A/N: Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Cho sings through a few more songs before taking a short water break to clear up . She does a run-through in her head; she’s done two English songs, one of her own, and two Korean songs. Now she’s got a few Chinese songs to do along with one more of her own and she’ll be done for the night.

But as she’s thinking, her mind flicks over to the possibility of Minseok being out there and she gently curses the lighting for not enabling her to see if he’s there. She needs to focus, Cho berates herself, and swallows another gulp of water before screwing the cap back on and setting it down next to her stool.

Her calloused fingers have a dull sting to them when she’s done and packing up. She’s stood up for a real proper bow and genuinely thanks the audience for being polite and listening well. Cho doesn’t register the oncoming steps until she turns around with her case and jumps back in shock when Jongdae is right in front of her.

“Holy , you came,” Cho breathes, hand over her beating heart and feet taking a step back to relieve some personal space.

“I said I’d come if I didn’t have anything to do,” Jongdae cheekily grins, hand reaching out to pinch her cheek affectionately. Cho grumbles and swats his hand away, mumbling incoherently along the lines of “Goddamit I’m not five years old” and “stop it please” before stepping off stage and having Jongdae follow her to an empty table. “You want a drink?”

Cho raises an eyebrow questioningly. “Are you trying to pick me up?”

He lets out a barking laugh (but it’s totally melodious to her) and shakes his head. “No, it’s a small gift for doing well tonight. So what do you want?”

“Rum and coke, I guess. Thank you.”

Jongdae leaves and comes back with two drinks in his hands, one with her order and the other with a beer. “FYI, they have blueberry pancake vodka here,” he comments offhandedly and Cho grins.

“Sounds like a pla--”

“Cho?”

There’s a different voice calling her name this time, one not as smooth as Jongdae’s. It’s a voice she hasn’t heard in a while and she quickly understands that she didn’t properly prepare herself for this moment.

As she turns her head in the direction of the voice, Cho can feel her heart shatter and sink from each piece that falls to a figurative ground.

“Hey Cho, it’s been a while.”

She plasters on the best smile she can muster. She’s supposed to be happy that she got to him. She’s supposed to be happy that he didn’t ignore her text. She’s supposed to be that he didn’t forget her like she thought he might have.

But how is she supposed to feel when that girl is standing next to him?

“Minseok-ah,” Cho breathes out shakily, hand unconsciously clenching her glass. Jongdae’s eyes flicker over to her stiff posture and flicker back to where Minseok is. So this must be that girl she mentioned about two months ago, he realizes, and makes a move to handle the situation because he can tell Cho doesn’t quite know what to do.

Her mind is in overdrive and she stops Jongdae from doing anything. Cho can do this. She’s a big girl now.

“What are you doing here?”

Minseok looks genuinely confused at her question. “You texted me the address, right? It’s been awhile since we’ve seen each other so I thought I’d come out to see you. You did really well, by the way. I can’t believe you still remember that old Chinese song,” he chuckles and Cho attempts to laugh with him.

“Oh, this is Yeonhee, the girl I was telling you about during the summer. You know, the girl--”

“--that you were longboarding with a few weeks ago,” Cho spits out before she can stop herself. She’s still bitter, just like anyone would be. Her best friend in Korea had forgotten about her birthday to go longboarding with a ing high school girl that he had just met a month before. It screams wrong at her, screams sudden change, and Cho wants to rip her hair out.

“Yeah,” Minseok admits and looks surprised. “How’d you know?”

“It was on your Snapchat story.”

“Oh, right. And you are?” He questions as he turns in the direction of Jongdae’s figure.

“Kim Jongdae,” He holds out a hand for the conventional handshake. “So you’re Minseok.”

Jongdae doesn’t miss the look Minseok throws at him. It’s confusion mixed with disbelief and judgmental feelings, flashes of jealousy zooming across his pupils and at the realization, Jongdae stiffens.

“We’re high school classmates and accidentally found each other here.”

“Ah, I see,” Minseok gruffly says and turns back to Cho. “Why didn’t you tell me about him?”

“For reasons I don’t feel like explaining,” Cho half-snarls.

“Do those reasons also include why you haven’t spoken to me in two months?”

“Maybe, but does it matter?”

“Of course it matters, you ran out on me and then it’s like you forgot I even existed.”

“Well I wasn’t the one who forgot their best friend’s birthday and went ing longboarding through Seoul with someone I just met a month ago!” Cho half-screams with tears of frustration and anger running down her cheeks. Is Minseok really blaming her for this entire mess? Is Minseok thoroughly convinced that it’s completely her fault?

She slams down a few bills as a tip, snatches her guitar case, and clutches Jongdae’s hand, gently yanking him out of his seat and up the stairs to the outside world. Cho can hear Minseok calling after her but she’s having none of it. Absolutely none of it.

