Gratitude is the memory of the heart.

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Wooyoung’s POV

            “Yo Wooyoung, we have a last minute group meeting right now.” Jaebeom called out, sprinting down the stairs to the lobby. I never spared him a glance. It was only when he came closer that Jieun tried to wiggle free, but my grip wouldn’t falter.

            “You remember the conditions of the contract we all signed, don’t you? JYP wouldn’t want to hear of a new scandal, especially from the newly aspiring 2PM. It’s best if you let her go now before people catch on.” He insisted, placing a hand on my shoulder. He didn’t know anything, and he wanted me to let her go. I wanted to see her so badly for almost half a year now, and before I even got to see her smile he wanted me to let her go. I didn’t get to ask how she’s been, but she already has to leave. With one strong pull, she broke my grip and then bowed politely to Jaebeom.

            “Mianhae,” She apologized to Jaebeom and then turned to me with sorrowful eyes, “I won’t come here outside of work again.” Jaebeom stared at her for a while before realizing she was IU, the girl who sang a duet with our sunbae. Being from America, rather than bowing he waved at her with a wide smile and then grabbed my arm, pulling me to the meeting room. I didn’t know what to say or think, so I just followed. She said she wasn’t going to come back again, so did that mean she didn’t want to see me again? I couldn’t stand how complicated this was. I glanced over my shoulder, seeing Jieun’s slouched posture dragging her feet out the doors and stopped, leaning against the glass as she raised an arm up to wipe her face. She was crying because of me.

Seulong’s POV

            I passed by a few members of 2PM who were walking up the opposite staircase. Their leader, Jaebeom bowed respectfully to me while Wooyoung stayed lost in some sort of trance; it seemed as if he was a lifeless robot the way he walked without emotion. I on the other hand, was overjoyed to be given a two hour break from my intense vocal training, as well as a break from the guys. It feels like we’ve all been seeing too much of each other for our own good lately. With a fifty dollar bill in my pocket, free to spend on my every whim and will, I dashed through the lobby like an excited kid who’s just heard the ice cream truck and out the doors, almost missing sight of a girl crying against the glass doors. I backed up and cocked my head to the side trying to get a glance of her face past her fingers that blocked her tears from flowing freely.

            “Jieun?” I asked, recognizing the hair color and height. She removed her hands and quickly wiped her tears away with her sleeve, turning her face away from me. Wondering what in the world could make Jieun like this, I remembered seeing Wooyoung leave the lobby with his indifferent expression. Has she just been rejected by him? Sighing, I shook my head slowly at her. I could’ve sworn that I warned her about him. Comfortingly, I placed my warm over her shoulder and mumbled,

            “I told you not to get too attached. How about we go for some noodles?” She didn’t speak, only answered with a weak nod and off we went.

            “You want to talk about it? You can tell Oppa anything,” I offered with an optimistic smile. She’s never actually called me oppa before but I was hoping we were close enough to be considered siblings. I probably would never get tired of looking after her. She shrugged in response and sulked the rest of the way to the noodle house.

Wooyoung’s POV

            “Yah hyung! Where the hell are you going?” Changsung chased after me. I sprinted down the hallway from the meeting room and towards the lobby, but Jieun wasn’t there. I checked in between the two sets of doors and she was nowhere to be seen. Frustrated that I let her walk away, I stormed out the doors and looked around, only to see Seulong, walking away with his arm around Jieun’s shoulders.

            “You can’t just run off like that! This meeting is important!” He huffed, catching up to me. My eyes were locked on Jieun’s small figure, still slouching as the distance between us increased with every second.

            “So is she…” I whispered, biting my lip as I followed Changsung back into the building.

Jieun’s POV

            We took a seat by the window and the waiter handed us each a menu. I wasn’t really in the mood to eat, to I only ordered a cup of lemonade. I could tell Seulong was probably starving after hours of vocal practice and no snacks, but he resisted the temptation and ordered only a cup of ice tea. Outside was snowing gently, not dense enough to form noticeable piles over the sidewalk, but the sky was a gloomy shade of gray.

