This morning she’s off from work. Walking through the hospital's hallway towards the room in the corner. She imagines him sitting on his bed, still trying hard moving pencils on his fingers, hoping it would leave more meaningful word instead of messy lines on the paper. Bora wished she could do something for him thought. At least something to assure him those things will work out somehow. Bora wished she can do better than just accompany him to every therapy, spending more than a half of her day with him in a hospital, or holding his hand while he sleeps just to make sure that he won’t feel alone when he wakes up. Bora wished she could do more than that. She wished she can take at least half of his pain.

She arrived on his room, only to find it empty. He’s not there. She wonders is he having another therapy today. But then she looks at the window that show the hospital’s park scenery. She saw a familiar figure under the tree. Even though she can only see his back, she’s completely sure it is him. She wastes no time to walk towards the park.

“There you are. I was looking for you.” She said while approaching the figures on the wheelchair. Hoya turns around and weakly smiles at her.

“You’re not working?”

“I get a day off. This week’s headline has been handled by Yuna-unnie.” She said while sitting on the bench beside his wheelchair and facing him.

“You’re not taking a day off purposely just to meet me, right?” He frowned.

“What’s wrong if I purposely take a day off for you? Can’t I leave my work for a while to spend a day with my extremely handsome boyfriend?” She tries to say that cutely, but Hoya pouted instead, as if he just saw a horror scene.

“Ughh…stop doing that. I told you, your aegyo failed!” He shouts. Bora just laughs on that. She knows, Hoya is maybe the only boy in the whole South Korea who hates it when his girlfriend does aegyo.

“What are you doing here?” She asked while fixing the blanket on his lap, making sure that his leg doesn’t feel cold.

“Thinking.”

“About what?”

“I don’t know…a lot of things. Mostly about what I supposed to do since I’m dead bored in the room.” He sighed. Somehow his eyes look sad, or maybe just empty. Bora doesn’t sure. She just knows that those eyes must be hides a lot of things.

“Hoya, are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I? I have you here with me.” He smiles, trying to sound as cheerful as he can.

“Because I feel like you’re hiding something from me lately.”

Hoya is the worst person when it’s come to lying. He’s never good at deceiving people. This time Hoya really hopes that he can lie, but Bora always notices it right away. He just chuckled and looks down when she squeezed his hand.

“I’m sorry…I just…just don’t know how to let it out.” He scoffed.

“It’s okay…You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. I understand that.”

“I just feel…embarrassed. With my state right now.” Surprisingly he said that. Hoya laughs a little, trying to make it looks funny. But he continue to look down.

“Why?”

“I don’t know…I mean, I have you guys all around me. You stand by me and I have everything that I need. But seeing all affection directed towards me is not easy. I used to handle it all myself, but now I have to be the burden.”

“Hoya…” Bora held his hand tighter.

“I got it…okay…I know you will say that I’m not a burden. That it’s okay for me to lean on you. I know that clearly. It’s just…I’m not used to it. You know I used to be-“

“A solitude person?” Bora cut his babbling.

“How do you know?”

“Come on…How long I’ve been know you? I know it too, Hoya… You are such a solitude person. You once said that ‘when you can be alone, then you can be together with someone without taking advantage.’ Am I right?”

“Yeah…I thought that’s the art of loving.”

“And that’s right Hoya. Only not complete.” She smiles. Hoya looks at her in daze like a 7 years old kid who just being told that he answer the test wrong.

“You’re right when you said loving is being together without taking advantage or using them as an escape, because love is selfless. But loving also means trusting. Trusting the whole part of you to the people that you love, revealing all the good and the bad of yours and being accepted for that.” Bora stares at him lovingly, realizing how babyish Hoya’s face at this time.

“Don’t you trust me, Hoya?” She asked.

“Of course, I do trust you.”

“Then the game is over. Because I accept you. No matter how annoying, sassy, whinny and self-righteous you are.” She smiles while caressing Hoya’s hair that being brushed by the breeze.

“Because I love you…even though you’re scold me a lot when I do my fangirling activities.” She jokes and Hoya laughs on that.

“Since when you become so wise like this?”

“Don’t you remember? I was in literature Major. I have to sound wise on my writing assignment in the college.” She chuckled.

“So you compare me with your writing assignment? Oh, wait…don’t tell me that you just quoting the book.”

“A little bit.” She laughs. Hoya shook his head on disbelief, before finally laughs too.

“Woah…you’re unbelievable Yoon Bora.”

They both laugh out loud. Bora feels at ease, seeing Hoya’s laughing face is priceless. It feels like nothing can be better than this.

“I like it when you laugh like that. I missed that. My Hoaegi used to laugh like that.” She said playfully.

“How’s your Hoaegi laugh like?” He chuckled.

“You don’t remember? Well, I’ll make you remember then…” She said while cupping his face with her both hands. Hoya flustered a little, and she laughs seeing the blush on his cheeks. She leans closer to place her soft lips against Hoya’s pale one. She closes her eyes, realizing how much she missed this kiss. On the other hand Hoya just move along with her, feeling the longing affection that he’s been wait for. He giggles when they stop a little to take breathe.

