Chapter 15

Hyukjae was walking around when he felt like he saw Tiffany across the street laughing with a good-looking guy. He stopped dead in his track & then started running after them. It was just his luck that the traffic wasn’t cooperating with him that day. By the time the traffic was clear enough for him to cross the street, they were both gone. He ran through eight blocks, trying to catch sight of her but it was like his eyes was playing a trick on him. In despair, he punched the wall beside him.

He's been trying to find Tiffany for almost eight years. Three months after their break up, he finally came to his senses. He realized that even without marriage, he was already bound to her emotionally & he didn't want to be released from the bind. The so-called freedom he thought he valued beyond anything was choking him. Then he had a light-bulb moment & realized that freedom was a state of mind, not a physical situation. After giving into the fact that he would never be happy without her, he actually found the freedom that he craved for. He threw his foolish pride out of the way & started calling her to beg for forgiveness but her number had been disconnected. When his phone calls to her apartment went unanswered, he tried to look for her in her boutique but her boutique was deserted. It had a sold sign stuck on the door. In his panic, he raced to her apartment but it had been vacated & so did Yuri’s. The only light in the darkness that shrouded him at that time was a letter from Yoona saying that the three of them had gone to Italy to further their study in design. That they had no idea when or to be more exact, if they would be back in the Seoul & he was to tell Jaejoong to move on with his life & forget Yuri. Tiffany didn't even leave a word to him.

Jaejoong walked out of the hospital room after giving a sample of his blood. Still looking a little pale, he started walking towards the cafeteria where he could refuel his body. When he walked past a room in the children wing, he suddenly heard a sound of a little boy screaming. Startled, he stuck his head through the door opening, trying to find out whether the boy needed any help. He saw a woman bending down, comforting the little boy, "Now, now, it will be okay. Mommy's here." He smiled & kept walking, "Yuri would be that kind of mother. She would be great with children. It's been almost eight years. Where would she be now? Would she remember me from time to time? Miss me like I miss her?" Jaejoong mused sadly.

After the breakup five years before, Jaejoong had tried to contact Yuri. He went to her office but was told that she had resigned from her position. He had called her, needing to hear her voice but the recorded message had told him that she was unavailable & all calls were to be forward to her parents' number. He had tried to go to Yuri’s parents for information about her whereabouts but they didn't agree to see him. They didn't even let him into their house. Only the housekeeper's voice through the intercom had informed him not to look for Yuri anymore.

He & Hyukjae had gotten drunk that night. The next morning, his father, who had been visiting him, had told him about his conversation with Yuri’s father after the wedding. About Mr. Kwon's request that he was to forget about Yuri & not to contact her ever again, & how angry he had been because his daughter was hurt & humiliated. Feeling at fault, he didn't want to offend the older man any further & tried to track Yuri down secretly. When Hyukjae had shown him Yoona’s last letter; he got so desolate that he had decided to respect Yuri’s wish & used all of his strength & willpower to get over her but his effort had been proven fruitless. After fighting his feelings for two years, he finally had decided to accept his destiny. If he was destined to love only a woman in his whole life then so be it. Accepting his fate turned out to make his life less miserable; his life got much smoother. Although Yuri had told him to move on with his life, he still had faith that Yuri would honor their promise & meet him at their special spot. With Jessica getting better & his date with Yuri at the beach was getting nearer, it's no wonder he had a bouncy spring in his stepped. Glancing at his michael kors chronograph granger stainless steel bracelet watch, he reminded himself to pick Jessica up from her shopping spree at times square & quickened his steps.

Leeteuk was skipping along the hospital corridor, whistling joyfully. The nurses he walked past smiled at him in admiration but he only waved his hand in greeting, not noticing the looks sent his way. It was his first day working in this hospital after being in Maryland for the last eight years. He just got back in Seoul with Yuri & the gang a week ago.

Nearly eight years ago, when Yuri told him about her plan to go to New York, he immediately requested a transfer to Anne Arundel Medical Center in Maryland. Although driving from Maryland to New York every weekend was tiring, his exhaustion vaporized every time he saw the beaming smile Yuri had on her face whenever she saw him. They had become much closer to each other than before. These eight years had been hidden blessings for both of them for they had matured a lot after going through so much hard times together. Yuri wasn’t the eight year before Yuri & Leeteuk now wasn’t the same Leeteuk eight years ago & their relationship now was also different.