After asking the taxi driver to drive her round the area, Ji Hyo finally returned to the park. From a distance, she scanned for Jong Kook and she found him sitting on the same bench where she had left him. She hid behind a big tree and watched him. Her heart went out to him when she saw how he looked. His back hunched, his head hung low and his shoulders drooped. Where was the proud and strong man whom she loved? Her head stopped her feet from running to him. Yes, she was the one who caused him to look like this. It was for his good that she was doing this. He deserved someone better than she was.

“I’m sorry, Jong Kook oppa. I just want the best for you. Forgive me.” She whispered in his direction knowing that he could not hear her.

With his head hanging low, a teardrop fell off his face and landed on the ground, followed the next drop, then the next. Jong Kook wondered if his love had hurt her so much that only way out for them was to separate. He could not accept and did not want this to be their ending. “I can’t just give up. I have to let her know that we can work this out.” He kept repeating these sentences to himself until he was fully convinced. He stood up and walked to his car.

He returned to her apartment. He poured away the porridge on the stove and cooked a fresh pot. He waited for her to come home. He tried calling her but she didn’t pick up his calls. He tried sending her messages but she didn’t reply them. He waited.

As the hours had passed and the sky was slowly turning from blue to orange, she pulled herself up and took a taxi back to her apartment. However, as she walked towards her apartment, she saw his car. Instinctively, she turned around and ran. She ran fast and hard until her recent injury screamed at her. She stopped at an alley to catch her breath and to ease her pain. She hid herself in a stairway. She could not go home. She suddenly felt so lost and alone.

She thought of going to Jae Suk and Suk Jin but she was afraid that they would blame themselves because she and Jong Kook didn’t work out. She was even more afraid that they would try to convince her to return to him. She was worried that her resolution to leave Jong Kook could not withstand the persuasion from these two smooth-tongued men.

She wanted to go home, to her parents, to her mother. Her pride and shame stopped her from doing so. She didn’t want her mother to see her in this state. Her mother had trusted her judgement. She could not let her mother know that she had failed. She would go home when she was whole again, not when she was so broken.

She gave him a slight nod and asked, “Where is Gary oppa?”

“He had gone home.”

She looked around uncertainly. For a moment, she felt totally lost. She didn’t expect not to find Gary. He was always there when she needed him. She didn’t know where to go next.

After a long pause of silence, she finally said to Gil, “I’m sorry to have disturbed you. Goodbye.” She turned around to leave the place.

Gil saw the lost look on Ji Hyo’s face and heard the tremors in her voice. He quickly stopped her from leaving. “Ji Hyo, don’t go yet. I’ll give you Gary’s address.” He quickly wrote Gary’s address on a piece of paper and passed it to her. Gary’s house was not far from his studio. Apart from Gil and Haha who had sent Gary home after he got drunk, his other friends had not been to his house before. They gathered either in his studio or his restaurant. 

“Thank you.” She gave Gil a slight bow and left the studio.

Then he heard another round of knocking. When the knocking stopped this time, he heard a soft familiar voice. “Gary oppa, are you there?”

He recognised that voice. He bolted out of his bed and pulled on his shirt. He rushed to the door and opened it. He saw Ji Hyo standing before him. His surprise turned into worry immediately. She looked scared and lost. Her hair was messy and limp. She was pale. Her nose and her eyes were red. She looked so small in the oversized jacket which was draping over her shoulders. He wondered what had happened to her and where she had been.

The moment she saw him, she cried out to him, “Please help me, Gary oppa!”

“Come in first, Ji Hyo.” He quickly ushered her into his house. He picked up his jacket which was lying on his couch and tossed it across to another nearby chair. He asked her to sit on the couch and he sat on the coffee table facing her. He helped her removed the jacket on her shoulders and left it on the armrest of his couch.

“Ji Hyo, what had happened? How do you want me to help you?” He asked her with concern and worry. He wondered how she had found out where he lived but this was not important to him now. What’s important was why she was here and why she looked so sad and broken.

“Can you please don’t tell Jong Kook oppa and others that I’m here?” She looked pleading at him. She still remembered that instance where he had arranged for Jong Kook to meet her at Granny’s house. She didn’t want him to bring Jong Kook here again.

He wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing by agreeing to her request but he could not bring himself to deny her. “All right, I won’t tell anyone you are here.”

