* Sandeul's home *

* 3 pm *

" Oh? Jinyoung sunbaenim texted me." Sandeul gasps and focuses on his phone.

Baro overhears and quickly stands beside Sandeul to look at the text.

" He wants to meet you at Han river?!" Baro yells and closes his mouth with his hands.

Sandeul frowns and sighs. After hearing what Dal-rae had said to him, he was sure for now that Jinyoung had something to say to him. Maybe Jinyoung was going to ask him to stay away from Shin Ah-ra. All of those thoughts ran across him mind.

On the other hand, Baro bit his lips and thought hard. He was petrified. His brain was conjuring up with different stories on why Jinyoung wanted to meet Sandeul. After all, the both of them weren’t even close. What if Jinyoung wanted to confront him about the incident or what if Jinyoung had already found out about Sandeul’s identity? Baro panics and grabs his best friend by the shoulders.

“ Yah. Why would he even want to meet you? Let’s just stay at home and chill.” Baro tries to stop Sandeul.

“ I think Jinyoung sunbaenim has something to say to me. I have to go and see.” Sandeul ignores his best friend and heads to get his jacket.

“ So you’re leaving me here? Look it’s drizzling. You’re going to fall sick. What am I going to do if you fall sick? Oh? We don’t have enough money for you to see the doctor.” Baro comes up with a million of excuses and ends up walking out of the house tagging along.

“ Yah… it’s not even raining. Why are you so naggy today? Baro, can I ask you something?” Sandeul puckers his brows and hits him on the shoulders.

“ Wha-what?”

“ Ah-ra is really not upset?” Sandeul questions him again.

Baro looks up into the sky and tries to remember about the date yesterday.

“ Ah! She wasn’t upset. Maybe disappointed? Guess what? She’s such an angel! She drove me to Gwangju just to see my family! I’m really touched. Your girlfriend is really… you chose the right person. After all, our Sandeul is such a nice person. No wonder your girlfriend is such a kind person.” Baro clasps his hands together happily and grins.

Sandeul only smiles and nods his head. After hearing the word ‘angel’, his heart ached for a moment. Was Ah-ra really truthful to him all these while? He was seriously having doubts after what Dal-rae had told him. However, here Baro is flattering Ah-ra and calling her an ‘angel’’. If there was one person that he could only trust, it was definitely Baro.

“ So you told Ah-ra that my family from Busan was visiting me?” Sandeul again asks.

“ Eung! She totally believed it. Phew. I  was really disappointed in you! How could you? Plus! The voice. Is it Shin Dal-rae?” Baro widens his eyes as he finally remembers about the voice that he had heard on the phone the day before.

Sandeul casts his eyes on the ground and gave a loud sigh.

“ How could I say no to my own sister?” Sandeul replies.

“ Don’t you think your sister is rather suspicious? I mean she’s living in the same house as Ah-ra. Among all the days that she wants to go out with you-“ Baro stops talking as he backs off from Sandeul.

“ My noona is not that type of person! Now, stop babbling and get inside the cab.” Sandeul pushes him in and slams the door loudly.

“ Ahjusshi. Yeongdeungpo-Han river.” Sandeul instructs the taxi driver.

Sandeul nervously shakes his legs and fiddles with his phone. He wasn’t sure about what to say to Jinyoung if he really wanted to talk about Ah-ra. Although he already knew of the truth, he wanted to hear it for himself from his girlfriend. He wanted to hear the news from her lips.

“ Baro-yah. Shin Ah-ra fooled me all these while.” Sandeul laughs and clenches his fists together.

“ What do you mean?” Baro glares at him.

“ She’s getting engaged to Jinyoung sunbaenim. She’s cheating on me.” Sandeul finally let’s his concerns out.

Baro breathes out heavily and shakes his head in denial.

“ No. I don’t think so. Why are you saying that? Yah, Lee Sandeul. Jinyoungie hyung, is her childhood friend. I don’t know why you’re speaking like this but on your first date with Ah-ra. He had planned out the date for you. Me, Gongchan and hyung were spying on the both of you. The music, the fire sparklers. Everything was planned by Jinyoungie hyung himself! If he’s getting engaged to your girlfriend, why would he even plan such an event? Am I not right? Where do you get your sources from?” Baro chides Sandeul and finally reveals the secret.

