“Two nights and three days – are you saying that in that span of time, you fell in love?” Alex, my co-worker at the call centre, raised an eyebrow at me. With a teasing smile, he added, “The Lee Jongsuk who played with girls’ hearts had been finally struck by Cupid’s arrow?”

“Who said anything about falling in love?” I scoffed and threw him a crumpled paper.

“Because it sounded like you left your heart in El Nido,” Cass, another co-worker of mine, retorted.

There are eleven people in our team, excluding the team leader but it was with Cass and Alex that I felt most comfortable. Cass was fond of KPOP, Kdramas and basically anything Korean that made her learn the Korean language but then, she decided to make money out of her expertise so that she could support her expensive foreign tastes. Alex, on the other hand, was a working student but beneath his masculine features was a heart that loved the same . Others might find them odd but I am happy that I’ve found these two because it is a relief to have friends whom I can share my stories with. They were the ones who knew most about me: my struggles and why I ended up working at the call centre.

Now, I was telling these two about my latest adventure and here they were, insisting that there was another story – perhaps a story of my real feelings beneath the words that I have said.

“No!” I denied. “I was just mesmerized by this girl and just like every other attraction that I had, she stayed in my mind.”

“No. No. No. No. No,” Cass waved a finger at me. “Besides me and perhaps every other female in your family, girls stay in your mind because you’re thinking of ways on how to get into their pants and after that, you let them disappear.”

“But when you slept with Bae Suzy, the womanizer you oddly chose to just sleep without doing anything besides cuddles and yet you still think about her,” Alex supported Cass’ argument.

“What I could understand from your words is… I’m a badass who females should be careful with,” I said as I swirled the chair.

“Well, yes,” Cass answered without hesitation.

“Really?” I chuckled. “That’s your main point?”

“No,” Cass shook her head. “That’s just one of the points.”

“And the others are?” I demanded.

“Urgh,” Alex grunted. “Just answer this: What do you feel for this Bae Suzy you’ve just met?”

“I told you already, it’s attraction… just like what I felt –“

But I was cut-off by Alex as he held out his hand and told me to stop. Sighing he explained, “I know that Cass and I are having a secret and telepathic agreement about this case of yours and what we have concluded is that your attraction usually proceeds to lust. But this time, it’s different.”

“Totally different,” a smile now played on Cass’ lips.

The grin on their lips then became bigger as they both told me, “Congratulations! You’ve finally been love-struck.”

I chuckled and shook my head as I said, “You two are just hopeless romantic.”

“If you don’t want to believe us, then fine,” Alex replied as he rolled his eyes at me. “But we’ve warned you and I bet that that girl would still bug your mind for more days and you’d still keep thinking of the if’s and what if’s.”

Cass nodded in agreement with Alex and we left my problem at that. The two reached a conclusion but I did not. However, maybe I should accept the fact that my friends would always see a part of me that I wouldn’t be able to notice by myself because Alex was right. Two weeks after my short vacation, I was still haunted by the if’s and what if’s.

Living alone lessened the pressure of being tidy but I tried to be organized as much as I could. However, the bag that I used on my trip to El Nido remained unpacked. Perhaps, it was the fear of the nostalgia that it would bring. Memories of Suzy had already bugged me enough and perhaps, deep inside of me, I knew that touching that bag would just make the memories more vivid. However, I braved reliving the memories and told myself to let go after that.

“I should’ve done this earlier,” I groaned as the clothes have already become too smelly.

My face was in an agony as I controlled my breathing, trying to prevent the smell from entering my nose. With difficulties and disgust, I threw the clothes in the laundry bin. I was then checking the pockets, removing the other miscellaneous items when my hand caught a paper. I was to instinctively crumple it as I thought that it was one of my tickets but the paper was neatly folded and the lines showed that it was torn from a notebook.

Curiosity filled me as I unravelled the content of the paper and inside was a letter with a familiar handwriting. A smile formed on my lips as I read it to myself audibly:

“Hey Lee Jongsuk.

Has anybody told you that you’re still cute even when you’re sleeping? Once again, thank you for this wonderful trip. You’ve filled my heart with so much joy and I hope I had the same effect on you.

This might be too much to ask since I’m still a stranger but if you could grant me one wish, it’d be for you to continue pursuing your dreams. I bet you’d really look handsome with the white uniform on. Actually, please make those wishes two… and let the second one be for you to see your family and be with them again.

Please treasure the people you have left whil