"Himchan, tell me what I heard was not what I think I just heard." You diverted your gaze to the milky skinned boy.

             Himchan hung his head low, not wanting to make eye contact with you. Somehow a huge pang was felt inside him. You promised yourself not to even cry or whine about it. Therefore, you try to held in for as much as you can knowing that someday you'll eventually break down.

             "C'mon." Himchan took you by the wrist as he pulled you to somewhere else, the park.

             The one that you had always went to when you needed some space for yourself. Your mind was full of thoughts, whay was exactly happening now? Why didn't Yongguk tell you about the engagement? Why was he even going to be engaged at such a young age? Your heart was racing, not knowing if it was anxiety or something else.

             "Their family just rearranged the engagement. They are still debating among each other on carrying the marriage sooner or later." Himchan told.

             You scrunched your nose, "How do you know all this? Don't give me the excuse that Yongguk's your friend."

             "I'm Junmi's cousin." Himchan soothingly said. He knew somewhere inside of you were already broken upon the news but he needed to tell you this to clear all the misunderstandings.

~FLASHBACK~

***

             "Bang Yongguk, you come down here right now!" The voice boomed over the whole house.

             Yongguk rubbed his temple and trudged his way down to the booming voice. The tight atmosphered suddenly engulfed the entire house, making it seemed awkward and superficial.

             "What has gotten into you?" The old and wizened man spoke up. Yongguk rubbed his temple again and sighed. Lectures, he hated it the most especially when it comes from his parents.

             "What did I do?" He questioned.

             The couple widened their eyes, "So now you're acting like you don't know?! You, all of this is too much! You've been taking everything in this house for granted. You come and go in this house as if it's just a hotel. You come back when you want to and stay out when you don't want to. Even if you do come home, it's either you're drunk or just had !" His wizened father boomed.

             "Yongguk ah, what's gotten into you? Why are you like this? Can you please change?" His brunette mother pleaded, tears almost coming out from her b eyes.

             Yongguk's heart ache. "If you hadn't given me much attention, I wouldn't be like this!" Yongguk shouted.

             It was wrong for him to do so but he needed to let it out. He doesn't care what other neighbours are going to think of with all these chaos going on in his house.

             "Don't ever blame your parents. Mr Hwang wants you to be responsible over what you did to his daughter. Bang Yongguk, are you out of your mind?! What makes you think making out with Hwang CEO's daughter will do any good? Our business is on the line and it'll only ruin our reputation, do you get it?!"

             Yongguk stopped dead on his tracks. Take responsible over what he did to Junmi? What does that have to mean? He only make out with Junmi and didn't get her pregnant! That was not even a big deal.

             "What do you mean?" Yongguk's voice turned to a tensed one.

             His father huffed and leaned in, "You'll be engaged to Hwang Junmi. That's the decision." Was this even real? Nobody liked having an arranged engagement or marriage.

             "But I don't want to." Yongguk insisted. He doesn't love Junmi neither does he have any feelings for her. What he did with her was just out of comfortability and pleasure. It was only one night and she didn't even get pregnant which was a miracle!

             "Either you want or do not want, you still have to do it." His parents urged and insisted him again.

             "You didn't think twice and now, you have to take the full responsibility after what you did to her!" The voice boomed again.

             Yongguk clenched his fist together, stopping himself from damaging unnecessary things in the house right now. "But she didn't get pregnant and I used it!" Yongguk retorted.

             "I don't care if you used a bloody or not. You took her ity away, something that was a part of her life and we're not impressed. We raised you to be a better person but we definitely did not raised you to become such person. You did the damn , you pay for it. As for now, go back to your room. We'll discuss about the engagement some other time." His father released his grip away from Yongguk's collar as he took a seat and buried his face in his palm.

             Yongguk, on the other hand, trudged into his room with thoughts frazzled in his mind. Everything seemed so surreal and fast. He definitely did not see that coming. Arranged engagement, that definitely . He growled and muttered incoherent words under his breath. Without even thinking any further, he punched the number onto his phone as it beeped.

             "Hwang Junmi, what the hell do you think you're doing now?" Yongguk's firm voice growled.

             "Oh Yongguk. So you already know about the engagement, well good then. Don't you think it's a  great plan?" A chirpy voice said on the other line.

             Yongguk huffed, "Are you out of your mind? I don't want to be engaged! Especially not with you. Cancel the engagement off." Yongguk growled over the phone again.