“ What?! Spied on us?! Jinyoung sunbaenim? You? Gongchan?! Wait. You’re not lying to me right? I think you’re lying to me. It can’t be. I was alone with her. You’re joking. You’re just trying to cover Ah-ra up because you secretly like her right? I don’t understand a single word that you’re saying. You sound like a swindler to me. You smell like one and your feet smells!” Sandeul grabs his head and tries to process whatever that Baro had said to him.

Baro could only look on at the Sandeul who was having a mental breakdown.

“ Sandeul-ah. I can really justify that fact. I’ll whisper it to you. Calm down.” Baro pats his friend on the shoulders.

Sandeul moves his head up and down.

“ She bought you a black, red and white ear mufflers right? You even tried to hold her by the waist. That made your friend Gongchan squeal. Your face was as sour as a plum.” Baro whispers those words to Sandeul.

“ You…that’s true…” Sandeul remorsefully gazes into his best friend’s eyes.

There was really no way that Baro was lying. His words were accurate. Nobody knew about the ear muffler that Ah-ra had bought for him on his first date, it was also true that he had tried to hold her by the waist.

Sandeul looks out of the window with his puppy eyes. He was utterly disappointed with Dal-rae. Of course, she must have wanted him to help her achieve what she wanted.

“ Noona. I’ll treat you better from now on. I will shower Ah-ra with more love. Just like you, I had used Ah-ra for my ulterior motives but I changed my mind. She’s the first person to make me feel this way and she’s never lied to me. Don’t worry. We’ll still lead a happy life without making life unhappy for Ah-ra. I’m sorry.” Sandeul secretly prayed in his heart.

He brings up his hand to look at the watch that Ah-ra had given to him. He couldn't hide his happiness. 

" I miss you. I promise from tomorrow onwards, I'll be a better Sandeul for you!" Sandeul kisses the watch and eagerly looks out of the cab to see whether they were close to the destination.

---------------------------------------------

“ Loser!” Jinyoung showed his gums and flicked Ah-ra on the temple.

“ Oppa! That’s not fair! You’re always winning. Any way, why are we playing this lame game here?” Ah-ra questioned him and at the same time admired the river view.

Jinyoung pursed his lips and stared at her. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he had already known the truth. He wanted to just give her a hug and beat her repeatedly for being such a fool.

“ Did you think I brought you here for no reason? Yah. Look at the river. Calm isn’t it?” Jinyoung pointed to the river as he spoke.

Ah-ra nodded and focused.

“ What’s the difference between the river and the sea?” Jinyoung questioned her.

“ Difference? A river is a river. A sea is a sea. Obviously.” Ah-ra bluntly answered him.

Jinyoung sighed and shook his head.

“ I’ll give you 2 minutes. Go think about it.” Jinyoung reached for his phone to count down.

Ah-ra fiddled with her phone as she thought hard. It was quite a difficult question. She didn’t know whether to give him a scientific answer to the question or a literary answer. She bit her lips and stared hard into the calm waters of the river.

Jinyoung grinned while he observed her being deep in her thoughts. She was busily fiddling with her phone. His eyes widened as he saw the amulet hanging from Ah-ra’s phone.

“ Oh? What’s that? Looks new.” Jinyoung grabbed the phone and touched the love amulet.

“ Hey! You can’t touch that!” Ah-ra yelled at him and snatched the phone back.

“ Love amulet? Tsk. You believe in those type of things?” Jinyoung smirked and looked back to his phone. 30 seconds left.

“ Shh. I’m trying to think.” Ah-ra shushed him and continued to come up with an answer.

“ 5 seconds left… and… times up!” Jinyoung lied and quickly turned to look at her. There was actually 20 seconds extra but he was rushing.

Ah-ra raised her head and all of a sudden jumped.

“ I know! I know!” Ah-ra eagerly announced that she knew the answer.

