- ONE WEEK LATER -

After a tough discussion with Taeyong, Johnny, Yuta and Jaehyun, resulting in a stressful mode of you, finally you were willing to go outside. To visit Doyoung’s place. The little ones, Jungwoo and Donghyuk texted you a lot, asking when you would come by. The lame excuse they made was them missing you. You knew it was a bait. Once you cooled down, at last you gathered your courage to pay him a visit.

You nervously rang the bell. You can’t help but fidgeting your fingers. What if Doyoung opens the door? What would be the first thing you say to him?

A few seconds later, the door was unlocked. Your heart was racing. You tightened your grip on your sling bag, which you loosened it immediately when you found Donghyuk welcoming you.

“Oh my God, finally, Noona!” He cheerfully exclaimed and gave you a hug. “Come in. We missed you very much,” he said as he took your hand, entering the house.

“Is Doyoung here?” you carefully asked.

Donghyuk smiled. “I’ll get him.”

You sat on the couch in the living room while Donghyuk went to Doyoung’s room.

Doyoung appeared slowly from his room. He looked clueless, until he noticed your presence. You stood up and he just stormed towards you. He buried you in his long arms.

“I’m not dreaming, am I?” You could hear him gasping in happiness. He broke the hug for a moment to have a close look at you. He bursted into tears in no time, yet still managed to grin wide.

“Hi, Doyoung,” you said, smiling at him. You cupped his cheek and gently rubbed off the tears of joy falling down his face.

A mix of chuckles and sniffles from crying was his best reaction to your existence before his eyes and within his embrace. He couldn’t find right words to express how he felt beyond happy to finally see you again. To be able to hug you again. To have only himself to be seen in your eyes.

“I miss you,” he whispered as he tucked some strands of your hair into the back of your ears.

You remained to be silent. You only maintained your smile.

Doyoung brought you to his room. You sat on the edge of his bed, while he pulled a chair from his desk to face you. Your conversation started with him going on about how it felt like thousands of days not seeing you. How his insecurity of losing you started to consume his mind if Taeyong and the other boys, including his baby roommates didn’t calm him down. How he desperately believed Jaehyun who kept saying ‘when it’s the right time, Jena noona will come to hyung.’. He didn’t regret believing in Jaehyun with all his might.

You didn’t respond much. You were somewhat not used to how he can be so open with whatever he was thinking. This guy literally shared everything.

“Do you remember one of my wishlists?” He started to move to another topic.

“Which one?”

He grinned as he took your hands. “I want to live in a place, far from the capital city, far from the crowds. Somewhere I can see the nature whenever I go. Somewhere with a cleaner air. Like Jeju Island. You know, like Lee Hyori.” He paused to let out a chuckle as his mind recalled the old days when you actually laughed at him for wanting to live far from Seoul. You mocked him on how he would survive there and how to have a proper job, since you both had been working in a high end office building. “Maybe opening a cafe like Yoo Yeonseok and Son Hojun did.”

“Mm-hmm?”

“Guess what, my mom told me that there’s this house in Jeju belong to my great great granny.”

“Yeah, and?”

“Jena, would you come with me?” He looked at you with his bunny eyes that were full of hopes. “I would like to invite you to be a part of my dream life. Let’s move there, and we’ll live together. Just you and I.”

Slowly your eyebrows started to curl, forming a slight wrinkle on your forehead. Yet you still wore your smile. You were speechless. You had been aware of Doyoung’s wish to move to a small city when he gets old later. It was never crossed in your mind that you would be involved in it. In your head, Taeil’s words kept replaying by itself on and on: ’Promise me you’ll be happy with Doyoung, okay, Jena? Remember, if you’re happy, I’m happy.’

Doyoung squeezed your hands in his while waiting for your answer. “Jena? Is it a yes or yes?” He tried to break the ice.

You inhaled deeply, knowing you were going to make a big decision in your life. A bigger smile was curved on your lips, which he took it as a yes from you. He smiled back at you. You could sense how he was relieved. You were honestly unable to give him a crystal clear yes answer. You said no more words as Doyoung delicately pulled you again into a tighter hug.

You had no idea that you could pull it off perfectly; a sincere, whole heartedly smile that was actually unfortunately fake.