''YiJeong-sunbae'' GaEul released her firm grip on MinSeok's arm to bow to her boyfriend. She ran slightly to greet him in a closer distance.

''What are you doing here?'' her cheeks flushed as she tried to hold in her wide smile.

YiJeong did a slight bow towards GaEul's companion.

''Waiting for you'' he smiled.

''Why didn't you call? Have you waited long?'' GaEul suddenly looked sorry. It must've been cold to wait outside this end of fall.

'' I didn't want to disturb you. I thought you might still be asleep'' he said. ''But apparently you're already wide awake'' he continued, his right eyebrow lifted.

''Oh. Yea, I. . '' GaEul paused. ''I slept at his house yesterday'' she pointed her finger in MinSeok's direction. MinSeok who was really quiet responded with an awkward nod.

YiJeong knitted his eyebrows without a word.

''Oh. I nearly forgot.'' she pulled MinSeok's arm to have him closer.

''Sunbae, this is my friend Kim Min Seok.'' she smiled before she turned her head to look at MinSeok.

''MinSeok ah. Yi Jeong-sunbae'' she smiled proudly.

''Kim Min Seok'' MinSeok reached his hand out for a hand shake.

''So Yi Jeong'' he accepted the offer.

''GaEul ah. I think I should get going now.'' MinSeok rubbed the back of his neck, trying his best to look natural.

''Oh. See you at school'' GaEul waved him goodbye before she excused herself to get her books and bag from her house.

Throughout the whole drive YiJeong did not say a word. He had been tapping his finger relentlessly on the steering wheel, while his eyes stealing glances at GaEul once in a while. A lot of things revolved around his mind.

Did GaEul changes during the four years of my absence?

'I slept at his house yesterday'. How could an innocent bumpkin who hasn’t even experience her first kiss said that so casually? 

 Wait, did she give away her first kiss already?

 Who the heck that guy actually is?

''Sunbae, you still remember Seoul's roads very well'' GaEul started a conversation.

''Hmm'' he replied shortly.

''You know'' GaEul said, still having the natural pinkish spot on her cheeks. ''Actually you don't have to do this. Sending me to school I mean.''

''Why?'' he asked nonchalantly.

''I don't want to be a burden. You are quite a busy person'' she smiled, staring at the car's dashboard.

''You won't. If I'm really busy then I'll send my driver to pick you up'' he gave a simple answer.

''That's what I mean. Sending your driver and all, I'm not used to that'' she blushed again. ''I can always take a lift in MinSeok's car.''

Upon hearing her words, YiJeong whipped his head to look at GaEul with his sharp eagle eyes. ''MinSeok?'' the name escaped involuntarily from his mouth.

GaEul nodded. ''I guess I told you in one of my messages that he teaches math at SHINWA primary.''

YiJeong's eyes suddenly perplexed as a response to her statement.

''You …… didn't read it right?'' GaEul inferred an accurate guess.

''I. . ''

''It's okay. I understand. You must've been very busy back then'' she plastered a bitter smile.

''I'm sorry'' YiJeong said in an almost-helium voice. A sudden sense of guilt suddenly rushed down his veins. She did sent lots of messages, but he was too busy worrying about his God-gifted precious hand to care about anything else, let alone to read her abundant messages word by word.

''It was suffocating, after your departure'' she smiled, her gaze locked forward. ''Suddenly everyone else wanted to leave. JanDi wanted to pursue medicine, and left for Incheon. Mum suddenly wanted to paint again, and there she went renting herself a studio back in our hometown. Appa, he was accepted for his new job, and had to leave for GwangJu.''

“GaEul ah” escaped YiJeong's parted lips. He knew about it, GaEul wrote it all somewhere among her thousand of messages. But hearing the lament coming out of was totally different from reading it. Suddenly he could feel her sorrow. She was not an antisocial, but being Chu Ga Eul, having the three people away from her was equal to having her whole world snatched away.

