A year has gone by since that day. Hakyeon and I have since then moved just outside of Seoul into a new apartment and are officially dating. Things with Hongbin had been put to rest a few months ago. Come to find out, Hongbin didn’t suffer from bipolar disorder, but he was mentally unstable. Before he could serve his jail time, he was sentenced to spend a few months at a mental facility so they could figure out what was wrong with him and to properly treat him. Hakyeon didn’t like it very much but I would visit Hongbin there once every other week.

At first I thought Hongbin wouldn’t want to see me but I wanted to make sure he was alright. Even after all of this had happened, I still considered Hongbin a friend and I still cared about him. My first visit was spent in silence. Hongbin refused to talk to me and I had already said what I had wanted to say. I told him about Hakyeon and I. I also told him I would visit him to encourage him to get better. He didn’t look at me but I knew he heard my words loud and clear.

The second visit was better. Hongbin apologized to me and asked me to send his apologies to everyone else, since they refused to come with me to visit him. He told me he still loved me but he was happy that I was safe with Hakyeon and not running off with him. This surprised me a bit, but this was a good step towards his recovery.

Hongbin had managed to make a few friends while he was there and I think that would help him as well. His roommate, Taekwoon, was not much of a talker from what I had noticed but he and Hongbin seemed to lean on each other from time to time. Their attending nurse, Jaehwan, seemed to warm his way into Hongbin’s heart as well. He was a lively character and always tried his best to get a laugh out of the two. Hongbin would usually always laugh and I noticed a few times Taekwoon would crack a smile. They were in good hands and I always made sure to thank Jaehwan for his hard work every time I left.

This visit was going to be a hard visit. It was my last visit before Hongbin got discharged and transferred to the jail. Hakyeon had agreed to come with me as did Ravi, whose sister had not come out of her coma. They both wanted to see the new Hongbin for themselves after the hell we had all been through.

Jaehwan smiled brightly at me as he saw the three of us enter the room. “You didn’t come alone today. I was beginning to think you were lying to me about this wonderful boyfriend of yours. And you must be Ravi-ssi. I’ve heard about you as well.”

“You talked about us?” Hakyeon asked me, his grip around my waist never loosening.

“You know Hongbin can talk too. I come here to listen, not to brag.” I nudged Hakyeon and chuckled. “How are you doing today, Taekwoon-ssi? You’re going to be kind of lonely without Hongbin aren’t you?”

“I’m getting discharged too.” He said softly.

“Yeah my babies are leaving me. Today is such a bittersweet day, but this is my favorite part of my job.” Jaehwan beamed at Hongbin and Taekwoon. “I want letters from both of you.

Hongbin looked up at Hakyeon and Ravi and took a breath before he spoke. “I know you two only want to beat me up and cuss me out, and you have every right to.” He focused on Ravi. “Wonsik-ah, I have taken away something precious from you and your family and I will never let myself forget that. I will repent for what I have done to you even after death. I’m sorry.” His gaze traveled over to Hakyeon. “Hyung…” I could feel Hakyeon tense up next to me. “I was wrong to ever take Inhye away from you. She’s right where she belongs now and I know I could never have made her that happy. Even when she didn’t want to believe it, you were always number one in her mind. Please you two, continue to live happily together.”

I pulled myself away from Hakyeon and walked over to hug Hongbin tightly. “You’ve come so far, Bin-ah. I’m so proud of you.” Hongbin pushed me away, slightly. “Hongbin?”

“Noona, our story ends here.” He told me. “I don’t want you to visit me in jail. I don’t want you to write to me. I don’t want you to call. I want you to focus on your life with Hakyeon hyung and live your life fully. Don’t think about me ever again. Let me go.”

The whole room grew kind of tense at his words. Apparently not even Jaehwan or Taekwoon were expecting Hongbin to say something like that. I tried to wrap my brain around his words. Let me go.

“Noona, I’ve let you go. Now it’s time you did the same for me.” Hongbin said, after seeing the confusion on my face. “Do you understand?”

