Ji Young's POV: 

   I pick up the pick with shaking fingers, then observe it, turning it over in my hands. It was impossible; how could this one specific pick have gotten into my home? My new home, at that. These two nostalgic things from such a long time ago ... they've shown up magically inside of my room. 

  Impossible. 

  This is a trick, my mind insists. Someone is playing a trick on you. A cruel one. 

  I must pay it no attention. 

   Sweeping up the sweater from the floor, I walk slowly out of the room and descend the stairs, all the while clutching onto the two belongings. 

  It was strange; how they looked exactly the same as they had all these years before. I would have thought - like I, myself, had - that such things would have some sort of change in them. Back then, if I`d encountered these things in my room, I would have smiled and set them aside for the next day so I could return them to Jonghyun. However, now, in these curcumstances, smiling is the last thing that I would ever want to do. 

   I reach the end of the staircase, and just as I've decided that I should throw these posessions away in a suitable garbage disposal, something, I don't know what, makes me look up. 

   It's almost like my mind was giving me a red alert, wailing and screaming about in my brain, that something was wrong, something wasn't right, that I should be bracing myself in some way. 

   And my mind was right. 

  For there, right in front of me, through that thin layer of glass in the store windows, was Lee Jonghyun, the boy who had betrayed me so many years ago. 

   Different. 

  That's all I can say as I watch him watching me, identical expressions of surprise and wonder on our faces. He's different. 

  He doesn't look like that boy that I had spent sixteen years of my life with, the one with long, shaggy hair that fell past his big ears and bright, dancing, protective eyes. The one that I would spent whole nights awake with, telling stories and playing tricks on his two unnies; the one I had to wake up every morning for school; the one who I watched practice judo and taekwondo at the dojo for hours on end, because he didn't want to be alone, and frankly, neither did I. 

  Now that I look at him, with his mouth parted slightly in awe, dark hair cropped down into a short style, a small, almost undecipherable stubble crossing his chin, all I can think is of how different he looks, and how he must be now. 

  I don't know how long we stare at each other, but it's me who breaks the moment first. 

  Remembering my dignity, I narrow my eyes into a cold, dark expression, one that isn't childish, but rather one that shows just how much I've resented him over the years, as he flaunted his talent to millions of viewers in Korea and around the world, faking smiles at interviews and trying falsely to please fans. 

   Probably never once thinking that he'd left me behind, wondering if he would ever come back so that I could congratulate him and cheer him on, so that all of those horrible assumptions I'd made when I'd first learned of his debut would be forever erased from my brain. 

  But he hadn't, and I can never forgive him for that. 

  His eyes widen at my icy demeanor, and his mouth finally opens and forms words. 

  "Ji-ah," he says, and though his voice is subdued through the glass, the name rings in my ears painfully. 

   I flinch. When was the last time that I had heard that voice calling me that specific, childish nickname? 

  He looks hurt after I'd flinched, and he puts a hand to the glass, eyes boring holes into me. 

  "Ji-ah," he repeats. "You ... you're here." 

  For some reason, I feel a sudden urge overcome me, one that wants more than anything to rush through the door and melt into his arms, tell him how much I've grudgingly missed him even though he'd left me, and to feel him hug me back, the way that only the best of friends could.

  But I remain staring icily at him, sweater and guitar pick held in my two fists, as I make my way over to the place where he stood at the windows. 

  I look at his hand, remaining still on the glass, for a moment; his large, slender- hand with calluses that he'd had long before he'd started playing guitar. I'd held that hand before, when I was scared, or in pain, because it was the biggest comfort that a girl could ever have.

  But then I look into his eyes, and all the hatred that I've ever felt for him builds up inside of me and comes out in one concrete deathly glare. 

  "Go away," I say, loud enough for him to be able to hear me loud and clear through the windows. "Leave. I never want to see your face again." 

  And I walk over to the door in three long strides, open the door in one swift movement, and hurl the sweater, along with the pick, outside onto the pavement. 

Jonghyun's POV: 

   My mind seems to stop working as I look at my things on the ground. 

   They look so cold, lying there on the pavement, so cold that I for some reason I feel like crying. 

  Ji Young ... Ji Young hates me, is all that comes to my mind. I've been searching for her for all these years ... and she hates me. 

  I don't think that I can bear that sort of information. 

  Knowing that there is no lock installed in the door, I race past it and bolt up the staircase to Ji Young's room. The door is closed, but I know that she's there. It's almost like I can feel her. 

  I lift my fist hesitantly, then rap softly on the door. 

  "Ji Young?" I say softly, not believing that I can actually say her name and have her actually hear it. 

  There's no answer. I knock harder. 

  "Ji Young-ah!" I say louder, "Please open the door." 

  Nothing happens. Frustrated, I turn the knob and walk in myself, looking around the room for her, and see that she's sitting down on her cot, back to me. 

  "Ji-ah," I say, the words coming out in one breath. 

  I move towards her as if to put my arms around her when I see her back stiffen and I stop. 

