Hye Kyo is surprised at how her little girl Yoona throws her arms around her and pulls her into a very tight hug as soon as she makes her way out of customs and into the lobby of Incheon airport. She hears a muffled

"unnie." 

"aww I missed you too." Hye Kyo giggles and caresses her precious little girl's hair. True, Yoona is already a fully grown adult, but in Hye Kyo's eyes, she was always her little girl - from the day she first met her. 

The two sit in their spot in the waiting area of the arrivals hall in silence for a while just appreciating the company of each other. Yoona sighs deeply causing Hye Kyo to look at her curiously. But Yoona continues to stare blankly towards the arriving travellers- not really watching the families, friends, couples reuniting with each other in tears, smiles and laughter like she usually does. Until she does it again. Hye Kyo keeps staring at her, smiling but waiting. Yoona finally turns towards unnie after the third sigh finding Hye Kyo smiling and waiting expectantly but remaining silent, like she has always been with her – ever so understanding. Yoona, like always, is thankful for her being here for her. Her confidante and trusted friend - more like a sister - for as long as she can remember. 

She takes a deep breath to start.

"I found him" she simply says and like magic, Hye Kyo immediately follows on just from those three words.

"Really?" at first Hye Kyo seems more surprised, letting the fact settle in, her smile widens and she bites her lip to hold back her excitement to ask once again "really?" and Yoona nods sadly - not quite the reaction she was expecting but she does not press her.

"I heard he found her" again. No need for explanation and Hye Kyo understands the story.

"you heard?" repeating after Yoona curiously. 

"Yes, the whole company knows about it" 

"oh." Hye Kyo's expression shows how those words extinguished all embers of hope. Before she opens her arms to let yoona fall into them, she peeks up and catches her pensieve expression.

"That's not all is it?" Hye Kyo does not press her but yoona translates the question perfectly and starts on the entire context.

"Turns out he was…well is a pilot." Hye Kyo widens her eyes and nods, there is something Yoona feels from her expression and she realises that something accumulates. "And he originally trained here in Seoul with our company" Hye kyo continues to absorb the information.

"According to everyone he transferred to Japan base to look for his first love, even took a year off to look for her. Now he is back. He came back just last week and started working for SM airways." Yoona spots the change in hye kyo's eyes at the last few words.

"Unnie no." She attempts to shut her unnie down before she even gets to speak

"but you were thinking." Hye kyo says with a hint of a teasing smile

"No I wasn't" Yoona denies, almost too quickly. 

"Yoona, it's something you have believed in all along. Since I knew you, you've been telling me of all these fairytale stories of fate. There is no way you would have not thought about it." Hye Kyo points out. And it's the truth. Without even trying, Hye Kyo reached straight to her raw emotions which Yoona had tried to disguise with endless layers of denial and pretence.

"But it's impossible." she sighs

"But there has got to be a reason for meeting him again..." Hye Kyo thinks out loud (and takes a cheeky sideways glance at Yoona).  but Yoona is unfazed.

"On the night of the intern farewell party, we kind of talked."

Hye kyo's expression immediately lightens up.

"He thinks I forgot about him. And asked if perhaps I am…"

Hye kyo seems to be holding her breath

"I simply told him he has the wrong person." Yoona finishes to find a forlorn Hye Kyo. 

"Yoona…" She begins. Yoona just shrugs - the most casual thing she can pull off at Hye Kyo's call of her name. The call that tells Yoona that she shouldn't have, asks if is she really sure?? and asks her 'Why?'

"what's the point? Since nothing really happened, why try to be a stain to a perfectly romantic fairytale? Just erase it"

Yoona closes her eyes and rolls the back to stop the liquid from escaping. Hye Kyo sighs, watching Yoona - the little girl I knew my little girl has turned into a lady and facing the problems of love.

“what should I do?” the helplessness in Yoona's voice triggering an ache in Hye Kyo's heart. 

“Since you have already decided to wipe that part away. Start from scratch” Hye Kyo advises. Yoona smiles uncertainly

“Maybe” she shrugs.

They share a sustained period of silence. But once it passes through, Yoona breaks away from the comforting embrace

"still not getting married?"

"nope" Hye kyo answers immediately and confidently.

"Joong Ki oppa proposed for the third time already."

"I know, i get moved every single time and my heart aches for him. But don't you think it's enough? Just the two of us always dating? They say marriage is tiring, you'd get into arguments for the smallest reasons. Then one day you're exhausted from each other. You can't find the person you once loved. You're only together for the sake of being together bound by a promise that is now meaningless. Just like my..." Hye Kyo breaks off and sighs 

"but you two are different, you've been together for so long it would surely work out."