            “Jieun, want to tell me what he said to you? I’ll beat him up later as your older brother.” Seulong offered, shifting over for the waiter to put the drinks on the table. He didn’t understand what happened, but I couldn’t blame him for his assumption. It was slightly amusing how clueless he was but I wasn’t really in a cheery mood to entertain his obliviousness. Every since our Nagging debut, I still was never able to make any friends. In fact, the only friends I had were Wooyoung, Seulong and Eunjung, but now Eunjung was completely out of the picture. If I really wanted to talk to someone, Seulong was probably the only available choice at this moment. Mixing my lemonade around the ice with my straw I muttered,

            “Wooyoung didn’t say anything.” Recalling the events of earlier this hour, the only thing he really said was my name. It wasn’t always words that hurt people anyway.

            “Then what really happened?” Seulong asked now curious after discovering his whole assumption was completely out of the blue and irrelevant.

            “People are meant to make sacrifices in their lives. Both of us had to sacrifice something important to realize our dreams.” I sighed, not finding my lemonade appetizing. The mini TV hung over the cash register , showing a rerun of yesterday’s performance of 10 out of 10 by 2PM. I folded my arms on the table and rested my head, staring at the screen. Each time Wooyoung’s face earned a close up, I shuddered, but his stage presence kept me from looking away. Seulong followed my gaze to the TV and then asked,

            “Did you two know each other?” I took an extra moment before answering him,

            “He’s really admirable, isn’t he? He went such a long way from being an ambitionless, carefree trouble maker to a hardworking, persistent dreamer.” I smiled, remembering the time when he showed up late to musical theatre with his can of pop, being scolded by Kim seonsaengnim. If the two of us were never punished by cleaning the musical theatre room, we would have probably stayed strangers, even up until now. After the 10 out of 10 performance, a brief interview followed. They asked each member the same questions, and when they got to Wooyoung, my ears were locked.

            “Wooyoung-sshi… Who would you like to thank now that you’ve made it so far?” The interviewer asked, passing the microphone to Wooyoung to bowed politely upon receiving it. With a warm smile, he looked directly into the camera which made it feel like he was looking right at me and began,

            “I want to thank both my parents for raising me and allowing me to pursue whatever path I want to take, but more seriously, there’s one person in particular I want to thank.” His face grew more serious, but his eyes were sincere.

            “Who is that?” The curious interviewer asked. Wooyoung smiled,

            “She’s an inspiring, hard-working and ethical girl whom I met in high school. She told me that it was okay to dream big, and everything I went through after high school, all the struggled I faced I overcame with her as my motivation to stay strong. If it weren’t for her, I would never have the privilege of standing here right now as a member of 2PM.” Once he finished, the screen switched to Nichkhun and Wooyoung passed the microphone to him. I continued staring at the screen, though my eyes weren’t focused on what was being shown. My eyes overwhelmed with tears, but I wasn’t sad anymore. I began rubbing them away with my shirt sleeve again, a weak smile formed on my face.

            “Can you not mention this to anyone?” I requested, trying to hold back my sniffling. He looked confused, so I added,

            “I think Wooyoung has his own reasons for not looking for me, so please keep this a secret.” I stood up from the table and bowed politely, wrapping my neck with my wooly scarf. He nodded at me and I returned with a grateful smile. The cell phone in my pocket began vibrating suddenly, and when I flipped it open to reveal the screen, an urgent message flashed on reminding me that I needed to head back to the dorm to finish my lyric interpretation report. Though I was an idol now, I still had the responsibility of finishing school, and I rejected Loen Entertainment’s offer to find me a new place to stay since the school dorms would be convenient for me until I graduate. My manager’s car pulled up in front of the noodle house, and she rolled the window down to wave at me to hurry.

            “Anneonghigyeseyo, Seulong-sshi,” I bowed politely, forgetting my untouched lemonade on the table and jumping into my manager’s car.

           “The JYP receptionist called me to let me know where you were, you rascal.” My manager scolded playfully, turning the wheel as she made sharp turns to get back to the main highway.

            “Choesonghamnida,” I apologized, looking out the window of the passenger seat.

           “I didn’t think you’d miss Seulong since you’ll be seeing him every day until you’re done promoting Nagging. If you were bored of sleeping you could’ve called me to play with you.” She joked, eyes focused on the road. There were times—like now—when my manager actually felt like an older sister than a mother. I laughed sarcastically, knowing she had the wrong idea but it was easier to let her think this way than to bring up Wooyoung. 

A/N: Wow I updated two chapters today!! ^^! I'm really excited to write all my ideas down. Hope you all enjoyed this one! I think it's much more exciting than my last two. There's many POV changes here this time.