She nodded quickly.

Kyungsoo his lips in nervousness before he started to reveal Jongin’s story.

“Oppa, I was once dumped too but I didn’t lose my will to live.”

“I’m not finished yet.” Kyungsoo sternly added when she cut him off. She nodded silently; her cousin could be quite intimidating when he wanted to.

“She wasn’t just another woman. She was special for him. They fell in love with each other quickly and were very fond of each other. He was enchanted by her and so was she. Their relationship felt so natural: it was as if they were connected by a red thread or something.”

“Red thread? As in the one which connect soul mates and stuff?” She couldn’t help but blurting out her thought when she heard his cousin’s choice of word.

He glared at her—which made her hurriedly lowered her head in fear—before he continued.

“Yes. That kind of thing. He felt that she was the one. Everything went smoothly until she dumped him. Apparently, she was too mature and too rich for him. At first it seemed that she felt there would be too much obstacle for their future. However, it turned out that it wasn’t the case.”

He stared at his cousin and when she didn’t mutter any word in response, he suddenly asked her.

“Have you heard of the so-called ‘The Royal Wedding of Korea’?”

She blinked. Puzzlement was written on her pale face as she failed to see the connection of his question and his story. So she only responded with a simple hesitant nod.

“Do you know who was married in that wedding?”

She was bewildered by his out-of-blue questions. With her eyebrow knitted in bafflement, she cautiously answered.

“Oppa, it is the wedding that was held three weeks ago, right? If I’m not mistaken, it was the wedding between an heiress to one of our multinational company to an heir of a foreign company.”

Kyungsoo nodded while staring at her meaningfully.

“She was too mature and too rich for him.”

Her eyes widen in distrust as realization dawn into her. Her hand flew to as she had openly gaped at the implicated fact.

“Oppa, you didn’t mean to say that…”

“Yes, Kim Jongin was once dating the infamous bride, Seo Joohyun.”

 “Oh my God.” She covered in incredulity when she recovered from the initial shock. She could already imagine how unbalanced the couple was: she was a daughter of a billionaire who lived the extravagant life while he was a mere college student living a humble life. No one would think of the couple as being well-matched given their social statuses. She had no idea how two people from a totally different world could meet and fall in love with each other. Unless they were truly soul mates, like what her cousin told her.

“Actually, Jongin was dealing with the break up just fine. He was of course very sad at first but he grew to realize that there were too many differences between their lives. It was when the wedding came on the media that he became devastated. It wasn’t the wedding itself that crushed him; it was the media report on her ongoing engagement with the groom. It turned out that she didn’t cheat on him; she cheated with him. It made him realize that he had never had a chance with her in the first place and she was probably only playing with his feeling. ”

It took her a while to digest the information she had just received. The story was almost like it was taken from some cheap a soap opera—she felt herself doubting its authenticity. However, before she could give any comment he had spoken again.

“To make it worst, he was beaten up until his bones broke by unknown people only a few days before she dumped him. You can’t say that those two events weren’t related, right? He was dating someone else’s fiancé, after all.”

She was silenced after hearing the whole story. If it was someone else who told her, she would have brushed him off and told him that he was reciting some mellow drama. But this was her trustable cousin Kyungsoo who told her so she didn’t have any other choice but to believe it, no matter how mind-boggling the story sounded.

“It was natural for him to get scarred for life after this kind of incident, right?” He rhetorically asked her.

She stared at him at the eyes. She wanted to agree with him but something within her had hindered her from doing so.

“Yes… But he shouldn’t lose his will to live because of that. That is ridiculous.”

Kyungsoo smiled knowingly.

“I agree with you. A broken heart is a stupid reason for someone as talented as him to kill himself. That is where we will intervene.”

“We?”

“Well, I can’t do this alone—not with the preparation of the music festival that has been taking most off my time since last week—and you are literally living next to him so yes, I meant both of us.”

She only stared blankly at him so he continued.

“Come on, Jinri. Don’t be so heartless. Aren’t you going to be a doctor? Doctors are willing to help people, right? Besides, Jongin is a good guy. You will like him when he starts to open up.”

“Will you come with me?”

