Buttoning up his sleeves, he stood in front of the tall mirror. Seeing the reflection in it, seeing himself in it—in this outfit felt surreal. It felt foreign. It felt...fictitious.

He breathed in deep, closing his eyes for a couple of second before opening them again, just to see the same exact thing he saw earlier. 

Oh, my stars—it’s real.

His uneasiness were to prominent to be unnoticed. The reflection of Dong-hoon appeared behind his, patting him in the shoulder. “Nervous?” A question was thrown, even though that man knew his answer already.

He let out a shaky laugh as he turned to the real Dong-hoon. Funnily enough, Dong-hoon looked as shaken as he was, almost on the verge of tears as he touched him again in the arm. 

“How did you ever get through this?”

“Well—“ Dong-hoon brushed something off his white shirt, making sure it was neat and the bowtie was rightly placed, “you might think this is too cheesy or something— but I focused my mind on Go-eun—and that gave me strength.”

Smiling at him, Dong-hoon continued, “think about Ji-hyo, hyung.” 

As if he needed a reminder. As if that woman ever left his mind. As if she wasn’t the only reason he didn’t go insane now.

He nodded nonetheless, turning to mirror to look at himself for the last time. 

Well, this is it. This. Is. It.

“I think it’s time,” Dong-hoon formed a smile at his reflection, both reassuring and supporting, pointing to the watch on his wrist, tapping on it several times. “You ready?”

Exhaling, he spoke confidently, “yeah, I’m ready.”

“Let’s go, then.”

*****

She stared at the cream envelope in her hand. Confused was an understatement to how she felt currently as she turned it to its back and then the front again a few times, looking for some sort of writings on it but found nothing. 

She put it closer to her nose to sniff on it. No particular reason, just felt that’s the right thing to do. It smelt a lot like kimchi, but that wasn’t surprising, considering where she found that envelope —in her fridge, leaning against the Tupperware containing dumplings she prepared with his mother two nights ago— but she could still detect hint of roses scent on it, giving out hint that it was expensive.

“What on earth—“ she whispered to herself, sniffling a few times in front of the fridge before realising she hadn’t close it. She pushed its door with her hip and moved to the kitchen counter to open the envelope. 

Inside was a card, with a picture of a cloud on the front, but what was written at the back of it stopped her from sitting down. 

Where it all began

“What—“ she blurted after she read it. Creasing formed on her wide forehead as she was sent deeper into the dark hole of confusion.

Oh, she just got up, her brain hadn’t start functioning, for god's sake—

Remembering something, she stormed back to the bedroom. 

Over almost a year they had been living together now, she noticed he had this weird obsession of writing things down. It’s not just jotting down a couple of important things in a meeting on his notebook, it’s not just keeping a journal about his day at work, his obsession went well over those. 

The first few months she moved in, he wrote on the calendar they put on the fridge, probably as reminder for him on what his to-do-list and for her as well, to know where he was or what he was doing that day, but her inattentive self often ignored it, not paying any attention to it at all and it always ended with her calling to ask him anyway.

She guessed he gave up after that and started leaving random post-it-notes for her everywhere instead. He left them on their bathroom mirror. He left them on her milk carton in the fridge. He sometimes left them on their bedroom door, precisely at her eye level to make sure she read it as she stepped out.

Lately, he chose to post it on her phone that she always put on the side table before she went to sleep —which was funny because if it’s on her phone, wouldn’t it be easier if he just texted her?— and that’s where she’s heading now; to find out whether he did leave something there too. 

Sure enough, it’s not the regular orange post-it-note to tell her he’s going to the gym, it’s another envelope, placed neatly under her phone that she ignored this morning because she really needed to pee when she woke up. She got hungry as she brushed her teeth, kept thinking about the dumplings in the fridge so she went straight to the kitchen to prepare them for breakfast, instead of checking her phone first thing this morning. 

She pulled out the card inside this new envelope impatiently, not bothering to inspect it first anymore. It’s the same format, a picture of a cloud on one side, writing on the other but this time, it’s longer.

Song Ji-hyo, 

I bet you’re all confused now after finding that card in the fridge so you went back here to check if I wrote something else.

She rolled her eyes at his spot-on remark, though it would be a lie if she said she wasn’t at all impressed by how well he knew her by now.

Let’s play a little game today. 

A game? 

I’ll leave a few cards containing clues and hints around town for you. Find them, solve them, and I’ll be waiting for you at the final location.

Clues? Hints? Final location? That means it’s gonna be more than one— she bit her lower lip hard but had no other choice than to continue reading.

No cheating and that includes calling or texting me to beg for answers. I know you’ll be able to solve it in no time by yourself. You’re my girl, after all. 

She almost rolled her eyes again if it wasn’t for his next words giving her butterflies.

It feels amazing to wake up next to you every single day for a year.  Here’s to many more years to come.

Happy 1st Anniversary, sweetheart. 

I love you. 

-your man.

She let out a whine escaped from , grumbling to herself, “this man, seriously—“ yet she couldn’t stop smiling either. 

She squirmed at the bedside, annoyed to the fact that he basically assigned her tasks to do on her day off, but she knew more than anyone, that squirm was also out of excitement too. 

She stay seated for a second, still scoffing in disbelief but her biased heart already up and running, forcing her to be on her feet as well. What the heart said, the body did, so 20 minutes later, she found herself behind the steering wheel with a cup of coffee on one hand and one dumpling on another that she quickly stuffed into . 

Her car wasn’t moving after she put the coffee in the cup holder, though, as she was still furrowing her eyebrows at the card she gripped tightly on her hand, close to setting it on fire for how intense her stare was. 

Where it all began?

Her first guest was their office. That’s where it all started, right? That’s where they first met. That’s where they became friends, where they became close, but she doubted the answer would be that general (and easy), even though the question itself was vague. 

She oughta be looking for something more specific.

If “it all began” referred to the actual start of their relationship, then she got a couple of choices as their actual beginning wasn’t exact. They just sorta became boyfriend-girlfriend with no official date nor place of its start. Hell, their anniversary today was actually the anniversary of her moving in with him. 

This home couldn’t have been the answer, because there were no other clues nor sight of him hiding anywhere (yes, she checked every corners already) in here.

Thinking deeper, it would be ridiculous if the start of the relationship was marked by that day he gave her a promise ring. He really couldn’t expect her to get on the same exact plane and sit in the same exact seat as that day, couldn’t he? That would be too hard—no, cross that, that would be impossible. She’s sure that he won’t be able to do that too.

She shifted her mind to something simpler. 

What if—it’s the day that he confessed? Oh! The day of their first kiss! She wasn’t sure if it’s a start of their relationship, but it was definitely a start of her craving for his touch.

She blushed at that thought, getting all giddy but frowned in an instant. It wouldn’t be as complicated as catching a flight, but her man—surely he wouldn’t have the heart to ask his girlfriend to drive that far to go to Manager Yoo’s villa just to retrieve a clue? Glancing at the word “around towns” on the first card, she sighed in relief. Yeah, her man wouldn’t.

Okay, so that’s a no go—but, wait— that’s not the first time he confessed, though, right? There’s an almost kiss after an unspoken confession at Se-chan’s house too, and that could be more plausible. 

Yet again, there’s also the lift of their office, where he said the L-word for the first time to her— but if “it all” meant including her confessing too, then it would be Tae-hee eonni’s cafe where she said it for the first time (excluding her drunken confession before that), so which one was it?

Holy hell, this ’s hard.

Irritated, she almost threw her empty cup of coffee to the floor of the front seat. 

“Kim Jong-kook, you’re gonna be dead—“ she cursed, but as her gaze fell onto the cards scattered on the seat next to her, guilt consumed her almost immediately when she thought about how much trouble he went through just to make this day fun. 

It’s not his fault that she’s bad at this. It’s really not his fault she’s dumb, so she drew in a deep breath, trusting his judgment, trusting him to know well her full capability, trusting him when he said she’ll get it in no times —even though she had been sitting her what felt like a month or so— and started again.

Okay, okay— if “it all” included the start of both of them feeling something for each other, then it would go way back but not like 7 years back or something, she guessed, just a few years back when their friendship started to evolved into something deeper. 

Maybe it’s one of those activities they spent together before he even confessed. It could be the yoga class they attended, or the boxing class, or the arcade or specifically the shooting range, or the hike—

Wait! Where it all began!

She hit her steering wheel, couldn’t believe that she didn’t think of this sooner. She pulled the gear into D, releasing her handbrake and step on the pedal hard.

It’s the beginning—it’s the bench on the riverside!

*****

She gotta be honest. Her confidence faded as soon as she got out of the car, because, again, she could be totally wrong. It really could be Se-chan’s house or her old house, because that’s where they started to discover their love not just for them but their bodies as well, which totally slipped out of her mind earlier or it could be somewhere else entirely.

Plus, this was an open public place. If he did leave a card on the bench, was there any guarantee that the card would still be there? What if someone took it and mistaken it for a trash? What if the wind blew it away? What if the wind blew it into the river and it’s lost forever? 

She might not be able to see him at all today, if that’s what happened. He might’ve to wait until their 2nd anniversary for her to get to him—

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of someone on their bench who noticed her presence and smiled, holding out two paper bags to her. 

“Sausages?” Kwang-soo asked.

They ate in silent for a while after she took one of the bag from him, enjoying the food along with the wind of autumn blowing so gentle on their faces that it was as if it gave them morning kisses, and watching people cycling, running and strolling in front of them. 

“Noona—“ that lanky man called out for her after swallowing his last piece of sausage, “I know you don’t like it when I do this but I’m gonna say it anyway!”

“What—“

Kwang-soo exhaled and blurted out, “I love you, Ji-hyo noona!”

It’s a reflex, she swore, slapping her junior hard that she almost felt bad for him, but his words made her fuming. “What kind of joke is that, you piece of sh—“

“No! Wait—no! That’s not— I’m not confessing!” Kwang-soo leaned away as he spoke out fast, probably scared he’s gonna get hit again. “—I mean, I do love you—“ he flinched when she raised her hand again, rambling on as he was rapping, “not that kind of love! Love as in care! I love you—I care about you as a sister! We all love you as a sister!”

She put her hand down finally, and he breathed out a sigh of relief. 

“When your wedding was cancelled, I—we— we didn’t know what to do— we really didn’t know what to say, so we just kinda... left you alone,” Kwang-soo started timidly. His shoulder slumped as he continued, the atmosphere and tone between them became heavier. “We thought it was for the best. As long as we didn’t say anything related to marriage or engagement or, or whatever—you’ll heal faster. You’ll move on faster, but, I guess, we were wrong.”

She leaned her back to the bench, processing what her junior, that she thought as her real brother, said. She turned up to the sky as the memories of those dark days hauntingly being played inside her head. 

“Are you here to say you’re sorry?” She asked.

“Well—“

“You better not!” She warned him, came out a little too harsh but she knew that he knew she meant well. “Because I was the one at fault! I was the one who obsessed with not letting anyone close to me again— I was the one who refused to share—“

“Yeah, I know. We all know.” Kwang-soo cracked a faint smile. “Still, we could’ve done something. I could’ve done something. I could’ve ask—I could’ve keep you company—“

“Kwang-soo—“

“—which was why I’m grateful to Jong-kook hyung, for being the one who did all that, and I’m sure, all of the others—they felt the same way too. We’re grateful to him.”

She didn’t need to ask more questions on that, because just like everybody, more than