A couple of months had passed since Yuri and Nathan had broken up, and they remained good friends, much to everyone’s surprise.  Siwon was still around and Yuri came into work each day floating on air.  Perhaps breaking up with Nathan was the best decision for her, she reasoned.  Siwon was the right mix for her when it came to intimacy and freedom.  She was grateful that he shared her views on both, which helped a hell of a lot.

But she knew Nathan wasn’t a bad guy.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  Had she never met him, she would never have found her love of wonder and magic in even the most ordinary.  A deck of playing cards could unlock the power for mathematical algorithms that could baffle millions.  A simple picture, sprayed onto the side of a building, could convey the hopes and fears of the world and empower the masses to speak out.  Being with Nathan was like a journey into a new world, a wonderful world, but it was a place Yuri didn’t feel she belonged.  His insecurities made him fragile, however, and that wasn’t something Yuri enjoyed either.

It was this lunchtime, as with many, that Nathan and Ryan entered the diner for their mid-day meal.  Sunny, as energetic as always, bounded up to them and kissed Ryan’s cheek.  Yuri was still bemused by Sunny’s recollection of that night when she had performed for him.  How could he honestly look within himself and say that his girlfriend was not a good dancer?  It made no sense to her.  Still, she reasoned, there must have been something missing.  As great as Nathan was, he wasn’t compatible with what she wanted.  Perhaps Ryan and Sunny had some incompatibilities of their own.

“You ok?” Seohyun joined her at the bar.

She hummed a half-hearted response.

“Are you sure?”

Yuri looked at her friend and sighed.  “Just thinking,” she excused herself.

“About …?”

She smiled.  “Guy things.”

Seohyun turned around and saw Nathan and Ryan sitting together.  “You regret leaving him?” she asked.

“No.  It just wasn’t meant to be with us.  We got over it.  Things are cool.”

Seohyun turned back to her colleague.  “Cool?”

She smiled and nodded.  “Yeah.  I mean … I guess he’s been a little more distant than I would like him to be, but that’s just how he’s getting over it.  It makes sense, I guess – I’ve got a new guy and he doesn’t want to make things awkward.”

She looked at the barmaid and smiled.  “Look at you being mature and understanding,” she nodded impressed.

Yuri smiled in response.  “That, and I don’t want to make him jealous at my life.”

Seohyun stared in response, her eyes widened at the bold statement.

Yuri laughed and reached over to pat her cheek.  “You are too innocent,” she mocked in the same condescending manner other people would.  It was true that Seohyun was the most mature and most innocent of the staff, but she wasn’t completely clueless.  She just had no interest in the crassness of the conversations some of them had or the blatant lack of shame they displayed.

“I’m going to go now,” she declared, turning to walk away.

“Oh wait,” Yuri called.

Seohyun turned to look over her shoulder as Yuri beckoned her closer.  She hesitantly walked back to the waitress, fearing the worst.

“Can you do me a favour?”

“What?”

Yuri looked sheepishly at her friend.  “I don’t really want to ask Nathan to come with us to the beach, but … I’d like him there.  Do you think you could ask him for me?”

Seohyun narrowed her eyes.  “Why don’t you want to ask him?”

Yuri shrugged.  “You know, I don’t want him to feel … you know.”

She mused over the conundrum.  Yuri asking Nathan to join them wouldn’t have been the best option, even as a friend.  It was likely that he would decline the invitation out of politeness.  But then, if someone else asked, he might accept.  And someone like Seohyun, with her gentle and mature demeanour …

“Hey,” Sunny interrupted, “usual for the guys.”

“Coming right up!” Yuri replied, picking up two tall glasses.

“Oh … I hope you don’t mind,” Sunny added, “but I kinda asked them if they wanted to come along to the beach with us next weekend.  Ryan said he’s working but Nathan said he’d come along.”  She looked to Yuri as though she had done something unwarranted.  “You don’t mind … do you?”

Yuri looked at Sunny and then back at Seohyun.  “Or Sunny can ask him instead,” she smiled, her concerns now gone from the news.

“What?”

“She just asked me to do the same thing,” Seohyun chuckled before departing to work.

Sunny looked at the barmaid and smiled.  “Great!  I wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong.”

“Wait, why did you ask him?” Yuri laughed.

She shrugged and smiled.  “Figured it’d be nice to invite him.  I kind of didn’t think he’d say yes, to be honest.”

“I’m glad he did,” she smiled.

