’’Girlfriend?’’ Seohyun was completely deranged on their current situation.

‘’Congratulations’’ Kris extended his hand to Luhan for a handshake. Luhan seemingly disliked his greeting that he did not shook his hand and shoved it, so he got his hand, shook it, and then immediately walked out without averting his attention to Seohyun.

‘’Kris-oppa…’’ she muttered his name as she watched him go away. She tried to follow him but Luhan gripped on her hand and dragged her on the opposite direction of the hospital without knowing where they will particularly head on.

They were in the hospital’s outdoor car park when the deer-eyed gentleman’s anger subsided. The way reacted was all out of impulse.

She couldn’t properly react on what was happening to them. She thought that he must have been not in a good mood that she should just go on with his mood swing not rubbing salt on the wound anymore.

They halted, and he finally released her arm, he muttered as he faced her, ‘’Seohyun – ‘’

 ‘’Neh?’’ she nervously asked. Even she herself did not expect to feel such shiver. It’s very unusual to see a serious reaction from her usually cheerful Luhan-oppa.

‘’From now on will you refrain from being too attached to Kris?’’ he was rather commanding her.

‘’Why? What’s wrong?’’

‘’It’s because it’s not proper anymore.’’

‘’It’s not proper because what, oppa?’’ she asked, checking how his hand obviously marked on her arm.

‘’It’s because you are already my girlfriend, that’s why Hyun.’’  His hands hanged loose on his side seemingly losing his energy with the simple explanation he just made. ‘’…it’s so common sense. I know how close you are to Kris, but there are rules in relationships.’’

‘’Bwo?’’ she was extremely surprised with what he just told her, ‘’…I-I am your girlfriend?’’ she chuckled in disbelief.

‘’Yes, you said yes to me yesterday.’’ His voice eventually trailed off feeling bad seeing the latter’s reaction.

‘’I’m your girlfriend since yesterday?’’ she started laughing sarcastically, feeling sudden rage remembering her Kris-oppa’s reaction, ‘’…I’m in a relationship with NO one oppa. I apologize …but I think it’s a misunderstanding. But there’s no way you can act like that in front of Kris-oppa.’’

‘’B-but you said yes to me yesterday.’’ He tried to defend himself ‘’…I clearly heard it from you.’’

‘’That’s why I’m sorry…I created a misunderstanding.’’ She apologized again. ‘’But please don’t assume things Luhan-oppa. It’s one of the reasons why I hate relationships; someone will act like he owns the other. I will forgive you with this.’’ Her eyed started glistening. ‘’…but Kris-oppa.’’

‘’Seohyun, I love you, can’t you see?’’ he tried to hold her hand but she immediately retracted from him when he touched her. ‘’Kris is a coward, it’s too obvious that he loves you too, but he is denying it in order to stay close to you. He is such a fraud Seo – ‘’

‘’One more negative adjective from you, I will regret the day we knew each other.’’ She clenched her fists as she turned back on him.

As if the sky knew how she exactly feels at that very moment, rain started to fall and drenched them.

‘’Seo Joo Hyun…’’ he tried to grab her hand but she shoved him and started walking away from him.

So he chased her, and he pulled her to a buck hug, he cried, ‘’I hate Kris even more because of this! He is not even doing anything but you see no other person. You see him not just an older sibling don’t you?’’

She tried to retract from him but he held on her even tighter. ‘’I-I don’t…I don’t know what you’re talking about.’’

‘’It’s not like you can’t read between the lines…you’re too bright not to notice that either of us like you. You’ve been with him for two years, right? So it’s impossible.’’

She used all her strength to release herself from him, the she faced him and was about to slap his face. But her hand was seemingly pulled down by gravity, it felt heavy, she was feeling that she was holding back something in her that she never wanted to bring up. ‘’…it-it’s not so good to assume things; I’m not the type to easily jump into conclusions. Kris-oppa being around me doesn’t mean that he like me the way you say it, same goes with me.’’ She looked down on the wet asphalt. ‘’…it doesn’t mean that I like him the way you say it.’’ She turned her back on him and rushed into the pouring rain.

You are also in denial; you can’t even look at me straight.

Kris was on his way to his consultation room, about to prepare for his case presentation. He was still hurt from the news he just heard from Luhan. He did not know how to properly respond to it, but he knew that sending congratulatory greetings to them was an awful fraud he just did to cover up his real feelings.

He cannot let Seohyun see how he got crushed in an instant. He just confessed in the riverside, he was just too fortunate that she did not get what he meant, or probably not.

As he twisted the knob of the door, his hand suddenly trembled and tears started to fall from his eyes. He silently wept.

‘’What is this again?’’ a cold feminine voice which was so familiar to him echoed the half empty hallway.

He looked at the direction from where the voice was coming from.