             Meanwhile Junmi just scoffed. She was not going to let this one slide easily. She gets what she wants and she's not going to let Yongguk slip away from her hands as easily as it sounds. "Hang up. If you want to talk about it, we'll meet." She hung up.

             Yongguk grabbed his phone in his grip, ready to smash it anytime across the room. He held it in, he had to change his attitude and he knew that. He had to make this plan not work and call off the engagement. The next morning was a usual routine. He went to school and eventually got to know more about you. By then, he dragged Junmi across the school grounds to have a talk with her.

             "We need to talk." Yongguk grabbed her arm.

             "Go ahead." Junmi crossed her arms near her chest, totally anticipating whatever Yongguk would be talking about.

             "Why did you have to tell your parents about this? What exactly do you want from me?" Yongguk's eyes bore into her soul.

             "Whatever your dad has between my dad is all company business. Even if I won't be telling my dad about this, we would still be engaged. Your parents and mine want us to be engaged so they are able to merge companies together. I couldn't wait too long so I decided we should make the engagement as soon as possible." Junmi hissed.

             Yongguk didn't buy the joke though, "Tell me. What can I do to break off this engagement?! What do you really want from me?" Junmi shifted her position away from Yongguk.

             "It's all set now, no turning back. I thought I really liked you. Seeing you getting closer with that Hana makes me angry. My heart will be more at ease if we were to be engaged so that way, nobody would dare to get closer to you. That way, I'll really call you mine." Yongguk's grip softened as he laid his eyes on her again.

             He was pissed, that's for sure. But what he knows now was that, he will break you when you were to know about this. "I'll do anything to break this off. Remember that." Yongguk stormed off.

             "You think you're clever, Bang Yongguk. But you don't know what's in store for you." Junmi smirked, knowing that she would soon get what she had always wanted.

***

             You stood gazing at the river in front of you. Everything makes sense now on why Junmi would often pick on you and why Yongguk hadn't really talk to you in a while. But isn't this going too far? You never knew Yongguk's life would be so confusing as it was. Everything was just absurd. You never really thought such situations would eventually happen to Yongguk.

             This wasn't a dream. You wished you could do something about it but no, you don't. You can't help him to get out from this misery. Somehow, you felt angry that Yongguk didn't even tell you about this beforehand. Why didn't he? You sighed, your high hopes went into the drain once again like it always did before.

             You thought that Yongguk would at least have some feelings for you but now, everything seemed to turn out into your own lost. It was heartbreaking when you heard about the engagement but you knew you couldn't possibly do anything about it.

             "You alright?" Himchan spoke.

             You snapped away from you thoughts, "Wha- Yeah, I'm fine." You showed a small smile.

             "You're still bad at lying."

             You laughed, "Yeah. I can never master that skill. Sometimes, I really envy those people who really can lie without getting caught."

             Himchan furrowed his eyebrows, "Wae? It's a bad thing somehow."

             "Because in that case, nobody is able to know what I feel inside. They won't know if I were to feel sad or weak at some point. They won't pity me as much."

             Himchan's eyebrows narrowed again. "But, isn't that counted as hurting yourself emotionally?"

             You nodded. "I feel that it's better to hurt myself than to burden other people with my own problems."

             Unexpectedly, Himchan then knocked your head lightly. "Aish this girl. Yah, friends are called friends for a reason. They are there beside you whenever you need them in hard times. When you have problems, let it all out. That's not called being a burden to such people. True friends will be there with you during your ups and downs and support you through it, you idiot."

             You snickered as your mouth and eyes twitched. Then soon, you softened. Himchan was right. It wasn't wrong letting all your problems out with someone. It will only make you feel better to be able to let it all out.

             "For now, I just want you to stay away from Junmi. Never get into their problem. She can be a real if she has to." Himchan advised.

             You let out a small laugh. "Well, someone needs to teach that a lesson then." Himchan chuckled.

             The both of you stayed at the park, admiring the incredibly beautiful scene for who knows how long. But what you know was that you felt lighthearted that you were able to meet Himchan again. Himchan was the only person who you could have these kinds of heart to heart talk and it won't feel awkward about it. Himchan was the one who could really dig every problem out from yourself and would eventually make you feel much better about it. If Himchan wasn't be able to be here, you don't know who you could depend on to say these kinds of heart-to-heart talk.