I nodded and walked back to Hakyeon’s side. He put his arm around me again and kissed the top of my head. No one was saying anything now. I guess you could say there was nothing left to be said. We could have just walked out the door right then, but we didn’t.

“Noona.” Hongbin broke the silence. “Think of it this way, you won’t have to worry about me anymore. I’ll be doing fine serving my time, okay?”

Even now, Hongbin still tried to console me. This brought tears to my eyes and I quickly tried to blink them away. I had to get myself together. Visiting Hongbin had become so routine, it was going to be tough not coming to visit him. But I had no choice. Like he said, he had let me go. Now I had to do the same for him.

I hugged Hongbin and Jaehwan before we left and only waved at Taekwoon, knowing he wouldn’t appreciate the sudden skinship. Hakyeon and Ravi just politely bowed before we all headed out together. Ravi asked us to join him for lunch before he headed home to his parents. I really wished Hakyeon and I could just go home, but it was the least we could do for Ravi. He was still having a hard time getting over his sister’s passing.

Ravi and Hakyeon chattered about all kinds of things. I couldn’t keep up. I barely could even eat the food in front of me. I knew both Ravi and Hakyeon had noticed and they were trying their best to not say anything about it. After a while, Hakyeon let out a deep sigh and nudged me.

“Go out and get some air.” That was Hakyeon’s way of telling me to go smoke a cigarette.

Since the day Hongbin was taken in by the police, I had picked up the nasty habit. I would get so anxious and stressed out with all the questioning and court dates, that I turned to smoking rather than drinking. Hakyeon always hated it. He scolded me almost every time he would smell the smoke on me but he would sigh and let it go because he knew he was talking onto deaf ears. Now that this was all over, I was sure he would make me quit.

I shook my head and smiled at him. “No, it’s fine. It’s over. Everything is over. We can try and live normal lives now.” I smiled at Ravi too. “No more questioning. No more court dates. No more hospital visits. Look at all the free time that just opened up.”

We stayed at the restaurant for a little while longer before finally deciding to head out. We waited with Ravi as he hailed a taxi and I gave him a hug before he got in. Hakyeon laced his fingers with mine and pulled me along behind him.

“Come on. I have a surprise for you.” He said, not giving me a chance to respond.

I had to jog in order to keep with Hakyeon. He weaved in and out of people on the streets and I tried to look around so I could guess where he was taking me. I gripped Hakyeon’s hand tighter as I could feel him getting further away from me and without looking back he let go.

“OPPA!” I called after him, but he kept going.

I stopped right in the middle of the sidewalk and crossed my arms. He knew what he was doing. There is no way he would just leave me here like this, I thought.

“Noona, why are you standing around?” I turned around to see Sanghyuk standing behind me. He was wearing a nice sweater and tie and also had a basket on his arm. “Are you alone?”

“I was with Hakyeon but he just took off without me.” I held my arm out in the direction he went.

Sanghyuk laughed and held out his arm. “I’m heading that way too. Want to walk with me instead of that rude boyfriend of yours?”

I laughed too and linked arms with Sanghyuk. “I like you more anyways, Hyukkie.”

I told Sanghyuk about today was Hongbin’s last day at the hospital and how things were completely over with everyone now. Sanghyuk seemed happy to hear this and advised me to find something to keep me busy to occupy the free time that just opened up.

I noticed that we were getting closer to the café that Hakyeon and I always went to. I began to wonder if that was where Hakyeon had run off to and pulled Sanghyuk along with me inside to look for him.

“Noona, I have to set this basket down. It’s starting to kill my arm.” Sanghyuk winced straightening out his arm.

“Why are you carrying that big thing around anyways? What could possibly be in there?” I asked him.

He smirked at me and set the basket on a table before opening it and pulling out its contents. First was a bouquet of flowers, which he handed to me. Next was a really pretty sun dress which he also handed off to me, with shoes. Third, he pulled out a piece of paper and cleared his throat before he read it.

“My dearest noona, I have been given these instructions for you to follow.” He read, his smirk never leaving his face. “First, you must change into that new dress and shoes immediately. The rest of this surprise cannot commence without you looking extremely beautiful.” Sanghyuk put the paper down and stared at me. “Well, go on.” He grabbed the flowers back from me and made a shooing motion.

