Yongguk stood studying the map of all the attractions Lotte World had to offer.

“Are you going to stare at that map all day? We’re burning daylight.” Rian stated impatiently. “Why can’t we just go with the flow and just enjoy ourselves?” Rian took the map and hid it behind her back. 

“We need that so we don’t get lost.”

“We can wander aimlessly all we want. We only need to know how to get out when we are about to leave.” 

Yongguk exhaled deeply. “Okay.”

“Look at that one it looks exhilarating,” Rian exclaimed as she pulled Yongguk towards the line. “I bet that’s probably a 15, 20 thousand foot drop, and it’s straight down which means it will going extremely fast on the way down.”

“We can ride it before we go, but I’m kind of hungry, so you want to get something to eat?”

“Sure. I’ll get us seats.” 

“Yongguk went to the nearest food stand. Rian was scoping the surrounding rides and considering what other rides she’d ride next. 

Rian felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around and was greeted by a vaguely familiar face. “Rian?”

“Yes, and you are Kang Soo-Myung, right?” Rian asked questioningly.

“Yeah I spotted you a mile away. Foreigners aren’t common, especially ones of your looks so figured it was you.”

“Yeah I get that a lot.” Rian noticed a small boy by Soo-Myung’s side holding her hand tightly. “Who might this be?”

“Oh, this is my son Jae-Hyun.” 

Rian attempted to shake his hand. “Hi, Jae-Hyun.” The boy only stared back at her and clung closer to his mother. “I know a friend who has a name similar to yours, except his name is Dae-Hyun.”

“I like my name better.” The boy boldly exclaimed. 

“Jae-Hyun, don’t be rude.” Soo-Myung corrected.

Rian laughed to herself. “It’s okay.” She lowered her voice to a whisper and quietly spoke. “To tell you the truth, I agree with you. Jae-Hyun sounds much cooler.” The boy smiled and started to laugh at Rian’s statement as she stood back up.

“Is it just you two here, because you are more than welcome to join us?” Rian heard a good cough behind her. “Oh sorry, Kang Soo-Myung, this is...”

“…Bang. Yong.Guk. Long time no see.” Soo-Myung stated

“Soo-Myung,” Yongguk spoke dryly.

“Did you to go to school together?” Rian asked.

“Yeah,” Soo-Myung stated.” In fact, we dated until he decided to break up with me out of the blue.”

“There was was more to it than that, and you know it.”

“Oh, Yonggie please. The past was the past. If it weren’t’ for you, I wouldn’t have met my husband.”

Rian looked between the two confused and did what she always did when situations became awkward. “In the left corner we have the heavyweight mother, and ex-girlfriend, Kang Soo-Myung, and in the right corner, we have the epitome of iness, with a voice deeper than Marvin Gaye, Bang Yongguk.”

Both looked at Rian like she had grown two heads. 

“Well, Rian I just wanted to say Hi. You seem like a nice person and all.”

“That’s because she is,” Yongguk mumbled under his breath. 

Rian quickly elbowed him in the ribs and turned back to Soo-Myung desperate to change the subject. “Is your husband here with you?”

“No, he had to work, so we decided to make today a mommy and son day,” Soo-Myung stated as she picked up Jae-Hyun.

“Well, Jae-Hyun I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. Mom’s always have a soft spot for son’s so as long as you bat those eyelashes and pout that lip there’s nothing you won’t get.” Rian said causing the little boy to chuckle. 

“Well, we should be going now. Nice meeting you Rian. Nice seeing you again Yonggie.” Soo-Myung turned as and left as quickly as she came leaving the two alone.

“I’m sorry about that,” Yongguk said as soon as she was out of ear-shot. 

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

“It’s just that when we were dating she cheated but she didn’t know that I ever found out so I broke up with her with a note and I guess it didn’t go over with her well.” 

“Yongguk it’s cool. Everyone has that one bad break-up or ex from the past that is the pain of their very existence.” Yongguk breathed a sigh of relief. “But I got to admit, breaking up with someone using  a Note is a pretty low blow.”

“It was high school, and I never liked confronting people. Especially with bad news.” Yongguk shoved his hand in his pockets nervously. “So…who’s your ex that is the pain of your existence?”

“Well, when I was in my freshman year of college I was dating this guy named Micah.”

“Micah? He sounds familiar. Did I ever meet him?”

“Maybe he was a sophomore, so he was still a year younger than you. Besides we dated for about a year and in that amount of time I fell, and I mean hard. He had the face of Boris Kodjoe and the body of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson”. Rian closed her eyes and shook the images out of her head. “Anyway it was our one year anniversary, and he takes me to this fancy restaurant and everything. The kind where they charge you a whole lot of money for itty-bitty portions.”

-----flashback-----

“So you are probably guessing why I have brought you here today.”

“I---” Rian started.

“Let me go first, please.” Micah leaned forward on the table. “As you know, I am always on the search for the next opportunity, and I found it.”

“And…”

“I applied for an internship a few months ago, and I didn’t want to tell you unless it pulled through and it did.”

“Micah that’s amazing.”

