Since this is the second update this week, just in case you missed the previous chapter do read Chapter 27 if you haven't :)

Chapter 28

Lin bit down her lip when she ended the call with Sunhee who had no idea where Yeojin was.

If Yeojin eonni wasn't with Sunhee eonni, does that mean she's with... She tapped the call log on her phone and her finger hovered over Sehun's number.
 

["She went missing since the morning and her phone's off. The family's not really worried, but yeah... I guess I am because she said she has an appointment with a friend, but Sunhee eonni doesn't even know where she is."]

"Where are you going, lil' bro?" Luhan asked when he saw Sehun running down the stairs with a phone cradled between his ear and shoulder as he tried to wear his leather jacket.

Sehun just continued running toward the door, not even replying his brother.

["Let's just say she doesn't favor her own birthday," Lin explained. "I can't tell you much more than that."]

Sehun mounted his bike. "Alright. I'll help find her. I'll let you know if I find her."

["Thank you, sunbae."]

They ended the call and he put on his helmet before riding away from his house.

Aish! Really that girl! Where did she go? He tried to think of a place she might went to as he weaved passed through the traffic.

Sehun went to several street food stalls they had visited, but she wasn't there. He went to the convenience stores around her neighborhood, but she was not there either. It was at that moment that he realized he didn't know much about her. He didn't really know her interests, likes or dislikes to be able to know where she might have gone to. And Sehun hated feeling helpless like this.

He tried to think of another place that he had taken her to and remembered the gallery. The chance was small for her to be there, but he had to try. He thought of looking for her at Areum's restaurant if he didn't find her in the gallery. But to his surprise, she was there. She was just staring at the painting he showed her once.

Sehun panted from running around the gallery looking for her and calmed himself down first before he approached her. He smirked and reached out his hands to cover her eyes.

"Stop looking at the dot."

She pried his hands away and tilted her head up to look at him. Seeing the look of surprise on her face amused him and he smiled. He didn't expect her to give him back a smile; thus when she did, he felt his heart did a little jump. Yet, he could see that her smile was one of sadness.

"What are you doing here?" She asked as she let go of his hands and he took a seat beside her.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" He quirked an eyebrow. "I told you this is my place of escape. What are you doing here?"

Her small smile turned smaller and she turned her attention back to the painting. "Just because." She shrugged.

A comfortable silence fell over them afterwards. While Yeojin was staring at the painting, Sehun stared at her side profile and could see pain in her eyes. He wondered about what Lin told him.

Why wouldn't she like her own birthday? He wanted to know the reason. He wanted to know her story. He wanted to know her more.

"Do you wanna know my biggest flaw?" She suddenly spoke while still staring at the painting.

Sehun wasn't sure if he wanted to hear it. Is she going to tell me she's married? He held his breath.

Before he could even answer, Yeojin took a deep breath and told him anyway, "I killed my dad and a guy I liked."

Sehun was taken aback by the revelation, but he somehow felt relieved too at the same time. He composed himself before he asked in a deadpan tone, "You killed?" He lifted an eyebrow. He could tell that she didn't really mean what she said literally.

"Well... I..." She sighed and that was a confirmation to Sehun that she really didn't commit murder.

"In a case of a murder, the murderer and the cause of death may be tied with one another, but they are different from one another." Yeojin turned to look at him with confusion. "If I suffocate you to death, I'm the murderer and suffocation is your cause of death. But I'm not the suffocation itself. See." He shrugged. "Now let me guess. You think you killed your dad and whoever guy you said because you did something that led to their death?" Yeojin's eyes rounded in surprise.

How did he...?

"Wild guess." He shrugged again and sighed. "But Jin..." His tongue felt a little funny after uttering her nickname, yet he continued, "you didn't kill them."

She could only blinked at him before looking away. "It's the same to me. They're no longer here. They died because of me," she mumbled.

Sehun shook his head. "You should run."

"Huh?" She looked at him again with knitted brows.

"You know how to run on the track, but you don't know how to run from the guilt, huh? Look, I agree with what people say about the past being tied to our present and future thing which means that no matter how far we run away from our past, it's still part of us. But, I do think that we have the power to run from the grip of our past mistakes and guilt." He slid closer to her on the bench. "If you continue on letting yourself be in the hands of guilt, you're only digging your own grave." He nudged her shoulder with his. "You're a fast runner. So, run."

She looked away again with a sigh. "Yeah, run and then head where? To the future where there's rainbow and where magical things can happen? What if there's no rainbow and magic in the future?"

Sehun snickered at her description. "That's for you to decide. But don't let yourself live in guilt because you deserve to be happy. Especially on your birthday." He smiled and Yeojin's eyes grew wide when she looked at him. "Happy birthday."