I scoffed and made my way to the bathrooms to change. So he was in on this surprise as well. Figures Hakyeon wouldn’t do this alone. The dress was more of Hakyeon’s style than mine, seeing as it was slightly shorter than I would have liked it to be and showed a little more cleavage than I was used to. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail before walking back out to Sanghyuk only to find that he had been replaced with Hakyeon.

Hakyeon had changed as well. He was in a pair of black jeans with a navy blue dress shirt that wasn’t buttoned up all the way so you could see his tank top that he wore underneath.

“Wow, look at my y girlfriend.” He beamed.

“Yah! You left me back there! I shouldn’t have bothered changing because of that.” I teased.

“I had Sanghyuk walk you.” He replied. “Anyways, here. You can have your flowers back.” He placed the flowers in my hand and looked back up at me.  “You really do look beautiful though.”

“You don’t look half bad yourself. So was this my surprise?”

“This is just the teaser.” I reached back into the basket and whatever he pulled out he put behind his back quickly so I couldn’t see it. “I figured today was such a special day, we should celebrate. The only thing that came to mind for how I wanted to celebrate this day with you was this.” He held his fingers up to his lips and whistled.

Next thing I knew, our families and a few friends were coming out from all over the café. Everyone gathered around us and were clapping their hands. I didn’t notice Hakyeon get down on one knee as I looked around to see who all was there. Even Ravi was here.

“Yah, you said you were going home!” I called out to him.

“I had to help hyung first.” He laughed.

My attention was brought back to Hakyeon when I felt him grab my hand. When I saw him on his knee, all the air was taken from my lungs and I felt the urge to turn around and look back again. This wasn’t happening right now, was it really?

“Kim Inhye, we have known each other since we were kids. We’ve always had each other’s backs and have been inseparable for years. Last year, we had our biggest fight ever and I learned that you were the one I’ve loved all along. We got ourselves into quite the situation but we made it out alive and together once again. Like I realized back then, I can’t live without you.” Hakyeon brought his other hand out from behind his back revealing a box. He let go of my hand so he could open the box. He looked like he was close to tears. “Kim Inhye, will you be mine forever and marry me?”

My own tears fell down my cheeks and all I could do was nod. Hakyeon’s tears began to fall as well as he placed the engagement ring on my finger and stood up to pull me into a kiss. Our friends and family cheered and congratulated us.

Come to find out, Hakyeon had rented out the café so we could have an engagement party right there and then. I had no idea he was even planning this, but it may have been because I was absorbed with visiting Hongbin.

“Will this be a good enough distraction for you?” Sanghyuk teased as he came up to congratulate us.

“Well after the wedding we can always come up with more distractions.” Hakyeon smirked and nudged me.

“Cha Hakyeon, I’ll take away my blessing if you so much as lay a finger on my daughter before that wedding!” My father yelled from across the room.

“Hakyeon-ah, do we have to have a talk?” His brother approached us, my brother right alongside him, both with their arms crossed.

“I was just kidding, hyungs.” Hakyeon held up his hands in defense.

I could only just laugh. So this was how it was all going to end. My story with Hongbin was over, and my story with Hakyeon was going to continue for a long time to come. The past year had been complete chaos and Hakyeon had held onto me through it all, whether I had always wanted him to or not. We saved each other from the chaos, I guess.

“INHYE, TELL THEM I’M NOT THAT KIND OF GUY!” Hakyeon whined as our brother’s had him in a headlock and were teasingly messing up his hair and poking his sides.

Yup, this was how things were supposed to be. Hakyeon and I were forever going to come to each other’s rescue no matter what the trouble may be. Now it would be as husband and wife instead of just friends or boyfriend and girlfriend. We have come so far and I couldn't be happier. 

A/N: Hello readers, I just wanted to say thank you so much for reading this story and leaving your comments and subscribing. It really great to see you all enjoyed this story so much. I was really happy with how it was turned out and I'm glad you all felt the same way. Once again thank you and I hope you enjoyed this last chapter as well!