Kyungsoo lets the silence fills the car for a while. He doesn’t want to answer the questions right away. Jasmine on the other hand feels restless as she feels like she is being thoughtless for throwing a party of questions to a busy and serious man like Kyungsoo. She regrets it almost immediately when she sees how his expression changes. She wants to say something but he is ready to answer her questions. It stops her. “Honestly there was no one telling me all that. It is more like how I feel about myself. Don’t blame yourself for asking me these questions. In a way, I feel like these questions are needed. This is me blaming myself for being unavailable for someone that I chose to go this path. Basically you are here because I wanted you to be my intern. But look at me now, I am away most of the time. My responsibility as your sunbae has gone to the deepest pit. I leave you alone by yourself to go through every day without me by your side. I am really sorry.” He tells her what he feels.

Jasmine is touched by Kyungsoo’s words. As usual, he is one of the most thoughtful people she has in her life. And she is very grateful for that. “Oppa, it is true that I am here because you chose me to be your intern. But please remember that you would never be able to choose me if I was not there during the audition. I was ready for this. That is why I was there for you to choose. In another way, I want you to know that you are not the only person who is responsible for me to go this path, it is my responsibility too. So please stop blaming yourself for being away when you are doing your work, your other responsibility. And you must not know how important your role is in my everyday life. You are not useless oppa. You are precious. I feel so blessed to have someone like you in my life. You might be away physically but emotionally I never feel alone.” She makes sure he knows what reality is in this awkward situation they are in.

“But Jasmine, I rarely contacted you. I didn’t get to do that as much as I wanted to. I literally neglected you without my intention to do so.” Kyungsoo corrects Jasmine. She shakes her head. “Oppa, I never measure how much worth people are in my life by how much they contact me and by how much they invest their time and money on me because for me it doesn’t work that way. The most precious people in my life are my parents. They are not physically here with me right now but to me, they never left me alone. My grandparents, my cousins, my family, they are not here by my side the whole time but do you think they are useless in my life? Of course not! They are precious. They mean a lot in my life. And I feel the same way with you too. I know you care about me though we are not together. And for that, I work my hardest to prove that though you are not here with me, your intern is not less worthy than others. I want you to be proud of your choice. In my fighting spirit, there are you and there is me. We are in this together. So please stop saying that you are not around because to me you never leave. Okay?” Jasmine lets him know what she feels about this situation.

Again, Kyungsoo is dumbfounded by the way Jasmine is thinking. At times like this, she doesn’t feel like a younger girl as she is very mature. He is touched by her words and he feels so grateful by how precious he is in her life. She is not someone who easily opens her heart just for anyone especially men. So he knows that he has to appreciate her trust on him. “You are right. I never stop thinking about you though I am away. You are always in my mind. I am always worried about you when you are not there in front of my sight. You are my responsibility and for me, you are important in my life. You are very precious to me. And I forgot how I asked you to ask me directly whenever you have questions and never to assume. And look at what I have done? I am the one who assumed. Please forgive me. I’ll treat you to a delicious dinner as my apology and I will treat you to a movie after that as my gratitude. Okay?” He says to her. She nods as he already told her about their plan for tonight.

“Here we are. This is one of my favorite restaurants in Seoul. They serve authentic Korean cuisines and I really like their YukGaeJang (Spicy beef soup). You should try it later.” Kyungsoo shares the information with Jasmine as he carefully parks the car at the side. She looks at the long queue. There are so many people who want to eat there too. It seems like the restaurant is really famous at this area. “Let’s go.” He says as he gets out of the car. He waits for her at the back. He grabs her hand and leads the way to the restaurant but she is confused because she is not brought to the entrance but they go to the back of the restaurant instead. She has no idea why. The back door is where he is leading the way. He knocks it a few times and there is a friendly looking grandmother opening the door. “There you are. You can go to your private room. I’ll get your order later.” She says giving them the menu. Jasmine doesn’t get to digest what is happening right now. She just bows to the grandmother before she is led to a room upstairs. He is still holding her hand. He only lets it go when they are safely inside the room the grandmother mentioned earlier. It is a small room where a table is situated in the middle and a bunch of cushions are placed neatly at one corner. The room looks so Korean and she really likes it.

They take a seat facing one another. Kyungsoo smiles before he laughs louder as he realizes the situation they are in right now. Jasmine is looking at him weirdly. “You must be feeling very confused right now.” He says to her. “Isn’t it obvious?” She says pointing at her face. He giggles. “I am sorry. But don’t worry. We are not doing something illegal here. There is a story behind what is going on right now. I am a regular customer since four or maybe five years ago. Kwangsoo hyung recommended this restaurant to me. So I have been coming here by myself because I fell for the delicacies here. There were times when I got to eat peacefully without anyone noticed that I was an EXO member but there were also incidents where I got caught and it created a chaotic moment. Some even got injured just trying to get a glance of me. It was pretty dangerous and I stopped coming after that. I was so sad. But one day, I got a call from Ju Hwan hyung, he told me that the owner of this restaurant, the grandmother we saw earlier asked him to let me know that if I wanted to come and eat, just let her know. That was what I did. And since then, I have been coming to eat here and this room is especially prepared for me when I give them a call to come.” He shares a story behind their coming to the restaurant without having to queue like others.

Jasmine is trying to summarize everything that Kyungsoo just shared with her. “So whenever you want to come to eat here, you just give the owner a call ahead of time and she will open the back door for you. Then you will go ahead and use this room when you eat. So no one would know that you are having your meal here in this restaurant because you are not using the front door like other customers. There won’t be any unwanted situations this way because no one realizes you are here. That is very thoughtful of her.” She says as she smiles looking aro