‘’Sica.’’ He immediately wiped his eyes.

The blonde rushed to his direction and pulled him into a warm embrace. ‘’What kind of welcome is this Kris?’’

‘’N-Nothing.’’ He lied, his voice was still shaking.

‘’I thought touch guys like you don’t easily cry. Something happened, I know.’’ She retracted herself from him and held his face. ‘’Tell me, did Seohyun make you cry?’’

He cannot look at her straight, knowing that it’s hard to lie to someone like Jessica who knows him for such long time so he laid his chin on her shoulder and pulled her into a hug in order to avoid her gaze which could make him admit what he’s been keeping. ‘’Luhan and Hyun…I’m glad, they are together now.’’

‘’Liar.’’ Jessica extended her free hand and knocked his crown as hard a she could. ‘’Tell me, since when?’’ she retracted herself and face him.

Looking at her directly, his eyes started to glisten again; he could not utter a proper word since it will just hurt him more if it will come out from his mouth.

The blonde understood how hurt he was, she did not pursue him to answer her question anymore and just pulled him into a hug once again. ‘’Yah, Kris Wu, stop crying… I thought it’s the end of our relationship when I became your girlfriend and we broke up. Now it seems that I need to become your Noona again…I guess it’s my fate.’’

‘’Y-you’ve always been my Noona even before you became my girlfriend.’’ He buried his face on her shoulder as his tears fall down harder.

‘’You’re 188cm, right? How come you’ve gotten tall like that and you still cry like when you were seven?’’

Conversely, Seohyun did not know where she was heading. The sky was gray, it was mercilessly raining but she did not mind. Her mind was foggy all she wants was to go as far as she could away from Luhan, or probably did not want to hear another set of rebuking words from him.

She looked up at the sky, and it suddenly thundered. The creaking loud sound which usually scares her did not matter at all when she would usually ran to Kris and cover her ears whenever it rains and thunders roar. Again, it’s another memory with Kris.

Do I like you more than just an older brother? She pondered.

Memories from the past night in the riverbank came to her. His gaze when she confessed to the unnamed girl that Kris likes meddled inside her mind for that moment, and his short phrase, ‘’I love…you.’’ For some reasons, those words seemed to beam her.

She shook her head, not wanting those vain emotions sunk inside her. She’s a tough one, she always mentally note herself with that. Then she remembered how Kris was few hours ago. She did not like how he reacted with the news. She felt like she needed to explain herself, explain that it was a misunderstanding.

So she dialed his number, hoping that he would pick up. But he didn’t. It brought her into conclusion that she really needed to explain herself.

Kris was indulged doing his case presentation with the aid of Jessica who keep throwing critical questions to him that he couldn’t notice his mobile phone ringing. It’s the best way to forget his worried – to divert his attention into academes.

‘’NS1 test for Dengue, and Immunoglobulins M and G means early and latent antibodies inside our body. If the NS1 duo kit only indicated presence of Immunoglobulins M and G and the NS1 appears to be negative, what does it mean?’’ Jessica asked Kris as he tried to go through the pages of his case presentation written report.

Kris heaved a sigh, and wore his round black glasses he seldom wears. The question wasn’t that difficult, he knows for a fact that he encountered it once if not twice during his internship days but he couldn’t deliver it to Jessica the way he wanted it. He answered the blonde, ‘’Uh, if there’s a presence of IgM and IgG, probably the dengue case is at its latent stage.’’

Jessica massaged her temples as she laid her chin on her palm, ‘’You’re right…but it seems that you’re uncertain with your answer Kris.’’

‘’I’m certain, Sica-noona.’’ He defended himself.

‘’It doesn’t show.’’ She shifted her weight from where she was sitting and crossed her arms.’’ If your gesture will be like that in front of the panel, they will surely bombard you with tons of side questions.’’ She started lecturing him.

He heaved a sigh of frustration, he was usually confident. Thus, he cannot deny that he was still distracted.

The blonde stood up and went at his back, held his shoulders and fixed his posture. ‘’Kris, you are twenty-three now, but it seems like I’m lecturing a kid. Get hold of yourself.’’

‘’Noona…’’

‘’What is it?’’ her tone was rather agitated.

‘’Sorry.’’ He apologized, lowering his head. ‘’…it’s the very first time in my life I feel like this.’’

‘’It shows Kris, you did not even feel this awful when we’re together.’’ she answered straightforwardly.

‘’Sorry.’’

‘’Sorry for what this time?’’ she shot back.

‘’Sorry, if I never acted like this when we got separated.’’

‘’It’s not your fault…considering our relationship before. I think it’s partially fixed. You know how are we connected right? Our families are business partners, we grew up seeing each other often in special occasions, we became a couple for a title…I guess there are feelings inclusive but we live up to the title. But in reality our real relationship is a Noona-and-Dongsaeng manner. At first I thought we are real couple Kris, and honestly I liked you for some time, but as I meet people along the way I realize that we’ve lived our lives in such a small world which the two of us are the only people that mattered. It’s good that Hyun came.’’