For a moment, Yoona sees the scars on Hye Kyo and the faded pain inside her eyes.

She looks straight at Yoona - almost a reflection of herself - and searches for understanding. Out of all people, Yoona should understand the most herself. Yoona almost opens to say ‘but you’re not them.’ But decides instead to secretly hope that Hye Kyo would finally see it through one day.

"Anyway, we need to have dinner together again one day."

"I don't want to third-wheel." Yoona teases. 

"It's just your 'brother-in-law' as you call him. He seems more like the third wheel between us." Hye Kyo's humour causes Yoona to laugh hard. 

"We haven't done that for so long I miss it~"

"Well our rosters never seem to be kind enough to match up. Either Joong Ki is flying, or I'm flying or you're flying . It's ridiculous"

"Well, we'll just have to pray to the gods and goddesses of rostering for mercy."

"You pray on my behalf" Hye Kyo says, patting Yoona's hand. 

"Unnie" she complains 

"I'm atheist." Hye kyo merely replies, reminding Yoona of how Hye Kyo struggles to believe in a lot of things. Other than Yoona herself, only Joong Ki has seemed to have ever opened her up. Yoona also seemed to affect her with her infectious beliefs of fate. When she was younger she argued "it was fate that brought us to find each other too you know?" and it was true. SO Hye Kyo forever rested her case on that matter.  

***

Yoona decides she should congratulate herself, having managed to completely avoid that particular person she isn’t supposed to know aka their newest colleague for two and a half weeks. Giving herself another reaffirming nod of confidence, she takes Yuri’s offer to go down to their favourite café.

Just as they walk in, Yoona immediately turns and almost stumbles back out at the sight of a particular person standing near the ordering counter. Luckily he was too occupied with his mates Minho and Kyuhyun to have noticed her odd behaviour.

Yuri turns around at the door to find Yoona’s back facing her.

“Yoona?”

“Oh, unnie, I think I forgot my phone.”

“You’re holding it.” She points immediately to the phone clutched tightly in Yoona’s hand.

“Oh haha” she tries to laugh it off. “so silly. Always looking for things” she nervously scratches her head and stays rooted in her spot.

“Well, luckily you haven’t lost any more of your passes. The people in admin probably know your crew number off by heart because you’ve replaced it so many times.” Yuri jokes while holding the door.

“Very funny…” she laughs sarcastically and takes the time when she was rolling her eyes to notice that the guys have already been seated.

She only looks away just as she sees the interns from Acube flock towards the guys’ table.

“Unnie, you know what? I just have to make a phone call.” She pleads with an apologetic smile.

***

“We really need to celebrate now that you’ve gone through all those audits and exams.” Kyuhyun says, slinging his arm over Changmin shoulder.

“It’s nothing to celebrate over.” Changmin shrugs.

Just as Changmin sits down he is visited by some overly keen young girls from the table behind them.

“Changmin ssi… would you like some cake?” Bomi bravely asks

“yeah, we bought extra.” Namjoo adds.

Kyuhyun was about to reach for the offer when Changmin declines. “Than-“

“No thank you girls, I’m a little full. Thanks.” They giggle anyway and Changmin takes a deep breath. Kyuhyun retracts his half stretched arms gingerly and tries to divert the attention.  

“You’re full? Really?” he asks almost accusingly.

“Yeah, you’re never full” Minho adds.  

“Well while you two think about how much I could have changed during this time, I’m going to head to the restroom.” Changmin says, casually excusing himself.

Kyuhyun turns back towards the girls with a cheesy smile but they just turn back to their table as if the incident had not occurred at all. As he turns back towards his own table, he tries to act unfazed. Minho covers up his snigger with a fist.

“Look I don’t get why they are still reacting like that even after knowing that he found who he was looking for.”

“Hyung, you don’t get it, it makes him all the more romantic and hence charming.” Minho says as a matter of factly as he lifts his coffee that just arrived to take a sip.

Kyuhyun sits for a few moments, with deeply furrowed eyebrows. “This is not the reason why I spr-“

Just then Yuri joins Minho’s side. The ever so caring boyfriend naturally stands up to pull a chair out for her. So Kyuhyun drops the conversation.

“I thought you said you were coming with Yoona” He asks curiously.  

“Yeah, where is she?” Kyuhyun adds.

“She said she needed to make a call first.” Yuri says shrugging and taking the seat.

A few minutes pass before Yuri shoots her hand up in the air and waves enthusiastically as soon as she spots Yoona pushing open the glass door and walking towards their table.

