Jaemi stared at the pool of coffee spreading onto the rug. Her tears rolled down her face and fell onto the floor, mixing with the spilled coffee. She almost laughed, thinking of how Hyuk would tell her to cry over spilled milk, not spilled coffee if he was there. She looked around the room and felt absolutely alone. She ran out of the door in a panic and out of the building. She looked all around and ran a few blocks in each direction, but found no sign of Hyuk. She ran back to her apartment, uselessly wishing that Hyuk would be there when she returned, and of course, he wasn’t.

                 Hyuk got on a random bus, only thinking about getting as far as he could so he could clear his head. He couldn’t stop staring at the sonogram for the whole bus ride.

                “Baby…My baby… I’m your dad,” he muttered to himself, earning strange glances from other passengers.

                After he basically memorized every detail of the photo, he decided to just get off at whatever stop was next, which happened to be by the river. He tried to not think of how Jaemi was running in that area while he was going through her old diary.

                He sat down on a bench and held his head between his knees. He hated Jaemi, but at the same time he didn’t. He hated her for lying to him and hiding everything from him, but he almost understood why she did. But most of all, he hated her for not trusting him, and he couldn’t think of any excuse for that.

                His phone started ringing, but he didn’t have the heart to even look at it. He wouldn’t know what to do if it was Jaemi calling, although he doubted that it was. He guessed that she’d either be crying by herself or crying to Miyoung, but he hoped it wasn’t Miyoung because she would tell Jonghwan and he would be in huge trouble.

                Just as the ringing stopped, somebody harshly poked the back of his head. He looked up to glare at the culprit, only to see Ravi, Hongbin, and Ken smiling at him. He hastily shoved the precious photo into his pocket, undoubtedly wrinkling it in the process.

                “See, I told you it was Hyuk,” Ken said to the other two. He slid over on the bench and wrapped his arm around Hyuk’s shoulders. “Hey buddy, what’s with the long face?”

                “Long face? What are you talking about? I’m totally fine,” Hyuk lied with a straight face. He fortunately, or unfortunately, learned how to lie pretty well from Jaemi. “Anyway,” he continued, “what are you guys doing here? Don’t you have some schedules or practice?”

                “We’re supposed to be practicing now, but we decided to play hooky,” Ravi replied. “We were going to rent bikes and ride them around the river. Do you wanna join us? Is Jaemi here too? You guys could get a tandem bike with us.”

                At the mention of Jaemi’s name, Hyuk’s expression darkened but he was quick to recover from it. He kindly declined their offer, claiming that he had to go to the airport soon. He started walking slowly towards the bus stop while the other three headed over to small bike rental store. Although it was just a brief moment, Hongbin noticed Hyuk become more uncomfortable when Ravi mentioned Jaemi. He wondered if they fought and really broke up this time. Unable to contain his curiosity, he ran to catch up with Hyuk, leaving Ken and Ravi to go on their tandem bike ride together.

                “Hey Hyuk, wait up,” he called out. Hyuk pretended to not hear him and kept on walking away, so Hongbin ran a bit faster to catch up. When he did, he saw that Hyuk’s eyes had become a bit red and watery. Hongbin was suddenly at a loss for words. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw Hyuk like that.

                “H-Hyuk, is something—are you—what’s the matter?” Hongbin struggled to ask.

                Hyuk looked from side to side to prevent the tears from falling and told Hongbin that he was perfectly fine with a smile on his face. Although Jaemi may have been the queen of lies, Hyuk was no joke at hiding his emotions.

                “Well, the thing is… I noticed that you got kind of mad when Ravi asked about Jaemi,” Hongbin explained timidly. “Did you guys fight?”

                “You could say that,” Hyuk answered pointedly. “I guess you could also say we broke up.”

                Hongbin’s jaw nearly dropped. He didn’t think he heard it right, but Hyuk looked completely serious. “What? Why?” he asked.

                Hyuk smirked bitterly and replied, “Because we don’t trust each other anymore.”

