“Hey, are you feeling better now?” Jaejoong asked as he joined Jiyun at the balcony. She was looking out at the night lights of Seoul from where she was sitting at. Supposedly.

The sudden arrival of Mary, now called Hye Jin, was slowly forcing the past back into her life again. She was feeling bothered, getting thrown off balance from the equilibrium that she had taken three whole years to build up.

“Yeah...” She mumbled. “Sorry about just now...”

“If you’re sorry, join me for a little bit of drink?” He grinned, bringing 2 wine glasses and 2 bottles of red wine from the hiding spot behind his back.

Jiyun chuckled, patting the empty chair beside her. He returned her invitation to sit with another goofy smile before making his way to her.

“Where is he?” Jiyun queried, concentrating on Jaejoong’s professional moves when opening up the wine with the bottle opener. “It’s quiet around here.”

Jaejoong smiled. “He’s washing the dishes. I’m punishing him for what he did just now. How dare he ruin our dinner.”

Jiyun’s facial expression faded. “I was at fault too, so are you going to punish me as well?”

“Yeah, by accompanying me for a drink.”

Jiyun’s smile returned. “Are you trying to be bias?”

He nodded with a grin that resembles that of a kid’s. “I’m not letting you out of my house before you spill everything out though.”

“Jaejoong, it’s not that i don’t want to tell you...it’s... complicated...”

“I have all night...” Jaejoong smiled, pouring the first glass of wine and pushing it towards Jiyun. “...and i have a whole cupboard full of wines to last.”

Jiyun let out a small laugh. “You’re such a goofball...”

And started telling him what had happened between Shaun, Hye Jin and her back in the university days...

"Jasmine! You know what? I think i am in love with Shaun!" Mary smiled as she held Jasmine’s hands tightly, full of excitement.

"Oh... really?" Jasmine replied softly, "But i love him too... and you know that..." She mumbled, her head lowering in sadness.

"Jasmine... i'm sorry, but i really love him as well. You know what? I think he loves me too! He has been sending me home the past few days, and we always hang out for a bit before we head home!"

"Oh... really...?" She uttered, her voice barely audible. She then realised the reason why her best friend had gone missing right after school. It was all due to Mary. How could she, as a best friend of Shaun, miss out on that important point?

"I'm sorry, Jasmine... i think i'm going to confess to him later in the afternoon..."

A small tear left her eye. She quickly wiped it away before anyone could see it. "Good luck with the confession..." She muttered before walking away.

Later that day, news broke out that Shaun and Mary had become a couple. She was devastated. But knowing that her friends' feelings were mutual, that they love each other, it was enough.

It was supposed to be the perfect ending for the three of them, with her moving on and with them happily ever after. But that wasn't the case. For she had overheard something. Something that she shouldn't have known.

"Mary! Hows your new guy?" A female voice rang out from the sink area.

At the mention of her friend's name, Jasmine's ears perked up. She was behind one of the cubicles, trying to spend some personal time alone and trying to block out the lovey dovey news about her two friends.

"He's ok, i guess. He's a rich man's son, that's all i care about anyway." Mary replied nonchalantly, applying yet another coat of mascara on her lashes. "But i did get the satisfaction from stealing this guy from Jasmine."

Giggles spreaded all around the toilet.

"You're such a , she’s your friend!" Mary's friends commented, their laughter getting sharper than ever.

"So sue me?" Mary replied. "Let's go, i need to accompany my 'boyfriend' so that i can get him to buy me another wallet!”

With Mary and her friends gone, Jasmine finally removed her hands away from . Tears were freely flowing down her face, not caring how she will look after that.

“Wait, i don’t get it. So Shaun and Hye Jin got together, with her having ulterior motives, but how did the part where you get rejected come about?” Jaejoong interrupted in the midst of Jiyun’s explanation.

Jiyun raised her eyebrows. “How did you know about that?”

He smiled guiltily, “Yoochun happened.”

She rolled her eyes. “Figures.”

“So?” Jaejoong prompted, opening the second bottle of wine easily. “What happened after that?”

Jiyun sighed, gulping down her remaining drink. “I thought, since she was playing dirty, i might as well do the same.”

Jaejoong choked on his drink. “What?!” He asked with his eyes wide open.