Kyungsoo asked her as he putted on his white sneakers. He was about to visit Jongin in the next door. She shook her head. Kyungsoo and Jongin were really close friends; it would be awkward for her to be included in a conversation between two best buddies.

“No. Just go ahead and have some quality time with him while I have some quality time with your red-velvet.” She tapped her fingers on the cake box that Kyungsoo brought for her.

He chuckled amusedly at her. “You’ll be fatter than a pig soon, Jinri.” He jokingly warned her while zipping his jacket.

“If it’s because of your cooking then I don’t mind. It’s worth it.”

When Kyungsoo closed the door behind him, Jinri quickly opened the box he brought and was amazed by the mouth-watering delicacy inside of it. The cake was in the perfect shade of red, the velvety texture was perfect, and the smell was very tempting. She her lips in anticipation while carefully slicing the cake.

She took a bite from the slice and sighed; the cake was heavenly. She could taste the cheese, the fresh bit, the cream; every ingredient was in the right amount. She closed her eyes as she savored the rich taste in . Kyungsoo was a great cook but a cake as perfect as the one she ate must have cost him a lot of money and time.

She started to wonder, why would Kyungsoo care so much about Jongin?

Before he asked her to take care of Jongin, Kyungsoo had always been taking care of Jongin on his own. Her dear cousin always told her that she would eventually grow to like Jongin if he became himself again. What kind of person was this Jongin—who Kyungsoo adored so much?

What was so special about the currently broken guy?

She tried to recall the many visits Kyungsoo gave her when she was still in the dorm for first year students. She recollected the pieces he had told her about Jongin and remembered that the later was Kyungsoo’s former roommate when he was in his first year. She remembered her jealousy to Kyungsoo’s roommate—the one she had never met and had just realized to be the same person living next door, Jongin—who seemed to share a close bond with Kyungsoo to the point that she felt he had stolen Kyungsoo from her. She couldn’t accept the fact that her brother-like-cousin had such a cool roommate while she was stuck with a rich-and-bratty Jung Soojung as a roommate. 

She recalled that Kyungsoo had used a lot of flattering adjectives to describe Jongin, some of them were loyal, passionate, and lively. Ironically, none of those qualities could be seen in him at the moment. At least, Jinri couldn’t spot any of them in her neighbor. Was the heartbreak that painful, that it had changed him drastically?

She had her share of heartbreaks too but she had never really changed after any of them. But then, Kyungsoo called the couple as soul mates and it was a topic she could never comprehend. She had never found anyone she felt as the one; she simply dated the guys she had a crush on or the ones who confessed to her.

Jinri was eating her fourth slice when she the door opened to reveal her cousin’s head.

“Jinri, Jongin wants to meet you. He wants to thank you. Can you come with me?” He asked her with hopeful eyes.

She felt guilt washed over her. Did Kyungsoo scold Jongin for not answering her knocks on his door?

“Ah, sure.”

She wiped , washed her hands, and headed to the door. She followed Kyungsoo back to Jongin’s place next door. Kyungsoo barged into Jongin’s place as if it was his own and Jinri tailed him hesitantly. It was going to be her second meeting with Jongin so she felt rather uncomfortable to come in without knocking first. “Jongin,” Kyungsoo called once they were inside of Jongin’s flat, “Jinri is here,” he said as he pulled Jinri forward.

Jongin was sitting on his couch; his crutches were laid next to him. Compared to their last meeting, Jongin seemed to be more presentable. His jet black hair was still messy but he wore a clean and neat white t-shirt along with a pair of tidy black sweatpants. However, no expression was painted on his handsome face and his eyes were covered by his bangs.

“I believe you have something to say to her?” Kyungsoo spoke to Jongin in a tone that teachers usually used when they coaxed their students into expressing their gratitude.

Jongin brushed his bangs away, giving her a clear view of his eyes.

“Ah yes. Thank you for the food,” he muttered as he stared at her. His eyes—she noticed—were not as dead as she remembered. There was a faint glimmer of life in his eyes that she missed during their first meeting; dim but still able to pierce through the thick mist of sadness in his eyes.

Jinri smiled as she accepted his gratitude. Kyungsoo’s hard work wasn’t for nothing. Maybe Jongin wasn’t a lost case, after all.