 As Yoona makes her way over, Changmin returns from his restroom trip, and reaches the table just as she does. She halts in her tracks a bit too abruptly to convince herself that her heart did not just almost skipped a beat – like the way it does when you accidentally take one extra empty step off a staircase. Internal alarms are set off and she tries her best to maintain her composure.  With one hand gripping her phone tighter, the other clutching onto the strap of her bag, she waits for him to react (or he has already) the recognition and surprise in his eyes meets her own.  

Perhaps it is the way his gaze all so familiar added with the mysterious effect the natural light is casting upon them that she is brought back to a time – an encounter almost a year ago in a foreign country.  All her previous efforts are undermined when Yoona momentarily forgets the decision she has been standing by for week. It all falls apart just like that. She stands in the lapse of time between this moment he stands in front of her again and then a time she should have known the promise he was to make is nothing but an empty one. The accumulated disappointment resurfaces once again. And she relives the way she involuntarily landed herself in the harsh pits of reality by the realisation that a stranger – one she started to convince herself that she had begun to know – was actually one whom she had invested a little too much hope and expectation in.

Her resulting underlying sadness is not attributed to the fact of him having found the person he was looking for. It was more of the way he had given her hope and took everything away instead. Or perhaps she knew deep inside, the most disappointing part is that she chose to foolishly ignore her inhibitions and believe that it is an encounter played out by what she had always believed in – fate. What she does not realise is that the sadness, on this morning transforms into a sort of anger she finds hard to harness.  

She takes a polite step back to let him take his seat first. Her lips are in a pursed smile and that is all she can manage. There is no greeting nor a hello. In return, his smile seems friendlier than hers in comparison. HE bows his head before seating himself onto the chair next to Kyuhyun. As Yoona makes her way to Yuri’s side, Minho takes the initiative to make the introductions.

“So I believe the only one here you haven’t met is Yoona.” He says to Changmin

“Changmin, Yoona. Yoona, Changmin.” He says as he gestures at each of them respectfully. The mentioned two exchange a glance, one trying to read the other. The other, trying her best not to give anything away and trying to convince herself that she can make it out of this unscathed.  

He reaches his hand across the table. Yoona glances tentatively at the outstretched hand then back at him. ‘Or not (unscathed)’.

“Hi, I don’t think I have seen you in these past few weeks.” He says casually. Yoona smiles almost sarcastically but proudly. That’s because I was not letting that happen. She shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly, perfectly ignoring the (still) outstretched hand.

“Hi.” She manages to respond with a rather forced smile. But does not reciprocate the gesture.

It is Changmin’s turn to shrug as he retracts his arm, catching the smug look on Kyuhyun’s face and confused stare from Minho.  Kyuhyun murmurs something with a covered hand so that only his two best friends hear “Looks like our prince charming is not popular with everyone.”

Changmin laughs silently, shaking his head and lets the comment slide. 

“Yoona is so popular around here, but the thing is, she never takes up any of our offers for dates.” Kyuhyun explains, over the awkward situation.

“She is not” Yoona says in disagreement, referring to herself in third person.

“Well maybe she’s taken” Changmin suggests to Kyuhyun. Yoona ignores the comment, appearing to be lost in a thought as she stares at the sugar holder on the table. An unusual silence settles among the group until Yoona feels the need to break it. 

“I’ll just go and order. ” she says to nobody in particular as she stands from her seat . “Please excuse me”

“I want…” Yuri starts but Yoona finishes the sentence off for Yuri, glowing with a knowing smile as she turns back in her tracks.

“Soy chai latte.” Yuri winks happily, reciprocating the playful pointing at Yoona.

“See? My best friends know me best” Yuri says, nudging Minho in the arm.

“I still don’t think so.” Minho starts reasoning to Yuri.

As Yoona returns, she finds Minho and Yuri still arguing with the other two staring boredly at the lovebirds. For a moment, she wants to laugh at their exaggerated expressions with their chins propped on their hands. But she has begun to master the art of a perfect poker face. Retaking her seat, the drinks for the boys are served.

“I thought you were going to back out on me.” Yuri pouts, holding onto Yoona’s arm.  

“I’m not like some people.” Yoona says in the middle of a sigh. “I know how to keep promises.” She punctuates the end with a bright though forced smile. Out of the corner of her eye, she is unsure whether it is more her imagination or the trick of her peripheral vision because she thinks she witnesses the subtle pause in movement when Changmin was taking a sip out of his coffee mug – a mocaccino.

Luckily the conversation has a shift of topic, perfectly masking the occurrence of the event. But the arrival of Yoona and yuri’s drink causes a stir of teasing.

