Ji Yong stood up to face TOP. “What do you mean she’s not coming back for another three years?!” he demanded to know.

“She went to attend university there,” TOP replied calmly.

Ji Yong couldn’t seem to process this in. “I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.” A thought struck him. “Mir knew! He knew about it and distracted me from going to see Lia!”

TOP shrugged. “Now that, I have no idea,” he said.

“Why didn’t you tell me beforehand? Even if I didn’t remember her, you could have still told me that she was leaving!”

“She left because of you,” his brother-in-law snapped at him harshly. “She didn’t want to stay at a place where it reminds her of you.”

Ji Yong frowned. “I lost my —”

“She was so depressed especially after she saw you kissing Soo-Jin that you even drove her to suicide,” he interrupted.

He froze. “What?” he gasped.

“My sister was so depressed. You know she won’t normally do these kind of things because it’s wrong and especially since because she has the triplets to think about. But she was that sad! She was that depressed! She couldn’t seem to see life without you.”

“But . . . how . . .?” His face went pale.

TOP nodded. “Mir was the one who found her in her state. He saw her lying on the bed, with the bottle of sleeping pills empty. He got her to the hospital in time, thankfully. After that, we decided it was better if she came to live with my mom.”

Ji Yong covered his face in shame and with horror. “I’m so sorry,” he said in a hoarse voice and began to sob. “I didn’t want this to happen to her. Not Lia.”

TOP sighed. “It’s too late to do anything. Mei won’t come back for three years.”

He looked at the kids. “What about them? I want to bring them home. They’re my kids,” he said. “I want to take care of my own kids. I’m their father.”

Kwan Yong and Eunhye nodded their tiny heads enthusiastically while Seunghyun just frowned, unsure of what to do and who to choose.

TOP nodded, relenting. “They’re your kids so you can take care of them. But I strongly advise you not to go looking for Mei. Let her go do what she has to do. Let her live her dreams. Give her some time. She’s been hurt enough already.”

“Is it so wrong for me to chase after my own wife?” Ji Yong muttered under his breath but with TOP’s stern glare, he nodded half-heartedly. But he was still upset.

He just gained his memory only to find out that his wife left?! Where is the justice?

“Lia,” he murmured softly so no one else can hear him. “I’m so sorry. It was not my intention for you to get hurt.”

“Appa!” Eunhye called out, interrupting his thoughts. “Let’s go! I want to go home! I miss being home.”

Mrs. Choi packed all of their things and Ji Yong drove them back to the house. He sighed the moment he entered the apartment. How is he going to survive three years without the one who gave meaning to his life? How could she just take off like that?

Three years later . . .

Ji Yong dropped the ten-year-old kids off at school. “I’ll come pick you after school. Boys, take care of your sister. I love you! Have fun in school!”

“Bye, Appa!” the triplets chorused, waving, as he drove off to YG.

He smiled to himself, thanking God for his three kids for helping him cope for the past years without his wife. A lot of things had really changed.

Since he was above thirty years old now, it was time for him to step down and help the President train the new trainees. The others had decided to help out as well.

And now, after six years of being together, TOP and Soo-Jin finally decided it was time to get married. They were going to get married in summer, which was a week from now.

“Hyung,” Dae Sung said once Ji Yong came inside the building, “we have a visitor to see how our trainees are.”

Ji Yong frowned. He didn’t like it whenever there was a visitor to see his trainees. He felt it was an invasion of privacy. “Who is it?”

“President.”

Oh.

He felt nervous. “Let’s go see what he want to see,” he said and Dae Sung nodded and they went up.

After Ji Yong showed the trainees off to the President who was delighted in their progress, it was already noon. He sighed tiredly, smiling at his trainees. “Good job. All of you can go and rest now. I’ll see you guys later at two sharp all right?”

They nodded and scattered to find lunch. He turned back to his four other friends. “Let’s go out,” he suggested. “We have two hours to kill. Let’s go out and enjoy the fresh air.”

They nodded and headed out, deciding to ride their bikes there instead of driving so they could feel the summer breeze. They were about to get on their bikes when Ji Yong suddenly stiffened.

Tae Yang noticed. “Ji, what’s wrong?”

Right on time, Seung Ri came out of the parking lot, riding his bike. He got off when he noticed none of the hyungs had gotten on their bikes just yet. “What’s wrong?”

Grabbing his bike, Ji Yong rode off the YG grounds.

“Hey, that’s my bike!” Seung Ri exclaimed, bewildered.

“I’ll see you guys at the restaurant!”