She felt a sense of relief from his words. She looked around his house. It was indeed a bachelor pad. His couch had marked the boundary between his sleeping area and living area. In his sleeping area, he had a king-sized bed and it was unmade. She took a glance at his tousled hair and deduced that he must have been sleeping when she arrived. In his living area, he had a writing desk and a chair. His jacket was now on his chair. On his desk was a table lamp, a stack of papers and a pen holder. Not all pens were in the pen holder. A few of them were lying on the stack of papers. There were some coins and other small items on his desk. She spotted a small car replica among them. Next to his writing desk was a guitar which he kept upright in a stand. In front of the couch was the coffee table that he was sitting on. Hanging on the wall across the couch was a television and she realised that the television could be viewed from the bed as well. Apart from the living and sleeping areas, there were a dry kitchen and a bathroom.

She spotted some unwashed laundry lying on various parts of the apartment floor. She reminisced that her bedroom was messy like this before she got together with Jong Kook. Washing laundry and making bed were not of high priority to her then. They were still not of high priority to her but Jong Kook liked his place neat and tidy. She frowned at her thoughts of Jong Kook and her heart felt another tightening sensation.

He saw her frown and followed her glance to his dirty laundry which included his boxers and briefs. He was instantly embarrassed and he quickly stood up to gather them. In his hurry, he kept picking up some and dropping some. She let out a little chuckle when she saw how clumsy he was in his rush attempt to tidy up the place. When he heard her chuckle, he looked at her embarrassingly and smiled. She returned it with a tight one but it was the biggest smile that she ever had for days.

When he had placed all the dirty clothes together in one corner, he took his seat on the coffee table again. He was still wondering why she had come to him.

She knew that Jong Kook had not given up on her when she saw his car at her apartment. She must find a way to make him give up. She must find a way to end it all. She knew it wasn’t right to ask this of Gary but since Jong Kook already thought there was something between them, she might as well make use of his doubt to end it all. She apologised to Gary one more time in her heart.

She gestured for him to sit next to her. He joined her on the couch hesitantly and they sat uncomfortably close together due to the couch size. He tried shifting himself to the side as much as possible to leave a gap between them. She suddenly turned to face him and her body leaned against his. She closed her eyes and whispered close to him, “Jong Kook and I have broken up. Please help me end it with Kim Jong Kook.” She kissed Gary’s jaw.

He was shocked first by her revelation and then by her kiss. Before he could recover from his shock, his body was consumed by a fire set by her lips and body. Her lips were moving along his jawline and her body was leaning against his. His heart thumped fast and madly. It was so easy for him to get lost with the sensations that he was having but her words played on his mind. He could think of only two possibilities for her to do this and it hurt that both reasons did not involve her affection for him personally. He guessed that she was doing this to forget Jong Kook or, for a more horrifying reason, she was doing this to make it irreversible for her to go back to Jong Kook.

“Stop, Ji Hyo.” He pushed her away but held her shoulders firmly. He looked into her eyes and was troubled by the glassiness of her orbs.

“You don’t like me?” She asked in a broken voice which he could hardly bear to hear.

He caressed her face with one hand and used the other to pull her head close to his. He kissed her lips firmly and long enough to let her know that he desired her. “I don’t only like you. I love you and I always have. I love you too much that I can’t let you do this to yourself. You don’t love me.”

She heard his words. Both her heart and eyes swelled. She gazed into his eyes and felt his honesty. “Help me,” she asked of him helplessly.

He hugged her tightly and said to her, “Cry all you want now.” At his words, her tears flowed again. She cried for both her lost love and lost child. “Gary, help me.” She pleaded him in between her sobs. His heart tore at each of her pleas.

When her sobbing stopped, he let go of her and took a can of beer from his fridge. He passed it to her and said, “Have a drink and go to sleep. I’ll sleep over at my studio tonight. We will talk tomorrow morning.”

“You don’t have to go.” She said quickly and stood up. She reached out for her bag but he stopped her.

“No, you stay here. Don’t go anywhere else. I will come back tomorrow morning and we will go for breakfast together.” Somehow, she felt reassured with his clear instructions.

Just before he left, he reached out to her with his pinkie finger. When she hooked hers with his, he turned his wrist so that their thumbs were touching. He gave their sealed hands a shake and reassured her, “I won’t tell anyone you are with me. Just sleep.” He gave her one more smile before he closed the door while facing her. He lingered outside his door for a little while before going off.