“Ooh hey hey hey, look who have similar taste in drinks.” Kyuhyun pointing to Yoona’s drink and attempting to create havoc like he always does. “Could it be telepathy?!”

The two in question respond in their own ways. Changmin glances over at Yoona’s cup but remains silent. Feeling the (uncalled) attention on her, but choosing to ignore it, Yoona retaliates.

“Gee Kyu, out of the many coffee drinkers, there has to be a certain number of people who choose to drink moccacino.”

Yoona hides her discomfort by rolling her eyes.

“Exactly. And our Yoong prefers her favourite sakura tea, don’t you Yoong?” Yuri turns to Yoona with a glad smile.  

It is Yoona’s turn to freeze in the midst of taking a sip from her drink. She can feel (and sort of see) how Changmin looks up from the table and fixes his gaze straight at her. This moment in time is where Yoona tries to calculate all measures to avoid looking back. 

“I’ve recently had a craving for something sweet instead.” She smiles at Yuri. “People change from time to time. For better or for worse.” She adds

“Agreed.” Changmin simply states, surprising everyone on the table. Yoona confidently meets his eyes for the first time within 10 minutes. “But most of us have changes for the better.” He adds.

Yoona dwells on the words for a moment without removing her gaze from those deep dark orbs. Instead of replying with words, she forces a smile and nods assertively. And for some reason Changmin’s smile has a heavy edge of sorrow in it when the words leave his lips.

“That’s all we want isn’t it?” there is a moment of silence, where they both lull in deep thought. Yoona trying to imagine a pretty lady the man opposite had always been searching for. Changmin thinks about a happiness she has finally found.

But Minho, always the charmer turns the entire atmosphere back around.  

“Cheers to better change” he calls out, holding up his mug of coffee. Yuri, the perfectly matching charmer of course joins first, followed by everyone else – though Yoona a little reluctant.

She does not realise the heaviness of the almost whispered words just before their ears are met with the clink of the ceramic mugs.  Yoona’s phone starts vibrating, startling everyone but her. In fact she seems a little too excited for the call, only remembering to compose herself when Yuri peeks at her curiously. IN response, Yoona points at the phone mouthing ‘Hye Kyo unnie.’

“Yes unnie?” she tries acting as normal as she can.

“Oh Yoona.” The voice on the other side of the receiver says in an almost automated monotone voice. Yoona bites her own lip to hold a giggle back. “I am in an absolute emergency. And I require your assistance now.”

“oh no, I’ll be right there.” Yoona manages a rather concerned voice and low key commends herself for it. She takes the opportunity she had just set herself and turns and collects her bag, apologising and excusing herself from everyone especially her best friend.  Hye Kyo is still speaking to her on the phone, which Yoona has still glued to her ear.

“I would appreciate a detailed explanation and justification for the need for me to make this call.” Hye kyo says half teasingly.

Yoona checks that she has left the table enough for the people to be out of earshot when she finally replies “I will eventually.” She pushes the glass door open and hangs up the phone.

Yuri and Minho are once again back in their couple land. Kyuhyun takes jumps at the opportunity and leans over to Changmin

“You two might be a better fit than you think.”

“No.”

“You want to bet?”

“Why not? 10 million won, I’ll win.”

“You’re still not ready for something new?”

“Kyu, you and Minho should know better than anyone else.” Including himself.   

“That reminds me.” Changmin pauses in the middle of his sentence and turns to Kyuhyun. “What have you been saying about me to everyone?”

Minho, who joins in on the conversation as Yuri leaves the table to order cake. He catches the last bit and immediately smirks, with no attempt to hide it. Kyuhyun coughs lamely

“What do you mean?” Kyu says, feigning innocence.

“it sounds like the whole company believes I have found Yeonhee. Since when did that happen?”

“Since it came out of Kyuhyun’s rumour processing factory of course.” Minho says, adding oil to the fire.

“Hey, I’m helping you ward off girls for free.”

“Instead, it seems to be having an opposite effect. It’s attracting too much attention. And you should thank me because I’ve been turning a blind eye and pretending like I didn’t care.

So why do you care now?

“I don’t know” he says, his gaze lingering over the abandoned cup of moccacino across the table. “I really don’t know.”

[Chapter 3 end]

************************

HI guys, I'm back with another chapter! 

I'm so surprised myself too. 

I am yet again procastinating on my load of assignments. Next week i go out on my next practicum so I thought i better do this before everything else gets in the way. 

Hopefully this isn't too confusing. 

Thank you to all the readers and subscribers of this story. I cannot express how thankful i am for your support. 

Please take care 

Happy reading! 

Minyoung