The day after Jinyoung left, Sori decided to refrain from the feelings of loneliness and longing and instead was determined to work hard on her goals and dreams. She knew that was what was best, and so she hoped Jinyoung would do the same.

She started by consuming her time with studying music and improving her work performance, although things were off to a rocky start; Her teachers and trainers were not very fond of her and since her ears were still sensitive to loud noises they would constantly yell at her when she wore earplugs. Always saying things like: “how are you going to make music with bad ears? Are you insane? You’re no super women”. She often felt furious and helpless at those times but she clenched her teeth and kept in her anger since she didn’t want to blow this rare opportunity.

She was also constantly discouraged because most of the other trainees didn’t like her much since she was an “inconvenience”; “How the hell did she even get in? What a joke. Must be nice getting in through your connections.” Sori heard one of the trainees say. Her Japanese wasn’t all that great but she could certainly make out what the person was saying. She considered going up to them and punching them all in the face but she barely managed to control herself and walk away. She suddenly let out a laugh, knowing that she’d make them regret it. Once again, she was known as that spoiled rich girl, but that kind of stuff didn’t get to her anymore. She knew she deserved to be there as much as anyone did and was confident that she’d get the last laugh.

A few months passed and Sori was finally at the stage of being able to work in a studio as an assistant. The trainees were given a project to produce a song, which filled Sori with excitement because, to her, it was the golden opportunity to show what she was made of. A while after everyone had submitted their production the head of the programs department had called in all the trainees to present and discuss what they had made. The head gave Sori rave reviews and all of the trainees were shocked at her work. She happily grinned to herself and gave the other trainees a bright smile “kill them with kindness Kim Sori”. From that day forward, no one gave her any troubles anymore.

As Sori was succeeding in her career path, Jinyoung too was succeeding with the rise of B1A4’s popularity. Sori watched as they got popular happily. She wanted to brag about them to her friends who knew about them but she knew she shouldn’t, so she kept it in. The boys had come to Japan once to do promotional activities, but Sori knew she shouldn’t go to see them, which killed her inside. Her father had full watch on Jinyoung so if she went anywhere near them, he would be aware of where she was.

But once, Sori took a risk and decided to go to one of their open concerts. She wore huge sunglasses and put on bright red lipstick, something she never wore. She put her hair in a ponytail and wore a cap to ensure that nobody would notice her. She looked ridiculous but she didn’t care; she just wanted to see Jinyoung, even if it were just a glance of him.

She purposely showed up late and made her way through the crowed mid-performance. Being tall usually came to an advantage for her, but now she wished she was shorter so she wouldn’t be seen by any of the members. Even with her disguise, she was still afraid that they’d recognize her. Somehow she managed to get close to the stage with her skillful tactics and finally looked up at the members. Her heart sunk at the sight of all of them in front of her. Sori was speechless and completely frozen when she saw Jinyoung, she wasn’t screaming like the fans around her, she just stood there silently, trying to record and remember this moment in her head.

Suddenly, Sori’s eyes met with Jinyoung’s, making him mess up a move. He squinted his eyes and continues to stare at her. Sori immediately looked down “what the hell, can he recognize me?” Sori worried. “He probably just thinks I look funny…his eyesight isn’t that great…” Sori thought. She was beginning to get paranoid by Jinyoung’s constant starring and decided to leave right after the song ended.

“Stop!” Jinyoung suddenly yelled through the mic, shocking Sori and making her only run faster. “” she cursed under her breath. She didn’t know why she was so worried, it wasn’t like Jinyoung could run up to her. Like that, she left the venue and decided to never do that again.

Even though Jinyoung was doing well in his work life, he found it incredibly difficult to cope with not being able to see or hear Sori in any way or form. In Sori’s case, she was able to see Jinyoung through a screen since he was a celebrity, but Jinyoung couldn’t. He would visit Dongin and ask him how Sori was doing, it was the only way he could get in touch with her. Even though he couldn’t do it as often as he had wished since Sori’s father always had people watching him, and he didn’t want to cause any suspicion or danger towards Dongin.

At the beginning it was hard for Sori to be away from everyone she loved, but after a year she had gotten use to it. She had finally made a few friends at work and begun to volunteer at a hospital, which made her feel happy and a little less lonely. Without her even realizing it, she was making a life for herself in Japan, a life that would pull her and Jinyoung further a part. 

Now 3 years had passed and finally, the lawsuit Sori’s mom had started finally ended. It was a tough fight, but her mother had finally gotten what she wanted; peace for Sori. She was able to take the rights of the company away from Mr. Kim and with the amount of illegal business he had done she was able to put him in jail. Jinyoung was especially happy to hear this news because it meant that Sori was able to come back, or so he thought.

~

“Jinyoung… I don’t know if Sori’s going to come back…”

“Huh? What? Why wouldn’t she come back? Everything is safe now, isn’t it?”

“Well yeah, everything is official now, but Sori…she’s doing well in Japan and so i’m not going to force her to comeback, and you shouldn’t either.”

“Did- did you talk to her? Did she say anything about me…about us?” Jinyoung desperately asked.

