Two and a half year flies.

Nothing new in the hospital except for Jieun had became the cardiac surgeon that she always wanted to be. And Seojun was now expecting his third child. Though, he was having a hard time raising the twins in between. Jiwon and Minjun were still bickering buddies as usual though they were already now, oncologists, together. Dowoon had became one of the best anesthesiologist in the hospital and Jae finally became a neurosurgeon where he also had a mini fanclub running in his department and all the assistants and nurses were trying their hard to get him out on a date. The high school saga did not end there, Dowoon presumed.

Things had not changed much in there but as for Jieun, life felt a little bit breatheable these few months. She and Hanbin had been well, everything went back to normal. No more arguing, cold-ward. It just them, living their life to the fullest and happily. Hanbin and his group also had promoting so well which earned themselves a reward as the group of the year on the last year award show. He’s been in cloud nine when he heard his group name was announced as the winner. Later that night, he called Jieun to come over to their dorm to celebrate together. Soju, chicken legs, barbequing were going all night long where it eventually caused them to wake up on a bad hangover.

She let out a soft snort when she remembered that. Jieun gazed outside. It was snowing lightly with the glass window behind her froze, ice here and there on it but it was still visible for her to see the view out there.

“Still playing with your food again, Jieun?” Jieun looked up when she saw Jae stood across the table, holding a tray of food before settling himself on the chair. His pair of eyes were blinking to her intently while he shoved some rice to his mouth. The sunlight was blessing him so much as it sticking out his fine features so well. Even his fringes seemed shiny for odd reason.

“I was not, okay.” She puffed.

Jieun then heard him chuckle. Breathy and airy where he usually used it when he found it was amusing him at some level. Dowoon then slipped the chair next to her with a straw on his lips, drinking his strawberry milk. Seojun followed him from behind, with a tray of food as well.

“Just in time ~” Jiwon made a wry voice and without warning Minjun nudged her on the arm, making her to yelp in pain and glare at him instantly.

“What do you want us here anyway?” Minjun lifted his brows, palm on his jaw held up his face while seeping his strawberry milk. Jae gazed at Dowoon while he tried to construct the sentence in his head. Dowoon took too long to answer as he was trying to find the suitable word to tell them. He was so eager on telling them but ended up struggling to inform them properly and fast. Jae rolled his eyes, groaning at the end of it before exclaiming, “We’re going to be in a gig at a bar!”

“Oh, come on! I was the one who’s going to tell them!” Dowoon whined.

“Guess what, I just did it.” He deadpanned and Dowoon scowled.

Jiwon almost choke when she heard him. Minjun and Seojun had those excited, thrilled fixed on their face. Their eyes were wide open with enthusiasm. Minjun had been dying to see Dowoon to play his drum as he kept pestering Dowoon to show some his skills with drumsticks. Jieun only let out a small smile on her lips and Jae caught that. Because she had seen them playing for a couple of time and it was a secret between Jieun, Jae and Dowoon as they wanted to keep it low profile for awhile.

Jae and Dowoon had been playing for months now this year with their housemates at Younghyun’s bar. When they first time played, they were actually surprised to be welcomed by various of people in the bar. It was their first time in forever to play again together as a whole group. Younghyun was so happy that he decided that they should play more since people were happy of it. But duty calls, so they settled on playing at the bar twice a month on every Saturday nights. And that was when Jae asked Jieun to watch their show for a few times, when she did not have any on-calls or late-night shifts.

“Come on, it’s not so bad, Jiwon.” Dowoon grumbled when he saw how shocked her face was.

“N-no, I-I didn’t know you would be in a band. I didn’t know you could play those things.. in a band.” She stuttered, collecting the bits of her salad that was thrown when she almost choked earlier.

“I love gigs. Count me in, when is the big show?” Seojun wriggled his eyebrows, his lips were tugging upwards, grinning from ear to ear. Not much about Seojun but he always loved band performances so much because that was when he met the love of his life, Sohee who was now pregnant with their third child. Their twins were still toddlers yet they managed to have another child coming in their way.

“Tonight. At Youth bar, 7 pm.” Jae wiped his lips and sipped his water. Seojun face darkened when Jae stated the details to him.

“Nice, I got no shift tonight!” Jiwon cried out. Minjun high five-ed with her as he too, did not have any late-night shift tonight. Seojun pulled a long face as he just remembered that he got a family gathering at his house. He had promised his wife and now, he regretted to miss the chance to see Jae and Dowoon performing live at the bar. “Geez, I just wished I could tag along but I got family matters.” Bummed voice was heard and Jae patted the guy’s shoulder and gave him an it’s okay face to him.