“ Oh? Really?” Jinyoung tilted his head to the side and pouted.

“ It’s because…the sea is salty and the river is not! I’m definitely correct right?” Ah-ra confidently answered him.

Jinyoung slapped himself and could only ridiculously laugh.

“ Nope. You’re wrong. Look at the river, do you see waves?” Jinyoung asked her.

Ah-ra shook her head and tried to understand what he was trying to say to her.

“ I’ve always personally thought that the river and the sea are always different. Not because they are different water bodies. The river is always calm. Whereas, the sea is unpredictable. It can be beautiful and some times nice to look at. However, people shun the sea whenever there are rough waves or when the sea is rising. Do you see that? In life, we are always bound to face problems. It’s about how you handle it. What I want to tell you here is, I’m always here for you.” Jinyoung calmly explained to her and flashed a huge smile after saying those wise words.

Ah-ra’s eyes sparkled as she heard those inspiring words. For the first time, she was able to look straight into his eyes and not get nervous. She was really over him. She didn’t love him anymore, instead he was a good role model to her. Just like Shinwoo.

“ I guess this is why you’re a talented song composer.” Ah-ra complimented him and turned to face the front.

“ Ha-ha. Yah. I’m going to the toilet. I’ll be back. Stay here. Don’t move till I return. Alright?” Jinyoung smiled and carefully stood up.

“ Eung. Be fast. I don’t want to sit alone.” Ah-ra listened to him and shifted her attention to her phone.

Jinyoung painfully walked away from her. He knew that was the only way to cheer her up. He can’t be selfish. He quickly picked up his pace and got to the nearest shop selling souvenirs. 

" There are times that I want to let you go, but sometimes I wouldn't want to let you go. So before my heart wants to let you go, growing old together is not a bad idea. If only I hadn't been the stupid and blind one. For now, I'll lend you my shoulders whenever you need it. Then, if the time comes where you and Sandeul don't work out. I will not hesitate to come to you." Jinyoung regretfully shook his head as he thought to himself.

He knew that was the only way to cheer her up. He can’t be selfish. He quickly picked up his pace and got to the nearest shop selling souvenirs

“ Hello. I’m sorry to bother you but is there any way that you could help me?” Jinyoung asked the owner for help.

“ Yes?” the girl blushed and offered help to Jinyoung.

“ I would like to buy that yellow umbrella. Could you tie this to the umbrella and also keep this letter with you. Pass it to a person called Lee Sandeul. Lee Sandeul.” Jinyoung repeated himself and quickly left the scene after doing so.

As soon as he got far enough, he whipped his phone out and dialed for Sandeul’s number. He cleared his throat and kicked the pebbles that were on the ground.

Sandeul: Sunbaenim?

Jinyoung: Oh. Lee Sandeul. I’m sorry. I can’t meet you but I left something for you. Go and pick it up. It’s at a souvenir shop. A girl wearing a pink jacket owns it. Bye! Be sure to get it! Understand?

Sandeul: Araso. Thank you.

Sandeul hanged up and almost cursed. He had travelled all the way to Han river to just receive something? The thought of it made him furious. He got worried for nothing.

“ Yah. Cha Baro. Jinyoung sunbaenim said he left something for me at a souvenir shop. Pfft.” Sandeul huffed and puffed as he walked towards the shop.

“ Haha! Jinyoungie hyung can be funny sometimes. I wonder what he left for you there.” Baro mocked Sandeul and tried to catch up with him.

Sandeul squinted as soon as he saw a souvenir shop. The girl wore a pink jacket.

“ There it is!” Sandeul exclaimed and ran to the shop.

“ Wait for me!” Baro yelled and finally caught up with Sandeul. It was the first time his best friend had ran faster than him.

Sandeul huffed and puffed as he placed his hands on the makeshift table of the souvenir shop.

“ A friend of mine said that he left something for me here. What is it?” Sandeul questioned the girl and attempted to catch his breath.

“ Ah. Lee Sandeul right?” the girl called out for his name just to double confirm.