“Don’t worry, i didn’t poison her or anything." Jiyun chuckled, patting his back a little as an assurance. "I merely threw away all restraints of my friendship and confessed to Shaun. It was on impulse, even i was shocked by my own actions. He just appeared in front of me and my mouth just naturally moved on its own...” She smiled bitterly, pouring the wine into her glass till it filled up to the brim. “But i loved him, that’s the fact.”

“And you got rejected.”

Jiyun raised her hand, showing a peace sign made by her fingers. “Yes, i got rejected!”

Jaejoong chuckled, reaching over to ruffle her hair amusedly. “His loss. But, didn’t you tell him about what you overheard?”

“Does that really matter? I mean, a guy in love with his girlfriend versus his friend. Who do you think he will believe?"

Jaejoong shrugged. "It's worth a try."

"Yeah i should have probably tried that out. Who knows, something may change..."

"Why do you say that?" He asked, tilting his head to the side as his face settled comfortably on his palm with his hand resting on the side of the table. The alcohol was slowly getting to him.

"It seemed that we had mutual feelings..."

"He liked you?!"

Jaejoong had definitely been awakened from the side effects of the alcohol by now.

Jiyun nodded. "Something puzzling came up during the conversation at the station just now, so i thought it would be good to clarify with him."

"That explains why you were late."

"Yes."

"That also explains why you were having a bad mood just now."

"Is it that obvious?."

Jaejoong shrugged. "Not as bad as the other guy with PMS."

She sighed, leaning forward to lie on the table as she started playing with the mouth of the wine glass. "Shaun... apparently he has been liking me for a long time. And somehow he got brainwashed by Hye Jin. She told him that i did not have any feelings for him other than that of a friend's, and even if he were to confess to me and succeeded, it would be out of pity and not love."

"Wow, he fell for that? Is he an idiot?" Jaejoong asked, an incredulous gasp escaping from his mouth. "How old is he? 3?"

Jiyun chuckled and used a finger to flick his forehead, making him sit back from his current position to nurse his injury. "Stupid as it is, he is still my friend after all. No bad mouthing of my friend."

"Ok, let's call him mentally challenged then..." Jaejoong offered, proposing a wine toast in her way happily.

Shaking her head in amusement, she raised her glass towards Jaejoong's. She gulped the whole glass of wine down .

"But i still don't get it. Ok, it's easy to assume that Shaun went ahead to forget his affection for you by transferring his attention to Hye Jin. Obviously they broke up at some point of time too..." He reasoned, looking at Jiyun for some sort of confirmation. Jiyun nodded, signifying that he was right. "But how did this past get entangled into your fight with Yoochun today?"

Jiyun looked up at him with a blank expression. Her cheeks were already burning red due to the alcohol. "I don't know. I just wanted to let it all out before i turn insane. I think."

That's when Jaejoong started laughing out loud. "You're so cute." He laughed, ruffling her hair once again.

She giggled in response, however that smile left her almost immediately. "But, i guess i was just too disgusted recalling of her actions, that my behaviour towards her went overboard just now..."

"You had every right to feel that way."

"Maybe..." She lowered her head and started playing with her fingers.

"Why did Yoochun call Shaun your lover boy then? It's all in the past after all."

"Hye Jin and Shaun happened. They told him about how Shaun actually had feelings for me back then... And Shaun told him about his recent confession to me..."

"Shaun confessed?"

Jiyun nodded weakly. "But i already told him that we can only be friends..." She started laughing bitterly to herself. "History is repeating itself once again."

"Tell me the truth. Do you like Yoochun?" Jaejoong suddenly asked as he turned Jiyun to face him.

Perhaps due to the influence of the alcohol in her body, Jiyun was able to be truthful to someone other than herself. "So what if i do? He's going to end up falling for Hye Jin anyway. You should have seen how he defended her just now." She scoffed. "And i'm just a friend to him... a mere friend.

Just thinking about the fact that they can never be anything more than a friend made Jiyun's heart sink. She reached out for the wine bottle, pouring herself another glass before drinking it all up in one shot. Followed by another... and another...

"What are you doing?" Yoochun asked, sitting up from his television watching position just as he noticed the door leading to the rooftop balcony open. Jaejoong was carrying Jiyun in his arms as he strutted out.

"Carrying her into the house." Jaejoong replied matter of factly before turning to the walkway leading to the row of rooms in his house.

"What are you doing?" He asked again.

"She's drunk so i'm bringing her to the guest room. She can stay over for the night since it's already late, and obviously some jealous dude wouldn't want to bring her home." Jaejoong replied. "It's late, you should go home already."