“Now I remember.” He whispered.

“You do?”

“Yeah, but there’s people watching us. Some of them are underage.” He said playfully while his round eyes directing at some people in the park who walk and stare at them with various expression.

“You think that I care about that, Hoaegi?”

“Nope. Hoaegi doesn’t care about people around him too.” Hoya smiles before starts kissing her more passionately. Bora laughs between that. Gripping on Hoya’s hand tighter. It is sure not the first time they kiss, but Bora can't understand...she always feel the same fireworks everytime their lips meet. The joy, excitement and sincerity. Like nothing else matters.

“You remember when the last time we kissed in public is?” Hoya asked between the kiss.

“Of course. In front of the City Gallery Crossing. It was rained. We were fighting and about to break up. You chased me off the road in the night.” Bora said as she breathes.

“Yeah, and you were slapped me on the cheek.” He said bluntly, making Bora laughs.

“I bet that was hurt. I thought you’re gonna prolong my exes list, but turns out you forcefully kissed me in public.” She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t pretend like you didn’t enjoy that too.”

“I did. I hate to say that…but it feels like we’re in the movie. It was romantic.”

“Well, to be honest I was deadly embarrassed after that.” Hoya scoffed.

“What about now? Do you feel deadly embarrassed too?”

“Now? No…right now I just don’t care.” Hoya said before kissing her once more. They just giggled at the end. Hands intertwining, warm feeling on their chest as if nothing matters.

“I love you, Bora-ya… I’ve been saying that many times, but I just want to say that again.”

“It’s okay. I like it when you say it over and over.”

“I love you…please don’t ever leave me. Please stay with me.” Hoya sounds like pleading. Bora chuckled; she doesn’t understand why Hoya thinks that she will leave him. She places her palms on his cheeks while staring at him deeply.

“I love you too. There’s no way I will leave you, Howon-ah…”

***

Myungsoo smiles when he saw the girl in the red coat walking towards him. She casually sits across to him as if they’re close friend. Myungsoo doesn’t say anything; just give her a cup of Espresso that he bought earlier.

“Espresso Double Shot. Just like what you want.”

“Now you even know my coffee. By any means, are you start to stalking me?” She smirks. Myungsoo just scoffed.

“Kid, I’ll tell you…I’m not interest in girl in the uniform. Particularly if that girl likes to smoke, drinking and has a habit of runaway from home.” 

“Sarcastic old man.” She said coldly as taking a sip of her coffee. In a moment the cup is almost half empty. 

“Just drink it, and then we’ll go.”

“Why do you really want to go with me? It’s suspicious.” She said while playing with coffee cup on her hands.

“To be honest, I don’t know why I want to go with you. But it’s important for me to go there. Because it will be the last time.” Myungsoo said with wondering eyes. Soyou stares at him calmly, just like she's observing what's on his mind right now.

“Is that mean you won’t go there anymore?” 

"Maybe."

About 30 minutes drive leads those two people in the neighborhood area near Central District. Soyou just scans the surrounding around him with blank expression when Myungsoo tells her to get off. They arrived in front of a building that seems like a small galery. That place is closed and dark.

"Get off. We're here." Myungsoo said. Soyou take off her seatbelt as she get out from the car. Myungsoo looks at her suspicious expression and somehow he finds it cute how Soyou thought this building is a 'weird' place. Myungsoo walks towards the main entrance of the building as Soyou follows behind him. Turns out it's really a galery with a quite long hall way.

"It's upstairs." He pointed to the stairs that lead to somewhere darks in the second floor. Soyou just following him while her small eyes looking around to every corner of the hallway. The stair leads them to a corridor with a lot of room across each other. Myungsoo walks to the room in the middle of the corridor. W10, that's the number that plastered on the door. He takes a key from his pocket. In a moment he opens the door revealing a dark room that Soyou's not sure containing of what.

"Come in. This is my hidden safe."

Soyou hesistately enters the room. But after that Myungsoo turns on the light, revealing the true content of this room. That's the time when her expression changed. Her eyes got widened, and Myungsoo laughs because she looks so funny at this time.

"Woah...is this place really yours?" She asked while her eyes wandering through every inch of the wall in awe.

"Not for long. I rented this place using my part-time salary. I have no intention to prolong my rent."

Soyou walks to the middle of the room. She smiles as she looks around. The walls are filled with a lot of pictures. Mostly in duo-tone. She doesn't know much about photography, but she can tell that those photograph was taken and organized nicely. In the corner of the room there's a lot of photography equipment, flashlight, various types of lenses, polaroid camera and other stuffs. This little room is look like an exhibition.

"This is awesome. Do you hide in here often?"

"I used to. I feel like time just goes by without I notice everytime I'm here. Sometime I use this room as my dark room to process the photos too." Myungsoo answered. Soyou walks circling around the room, paying attention to each photograph that plastered on the wall.

"But why do you want to show it to me?" 

"I don't know. I guess it's because...I never show this place to anyone else."

"Really? So I am the first?" She asked. Myungsoo nodded. She chuckled, Myungsoo doesn't know on what. Her fingers slowly touching the surface of one photograph.

