Word Count: 4,804

“Ji Hyo?”

The name falls so easily off his lips. 

Ji Hyo. Ji Hyo. Ji Hyo.

She tries to make sense of the muddy entanglement of feelings lodged in , the pull of muscles in her hand forgetting how to work, the cold seeping into her chest and eyes. 

Seeing him is both easier and harder than Ji Hyo imagined. And she’d imagined this scenario many, many times in the year following his sudden retirement. In a hundred different ways, each with so many crossroads she was sure such paths resembled more the branches of a gnarled tree than any road. As many times until Ji Hyo accepted the truth for what it was: they’d never cross paths again. That’s just how things were sometimes. The sooner she believed it, the happier she’d be, or so she’d thought.

He blinks slowly, not quite believing she is here. She can't believe it either. He reminds her of the Mona Lisa, the masterpiece, the eternal intrigue. The small downturn of his brows and the curve of his lips haunt her because she can’t read them.

A pause.

Jong Kook squeezes his girl’s tiny hands, then schools his expression into something infinitely kinder. 

Shoulders relaxing, he says, “I didn’t think I’d run into you of all people here. It’s good to see you.” 

Perhaps he feels none of the turmoil she does.

“Ji Hyo?” This time with an undertone of polite concern.

“Me too.” Ji Hyo hesitates, but words flow out easier this time, “I mean, It’s good to see you too! Sorry, I was just surprised, that’s all. Thought I saw a ghost or something since….”

She smiles more to reassure the man in front of her.

“I know, it’s been-”

“Four years,” she offers helpfully.

“Four years.”

Jong Kook’s hair is longer now, dark with a few streaks of silver that couldn’t possibly be that good looking but was. Laughlines smooth the corner of his eyes where delicate crow’s feet begin. He looks every part of doting father and loving husband.

“Thank you again for rescuing Yeo Wool.”

“It’s no problem really, I can see Yeo Wool’s been well taught.”

His eyes sparkle. “Ha, I can’t tell you how much that means to me.” He catches her looking at him. “...Will you be in town for a couple of days?” 

Ji Hyo thinks about her car parked on the street an hour of ocean away. “I’m... in the area.” Sort of. “Why?”

“Well-”

Yeo Wool bounces up and down from where she stands until Jong Kook bends down to her height so she can whisper in his ear.

Turning his head to look at her, Jong Kook replies, “We'll go home in five minutes, okay? I want to ask the nice unni something." He takes out something, metal from the way the sun glints off of it, from his pocket and gives it to Yeo Wool.

“Okay. You promised!” Yeo Wool sniffs and lets go of his hand to trot to the wall where brights flowers are in full bloom. Jong Kook’s eyes linger on her for a moment before tearing away to focus back on her.

“Sorry about that. She’s usually more patient.”

Ji Hyo shakes her head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure she’s anxious to go home after everything that’s happened.”

If Jong Kook noticed her eyes flit briefly to his unadorned left hand before looking at him again, he does not say anything. Instead he begins tentatively, “...Can I buy you coffee some time if you’re free? I still want to thank you properly.”

“Jong Kook.” The name rolls her off her tongue as if it’s never stopped saying it at all. “I would have done the same for anyone. You don’t need to repay me.”

“It’s not just about the coffee.” Jong Kook’s smile is too gentle to not to be some shade of genuine, but doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “But I understand if you’re busy, of course.”

She doesn’t understand why he offers this chance to explain himself even if she is willing to listen, as if it makes a difference. Had Jong Kook not actively offered, she would continue to live her life without knowing anything about Jong Kook, as she had done for the past years. Perhaps in one more year or two, she would look back on the memory of Jong Kook with much fondness without the cloud of wistful what-ifs. Jong Kook, kind as ever, presents a glittering olive branch, two-sided in its offer: one, a chance to answer her too obvious question, and the other, an easy rejection should she wish to keep her peace of mind. 

Behind her trademark blank expression, her rationality and her emotions whirl against each other like the heat crashing against cool air, the kind of violence that gives birth to tropical storms. 

In the eye of a hurricane of her own making, she takes a breath and says, “...You know I’m never too busy to pass up on coffee with a friend.”

His shoulders relax. “Then it’s settled, coffee it is. I know a nice, quiet cafe for brunch unless you had somewhere else in mind.”

“That sounds good. Tomorrow?”

He nods. “I’m fairly flexible in the morning. When would be a good time?"

Despite the lack of any plans, Ji Hyo cannot bring herself to say so. She needs a moment to think, to breathe. But she is nothing if not an actress, thus she folds these thoughts in a neat little box, minds her breathing, moves her lips to form the words in the elegantly enunciated way stage people do-

"I can text you.”  Ji Hyo never said the words themselves had to be elegant. She holds her phone up as to prove her point.