Sunny nodded.  “Is Si coming too?”

Yuri shook her head.  “No, he’s performing that weekend.”

“He’s still dancing?”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

She shrugged.  “Just wondered.”

Yuri smiled.  “It’s cool.  He comes back to me.”  She filled the glasses with Coke and handed them to Sunny.  “Two Cokes.”

Sunny smiled and turned to deliver her drinks to her customers, leaving Yuri to her job.

 

~~~

 

"Where on earth are they?" Hyoyeon paced impatiently outside the diner.  Even at 9am, the sun was beaming down on the group.  "It shouldn't take them this long to get here."

"Not usually, but remember - Sooyoung's driving," Yoona laughed at her impatient colleague, taking this opportunity to relax in the sun's rays.  Hyoyeon snickered along with her.  Their taller friend's driving "prowess", or lack of, was legendary within the cohort and often the of many jokes.  But she insisted on driving there, so the group forgave her.  This time.

Sunny leaned against the wall, her peaked cap covering her eyes from the bright light.  Despite Ryan's declared absence, she still felt excited about the trip.  It had been a long time since they had all gone anywhere together like this­.  Not since Seohyun's graduation at least, and that was about three years ago.  She watched the girls as they talked amongst themselves, waiting for Heechul, Sooyoung and Nathan to arrive with their chariots.  All of the girls wore sunglasses, with Sunny wearing hers on top of her cap.  They looked very much like a group of teens in an American road trip movie.

Seconds later, Heechul pulled up in his car; a silver Hyundai Avante.  He arrived solo.  "Where's Soo?" he asked.

"She wasn't with you?" Tiffany questioned.

Heechul shook his head.  "She texted me last night and said she'd meet here.  Didn't say anything else."

It didn't take long before their delay was explained.  Driving down the road, towards the awaiting passengers, were two convertible cars; a red Mini Cooper, driven by a rather chic looking Sooyoung, and a black Mercedes E-Class, driven by a cool and dashing Nathan.  As with the rest of the group, both wore sunglasses, with Nathan's much smaller than Sooyoung's aviator sunglasses.

"You went and hired convertibles?" Taeyeon exclaimed, both excited and concerned.

"Of course!" Nathan replied.  "A road trip isn't a road trip without the top down and the wind in your hair, we said that already."

"Seriously, girls," Sooyoung opened the door and bounced out of the car, "I want this car!  I need this car!"  The excitement on her face quelled any other arguments; the cars were here to stay.  The travellers got into their designated cars, ready to head to the beach, Heechul leading the pack.  Nathan would sit comfortably at the rear, and Sooyoung would take the middle of the group.

“Sunny!” Nathan called out as Tiffany, Taeyeon and Seohyun started to get into the back seat of the Mercedes.  “Go on, you know you want to,” he goaded.

She furrowed her eyebrows, completely nonplussed until he nodded towards the hood of the car bonnet.  The furrow turned to a look of perplextion, one in need of clarification.  Taeyeon looked at her bemused friend and then to Nathan.

“What’s going on?”

“How does any normal, sane person get into a convertible?” he smirked.

Sunny pondered for a second until she saw Taeyeon clamouring to get out of the car.  Clarity came for her in the form of an easily excitable ert.

“Me first, ,” her partner-in-crime shouted.

“Hahaha, dream on!” Sunny called, taking a few steps back, before running and leaping onto the bonnet of the car and landing first.  Her run-up helped her to slide across it, as most every action movie character had done since action movies started featuring cars.  She timed it almost perfectly, stumbling on her landing only slightly.

Sooyoung laughed at the sight and laughed even harder when Taeyeon then repeated the stunt, only not to slide far enough and resorting to shuffling off the bonnet.  “At least I didn’t land on my ,” she called out, slightly embarrassed.

“Yeah, it was your fat that slowed you down in the first place,” their tall, slim colleague taunted.

“Hey, at least I have an ,” she called back, turning around and sticking her derriere out in provocation.

“You’ll be sorry!”

Taeyeon laughed and got back into the car, with Sunny taking the seat next to Nathan.  He was right, there was only one way for a normal, sane person to get into a convertible, especially on a hot sunny day like today, and that was not it.  Sliding across the bonnet was for fun people, and people that had seen too many movies with car chases in them.

“Let’s go!” Hyoyeon shouted as Sooyoung started the car.  The boys followed suit and the party drove off in convoy.

