Soo Yun began walking down the path that led her to her favorite coffee shop, Beojkkoch café and bakery. It had being about a month since the new semester had started and just yesterday she had submitted her leave of absence from university.

Despite the guys telling her nonstop to give it another try, she made the choice to take a leave; she needed to clear her mind and thoughts, to fully analyze if the path she was taking so far was the right one for her.

She opened up the door and was welcome by the smell of fresh brew coffee and vanilla scent that filled up the air. She made her way into the back, next to the great wall of books that filled the last wall of the café. There she saw a figure that she recognized in a heartbeat and made her way to him.

“Oppa!” she said while taking a seat in front of him while putting her bag on the other empty chair.

“Don’t Oppa me, Yun. You know I’m still kind of mad at you for simply withdrawing and just telling me yesterday by a text message”

“Ara, I know Bae Oppa mianhae, but this was not a decision I made lightly, ever since I failed that class and was in Busan last month I have being pondering about it and I really think I need some time off to figure out if this is what I want to do for the rest of my life”

“Don’t remind me of Busan either, I still can believe you didn’t contact me right away for that time either but went along with Seung Hyun Hyung” Young Bae said with a sad tone in his voice.

“Aish, aren’t we jealous? I already told you all about it, so stop pouting, you look like a silly fifteen year old girl who was dump by her crush and that’s so uncool of you” she said while smirking at him.

“I am not jealous and you know it, but you also know I rather be there for you than hyung, I feel that if you keep sharing time together your feeling for him will never come to an easy end” he said and she could tell he was truly concern about her.

“Stop analyzing my love life or the lack of it, Mr. I-haven’t-dated-in-God-knows-how-long, I am dealing well with these lingering feelings on my own, thank you very much” she said.

“Ok, that was totally unasked for and it was definitely a hit below the belt. You know how shy I get around girls”

“That’s not true; you don’t get all shy around me”

“Well that’s technically because you are not a girl” Bae said and smirked, giving out his full eye smile at her.

“Jeez, talking of blows below the belt! Thanks for categorizing me in the aual category, Oppa or should I start to call you hyung from now on?”

“You know what I mean, you are more like my best friend and almost like family, so I obviously I don’t see you as a girl. Or do you see me as a man?” he said turning the tables at her.

“Of course I see you as a man, as an old ahjusshi that only nags at me” she said laughing.

“See, my point is made. Ok, enough with the teasing lets head back to the main point here. What did your parents said when you told them about taking a leave?”

“My Dad was away in a business trip so I kindly informed him with a call, he said he will support my choice, but I better get my a job since he is not going to support slackers at home, either I study or work, so my cousin already help me get a job as an assistant in her office, they needed someone who could speak English fluently, yesterday I had the interview and I start working next week”

“Look at you, you had it all figure it out” he said making his way up to order something.

“Do you want your usual, black coffee and some pastry?”

“I’ll just have jasmine tea” she replied while getting lost checking her phone for any new messages.

“Sure? I mean, when we came here you almost made me spend half of my monthly wages” he said to her.

“Yes positive, I’m not that hungry to be honest”

Bae walked out and in a few minutes he was back with a tray.

“I still got you your favorite muffin just in case you wanted to eat something” Young Bae said taking a seat.

“Thanks, but you can have, I’m seriously not hungry”

“Yun, is something wrong, lately whenever we are out you are barely eating and I have seen you losing weight” he said in a serious and concern tone in his voice.

“Is nothing, recently I have being having problems sleeping, I’m only catching around 4-5hrs each day and when I wake up I’m just not hungry, I guess is just a side effect of all the sleep deprivation I had last semester, I hope after a few more weeks everything will be back on track. Besides losing a few extra weight won’t do me no harm”

“You of all people, should know that’s not the healthy way of losing weight, especially after what happened to you some years ago”

“Oppa, the fact that I’m not hungry doesn’t mean I’m going to fall back to my eating disorders of when I was 16” she said rolling her eyes.

This was a topic she avoided whenever she could. She had only told Bae since they had became so close with each other and it was last year when she was under so much stress that she was struggling with the urge of vomiting after eating, something she knew she had to avoid.

She had struggle with anorexia and bulimia all the year when she was 16, her parents began pressuring her to lose her extra weight, and despite how much exercise she put herself through she couldn’t lose the weight. So she found a way out by avoiding eating and when she was force to, she simply made her way to the bathroom and provoke her to vomit every bit of it.

