I don't know how long I cried, how long I stood there with WU YI FAN. All I knew was that I didn't want to let go. He made me feel safe. He felt like home. Vancouver.

When I stopped crying, I apologized to him. "I'm sorry I ruined your shirt. You must be mad." 

He shook his head. "Nope. Just happy to help." He smiled at me. "Although you do owe me an explanation."

I was so mad at myself. Mad for not realizing how much YI FAN cared about me all these years. And how I never noticed. 

"So will you tell me what happened?"

I shook my head. 

"Then I'm not forgiving you for ruining my shirt."

"Okay fine. Well...I'm not ready for......you know. But LAY is ready. And I'm making him wait too long."

YI FAN laughed. "Don't be worried. LAY's a good person. He probably drank too much. If you're not ready, don't force yourself. When you're ready, you'll know it."

"How do you know so much? Have you done it yet?" This conversation was getting awkward.

He blushed. "No, but I read a lot. And I know what real love feels like."

* * * * *

We went back to SM together. I remembered that I left my ring in the bathroom. But it was yesterday. I hoped it was still there. I went into EXO's room and straight to their bathroom. The ring wasn't there on the sink. I opened the cabinet behind the mirror to see if anyone found it and left it there. It wasn't there. 

Then I had a really bad feeling. What if the ring had fallen down the drain? I felt like such a horrible person. Even though LAY had tried to force me, I was making him wait too long. 

YI FAN came in. "What are you looking for?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to see if there was any aspirin? My head hurts," I lied. Another thing to be mad at myself about. Why had I lied? Why couldn't I tell WU YI FAN that I lost my ring? 

"I think SUHO finished them all. He had a bad headache last week. Sorry."

I nodded. "Well, I'll be going now. Have a good night."

WU YI FAN kept staring at me. "Is that what you were really looking for?"

"Um.....yeah. Why?" 

"Never mind. Goodnight." 

I gave him a kiss on the cheek, thanked him for helping me, and left. 

* * * * *

The next day, I had a day off. The commercial was being edited. So I got ready to go out. 

LAY walked in front of me. "Sorry about last night," he mumbled. "I don't know what came over me."

I smiled. "It's okay. All's forgiven. I wanted to say sorry too."

LAY kissed me. "What do you have to be sorry about?"

I looked at my finger briefly. Then I wanted to leave before he noticed that the ring was still not there.

I gave him a quick kiss. "You're leaving for China tomorrow. Go get packed. I have to go now."

"Alright, but you really do forgive me, right?" 

"Yeah." I smiled. "Bye now."

He gave me a really long tongue kiss before saying bye.

* * * * * 

Outside, the air was cool. Summer was ending. I looked in a couple of stores to see if there was anything I was interested in.

I was just leaving a jewelry shop when my phone vibrated. 

I looked down at the caller ID. WU YI FAN. I smiled and picked up.

"Annyeonghaseyo, chin'gu!" 

"Hi. Anyway, I want you to meet me at the coffee shop across the street from where you're standing right now."

I looked around. So he was here? I looked across the street. "Okay, but why?"

"Because I have your ring." 

I swallowed. So that's why he was acting so strange yesterday. He knew I wasn't looking for aspirin.

"Okay. Bye."

I crossed the street and went into the coffee shop. YI FAN was already there. There were two cups of coffee on the table.

I sat down across from him. "Okay, can I get the ring?"

He took the ring out his pocket but didn't give it to me. 

"Don't play around, YI FAN," I said.

"You know that I love you." 

"Huh?"

"Do you love me?"

I sighed. "YI FAN, I told you already, we're friends."

He gave the ring to me. "Okay. I just wanted to know."

What did that mean? I put the ring on my finger.

"I thought, you know....after yesterday. I thought you loved me. Clearly, I was wrong."

I started getting upset. "I was just sad. I needed someone." Why was I upset? Was it because he was right? I got up and started to leave. "I'm not dealing with this right now."

I heard him get up after me, the chair he was sitting in scraped the floor and made a loud noise. "Wait!"

I shook my head. I needed him to stay away from me. I needed some time away.

I was so angry. I crossed the street.

"KAREN!" I heard him yell. "Watch out!"

The last thing I heard before the pain soared through my body. 

Almost everything went white. But then I saw YI FAN. He was hit. Not me.

No.

No. 

No, that couldn't be.

Everything went black.