Sunny removed her cap and placed her sunglasses on her nose, watching the buildings pass by before they hit the freeway.  She looked at their driver, his own sunglasses covering his eyes, his short hair tousled in that just-woken style, his shirt casual and his sleeves short.  She looked to his jeans, a dull grey-blue and faded on the thighs.  Converse-style shoes adorned his feet.  The real smart-casual look.  She smiled, impressed with the efforts he had gone to, especially after his breakup with Yuri.  This was going to be the first time they had gone somewhere together since they had broken up, although their meetings at the diner had been very civil and amicable.  Even friendly.  She sighed, disappointed that her plot to play Cupid with her friend and Nathan had failed, even though they were still on good terms.  And she had still found love, even if it was with Siwon.  She remembered the rumours that were spread about him through school, the many girls that had been tied to his affections.  Many had been proven false, but there was still a significant number.  Still, she knew how Yuri felt about him and she couldn’t begrudge her that.

Nathan turned to her at that moment and smiled at her.  “You ok?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah,” she flushed, realising she had looked at him a little longer than she intended.  “I was … just thinking.”

“Hey, Nate, you think we could get some music back here?” Taeyeon called.

“What do you say?” Nathan asked, almost chastising her in his tone of voice, but the cheeky humour making itself known.

“Now!” she teased.

“Good girl,” he laughed, reaching for the stereo.  “It’s all English music though, is that ok?”

“English?  Like, British and American?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, turning the volume up on the dial.  “I was looking for some decent road trip music and these all seemed to work.”

The group shrugged in unfazed and apathetic consensus and Nathan pressed play on the MP3 player he had connected to the car stereo.

It’s the music that we choose,

It’s the music that we choose,

It’s the music that we choose,

It’s the music that we choose.

Nathan relaxed into his seat, concentrating on the driving at hand, navigating through the streets of Seoul.

The world is spinning too fast,

I’m buying lead Nike shoes

To keep myself tethered

To the days I try to lose

Sunny found her attention being drawn to their driver again, nodding his head slightly to the beat of the music, elbow leaning on the car door ever so coolly, as they drove through the city street.  It didn’t take too long for them to reach the freeway, where Nathan promptly put his foot on the accelerator and sped up along the almost empty road.

“Yeah,” Tiffany sighed in blissful defeat, letting her hair fly in the wind.  “You guys were right about the cars.”

“Told you,” Nathan smiled.

The girls laughed and sang along with songs that they knew, all of them enjoying the vibe in the car.  Sunny and Taeyeon passed a camera back and forth, taking photos of the trip.  Selfies, scenery, group photos, even the numerous photos Sunny managed to snap of their driver.

“I should have sat there,” Taeyeon cried.  “I can’t get good shots of him from behind.”

Sunny laughed and taunted her with more shots of their driver acting the dork or with his smouldering looks and his cheesy smiles.  She made a mental note to get a copy of those later.  People would want to know how much fun she had on her trip after all.

 

The party arrived at the beach in high spirits and climbed out of the car.  Sunny bounded along in front, jumping and waving her arms as Nathan and Tiffany sang along to Abba’s Dancing Queen, the last song that had been playing before Nathan turned into the car park and turned off the engine.

Yuri spotted the group and laughed.  “You seem to be having a lot of fun there,” she commented.

“Yeah!” Sunny jumped in front of her.

“Guess you’re not missing Ryan then, huh?”

Sunny looked back at her for a few seconds with genuine confusion, before realising the topic of conversation.  “Oh no,” she laughed, embarrassed at forgetting her boyfriend’s name.  “We’ve just been having so much fun.”

“Looks like it too.”

“Hey, Yuri, don’t tell anyone I did that, ok?”

“Did what?” Hyoyeon asked as the pair walked towards her.

“Nothing,” Sunny immediately defended herself.  “I did nothing.”

“Uh … ok?  So, have you spoken to Ryan?”

“Yeah, he’s my boyfriend,” Sunny jumped in a little too eagerly.  “I … uh …”

“You forgot all about him, didn’t you?” Hyoyeon laughed heartily.

“That one was your fault, ok?” Yuri laughed, walking away.

“Oh, you wait,” Hyoyeon chortled, turning towards the rest of the group.  “You will not live this down.”

Sunny blushed.  “Hyo,” she whined after her tormentor.  “Fine, tell the guys here.  But … don’t let Ryan know, ok?”

She turned around to find her friend with a look of genuine concern on her face, almost fear like.  This wasn’t normal for Sunny.  Embarrassment, sure.  But fear?

“Ok, chill,” Hyoyeon assured her.  “I won’t tease you about it.  Is everything ok though?”

Sunny sighed, relief clear on her face.  “Yeah,” she smiled.  “Everything is cool.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah.  Why wouldn’t it be?”

“You two ok?” Nathan walked up to the girls and asked.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Sunny turned and smiled widely.  “Just talking about … Ryan.”

“Ok.  Have you told him you’ve arrived yet?”

“Uh … no, I didn’t think about it.  But he’ll be busy, right?”

Nathan shrugged.  “It’d be nice to text him.  Let him know you’re missing him.”

“I’ll see you guys in a minute, ok?” Hyoyeon hurriedly skittered away.  She’d have to find out about that look later.