“ Yes. Yes. I’m Sandeul.” Sandeul got a little bit impatient.

Baro cracked up a bit and peeked over to look at the girl bending down to get something. She came up with a yellow umbrella and also a letter.

“ Umbrella?!” Sandeul shrieked in dismay.

“ Yeah! Why umbrella? Is he trying to play some kind of joke on you?” Baro laughed and snatched the umbrella from Sandeul.

Sandeul proceeded to receive the letter from the girl. It was neatly sealed. He bowed and walked a little bit further from the souvenir shop. He and Baro sat on the bench to open the letter up.

“ Oh? What is it. Hurry up.” Baro hurried Sandeul to just tear the letter open.

Sandeul hurriedly open the envelope and finally grabbed the paper in his hands. His hands and eyes trembled as he read the letter.

Sandeul-ah. This is Ah-ra. I I I think that I might just want to end my life now. I’m at the Han river now. I miss you.

Love, Shin Ah-ra.

Sandeul threw away the letter and desperately stood up. He covered his face and tried to calm himself down. All of a sudden, he found himself turning around trying to spot Ah-ra.

“ Sandeul-ah! Let’s split up! You go that way! I’ll go this way! Go on! Hurry! We have to find her!” Baro panicked and unknowingly brought the umbrella along with him.

Sandeul nodded and ran in the speed of light. This time he was really going to find his love.

Baro sighed and also ran in every direction to stop Ah-ra from doing whatever she had said in the ‘letter’. All of a sudden it started to drizzle. Baro’s first instincts were to open the umbrella up and protect him from the rain. All of a sudden he felt bad for Sandeul who was now probably running in the rain without and umbrella. Also, for Ah-ra who was now probably going to jump in the water.

 “ Oh?” Baro stopped and ogled at the neat scrawls that were on the paper covered with plastic.

“ Shin Ah-ra, Lee Sandeul. The both of you are reading this now right? It’s probably going to rain soon. Now that you opened the umbrella up… the both of you are seeing this right? I just wanted to clear this up. Before things get out of control, I want the both of you to live a happy life. I’m not really sure about whether the two of you are going to marry each other, but for sure all I want to do is bless the both of you. Sandeul-ah, the girl next to you is a big fool. She’s been lying about losing all of her memories of me. ( Everyone.) She’s been suffering alone. Now, don’t hate her for deceiving you. Shin Dal-rae. It’s because of her that Ah-ra is keeping shut. So please, hit her head for me. Give her a hug and tell her that she’s the bravest person on earth. Ah-ra, I'm sorry for not telling you earlier...I only wanted to cheer you up. Being with Sandeul makes you happy right? Smile.” Baro read it with his deep voice.

Baro looked around in despair and ran in Sandeul’s direction. He had to tell him this.

--------------------------------

“ Ah-ra! Shin Ah-ra!” Sandeul screamed at the top of his lungs as he tried to look for her.

His eyes were slowly starting to fill up with tears. He started to regret for treating her badly in the past. For making use of her to get to Dal-rae. Now that he was really sure of his feelings for her, he just couldn’t stop crying. The rain obstructed his eyesight and he couldn’t see properly. Those made him even feel worst.

“ I’m useless! I can’t even find her!” Sandeul hit himself and started to grab every person that he could see.

“ Ahjusshi, have you seen a girl with brown eyes? She-she has long wavy hair and she…” before Sandeul could even finish his sentence the man had already walked off.

Desperate, he ran to a lady who was sitting on the bench. His vision was fuzzy. The lady appeared to be covering her head with her hands. She too was caught in the rain.

“ Miss! I’m sorry. Have you seen a lady? Looking distraught? Uh. Bro-brown eyes. Brown eyes. Brown…” Sandeul bursts out crying and covers his face.

“ Sandeul?” Ah-ra confusingly stares at him.

The rain was getting heavier by the minute. She carefully tucked her phone in her pocket and tried to grab hold of the situation.

“ Babo! Babo! What were you trying to do?! Oh?!” Sandeul held her knees and cried onto them.

“ Yah… what’s going on…” Ah-ra bit her lips and looked around.

