Ok, so this time you're a woman named Ari, about 28~33 years old whose had family problems, multiple heart breaks, and now your father has passed away after being in a self-induced coma via carbonmonoxide poisoning (aka brain dead) for several years. Sungmin is the CEO of a big trading company called SM Co., and he's one of your ex-boyfriends, and the only one that you stayed on good terms with. You're the one that broke up with him, by the way.

An Evergreen Heart

You sit in the funeral home even after everyone else has paid their respects and left, crying painfully by yourself. You hated how everyone was like a pierrot; all makeup and fake smiles and condolences when truly they had no idea how it was being the daughter of a moron that used illegal funds and fraud to earn his wealth and failed at suicide, landing himself in a brain-dead/comatose state for several years. Yes, that moron was also a very gentle man that loved his wife and only daughter, often taking your mother out on romantic dates and going to see the movies and musicals with the two of you. And he always bought a big bucket of popcorn for you.

"Ari-noona . . ." you hear someone calling you, lightly squeezing your shoulder as he pulls you closer to him. He takes your hand and squeezes it. "I'm not going to lie and say everything is going to be ok, but . . ." He takes a tissue and wipes your nose for you as you cry pitifully into his black-suited shoulder. "I'll be here if you need me." You're grateful that Sungmin has always been there for you, even after you broke up with him, but . . .

"Sungmin . . . why did we break up?" you find yourself asking while numbly staring at your father's picture and hiccupping as your sobs started to fade away.

He looks at you, unsure if he should be amused or offended. "Why are you asking me? You're the one who asked, 'can we just be friends?'"

You scrub furiously at your eyes, wanting the tears to stop. "Oh right, it was my fault," you laugh weakly. "Whatever cutie steals your heart is a lucky one . . . thanks for being here, buddy." You close your eyes and sigh, suddenly feeling drowsy after crying so much. "Hey, Sungmin?"

"Noona?"

"You're the most wonderful man I've been with, I don't know why you stay with an old lady with me . . . there's so many sweet, pretty young things that can treat you better . . . I'm sure your girl wants to know where you are and who you're with all the time . . ." you mumble, drifting off to sleep.

And before you slip into a blissful dream, you think you hear Sungmin say something . . .

"Because Ari-noona is too beautiful . . . Ari-Ari, fighting . . ." your mind almost sees him smiling and cheering you on, patting your head like that dog that the two of you raised while you were dating him.

How is puppy-Ari nowadays, anyway?

"Ugh, stop . . ." you groan groggily, rolling away from the slobbering tongue, but it follows you and finds your face no matter how much you squirm. Woof!

"Ari-ya," someone calls, laughing softly. And the tongue leaves you alone. You open your eyes and look around, feeling confused as this was not your room. Heck, it wasn't even your house.

"Noona, feeling better now?"

You whip your head around and see Sungmin sitting at the piano and squint; the sunlight was too bright and it looked as if he and the huge dog he was playing with were glowing.

"Yeah . . . ?" You look around, still confused. This was Sungmin's living room, you realize after looking around and seeing all the pink furniture. But didn't you go home after the . . . ?

"Ari, attack!" He points at you and the dog bounds joyfully back to your side, tail whipping furiously this way and that way as it slobbers your face.

"Ah," you scream and giggle as you recognize the floppy, triangular ears, pointy black snout, and tan paws of the doberman mix. "Hey girl, you look like you've been well." The dog lets out a happy whine as you look into its large, round brown eyes. Then you narrow your eyes. "Our Ari wasn't so big, did you replace her with another Ari?"

You hear Sungmin huff as he kneels next to the couch you're lying on and look at him; he's pouting slightly, and you can't help but laugh at that familiar facial expression.

"At least our Ari didn't dump me and pick up a bunch of mongrels afterwards." The dog turns her attention to him and barks. He rubs her face and sighs. "How can you forget our Ari? She's every bit as adorable as when we met her. Almost exactly the same, like an evergreen," he says to you while looking at the dog.

"Hey, not all of them were bastards--" you try to say, but after thinking a bit . . . yeah, you dated a bunch of turds after Sungmin. "And what do you mean she hasn't changed? She's gotten older--"

"She's still beautiful to me, though," he cuts you off, rising. "Gotta go get her breakfast." He leaves you with the dog, who looks after Sungmin for all about two seconds before bounding towards her food bowl in the corner.

You watch the dog eat and chuckle. Good to know you don't give him a headache by overturning the bowl like you used to. You stretch and hop off the couch, looking around. Pictures of the two of you still decorate the shelves, and you can't help but wonder why. Walking to the bookself behind the piano, you notice an open jewelry box infront of picture that the two of you took at the top of Namsan tower. You pick the picture off the shelf, and your eyes water as you look at it and remember that day; it was the day that was exactly one month before you broke up with him. Why did we break up? You see in the picture that the two of you were happy and smiling at each other after writing messages for each other on the locks and pinning them to fence,  and a tear splashes onto the glass. This was a happy time when you were a lot younger, and Sungmin was finishing up his studies at college. This was before all the drama with your family happened, too. You set the picture back in its original place and take the box off the shelf and your eyes widen as you see what is inside. Inside was the couple rings you both wore. Why hasn't he thrown these away?

"Because they were an expensive gift from Noona," you jump as you hear his voice from behind you. "I got strawberry jelly doughnuts and hot caramel macchiatos if that's ok with you."

And just like that, you realize that you were an idiot for breaking up with him. Why does he still remember that I like hot drinks and strawberry jelly?

He smiles and hugs you. "Ari-Ari, fighting!" He chuckles as you cry again. "And thinking now, you broke up with me because we both got too busy to see each other much . . ."

"Yeah, and you were always making business calls, even when I was with you," You wipe your nose on your sleeve, earning a tsk from him as he hands you the tissue box.

"Well, SM Co. is big now, and I have people to help me manage it," he smiles. "Well?"

"'Well' what?" You blink at him.

He takes the jewelry box from you, removing the ring with his name inscribed on the rim from the box. "Want to go to Namsan with me today?"

You stare at him and he huffs and pouts again.

"Geez, work with me, Noona! I'm trying to tell you--"

"You still like me?"

He scratches his head, obviously blushing as he can't look you in the eye.

"But why? I'm not pretty, I'm not young--"

And suddenly, he kisses you, and you find yourself closing your eyes and kissing him back. Inhaling deeply, his slightly fruity and piney cologne fills your head and you think, ah, he still wears the same perfume.

"You're still the same, Noona," he pinches your nose to stop it from dripping. "Every bit as beautiful as when we first met. And your nose still drips evergreen."

"It does not!"

END

20130727 - Sungmin's segment, completed~~ It's so short and choppyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy T_T and typo filled, I bet~ ^-^ SM Co. ha~~

20130806 - Jaedelle has a horrible habit of going back and hunting down typos in everything she writes. Saw how I spelled "grateful" and had a facepalm moment =_=