“Uh …” Sunny watched her peroxide blonde friend escaping the awkward moment.  “Yeah, I’ll text him now.”  She pulled out her phone and sent him the requested message, letting him know he was missing a lot of fun.

The larger party traversed the warm tarmac, congregating together at the steps to the sandy plains.  Other people had joined them on their own outings, but it didn’t bother them.  Beach balls, towels, badminton nets and an assortment of other items had been brought with them to keep them entertained long into the day, and chilled crates of drinks were plentiful with the crates.

“I don’t care what you guys are doing,” Sooyoung announced, “but this sun is calling me out.”

“Best. Idea.  Ever,” Yoona echoed, following her taller amateur fashionista, the pair laying their beach towels on the sand to soak up the sun’s rays.

“Hyukjun!” Yuri called as her brother made his way onto the beach, followed by Taeyeon’s brother Jiwoong.

“Hey girl!” he called back, pulling his sibling into an embrace.  “Long time, huh?”

“Too long,” she laughed.

Jiwoong and Taeyeon hugged and made their way to a quiet spot on the beach to enjoy the good weather and catch up.  Slowly, the members dispersed, with Tiffany joining Yoona and Sooyoung to catch a tan, the siblings joining together for a while to chat, and the remaining members grouping together to play with an inflatable beach ball.  As the day drew on, the sun was almost held captive as an audience, concentrating its attention on the beach and the friends, playing and talking together, profiting from the hot orb’s exposure from the heavens.

 

The sun started to fall on the group as they enjoyed their time on the beach.  Smaller groups had formed and some were now playing beach volleyball.  Sunny sat apart from the group, watching their activities contentedly.  It had been too long since they had spent this amount of time together without work being the reason behind it.  They were colleagues, but they were friends as well.  Maybe even a family of sorts, a “surrogate family”.  Tiffany was definitely the mother of the group to Sunny’s mind, but she was yet to choose someone to be the father.  Taeyeon, perhaps, but she was more like the cool, New Age hippie aunt of the group than the father.  She watched as all of the girls except for Sooyoung were immersed into their match.  The boys were watching, and the missing female sat in the middle of them all.  Each of them cheered for their favourite team, the sunset providing a romantic backdrop to the match.  As the game continued, she noticed Nathan walking towards her, a glass bottle of Coca-Cola in each of his hands.

“You ok?” he asked, holding out one of the bottles.

She smiled and nodded, accepting the beverage.  “I just like watching the sun setting.  It’s been too long since I’ve watched it on the beach like this.”

“It is beautiful,” he conceded.

She sighed and sipped at her drink.  “It’s a shame Ryan couldn’t be here,” she confessed.  “It would have been nice to spend the day with him.”

Nathan nodded solemnly.  “Well, he is working,” he needlessly explained.

“Oh I know,” Sunny accepted.  “I wish I had the support you guys are giving to your students when I was in school.  I’m just saying it’d be nice, is all.”

Nathan smiled and watched the sun setting and the shadows of the girls dancing in front of the orange light.  Six darkened silhouettes, jumping and prancing about, all reaching for the same sphere that captivated them, almost like a kitten chasing the beam from a laser pointer.

“Are you not joining in?” Nathan asked.

“No,” Sunny laughed.  “It’s more fun to watch them.”  He nodded in agreement and relaxed with her.  Despite his relaxed demeanour and their friendship, she could see signs of awkwardness between Nathan and Yuri, mostly from Nathan.  It wasn’t entirely his fault; he had harboured strong feelings for her and he had been left alone whilst she was able to enjoy her life with someone else.  Perhaps the animosity would disappear if he had found someone.  Although, after her last attempt, she felt it was best to refrain from playing Cupid for a while.  Still, it did upset her to see him in such a state.  He had become a close friend, especially through Ryan.

“I’m really sorry about you and Yuri,” she smiled sheepishly.

He returned the smile.  “It’s fine.  It would have happened sooner or later.”

She nodded thoughtfully.  “Perhaps,” she conceded.  “But I still don’t like what she did.”

He laughed slightly, nervous energy present in his expression.  “She broke up with me because she wanted someone else.”  He turned to her and smiled, accepting his lot in this situation.  “At least she didn’t cheat on me.  That would have broken me.  And we’re still friends, so everything turned out fine.”

Sunny nodded and looked to her drink, running her finger around the lip.  “She told me you found someone else you like.”

Nathan looked away and nodded.  “Yeah,” he admitted.  “So I guess we’re both as bad as each other.”

“Is she pretty?” Sunny asked after a moment.

“Huh?”

“This girl that you like.  Is she pretty?”

Nathan nodded hesitantly.  “She’s beautiful.”

“Is she smart?”

“Very.  She’s funny, sweet, kind … don’t get me wrong; I don’t regret a second that I spent with Yuri.  But … I …. I’d rather I was …” he took a deep breath.  “I’d rather I was with her.”

