Part 2

          Even though I was supposed to go to the shop at 5.00 pm after it’s closed, Yoona had been texting me since 3.30 pm. She had been warning me not to be late or betray them. I had to repeatedly tell her that I wouldn’t be late or betray them, and that I’d definitely be there on time.

          Yoona was folding her arms and tapping her foot on the ground slowly as I arrived, exhausted with all the running. When she saw me, she grinned and started waving. “Looooohhhaaaaann!!!” She shouted, and I wanted to laugh the whole day at the cuteness. “Yooooonnaaaa!!!” I yelled back at her when she giggled.

          “What’s the time, Kai?” Yoona turned to Jongin who checked his cell phone. “4.58.” He said. Yoona nodded at me approvingly. “Okay, you’re almost on time.” She said, patting my shoulder twice. I just smiled at her, but my heart was flying inside.

          “Let’s go Yoongieee!! I’m hungry!!!” Sehun started complaining.

          “Okay okay. Let’s go.” The four of us started walking to the Ddukbokki store. Sehun and I were walking behind Yoona and Jongin. I was watching her skip playfully, pointing at different shops and blabbering explanations to Jongin and sometimes Sehun and I included. She even stopped to take self pictures, making pouting faces like a little kid. I was smiling the whole time while watching her, and snapped back to my senses when Sehun nudged me a little.

          “Yah. When are you gonna confess to her?” Sehun whispered to me and I frowned at him. “Huh?”

          He pointed at Yoona. “To her.” He said. “When are you going to confess? Because if it’s too late, you might not make it.”

          “Why? Confess what? Too late?” Even by understanding a half of what he said, I pretended to be clueless though Sehun could read through it. He rolled his eyes. “God, just freaking confess your love to noona before somebody else does because she likes you back, pabo!” He snapped at me as my eyes widened a little. “What?” Did she really like me back?

           “How many times do I repeat it to make you hear me?” Sehun looked like he was going to slap my face any time. “I… I heard you, but-”

           “We’re here!!!!!!” Our talk was interrupted by the loud, squeaky voice of Yoona being all excited. “Here I come Ddukbokki-sshi!”

          I glanced at Sehun one more time and he raised his eyebrows at me.

           “Two of you can order Ddukbokki and wait here.” Yoona said, pointing at the three of us guys with three fingers.  Right when she said it, Jongin spoke up. “Luhan and I will do that.” He said quickly, shooting a smile at me. “Right?”

           “Um…” I didn’t know why he chose me, but I didn’t have the nerve to say no. “Yeah.”

          “You and Sehun can stroll around, if you want. We’ll tell you when the order arrives.” Jongin said and Yoona nodded, looking around with a smile. “Good idea. Sehunnie, let’s go see that garden over there. It looks so beautiful!” She grabbed Sehun’s arm and started walking away. She turned to us and waved, and both of us waved at her too.

           The way that Jongin looked at me after that made me realize that he wanted to talk with me about something.

          “Are you going to say something?” I asked and Jongin nodded. “I wanted to talk with you.” He said, and then smiled innocently at me. “But let’s give our orders first.”

           After giving our orders, Jongin lead me to a nearby bench and offered me to sit. After he settled down, he took a deep breath.

            “What did you want to talk about?” I asked, impatiently. Jongin didn’t look at me. “It’s about Yoona.” He said.

            I was confused. “Yoona?” Jongin nodded. “Do you know a lot about her?” He asked and I shook my head. “I just know a little about her.” I said. “But why are you bringing her up?”

            “Yoona’s mother had a dream of becoming a cosmonaut.” Instead of answering my question, Jongin started with something else. “She didn’t want to tell her husband about it yet, but when he knew it, she was pregnant to Yoona. He downright denied Mrs. Im’s dreams and told her to stop having such stupid dreams like becoming a cosmonaut.” Jongin was looking at the ground while he told me the story. This was the first time I was hearing Yoona’s story, so I chose to listen to him.

           “Mr. Im kept on warning Mrs. Im to choose another career to go with, but Mrs. Im wanted to pursue her life-long dream. When she told him that she did not want to let it go, he started beating her up.” Jongin said.

