Chapter 5

“Soo Jin! Wait!”

My legs started moving before I could even think about running away from him. I was hoping to lose him, but everyone knew how well this kid could find me no matter where I went. I didn’t give him a chance to say anything. I was afraid of what could have happened if I did. There was no way that this was happening to me and I wasn’t going to let it continue.

When I thought I had made my escape, I felt someone tug on my elbow and push me against the brick wall in an ally nearby, making the wind knock out of me. I knew it was him, but I squirmed in his grip, only to make him squeeze both my arms with his hands, which made me decide to stay still. I looked at him from the corner of my eye, thankful that my hair was covering my face. It reminded me of all the times this happened whenever I’d run away from him – nothing changed.

 “Soo Jin…” Who knew that after all these years, his voice could still make me feel this pathetic?

“Let go of me…” I whispered as I gave up on trying to get away from him.

I could smell his cologne, the cologne that he wore when I first met him on the bus and I never forgot the scent; it was a reminder of who he was. He didn’t say anything. He just stood there in front of me with his umbrella down by his side while breathing heavily due to me making him run down the streets to come catch me.

“Se Hun…” I struggled to look, afraid that I would break down or even lose it in front of him, and I didn’t want to show him that since it’s been so long.

His grip around me loosened and just when I thought he was going to back up and let me go, he suddenly pulled me into a warm embrace. His arms were now around my body and he was pressed against me. The scent of him was stronger than ever and I couldn’t help but give into it as I pressed my face against his chest. I don’t remember the last time I’ve hugged him, but the feeling was the still the same and I hated myself for not letting go right away.

The rain was still hitting us and I knew that staying in his arms for this long wasn’t going to do us both any good. I slowly pushed away and he didn’t fight back with me. He was finally a few feet away from me, just staring at me with his eyes, which I avoided. I looked to the side of me and watched as a few people ran past us, minding their own business to find shelter.

I took a deep breath and became curious about the things that were running through Se Hun’s mind. I knew he wanted to say something, but I’m sure he didn’t want to say it just yet because we just met again. I didn’t know if it was a good idea to walk away at this moment since there was nothing but silence but the moment I tried to take a step away from this situation, he did the same.

“You always do this, you know that?” He whispered, but it sounded like he was hurt all over.

I couldn’t look at him. I knew if I did, I wouldn’t have the strength to leave.

“Every single time we get into this situation, you always leave.” He continued. “You never stay. You never stay and try to talk to me or work things out.”

“What’s there to work out?” I rolled my eyes as I tried to maintain a broken poker face. “It’s been far too long and things have changed.”

“You’re always trying to run away from problems.” Se Hun grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. His eyes were piercing right through me, making my stomach churn inside. “You think they’ll disappear just because you tried to?”

I slapped his hand away from me roughly and scoffed. “You don’t even know the reason to why I even left.”

Se Hun scoffed this time and from the way he did it, I knew he was irritated with the whole situation. “And this is why we’re here right now…”

“W-what?” My mouth fell ajar.

Was he trying to blame me for us breaking up? I wanted to kick his leg or even punch him, but I had to force myself from doing anything to the guy in front of me. Who knows? I could be on the TV tonight and my parents would see me only to find out that their daughter had just murdered someone after coming back when it’s only been about a week. And what would Jin Hyuk think? He’d probably think he was crazy for trying to marry someone as crazy as me…

“You know what? Forget this. I don’t even know why I’m still here.” I ran a hand through my wet hair before I left the ally, only to be followed by that stupid gangster kid. “Stop following me.”

“Do you know what time it is, you idiot?”

Why did he even care about the time?

“Does it matter?” I groaned before I secretly took my phone out to check the time – it was almost midnight.

“An idiot like you can’t walk out alone at a time like this.”

I quickly turned around so I could yell at him and just as I did, he collided right into me and I almost fell over, but he grabbed the small of my back and caught me before I could even hit the sidewalk below me.

Having his face this close to mine after so many years made me feel like I was out of breath. I couldn’t help it, but I stared at every inch of his face, remembering his scar on his upper cheek or even his lips that seemed to be calling my name. I took a breath and tried to push him off of me, but he leaned in towards me. My eyes widened, but when he stopped moving towards me and smiled, I knew he was only teasing me.

“Who knew the feelings would still be the same after all these years?” Se Hun asked before I felt his breath hit my lips. “You’re the still the same, aren’t you, Ahn Soo Jin…?”

“Stop.” I said, feeling too weak to even push him away now. “I need to go home.”

“I’ll take you home.” Se Hun said before he let me go.

This wasn’t right. What I did wasn’t right. How could I even let him tease me so easily like a fool? I hated him for making me feel this way. I quickly punched him in the stomach and pushed him away before I picked up my pace and ran to get into a taxi that came quickly. I got in and made sure the driver wouldn’t stop for Se Hun who chased after me only to end up watching me leave down the streets with his hand covering his stomach.

I made sure not to turn and look back…

**

The house was quiet as soon as I locked the door behind me. I quietly tiptoed up the stairs to my room and closed my door before opening the lights. I was just about to walk towards my bed and flop on top, but I was startled upon seeing Jin Hyuk sleeping snuggly in my blankets. He looked like a little kid who was sick. I walked over and sat beside him, grazing my hand over his messy hair that was blocking his eyes.

