This is the chapter before the final chapter! Enjoy!

“To you who’s deeply asleep tonight,

I will tell you about my feelings...

Thank you, it’s your turn now

I’ll return to you the feelings you gave to me... ”

Suho – For You Now

Mina arranged the breakfast on the coffee table for her and Junmyeon, which Jessica had brought just a few minutes after they had woken up. The chairman had woken up, but he remained silent and just nodded at the endless stream of questions Junmyeon had asked him as soon as he woke up.

“Junmyeon,” Mina called him.

“Abhuji, are you sure the pain is subsiding?” he asked his dad again. The older man nodded, with a forced slight smile. And his eyes turned to the girl waiting on the couch, and back to his son. It was like he intended to say ‘Go and have breakfast. She’s waiting for you.’

“I’m not hungry.” Junmyeon muttered.

“Stop being stubborn Junmyeon!” Jessica snapped at him before Mina could say anything. “You last meal was yesterday’s lunch! And it’s not like you were discharged long ago either!”

“Noona-”

“Come and have at least a sandwich. Now!”

Mina was amazed to see how he silently obeyed, and made his way to the couch from the patient’s bed. He sat beside her and she gave him a sandwich, and poured him a mug of coffee.

He placed the sandwich back on the lunchbox and took the steaming mug.

Mina couldn’t stop staring at the tired looking eyes.

They seemed exhausted, as if he had lost all his strength.

Mentally, not physically.

It made her run her arm through his arm, and she gently squeezed it over the dress shirt sleeve. “He’s alright now. See? He can hear us, see us, and he’ll be talking with us before the sun set today.”

Jessica left the couple and silently walked up to the Chairman’s bed.

“The doctors assured you his fast recovery. Didn’t they Junmyeon?” Mina continued to comfort him. “He’s strong. Just like you. So I’m sure he’ll be golfing again with his friends very soon.”

He listened in silence and took a sip from his coffee. “Why don’t you have some?” he asked, gesturing her towards the flask of coffee with his head.

“Yeah, why not?” She smiled, and surprising him, took his mug from his hands a took a sip from it.

“Delicious. Unnie has nailed it.” She smiled into the mug, leaving Junmyeon to stare at her.

“Here, have this.” after shoving a sandwich back into his hand, she went on drinking from his coffee.

“You’re wrong.” Junmyeon muttered after a few minutes of silence. “Abhuji’s strong. That’s right. But it’s not the same for me.”

Mina looked up at him again.

“Imagine how he survived without my mom...” he paused. The rest of the sentence wasn’t said, but she knew what he swallowed up without saying.

I’m not strong like him to survive without you.

Instead, he changed the topic after taking a bite off his sandwich. “Do you have any plans today? Going anywhere?”

She had plans. She had plans to go and meet Chanyeol, to give their already rotten relationship a clear end.

“Do you have any schedules?” she asked back.

And he shook his head. “Asked Jess to cancel them. I can’t leave him like that can I?” he asked, turning his eyes back to his father, who had now drifted off to a sleep again.

“I’m free too.” Mina lied, giving him a smile. “So I’ll stay with you.”

And he was staring at her, again.

* * *

The day was longer than they had expected. The chairman slept most of the time, and once he woke up when Mina was sitting beside him, and gave her curt answers when she asked him whether he was alright, talking for the first time after the surgery. During the hours he was asleep, they sat on the couch next to each other, or Junmyeon paced the room every now and then, and refused to leave the room even for a single second.

And Mina ended up walking out to the cafeteria downstairs to buy them coffee in the evening.

When she was back, he was in a telephone conversation while pacing the room.

The tone he spoke was unusually casual, which made the girl curious about the person on the other end.

“They said about a month or two’s rest will do him good.” He explained. “.....Yeah. I’ll be busier. Not that I mind.”

And his jaws stiffened, with the next question he heard. “What about her?”

Mina knew he was referring to her.

“She’s here. Staying with me here since last night.”

And Mina undoubtedly heard an ear-splitting high pitched squeal from the caller.

“Yah,” Junmyeon muttered. “I’m hanging up.”

And there was a long and loud nagging from the other end which Junmyeon cut off and ended the call in the midst.

“Who’s that?” Mina asked, cautiously examining his expressions. “A friend from the States?”

Junmyeon nodded.

“A girl?”

“Joy.”

Mina blinked. “Who?”

“Joy. Park Sooyoung from high school.”

“Oh my god...” Mina rushed to place the coffee on the table and turned back to him. “She’s in contact with you? Where is she now? Why didn’t you let me speak to her as well?”

Junmyeon smirked in reply and took one of the two iced Americanos. “She’s in USA. Got a job there right after graduating.”

“She went to college there as well?” Mina gasped. “Woah...no wonder she was never present in the get togethers. All the kids used to say she didn’t come because she wouldn’t see you there.” She chuckled, but the chuckled soon vanished away. “Wait...does that mean you two were in college together? Don’t tell me... Like SERIOUSLY?”