''That moment, when I thought fate was having fun agonizing me, MinSeok appeared and filled the empty spots'' she smirked. ''He averted me from the loneliness syndrome, another precious addition to the little count of acquaintances I have''

YiJeong felt something terrible gnawing in his gut, he felt like an ignorant bastard who cared about nothing but himself. His selfishness once hurt his first love, and now he had a terrible feeling that it was hurting GaEul too.

Even during his stay in Sweden, YiJeong was still trapped in his own designated prison. He worried too much about getting hurt, that he tried lots of times to escape the risk. He shut himself from GaEul occasionally, even though he was the one who clearly had given an enormous amount of hopes to the girl, not knowing or even caring that GaEul was alone back there in Seoul.

But then the more he tried to escape, the stronger his feeling grew. And in the end, he decided to follow his egocentric desire to pursue her, after four years of inevitable push and pulling game he played on, which is the reason why he came back looking for as he promised.

''Sunbae, I should get going now'' GaEul's voice woke YiJeong's up from his deep thought. The orange Lotus apparently had reached SHINWA school, right in front of the kindergarten block.

''GaEul-yang'' YiJeong turned his head to face her.

''I'm sorry. And thank you'' he said.

His sudden confession earned him a bewildered look from his girlfriend.

''I'm sorry for the sluggish and apathetic attitudes I bestowed you all these while, for the poor treatment I gave you'' he gazed straight into her eyes.

''Sunbae.  .''

''You waited for this coward to return. I couldn't thank you enough'' he interjected.

''YiJeong-sunbae''

'' I might have come back with perfect skilled hands, but this heart'' he slowly brought his palm to hover his chest. ''It is still crooked, and I might hurt you again''

GaEul's lips curved to form a smile, his warning sounded invalid to her ears.

''I'm willing to take the risk'' she said. ''I've reached this far, and isn't it a foolish act to stop now?' her eyes glowed, sending jolts of appeasements into him. Her answer unknowingly soothed his raging emotion, causing him to heave a huge sigh of relief.

''Thank you'' YiJeong couldn't think of anything else to say. His eyes never left hers. He stared at her damp doe eyes for a while, before the stare descended a degree down to her glossy lips, and suddenly his head thudded uncontrollably against his ribs.

He kissed numerous lips before, those inconsequential kisses for the sake of only pleasure. But this time it was completely different, he tried his best to control himself. But seeing her eyes perplexed and her instant blush threatened to demolish his wall of guards. The urge of pressing his lips against hers, to devour the lips which he failed to get a taste of due to an ominous phone call four years ago was getting bigger and wilder.

Slowly he leaned closer to GaEul, so close that the scent of her mild perfume started to torment his sense of smell. He witnessed her puzzled eyes perplexed so bad that it could find nowhere else to look at anymore, causing her to shut them tight. She shut it so tight that she knitted her eyebrows, her head held awkwardly low, which at the same time snapped some sense into him.

Maybe she is not ready

He immediately stepped out of his intention before it gets out of control. His head still descended towards her, but with a new aim of destination. Instead of the passionate pressing of lips he had imagined, he diverted his lips and planted a long kiss on her forehead.

He had his eyes completely closed, trying to convey everything buried in his thought through the prolonged kiss, that he couldn't get himself to let go until few minutes later where he could see how GaEul had turned red as tomato.

''I think, I should go'' GaEul bit her lips, her act of holding back her smile obviously shown. ''Have a good day, sunbae'' she squeaked before she literally flee out of the car, and eventually out of YiJeong's sight.

YiJeong heaved a sigh for the uncountable times, still trying to control his racing heart. He didn't even know how he actually ended up being in this manner. It’s not like he was alone with a supermodel or a goddess, it was Chu Ga Eul who drove his hormones out of control and he couldn't help but wonder how in the world he could even come to this state.

His stoic expression transformed into a delightful smirk the moment he recalled her blush and smile. He suddenly felt bad for doubting her innocence and for being irrationally jealous over things as ambiguous as that.

Wait, I am not jealous.

He denied.

Am I?