“It’s been awhile.”

Ji Young kept her head down and pretended not to have heard him. How could he...how could he sound so calm when she’s on the verge of breaking apart inside? How could he just come back here and expect everything to stay the same when the truth was nothing was ever going to be the same anymore.

“How...” he paused for a moment as if unsure if he should really ask the next question when he very well knows what her answer was going to be. But he did anyway. “How have you been?”

Much to his dismay, she still remained silent. She wouldn’t even look at him.

He started fiddling with his fingers nervously and tapping his right foot on the ground in a nerve-wrecking manner. She glanced half-heartedly to her left side where he was sitting and shrugged her shoulders.

“Still alive,” she answered nonchalantly.

He felt a stabbing pain in his heart upon hearing her outright answer. He knew he was the reason she was reacting this way. He knew how much hurt and sufferings he had caused her when he went missing all these while.

“Why have you come back here?” she asked softly, lifting up her eyes and finally meeting his for the first time. And it was all he could do to stop himself from crumbling under her intense gaze. The betrayal...the agonizing pain – it was all emblazoned in her once bright eyes.

“I’m sorry Ji Young...”

“Your apology is not what I want,” she cut him off abruptly, her eyes flashing with anger now. She started to stand up but he was quick to grab her wrist and stop her from walking away. She has to hear his explanations; she has to let him explain.

“Please...” he pleaded, his own vision getting blurry now. “Just listen to me first.”

When he realised that she wasn’t budging away or making a move to leave, he gradually loosen his grip on her although he wasn’t going to let go. Taking a deep breath, he said the first thing which had been playing on his mind since he left her.

“I left...to protect you. Because if I had been stubborn and stayed here, they wouldn’t hesitate to take you away and use you as a bait to get to me.”

He stared up ahead in the far distance, his thoughts going back to the past unwillingly.

“You know about those loan sharks after me. After my parents fled the country, I’m the one left to pay for their debts. I wanted to run away at first too...but then I thought of you. I couldn’t bear to leave you behind.”

In an icy cold voice, she said, “But you still did.”

“Yes, yes I did,” he sighed regretfully. “But I had your interests at heart, you have to believe me. They knew every single thing about me...including where my girlfriend lived. Would I want to risk your safety like that?”

“They still came after me,” she told him, still in that monotonous tone. “They came banging on our door every single day, asking for your whereabouts. We had to move soon after that.”

His heart dropped in guilt at her sudden confession. He looked up at her shamefully, and realised that she has now lost all her baby-fats. Her cheeks had sunken and her face was now free of all those childlike features. Traces of maturity were found instead on her naturally beautiful face.

How much time had passed. How much time was wasted between them.

“I’m so sorry for everything Ji Young...if there was some way for me to undo things, I would gladly do it...”

“Myung Soo...” she called his name for the first time after so many years. Slowly, she turned her head to face him. “I wished you hadn’t come back...”

“Don’t say that,” he begged, tightening his grip on her. “Everything’s okay now. We can start anew. We don’t have to worry about them anymore.”

“It’s not that...” she said quietly and averted her eyes away from his gaze. “It’s me...”

“What? What is it that you’re worried about?”

He swallowed hard when he noticed a tear sliding down her face. Her lips started quivering as she tried to hold back the tears from spilling over.

Why was she reacting this way? He thought she’d be happy to have him back. What was happening? She was scaring him.

“Myung Soo...” she said faintly. “I’m afraid...”

“I’m afraid to forget you...”