“Do you need help?”

I looked up, and saw a guy offering his hand to help me.

He has short, brown hair, and an eye smile. He smiled at me.

I awkwardly took his hand and stood up. I awkwardly smiled. He picked up the scattered paper bags on the floor and handed them to me.

He smiled. “You’re a bit clumsy, huh?”

“No, I’m not,” I pouted. “That was an accident.”

“Whatever you say, Miss,” he offered his hand for a hand shake. “I’m Jinki by the way. You are?”

“I’m Kang Hyorin, and I need to go. I’m in a hurry. Thanks for helping me. Bye!”

He just waved at me as I ran towards the escalator. What a nice guy.

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“Fifteen minutes late, Missy,” Hyojin oppa said, as he eyed me when I sat down. “Where were you?”

“You wouldn’t believe what happened.”

“Tell me.”

“I met Jonghyun again, after three years. And guess what. He still called me ugly.”

“Probably, he’s still blind.”

I started to eat the food on my plate. “By the way, where’s Tiffany?”

“She visited her parents.”

“Why didn’t you come with her?”

“She is the one who told me to meet you. Is it wrong for me to miss my very beautiful sister?”

“It’s not that. But she’s your wife,”

He nodded. “By paper.”

“You still don’t love her?”

Hyojin oppa sighed. And I guess that means no.

Just like me, Hyojin oppa got engaged and is married to Tiffany Hwang, the heiress of the world-renowned Hwang Industries Inc. Just like me, he got engaged to Tiffany when he was fifteen, just for business, and they already got married last year.

At first, they didn’t like each other. But as time passed by, they became very good friends, until now. They don’t have a romantic relationship, just pure friendship even though they are already married.

“You still don’t love her?” I repeated my question.

“I don’t know.”

“She’s nice, she’s pretty, and very talented. Why won’t you like her?”

“It’s not that I don’t like her, I just don’t love her.”

“Can’t you find it in your heart to love her?”

“I don’t know. And I don’t want you to be like me,”

“What do you mean, oppa?”

“I don’t want you to get married to someone you don’t like, and get trapped in a marriage without love. I tried to talk to mom and dad about calling off the engagement. But they refused. They kept on insisting that the guy you’re engaged to is a very nice guy, which I think is a lie, of course.”

“Thank you, oppa, but I’ll be fine. I can handle myself.”

“One question, Hyorin.”

“What is it, oppa?”

“Can you live with that kind of person?”

I raised my eyebrow. Oppa’s question caught me off guard. But I think he’s right. Can I really live with that kind of person in the future? Can I live with a person like Jonghyun?

I found it hard to answer. What should I say? “M-maybe I can. . .”

“Do you like Jonghyun?” Hyojin oppa asked.

I almost choked with what I was eating. “W-what?”

“Do you like Jonghyun?”

I played with my fingers nervously. “N-no, I don’t like t-that dinosaur,”

Hyojin oppa raised his eyebrow in suspicion . “Really?”

“R-really.” I nervously drank the soda in front of me.

“You’re lying.”

SHOOT. BUSTED. “N-no, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. You always play with your fingers whenever you are nervous or when you are lying. Don’t try to fool me, little sis. Oppa knows you so well.”

“I-I’ts not that I like him, oppa. It’s just that. . . There’s this weird feeling inside of me evry time I see him after the day he. . . uhm. . . K-kissed me. . .”

Hyojin oppa almost spitted the his drink on me. “W-what?! You two already kissed?!”

I awkwardly nodded. “Three years ago, when we first met,”

“T-three years ago? But you were fifteen back then. . . And when you two first met? Why didn’t you tell me about it?”

“Calm down, oppa. It was just an accident!”

“But he still kis—“

“It is an accident, okay?”

“But it is still a k—“

“Oppa, stop talking. You sound like a girl,”

“I may sound like a girl, but, Hyorin, I know what’s best for you. And I won’t let that man do those kind of things to you. I will never ever let him make you shed even a single tear. And I would never ever let him hurt you.”

I smiled after hearing oppa’s words. This is the first time that I ever heard him this serious. And whenever he’s like this, I know I can trust his words.

“Thank you, oppa. Thank you very much.”

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