"All the pictures is two-tone colors."

"It used to be more colorful. When I found out that I'm colorblind, I got mad and tear it all. I changed all the pictures to black and white. It's called..."

"Monochrome." She cut Myungsoo's sentence, again...leaving him scoffed because he doesn't expect her to know about the terminology.

"How do you know that?"

"Because I'm Soyou?" She rolled her eyes playfully. Myungsoo smirks.

"Yeah...Monochrome photography is considered more subtle and interpretive. Some people always thought that black and white is such a boring combination. But that's not the thing...even though it only use those two basic colors, a photograph still telling a lot of story." Myungsoo said while walking towards her, standing beside Soyou's who's eyeing him calmly. "The colors maybe just black and white, but the object, the expression and their story still as colorful." He smiles at her.

"I like black and white pictures." She said suddenly.

"Why?"

"Because they look pure, edgy and simple. People said it's not lively, but I think it's honest. After all, story in life is not always lively." She said with a vague expression. Myungsoo studying her eyes, somehow it looks honest...also sad. But it always deep. He just chuckled because again for countless time he feels that her saying is too wise for a girl on her age.

"Ya! Stop out-smarting me, kid..."

They both laugh. There's a silent moment for a while when Soyou's eyes move from one picture to another. Her lips curved a smile sometimes as she saw those expression in certain frame. Until she stops at the photograph in the corner.

"Who is this girl?" She asked. Myungsoo looks at the pictures in front of him and paused a little...before finally let out a smile.

"Ah..it's Hyorin. My late girlfriend."

"Oh...so this is her. She's pretty." She said.

"Of course. She's always as pretty as that picture in my mind." Myungsoo said with wondering eyes. It's true, the pictures of Hyorin on his mind is always pretty, lively and beautiful...no matter how bad things that she did to Myungsoo. 

"Seems like you're not getting over her yet."

"Nope. I get over her already. It's just... impossible to forget her. Such a person like her. Sometimes her pretty image on my memory makes me scare to love again." Myungsoo scoffed.

"I thought you fall for your brother's girlfriend."

"I thought so. But now I think it's funny, because I'm no longer feel sure with that feeling anymore. I don't know what was that. I mean, I won't lie, until now I still feel jealous and flustered everytime I saw Bora-noona holding my hyung's hand so lovingly. But is it love? I have no idea. It could be love...or just lonely feeling." He smiles sincerely.

"Back again with 'lonely' problem. It's such a chronic disease on current generation." She smirks.

"Yeah...but have you ever feel it, Soyou-ah? The moment when you are completely alone, but doesn't feel lonely at all. Just like you're okay with being alone. I feel like that everytime I'm with my camera, taking pictures or just doing my stuffs in this little room. My hyung said that it's called, being solitude."

"The state where you feel like being alone doesn't matter...because when you can be alone that's mean you can be together with someone without taking advantage or using them as an escape." She explain it more...leaving Myungsoo in daze...again.

"Wait? That's exactly what my brother said?!"

"Damn it, ahjussi...it's from a book. Bell Hooks is the author." She laughs hard.

"Crap! So he tricked me all this time."

"Yeah...but I'm completely agree with that. Solitary is a cool thing. Isn't it?" She asked. Myungsoo just nodded.

Then an hour from there is spend with them talking about random stuffs while looking at the whole pictures. Sometimes they're laugh or just giggles. At that moment they're far from solitary, but they also far from loneliness. Sometimes Soyou steal a glances at the man beside her...wondering how weird it is, to be able to meet such a person like him. Myungsoo is a contradiction of many things. He's fragile and strong. He's deep and shallow. Just like that. He's a colorful story in monochrome photograph. 

"But what will happen next? Are you going to stop taking pictures?" She asked.

"Who said that? I'm not prolonging this place's rent because it's getting expensive. Doesn't mean I will stop taking pictures." He chuckled.

"So you're going to keep pursuing photography?"

"Not really. Not professionally." He smiles mysteriously.

"Why? What are you going to do next?" She's curious.

"I'll start another new dream. And I feel excited with that."

"What is it?"

"It's a secret. A kid below 20 won't understand it." Myungsoo said playfully. Soyou just rolled his eyes. 

"Cruel old man."

"You'll know later Soyou-ah..."

"Well, whatever it is...good for you, ahjussi...At least you will be less lonely." She smiles. But Myungsoo catch a bitterness in that. From what, he doesn't know. To be honest, he feels so transparent when he's around her. But Soyou remains a mystery for him. Like a layers that hide a lot of things.

"I guess. Hey, do you have cellphone?" He asked so suddenly.

"Yeah, why?"

"Let me borrow it. Quick! Come on!" He grab the cellphone from her hands and starts to dials some number.

"What are you doing?"

"This is my number. In the future if you feel lonely and wants to run again, just call me. I might not be a good comforter, but at least we can be alone together. Or maybe I can be an excellent companion for runaway journey.Or maybe you can borrow my ID to buy alcohol."

Soyou just smiles. A very sweet smile.