“Yoo Bin?” Winter gasped, her hands automatically moving to cover .

But San Ha and Yoo Bin seem to be trapped in their own time zone that was different from Winter’s. They only stared at each other with searching eyes, as if they were both finding memories of themselves from the past.

“San Ha…” Yoo Bin said somewhat remorsefully, his voice slightly pleading.

“I wish I could say I’m glad to see you, hyung. But I can’t,” San Ha replied stoically, his jaw set as if he was bringing out words that were agonizing for him to say. “You shouldn’t be here. If Moon Bin sees you—”

“But why shouldn’t he want to see me?” Yoo Bin interrupted, his eyes drooping in a forlorn manner. “I’ve come here to see him so I can set things right—”

“Don’t you get it? Your presence will only serve to remind him of the past!” San Ha said frustratedly, his gloved fingers running through his hair. Winter could tell he was trying very hard to explain it to him without making it sound like it was Yoo Bin’s fault. Somewhere in the past, Winter knew as she saw the two hurt individuals, something very awful must have happened between the members and Yoo Bin. But what exactly could have happened to make the members alienate against him this way?

“Moon Bin is trying very hard not to blame himself for what happened to you. All of us feel that it is unfortunate that things have happened this way. But please, if you know what is good for Moon Bin, stay away from him so he can get better,” San Ha implored. Snow was starting to fall in thick sheets and Winter’s body trembled with increasing intensity. “You should go,” San Ha said with a tone of finality. “It’s getting cold, you shouldn’t stay out too long. Winter? Are you coming?”

Winter blinked as her presence was being acknowledged for the first time. “You can go in first,” she said, “I’ll send him off.” San Ha looked unsettled, but after a moment, he said, “Okay. Don’t be back so late,” before leaving them to enter the building.

The both of them stood amongst the thick snow for a moment in an awkward silence. Winter wasn’t very sure why she decided to stay, so she simply bit her lip and cast her eyes downward.

“You know me?” Yoo Bin asked after a while. Winter nodded, not knowing what to say. “That’s new. They don’t usually tell people about me.” He sounded so doleful that Winter looked up at him. The snow had collected in a thin sheet on his messy hair, and he had both palms deep inside his pockets. He had very pale skin and was very slim, looking like someone who had little fat to gain. He wasn’t very tall either, only about a few inches taller than Winter, but his boyish face was a shadow of how handsome and charming he used to be.

“Do you want to go somewhere warmer?” Winter asked tentatively.

Yoo Bin’s eyes lit up for the first time at her words. “Sure,” he said gratefully, “I know of a place that we can go.”

They proceeded to enter a cosy café just around a stone’s throw away from Fantagio building that resembled a lot like a tiny cottage house, with a thick layer of snow covering its roof. Winter gladly welcomed the warmth and the sweet smell of authentic coffee, shrugging off her heavy down jacket in a hurry.

“I’m sorry you had to witness all that,” Yoo Bin said mildly when they had settled down at a table with two cups of steaming hot chocolate between them. “We weren’t like that in the past.”

Winter knew that by ‘we’ he meant him and San Ha. “It’s alright. I just… didn’t know there was this side to San Ha. He comes off more as the cute, evil little kid than someone who knows how to be serious.”

“Oh really?” Yoo Bin’s lips curved at a corner. “I remember him more as the serious kid though. I remember when he entered the company at the age of 13 with a pair of round, Harry Potter spectacles. Back then, he was such a young kid with so much responsibility imposed on him that he became quiet and colourless. I told him how to have fun and bend the rules a little bit, though I don’t know how much of the lessons he actually took away from it.”

It was difficult imagining that that version of San Ha had actually existed, especially not when Winter remembered the night he pressured her to drink, and the day when she had chased after him in the company. Winter felt like she had only a few pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and was itching with curiosity to see the full picture. “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened between you and the rest of the members?”

Yoo Bin regarded her for a moment, then said carefully, “Well, since you know about me, I gather that you are to be trusted?” Winter nodded. “You wouldn’t tell anybody else about what I’m about to share with you?” She nodded again. “Okay, then where shall I start?