“Why are we here again?” Yonghwa brushes a speck of dust of his shoulders, pushing the curtains of the antique shop away.  Ignoring him, Joohyun walks ahead of him, glancing through the entire store smiling widely. She has wanted to visit this store, but she has not been able to come down all the way to Jeju because of their assignments. The minute her professor dismissed them for the term, she immediately dragged Yonghwa for a trip.

“Oppa, you go and play with the toys over there.” Joohyun shoves him away so she can concentrate and find the books she has been looking for months.

Scoffing, Yonghwa does what he was told. He takes a look at the entire store, it is filled with ornaments. Several fairy lights are tangled up together, but it still looks wonderful just like Joo-  Yonghwa smacks himself awake, reminding himself not to give himself away. It is cliché, isn’t it? Falling for your best friend, but he keeps on denying it because he could not read Joohyun at all.

It took him quite a while just to get the younger girl to talk to him, but he was scared of getting rejected by her. Some seniors had their eyes on Joohyun as she was a total gem compared to the rest of the girls in her grade, but she paid no heed to any of them. Yonghwa always found the girl reading in the library or busy studying at the deserted café behind the school – no one goes there anymore because they found it scary, but Yonghwa goes there sometimes just to watch the girl.  He sounded like a stalker, but he was that desperate to get to know the girl. 

He got his chance exactly eight days later. Due to the girl’s outstanding results compared to his pathetic results, he was placed under her teachings. Yonghwa would be embarrassed to have a junior as his tutor, but it was Joohyun. He could not be any happier than to finally be able to talk to her. Joohyun was everything Yonghwa had expected. She was extremely shy, and calm despite the things that escaped from Yonghwa’s mouth; like mentioning he had a pet snake or that his mother would walk around the house completely . Joohyun would just giggle, and went back her serious teaching mode.

“Yonghwa-ssi, do you understand question six or do you need me to go over it again?” Joohyun tried to hide her grin because Yonghwa was struggling with that question for the past ten minutes when Joohyun had completed the same worksheet in five minutes.

Yonghwa frowned at Joohyun’s formality with him. “Call me oppa.”  Joohyun eyes widened, but she nodded before taking Yonghwa’s worksheet to repeat her explanation so he would not fail for two terms straight. He did not remember how it happened, but they suddenly became best friends soon after that. They looked for each other when they needed help regarding basically anything.  

Yonghwa continues to explore the antique store as Joohyun disappears somewhere around the bookshelves.  He takes a quick glance outside to make sure it is not going to rain anytime because it is a pain in the whenever it rains during a trip. Yonghwa has something against rain that he will never fail to announce whenever the storms start rolling in. Feeling curious, he picks up an exquisite looking ring. “A Mood Ring?” Yonghwa mutters to himself as he slips the ring in. He watches in awe as it changes color right in front of his eyes. Just at the same time, Joohyun appears with a handful of books.

“Oh, a mood ring?” Joohyun questions as Yonghwa holds his right hand up to show the girl.  “Ah, Yonghwa oppa, are you in love with someone?”

Yonghwa blushes as Joohyun giggles at his reaction. He instantly removes the ring, placing it back where he had found it. “The color was a dark indigo which indicated that the user was love-struck.” Joohyun explains when the mood ring goes back to its neutral state. “I read about them once, but have never tried one on.”

“It’s just a toy.” He quickly says.

Joohyun continues on, but all Yonghwa can think of is how beautiful Joohyun looks at the moment as the light shines onto her face, illuminating her innocence – making her look like an angel sent from the Heavens. Yonghwa steps forward, helping Joohyun with her paper bags filled with books as they exit the store.

As soon as they are halfway down the road, it suddenly starts pouring. Gritting his teeth, Yonghwa grabs Joohyun’s hand as they seek shelter in front of an abandoned barber shop. “I hate the rain.” He mumbles to himself as Joohyun takes a seat next to him; not caring about what will happen to her white dress. Joohyun has heard Yonghwa said that probably more than thousands of times, but she has never asked why. Taking a deep breath, she asks, “Why?”

