I received a text message from my team leader, Mr Lee; Tia, we need to talk. Let’s have dinner together. Lee Jonghyun is two years my senior. He was my senior when we were in high school. I was really glad when I was accepted for this job; he took good care of me and Jongdae too. I could sense what he wanted to say. He must have felt bad for asking me to be transferred to JESi Holdings.

I texted him back saying OK and quickly finished all my reports. I did not tell anyone about me having to transfer to JESi; neither Jongdae nor Sunhee. The clock passed 6 and I took a glance at Jonghyun’s room and saw him coming out of the room. I stood up and packed everything, while Jonghyun waited next to me and Jongdae who was sitting opposite spoke;

“Oh-ho! What are you two planning tonight? Hyung?” he looked at Jonghyun and Jonghyun smiled and answered, “It’s none of your business. We’ll definitely inform you what are our plans that we will decide tonight,”. Jonghyun winked at Jongdae as he finished the sentence; leaving Jongdae in confusion.

Sensing Jongdae in confusion, I playfully grabbed Jonghyun’s left arm and clung mine with his, “Let’s go. We have a lot to do and discuss.” I smiled and raised an eyebrow towards Jongdae. Jongdae became more confused and stood up, yelling; “Yaaah!! Tia-ya!! What is the talk about?! I’ll call you tonight, so pick up and tell!” Jonghyun and I let out soft chuckles and we just walked passed him, ignoring his words.

Jongdae is always up for gossips and he called himself a tabloid reporter of the institution. There is no day without laughter when I am with him. He is born to make people around him feel happy.

Nodding to myself, smiling alone, while still clinging my arms with Jonghyun, I did not realize that everyone around us in the elevator was looking; judging. I looked at Jonghyun; who was staring at me all the time, bowed my head apologizing to him and smiled; and pulled away my hand from his arm.

We went to a restaurant where we used to eat the best Korean beef bbq near my place. We sat down and ordered as usual; and that included a bottle of soju. I smiled up to my ears when the ahjumma brought over the raw hanu and soju and said thanks. Jonghyun was looking at me; I realized he was but I ignored making eye contact with him.

As I was happily grilling hanu, he spoke out in a serious manner;

“Are you okay?” he asked after a shot of soju.

I blinked my eyes twice, trying to digest the meaning behind his question and nodded;

“What is there not to be okay with? As long as there is a better choice of opportunity to develop myself, you know I’d be extremely happy to contribute. Plus, they’ll increase 50% of my pay with travel allowance and free accommodation. How can I not be okay with such extras that I will receive? Oppa, you know how my calculation goes”, I laughed trying not to worry him too much.

I could sense he was worried, I ditched that fact but what he said next got me Goosebumps all over my body.

“It’s his workplace. JESi. It’s where he work,”. Jonghyun widened his eyes. I was still clueless. I squinted my eyes at him trying to make sense who ‘HE’ referred to.

“Kris Wu Yi Fan, your boyfriend, who confidently kissed another girl in front of you!”

That hit my head hard. I had chills coming up to my head. No! It did not feel like chill, I felt like it was flame. No, no. It’s neither. I did not know what that was. It was something that made my head spun, my eyes lost its focus hence I had blurry vision in an instance. My face became red, as if I had drunk five bottles of soju when I only had one shot.

“Tia!! Tia!!” I heard Jonghyun called me, snapped his finger three times and I gained my consciousness again. I took a deep breath and smiled; telling myself I should act strong, and I will not cry again this time.

“Ah, Kris? That Kris?” he nodded, and I continued, “I don’t think he remembers me, oppa. I doubt I can still recognize him. It has been years. On top of that, the possibility of him not working there anymore is quite high. He might be transferred, he might… well… he might still be there but, the company is huge! Let’s just move on and don’t worry too much, oppa. You should think how to make Sunhee likes you instead!” I smiled and pinched his hand.

Jonghyun smiled and nodded. “My sister is all grown up. I don’t need to worry about her anymore.” He ruffled my hair and I replied; “Your sister is all grown up and strong. I am a wise person. Don’t worry about me too much, okay?! Please take care of Jongdae while I’m gone. Don’t tell them I will be transferred. His weak heart can’t function well with his awesome brain if that happens. He might just barge in the President’s room and ask the President to make me stay. And, I don’t want to see those dramas,” I explained and laughed.

I went back home around 9.30PM and right when I stepped into my apartment, my phone vibrated. I smiled looking at the name that came up on my phone ‘JongDaeBak’.  He really is a man with words. I picked it up, sounding as if I am tired and annoyed, he asked;

“Are you two planning to date for real??!!!”. Yes, that was the first sentence he uttered.

“What is wrong with you? Of course I would love to date him!” I said to him annoyingly.

“WHAT?!!! Don’t tell me you two kissed today?!!!” He sounded raged.

“Oh, please, I need to sleep and it’s none of your business babo. I’ll bring you Americano tomorrow morning, so just go to bed now.”

I pressed the ‘END CALL’ button, even though I could still hear him screaming at the end of the phone. I smiled and chuckled, but I felt pity and a bit sorry towards him.

I washed up and quickly went to bed, but suddenly I remembered what Jonghyun said, about Kris working in JESi. How could I forget? How on earth did I slip that out of my mind? I promised myself not to even see his face ever again, but why did I decide to work at the same place as he is?

I grabbed my bolster tighter, closed my eyes and I felt it again - my tears. It fell down again. It shouldn’t have, I told myself again and again. But the more I said it, the more came out, making my cheeks wet and sticky.

As I closed my eyes, I remembered his soft touch running through my hair, his deep voice calling my name, his gaze that is sharp, deep and mysterious. I longed for his lips, his sloppy kisses, and the sound of his breath when his tongue was in my cavern. I missed it when he teased me…

I sighed loudly. “This is not helping!” I said to myself. I couldn’t fall asleep, I just ended up reminiscing my past, the past that have gone for 4 years, might and might not appear in front of me again. I bit my lower lip. “I will go there and work until the given time and come back as soon as possible.”