They don’t stop walking, well, more like Cho stomping and Jongdae quietly following, until she seems to run out of energy and Jongdae senses her lack of strength. In return, he laces their fingers and grabs her guitar case from her before speeding up so he’s leading her to somewhere away from her current reality.

Cho hasn’t stopped crying since they left the bar, though it doesn’t bother anyone because it’s more silent tears than anything. She never imagined her confrontation with Minseok to be anything like what just went down, but inside, she knows it wouldn’t have been rainbows and butterflies. Her temper and slight grudge would’ve gotten the better of her, as it did just now.

Jongdae can’t help but look back worriedly at her and make sure they don’t bump into anyone. He’s taking her to his apartment because it’s closer and he can tell that she’s too close to completely breaking down. Heart feeling extremely unsettled, Jongdae halts in his tracks and turns around, causing Cho to bump into him but she refuses to look up. He puts the guitar down and lifts his free hand to tentatively cup her cheek.

Instinctively, his thumb attempts to wipe her tears as she sniffles, a small smile gracing his lips as he thinks about how cute she just looked. But that’s not the problem right now and he uses his hand to angle her face. “Hey,” he murmurs and warily looks down at her. “Is there anywhere you’d like to go?”

She mutedly shakes her head. “Just take me away from here. Somewhere where it won’t hurt so much and I’m not acting like a teenage girl,” Cho chokes out and Jongdae nods. “Okay,” he breathes and pulls her into a one armed hug since their other hands are still laced together. He can feel her grip tighten on his as he plants a soft kiss on her head, breathing in the smell of her shampoo as he holds her to him as close as possible.

“Come on, let’s go,” he gently whispers and she nods before following him to his apartment.

-

“You’re free to come here whenever you feel like it,” Jongdae says as he unlocks the door. “If you want, I can get you a spare made so you can just come in. It’ll be nice to have someone breathe in it when golf season starts again and I’m not around a lot.”

The walls are a pristine white along with most of his furniture. There’s enough space for it to be considered a loft and the furniture is modern like those model rooms in the home magazines. Everything’s cleaned up pretty nicely and Cho isn’t exactly surprised. To her, Jongdae has always been a tidy person. Despite his bad days at school, he always dressed nicely and was clean-shaven, not a hair out of place.

As Jongdae releases his hand from hers, she can feel the connection with reality rekindle like the wind ceasing from whipping a candle flame back and forth. It frightens her and she hurriedly straightens her fingers and forcing them closed to stop his from leaving hers. Jongdae understands her fear as he looks into her eyes, watching the insanity slowly latch onto her mind. He leads her towards the couch and calmly sits her down. “I’ll be right back, don’t worry.” He lifts her hand to his lips as they brush over her knuckles lightly before leaving to grab a cup of water for her.

Cho feels like a child, lost and clueless, stuck in a world full of hate and misunderstandings. It’s always been this way, so why is she so...hurt by all this now?

Because you put too much faith in Minseok.

The realization sends a shiver down her back and she draws her knees up to her chin before rolling onto her side and letting sleep take her into its hold.

-

Precious, is the first word that crosses his mind when he sees Cho curled up in a fetus position, asleep on his black couch. He sets down the cup of water on the coffee table before sliding arm under her knees and another around her shoulders, gently lifting her bridal style and taking her to his bedroom. Jongdae gazes down at her, watching how she unconsciously snuggles into his warmth and languidly buries her nose in his sweater.

Quietly nudging the door open with his foot, he sets her down on his black sheets to open the blankets and tuck her in. She shifts onto her right side, away from Jongdae, and he walks to the other side to get a good look of her complexion. The sadness is still evident on her face, hair splayed out messily across the span of her neck and shoulder. He uses the tips of his fingers to move it all back and out of the way so it doesn’t irritate her in the middle of night.

“I wonder if Minseok understands how precious you are,” Jongdae frowns, fingers lingering on her cheek. “You are not at fault.”

This is not your fault.

-

“Hey, you okay?” Yeonhee inquires as they’re walking home.

“Yeah,” Minseok replies distractedly. “I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

I didn’t do anything wrong. She left me. For Jongdae.

You left her. You ruined her. You ruined every chance you could’ve had with her. You ruined her entire image of you. You took away her trust and ripped it to shreds. You know that she is the most important thing to you. But you didn’t realize that until now, and now that she belongs to someone else, you want her back. You--

Don’t say it. Please, don’t.

--took her for granted. You did the one thing that ruined her in the first place.

No, I didn’t.

“I didn’t,” he bitterly whispers to himself. “I wouldn’t dare.”

But you did.

And you will pay.

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