Jaekyung sat down with a sigh at the cafe, and her eyes were brooding as she stared down the table. She had been restless for the whole night; thinking about Hoya, and Woohyun and it made her rather uneasy when she was reminded of the event. Even his grip still felt fresh on her skin, which felt strong, but painful, she thought, as she mindlessly twirled her wrist slowly. More so than his words about Woohyun, it was the way that he was so close to her that was dancing in her mind; his heat, and the look in his eyes and how her heart was beating fast.

She took a deep breath, and shut her eyes before looking up to see if Hwayoung had arrived but the cafe was almost empty that afternoon. Looking at her watch, she decided to just wait for a while longer but doing nothing while waiting was only going to make her mind drifted off to Hoya again, and it devastates her when she realised she was thinking non-stop about him.

"It's not that I like him anyway..." She muttered, tilting her head with a pout on her face. Because I don't know him... I don't even know his real name. Ugh, stop it Jaekyung, you've been repeating this to yourself for hundreds and hundreds of times already. She sat up straight and widened her eyes and tried not to think anymore but her thought fell even deeper. She thought about how she kept telling herself that it was impossible that she liked him because he was a stranger and everything, but when she did a rethought, she found out that she was just trying to come up with an excuse to deny the whole thing; maybe because she was afraid, or unsure and human are always afraid of things they can't deal with.

Maybe 'feelings' is the hardest thing to deal with.

She shook her head and tried to think about Woohyun, but only Hoya's warning came into her mind. As much as she racked her brain many times to figure out his intention of saying those things about Woohyun, again, she could think of only nothing. She groaned and figured that maybe she should just quit thinking for some time and get away from all the confusing situation. Deciding that Hwayoung wasn't coming, she got up from her seat and left the cafe, only to bump into her once she stepped out of the door. She was sitting on her heels and slowly, she stood up with her face down.

"Hwayoung-ah." Jaekyung looked in wonder at Hwayoung whose face was between sad and reluctant as she inched in closer to her. "What are you doing out here? I was waiting inside."

"I know. It's just..." She began, and gave an awkward smile, quickly looking down. Jaekyung realised that she too, felt a little awkward, considering what happened the other night, and she still felt guilty for spilling the news at dinner.

"I'm sorry... for telling it to Woohyun about it that evening." She fixed the strap of her handbag and breathed in deeply. "But Hwayoung, I meant no bad intention."

"I know, so it's okay." She quickly said, and smiled again but Jaekyung couldn't help to notice that it was rather bitter, and she know then that Hwayoung was just being nice. She felt a little regretful over her annoyance for her the night before. Slowly, she turned away and began to walk down the street with Jaekyung walking a step behind.

"Why didn't you come inside?" Hwayoung smiled wryly as she turned over her shoulder but she offered no answer, and Jaekyung who knew well that there wasn't one coming, sighed silently. "You look disturbed... Is it because of the transfer?"

"He told you that?"

"Yes, he did. Honestly, I'm quite surprised at his decision to have you transferred to another school at this time of year. Hwayoung, are you sure you're okay with it? It might not be the best time to adjust yourself to a new environment with the examinations coming up."

"It doesn't really matter." She said, shrugging, and Jaekyung could see the bitterness in her smile again, looking at her side profile, making her wonder if she was probably mad at her. "I bet there's nothing much to adjust anyway. It's just that..."

Jaekyung watched her sullen face momentarily. "Sungjong?" She nodded. "Does he know about it?"

She nodded solemnly. "Sungjong is... annoying but we've been friends for as long as I can remember. So, it's a little sad to just leave him like this."

"Sungjong would probably be happy to hear that."

Hwayoung rolled her eyes. "I only see Sungjong as my girl friend." Jaekyung's eyes widened, and the younger woman laughed a little. "I mean, he's so fussy like a girl and look at his face, and his skin. How could a boy be so pretty? It isn't even fair."

Laughing a little, Jaekyung shook her head and took in a deep breath. "It isn't."

"Right?" Hwayoung said, looking dreamy. "What will Sungjong do without me?"

"It's okay. You can still get together after you've graduated high school."

"I wonder."

They both went on walking slowly, heading towards the park and when they found a bench, they sat down and looked around them; exchanging no word. Jaekyung was studying the little children passing by every now and then, with a smile on her face, and Hwayoung was watching her silently.

"Do you like children, Park-ssam?"

"Um? Yes, I do." She replied, looking at girl who was picking up something from the ground, only to be scolded by her mother. "At certain age, they could be cute."

"At certain age?"

"Yeah. When they reach 3 to 4 years old, they tend to get annoying." Jaekyung laughed but Hwayoung's face was looking thoughtful. "What's wrong?"

"I must've been very annoying to Woohyun oppa then." She muttered under her breath.

"What do you mean?"

Hwayoung smiled, almost apologetically before she took a deep breath and stared blankly at the girl who was then being walked away by her mother. Jaekyung waited patiently, looking at her side profile, admiring her lashes which curled gracefully without any effort and unconsciously, she was trying to discern any resemblances of her to Woohyun. After only a moment of staring, it struck her.

"I guess Woohyun oppa didn't tell you." She said, bringing her gaze down on her clenched hands on her lap, still with a small smile on her face. "I first met Woohyun oppa when I was three. I can't really remember what actually happened during that time but Oppa was very kind to me. He was barely ten but he was always smiling and treating me nicely."

Jaekyung was speechless at this sudden revelation, and she started shifting uncomfortably, trying not to say anything to not disturb her trains of thoughts. It was a wonder how a conversation could shift topics easily sometimes, and the source of the starter would always remain vague.

"Mother doted on me a lot when I was younger. She could barely leave me alone for most of the time and I know that although Woohyun oppa too, was always kind to me, he must have feel a bit of resent in his heart. I mean, I'm not even part of the family but our parents would pay extra attention to me because I was younger and a girl... But it all changed one day when Father's business went down the drain when I was 10 years old..."

"What happened?" Jaekyung asked, before she could stop herself. She was glad though, that Hwayoung didn't offer any change of expression, but continued on to look deep in thoughts.

"Well, they were fighting a lot, and Mother was missing most of the time after that, and when she came home, they will be shouting and breaking things around the house. I remembered being so scared that I peed in my pants when I came down from the stairs and saw Father grabbing Mother by her hair and yanked her to the wall... Then he started yelling at her, saying things about me and Woohyun oppa, and he blamed her for not being able to grant him a child..."

Jaekyung bit back the gasp she had in by blinking rapidly, unsure of how to respond. She watched Hwayoung's eyes drooping and her lips curved up to form a dry smile.

"They stopped fighting when they saw me, and Mother was crying when she looked at me but she didn't even make the effort to walk towards me to console me or anything. Father left the living room and then she left without a word. It was Woohyun oppa who cleaned me up and put me in his bed because I was too scared to sleep on my own." She paused, and clenched her hands tighter. "It's really hard to forget that night... But Woohyun oppa was patting me to sleep, and so I was calmed down but when I opened my eyes, he was also crying... It was the first and the last time I saw oppa crying."

Jaekyung felt her face dropping a little when she tried to imagine Woohyun, in his teens patting his little sister to sleep while holding back his tears. Somehow the image struck to her as something disturbing when it shouldn't be so. Probably it was because that they were not real siblings but she also knew that she shouldn't be thinking too much.

"Things got a little better when Father, well... foun