"I'm not jealous."

"I don't remember saying it is you."

"I'll bring her home." Yoochun muttered, walking over to them so that he can carry her over from Jaejoong.

However, Jiyun started hugging Jaejoong tightly, refusing to have any contact with Yoochun.

"I don't want you to send me home!" Jiyun complained, hiding her head in Jaejoong's chest so that she wasn't able to see him. "I don't like you!"

Yoochun softened upon seeing the drunk Jiyun. 'She must have been pretty upset to have gotten this drunk...' A small smile formed on his face. "Come on Miss Kim, i'm driving your favourite Rover today..."

"I don't want to sit in that contaminated piece of metal that she has sat in! I don't like it!" Jiyun whined, nudging her head on his chest, hoping that a hole will miraculously open up for her to crawl in. To run away from reality.

Yoochun raised his eyebrows before looking over at Jaejoong in confusion.

"I'll tell you about it another day. For the time being, just know that she is referring to Hye Jin." Jaejoong sighed with a small glimpse of grin, amused that the child-like side of Jiyun has been brought out due to her drunkenness. "It's a valid hatred, may i add."

Yoochun sighed. "Miss Kim, i didn't send her back. I got the director to do it instead. My car is not contaminated, alright?"

"......"

"Let's go home, shall we?" He tried again, cupping her face with his hand gently as he looked at her with a sincere expression.

Jiyun peeked out from her hiding place to take a quick glance at Yoochun before turning back. With a small pout, she nodded slightly.

He took the extra effort to make sure that she wouldn't get waken up from her slumber by driving as slowly as possible. He had even surrendered his thick sweater, considering how cold it is in the middle of the night, just to make sure that she wouldn't catch a cold. It would be bad news if he had caught a cold instead though, knowing how it could possibly trigger another asthma attack. But he couldn't be bothered with the aftermath.

With a smooth turn on the steering wheel, he had easily parked his Rover onto one of the parking lots at her apartment carpark. He turned towards his side, revealing the person who was sleeping with a slight frown in the middle of her brows.

"What am i to do with you?" He sighed, reaching over to gently press on the frown slightly so that it will disperse.

Getting her back into her apartment was easy since he was always over at her house. He had already memorised her pass code.

Yoochun gently placed her onto her bed as he covered her with a blanket. Then, he sat down by her bedside. Looking at her intently, he reached forward to remove strands of hair away from her face so that he could see her face more clearly. "Miss Kim, don't hate me alright?" He whispered, caressing her face with his thumb.

The knowledge that Shaun had confessed to Jiyun, it stung. He didn't even want to know what was the result of the confession.

'Is she already going steady with that bastard guy?'

"You jerk..." Jiyun suddenly replied, her words all slurred and almost incoherent.

It shocked him.

Yoochun was immediately thrown off guard upon hearing her reply, that he had jumped out of her bed.

But it was silence thereafter.

"Miss Kim? Are you awake?" He slowly whispered from a distance.

"......"

That determined her state of consciousness.

Yoochun let out a soft chuckle before making his way back to her bedside. "So much for the claim that you wouldn't get drunk huh?"

"You bad person..." Jiyun mumbled once again, the frown lines in between her brows digging deeper.

'Hmmm, is she sleep talking?'

“You jerk... why do you have to appear into my life...."

'Jerk? I hope she's not referring to me...'

"Why are you so kind to me...? Don't you know that the nicer you treat me... the deeper i will fall for you...? Don't send me those sort of mixed signals if you only intend to treat me as your friend..."

'Wha...t? Is she recalling about her past with that bastard Shaun? How dare he hurt our Miss Kim! Look how hurt her expression is...' He thought, as he softly patted on her hair so that she can calm down.

"It's alright, he's a jerk to not realise your feelings for him..." He softly whispered beside her ear, his hands never leaving hers. "You're a great woman, you will find a better man soon..."

He had clearly forgotten about the fact that Shaun had confessed to her not too long ago, apparently.

"Yoochun... it hurts... having to maintain this so called friendship... hiding my feelings... it hurts a lot... let's just stop..." She continued, tears starting to roll down her cheeks.

'Yoochun? As in Park Yoochun? Me?' He stared at her in astonishment. The foreign piece of information sent him on such a big shock that he had officially fallen off the bed and had landed right on his on the cold, hard floor.

"Me?!" He asked in a slightly louder voice, facing the sleeping Jiyun.