Jieun instantly felt her tensed muscles relax as the alcohol mixed with her system. She admitted that using alcohol as an escape from reality wasn't the healthiest coping method but it was something she'd come to use after Eunji's death.

She felt a bitter smile curl up her lips as she tilted the glass back and chugged the remains of the drink down  while signalling for the waiter to bring her another one.

I guess I take after my father.

People had always said she didn't resemble her father that much but alcohol, as it seemed, was one thing they had in common.

"The same one?" the bartender confirmed. Jieun nodded while letting out a long sigh and tugging her hair back from her shoulders. The guy that was working behind the desk looked like he was in his mid-twenties. His shoulders were broad, he had dark hair and a sharp jawline. He looked attractive and if Jieun had been in here with other things in mind, hell, she would've even attempted to make conversation with the guy.

He threw her a flashing smile which she returned as she set the drink in front of her on the table. "There you go."

Gin tonic.

She mumbled a thank you before taking a sip.

"Is it safe yet?" Jieun heard Jackson's unamused voice behind her and immediately felt the same tenseness take over her body.

"So he can also talk instead of whine", was her sarcastic reply.

Jackson, much to her surprise, didn't say anything to that but instead took a seat next to her and waved the waiter over. "I'll have a whiskey. Neat."

The waiter nodded his head with a hum. "Will do."

"I think it's amazing how you think you can just sit beside me after the you keep pulling with me." Jieun snorted while squeezing the glass in her hands. She didn't know why this particular thing angered her so much. She was confused. She didn't understand him. How he would spend majority of the time being an to her and then on rare occasional moments like this he would actually try to converse.

"Do I look like someone who asks permission?"

Jieun's eyes were blazing as she glanced at the light haired man next to her whose brow was lifted in arrogance. I guess not.

Jackson's whiskey arrived to him and he quickly took a sip and Jieun couldn't help but notice the way his previously clenched jaw loosened up a little.

The two continued in silence from that on. Jieun just simply couldn't find a reason to start the conversation and Jackson, on the other hand, was too stubborn to.

They just settled to drinking. At least that was something they both could do in silence. Jieun wondered about the sudden similarities between her and Jackson.

She started thinking of Eunji and him. She couldn't see how someone so dark could have been around her sister who was so bright.

But then again, Eunji had that purifying effect on people. She was also the type to care for her loved ones deeply and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do to keep them safe and out of harms way.

A few drinks later, she let her eyes shift over to Jackson who was still sitting there beside her in all his brooding glory.

He was resting his chin on the palm of his hand while at the same time holding the glass in the hand he was leaning on. His eyes were staring somewhere ahead of him.

He looked lost in thought.

It was at moments like this when he seemed to unattainable. Like no one could get through to him.

Jieun didn't believe that was true.

She knew one person who did.

Jieun couldn't help her curiosity from raising. She wondered what had made him that way or had he always been like this?

"What are you staring at?" Jackson suddenly blurted out while keeping his eyes steady on the wall. Jieun jumped slightly in her seat. It had been so long since either of them had spoken so she was caught off guard.

"I'm not staring. I'm observing." she quickly regained her state.

Jackson frowned. "What for?"

Jieun shrugged nonchalantly. "Just... stuff. I was thinking."

A moment of silence was passed with the two once again, Jieun waiting for Jackson to give her the okay to continue. It felt like even talking this little with him was like walking on eggshells.

He sighed. "Go on. I have a feeling you're going to ask anyways."

 "Were you close with my sister?"

It was like someone had physically pushed Jackson back. He flinched at her name and it seemed like he completely froze over. His jaw clenched again and his eyes turned hard.

Jieun felt a sinking feeling at the pit of her stomach. Now what had she done? It was irritating to her how everyone else could talk about her, Jieun included, but Jackson couldn't even bear to hear her name.

No one knew what pain Jieun was going through. She lost her family.

Yet she had to be the strong one.

As if sensing Jieun's thoughts by her slow withdrawal from him, Jackson slowly let his eyes tear away from the wall and onto the glass that he had now set on the table.

"Sorry. It's just... me and Mark never really talk about her. Not after... you know. She's become a topic that just isn't brought up. I think Mark isn't ready to talk about it just yet. Her death really ed him up."

She ignored the pain in her stomach. What about me? 

Jieun forced herself to speak quietly and ask the next question instead. "What about you?"

"Huh?" Jackson had not once looked up at her during the whole time he had been here.

"How are you feeling about it?"

After hearing that particular question, Jackson's head shot up and his eyes locked with Jieun's, an unrecognazible look in them.

Jackson was positive no one had ever asked him that. And he didn't expect anyone to. After all, the only one who would have known to was Mark and he was torn to pieces himself.

He hadn't expected anyone else to care. And now here was Eunji's sister of all people, who he had been nothing but a pain in the to, asking him how he felt about her death.

How selfless was that?

To be honest, Jackson didn't know how to answer her question. Truthfully, at least. He was so used to keeping it to himself, pushing the thoughts of losing his best friend to the back of his brain that he honestly couldn't answer straight.

There was one thing he always regretted though.

"I still remember our last words to each other." he began, keeping his eyes on Jieun's. "That wasn't a goodbye..."

The last part of his sentence came out as a depressed chuckle as the memories took a hold of him.

"This is nice", Eunji hummed while watching her best friend hustle around in the kitchen. "Because of things like these, I have hope for you, you know."

Jackson frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean... You're going to have to cook for your wife someday..."

Jackson scoffed at her words. "Yeah right. Have you met me?"

Eunji's eyes softened. "I have. Which is why I think that someday, you'll meet someone who'll love the out of you and make you lose that attitude of yours and the belief that nothing good comes out of love and the fact that you don't think you deserve to know happiness. You do. And I really hope you find that someday."

Jackson froze in the middle of his movements, the knife still in the air, ready to attack the vegetables lying on the table.

"I'm fine the way I am. I ruin things. I'm not good for people."

It broke Eunji's heart to hear Jackson speak that way of himself and the saddest thing was that he actually truly believed that what he was saying was true.

"But you are though. You are so good. I know you, Jackson. And if what you say was true, I wouldn't be standing here as your best friend, desperately trying to salvage that steak that is burning up in your oven."

"What was it?" Jieun pulled Jackson back from his last memory of her.

Jackson spread into a broken smile. It was a rare thing to see such raw emotion like that on his face. "Of all the possible things I could've said to her... and I asked her if she was going to eat before going."

He chuckled emotionlessly. "I was such a fool. She was the one person besides my brothers who believed in me like that. Who saw something goo