When I said that 2008 was the worst year, it truly meant that things slowly got better afterwards. We decided to get back together after putting our relationship on hold for a couple of months. It was during my semester break in early 2009 when we first met up after a long time.

That day, I arrived at the café near to his company in the early morning. Apparently, he told me over the phone the day before that he would be working through the night so we should just meet up shortly nearby his workplace. When I suggested on canceling the date, because I was worried sick that he might be too exhausted, he interrupted me and insisted strongly to carry on as planned.

When I pushed the glass door in, the sound of the bells and the aroma of his favorite Americano welcomed me. I looked around the store for a familiar figure, my gaze wandering from the empty white tables and chairs to the faces that did not ring a bell in me. I heaved a sigh and went straight to the counter, now looking at the menu displayed to figure out what to order. Just then, my phone beeped, indicating an incoming message, so I took it to see if it was Jinki.

And indeed it was, with a message that read, “I’m upstairs, I’ve already ordered drinks for two.”

I put back the menu onto the counter, before flashing the counter attendant a polite smile and made my way upstairs. I saw a guy seated at the far end, with his back facing me, but I could tell right away it was Jinki. He must have heard my footsteps too, because he turned to his back and smiled sweetly at me. I sat down opposite him, and we just looked at each other without a word for a minute or two.

“I missed you.”

The silence was broken after that by his husky and modulated voice. My smile grew wider naturally and I replied the same to him. It was at that moment, when we both exchanged loving gazes and realized that we still wanted each other as partners. Because of that, we decided that we should give us another chance. And so we did, after discussing about our concerns and made certain promises. I remembered promising him that I will try to adjust to his new lifestyle, but I needed time. He assured me that everything will work out eventually, and that I didn’t have to try so hard if I couldn’t.

That day, it was still clear as sky that we were still each other’s priorities, and everything went back on track after that.

---

 A year had gone by without much issues. Initially, we even made a promise of calling each other at least once a day, but when the both of us got caught up with our own stuffs and started getting busier, the calls became lesser and lesser. There were times where we didn’t even talk to each other at all for a month, two months, but it didn’t bother us that much because of the trust we built on our relationship.

It was just another normal day after college. Jennifer and I were gathered around at our dining table, with bowls of noodles placed before us. We ate in silence for a while, before I decided to fish out my phone from my pocket to scroll through the news. My eyes were no longer focused on the bowl and the chopsticks, but I could sense that Jennifer was giving me a weird stare from across me.

“What?” I asked, slurping the noodle into my mouth while my eyes were still fixated on the small screen.

“Put down your phone, you’re gonna get choked.” She said, then continued to eat her food.

“I’ll be fine. Besides, this is probably the only time I can scroll through my phone without feeling too guilty about wasting my time on this over my unfinished assignments.” I smirked, eyeing her once with confidence and then continued to read the news. She rolled her eyes and nodded absentmindedly.

Our conversation halted and silence took over once again. It was until moments later, my fingers stopped scrolling and I choked on my noodles just as Jennifer predicted. Except, she was wrong about me getting choked because I wasn’t paying attention to my eating. In fact, I got choked because of a certain news that had immediately caught my attention and made me gasped in shock, forgetting that the noodles were still in my mouth. I ended up coughing repeatedly as a reflex, and Jennifer hurriedly came over to my side to pat my back. I grabbed the cup of water beside the bowl and attempted to gulp down mouths of water to ease my swallowing.

“I told you so!” She complained, her hands withdrawing back to herself as she noticed that I was looking better. She took her seat back at the same spot, and drank her glass of water before shooting me a glare.

“No, look!” I patted my chest lightly, took a deep breath and showed her the news on my phone.

She squinted her eyes a little to get a clearer look, and reacted the same way as I did, gasping aloud.

“Kim Jonghyun’s dating Shin Se Kyung?!” She shouted, taking another huge gulp of water.

I bobbed my head up and down, my eyes widening as I did. Jennifer pondered about something for a while, before pushing the phone back into my hands and gave me a straight face.

“Not like I really care, as long as it’s not Donghae.”

“Tsk.” This time round, I rolled my eyes and shook my head out of disapproval. Well, not that I expected her, who wasn’t close to our dino, to feel very excited and shocked over this news. I zoomed in the words to read the article about the couple, and squealed at the photos. Excitement took the better of me, so I hurriedly exited the web to dial Jonghyun’s number.

The phone rang for a few times, and was finally picked up, but I was met with a loud and cranky voice over the line, “Stop asking me!”

“Jjong?” I called worriedly.

“Oh-- I’m sorry, noona! I thought it was some reporters harassing me again…” A sigh sounded on the other side.

“It’s alright, dino. Anyways, are you really dating Shin Se Kyung?!” I couldn’t help but raise my voice in a delighted tone.

"Stop asking me!" He shouted again. I was honestly startled when he did that, unsure if he was completely serious about what he just said.

Before I could react to the change in his tone, a chuckle was heard from his side before he proceeded to confirm with me about the news article. I beamed at the confirmation, shouting “Congratulations” over the phone and bombarded him with questions about their relationship. He laughed and pretended to be annoyed again, complaining that I was being nosy, but he tried to answer my questions in a patient manner. It didn’t take long before someone was heard shouting in the background at his side, so he informed me that he had to end the call early.

“You’re making me feel envious about your cute relationship.” I laughed.

“Now you know, I was envious of you and Jinki back then. Alright, gotta go, bye.” He replied and ended the call. I smiled. 

---

A week later after the shocking revelation, I received an incoming call. It was around 8am in the morning, and I was still lying on the bed with my eyes shut when my ringtone sounded. I squirmed in my bed, wanting to ignore the call. It rang for quite a long while, so I had no choice but to sit up from my bed groggily to see who was calling. It was Jinki. I stared blankly at the phone for a few more rings, before pressing the green button to connect the call.

“Jinki.” I called.

“Hey EunMin, everything alright?”

That day, he made a weird suggestion on playing a game. I listened attentively to the rules, but I couldn’t really believe what I was listening to. Is he really serious about this? But why? I was so puzzled and lost. When I did ask him, he shook me off saying that this will save our relationship in a way. He added that he will explain everything clearly to me when the time is right, so I had no say in it for the moment. I was still very doubtful about everything when we ended the call, but I trusted his decision nonetheless. I gazed at the paper in my hand worriedly, then looked up to the ceiling and let out a sigh.

The Rules:

1. No Public Displays of Affection in front of third party.
2. Refer each other as close friends.
3. Every time someone broke the rule, five points will be subtracted from a total of 100 points.
4. If there are no points left, the relationship should be terminated under mutual consent.
5. The period of the "game" will be from 2/11/2010 to 1/1/2015.

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