Donghae's POV

"Please fasten your seatbelts before the plane takes off the Incheon Airport." I followed the instructions and settled more in my seat. The plane was mostly vacant, or maybe there were only a few people who could afford the first class seat on a plane towards Thailand. When we were already flying, I checked my phone. And there were 2 messages waiting to be replied and 32 missed calls I've been too deaf to answer.

They were all from her. I fought the urge, or rather the drive, to call for an emergency landing so I'd go back to Seoul, to her house, and act as if nothing ever mattered. I scrolled down and saw she also left a voice mail. I contemplated as to whether I should listen to it or not. Come on Donghae, it's only a voice mail. Only her voice. Her voice that I've been longing to hear even if we had talked just moments ago. But no. It would kill me. It would only make me miss her more.

Go ahead, press it. It wouldn't hurt to hear her voice, right? And besides, I'm already on a plane to Thailand. Only a few hours more and I'm on a different country, different timezone, everything just comes down to one thing: No Min Yu. But there's nothing I can do, right? When I'm already there, I could listen to her voice anytime I want. But yes, I can do something about it. Ugh, this is killing me.

I tapped the screen and instantly, our picture brightened the screen. At least, I have this. The voice mail lasted for 4 minutes and 26 seconds. She didn't have much to say. "Donghae..." she was crying, obviously. And just hearing her agony were like arrows to my heart. "You're a jerk. You didn't even say goodbye to me. You're stupid. You're a coward. You're 27 but actually 5. Chan Mi is smarter than you. Don't ever ever make me see your face again. Or I'll punch you. I'd kill you...for leaving me."

More crying. I can imagine how she looks right now: her hair all over the place, her messed up room, her lying on the bed with her shoes on, her door tightly shut and locked. Where was Chunji? He should be with her. I told him to do the things I do. "You didn't tell me. You're selfish. So selfish. You didn't care about how I would feel. You thought about you, about yourself. You're still so narcissistic, to the point where you even become insensitive."

"You're unfair. You didn't even give me a chance to say goodbye. You made me promise 3 things, when you didn't promise me anything. You never promised you'd return. You never wrote about when you'll come back. You write so small that I had a headache reading your stupid letter that looked as if you were going to die." I heard her throwing things and hurling them to the wall. Where was Chunji in this moment, when she's sad, she's looking for me?

"You told me I can't call you, text you, or follow you. But I will. You should listen, just give me that one thing. Listen. I'd call you all the time. You don't have to answer. Just do me a favor and listen. I know you would. I don't care how expensive it would be to leave you voice mails, all you have to do is listen. Arasseo, Lee Donghae?" I wanted to answer, to tell her yes. Yes, I would listen. Yes, I would go back.

"If you promise me that one thing, I'd keep the 3 things you said in my mind. And I'll add one more thing. I'd wait for you." Tears fell from my eyes. The old man beside me, who I assumed to be a businessman, stared at me weirdly. "That means you have to come back. You know how I hate waiting. So you have to come back. No, that was wrong. You should come back. And that's an order." The time ticked to 4:26, and the call duration ended.

"Hey. I just called to tell you I finished the book. You should have read it before you gave it to me. It's pretty good. So I'm done with the reading. I'm just working on the 'taking care' part. But it shouldn't be hard work, right? So I only have 3 more promises to keep. I hope you haven't forgotten yours."

"Right now, it's been rainy in the city. But I listened to you, about not letting myself get wet. But Eunhyuk's still here. He would take care of me, like he did before, although he nearly went out of his mind. I listened to you, so I hope you listen to me too. I have no idea if you're hearing this right now. But I wish you are."

"Donghae. How are you? I really want to talk to you. Chunji and I had a fight. I have no one to talk to about it, so I left you this message. I wish you were here. You tell me everything's going to be okay, and it does. But since I can't hear your voice, I just hope it would still be fine in the end. I feel like everything's falling apart. Omma and appa had a fight too. It was a pretty bad one. I just hope they get over it too like Chunji and me. I think senior year and I don't get along very well. I don't think I'll be in the honor's list this year. I tried asking help from Kyuhyun, and he did a great job."

"I'll give it a little more effort and time. I just want to see you, to talk to you. I want you to tell me that everything would return to normal, to tell me that I can do it, to tell me it's no big deal. I want you to buy me coffee, to watch movies with me, but it seems I have to do those things alone now. Don't forget your promise okay? Because I haven't forgotten mine. I really, seriously, terribly miss you."

"Hey, Donghae. I visited the dorm just a while ago. Do you even talk to the members? We all miss you. Especially Eunhyuk. He gave me his boxers, and I'm pretty scared to wear it. Who knows how many girls have already seen him wear it? But anyway, I went to your room, our room actually. I took your stuffed toys. I kept looking for Pucca, but I remembered you had taken it with you."

"Everything's back to normal, just as I assumed. But you're still not here, so it's not okay at all. Appa is more excited to know the baby's gender more than omma. It's pretty exaggerated, really. But we all started decorating the baby's room. Chunji came over to help too. I wish you were here, as always. Your promise, okay? Don't forget."

Min Yu's POV

I dialled his number for the first time this month. I pressed the phone close to my ear. It didn't ring, which wasn't surprising. I was used to talking to the same dial tone for the last 3 months, not that today made any difference.

"Hey. Happy birthday. Today, you turned 27. You're so old already. I wonder how you look like, right now. Your hair is probably starting to gray. And maybe I should start calling you ahjussi." I smiled. Maybe if he was with me right now, he would mess with my hair or hurl a pillow at me. "I got you a present. But since you're not here, I'd just give it to you when you return. I wish you would come back as soon as possible. Everyone would be waiting for you."

"Omma went to the doctor yesterday for a checkup, and I accompanied her. Leeteuk was busy with Eunhyuk for your group's new album. So I went with omma. They ran all these kinds of tests that involved blood a lot. If ever appa was there, he probably fainted the whole time. But it went well. She's already on her fifth month, so they could already know the gender. And guess what? I'm having a sister. I'm pretty excited about it."

"We already saw her, can you believe that? She had appa's eyes and nose. She had my mom's long limbs, and her lips were exactly like omma's. I wish you've been there to see it. Henry's birthday had been a few days ago. Did you greet him? He was also abroad with his family. I'll also give him his gift when he comes back. Distance didn't do you any good. You've missed me a lot. And I miss you a lot too."