  "Ji-ah, what's wrong?" I ask her. "I ... I haven't seen you in so long ... how - how are you? How have you been?" 

  Her words are spoken softly but they slice through me like a knife. "You wouldn't know." Before I can say anything back, she says, "Get out. Now, before I call the police." 

  I'm taken aback. "Ji-ah - " 

  She spins around, eyes blazing. "Don't call me that."

   Now that I'm this close to her, and she's facing me, I can see how different she looks.

   She looks pretty much the same as before, except for the fact that her face has gotten more mature, and even more beautiful, if that's even possible. Her hair has been trimmed down a bit shorter, but she looks the same height as well. It almost feels like I've transported back to six years ago, save for the fact that Ji Young looks horribly hateful towards me at the moment. 

   I realize that I've been staring at her angry face for a long time already. 

  "Ji-ah - " I stop myself. "Ji Young, what's wrong?" 

  She continues to glare at me. 

  "What's wrong is that a stranger has come inside my house without my invitation. Which is trespassing. Therefore I have every right to call the police on you." 

  I swipe a hand down my face. "Ji Young, why are you acting like this? We ... we haven't seen each other in years, of course, but you can't say that we're strangers." My heart hurts. "You can't. We've stayed together for sixteen years." 

  She raises her eyebrows. "Really? Because I could've sworn that I haven't seen you in my entire lifetime." She looks me up and down. "You're not leaving?" 

   She walks over to her desk and swipes up her cord phone. "I'm calling the police," she informs me. "Either you leave now, or you'll have to face the charges fo trespassing."

  And suddenly, I just can't handle it anymore. Here, in front of me, is Ahn Ji Young, the girl that I've been looking for for years on end. The girl that I've missed for so long, hoping that one day, I could see her again. And now, she's here. 

  She's here. 

  I walk up to her and wrap my arms around her.

  Surprised, she drops the phone; it falls to the floor with a thud. 

  A pause passes between us. And then she's pushing at my shoulders, trying hard to shove me away with all her might. 

  "You're not letting go?!" she demands, pushing harder. 

  I bury my face in her shoulder, gripping tightly to her back.

  "Ji-ah," I whisper, and she stops. "Ji-ah, for whatever you've felt during the time that I haven't been by you, for whatever reason you hate me for, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I hug her closer. "I'm sorry, and I missed you. I missed you so much." 

   We stand there for what seems like hours, and I want nothing more to look at her, look at her and see what her expression looks like, see why she doesn't want to push me away anymore, or hold me closer. But all we do is stay, with my arms around her, and with hers limply at her sides. 

   And then I hear Yonghwa's voice from behind me. 

  "Jonghyun? Why - what are you doing to Ji Young?" 

Yonghwa's POV:

   Jonghyun is holding Ji Young to him very closely, and even though she is not doing the same to him, it is still too close for me to withstand. Why is he embracing her anyway? Also, the other major question still hangs in the air. How does he know her? 

   "Jonghyun?" I say hesitantly. "Why - what are you doing to Ji Young?" 

   The two of them spring apart and look at me with wide eyes. I look from Ji Young to Jonghyun, eyebrows crinkling together curiously. 

  "Yonghwa?" Jonghyun says. "How - how do you know Ji Young?" 

   I'm about to answer him, tell him that I had met Ji Young at the airport, and she had become a very good friend of mine, and at the same time, planning to tell him that this was the girl; this was the one that was keeping me in such a wonderful mood lately. But then something tells me to stop. 

   I have no idea what, but there is something in both of their eyes that suggest something else to me, some sort of hidden concept, one that had orginated long before I had even ever heard the name Ahn Ji Young, or even Lee Jonghyun. 

   And then I remember. 

   I look to Jonghyun and connect his stare with mine. 

   "This ... this is Ji Young? This is her?" I ask, disbelief clouding my expression. 

   For a moment, they look to each other, Ji Young with questioning eyes and Jonghyun with soft ones. He turns and looks over at me. 

  "Yeh, this is Ji Young," he says. He hesitates before he says the next sentence. "I've always...I've always wanted to introduce her to you." 

  Ji Young says nothing; all she does is purse her lips and look downwards.

   My mouth seems to have frozen; no matter how much my mind tells me to say something, to congratulate Jonghyun in finding the girl he's been looking for for so long, I can't form any words. 

  This...this is the girl that Jonghyun had been searching for, been staying up late in the night thinking about, dedicating his free days in trying to see her once more, even if years had already passed and the mere thought of it was almost entirely hopeless. How had I not seen it before? 

  I remember meeting Ji Young at the airport, complete with the innocence and wonder that Jonghyun had when he'd first come. She had stayed in Busan, and her aunt had taken care of her. She hadn't really gone anywhere far away, and Jonghyun had been looking for her for all that time. 

   Everything clicks. 