“Why don’t you tell her?”

He smiled for a moment and let the smile drop almost as quickly.  “She has someone else, and I’m not going to break them up, no matter how much I … I don’t think they’re suited for each other.”

Sunny smiled, even though she could feel her own heart hurting slightly.  She thought of how the love of his life was not there for him as he clearly was for her.  She could see the look of anguish on his face and she felt for him.  She remembered how her crush hadn’t taken the first move towards her, even though she made herself available for him.  She then saw Ryan in a new light and pursued him, preventing any further heartbreak.  She still had feelings for him, but Ryan was her boyfriend.  She knew exactly how Nathan felt, she knew the feeling of wanting to give your heart to someone and knowing theirs belonged elsewhere.  Knowing you weren’t worthy of their love.  Knowing that you could see them most every day and be so close to them and talk to them, and yet feel so distant from them.  There was a long, awkward silence between the two, an unspoken understanding of the heartache the dilemma caused.

“So … how long have you been teaching?” she asked, changing the subject completely.

“Me?” Nathan asked redundantly.  “About two years here, and … just over five years in total?”

“Really?”  He nodded.  “What made you want to teach?”

He chuckled to himself.  “I didn’t, actually.  Well, not at first.  I hated teachers when I was in school.”

“What?” Sunny laughed.  “You really hated them?”

“Ok, maybe ‘hate’ is too strong a word,” he conceded, “but I knew I absolutely never wanted to be a teacher.”

“What did you want to do?”

“I wanted to be a designer,” he admitted, taking a mouthful of his drink.  “I went to sixth-form college, which is your last two years of high school, and I studied design.  Then I was invited to work as a support tutor for a year and … that was it.  From that moment onwards, I wanted to be a teacher.”

“What made you want to teach English?  I mean, you studied design.”

“Well, when I was getting my teaching qualifications at University, I saw a lot of foreign students wanting to have private English tuition, and a lot of them were coming to our building and asking for lessons. I guessed a lot of people would be wanting to learn English, so I took the required classes and got the right qualifications, as well as my post-graduate teaching qualification.”

“Wow …” Sunny nodded, impressed.  “And why here?  I mean, why not somewhere else?”

“Ah, that’s because of my aunt.  My uncle met her when he was on a business trip here and they dated long distance.  She moved to the UK about … twenty, twenty-five years ago, actually.  We got on really well, she really respected me and treated me almost like her own son.  I learned Korean from her, I took classes and got to practice with her, which was great.  Then, when I was 15, she came back for a vacation and I travelled with her …” he looked around the beach and turned his head back towards the populated civilisation they were miles away from, and sighed.  “And I found my love.  I found my home.  I’ve visited every couple of years since and moved here to teach.”

Sunny looked at him and smiled.    The wistful look in his eyes showed that he was as Korean in his heart as she was, even if his blood and ancestry said otherwise.  She wondered if she would have the same love for another country, another culture.  She turned her head further to look at the skyline.  Much of the city was like any other in the world, she admitted to herself, and she often wondered what was so magical about it to others.  Still, it was her home, and she loved being there.

“So what got you into being a waitress?” Nathan asked politely, breaking her reverie.

“Uh … the money, I guess,” she laughed.  “When you leave University, it’s not that easy to get into your dream career.”

“What’s yours then?” he asked.

“Mine?  Well, I studied performing arts, but I took another course in business.  You know, have something to fall back on.”

“You like the business side of things?” he asked.

She shrugged.  “Not really, but it helps to know how things work.”

Nathan nodded, understanding her completely.  “And then Tiffany came along with her diner?”

Sunny nodded.  “We’ve known each other for years, so when she said she needed help to run this diner, I obviously agreed.”

He smiled and looked towards the group of girls, celebrating their win.  The cries and protests from Yuri, Hyoyeon and Yoona, and the celebratory jumping and embrace from Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun displayed the final result.  Sooyoung and Jiwoong joined in with the celebrations and Hyukjun played the role of older sibling with the obligatory protesting in solidarity with his sister, whilst at the same time teasing her team’s lack of a win.

Nathan stood up and gestured to Sunny to follow.  “You coming?”

“I guess I should,” she giggled, standing and following him.  The pair were quickly caught in an excited embrace with the victors, and laughed at the cries of “You cheated!” “I want a rematch!” “Fix!” “You were never that good!” and “I would have hit that ball if the sun wasn’t in my eyes!”

All in all, today was turning out to be just a regular day at the beach.

 