“ Don’t you ever do this to me again! I’ll hate you for life… How can you so easily end your life? Oh?” Sandeul cried even louder this time.

“ End my life? Wait. This… Jinyoung oppa?! He did this?” Ah-ra finally caught on to the situation since Jinyoung was still not back.

Sandeul wipes away his tears and kept quiet.

“ What were you saying?” Sandeul uttered those words in his nasal voice. His eyes were red from the unnecessary crying.

“ It’s raining. We should get shelter. Haiz. I’ll explain to you lat-“ as Ah-ra tried to calm Sandeul down, she heard the bell on the amulet ring.

The amulet was dangling from her pocket. It rang non-stop. There was no wind. She was sure. Unless, the raindrops were hitting it.

“ It really works!” Ah-ra hugged Sandeul and didn’t let him go.

“ What works?! Seriously…At least get some shelter before you want to reconcile with him.” Baro mocked the both of them and passed the umbrella to Ah-ra..

With the umbrella covering both her head and Sandeul’s head. The bell rang again. Time stood still as Baro stared into her eyes. All it took was 60 seconds for him to fall in love with her.

“ Andwae!” Baro slapped himself and closed his eyes.

20 minutes later…

Sandeul sneezed continuously and shivered. Ah-ra apologetically looked at him and wiped his face with her sleeves.

“ I’m sorry.” Ah-ra said remorsefully.

Sandeul bursts into tears again. Never in his life had he ever got so worried, she was the first and only person to give him a good scare.

“ Jinyoung sunbaenim. I hate him. Ahahang…”

“ Sandeul-ah. Calm yourself down. Drink this. It’ll keep you warm.” Baro advises him.

Ah-ra looked around the café and gave a huge sigh. How could Jinyoung do such a thing? It was just too ridiculous. She should have known the moment she stepped out of the house that something was fishy.

“ Ah-ra. Sandeul. I have something to show the both of you.” Baro announced and brought the umbrella to the table.

“ Yah…why are you bringing an umbrella to the table. It’s unhygienic.” Sandeul complained and pushed the umbrella away. Even though yellow was his favorite color, he didn’t want to see it.

“ I’m not showing it to you because I like it. It’s important.” Baro tore the piece of clear plastic that was tied onto the umbrella.

Sandeul immediately snatched the thing that was on Baro’s hands. Ah-ra widened her eyes and ignored the sight. She just ignorantly sipped her drink. Sandeul’s eyes scrambled through the paper. He was overcome with mixed emotions. There was just too much to digest. After reading, he placed the paper down and turned to look at his girlfriend.

“ You big fat liar! How can you do this to yourself? Oh? Why? Why? Why make yourself miserable? At least you could have told me. Why do you like to suffer alone? Oh? Don’t you know that many misunderstandings can occur because of this? You’re just going to accumulate all of your troubles and then one day you’re going to explode like a filled balloon.” Sandeul raised his voice at Ah-ra and proceeded to lightly hit her back.

“ Yah…don’t hit her. It’s not like she wanted to hide it from us right? It’s because of her sister. She’s a sensible girl.” Baro tried to protect Ah-ra with his body.

Ah-ra raised her eyebrows and immediately grabs the paper from Sandeul’s hands. Her eyes scattered all over reading it. Her hands couldn’t stop trembling. Again, this was coming from Jinyoung. How did he know? That was all she thought of when she placed the paper down.

“ Don’t tell me I spilled the beans while I was drunk.” Ah-ra thought to herself.

“ I’m going to wash my face. Where’s the toilet. I’ll be back soon.” Sandeul excused himself and went in the direction of the washroom.

Ah-ra nodded and whipped out her phone to make a call to Jinyoung. The phone was now in her hands, without her knowing it, the bell rang again. Ah-ra turned to look at it for herself.  There was definitely no wind, no raindrops. She looked up and saw Baro staring at her.

“ WHAT?” Baro got a little bit agitated with her looking at him like that.