                It hurt Hyuk to say that, but it was the truth. He walked out on her and she didn’t come after him. Hongbin didn’t know how to feel hearing that. If Jaemi and Hyuk broke up, then it was really his last chance to win her back, but for some reason, he didn’t want to take the chance. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was afraid of it ending badly, or because he was just starting to acknowledge their relationship, or even because he was plain tired of chasing after her,  but he didn’t want to try anymore.

                Since he was absorbed in his own thoughts, he was only able to catch the last bit of what Hyuk explained. “It just that I would’ve never known anything because I really thought she told me everything, or at least would eventually tell me. But no. She was planning to lie to me to the very end. It just .”

                “How do you know that? You can’t predict the future,” Hongbin reasoned. He furrowed his brow slightly, surprised to find himself helping Hyuk and Jaemi stay together. He thought back to all the times Hyuk helped him in high school when he and Jaemi got into arguments. He never thought he would be returning the favor.

                Again, he was only able to catch the last part of Hyuk’s explanation. “I even told her that I didn’t care how bad it was and all I wanted was to just know about it, so we wouldn’t have any secrets, but she still wouldn’t tell me anything. Her secrets are more important to her than I am.”

                “Eyy, you don’t really think that do you?” Hongbin replied. “You of all people should know that Jaemi always takes a few extra seconds to come up with the right answer. Maybe you just didn’t give her enough time to answer you.”

                “But that’s the point,” Hyuk argued. “I didn’t want her to think about it. I wanted her to trust me. She shouldn’t have to think about trusting me if she really loves me. It should come naturally for her. Right?”

                Hongbin was nearly swayed by Hyuk’s logic, but was able to come up with a counter argument. “But—But if you think about it, sure, maybe she doesn’t trust you enough to tell you her deepest darkest secrets, but she trusts you probably the most of anybody she knows.”

                Hyuk raised his eyebrow at Hongbin and said, “That makes almost no sense.”

                “Well I mean, she says it all the time. You’re her best friend. She doesn’t let anybody know her nearly as well as you do. She doesn’t let anybody get as close to her as she lets you, both physically and personally. She might not be ready to completely open up to you yet, but she’s definitely not going to ever open up to anybody as much as she did for you,” Hongbin explained carefully.

                Hyuk considered Hongbin’s words carefully. He thought about all the embarrassing pictures of her he had in his possession, and how she gives him empty threats to make him delete the photos. He thought about how she almost never left the house without makeup, but the first thing she always did when she came home was remove it, even when he was there. Even the fact that she wanted him to stay with her whenever he was home, and sleep in the same bed as her, was a big indication of how much she trusted him. And above all that, he knew about her insecurities and what she took pride in. He knew about her pet peeves, her hobbies, her favorite places to go, her favorite foods to eat, her least favorite things, her fears, her hidden talents. He knew it all and more.

                “I’m right, aren’t I?” Hongbin asked smugly.

                “Shut up, hyung,” Hyuk answered with a slight smile.

                Hongbin smiled back and nodded towards the bus stop. “Well, what are you still doing here when you have an apology to give?”

                Jaemi’s apartment was empty when Hyuk returned. He ran from room to room looking for her, but she was gone. He started worrying that she had gone to Miyoung or her brother. He waited around for another couple of hours for her to come home, but she didn’t. He waited until the last possible minute, but he ultimately had to leave to go to the airport to catch his flight.

                Jaemi walked back and forth around the bag check-in area at the airport, looking for Hyuk. She hoped he hadn’t already gone through security before she came, but after hours and hours of looking, she decided that he must have already gone in. She called him one last time, only to be sent to his voicemail again, and went back home.

A/N: i'm soooooooo sorry for not updating for awhile! :( I've been super busy this summer with SAT prep and college essays and getting a summer job and yeah it's just been crazy. im super sorry if i end up not being able to update as much as id like. please bear with me! i hope you guys like this update and dont forget to comment and subscribe~