Present Time

2014

“Yah! Mir! Hurry up, will you?! Or we’re leaving without you!”

“Wait, wait, wait for me!” The boy in question quickly rushed out of his bedroom to join the rest of his friends who were already waiting by the entrance of their dorm, ready to set foot outside to start their little weekend vacation in the countryside.

Once they were all deemed ready, the boys of MBLAQ were being driven towards the train station by their manager with their tickets ready in their one hand and their luggage in the other.

As they climbed aboard and found themselves seats to settle in for the ride, each of the five boys went in on their personal little bubble as each of them occupied themselves with whatever they had brought for the ride, from music sheets to game console to reading fan letters.

Or in this case for Mir, responding to an anonymous correspondent he’s been writing to for the past four years.

He could still remember the first time he received that one letter that started everything around the time they had their first win on a music show. At first, he thought it was a normal fan letter they would usually receive but after reading it, he decided to respond to the person and that’s how everything started.

With the years, they kept contact without ever seeing each other; even though the correspondence was minimal, he still held it on because from what he learned, that certain someone needed support and that same someone was the one reaching out to him, which made him want to help in return.

Maybe because it was out of the goodness of his heart or maybe because that anonymous writer reminded him of someone he once knew before moving to Seoul.

After being told that they couldn’t be together anymore, it broke his heart and it was around the time he had the offer to join the company of his brother-in-law. Since he always wanted to be part of the show business, he jumped on the opportunity and left everything behind to become who he was today, a musical talented rapper.

Since then, even though he kept visiting his family and friends back in his hometown, he never came across that certain girl and that’s when he learned that she moved out of her house to go to college and live on campus.

It saddened him to know that he couldn’t find a way to contact her but with how things ended between them, he simply let go and moved on along with putting past him his feelings for her, as hard as it was.

And with time, he never looked for her again.

The endless hours passed by until the boys were finally settling inside Mir’s house after doing the sleeping arrangements and since the hours of the afternoon were passing by, they took this chance to stroll around until it was time for dinner, giving the boys time to relax and enjoy the spring weather of May.

They kept walking around until they hit the public market where they split into small groups while randomly looking around.

Everything was going well until Mir stopped in his steps the moment his eyes landed on her familiar figure; standing behind the stand of fruits and vegetables was Choi Lina. One glance and he immediately recognized her. He felt his heart stop with his breathing falling short as he looked at her while she was helping a customer.

Softly whispering out her name, he felt a push by his shoulder, suddenly bringing him out of his daze. He turned around to see Seungho looking back at him with a questioning look on his face. “What were you staring at?”

“N-nothing.”

“Okay… If you say so~”

Shrugging his shoulders, Seungho left Mir standing by as he went back on his stroll with his eyes glancing from one item of a stand to another, leaving the younger one behind.

He took this chance to glance back at Lina, hoping that she would turn around to see him. Lost in his thoughts, the voice of an old woman was what brought him back to reality again. “That poor girl, if only she was as lucky as you Cheolyong-ah…”

Slightly surprised, he turned around to look at the old lady who had an apologetic gaze towards the girl before she looked back at the boy. “What do you mean?”

“Oh sweetie, ever since your class graduated high school, everything went down spiral for her! Actually, it was also around the time you left to become a big star. As you may know, a lot of people here dislike her family… especially her grandfather but since he’s gone…”

“Gone?”

“Oh dear, didn’t you know? Mr. Choi past away five years ago.”

“What?” Disbelief in his eyes, his jaw dropped at the upsetting news that he just heard. He turned his head to look at Lina while the woman talked more about the years he missed. “And poor her grandmother, she is the one that got the biggest blow.”

“What happened to her?”

“Rumor has it that she had fallen ill around the time her husband died. Now that poor girl is taking care of her as well as trying to keep a roof over their heads by working here everyday.”

“But I thought she went to college?”

“She never went to college! She’s the only kid that hasn’t gone anywhere after high school!”

“This is not right…” Shaking his head, he ran his fingers through his hair while letting out a breath to lessen his nervous state. Slowly, he was starting to feel anger, not towards her but towards his father; the old man knew that his son was friends with her and always asked about her but all he got as an answer was that she was living the life in school.

He never knew how troubled her life had become after he left and a part of him was suddenly feeling guilty for leaving her behind.

“Thank you for telling me.”

A small nod to the old woman and Mir walked out, hurrying his steps back to his house to get some proper answers.

“Why didn’t you say anything to me! You knew how much she meant to me and yet you deliberately hid something like this?!”

The moment he stepped foot inside his house, his loud voice called out his father in anger as he searched for the man around the house until he spotted him in the living room. Ignoring the crowd around him, he went straight to pinpoint the problem that was hidden from him, letting out the frustration that was built up inside of him. “How could you do this?! You know how fragile she is! Why didn’t you say anything?!”

“Because it wasn’t our business!”

“It’s mine! I was the only one that she had and now I’m the only one she has left! I don’t care about that stupid family feud you had with her grandfather, but when it comes to Lina, anything related to her is my business.”

“The hell it is! You better watch your tone young man!”

“Or what?! Huh?! You’ve already done enough damage!”

Without even giving the chance to his father to answer back, Mir stormed out of his house, leaving everyone behind as they were left startled at the abrupt outburst that came out of nowhere.

Stomping his way out of his front lawn, he let his anger guide his step without really paying attention to where he was going until he spotted the familiar lake that would usually lead to her house.

Halting his steps, he breathed out to calm himself down as he placed his hands inside his pockets while gazing at the small house that was standing on the tiny piece of land above the water. Gently, memories of his teenage years were coming back to him, letting them fill his mind with the moments he could remember spending with his old best friend he had eventually fallen in love with.

He wanted to march over there and knock on her door but the thought of it left him motionless as he tried to figure out a way to ease things since he knew that it was going to be difficult reconnecting with her.

‘Ugh, I hate this… I can’t believe I left her alone… She trusted me and I abandoned her…’

He shook his head and turned his back, giving up on the idea. His way back to his house was done slowly as he took the time to think things through but also to let himself remember the old days where he got to genuinely enjoy his time with Lina, something he had missed.

The moment he was back in front of his house, he took in another deep breath and slowly walked inside while carefully looking around. The further inside he was, he spotted his parents in the kitchen looking as if they were arguing about something until they stopped when Mrs. Bang spotted her son at the entrance.

The boy looked at his father, apologizing for yelling at him but without forgiving him for hiding something that was important to him.

“She trusted me and I let her down because you didn’t have the guts to call me and let me know what was going on in her life. I’m mad at you for that and I don’t think I’ll forgive you.”

He left as he walked his way to his bedroom where the rest of the members were, busying themselves; they stopped when they saw Mir walking in while closing the door behind him.

“Are you okay?”

“No… not really.”

“Want to talk about it?”

Glancing at the four pair of eyes, he sighed and made his way to his bed as he took a seat, taking a moment to himself before pouring out everything about his life before moving out to Seoul.

A/N: New title, new first chapter! :3

Hope this beginning was better than the previous one, hehe >.<

Anyways~ Hope you guys will enjoy it better ^^

Lots of love, xo