When Yenny saw the sad disappointed look on Yubin, she felt kinda awful. The orphanage staff had brought over some cans of paint and rollers for them to start their paint work on some of the classrooms. As the girls took over the items, Yenny said to Yubin “Unnie, like I said, it was based on rumors, I don’t know him that well except on a professional basis. I think you should find out more about him yourself.”

By then the boys had finished their soccer game and was walking towards the girls. Yenny then announced to the boys, “Chansung, you and I will take classroom B while Yubin and Taec will take classroom C.” as she handed the paint items to the boys. Chansung shrugged, accepting the arrangements while Taec couldn’t agree more with Yenny’s arrangements.

When Yubin and Taec got to their classroom, she got into the work mode immediately, asking Taec to pass her the paint cans. Taec smiled but instead of handing the paint cans to her, he kneeled down to open the paint cans for her and poured the contents onto the roller trays. Yubin looked at him silently, almost wanting to tell him to stop with that attractive smile. Once he was done, he offered Yubin a roller but before she took it, she lifted up her long locks and started tying her hair into a ponytail with an elastic band.

Taec looked at her wondering how that little action could make his heart skip a beat. She finally took the roller from him and started getting down to work. They didn’t talk much earlier on the way to the classroom as Yubin seemed to avoid looking at him and he wondered if he came on too strong with his friendly stares. He had been googling about her the last few days and found out that she was studying in UCLA from 2005-2007. It wasn’t exactly New York where he met that unforgettable stranger but it was still a close lead. However, seeing that Siwon and she had gotten kinda close lately, he had to be cautious about his attraction to her.  

“I guess Siwon would have joined us if not because he had to be in Japan today.” He finally remarked casually.

“Oh, he’s in Japan?” Yubin asked while concentrating on her wall painting.

Taec paused a while from his paint job, surprised she wasn’t even aware of Siwon’s whereabouts. 

“You didn’t know? He’s there for a meeting.” Taec said, trying to see if she was even interested to know.

“Oh, ok. I didn’t hear from him for days so I wasn’t aware.”

“Aren’t you…guys …uhm… dating?” He had to find out since Siwon had been giving him the impression they were kinda seeing each other.

Yubin paused from her paint-rolling. She knew Taec was at least somewhat interested in her from the way he was looking at her since the day they met but because of what she heard from Yenny earlier, she just felt a sudden coldness towards him. She hesitated before she answered him.

“We haven’t reached that stage yet.” She admitted as she climbed on the ladder nearby, trying to paint a higher portion of the wall.

“Are you interested to go to that stage with him?” Taec probed.

Yubin knew where Taec was going about with that question but her coldness took over once again. “I don’t know yet but if I’m interested, will you be warning me of his playboy ways or are you gonna help him hide those traits and go on about how great a guy he is?” Yubin asked and was actually taken aback by her own sudden sarcasm. Why was she feeling angry towards Taec and why was she saying such things about Siwon when she knew long ago of his reputation and didn’t really care about it in the first place?

Taec looked at Yubin intently and guessed that something might have sparked this sudden coldness from her. Yenny must have told her something negative about Siwon and himself. It was no surprise that some of the staff in the organization had kind of nicknamed them the Ace Players Club.

“Did you hear some company rumors about his playboy ways?”

“It’s not Siwon I’m concerned about…” Yubin blurted and realized that slip of the tongue a little too late. She couldn’t look at him as she was embarrassed at her little ‘confession’ and tried to concentrate on her paint job.

If it wasn’t about Siwon, it was about him then. Taec knew that infamous rumor of his office catfight drama might have sparked this sudden cold treatment from her. He knew she was interested from the way she stared at him from that day at the office to the way she kept watching him when he was playing soccer earlier. It could only be she found him familiar or she was as attracted to him as he was to her.

“Did Yenny tell you something about my past? About that office catfight?” he asked.

Yubin hesitated again before she finally nodded, still not looking at him. She was definitely curious about it but yet at the same time worried he might be coming out with a bunch of lies.

Taec shook his head as he sighed, ready to tell the truth but realized that no matter what he said, she might not take it as the truth. Yenny was her most trusted best friend and was she going to believe him more than her? He wasn’t sure what version Yenny could have told her as well.

In the end he said “I think it’s kinda pointless if you hear from me since the best person you would rather hear the truth from is from one of the girls involved in the catfight. I can tell you about how an ex still had feelings for me and how it got the new girlfriend angry and…”

“I’m sorry... It doesn’t matter.” Yubin interrupted, realizing the stupidity of the situation when she didn’t judge Siwon in the beginning and took the chance to go on dates with him but yet she was judging Taec. “I mean, who am I to you? Why do you need to explain this to me?” She shook her head as she turned to look at him. Her turn, however, caused a slight slip of her foot off the ladder and she found herself almost falling.

Taec rushed forward on reflex and grabbed her shoulders, preventing her from falling. Their faces once again inches away, along with that familiar position, that familiar close-up face features, that familiar eye to eye contact. Except this time, it was daylight and there was no loud music and no alcohol that they could actually see and hear themselves clearly.

Taec finally found the courage to ask since this was getting all too freakin familiar and too…..coincidental?

“Did you kiss a stranger at a club called Lush in New York on New Year’s Eve, 2006, Yubin-shii?” he went straight to the point with those same sincere-looking eyes.  Yubin’s heart started beating fast. She could hear him breathing hard as well. She couldn’t believe the reality of it, that the man she thought she would never meet again was right here in front of her. That she finally knew who he was and was still naturally attracted to him like how it was years ago. For him to remember the exact date and place where they kissed years ago was substantial enough for her to believe he didn’t go round kissing random strangers in clubs. She found herself once again like a mute, too overwhelmed to respond to him.

“UNNIE!!” Yenny was suddenly at the doorway, not realizing she just interrupted Yubin from replying Taec’s courtroom question. “Your mom is here…with a bunch of reporters.. She’s looking for you!” Yenny informed.

A/N: I love cliff-hangers, don’t you?