In a few weeks time, Hara had got along well with the SNSD members. She often visited them in their company or went out together once they were free. They were her only friends in Seoul beside Donghae.

“So Hara-sshi, you’re not returning back to Canada anymore?” asked Yuri.

“I don’t think I’m going back—I don’t want to waste my time—” answered Hara. “Order whatever you want—I’ll pay for it.” she smiled as Sooyoung was thrilled over her words. They gave her a warm feeling that she’d always hoped for.

“You—don’t want to waste your time?” asked Jessica with curiosity.

“Ahh—ani, I mean—” Hara suddenly got anxious and tried to find words to continue, “You know, I miss here more than I miss there—I don’t have any relatives there.”

When all the girls messed around, chit-chatting like non-stop, Jessica eyed on Hara, she must have something hiding. “Are you okay? Your nose is bleeding—” asked Tiffany with concern. Once Hara heard it, she quickly rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. “Excuse me—” she grabbed her bag and ran her way to the restroom.

/

Hara splashed the water on her face, and glanced at herself on the mirror. Tears slowly flowed down from her eyes before she immediately wiped it away as she saw Jessica’s appearance. “Is everything fine? I mean—your nosebleed—”

“Yeah—I’m fine, just so you know, maybe I don’t suit the weather here yet—” Hara smiled. “Let’s not keep them await, let’s go—” But as she turned around and accidentally brushed her bag which she put it beside the sink earlier, all of her stuffs scattered on the floor.

“Let me help you—” offered Jessica.

Surprisingly, Hara panicky denied her help by tidying up the mess herself. “Ani—I can do it myself.”

Packets of medicines caught Jessica’s attention. Hara definitely knew she saw something, so she pretended to start it off, “I caught a cold recently—” She linked her arm on Jessica’s and grinned, “We must have missed out a lot—Let’s join them—”

“Hara—”

“Yeah unnie?”

“You hid something, right?”

/

For another weekend, Donghae invited Jessica over to his house for a dinner. He felt that some part of their relationship went wrong, so he decided to use this to fix things up.

“How was it?” asked Donghae, “I improved, right?”

“Yeah—how was your work? Everything went well?”

“Yes, how about yours?”

“Nothing special—practice, practice and practice—”

The conversation was cold, strange, as if they didn’t know each other before. The distance between them suddenly got so far away. “Sir, ma’am wanted you to be in her room now.” She heard the whisper from his assistant.

“I’ll be back in a while—” Donghae tapped her shoulder before he left.

After 15 minutes, he was still no where to be seen. Instead, she heard loud voices coming down from the stairs. She walked herself there, and the conversation got clearer.

“Mom, you know it isn’t going to work—”

“Honey—it’s just a small wish of hers. Can’t you just see it as a help?”

“What kind of wish is this? If she wanted anything, fine, I can buy her what she wanted, what she needed, but to be in a relationship with her is impossible—”

“She didn’t ask for that. It was her dad’s wish. He knew Hara loves you from the start, and before she leaves, he wanted her to have no regrets. And it’s just a fake relationship, I mean—just pretend to be her boyfriend and try to make her feel that she’s being loved. Is it that hard for you?”

“To have—no regrets? What does that mean?” Donghae glared at his mum.

“She was—diagnosed to have a kind of sickness. Mr. Goo had sent her off to every country to have treatments, but nothing worked. She only left—” his mom sniffled, “3 months.”

At both different places, Donghae and Jessica collapsed. 3 months. Jessica knew the exact thing about Hara’s sickness on the day they went out, but she wasn’t informed that Hara only left 3 months. She held on the stair’s rail and sobbed. “I thought—I thought everything’s going well when she was in Canada?” asked Donghae.

“She only attended the university for the first year—she’d been fighting against this for approximately 2 years already, Hae—” his mum squatted down and comforted Donghae, “Can you..grant her little wish? Just for this period of time?”

/

On the way fetching Jessica home, they both remained silent. They were used to this silence over the week. There, Donghae parked his car aside and took a stroll with Jessica down the Han River.

“It’s nice—isn’t it?” he asked while being attracted by the stunning scenery at night.

“Yeah—” Jessica turned her face up and observed his face. The calming, yet sorrowful face.

“I think—we should seldom contact each other from now—” said Jessica. In a second, Donghae tilted his head down with an astonished look. “What?”

“I heard the conversation between you and your mom. And I know what happened to Hara—I just want you to..accompany her during the hardest time of her life.”

“What?” he asked again.

“Oppa, she needs you—and she—”

Donghae interrupted her lines, “Like what? Like you don’t need me at all?”

“No—no I meant—”

“Stop Sica, stop—our lives aren’t dramas, movies. We control our lives—”

“It’s just a fake relationship—can’t you just, accomplish her dream? She needs you!”

“Listen, we can go through all this together. We can always be there by her side, be there for her, you and I. Not only me—”

“That’s different Lee Donghae, that’s different! She needs love! Although I only got to know more about her in just few weeks time, but I can sense that how lonely she is. She has no friends, besides me, the girls, and you. We gave her friendship. But she needs love—and the love that she wants before she leaves is from you—don’t you get it?”

Donghae gripped on her arm hard, “This is completely insane! So you’re pushing me towards her because she’s sick? You want me to love her? Aren’t you afraid that I might really fall in love with her? Don’t you—”

“Then go ahead—” Jessica’s voice soften down.

“W—what?” asked Donghae, completely shocked at what he heard.

“Then..go ahead. We need time to reconsider about our relationship. I bet you’ve found out something’s wrong recently. We need to cool down—”

“Is that what you want?” he gritted his teeth and yelled at her, for the very first time. “You doubted our feelings? Is this what you want? Answer me!” Uncontrollably, his grip on her arm was getting harder.

Jessica winched in pain and slowly shoved off his hand from her, “Yes—”

I have never doubted about it, Hae. I just let you go for these 3 months. Let us just take it as a test for both of us.