           “When she was pregnant?” I gasped in shock. Jongin nodded. “Yeah. He beat her up and threatened her when she was pregnant, and it caused her and Yoona harm on the inside. The abusing resulted in Yoona’s mother suffering asthma, and a part of the baby’s brain was affected.” Jongin picked up a fallen leaf from the ground and played with it, turning it back and forth. “Before Yoona was born, her dad had divorced her mother and left to somewhere, abandoning his daughter and his ex-wife.”

           My heart started to clench and twist for some reason. Even though it wasn’t exactly similar, Mrs. Im and my mom shared the same kind of pain. They had to even share the same kind of burden. My so-called father left mom just a few weeks after I was born, just to run after another woman. She was left all alone to look after me even while being an ill person, and she left this world when I was only five years old. If it wasn’t for Aunt Lee, I couldn’t imagine where or how I would be living right then.

          “It was a miracle that a man came along, and lent a hand to Mrs. Im so caringly.” Jongin continued. “He took the responsibility to everything and stood by Mrs. Im’s side even until Yoona was born. And when he knew that Yoona needed treatment to her brain, he took care of that too, before it was too late. Fortunately, Yoona grew to be just like all the others, except that she was told that she’d have problems of terrible memory slip.”

           Everything seemed to have started to make sense. “So that’s the reason she forgets things easily…” I murmured. Jongin nodded, agreeing with me.

          “That man loved Mrs. Im very much.” He went on. “He didn’t think that her dream was stupid, and instead, encouraged her to continue with it, even though they both knew that it was extremely dangerous. Becoming a cosmonaut was a huge risk for an asthma patient, but her passion didn’t waver and he didn’t stop her either. After she left for her training, he brought Yoona to the area of Busan where I lived. I was the first one she got introduced to, and she was being shy and distant at first. But as days went on, we became closer day by day and I eventually became her closest friend, and she became mine too.” Jongin finished telling his story and looked at me with a smile. I stared at him with a questioning face.

           “Thanks… I guess, but… Why are you telling me all this?” I asked out of curiosity. I never asked Jongin to tell me about Yoona’s past, so there should have been a reason he told me everything so suddenly. Jongin just kept on smiling. “Don’t you feel good to have known more about Yoona?” He asked and I bit my lip. “I…” I didn’t know how to answer it.

          “I envy you Luhan.” Jongin said, but he was still smiling. “Huh?”, was all that escaped my mouth.

          He chuckled. “Yoona had been living knowing me almost all her life.” He said quietly. “I had the most memories with her, and I had the most wonderful moments with her too.” I didn’t really understand what he was getting at. Jongin stared at me with sad eyes, and a sad smile. “But you’re the one who’s special to her.”

          “How… do you know that?” I was shocked, really shocked that Jongin had said it. So he really did like Yoona. But could I really be the one who was special to her? After being friends with Jongin for so long, could I really be the one she liked?

          “She makes it obvious.” Jongin said, turning his head to look at the girl who was playing around with her cousin in the nearby garden with the brightest smile.

          “Here are your Ddukbokki, young men.” The ahjussi called out right then and Jongin stood up from the bench. “Nae!” He said and started walking towards the store, and turned around to look at the puzzled me with the same, sad smile he had. “I like Yoona.” He said. “And even if she likes you, I still think that I stand a chance of winning her. I respect you, but for the sake of Yoona and who looked after her, I won’t give up on her.” With that, he walked away.

          After hearing what Jongin said, I wondered whether it really was fair that I liked Yoona and she liked me back. I never knew a thing about her and couldn’t even say something nice to her, yet she saw me special. I wondered if it was unfair for Jongin. Whatever the case was, I liked Yoona and Jongin did too. It wasn’t something we both could start and stop whenever we wanted to, and since Jongin didn’t want to give up on her, I decided that neither was I going to do that.

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A/N:
 

I hope that a part of the confusion is cleared by this chapter ^^
So happy to know that I have 54 subbies now! \O/ Gumawwooo!!~~
Please enjoy~ Annyeong! ^^