Just the sight of him made my chest squeeze. I was just with Se Hun, someone he didn’t even know, and here I was, acting like nothing that just happened an hour ago didn’t happen. I was guilty, but from this moment on, I wasn’t going to let anything happen. I reached down and was just about to kiss Jin Hyuk’s cheek, but I stopped. It felt wrong of me to kiss him so easily.

“Soo Jin?” Jin Hyuk moaned as he opened his eyes to the bright lights that were on. He looked at me as he rubbed his eyes and smiled. “Why are you home so late?”

“I’m sorry.” I had to readjust myself to my normal life again since it felt like I wasn’t there for the past few hours. “Did I wake you?”

“No, I was waiting for you.” Jin Hyuk wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me towards him so he could cuddle with me. “I feel like I haven’t seen you all day.”

“I’m sorry.” I felt his lips brush my cheek cutely.

“Sleep with me tonight.” He pleaded as he let me go so he could see me.

“Here? Or your room?”

“Here.” He scooted over and patted the empty space beside him. “We haven’t slept together for awhile.”

I let out a small laugh and scooted next to him, making sure to wrap my arms around his neck so his head could sleep soundly on my chest. I did miss sleeping next to Jin Hyuk since we comfortably did that back in Canada. I closed my eyes and listened to his soft breathing until I fell asleep myself.

**

“I ing hate you.”

Jung Ah and I met a few days after my encounter with Se Hun and Lu Han, but just to my freaking luck, we ended up at the café where Lu Han worked and that guy who rung me up the first time I was here, I found out his name was Xiu Min. We sat as far as possible from where they were just because I didn’t want them to hear what we had to talk about. But just sitting here was making me want to kill her even more.

“Why the hell are we here?” I whispered, as if I was afraid that this distance wasn’t even enough to make sure they couldn’t hear us.

“It’s because I like the drinks here.” Jung Ah rolled her eyes and took a sip of her strawberry coconut smoothie. “Wahh, it’s so refreshing!”

“You set me up! How could you do that to me?!” I threw my hands up dramatically.

“I didn’t set you up, Soo Jin.” She rolled her eyes and continued drinking her smoothie. “I was just letting you know that this was a good place for your bubble tea.”

“Yeah, but you couldn’t throw in the ‘Lu Han works there and so do his friends’?!” I slammed the table with my hand this time, causing a few people to look over at me, but I didn’t care.

“Looks like you’re the one who has to learn how to keep their voice low.” She was right though. She used to be the one who didn’t know how to use indoor voices, but now I was the one who needed to learn how to be quiet.

“Damn you, Jung Ah.” I forced myself to say this quietly.

“I don’t know why you’re so upset about this. I mean, I was honestly telling you to come here and try their drinks.” She looked innocently at me and I wanted to push her over onto the ground because she was half-serious about this while I knew the other half-non-serious side was pretty much laughing at me because she knew this was going to happen. “Besides, I just forgot to tell you that Lu Han and his friends worked here… Geez, Soo Jin. Will you calm down?”

I grabbed my mango bubble tea and sipped on it as I tried to calm down myself. I couldn’t disagree with Jung Ah though. This bubble tea was probably ten times better than the one that I usually got back at the other café that we always went to after school.

“That day was the worst…” I whispered as I remembered everything that happened that day. Who would have thought that I would see so many familiar faces within those twenty-four hours?

“What happened?” Jung Ah actually looked focused now after sitting here for almost about an hour of our conversations. “Was it really my fault?”

“I met Se Hun again…” My heart was squeezing just saying his name.

“What?! Omg! Soo Jin!” Now, that was the Jung Ah I knew because she was yelling as if I wasn’t sitting right across from her. “What do you mean? You mean… You called him?!”

“No, stupid. You think I’d call that stupid gangster kid?” I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair. “I ran into him.”

“Where? When? What? How?”

“Jung Ah, seriously? People are starting to look over here…”

Not that they weren’t staring over here earlier…

“Okay. So you waited this long to tell me that you ran into him?” She squeezed her cup, making me fear that the smoothie would burst out and splatter all over us and the table.

“Well, you see, I didn’t want to talk to you.” I pursed my lips and nodded my head slowly. “Who knows what I would’ve done if we were talking that night.”

“What?”

“I would have killed you, for all I know.” I shrugged and rolled my eyes. “Besides, me meeting Se Hun was probably another set up from you!”

“I told you, I didn’t set you up!” She threw her arms up in the air this time. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“Oh shut it, Jung Ah.”

 “Where were you when you ran into him? And why did you run into him?”

“Downtown and I don’t know.”

“Seriously? Such vague answers.”

“It’s cos’ it wasn’t anything big.” My shoulders suddenly slumped when I said this and I couldn’t understand why.

“But you said it was the worst day of your life…”

“Yeah, it was.”

“Then tell me how it was…” Jung Ah urged as she tapped onto the table.

I opened my mouth to tell her how I felt seeing Se Hun, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was air. I closed it before I looked away from Jung Ah’s stare, which was dying to know about my feelings and what happened that day, but I just couldn’t say it. I looked at my bubble tea out in front of me before my eyes landed onto my fiddling hands. It was as if I was just realizing this… Just realizing that the moment I say something, I know I would lose it.

“Soo Jin…” Her voice was stern but soft at the same time.

I felt overwhelmed and lowered my head onto my arms that were folded onto the table. My actions didn’t seem new to Jung Ah because she reached over and grabbed my hand and held it firmly, knowing how I truly felt without even having to say a word.

Why did I think coming back was going to be easy?

Author's Note: Thank you for being so patient with me. Enjoy^^