“I lost my parents due to it.” He lets out a bitter laugh, throwing a broken shard away so it will not hurt any of them. “I was pretty young back then. They collided with a van on the way back home. I stayed up all night waiting for them to come home because they promised they would. Was I silly for that?” Yonghwa pauses for a moment as he gathers his courage to continue. “The driver was drunk; but he escaped scot-free because he was filthy rich. Could you believe that? I told myself I would find track down that ing guy because he ruined my life while he was able to enjoy his life with his family.”

Yonghwa feels warmth covering his shivering hands. “I’ll help you.” Joohyun makes his heart flutter just by saying those words, and she will never know.

A few days later they are sitting in the middle of Yonghwa’s room, swamped with newspaper cuttings belonged to Yonghwa’s younger cousin, Jungshin. Yonghwa begs her not to ask where and how his cousin manages to get his hands on them; the girl meekly nods as they start searching.

Joohyun reminds him from time to time to take a break, but the older guy is simply too stubborn, so Joohyun does the first that comes into her mind. “Yonghwa oppa, can you get me a glass of water? My head is hurting.” Joohyun should be an actress instead of an inspiring singer because Yonghwa completely fell for it. She immediately pushes him out, locking the door. “Sorry, oppa! Go to bed, I’ll help you.”

Yonghwa is beyond speechless when his dog comes to his side, barking at him. “I’ll get you for this, sweet potato!” He yells through the door, picking up Pepper to the kitchen.

Inside the room, Joohyun scans through the utter mess in the center of the room; not sure where to exactly start searching. She flinches when a file drops near her feet; she stops in fear when a picture of her father falls out along with a few other pictures of when she was younger. With shaking hands, she picks the file up, flipping through each page slowly, slowly digesting the information in her head. “My father killed his parents.” She announces to the empty room. “And he already knows that? Or does he not?”

Two hours later, Joohyun opens the door, smiling when he sees Yonghwa playing with Pepper. “You’re finally out.” He tells her, not looking over to her. Yonghwa scoots over to let Joohyun take a seat next to him.

“I couldn’t find anything.” Joohyun lies through her teeth, anticipating for a change in his face, but nothing. He just hummed as a reply, messing up Pepper’s fur. “I’ll see you tomorrow, oppa.” She says as she leans in closer to him, placing a kiss on his cheeks and running out of his apartment.

Both of them continue as per normal, as if nothing happened between them. As their tutoring goes on through the evening, they agreed to take a break. Stretching his arms above him, Joohyun fidgets nervously across of him. “Oppa, do you know the name of the drunk driver?”

Furrowing his brows, Yonghwa replies, “I don’t, but I’ll definitely recognize him if I ever see him. Why?”

Joohyun smiles, insisting that it is nothing, and that she is just curious since it has been ten years since the incident. Is he lying to me? After Yonghwa’s constant whining, Joohyun agrees to call it a night. However, the fact that her father was the killer of Yonghwa’s parents constantly haunts her night after night. She feels guilty for her father’s doings especially since he said nothing about the incident when Joohyun confronted him a few days ago – he showed no expressions of guilt at all. It keeps on lingering in her mind to find out about it, almost regretting the fact that she agreed to help Yonghwa out.

She writes down a note, a simple note before folding it into two. Smiling as she writes Yonghwa’s name on it so he knows it is for him as she texts him a simple order. She places both of the items on the file she took from Yonghwa’s room as she reaches for the red pills.

To: 용오빠

Come over to my house for breakfast, alright? Goodnight, oppa. – SP

Yonghwa excitedly walks up the unfamiliar street. He has never been to Joohyun’s house; much less know where exactly she lived. She probably has something planned out for him considering she has never asked anyone over to her house in the years she had spent in school. He is stunned when he realizes that Joohyun lives in the richer area, which is completely different from what he was used to seeing every day. He took a second glance at his phone to make sure he is in the correct area. He gulps, wondering why Joohyun chooses to be friends with someone like him when she is probably the richest kid in the school judging by the size of her house.

He anxiously wait as the housekeeper brings him in, obviously had expected his arrival. The housekeeper runs back towards him, her hands shaking as she passes him the note Joohyun left him the night before.

“Yong oppa, I’m so sorry for everything. I love you. – SP”

He runs up towards her room, pushing her hair away, revealing her pale face. Yonghwa holds her closer, as her cold body showed no response indicating that she is dead. “Why did you kill yourself? You weren’t the guilty one.” 

A/N: I'm not good at writing happy endings. /sobs for an eternity/