Junmyeon nodded. “The departments were different though. I was in business administration while she was in economics. But yes, Joy is the only friend who’s remained with me since high school.”

“Waah...” Mina muttered, hiding the slight disappointment she was feeling inside.

Why didn’t she know it? Why wasn’t she at least aware of his whereabouts when Joy was with him all the time?

“So...you finally became friends with her?” she asked, hesitantly.

And he smirked to himself again. “Well I had no other option. She was tagging along just like she did back in school, so in the end, I just got used to it.”

Right... you got used to her. While you’re still awkward being in the same room as me.

“Junmyeon-ah...”

The chairman woke up with a mutter, and both of them ran towards the bed.

The time was twenty past ten when they finally had the dinner Jessica had sent with Siwon, and Mina dimmed the lights to make it easy for the Chairman to have a comfortable sleep. Closing the door after Siwon had left, Junmyeon returned to the couch.

“Get some sleep. You look exhausted.”

“Back at you.” Mina replied. “You can lie down. I’ll take the armchair. I’m really good at sleeping while sitting because that’s what I did every day back in college.”

He smiled, giving the girl a jolt at heart with the rare occurrence. And he took his jacket off, before leaning back on the couch and crossing his legs. “About Joy...” he began, but hesitated for a moment before continuing, with his eyes avoiding her intent gaze. “Actually... I dated her. Back in USA.”

Mina didn’t know where it came from. But a sudden urge rushed over her, to stand up from her chair and leave the room, without continuing to listen to him.

She didn’t want to know.

She didn’t want to hear about any other girl from Junmyeon.

Knowing the thought itself was totally unfair, still Mina didn’t want Kim Junmyeon to have had feelings for another woman other than her.

“For a week or so. Two weeks the maximum. It didn’t last long.”

He pressed his lips together, and even in the semi darkness, she could see the extreme discomfort on his face. “It didn’t work out between us, actually.”

“Then what was it?” she decided to ask in patience, successfully hiding the unknown disappointment she was feeling. “A fling because you guys were bored? Or because you tend to feel lonelier when you live overseas?”

Junmyeon shook his head. “Neither of them. It was to forget you.”

It made Mina turn completely silence. And she couldn’t speak up again until he did.

“It’s natural to get confessions in college, so I got them too, from both Korean and foreign girls.” He went on explaining. “I kept on flatly rejecting them, and they came to a conclusion that I liked men instead of women. Then started the real nuisance. Then I had to listen to confessions from even my closest friends. Around that time, I accidentally met Joy at a batch meeting one day. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy to see her. And from then on, she was stuck to me like glue, as I said earlier. And she did a good job chasing away all the guys and girls that bothered me.”

“I can imagine.” Mina smiled, feeling a little jealous about Joy’s outgoing personality. “She must have grown in you.”

“No she didn’t.” he smiled to himself. “Strange enough, she knew my reasons as if I had told her everything. She went around telling everyone that I wasn’t gay or that I didn’t have any problems regarding my systems...well that’s how she said it...she told everyone that I had a girl in Korea. That I don’t plan on dating anyone else until I return home. That was a great help, to reduce all the fuss.”

Mina listened in silence.

“She became the closest friend I had, and later on she suggested that we could date. Because I kept on saying I wanted to forget you...and she still had a little interest in me, so I agreed, hoping that I’d finally be able to move on.”

“You wanted to move on... that much?”

“What else was I supposed to do? Return home and run to you?”

She lowered her head without a word.

“And we started what she called ‘Dating’. A several dinners together, went to two or three movies, and we couldn’t because of my allergy so went skiing once and fishing once...and that’s all. I was dumped by her.” he shrugged.

Mina looked up at him. “She wanted to stop?”

“Because I was doing nothing but obeying her orders like a robot, she said.” he gave a slight smirk. “She yelled at me on our final date and went home furiously, and returned to college next morning to say ‘Make sure you go back home and win her over’. That’s her, Park Sooyoung. She’s been asking about you and about everything ever since I stepped in Korea again. You saw, today as well.”

After a few seconds of silence, Mina stood up from her chair, and came to sit beside him. “Why did you tell me all these?” she asked, after watching him in silence for a moment.

“Um...because you ought to know?” he suggested. “It’d be wrong if I hid that. I was with her, at least for a few days.”

I was with Chanyeol for about ten years and your few days with Joy was your biggest concern?

“Come to think of it...” he suddenly was sounding more thoughtful than before. “I can...kinda relate to your situation.”

“What situation Junmyeon?”

“How you could never like me. No matter how hard she tried, Joy could never create that spark in me. just the same, no matter how I tried, I couldn’t make to turn towards me. I think I can understand how it is.” He smiled.

It’s not the same Junmyeon. It’s definitely different.

And his smiles were creating the sparks he had mentioned.

As she had scooted closer and placed her hand on his face before she knew it. For the briefest second, she saw the broken seven-year-old boy in his eyes, who had broke