Of course she lost weight that way, she was also on diet pills that her so call family doctor had prescribed to her, so in a matter of 6 months she had lost 17kg. Everyone around her couldn’t see the real problem and only kept on encouraging her to keep it up.

It wasn’t until she fainted in one of her classes that the cycle came to an end. She was rushed to the emergency room and had to be admitted for one week in order to replenish her body with nutrients and she began receiving counseling from one of the nutritionist there on how to eat healthy.

That’s how she began to interest in that profession, because that one nutritionist was the only one that told her to forget about the number in the scale, that what was the use of losing weight at the risk of losing her own life.

She told her to forget about diet pills and focus on eating healthy, that the main purpose in this life was to enjoy life instead of trying to fill up to the standards that even our own family set upon us.

“You know I only worry, because I know how big of a struggle  it has being to you, or do you seriously think I can forget having to rush you to the ER last year, since you had binge eating almost all your fridge due to stress and had to take you to have your stomached pump?”

“Yah! You promised not to bring that up again!!!” Soo Yun said slightly piss off. That was her personal battle, after letting go of anorexia and bulimia, she had keep on struggling all through this years with binge eating, especially when she was put under situations of a lot of stress. That time she had called Bae because she knew he was the only one that won’t judge her and just help her out.

“Arasso, arasso… Sorry, I know is a painful memory, but you can see why I worry about you” he said giving him an apologetic look.

“I know and you know how grateful I am for you and for the fact you have keep my secrets in the down low, but I promise is just the insomnia that is making me lose my appetite, I am still eating, not just that much. But let’s change the subject, this is way too personal and I don’t feel like dealing with my inner monsters at 2pm”

“Fair enough. So working as an assistant? Interesting, but what are you planning to do after that?” he said letting the topic go for the moment, but he made a personal note to keep her on check.

“Actually I want to save up and go to a trip to Hokkaido in December, they said the snow is completely beautiful there and you know how much I love winter” she said and a small smile showed up again in her face.

“Well, I’m glad you have a plan, I mean is not perfect, but at least is something” he said and took a sip from his coffee.

That moment Soo Yun phone announced a new message had arrived and Young Bae saw her transform in front of his eyes, it was like she immediately shed the usual plain and simple Yun and transform into a girly Soo Yun while replying the text.

“Are you texting Seung Hyun hyung?” he asked to confirm his suspicions.

“How did you know that?” she said surprised and putting her phone down.

“You just turn into a puddle of goo in front of me and it was too hard not to tell, don’t tell me you have fallen even harder for him even after the conversation we had just 8 months ago?”

Soo Yun began playing around with her hands and simply nodded, she knew she couldn’t hide anything from him, he knew her too well and he could tell when she was hiding something from him.

“And what has changed? I mean something must have change between you and him for you to follow this path despite knowing the end result” he said in a serious tone.

 “He has changed, to be honest I was completely preparing myself to just categorized it as a simple crush and let it go, but he has become so attentive, we talk almost every day and he always keeps an eye on me, I don’t know, it hasn’t being this easy to let him go, I kind of feel my feelings growing for him every day and to be honest, is scaring the big Jesus out of me”

“Hyung has changed? Well, is not like you are a monster that came out from a dungeon, you are pretty, but like I said you aren’t hyung’s typical type, but hey people can change, my advice, don’t get your hopes up ok?” he said finishing up his coffee and asking the waitress to wrap up the muffin that was left untouched.  

“I know that very well, don’t worry about it” she said and took a look on her phone checking the time “I have to go now Oppa, I need to get the cooking going and settle things in order before my dad reaches home tonight”

“Your mom is still sick?”

“Yes, is being almost a week since she barely gets out of bed, so I have being doing all the chores plus helping halmoni around”

“Fighting Yun, I know you can do it! Oppa believes in you!”

“Aigoo so cheesy, you gave me goose bumps” she said and began laughing “Oppa annyeonghi! Talk to you later”

Bae saw her waving goodbye at him and hope that she could always keep that smile around her face, he knew she deserve all the happiness in the world, because she was always willing to sacrifice herself in order to make other people happy. 

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A/N: here it is Elleally, Bae and Yun for you, lol. I'm so glad you left such kind words about last weeks update, I was actually surprised it had that effect in many of you guys. Thanks a lot! 
I hope this chapter sheds some light in some of the reasons Soo Yun is the way she is. 

Thanks for your comments and thank you silent readers, I know you are out there!!

until next week

~sayurimei