Chapter 3

Yuri hadn’t seen Yunho for the past few days since he had travelled to Seattle to work on a deal but she had seen a lot of Jessica. Every day, they met for coffee at rousseau & rousseau.

One morning, when she was busy preparing for a court case, she looked up & had the shock of her life.

“Yunho Oppa. What are you doing here? You are supposed to be Seattle.”

“No hello then? I got back early. It was an unsuccessful deal.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Long enough to know that you are overworking that you didn’t even notice me come in.”

“I’m sorry, I was too involved in the case & it’s a tough one.”

“Well, I think someone deserves lunch.”

“I’m busy. Why aren’t you with Jessica?”

“She’s gone to one of those mother & baby classes.”

“What those classes where mothers hum & meditate to the baby & look like idiots?”

“Yeah, & sensing that I’m not a woman, I don’t have to go to one of those.”

“Fine, let me finish this first & then I will go with you, only a quick lunch though.”

“Sure. I like watching you anyway.”

As Yuri focused on her work, Yunho scanned the office. Yuri had recently been promoted so she now had a larger office. He got up & saw on the top shelf a glass photo frame holding a memory. It was eight years ago when they were both twenty-one.

“Yul, you still have that picture?”

“What picture?” Yuri answered, without looking up.

“The one when we went on a boating trip.”

“Oh, that one?”

Yuri started to feel uneasy; she didn’t want Yunho to see that picture.

“Haven’t you got any pictures of us?”

The way us slipped out of so naturally unnerved her.

“Yeah, but not from this boat trip though. We did make a cute couple. No wonder we made Mr & Mrs. perfect that year at Minho’s party.”

The memory of them together was always there in Yuri’s mind.

*Flashback*

They had dated each other since they began Chungang University together. He studied a joint degree of english & accountancy while she did law. They met in the library during the first week. They shared a desk & Yuri was so tired that day that she had fallen asleep while working. When she fell asleep, Yunho had watched her from the corner of his eye. He stole glances since he was scared that she would wake up & catch him staring at her. He read her name which she had written on the top of her paper.

“Kwon Yuri.”

Since that day, he took care to accidentally bump into Yuri. They always shared the same table in the library. One day, he finally got the courage to talk to her.

“Hey, it’s you again.”

“Yeah, hi, you are the guy who I saw at the library all the time.”

“Yeah, I’m Jung Yunho.”

“I know, I read it on your paper.”

“What paper?”

“The one you wrote on the effect of a political fraud in the economy.”

“I wrote that in english.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty much fluent in english. It was really interesting. I based my piece on it.”

“Glad to know I inspired you, miss Kwon Yuri.”

“How do you know my name?”

“You fell asleep on the day just after you wrote the date, your name & the title on your paper in the library.” “Oh.”

Yuri blushed; she couldn’t believe this cute guy had seen her fall asleep. How embarrassing.

Yunho smiled at her red cheeks & then he asked, “Do you want to grab some lunch?”

“Yeah, I’m starving.”

Since then, the two became a couple, quite a match really that people thought that they would get married as soon as they graduated but they didn’t.

*End of Flashback*

Yuri snapped out of her trip down memory lane. She looked at Yunho; this was the man that she shared the best moments of her lifetime with. He was guy who she had lost her ity to.

“Hmmm, isn’t it funny how things turned out. We all thought that Minho & Sooyoung would never get together but they got married last year, now proud parents to a little boy. Whereas us, who everybody thought would never separate, broke up before we even graduated.”

Yunho let out a quiet chuckle at the irony of it all.

“Oppa, what do you ever think, you know what might have been, if I hadn’t left for Boston to further my degree?”

Yuri didn’t look at Yunho when she asked him. She wished she never opened to say that.

“I don’t know, I supposed there are a lot of what ifs in my life. Guess we will never know.”

But Yunho knew what would have been. The day Yuri had told him that she got a scholarship to go to Boston to further her degree, he was ready to proposes to her. She was so excited & proud of her achievement he didn’t even bother asking her. He knew how much her career meant to her but that day was the saddest day of his life. He didn’t know how it happened but it was like they had silently broken up that day. They became friends instead. They were just friends. If Yuri hadn’t left, he was sure they would be married by today. Happily married, sharing a beautiful home together but there is no good on wondering about the past is there? He could still remember how he couldn’t bring himself to see her off on her flight to Boston, he had watched from a corner. No doubt he saw her disappointed face but he still didn’t want to say bye, he had known that if he really tried then Yuri would have stayed, he could have convinced her but he didn’t want to be the person who took her dream away from her. He was scared that if things went wrong between him then she would regret it & that it would cause a bitter rift between them. At the time, he had convinced himself that they would be able to stay together, after all, she was only going to be in Boston for three months but he was wrong, maybe it was because he hadn’t sent her off, maybe she thought that he didn’t care anymore but whatever happened that day she told him she would go to Boston killed the relationship they had but at that time, the both of them didn’t know.

Yunho didn’t want to focus on his thought. He took in a deep breath & reminded himself that he had Jessica & that Yuri was his best friend.

“So, how is that lunch coming along missy, are you going to keep me waiting for long?”

“One more minute, get my coat for me, I will be ready in a minute.”

They drove in Yunho’s car to the B28 Seoul restaurant which was not far from where Yuri worked. Once they settle into their seat, they sat there silently for a while. Just contemplating over the conversation they had in Yuri’s office. It wasn’t an awkward silence, they hardly realized they were doing it. Memories where coming back to them. Little things like how Yunho uses to use Yuri’s vanilla bath wash if she was away for longer than a day so that he wouldn’t feel lonely because the scent reminded him of her. He called it the Yuri wash then he realized that Jessica used that bath wash, too. Then he remembered how the first emotion that Jessica stirred within him was a familiar, happy, loved feeling, just like how he felt when he was with Yuri. Then he when started really thinking, he noticed all the similarities between Jessica & Yuri, the way they ate, the way they smelt, their interests, it was so strange that Yunho had to knock the thoughts out of his head. It must be a coincidence.