48 | The Message
My Perfect Stranger
✗ Yong Junhyung ✗
I stare at the two tickets in my hand. Those are the tickets to watch Fanta Stick, the performance I wanted to watch with Rima before.
After her phone call yesterday, I even managed my time so I could arrive earlier to buy the tickets; I know she will be really happy if she can watch the performance.
I took a glance at Gikwang during the dinner but he didn't say anything. He was really quiet tonight. Doojoon and Yoseob looked at me, a gesture which meant they were curious.
"Gikwang," I called him when he was going to enter his room. Everyone has went into their own rooms so I had a chance to talk with him personally. "Is something wrong?"
Gikwang pulled his hand away from the handle and leaned against the wall, "I met Rima today."
My heart skipped a beat when I heard her name was mentioned. He met Rima?
"So...," I cleared my throat awkwardly, "...have you confessed to her?"
"No," he shook his head and looked at me with a sad smile. "I... I have this strange feeling that she will go somewhere far."
"Eh? What do you mean?" I asked him without hiding the surprise in my tone. "Did she say that she is going somewhere?"
Gikwang shook his head again, straightening his body, "Maybe it's nothing. Forget it. Good night, Junhyung."
Gikwang walked in his room, leaving me with curiosity over his statement. I was thinking to send a text message to Rima when my phone rang; Rima called me.
"Junhyung?" she mentioned my name after I picked up the call. "Are you free tomorrow?"
I was stunned by her question. Was she asking me to go out with her?
"I have a radio interview at night," I answered. "I'm free from nine in the morning though..."
"Can we meet at 63 City?"
I was really surprised by her request. She asked me to meet up with her at the first place where I went on a date with her. Is there something behind her reason to pick this place to meet?
She told me to find her at 63 Sea World, the nation's first aquarium. I walk around the aquarium, wondering about where she is.
I finally find her looking at the little African Penguins. There is a smile on her lips while the dim lights are shining on her, making her look even more beautiful than usual.
Her smile looks beautiful yet sad at the same time.
She looks lonely.
"Ah, you're here," Rima finally notices my presence. She approaches me and I realize that she wears her black thick-rimmed glasses. She also ties her hair in a ponytail.
Just like the first time I met her.
"Come on," she steps backwards carefully. "Follow me."
She faces forward again and leads me to somewhere she only knows. I walk next to her, looking at her with a hope that I can read her mind.
"The news about our break up will be announced in two days," she opens up a conversation. "I've talked with the President. I hope you don't mind."
I stop my steps and she does the same. I understand what Gikwang was talking about; there is this uneasy feeling that I can ease when I look at her.
As if she is going to disappear from my sight. As if she will go far away from me.
"Is there something you want to say to me?" I ask the question bluntly. There is an unspoken sadness in her eyes.
"Do you remember the first time we met?" she chooses to speak, avoiding my question. "I never imagined that I would become BEAST's co-composer along with the main rapper."
'I... I'm grateful, Junhyung," she takes a deep breath before looking at me. "I'm glad I met you. I mean it."
"Junhyung, you are the first person who made me found the place where I belong," she takes a step closer to me. She touches my cheek with her fingers, "Thank you."
Before I can say another word, she quickly takes steps backwards and mumbles, "You deserve someone who loves you truly."
"We're not talking about Hara again," I state firmly. "Rima, if it's not you, I-"
"You gave me comfort, Junhyung," she shakes her heard with a sad smile. "You made me felt what love is. You made me knew that love is not all about joy."
"Are you trying to say goodbye, Rima?" the question I've been holding on finally slips out from my lips. I can't bear the urge to keep silence any longer.
"I'm trying to tell you what I'm feeling," she retorts. "We met as strangers and in the end, once again, we're strangers, Junhyung."
I swear I'll do anything to make her stop thinking about me as a stranger for her. Can she see that I can't treat her just as a stranger anymore?
"Yong Junhyung," she cups one of my cheeks and smiles. "Thank you."
She tiptoes and kisses my cheek. She pulls away and caresses my cheek, "Have a good day, Junhyung."
Have a good day?
"Oppa?"
Hara walks closer to me and when her eyes meet RIma's, she bows slightly to her. Rima flashes a smile, "I'll take my leave then, Junhyung, Hara."
She walks pass me and Hara, walking away without even bothering to look back.
I clench my fists, feeling angry towards Rima. Why does she always running away from problem? Why does she always avoid to face the problem? Why does she always make decisions without considering about others' feeling?
"Kim Rima!" I call out her name. She still gives me her back but I know she is listening to me. "Stop running away. Stop making assumptions that leaving is the best option. I-"
"Face your own past," she replies me calmly. She looks at me directly. "After that I'll settle mine with you."
"I never lie, Junhyung," she gives me her usual confident smile. "I'll see you later then."
Does she mean I need to settle my feeling towards Hara first before I ask her to be mine?
✗ Kim Rima ✗
"Rima, this is Marc. Marc, this is Rima," my mother introduce her current husband to me. I exchange handshakes with him casually.
"I heard you have absolute pitch talent," he speaks in English. "You will become a talented composer, I believe."
Eric actually represents Marc in one and another way. Their eyes are similar and their accents are completely the same.
"I hope so," I reply him politely. He explains about the course I will take at The Royal Academy of Music. Marc tells me the details of advantages by taking courses there.
"Excuse me," Yujin opens the door slightly, bowing to my mother and Marc. "There is someone who looks for you, Rima?"
Don't tell me it's Junhyung.
I've tried my best to talk with Junhyung. It's a good thing that Hara opened up to a conversation with me. Despite what happened between me and Junhyung, I really think both of them need a good talk to settle their past.
If Junhyung really has finished his struggling with his past, I promise myself I will talk to him.
About everything.
Is it possible that he has talked with Hara and now he wants to talk with me?
"It's Kim Sora," Yujin tells me about my guest. "It's the professional photographer."
Sora?
"What a surprise to see you here," I greet her once I see her, sitting alone on the sofa in the main room. "Can I help you, Sora?"
"Depends on what kind of help you offer to me," she answers after I take a seat next to her. "Gikwang talked to me this morning about you."
My heart skips a beat when she mentions his name. Sora continues, "He said that he felt like you would go far away from him. From what I know, Gikwang is not the type who likes to draw assumption based on nothing so I assume that his intution is right."
"This is just between us," I mutter calmly. "I do have a crush on Gikwang and that's why I think I need to leave him. It's for good. He deserves someone better."
That's what I've been thinking lately. Gikwang doesn't deserve me. Neither does Junhyung.
They deserve better.
"This is only between us too. Consider it as a message from a friend," Sora clear . "Rima, you can't be the one who decides who he deserve. He is the one who can."
"Look, I know how it feels. The guilty feeling that you have hurt someone. The option to leave everything behind and start a new page in life. I've been there, Rima," Sora smiles to me.
"That's a personal experience?" I lean my back against the sofa. I look at her, "I envy you and Yoseob. Really."
Sora lets out a sheepish smile, "Trust me. We're not the perfect couple. Our imperfectness complete our hearts. We have our ups and downs as well, Rima."
"Follow your heart, Rima," Sora looks at my eyes. "That's all I can say. You are the one who will decide."
I know.
And I have determined it.
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