I love you Oppa.” A sob followed after another. Her cries pierced his insides making him feel unhuman.

Jong Kook closed his eyes hoping to, what? Not pay attention to what he was doing? To make it all go away? He wasn’t Dorothy in the land of OZ. He wasn’t going to disappear with a silly dance and click of shoes.

Every little sniffle she made was a knife plunged to his heart. Tears burned behind his eyelids.

“Ji Hyo…” he started but was cut off by small hands hitting his chest. The pain he felt inside was nothing compared to having her pain transferred to him with every hit