~~~

 

Tiffany and Seohyun sat in the back seat of the Mercedes, the top up for the return journey.  Seohyun was sleeping in the seat behind Nathan, resting her head against the window.  Tiffany sat behind Sunny, listening to the calming music with her exhausted mind

 

I’m open, you’re closed.

Where I follow, you’ll go.

I worry I won’t see your face

Light up again

Even the best fall down sometimes

Even the wrong words seem to rhyme

And out of the doubt that fills your mind

I somehow find you and I collide

 

Sunny sat in the front passenger seat again, watching the lights from the street as they drove back.  There was none of the energy from earlier.  There was none of the singing.  None of the in-car dancing.  The travellers were tired from their long day, but thoroughly satisfied.

Nathan sat in the driver’s seat, watching the road carefully through his regular glasses.  Without corrective eyewear, Nathan was quite close to being blind.  And given the sun during the day, he might have been blinded by now had he not worn his prescription sunglasses.

He passed under the street lights, following the return route to his cargo’s respective homes.  He purposely chose the more melodic playlist for this, knowing that fatigue would no doubt befall them.  He smiled weakly as Howie Day’s voice segued effortlessly into another.

 

I don’t have much to give, but I don’t care for gold

What use is money when you need someone to hold?

Don’t have direction, I’m just rolling down this road

Waiting for you to bring me in from out the cold

 

Nathan took a deep breath, remembering the song and instantly regretted adding it to the playlist.  He looked towards Sunny and smiled at her, even though she wasn’t looking back, then looked at the rear-view mirror and smiled at Tiffany, still awake.

 

You’ll never know the endless nights, the rhyming of the rain

Or how it feels to fall behind and watch you call his name.

 

Tiffany returned his smile through the mirror and watched his gaze fall away, returning to the trail in front of them.

 

Pack up and leave everything

Don’t you see what I can bring?

Can’t keep this beating heart at bay

 

His mind ran to the conversation with Yuri, to their breakup, to her confession of loving Siwon, and his confession of harbouring feelings for another.  Lately, he hadn’t thought much of her, his thoughts consumed by Yuri as they were.  He would sometimes wish that Siwon had never been seen.  That he had been more forceful to stop her from going.  But he couldn’t do that to her.  She was an adult, capable of making her own decisions, forming her own opinions, having her own wants and needs.  He couldn’t stop her from doing anything she truly wanted to do.  He sighed and watched the scenery passing by.  Yuri was gone, and she loved someone else.  He had to realise that.  Perhaps he could find love with someone else, perhaps he could do what Yuri had done.  His feelings hadn’t gone away, that was for sure.  They still bubbled away, deep in the background of his mind.

 

Set my midnight sorrow free

I will give you all of me

 

He thought of her, in her boyfriend’s arms, smiling with his embrace.  Jealousy started to drip into his heart, the knowing that he wasn’t right for her, the feeling that she deserved better. 

 

Just leave your lover, leave him for me

 

He started to drift further into his daydream and imagined he was the one holding her. The peaceful smile she wore was more beautiful than all of the jewellery in existence.  It was almost intoxicating in that moment.  As instinctively as he had many times before, he whispered into the empty air.

 

Leave your lover, leave him for me.