“There’s more. They offered me the internship but it's in Spain.” Micah looked at you nervously.

“Spain! That’s so cool!”

“You’re not upset?” Micah questioned.

“Not at all. How long will you be gone? A semester?” Micah avoided the gaze of Rian intentionally. “A year?”

“Not exactly.”

“How much time?”

“Indefinitely.”

Rian leaned back in her seat and exhaled deeply.“That’s cool too I guess. Then we can try the long-distance thing.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I think new should break up. There are things I want to do and things you want to do that we can’t do apart, so I think it’s better for us to part ways.”

“You have to be kidding me?” Rian spoke quietly. Micah reached for Rian’s hand.

“I’m glad you are taking this well.”

“Micah Carter Johanssen. One of the things that I noticed first about you was you drive to succeed in anything you do. You were willing to put in the extra credit hours, pull the all-nighters and turn-down parties. But you know what else you do?” Rian folded her arms across her chest. “That wasn’t rhetorical.”

“No, what else do I do,” Micah asked with a smirk on his face.

“You have become an extremely smooth talker, have no problem with being deceitful, and you can separate business and personal. If you ask me with characteristics like those you should be a lawyer rather than a business man.”
“Rian you’re making this person--”

“Personal? Why yes Micah I am taking it personal because I consider this relationship personal. You’re acting like this was some short-term contract that has expired.”

Micah cleared his throat. “Look I just thought we wouldn’t want to be tied down to each other when it’s so obvious that our lives are going different directions. Besides ts better to do it know before it gets too serious.“ Micah stood up from the table and buttoned up his suit. “Goodbye, Rian.”

----End Flashback----

“Wait he left without paying the check?” Yongguk interrupted.

“Yup, all $75.86.”

“He sounds like a scrub.” Rian burst out laughing as Yongguk held with the most serious expression as he finished the rest of his funnel cake.

“Yes. For lack of a better term, he was a scrub.”

“Did you ever see him after that?”

“Nope, the last thing I remember was him walking away in jet black Giorgio Armani suit.” Rian spoke quietly as she poked at the tasty funnel cake before her. 

“What about your other exe's? What were they like?”

“I’ll tell you about mine if you tell me about yours.” Rian bargained.

“Deal.”

“I’ll tell you about that in time. Why do you want to know about them so much?”

“I don’t know. Seeing Soo-Myung, I guess just has me thinking. Sometimes you have to look behind you to see how far you’ve come and I just…love you more for it I guess, and I want to know if you feel that way about me?” Yongguk looked to Rian for a response as he finished his drink.

“Yes and no. There are a lot of times where I might do or won't’ do certain things became I worry about how you would react. But in the end, it isn’t how you would react it’s how my ex-boyfriends would react. Opposite fo that I sometimes compare the things you don’t do that my former boyfriends did do.”

“Like what?”

“Like what, what?”

“What do you wish I did that your old friends used to do?”

“Well you’re the only person I’ve dated who wasn’t black, so sometimes I feel like we see things differently and don’t click on certain things. The other thing is you don’t get jealous, which is kind of…”

“You want me to be jealous?”

“Sort of.”
“You don’t think I get jealous?”

“I don’t know. You never say, or do anything that makes me believe that you are jealous. I can only tell when your happy if you say you are. I can only tell you’re having a bad day if you say so.”

“You’re not the first person to say that,” Yongguk said as they stood up from the table. “I don’t do the whole ‘jealous-boyfriend’ act. The only way I know how to express myself is through my music and…”

Rian expected Yongguk to continue, but when he didn’t, she filled in the blanks spaces. “…and physical ‘interactions” She questioned with air-quotes, making them both chuckle.

“Yeah. But that isn’t your style remember?” Yongguk asked as Rian suddenly stopped walking. “What’s wrong?” 

“I’m willing to go beyond my comfort if you are.” Rian stretched out her hand longing to be held while she placed her other on her hip. Yongguk quickly took it in his, intertwining their fingers.

“I just want you to know that since it has taken this long for us to do this, I have no intention of letting it go for a very long time.”

...

Yongguk held his hands in jacket pocket as he felt the letter he had written in pocket. He felt a lot of love for Rian and wanted to make sure that he know exaclty how strongly he felt about her. As the rode higher up on the ferris wheel, Yongguk grew more and more anxious. In the past it was always so mcuh easier for him to express himself beause being ually intimate was always the convenient thing to do. When he first met Rian he surprised that people like her even exist.

click

Yongguk looke dbelow and saw the guy in charge giving him a thumbs up. "I wonder if somethigns wrong?" Rian asked as she looked below at the people. Yongguk cleared his throat and pulled out the folded paper form his pocket. He tapped Rian on the shoudelr to gain her attention and handed the letter to her with both hands. "What is this?" Yongguk gestured it towards her again silently. Rian hesitantly took the paper and opened it. 

Rian, I know there are many times when you don't understnad me. Maybe it's becuase your Korean is ehh. Or maybe its becaue my english is ehh. So I have a fracton of the feelign i have for you on this paper. The thing I want to exaplin to you is when I frst saw you. You were probably about 10 at the time. It was the summer