“ How does the bell even work? It’s moving when there’s no wind! Sandeul is not even here. Maybe it’s signaling to me that my beautiful target is gone. Yeah, right. I should probably throw this away. It’s not working.” Ah-ra thought to herself and warmed herself by placing her hands on the warm cup.

Baro cupped his chin with his hands and sneakily stole a glance at Ah-ra. His plan failed, he was caught.

“ What are you looking at?” Ah-ra laughed and stared at him.

“ Nothing. I’m just thankful to you. For a moment, I was really worried. Sandeul can get very sensitive at times. He doesn’t show it, but he is. I’ll tell you a secret, whenever he’s happy. He listens to sad songs.” Baro tried to strike up a conversation.

“ He listens to sad songs when he’s happy? How about the songs that he listens to when he’s sad?” Ah-ra questions Baro further.

“ That’s a good question. Lucky for you, I have the answer. The answer is~~ Sad songs!” Baro claps and grins, revealing his toothy smile.

Sandeul came back to the table looking pretty much pale.

“ Ah… I’m having a stomach ache all of a sudden.” Sandeul hugs his stomach and bit his lips.

“ What did you eat for breakfast?” Baro questions him.

“ Kimchi pancakes?” Sandeul whines and slightly showed his teeth to express his discomfort.

Ah-ra stood up and helped Sandeul to get up. After all, he was now drenched because of her. Baro got to the other side and also supported him. Surprisingly, Sandeul wasn’t heavy. That was a first for Baro. Although Sandeul appeared to look like as if he was heavy, he was quite light.

“ Sandeul-ah. Just endure it for a while. We’ll take a cab home.” Baro tries to soothe Sandeul and at the same time hails for a cab.

“ Shin Ah-ra. I’ll deal with you tomorrow. Bye.” Before Sandeul could even give her  a hug, Baro pushes him in.

“ Ah-ra. Call us when you reach home. I would have sent you home if it wasn’t for Sandeul and his stomach. Take care.” Baro bows politely and boards the cab.

Ah-ra waved till the cab was out of sight. She heaved a sigh of relief and could only thank Jinyoung for making her feel better. 

-----------------------------

" Baro... I'm dying. My stomach hurts..." Sandeul complained and rubbed his stomach.

" You only have yourself to blame. Do you need me to prick your thumb for you? Where's the needle? It should be around here somewhere." Baro searched around the house and finally found the box of needles.

Sandeul jumped and immediately stood up straight.

" No no. I'm alright. It's okay. You can keep it. I'm feeling better just by looking at the needles. You know I'm scared of knives and needles...so put that away." Sandeul frowns and lies down on the couch.

Baro chuckles and gave Sandeul a pat on the back. It was indeed a wakeup call for him.

“ If what Dal-rae said was true about Jinyoung sunbaenim getting engaged to Ah-ra, she indeed deserves someone like him. Look at me. I’m nothing. I’m even living off you like a parasite. I’m really nothing when I look at myself. I-" Sandeul bitterly utters those words and casts his gaze to the floor.

“ Hush. Say no more. What is this thing that you're caught up in again? Love? Do you even know the true meaning of love? Deul-ah, take this opportunity to make things better. Jinyoungie hyung, is setting up a stable base for you. He's helping you.” Baro gave a piece of advice to Sandeul.

“  Helping me?” Sandeul adds in.

“ Actually, the day Ah-ra stayed overnight at your house. He had overheard everything between you and Dal-rae. I even told him that you might hurt Ah-ra. I was so scared then! What did you expect me to do? I really respect him a lot. Things would have gotten very complicated if he didn’t do this. He could have easily told Ah-ra about you and Dal-rae. Instead, he gave you his trust to love Ah-ra. That’s what I would call unconditional love. I have this feeling that Jinyoungie hyung secretly loves her but doesn’t dare to confess because you’re already in a relationship with her. So he can only give you his blessings.” Baro finally finishes his long speech and turns to look at Sandeul who was on the verge of tears.

“ Is it really that easy? Just by one action…everything is solved? Everyone is happy?” Sandeul voices out.

Baro nods his head and squeezes Sandeul’s shoulders. He was trying to give some support to his best friend.