Her eyes softened and she pursed her lips. Yeojin knew that Sehun was right, but he didn't understand how hard it was for her. She didn't blame him for it because he didn't know the whole story. Yet, she couldn't just forget everything and be happy. "You can't possibly understand what I feel," she told him in a small voice as she stood up.

Sehun's smile faltered and he stood up when Yeojin started walking away. He jogged after her. "Wait." He grabbed her arm. "I'm sorry for not understanding and for thinking that you deserve to be happy." His eyes bore hers. "I just think you have to let go of the past."

"I'm not blaming you for not understanding, Sehun." She gently pushed his hand away. "And I know you're right." She lowered her head. "But I just... It's just..." She looked up at him again. "Please let me be with myself for now. I just want to be alone." She walked around him and headed for the exit.

Sehun sighed as he saw her leave. He had a very strong urge to follow her, but he figured it would just make her mad. He fished out his phone and dialed Lin's number.

["Did you find her?"]

"Yes."

"She's where?" Kris walked to his car after checking the park he used to go to with Yeojin and Lin when they were kids. He had checked every place they used to hangout at in the past, but she was in none.

["A gallery. I'll text you the adress," Lin told him.]

"A gallery? Who found her?" He ducked to get inside the car and started the engine.

There was a pause on the other line before Lin answered. ["Sehun."]

Kris was momentarily frozen at the mention of the name. I couldn't even find her, yet he could?

["He said she just went out of the gallery though. He's not sure where she went because she didn't want him to follow her. But he said she might not be far from the gallery."]

So she's alone again? "Alright. I'll look for her. Thanks." He ended the call and pulled out of the parking spot.

He read Lin's text message and increased the car's speed. He found the said gallery and started slowing down as he scanned the people walking on the sidewalk. Kris sighed frustrated when he still couldn't find her. He picked the car's speed again but abruptly came to a stop in front of a convinience store.

With a ramyeon cup in her hands, Yeojin sat down at a table in front of a convinience store. She was startled when a familiar car abruptly halted in front of the store and out came Kris from the car.

"Kris?" Her eyes rounded in surprise as he approached her with long strides. Yeojin gulped seeing how Kris was glaring at her. "H-hey! What are you doing?" He grabbed her arm making her stand up from her seat. "My ramyeon!" She whined as he dragged her to the car. "Ya! What are you doing?"

Kris forced her to enter the car and he fastened the seatbelt for her. Yeojin's mind was still in a daze of what was happening while Kris rounded the car and got inside. He sat on the driver's seat, still not uttering a word. He pulled away from the store and hit the main road.

"What are you doing?!" She snapped at him. "I haven't even eaten my ramyeon-"

"Damn it! Do you even know how worried everyone is?" He raised his voice and Yeojin cowered at his tone.

"I'm not a kid anymore. I can go back by myself," she mumbled with a pout.

"Have the past not thought you enough?!" He retorted and groaned. "What if some guy try something on you? It's still the rainy season too! And what if you broke down again and no one is around?!" He sped up passing several cars. "You just had to be selfish and think about your own problem and ramyeon, huh?!"

Yeojin felt his words pricking her heart. She pursed her lips as she looked out the window. "You're right! I'm selfish." She scoffed at herself. "It was because of my selfishness that Dad and Baekhyun died anyway," she sarcastically said that it made Kris raised an eyebrow. "They died because I selfishly wanted to keep everything that was our friendship." Yeojin covered , surprised at what she said herself.

"What? What are you talking about?" This time Kris glanced at her with deep frown. He looked back ahead and the car slowed down to a stop at the red light. "What do you mean?" He snapped his head toward her.

Yeojin cursed herself for not filtering her words. She momentarily closed her eyes and sighed before turning to look at him. "The necklace you gave me back then..."

"The one you lost?"

She and bit her lip. "I didn't lose it." She lowered her head.

"What?"

"Those... guys..." Yeojin gulped. "They assaulted me because I didn't want to give them the necklace." She closed her eyes. "I couldn't wear it again because it reminded me of Baekhyun." She looked at him with sad eyes. "He saved it."

A car behind them honked and Kris saw that the light had turned green. He shifted the gear and the car moved again. Silence ensued in the car afterwards.

Kris thought that she lost the necklace because it wasn't important to her. He had always thought that she didn't really treasure their friendship when Baekhyun came into her life.

"Why?" He asked without glancing at her. Yeojin blinked at him. "Why didn't you just give it?"

She turned to look ahead too. "Because that's the only remaining thing that gave me hope. It gave me hope that we would find our way back."

Kris fell silent after that. Guilt suddenly crept up in his heart. He glanced at her and saw her looking out the window. His heart was slowly filled with a wish that he could turn back time to undo what he did to her. Or maybe to do what he should've done that one summer day.

"Are we going back to the mansion?" Yeojin asked and he nodded. "Can we not go there now?" She pleaded. "I don't wanna hear a round of happy birthday's."

