11.00 p.m.

Kim Residence

Yoobin let out a deep, long breathing.

“Yes, yes. That’s more like it.” Jin nodded, elevating his open palms up and down like an orchestra conductor doing his job. Right after the commotion outside the hospital, Haeri and Minjae decided it was best for Yoobin to rest well with her family. It was the best way to get her calmed down and secure again. But then, when Yoobin returned to her parents, there was always this certain burden that she had to carry around no matter how much she hated it. It was that burden of having to see the worried look on their faces, probably glazed over their disappointment. That burden of feeling humiliated despite the rumor not being true but her parents trusted her anyway. It was tiring, the world was. She went to the kitchen and sat on the deck outside, hoping for some quite time, but of course, Jin had to follow her and offered her his advice.

“I feel calmer now,” Yoobin muttered after Jin’s advice, her eyes directed at the bandage around her knee. She lied. Her mind was so clouded there was no space to squeeze ‘calm’ inside. Everything was mixed up inside; guilt, shame, anger. She was experienced but yet she found herself struggling, ridiculously so.

“See? I told you.

Yoobin forced a smile, which lasted for three seconds.

Jin sighed and let himself fall to the ground.

“I give up. It’s not working, isn’t it?”

Yoobin shook her head with meek movements.

“I’ll be fine,” Yoobin nonchalantly told him. Her tone wasn’t convincing, but Jin could tell that she meant it. Maybe it was that defeated smile on her face. A smile that didn’t meant that she was losing sprit, but that she was getting the hang of the situation and that there was no other way but to move on on the thorny path.

-

The next morning, Yoobin was awakened by Jin’s whining. He sat on the edge of her bed and bounced up and down, begging her to take him to the local supermarket. He heard that there will be some sort of sashimi preparation demonstration or something. And so, Yoobin’s plan to sleep late was ruined with an early grocery trip.

Yoobin had all the items in her list (which was prepared by her mother) checked already. There were ten items in total but somehow, her trolley seemed to be filled with way more than the listed items. Yoobin sighed as she fished a big packet of gummy bears out of the trolley and hung it in front of Jin’s face.

“There is no gummy bear in this list, Jin. Put it back.”

Jin pouted. “But I want it.”

“But you already put M&M’s in this cart. And do you have to buy everything in large packet? That’s it. I’m putting all of these back.” Yoobin finished with a huff as she pushed her trolley back into the aisles with whining Jin following from behind.

“Ah, don’t put back my Mars!”

“Mars or M&M's. Choose one!”

“I’d take M&M's anyday.”

Both Yoobin and Jin turned around abruptly at the answer coming from outside of their little conversation bubble. It was Junghyun, waving at them with a casual half-smile. He had a long-sleeved black t-shirt with the sleeves pulled up to his elbows, paired with a simple washed out jeans. He took a small packet of M&M's from the rack and carelessly threw in in his basket.

“Hey, Junghyun hyung! Hi! How’s your waist?” Jin greeted cheerfully.

“Hyung?” Yoobin whispered, tilting her head towards Jin, slightly hiding her eyes from Junghyun’s. Jin looked back at Yoobin with a look that asked ‘What’s wrong with calling him hyung?’

“I’m all good now. I hope you guys are too.” Junghyun gave them a lopsided smile. Suddenly, Yoobin felt inferior against him. He probably had heard all those bad rumors about her and her ex-boyfriend.

“Hey, um…” Yoobin finally spoke. She smiled at him, hoping that she didn’t look as awkward or embarrassing as she imagined she would. Should she bring up about that accident? They hadn’t meet at all after that. And they were both on a grocery trip, which was not quite the common setting for an official apology?

“If you want to talk about the accident, then, don’t mind about it. Everything’s been taken care of by your agency so all’s good now, I guess. Sorry for yelling at you that day too.” Junghyun shrugged.

“Ah, yeah…” She was so embarrassed right now. Yes, everything was taken care by her agency, but she hadn’t personally apologized to him. She was curious about what happened to that important meeting he had missed too.

“Do you live around here?” Junghyun asked casually.

“Ah, yeah. My parents live just around the corner.”

“I actually just moved to this neighborhood a week ago. I live at that red apartment building nearby.”

“Wow! That place is right beside Yoobin noona’s house!” Jin blurted, amused.

“Really?” He raised an eyebrow at her, amused.

“Yeah.” She wasn’t sure why but it felt so awkward right now.

“Hey, hyung! My noona is taking me to an awesome place for breakfast. Come and join us!”

“Can I?” He asked Yoobin, smiling. He had such a nice smile. Now that she noticed, he had very attractive broad shoulders. Seemed like he worked out a bit, but not too much. She really liked guys with a little bit of muscles, but not too buff like some of her peers, like Chansung or Taecyeon.