“I didn’t tell her yet but… I think maybe you two should just… move on. I know you’ve waited a long time for her to come back but, sometimes you have to let go of the people you love, because you love them.” Jinyoung understood everything Ms. Kim was saying but he didn’t want to hear it. Everything she was saying was right, and that’s what hurt the most, he didn’t want to accept this reality, although he couldn’t say that he hadn’t seen it coming.

"what does that make the time i've waited for her then?" he thought, anger boiling inside of him. He knew he shouldn't be feeling this way, but he did, and it only grew the more he thought about it.

~

Ever since Jinyoung had gotten back from Japan he had never spoken about Sori, and neither of the members ever brought her up either because they knew it was a sensitive topic for Jinyoung. But suddenly, after hearing what Ms. Kim had to say, he couldn’t keep in his worries anymore. He finally lost it. Since he didn’t want to bring down all of s, he decided to only talk to Shinwoo about it.

“I don’t know what to do, I don’t even know how to feel. It’s hard to explain, I’m angry right? But I don’t know whom I’m angry towards. Sori’s just following her dreams but…“ Jinyoung let out a deep sigh.

“It makes sense that you would be shocked. Even if you saw it coming, you haven’t dated anyone for the past 3 years and only thought about Sori’s return but now-“ Shinwoo abruptly stopped speaking because he felt like he was just making things worse. “Sorry…”

“Ms. Kim’s words just were so cruelly honest… what do I do now? Move on? Selfishly convince Sori to come back? I can’t do either…”

“Let’s just wait, Sori’s mom didn’t even tell her that everything was final. There’s still hope-“ suddenly Jinyoung’s phone began to ring. “Who is it?” Shinwoo asked.

“It’s a long distance number…”

“What if it’s Sori? Hurry, answer it.”

“I don’t want to. What if she’s calling to end things?”

“Huh? Stop being so paranoid and answer it!” Shinwoo urged, but Jinyoung didn’t budge and the ringing gradually came to a halt.

“Why…?” Shinwoo sighed.

Jinyoung finally began to speak “I know her, she’s not coming back for some love she felt 3 years ago. I’ve heard from Dongin that things are really going well for her there… if she’s calling, it’s definitely to finalize that this relationship is over. I can hear her voice saying “Jinyoung, don’t worry about me anymore, move on” I can’t face that right now.”

“Sori-ah, when am I going to get to see you!? I’ve been waiting for 3 years now, you know? I’m probably taller than you by now!” Dongin exclaimed over the phone. Dongin was gaining more strength as the days went by, which shocked all the doctors and nurses. Dongin was still fighting, but little by little, he was regaining back his health. Dongin prayed that it would continue this way so that he could live happily by Sori’s side.

“I’ll promise to come visit as soon as I can! I’m piled with work recently.” Sori sighed. “All of a sudden they’ve given me a huge project to do and I’m stuck translating all of these songs from Japanese to Korean and vice versa” Sori whined.

“Sori-ah… have you called… you know...” Dongin said, cautiously changing the topic.

“Jinyoung?” Sori said finishing off Dongin’s sentence. Dongin was a little hesitant in bringing up Jinyoung’s name since Sori had previously told him to not bring Jinyoung up. She was afraid she’d miss him more if she talked about him.

“I have, but he didn’t answer my call… I called him a few weeks ago, right after my mom had updated me on what was going on, but he didn’t answer. That jerk, Is he too popular now to answer my calls?” Sori laughed.

“Weird… he’s always so eager for me to tell him about what you’ve been up to and now he won’t even answer your calls?”

“Hey, do you two always talk about me? You better be only saying positive things!”

“Don’t worry. But come to think of it, Jinyoung hasn’t visited me since the lawsuit was over…I’m going to beat him up when I see him.”

“Beat him up for me too, will you?” Sori joked.

“No problem.”

Sori finally took a break from translating and went to go treat herself to a smoothie from the company’s cafeteria. Right when she finished paying and picked up her drink, one of the employees came running to her.

“Sori, you’re needed in studio one immediately!” a man yelled in Japanese.

“Ryo? Why immediately? Why are you in such a rush, calm down” she said calmly sipping some of her smoothie. Ryo was one of the few friends she had at work, he was usually always laid back so Sori was surprised to see him so serious.

“Because it’s important dummy!” he panted. “There are some singers I don’t recognize who the boss want you to meet. Haven’t you been translating a bunch of songs for them for the past week?” he explained.

“OH! Well why didn’t you say so!” Sori pushed Ryo out of the way and ran to the studio as fast as possible. Ryo shook his head as he watched her run. “idiot.”

“Boss, I’m sorry for keeping you waiting I- I- don’t really have an excuse, I’m sorry” Sori said repeatedly bowing.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. Did you bring the files with the translated songs with you?” her boss asked.

“Yes I did, where are these singers?” Sori said looking around.

“They went for a tour of the company and should be back soon”

“Ahh…I see...” Sori nodded.

“Ah- here they are.” Sori felt a door open behind her and turned around to greet the people she would be working with but before she could even bow, her heart sunk and her smoothie dropped out of her hand from shock. She stayed frozen there, staring at the 5 boys in front of her who were all giving her the same shocked look back.

“Is this really happening?!”

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I lied about the fic ending by this week.woops. just ignore these mesages from now on.