He let out a little scoff. "Why? Don't give that I-don't-deserve-to-be-happy bull." Yeojin pursed her lips at that. Kris sighed and opened his mouth to speak again, but Yeojin cut him.

"Don't give me the you-deserve-to-be-happy bull," she retorted in the same manner and crossed her arms sinking to her seat. "I'm not in the mood to hear it again."

"I wasn't going to say that. You being happy is your choice not mine." From his peripheral view, he could see her giving him a surprised look and he smirked. "I was gonna ask where you want to go instead?" She kept silent with lowered head and he briefly glanced at her. "So where to?"

 

Kris leaned on the tree's trunk to give some space for Yeojin. She crouched down and put the flower they bought from a florist nearby in front of the tombstone.

"Hi, Dad," she greeted with a sad smile.

Kris pretended he didn't hear her talk with her dad while he silently glanced at her from time to time. He saw how the corners of her lips were hooked up in a tight smile. It made him want to slap her sometimes for always pretending that she was okay. Just like she had always been since the day he found her staring blankly into space back at the hospital, Yeojin didn't shed a single drop of tear again. He heard her muttered apologies before he looked away when she stood up.

They walked back to the car passing some more tombstones. They entered the car and Yeojin stayed silent throughout the ride. She had made a vow not to cry on her birthday because she didn't deserve to, but her eyes were now stinging with threatening tears.

"Don't hold it back," Kris spoke after awhile. He had been taking a peek at her every now and then and saw how she was curling her hands into fists. "Just cry if you want to."

Yeojin whipped her head toward him and forced a short chuckle. "What are you talking about? I wasn't going to cry." She scoffed to the side, but she could feel her heart breaking a little with every passing second.

"I won't lecture you on being happy with your life because I know it's hard for you, but that doesn't mean you should bottle up your sadness too." Kris glanced at her and found her narrowing her eyes at him. He looked back ahead. "You feel guilty? You hate yourself? Then cry. You cry every time you had that panic attack, but you always put up a front of being strong every other time and around everyone else. You can fool everyone with your act of being strong, but you can't fool me."

Yeojin looked away with a frown. "You don't know me anymore. And I really am not going to cry."

Kris sighed and mentally cursed her for being such a bull-headed girl. They had not hit the main road and were still at a road where the tall trees were lining up on both sides of the road. He pulled over to the side and Yeojin looked at him confused.

"I'll give you time to yourself. You can cry as long as you want. I'll be outside." Kris opened the door and alighted the car. He then leaned back on the door with crossed arms.

Yeojin frowned, not understanding why he insisted for her to cry. The moment he stepped out of the car, she felt like her heart was crumbling to pieces and the dam in her eyes was going to break out. Yet, she had promised herself not to cry; and thus, she hated how he made her feel so vulnerable. She huffed a breath and alighted the car too. She stomped around the car and stood in front of him.

"What is wrong with you?! I told you I don't even want to cry. Why are you like this? Let's go now. There's no use for you to insist for me to cry because I don't feel like crying and we will just waste our time here."

"You're lying," he calmly replied as he looked into her eyes.

She held her breath at his words and only stared at him. She couldn't understand why no matter how broken their friendship was, he could still easily read her.

Yeojin broke their gaze and turned around. "Fine! If you wanna stay here, I'll just walk to the bus stop."

Before she could even take a single step, Kris grabbed her arm and turned her back around. He pulled her into his embrace and her eyes grew wide in surprise.

"What are you doing?" She tried to break free but he hugged her tighter. "Kris! What the hell?! Let me go! Kris!" He tightened his arms around her as she weakly hit him with her fist.

"There's no one else here," he told her with his husky voice. "It's only me. You can cry now." He felt Yeojin's attempt to break free gradually weakened. "You don't have to pretend in front of me. There's only me now." He slowly moved one of his hand to her head.

Yeojin took a few shaky breaths and still tried to hold back her tears. But the moment Kris her head, she couldn't hold herself any longer and felt herself stripped off any armor. She let out her tears and cried on his chest. The feeling of being broken yet freed at the same time was surreal to her. Yeojin let out all the bottled up feelings of loss, grief, and anger as she cried harder.

Feeling his own heart pricked, Kris her back. He never heard her cry like this and hearing her painful sobs now, he loosened his hold around her a bit afraid that he would hurt her. It was as if he was holding something fragile. He was afraid she would break if hold her tight. Yet at the same time, he refused to let her go just yet.

Sorry this is a bit short hehe because this one's actually part of the previous chapter.

Anyway, I just realized that there are team Kris and team Sehun already haha. So should we make pairing names? I'm aware that some of you call the Kris-Yeojin pairing as KrisJin. HunJin for Sehun-Yeojin pair then? Hahaha XD Or do you have any other suggestion? ^^