“So, you are all going then?” Dowoon accidentally squeezed his drink, making them to be squirting from the straw and went all over the table. Jieun wrinkled her nose and eyes partly closed while her upper lips curled. His eyes were widened when he saw that and quickly apologized, stammering on wiping the liquid off. What an awkward dork, Jiwon smirked.

“Yeah, totally.” Minjun winked.

He was pumped when he heard Dowoon statement earlier as he had not been to a bar for a long time, loosening himself out with beers, wines and cocktails due to his long shift hours and cases needed to be consulted. He fist-bumped with Dowoon.

“Can I bring some friend along?” Jieun asked and Jae looked confused.

But he nodded right away considering that maybe she meant it as Hara and Hanuel. But little he did knew, it was far from his assumption. Jieun grinned happily. She thought on bringing Hanbin along with Jinhwan and Song to the bar since they were free at the time being. They did not have any schedules to fill up or any practices to attend. They were practically free since they just finished with their world tour two weeks ago. It was all relaxing and resting for themselves before their next comeback soon.

“Great, all set. I’ll text the venue later.” Jae half-smiled, looking around him seeing the people looking all smiley and lovely. He never thought that his workmates would be supporting him and Dowoon to play in a band but he gladed they did and he could not wait to show off his guitar skills. He could not wait for tonight. He could wait to rock on the stage.

.

Jieun wore her long black blazer which matched her white hoodie. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail, exposing her neckline under the sunset since she was standing outside the lobby. She held her phone closed to her chest, biting her lower lip and tapping her feet on the ground. It was snowing and freezing so she tugged her blazer closed. The cold breeze kissed her cheeks and she winced. Good thing she was wearing her favourite all time uggs boots where it was all warm and soft or her feet might go numbed now that it was -5 outside.

Her shift just ended 30 minutes ago and now she was set to go to the bar. Jae and Dowoon had left the hospital 2 hours ealiers since they had some arrangement and set up to be made in the bar. And they also mentioned that there might be few big people coming by tonight which left Dowoon to be a bit restless. Jae mentioned that Younghyun was being monitered for his performance before he could make it to the top five list of most wanted bassist for underground bands so they had to prepare something specia for tonight.

 Minjun and Jiwon were nowhere to be found. Maybe they still got few things to handle on the department before really leaving them behind.

A car honked suddenly and the window went down slowly to reveal Hanbin was seated on the driver seat, looked somewhat delighted. She could hear voices from behind which she assumed it were Jinhwan’s and Song’s.

“Come on, hope in princess.” He said then placed back his sunglasses back to his eyes. Jieun cracked up when she heard that. Weird but she liked the way Hanbin called her princess. It just that it was not more of a friendly type or exclaimation rather, it was more of cynical.

“Bet this band is good, huh.” Song pushed himself forward as he held Jieun’s headrest, sneaking out his face out from it. Jieun wore her seatbelt and nodded. “The best band, I must say.” She smirked.

“I can’t wait to jam along.” Hanbin pushed the oil pedal and they all went straight to the bar.

He just had his driving license a month ago and he had been driving everywhere eversince. But luckily to him, he was a natural driver though it took him long to get a driving license. The three of them were wearing fully black in disguise. Bucket hats and masks were a must for them since they might get into trouble if any fans found them wandering on the street at this hour. After they got their name big like they dreamed, they tend to have difficulties on going anywhere freely since there would be fans interfering them during their private and personal activities. But they did not care as long as the fans were aware of being respectful to them.

As soon as they got into the bar safely without anyone recognizing them, they sat at the back of the bar, shielding them from the obvious crowd. It got a nice lighting with a pendant light was hanging above them, exposing the adequate amount of light for them to hide from being too noticeable. The bar was cozy as well as they were seated on a sky-blue swivel bar chair with a tall black table. A comfy seat for the customer to chill and relax while having a toast over a performance in a lounge. The stage infront of them was still visible and Jieun could see the instruments lining up clearly and quickly recognized the red guitar that was belong to Jae.

Hanbin placed himself next to Jieun. He was still mesmerized by her beauty under the dim light. Since she could not see him very clearly, so he went on staring at her. Starting from the eyes, the nose and then the lips. All of them were just the same like the first time he met her. The round cute nose, her puffy cheeks and arised higher whenever she smiled or laughed. The delicate, faint freckles were seen vividly under the gray light. He drew an affiliation smile, pressing his lips together while lifting it upwards. Even in this small space that they shared, he still yearned to sneak on the table and reach for her hand, give it a squeeze or caressing her inner palm with his thumb. He missed her so much that he wished he could just hug her short without her looking all weird and asked him what was wrong. But it was not easy like he wanted, like hoped for. Not after they broke up a year ago. Not after they decided to cool off from this relationship thing. He just wished that everything would be different now but some things had to be done before it was too late for them to back off.

And he gladed they made the right choice.

The mic pierced so suddenly as a host asked t