It was one in the morning. Jiyong, Chaerin and Yongbae were still at their office. Jiyong was still working with the stuff from the afternoon, while Chaerin and Yongbae were discussing about what could be done to save their restaurant in Hong Kong.

“I still think that the chef has something to do with this,” Chaerin said.

“Don’t just jump into conclusion without seeing things through first,” Yongbae told her, not taking his eyes off the yearly reports. “According to the yearly reports, we had five times more customers three years ago than we have now. But the chef is the same. So, the problem might be something else.”

“People change, Yongbae,” Chaerin pointed out.

Yongbae pursed his lips.

“That’s true too,” he said, throwing the papers on top of the table and leaning back. “I guess we won’t find out unless we get there.”

“Yeah.”

Chaerin glanced sideways at Jiyong but he was totally absorbed in his work. She sighed and stood up. “I’ll leave first, then.”

“’Kay, drive safe,” Yongbae smiled at her.

Chaerin smiled back and left.

“You know, you should be more conscious about your surroundings,” Yongbae spoke to Jiyong stiffly after he was sure that Chaerin was already out of the building.

But Jiyong didn’t respond.

“Hey! Dude! I’m talking to you, you know?” Yongbae yelled at him.

Jiyong finally took his eyes off of his laptop and looked around.

“Whoa! Where’s Chaerin?”

“She left.”

“Left? What time is it?”

Yongbae pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a heavy sigh.

“What?” Jiyong asked.

“Nothing. Forget it,” Yongbae muttered and stood up to leave.

“Hey, man! What’s wrong?” Jiyong stood up as well.

Yongbae suddenly remembered the woman from that morning and said, “This morning. Or should I say last morning since it is past midnight?” he nodded towards the clock. “Anyways, who was that woman? The one you came here with.”

“Hmm? Oh, so you saw us, huh?” Jiyong avoided looking at Yongbae, a sign of guilt.  

Yongbae narrowed his eyebrows.

“What’s with that expression?”

Jiyong looked like he was searching for the right words to say but couldn’t find any.

“Who was that woman, Jiyong?” Yongbae pressed on.

Jiyong sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. “It was Kiko. She-” he bit his bottom lip and continued to look in every direction except at Yongbae.

Yongbae got shocked.

“Kiko? You mean, Mizuhara Kiko?” he asked to make sure.

Jiyong sighed and nodded.

“W-wow! I- didn’t even recognize her,” Yongbae spoke with a tone of disgust. “But what is she doing in Korea? Hadn’t she moved to Paris for good? She had even said stuff like she will never set foot in East Asia.”

Jiyong ran his fingers through his hair and finally met Yongbae’s gaze with a don’t-you-dare-talk-about-her-in-that-tone look. Yongbae realized what he just did and gave Jiyong an apologetic look. Despite the amount of pain she had made him go through, talking about her in front of him was a taboo.

“Sorry. It’s just that-”

 “I know you guys hate her for her actions back then but as I’ve always been saying, she had her reasons and I respected that. But what’s important right now is that something really terrible has happened to her,” Jiyong’s voice sounded so sad that Yongbae felt his chest tighten.

“She won’t even tell me. I guess I’ll just have to wait for her to open up,” Jiyong sighed and smiled meekly. “Just don’t let Chaerin know about her, ‘kay?” he requested. “She will just create a scene and I don’t want that. Kiko - she has become really fragile as if she’ll break down any moment-”

For the first time