  And now, looking over at Jonghyun and seeing how cautiously he stands next to her, and how his eyes seem to glint and marvel as he looks at her, like she's some rare wonder of the earth, I know that I can't come inbetween something like this. Not with Jonghyun. Not with my best friend. As a friend and a fellow band member, it's my sole duty to protect this relationship, to cheer them on with a smile on my face. I have to.
    I have to.

  But that doesn't meant that it won't hurt, my mind insists. I choke the thought down. 

   To break the silence, I clasp my hands, the motion making a loud awkward clapping noise. 

  "Well," I say, swallowing the lump in my throat just in time to give a wink to Ji Young. "I think this calls for a celebration!" 

  Ji Young's eyes widen at me and she raises her hands up in front of her, shaking her head. "Bwo? A - aniyo! I can't!" 

  I see Jonghyun's face fall in the corner of my eye, like her words had slashed at him and made a deep wound across his chest. I narrow my eyes at her, indignant. 

  "Jeongmal?" I say. "May I ask why?" 

  She splutters a bit. "Ah, well, I, um, there's - uh - something I - um - something I have to - " 

  "Great!" I say, interrupting her. "Let's go! I know this great place that we can eat at today. And don't worry, it's on me." 

  Ji Young looks flabbergasted. Her eyes signal to me that what I'm doing is wrong, that I should just leave her here to be alone. But it's Jonghyun that's hurt right now, Jonghyun that's been searching for her. I can't just leave it at that. And it I do, will she even let me come see her again? 

  Jonghyun finally pipes up. "Yeah!" he says. "Let's go!" 

  He reaches out a hand as if to take her arm but she flinches away from him. A flash of hurt flits across his face for a second, but he kills it almost immediately. 

  Well, I must commend him for his self-control. 

  "Ji Young-sshi," I say, speaking softly. I can almost feel the pain in my voice. I hope the two of them can't as well. " I know a really good place where we can all eat and drink. And it'll be on me, so what have you got to lose?" Looking at her reluctant face, I try again. "Ji Young-sshi, I want you to know that Jonghyun ..." I look over at him, with his burning eyes. "Jonghyun's been looking for you for a really long time." 

  She looks befuddled. But before I can say anything to make me more clear, Jonghyun pipes up. "Okay, how about we go somewhere? What's the place that you want to bring us, Yonghwa? There's ..." He looks at Ji Young, and his eyes soften like ice cream beneath a summer sun. "There's so much that I've been wanting to tell you." 

Ji Young's POV: 

  I'm screwed. 

  I don't even know what the hell I'm doing right now. Jonghyun and Yonghwa ... right now, I'm riding in an FNC Enterainment van with Jonghyun and Yonghwa, two of the most popular idols in Korea. And even though I know that hundreds of girls around the world would kill to be in my position, there's nothing else that I want more than to somehow detach myself from this scenario immediately. I don't want to be here, not in this way, not in this situation. 

   I had never known that someone could be able to feel such pain and confusion as I've felt in this one day. Who knew that almost directly upon my arrival here in Seoul, I would come across he exact person that I was hoping and praying I wouldn`t cross paths with? And what did Yonghwa-sshi mean when he told me that Jonghyun had been looking for me for a long time?

  This is all Imo's fault. We should never changed the location to Seoul. We should never have moved here. And she isn't even here to support me in the least.

  Yonghwa-sshi's making small talk, but all I do is respond with two or three word answers, then quiet down again. It's not in my best interest at the moment to sound polite or friendly. Jonghyun stays silent as well. 

  "You know, Jungshin may look really cool sometimes," Yonghwa shares, his voice coming out smoothly and easily, not awkward at all or bothered by our silence. "But in reality, he's a real troublemaker." 

  "Ah, geurae," I say softly, nodding my head while I look out the window. 

   He laughs gently, almost affectionately. "You know what he did today? Since both him and Jonghyun had free days - they had no schedule, is what I mean - he took Jonghyun out to try and explore or something stupid like that. Then he realized he had no idea where he was going until they were out of gas and in the outskirts of downtown." He laughs again. "But I like to think that it was really lucky that he was such a doofus today. Because it led Jonghyun to find you again." 

  I don't want to answer, and I don't plan to. 

  But Jonghyun says the first thing he's ever said since we went into the van. 

  "Yeah," Jonghyun says. "For the first time, I'm not extremely annoyed with the guy. I ... I really want to thank him." 

  What the hell is going on, and what the hell have I gotten myself into. 

Thank you for reading the eigth chapter! Please leave any comments at the bottom, and subscribe if you can!

  And I just want to say .... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE MOST AMAZING GUY IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORRRRRLLLLLDDDD ~~~!!!!!! xD 
Lee Jonghyun, I've loved you since forever, and you've changed my life forever. I love you so much, and you deserve the most amazing birthday ever celebrated in the history of birthdays <3 Saranghae! 

Yeah, so I've taken a long break from writing my fanfiction, but I couldn't help but make sure I update on my husband's birthday~! I hope you like the poster I made for him~ 
                                                                                          ~xoLeeJonghyunxo