It has been a week since Jiyong frantically searching for Sunye but still no sign of her. He went to see Ms Yenny, Sunye’s doctor, right after she disappeared but Yenny did not know about her whereabouts either.


Jiyong cannot help but felt worried for Sunye. She is the only child in her family - lost both her parents in an accident in New York few months before she returned to Korea. Sunye did not have many friends in Korea and her two best friends, Sohee and Yoobin, are currently working in Italy and Los Angeles respectively.


As the night grew deeper, a drunken Jiyong pour himself more glasses of wine.


“Sunye ah~ where are you?” he said out loudly to the empty house while holding a wine bottle on one hand and kept looking at the label as it reminded him of a particular episode.



*~*~*



“Are you sure about the address you gave me?” Jiyong was talking through his headset while driving around the area which he is not familiar with.


“Wait I think I got it…” Jiyong said as soon as he saw a row of townhouses and hung up the phone.


Jiyong got down after he parked his car in front of a house numbered 1218. He rang the doorbell of the front door but there was no answer. He then took the side staircase which lead to the emergency door of the second and third floor. He opened the door to the second floor when he realized that it wasn’t locked.


There was a woman busy unpacking one of the boxes inside the huge room.


“Excuse me…” Jiyong said and the woman surprised by the voice turn to face Jiyong.


Both looked at each other in shock and shouted at the same time, “YOU!”


“…the horrible designer” the woman pointed. “…the fashion terrorist” Jiyong said at the same time.


Dear Diary, did you know how misfortunate I felt when I saw the woman who criticized my design for the second time. I felt that God ridiculed me with our second meeting few weeks after the first ‘disastrous meeting’ at my fashion show.


After a moment of bewilderment, both asked in unison, “What are you doing here?”


“This is my house” both gave the answer which almost caused World War III to break between them, luckily an old lady who heard the ruckus, interrupted.


“I am truly sorry, Miss Sunye and Mr Jiyong. There has been slight miscommunication between my son and I which result into this misunderstanding.” The old lady explained how she promised Yoobin, the previous tenant of the place who moved to LA a week ago and happen to be Sunye’s best friend to rent the suite to Sunye. While at the same time, the old lady’s son who is an acquaintance of Jiyong assure him that he can rent the suite for three months while Jiyong’s house is undergoing renovation.


Both Jiyong and Sunye were at loss for words and couldn’t believe the situation that they were in.


“If it doesn’t bother, I actually don’t mind if Ms Sunye and Mr Jiyong want to rent this suite. Besides there are two rooms for each of you, only thing is you need to share the living room and the kitchen” the old lady suggested seeing that they reached a stalemate situation.


“Of course, I will gladly reduce the rent to half for both of you” the old lady ‘baiting’ the two confused people.


“Well…I don’t mind actually, besides I am here temporarily only” Jiyong was the first to agree after much thought.


“Ok sure, since you don’t mind, I would not mind as well” Sunye softened.


- That night –

Boxes mostly belong to Sunye, were still lying around the place, filling almost the whole living room and some were half-way unpacked. On the other hand, Jiyong did not have many things to bring beside his luggage and sketches.


“Do you need help?”Jiyong offered when he saw Sunye searching through the boxes for something.


“No, thanks” Sunye answered bluntly.


Dear diary, sometimes I wonder why I am kind and good to the people who don’t deserve it. Well, maybe because I believe in karma.


“Well, since you say so” Jiyong said and retreated to the kitchen, to get something to eat. While making his way, he knocked down a box and it was followed by a shattering sound.


“I’m so sorry” Jiyong said as he discovered a broken wine bottle on the floor.


“My wine bottle…” Sunye said almost whispering as she looked at the fragments of the bottle and wasted wine.


“I am really sorry…I’ll pay you back” Jiyong said trying to comfort Sunye. He felt really bad looking at her who is almost b with tears.


Without saying a word, Sunye left to go to her room and locked herself inside. Jiyong was at loss as what he supposed to do. It was the starting of an ‘awful’ cold war between them as Sunye avoided Jiyong as much as possible and stayed in her room most of the time.


Dear diary, I don’t know what I should do to make her feel better. I felt really bad after I found out why Sunye felt sad about the wine bottle incident. I have to find the red wine bottle no matter how much it cost.


Jiyong knocked at Sunye’s door, he knew she is inside. “What is it?” she asked.


“Can I come in?” Jiyong said. There was a noise before the door was opened.


“What do you want?” a tired Sunye asked.


“I’m really sorry about the other day. I didn’t know that the wine bottle I accidently broke was a gift by your late parents on your last birthday”


Sunye was trying to hold back her tears when Jiyong mentioned about her deceased parents. “How did you know?”


“Sohee told me when I met her at a magazine photo shoot in Japan few days ago. I know that there is nothing I can do to turn back time but I hope you can accept this as a token of my apology” Jiyong said as he handed Sunye a newly 1989 Chateau Margaux red wine bottle.



*~*~*



In the midst of the drowsiness, Jiyong’s phone interrupted.


“Hello” Jiyong answered sleepily, he wondered who called him at midnight.


There was a lingering silent.


“Sunye…?” Jiyong asked further, hoping it was her.


Still there was no answer.


“…Jiyong…It’s me Yoobin. Sorry the line is quite bad here. I called you as soon as I checked my email…”


Jiyong was slightly disappointed to know it was not Sunye but he felt grateful that Yoobin, one of Sunye’s best friends called. They exchanged greetings.


“What did you mean by ‘Sunye is gone’? I don’t understand” Yoobin asked but her authoritative tone made Jiyong timid. She is one of Sunye’s friends whom he shouldn’t mess with.


“Well, there are some things which I have yet to tell you…Things that might make you angry” Jiyong did not tell her or any of Sunye’s friends when she was involved in an accident few months ago.


“What kind of things have you been hiding from me, Jiyong? And why are you asking me if Sunye is with me in LA?” Yoobin asked continuously which Jiyong finally recounted to her everything starting from the incident on the fashion show until Sunye’s disappearance a week ago.


There was a long pause on the other line after Jiyong finished explaining.


“Yoobin, are you still there” he asked, maybe she got tired listening to him.


“Pick me up at the airport. I’m taking the first available flight to Korea right now!” Yoobin said and the line was disconnected.


Jiyong was unresolved whether he should feel relief or scared after Yoobin hung up on him.




.: Author's Note :.
I almost forgot to update, but anyway here it is. And sorry I don’t have time to do personal replies now. Nevertheless, I am grateful to those of you who read and comment on the story. I’ll try to make up time for the next update which is most probably after New Year since I’m planning to go on a ‘vacation’. Happy holidays everyone