He pauses for a moment mouth open to say something. “Ah, right.” Jong Kook’s voice catches on the edge of a sigh but continues in the same polite tone, “Well then, I'll see you tomorrow.”

He gives her a nod of his head and he walks towards Yeo Wool who is crouched, picking at the flowers there. Still within earshot of their indistinct chatter, she can hear him ask, “So? What’s this one’s name?”

She turns around to walk back somewhere, anywhere. After three steps she tentatively turns around, sees him pick up the girl in his arms.

Yeo Wool spots her and gives her an exuberant wave, which she returns. Ji Hyo swivels back. She doesn’t see Jong Kook’s short glance at her before Yeo Wool against his chest points at a tree that’s caught her eye, with the funny kind of fruit Jong Kook explains will turn into a pomegranate.

Ji Hyo remains in a daze the twenty minutes walk back to the main road. She replays the conversation again and again, willing it to make sense and confirming that indeed it happened. 

Then once the reality of the moment sets in, Ji Hyo begins to panic. This was supposed to be a simple day trip, what was she thinking making an appointment for tomorrow in this no name town? She has nothing on her except for her wallet and phone, and her handbag that contains more old receipts and loose change than anything useful. 

However, her worrying is entirely frivolous. In this day and age one only needs a phone and a credit card after all. And money is not an issue to one who remained one of the top actresses in the country in the last few years. 

The signal grows splotchy at this point so it takes a bit more waiting and wondering to find a marketplace. Small stores line both sides of the main street with their wares displayed in full view. They are more stands than full stores, usually only a single narrow enclave behind the attending storekeeper usually just for backstock. Nearby an older woman with worn skin, and a perm that poofed up like a halo around her sells grain. The air tastes warm and sweet with freshly milled roasted sesame seeds, sweet rice, red beans.

Ji Hyo reminds herself that it is just for one day. One more day and perhaps she can unravel the mystery of Jong Kook who weighs in her mind. And then what? Ji Hyo shakes her head, she can worry about that later.

After buying necessities (mostly just the change of clothes) for the night, Ji Hyo stumbles her way towards the inn. 

She showers quickly. The warm water coaxes one too many stray thoughts, ones that surely run towards Jong Kook just as rain from the sky follows the familiar grooves of the ground to the river and sea eventually.

Though miles from her own home, she has a penchant for sleeping in unconventional locations, top actress title be damned- thus the soft resistance of any mattress fills her with a sudden rush of welcome. Or she supposed, it was only natural after the unexpectedly eventful day. The thought of how exactly to approach the sudden enigma of Jong Kook makes her far more tired than the sour sting of her calves from having walked the length of the town on her way here.

She recalls the way he looked at her. Rather it pained her that she didn’t know how he looked at her.  Not unkind, for Jong Kook’s love for Yeo Wool, obvious even in the short time she met him, would have tempered even his iron stubbornness. Recognition certainly, but had they held warmth reserved for a long lost friend (and they were friends, weren’t they?), or was it the politeness of a once co-worker and senior, or perhaps an obligation knowing he was the source of many questions at the moment.

Ji Hyo hadn’t meant to pry, more work habit to observe folks than anything, that she supplied her mind with these details. The lack of a wedding band on his left ring finger. The Jong Kook she knew was the quiet sort of romantic, the one who could barely string together the words “I love you”, instead saying it a thousand times over in the moments he spent with someone. A man like him would never take off his wedding band, should he have any say in it. And then, Yeo Wool- a child who had to be born around the time of his retirement considering her age...

What had Jong Kook done all these years?

She can hardly stifle her nervousness the next morning. Not even standing in front of the cameras made her as nervous as right now when she brushed her hair, and smoothing down the only outfit she had, the plain ivory shirt she had bought from the store yesterday.

The address that Jong Kook sent her brings her to a quiet little cafe near the beach. It’s too early, but Ji Hyo had already gone through her morning routine much earlier than normal, and the fear she’d somehow get lost in the unfamiliar town kept her on her toes.

Jong Kook arrives about three minutes before eleven. Today he wears a navy blue button down with rolled up sleeves, tucked into a loose pair of black pants. When he opens the door to the cafe for them, the small chime at the top of the door gives a cheery jingle. Immediately the warm, heady scent of coffee welcomes her as does the upbeat piano and violin music murmuring from the speakers.

Ji Hyo looks around the building, the inside more cozy than outside with the acoustic wooden walls. Jong Kook must be a regular here, though the fa