Yoobin quickly shook her head, shaking off the strayed thoughts.

“No?” He asked again.

“Yes! I-I mean, of course,” Yoobin laughed. Oh, good, she told herself. She had to let him see that dorky laugh she did whenever she felt embarrassed or sheepish. Junghyun simply smiled back at her. Those straight white teeth left an unforgettable image in her head. She couldn’t stop seeing his gorgeous smile in her mind now.

“So what happened after you missed that meeting?” Yoobin finally got the chance to ask about it during their breakfast at a nearby restaurant that she often visited since she was young.

Junghyun simply shrugged. “We had to withdraw from the presentation. My boss went crazy even though he knew that I had to be admitted to the hospital.” He chuckled. “So I quit.”

“What? Why did you- How-”

“Don’t feel bad about it. I’ve been planning to quit for a while, but that day helped me made up my mind. Let’s just say that the workplace isn’t for the fainthearted and I just happen to be ready to broaden my experience somewhere else. Every single day I’ve been itching to quit the place,” he paused to chuckle, which made Yoobin laugh too. “It’s a little crazy considering I haven’t found a new job but I have some freelance works in my hands right now. They’re sufficient until I land a new job. Doesn’t matter soon or later.”

“Ugh…” Yoobin poured herself a cup of green tea. “I ruined everything.” She muttered to herself. Jin, on the other hand, was busy stuffing himself with food because he found the conversation topic to be boring.

“Hey, stop beating yourself for it. You’ll just get stressed.” Junghyun brushed it off and continued to eat comfortably.

“Yeah, I should stop doing that, ha,” Yoobin grinned sheepishly while scratching the back of her head. Junghyun chuckled at her reaction. She seemed totally different than the charismatic rapper persona she had on stage. This girl in front of him was so simple, candid and honest.

They briefly paused the conversation to focus on the meal. In the meantime, Junghyun diverted his attention at the tv hung at the corner of the restaurant. The flash news was on.

“Late news regarding Wonder Girls’ Kim Yoobin and her ex-boyfriend. She was previously accused of borrowing fifteen million won from her ex-boyfriend, who was a former staff at JYP Entertainment. Yesterday, the guy who claied to be her ex-boyfriend sent a voice message to the media, saying that he would release a tape of Yoobin if she doesn’t pay him back the money she owed him in the nearest time.”

Clank.

Yoobin dropped her metal spoon on the floor. All eyes were looking at her without discretion. She heard heightened mutters from all the people in the restaurant over the voice message of her ex played in the news.

Yoobin swallowed hard.

Jin looked up from his eating and scanned the restaurant, realizing the change of air.

Junghyun took out his wallet and left a couple of large bills on the table. Yoobin was too dazed, taken aback by the sudden news to even understand what he was trying to do. Junghyun grabbed Yoobin by her arms and pulled her out of that place as quick as he could. Junghyun led her to a rather secluded area nearby the shop lots and then worriedly eyed her over.

“Are you okay? Your face is red. Maybe we should sit down-“

“I’m fine.” Yoobin smiled, as wide as she could, throwing up her hands and waved it off.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’m going home. You should too.”

“Maybe I should walk you home. You know, just now…

“Yeah, I know. I’m fine. Really. I can walk home on my own. Right now it’s a little, you know, embarrassing, hah.” Yoobin let out an awkward laugh. “If only I have Harry Potter’s invisible cloak, you know what I mean?” Yoobin laughed again.

“Sorry.” Junghyun told her.

“Nah, what’s there to apologize about,” Yoobin shook her head, trying to look okay by masking her face with a smile. There was an awkward pause afterwards before she quickly blurted, “It’s not true though! There was no tape! There was no either!” She shook her head to emphasize the truth.

Junghyun nodded. He wanted to make her feel better, but there was only so much that words can do.

“Um, listen.” Junghyun suddenly said after another brief session of awkward silence.

“Huh?”

“I don’t know about other people, but, truthfully, it doesn’t matter to me. Even if you did had with him, why would it matter, right? If you did it, it was because you loved him.”

“Well, yeah… I loved him before. It was stupid and I hate to admit it, but it’s true.” Yoobin mumbled.

“I’ll walk you home. Come on.”

“Yeah. Thanks. A lot.” Yoobin finally shed off her happy mask and looked into his eyes properly because she meant each word she said just now. She put up a little smile which made her look gentle and fragile, because it was how she really felt at that moment.

“You’re welcome,” he assured her with another of his gorgeous smile.

Jin sat at the table and counted the bills that Junghyun left. He probably left a bit more than the actual amount of their ordered food.

“I’ll just finish eating all of these and then maybe ordered one more meal.” He told himself, nodded, and proceeded with his plan.

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter and snail paced update. Jsyk I'm still working on this story, even though I'm starting to think that it's becoming very cliche and boring OTL