‘’Have I told you that a also had a girlfriend named Yuri when I was in first year college?’’ Kris asked all of a sudden.

‘’Really?’’ the blonde smiled feeling a little surprised by the latter’s confession. ‘’For how long?’’

‘’For two months.’’

‘’How did you two guys met?’’ she felt like she was having a high school interview.

‘’We’re seatmates during my Biochem class, and I became close to her then we started dating - ’’

She raised an eyebrow, she cut her in midsentence, ‘’…And then where did you guys dated?’’

‘’We usually go out for ice cream and window shopping during weekends, and I usually wait for her to finish her dance practice every Fridays.’’

‘’And then?’’ the blonde wanted to dig something more.

‘’That’s it.’’

‘’That’s it?’’ the blonde was in pure disbelief, she never knew this side of him, that he will count that kind of relationship as a serious one.

‘’Why?’’

She suddenly busted laughing, ‘’Kris, I never thought that you’re such a baby!’’

‘’Why?’’ he was completely oblivious with her reaction.

‘’Y-you count that Yuri as your first girlfriend, don’t you?’’ she held on her stomach and started laughing even harder.

‘’Yes, what’s wrong with that?’’

‘’Innocent child!’’ she teased. ‘’…when I imagine it, it’s literally puppy love.’’

‘’She’s my first girlfriend. Hey! We dated!’’ he argued.

‘’Ours was like so formal.’’ She remarked.

He thought for a moment, and agreed. ‘’ I still remember that fuqin (father) was the one who suggested that we two should start dating.’’

‘’Yes, it’s been years…’’ she crossed her arms, and looked up recalling how they were, then she suddenly jested, ‘’...now I realize that I’m really fortunate we did not end up together.’’

‘’Why?’’ he got surprised.

‘’…Because we’re too identical plus I don’t want to babysit a giant boy like you!’’ Jessica started laughing hard again.

On the other hand, Seohyun was walking in the hallway where Kris’ consultation room is located. She was literally soaking wet, she was out of trance due to what had Luhan told her before she completely walked out. She kept questioning herself if she really likes her Kris-oppa more than just an older brother at the same time convincing herself that she doesn’t since she covets herself to her career above anything else.

As she stood in front of the door or his consultation room, she overheard familiar voices laughing and having casual talks – Kris and Jessica. She knocked, and peeped in, ‘’Uh…Kr-kris-oppa, Sica-unnie…’’ she meekly called to them.

Both of them turned from the doors direction and saw her peeping, and the blonde beckoned her, ‘’Hyunnie come on in!’’

He almost jumped on his seat as Seohyun finally opened the door and entered the room, she was drenched and by just judging her expression, she was obviously upset into something.

‘’What happened to you, Hyun?’’ he anxiously asked as he immediately stood up, and made his way to her.

‘’N-nothing Kris-oppa..’’ she denied, without even looking at him.

Jessica made her way to Kris’ closet and got a towel for the younger lady, then damped the towel to her hair and started drying her. ‘’It doesn’t mean that you are a doctor means that you are exempted from getting sick, Seo Joo Hyun!’’ she anxiously lectured her.

‘’What happened to you two?’’ he asked her again, clasping her elbow.’’…I know there’s something wrong that happened Hyun, you’re not insane to let yourself run in the rain. Tell me.’’

Seohyun realeased herself from his grip feeling off as Luhan’s words kept repeating inside her head. ‘’N-Nothing really Kris-oppa.’’

‘’I know when you’re lying Seo Joo Hyun…’’ He held her arm and pulled her into an embrace, ‘’…tell oppa what’s happening, the two of you just began dating I cannot let Luhan be abusive to you this early.’’

The sudden near contact made her flinch, that she subconsciously pushed him.

‘’Y-you…’’ her lips were shaking. ‘’Oppa, y-you don’t like me right?’’

Kris was completely surprised from her actions, she never pushed him away before. ‘’Huh? What are you talking about Hyun?’’

‘’You don’t like me right?’’ she looked straight to his eyes. ‘’ Tell me…’’

By just looking on how intent her gaze was. He understands what she meant. What he feared the most has come. He wanted to be brave enough, to tell her his honest feelings towards her, but the latter was demanding her to utter the opposite answer. ‘’I-I…’’

‘’Tell me kris-oppa, y-you don’t like me right? You don’t like me the way Luhan-oppa likes me.’’

‘’I-‘’ he closed his eyes, his tears were about to fall. ‘’ I-…of course, you’re my dongsaeng, how would I?’’

‘’G-good.’’ She felt that her chest felt even stuffier hearing his respond.