She holds up a cashmere fur heavy jacket, measuring it beside TOP. She purses her lips tightly, looking from the jacket to the model, not noticing TOP’s intense stare trailing her facial features, silently chuckling at her cutely pouted lips as she creased her brow gently. They were preparing for the photo-shoot, and it was… fun. More fun than she imagined.

She smiled at him, and held up the jacket, “Put that on, Tabi,” she instructed as she threw the jacket playfully at his face. He catches it deftly and pulls a mock annoyed face at her before both burst into laughter simultaneously.  

She likes being with Tabi. He makes her forget. He numbs the pain, he numbs the sorrow.

He makes her feel real.

They connected well.

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Drunken haze feels good. He swallows shot after shot of the bitter liquid, reveling in the haze that quickly follows, that numbs everything, the tears, the pain… the emptiness.

The last of his supply depletes as someone rings the doorbell. Getting to his feet, he smiles, a lopsided, worrying smile; hoping against hope that it was her.

Staggering to the door, he pulls it open and almost loses his balance. There was a figure of a lady outside. His bleary lids raise and notice her face. It wasn’t her, instead it was Dara, and hope crushed bitterly against disappointment.

“Chaerin…” he whispers, trying in vain to chase stars that already leave him in their own pursuit.

He lurches forward, feeling himself go dizzy and the pain in his heart intensifies. Why did she have to cause him so much pain?

“I miss you loads… And I always forget to tell you…” He closes the distance between them, wrapping his arms around Dara’s shocked and fragile figure.

“I love you too…”

He rests his head against her shoulder as he begins to cry silently, tightening the hold he has on her. He was afraid that the next time he let her go she would disappear again. A gentle hand pats his shoulder comfortingly and he sags against her.

She smiles at him, right outside the doorstep. “Bye Tabi~” she coos, waving a head adorably at him before entering the house. He returns the smile, and she steps into the threshold of the house. “See you tomorrow,” she says, before closing the door.

On an impulse, he stops the door from closing and leans in to kiss her on the cheek. “See you tomorrow Chae.” He whispers before melting into the darkness of the night, before she could catch him.

She holds a hand to her cheek as she stands looking into the direction he just left.

It was nice to unburden on someone and know that they will be there for her.

It meant the most to her that someone might care enough.  

Care is always recuperated, even if it is not in the way and from the person you want it to be.

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Jiyong enters Dara’s house, his hands resting on her shoulders, catching her in the middle of a call. He observes her hanging up with a whispered promise to call back later, and how she shoves a pristine card under some stacks of paper before turning around and kissing him on the lips.

“Dara, you didn’t have to do that,” he whispered in her ear. “Yes I did.” She answers back defiantly. “Is it time to visit Aunt already? Give me a second…” she wriggles out of his grasp and heads for her room. His mom approved of Dara, and has been pestering him to settle down with her already.

Despite all the time spent with her; love eludes him.

I will rather love someone I can’t have, than have someone I can’t love… The wise words spoken but always forgotten.

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The brightest smile that he had smiled in quite a while crossed his features, the most radiant smile that lit his face up and made him look even more beautiful. She is back in Seoul, he knew it. He received a secret tip-off from a friend and he was on his way to surprise her!

He could almost start giggling like a child just given candy, the bubbling happiness in him threatening to make him hiccup. His Chaerin was back, she was back! He couldn’t wait for her to stand in front of her house door, and then he would rush out from the stair landing and hug her and hug her and never let go. Never. He missed her so, so much!  Unbidden, three words rise to his lips.  The smile stretched across his face threatens to split his face into half as he smiles even wider.

The elevator dings, his heart rate increases to the point of explosion. The door slides open silently and familiar sounds of heels sound like a joyous melody in his ears. He in a breath of astonishment at her appearance, she looked so pretty…

 Her curves were accented by the simple skinny jeans and black clingy shirt. His eyes skimmed to her sparkling heels, popping against the dull blue of her jeans, and his lips curved upwards, recognizing his self-designed silver jacket. Finally they settled on her face, thinner than he last seen her, but the exact imprint from his memory of her, with her cattish eyes and thin lips, the sharp nose and well-rounded face shape.

His Hunchae.

He steps out into the shadows and was about to draw her into a hug when he heard what she was saying in her phone.

“Love ya too, Tabi. Miss you, bye~”

Love. She said love.

He misses his cue as the door clicks shut and the shadows that once hid him cast across his face, the final beam of light catching the tear that managed to bypass his defenses. His lips tightened, and pressed tightly together.

His fists clench painfully at his sides.

Heartbreak feels like this.

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Her heart drops to the pit of her stomach, as she swallows with difficulty. Tears rise to , choking her with her own emotions; her hand shaking violently.

Lying on the table, together with the scraps of mail that failed to be sent to her in America was a lavishly designed wedding invitation. Names so familiar to her flash tauntingly in her eyes, her heart shatters immediately, the frail pieces shining in the sun mocking her stupidity.

“Guess she was really the one… and not me.” The emptiest smile dredged across her face as her innards break and twist inside her.

The truth could have never come across anymore cruel, any bitterer.

All her feelings were cheated out of her. Tears, frustration, anger, disappointment… Love.  The worst reality could have dealt her was that cold slap in the face: He moved on.

Even the ones most in love can only take so much, even the ones that swear forever can only last so long. She doesn’t want to be the idiot that keeps waiting for that miracle to appear.

I waited… but I realize I waited like a fool.

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A/N: If I was cruel, I could end the story here, because technically the story IS over. GD and CL won’t be together, if you think in this context. GD is a stupid fool and coward, CL is someone just waiting for that slap of reality to stop loving GD. They should not be together.

But I’m not cruel, and I’m not a sadist either. I promised you guys a happier ending, so I shall explain… :P

Misunderstandings break relationships, break hearts, and break trust. In writing this chapter, I made use of the phrase most of you hear about in life,

“Trust is like a piece of paper. Once crushed, it can never be perfect again.”

I do believe in this phrase. If I was a simple by-stander in this story, I would sorely hope that Chaerin would never forgive Jiyong for his blunt phrases, stupid assumptions and for breaking her heart not once, but twice. (Again in this chapter for making her hopelessly waiting for nothing.)

But I shall leave you guys to think in another angle of this story, so you guys can actually see the hope of a happier ending, XD

Crushed trust can never be perfect again, true. But nothing in the world is perfect. In reality, imperfections are what shape who we are today. A crushed piece of paper is not a paper that has to be thrown away just because it is imperfect.

Perhaps, people may treasure it more because it is already, in their sense, their type of perfection.

“You never know how strong you are, until the only option you have, is to be strong.”

And in Jiyong’s defense, it is true that you never know what you have until it is gone. But the truth is… you knew, but you just never thought you would lose it. Finally, he didn’t plan the wedding… so that’s not his fault.  

And the final teaser for you guys: A wedding can’t go on if the groom is unwilling. Everyone knows that. All will be revealed soon… *laughs*

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