TOP, Tae Yang, Dae Sung and Seung Ri could only stare after him, stunned, as he rode off into the distance until they couldn’t see him anymore.

“What happened to him?” TOP demanded to know.

“I saw him stiffening just now but I don’t know why,” Tae Yang told them.

“Where is he going?” Dae Sung wondered.

Seung Ri was now staring at his hands, where the bike handles used to be. “He took my bike . . ." he said pitifully.

The others patted his back and got on their bikes and Seung Ri decided to unlock Ji Yong’s bike to ride.

Meanwhile Ji Yong cycled hard to the park. He threw the bike down and ran to the tree where he could see a girl heading toward. Finally he grabbed a girl’s shoulder and swung her around.

She seemed startled by the sudden action but gasped when she realized it was G-Dragon standing in front of him. “Ji Yong-sshi!”

Ji Yong frowned. “Ji Yong-sshi? Since when did you call me that? Am I not still a husband to you?”

“Mianhae, it slipped,” she said but he was upset because he knew the truth.

Even though they were still legally married, Lia felt like she wasn’t close to him anymore to call him Oppa.

“How are you?” he asked. “I heard that you went to Kingsridge for study.”

She nodded. “I heard that you have become a trainer,” she said, looking at him quizzically. “Mir Oppa told me you remembered,” she said slowly.

He nodded, a hopeful feeling at the pit of his stomach. “I remembered,” he confirmed. “I remembered the day you left.”

“I know,” she said softly, avoiding his gaze. “My brother told me. How are the kids? Have they been well? Is Kwan Yong causing school any trouble? Is Eunhye still trying to decide who she likes the best among her brothers? And is Seunghyun getting enough attention he has been lacking?”

He felt a stung of hurt that she seemed to care more about them than him, who is just in front of her. “They’re fine,” he replied. “They missed you a lot but are old enough to know why you were gone for so long.”

“That’s good.” She seemed relieved to hear that her children were fine.

“They also kept asking me when you are coming home,” he added.

She kept quiet.

“Lia?” He bravely took a step closer to her and she stared at him, afraid to move. “What’s going to happen now?”

Lia honestly did not know. She hesitated. “I . . . honestly, I only came back for the wedding. I’m leaving again.”

He frowned. This obviously wasn’t the answer he was looking for. “Aren’t you going to come home to the kids? To . . . me?” he asked hesitantly.

She wavered. “I don’t know,” she finally anwered.

“Oh.” He tried to hold back the tears that were dangerously on the verge of pouring. “I don’t understand. Why not? We’re still legally married and you’re back.”

She sighed, wondering how she was going to explain it to him. “Ji Oppa,” she started and he felt a sense of thrill that she was calling him ‘Oppa’ again. “I still have one more semester to do before I’m done. But then I’m going to look for a job and also a publishing company that will publish my company.”

“Come back to the bakery and come back to us,” he pleaded. “Please. Just, don’t leave me. I didn’t mean to hurt you. And that kiss with Soo-Jin three years ago, it didn’t mean a thing. I was stupid. I’m sorry.”

He could see the obvious pain in Lia’s face. He didn’t want to see her upset. He wanted to see her smile. It hurt him to see that she was still hurt after all these years.

She turned to walk away.

But Ji Yong grabbed her back. He crushed her to him and kissed her passionately; kissing her with so much love he wasn’t able to give for the past three years. He felt her trembling body and held her tightly to secure her. He felt her kissing back and he kissed her even more fiercely, his hand on her waist, his thumb making circles on the sides of her body. He bit lightly on her bottom lip and she parted her lips, letting his tongue enter to explore her all over again. He pinned her up against tree and grunted happily to be close with her again.

Lia, on the other hand, was feeling whole load of confusion. She wanted to avoid him as possible but now that was useless. She wanted to yell at him but she really didn’t blame him for everything that happened between them all those years ago. And she missed his kisses and touch. To feel them again made her wanting so much more.

But then she gathered herself and pulled apart from him. He looked at her and she was surprised to find herself crying. But she knew what she had to do.

“I — I need more time,” she said in a whisper.

“Don’t you miss me?”

“Of course I do. But . . . I have to live my dreams. I came this far.”

He let her go. “I cannot stop you,” he said, his hands dropping to his sides. He tried to put on a brave smile. “Well, I guess I’ll see you at the wedding then.”

Lia nodded. She looked as though she was going to say something but thought better of it and turned around and walked away.

He watched her go, his heart heavy. Was he losing her?

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Somehow I seemed to have lost subscribers AND chapters due to the error the other day. D: