"I can't do this anymore, Noona."

As soon as she heard those words, Eunhye's world crumbled. It was a wonder how she remained standing there. Wonwoo's voice was quiet, but it loud and clear.

Finally, he was tired of this stupid setup of being together but not meeting each other. Sick of all the drama. Done with her. 

To be honest, she was just sulking, at first. How he acted when she was doing her best to get everything back the way it was before the fight made her feel rejected. She knew Wonwoo did not mean it like that but she could not help how she felt. She was the one who came to him, even after what he did to her. Zico was right. No matter how many times she told herself or anyone that it did not happen, that was not the case. What she did was force forgiveness on him when he was not ready to give it to himself, yet. And so she gave him the space he wanted and waited for him to be ready.

It seemed, however, that she had waited too long. She should have come to him first. It would not have mattered who came to whom, as long as she had him back. Then it would not have come to this.

She had been spending the last few days getting herself ready if ever he decided to call it quits, and doing that had not been easy. But then, this would not be her first breakup, so she t she thought should feel better after some time.

"Okay," she croaked.

She knew this was going to happen. She had a lot of time in her hands during the summer break that she spent most of alone. Every time she imagined talking to him, it ended this way. She told herself many times that she was ready for it.

But why did it still hurt?

Eunhye could not even look at his eyes. If Wonwoo saw her tears, he might think she was pathetic. She knew him enough to know this took a lot of courage for him to say out loud, and he would feel bad for her if he knew she was crying. Then he'd change his mind, because she was toxic that way.

"I can't spend my whole day wondering whether I should call you, or text you. Want yo go to your place, but scared to do any of that because you might not answer, let alone let me in. I don't want to stare at my phone for hours every night wishing you'd even just text me goodnight, and wake up disappointed."

She just nodded at everything he said and stared at her feet, wondering why she had to play so hard to get when all she wanted was him. What right did she have to disagree with him when all he was saying was right?

"I don't want to hate you for talking to your exes like they're your good friends in front of me, because you don't deserve that. I'm sick of missing you but not being able to tell you even that because I might just be bothering you. Every time I imagine talking to you, I can only see you breaking up with me."

So you're ending it yourself, huh?

"I know," she said quietly. "Fine. You can do whatever you want, Wonwoo."

He took a step towards her, rather cautiously. She stole a glance at him but let her eyes fall to his chest instead. How could he have grown over just a week? It was not fair that he looked that good when he was ending things with her.

"Noona. Look at me."

"I said, fine." was dry and her jaws hurt because she was gritting her teeth too hard.

"I don't want space anymore," Wonwoo said and she felt his finger lift her chin up so she was looking at him. "No more hurting each other. Can we stop doing this? Please?"

"Huh?"

He sighed deeply when he saw her eyes were wet. "I want to be able to call you and text you whenever the hell I want to. I want to see you when I miss you, stay over at your place--with your permission, of course, and have you come to me when you miss me."

"But I thought you're breaking up with me."

"Of course not!" he said immediately. Then his eyebrows creased, remembering her agreeing to every word he was saying. "Why? Did you want me to?"

Eunhye shook her head vigorously and she saw his shoulders slump down with relief.

"Then, good," he said. "Because you're stuck with me."

He even used her own line on her. "But you said you were sick of me."

"I said I was sick of missing you," Wonwoo corrected her, wiping one side of her cheek when a tear fell. "Is that why you're crying?" When she nodded shyly, he pulled her into a hug, laughing. "Aigoo," he cooed while carressing her head.

"That was a bad 'Let's get back together' speech," she mumbled, making Wonwoo laugh some more. She thought she would not hear that deep voiced laughter again. "You were dissing me."

"But seriously, though," he said as he slightly pulled away, enough to look at her. "I'm done being sorry, so I'll just start making it up to you instead."

"I'd like that."

"Great. Let's have dinner."

***'

When Wonwoo said dinner, she did not expect him to bring her to the old Japanese restaurant where they met for the first time. But then he was a sentimental person, so it made sense that he would think of something like that. Where else would they start afresh, but at the place where it all started. They even ordered the same food they had back then.

"I see it worked out quite well," the owner of the restaurant said to her when he recognized them. Eunhye had been going to the place since she was in highschool and was friends with him. "Dessert's on the house."

"Thanks, Ojisan," she replied, pointing to the bowl of homemade strawberry ice cream he placed on their table. "You didn't have to."

"I have a lot of regulars, thanks to you," he explained. "It's the least I could do."

"Huh. He gave us the couple's bowl," Wonwoo noted. "I was actually going to order this. I wanted to try their strawberry ice cream more than just one spoonful."

"Right. You had the chocolate flavored last time."

Eunhye spent a few years of her life in Japan, which made her believe in indirect kisses. Also, she was the type who disliked using other people's spoons, but she remembered not being bothered that day when Wonwoo (whom she was meeting for the first time) scooped a spoonful of her ice cream, using one he already put in his mouth.

"Why are you smiling creepily?" Wonwoo asked, poking her cheek.

"Nothing."

"You were remembering something," he guessed. "You're not thinking about Mark, are you?" He pointed to a part of the wall where some old pictures were displayed. "Your photo's still on there."

"I already took it down earlier and tore it to pieces," she told him, showing him the evidence. She did it when he went to the toilet. "I was thinking about our first indirect kiss."

Wonwoo looked at the one bowl they were sharing. "Ah. You believe in that?"

She just rolled her eyes at him at his tone.

"So that one in the motel room was not our first kiss, then?"

"Ya!" Feeling her face flush, Eunhye smacked the back of his hand. Wonwoo laughed his head off at her reaction and she could tell he was aiming for this. "."

"What did you think of me, back then?" He asked that, realizing they never really talked about it. Whenever he brought it up, Eunhye would ve too embarrassed about it since they ended up sleeping together the same day they met. "Was it love at first sight?" he teased.

"No!" she answered a bit forcefully. "I didn't want to go out of the house, let alone be on a date with someone I never met."

"Hmm. You quite enjoyed it, though. Ow."

She had stepped on his foot under the table. "When I finally met you, I was disappointed."

His smile disappeared and she almost laughed.

"I hoped you were someone who would not match well with me so I would not see Hani gloat the next day. Or someone, at least, not good looking enough so I wouldn't have to think about you after."

This put the smirk back on his face. "So I was disappointingly handsome," he concluded in his own words. He started to point to her a part of her chin where there was a drop of melted ice cream, then changed his mind and wiped it off, himself. "So, did you think about me the next day after that? And the next?"

"What about you?" she asked, ignoring his teasing. "What did you think of me when you first met me?"

"You looked sad," he answered honestly, not looking at her but at the ice cream instead. "It was obvious you wanted to be anywhere else but here. So I was curious, and it became a challenge for me to make sure you do not regret coming."

"Oh, I regretted it," Eunhye assured him. "Especially when you just showed up for orientation, looking like you'd drop the 'I-slept-with-her' bomb at my friends any minute. And then you came to me class and messed with me every chance you get. It was suffocating. You were a real pain in the ."

"You know, we never tried that yet--OW! Stop kicking me!"

She offered feeding him ice cream off of her spoon as a form of apology and he took it.

"Oh, indirect kiss again," Wonwoo teased. "."

Eunhye could not help but laugh at that. When she heard herself, she realized that up until an hour ago, all her laughters were either forced or faked. She just hoped it did not show how miserable she had been.

She literally felt lighter. It was as if a dark cloud over her head that was threatening a thunderstorm had lifted and was turned into a clear sky. Over the past days, she had actually came to a point when she thought about just breaking it off with Wonwoo and be done with in. Now, the idea sounded even more stupid.

Wonwoo reached out and took her other hand and played with her fingers when she fell silent.

"So, I was thinking," he began. "Is it too soon for me to stay over tonight?"

"At my place?"

He nodded. "I was planning to recreate that first day, but I've had a long day and not really in the mood for karaoke, but I want to spend more time with you."

"Okay."

"Are you sure? I don't want to pressure you or anything."

"Stop making me doubt myself," she complained. She hated it when he did that. "That's why we got into that mess in the first place."

"Ojisaaaan! Bill please!"

Eunhye burst out laughing as she watched Wonwoo stuff himself with the free ice cream.

"Ya. Eat this to get rid of the evidence, or he might bill us for the dessert."

The restaurant was in the same neighborhood as theirs and so they walked home. Eunhye hesitated at first whether she should hold his hand, but Wonwoo took hers in his as they got out of the restaurant. Her heart fluttered again, realizing it had been a while since they held hands. She had missed how his thumb would absentmindedly run circles on the back of her hand.

They made plans of staying up to watch a movie or something so they bought snacks and beer at the convenient store. The owners' son, Hyunjin, was manning the counter and since he did not have much customers, he had been watching dog videos on his phone.

"Hi, Jinnie," she smiled at him as she placed the basket on the table and he started scanning them.

"Are you having a party, Noona?" the kid asked, noticing the amount of food she bought.

"Just some movies," Eunhye answered.

"Babe, I want ice cream." Wonwoo appeared behind her and added two bars of Screwbar to her purchase.

"We just had some," she scolded.

"Screwbar's different."

"Fine," she caved in. It was her favorite ice cream, too. "Get me another one."

"What do you mean?" Wonwoo asked. "Those two are both mine."

"Get two more, then!"

They left the store both chewing (yes, chewing) on their ice cream bars as if they did not have enough. Wonwoo held the groceries on one hand and the ice cream on the other, so she just walked alongside him. He stopped and made her wrap her arm around his instead.

"Do you know that kid has a crush on you?" Wonwoo said after a few seconds.

"He doesn't," she assured him. "I saw him with his girlfriend yesterday."

"How did you know it was a girlfriend?" he demanded. "Kids these days are sweet with each other even if they're just friends."

"They had couple shoes and matching phone cases," she recalled. She remembered, because it made her think she and Wonwoo did not have anything like those. They did have matching Nintendo controllers, but they never really played that together. "And she's really pretty, too. Why would he have a crush on someone when he's already dating."

"A crush is just a crush. He can still have one and a girlfriend."

Eunhye stopped walking, this time. "Why? Do you have a crush on someone even if you're dating me?"

The night was filled with Wonwoo's loud laughter. "No! Of course not!" He laughed even more when she let go of his arm and started walking ahead. "Ya! I really don't!"

Hani was sitting on the couch, putting roller on her bangs when they came in. She did a double take when she saw Wonwoo come in and settle the bag of snacks on the dining table.

"Hi, Noona," Wonwoo greeted happily. "Beer?"

"Miyaaaaaa!" Hani called out to the direction of their bedrooms on the other side of the house. "Let's eat out!"

"Why would I wanna go with you?" Sunmi asked, poking her head out the door. When she saw who was at the house, she disappeared into her room for a few seconds and came out wearing a cardigan and holding a wallet. "Let's go."

"It's already late and you haven't had dinner?" Eunhye asked, puzzled. Sunmi always cooked or ordered on time.

"We weren't hungry yet," Hani explained, which did not make sen