Jiyong: Can you even survive without any helping hand? ㅋㅋㅋ

Jiyong: Whatever.

Jiyong: Come back tomorrow at 3 in the morning. I doubt any paparazzi is up with the chickens

Jiyong: Hyunsuk-hyung is all cool for now

Jiyong: Thank me later

He got approximately 12 hours to go before he departed from Los Angeles. And the very next thing he carried out right now is visit the hospital once again. He stepped into the cafeteria, the place that the two of them named by implication as their usual place. But his expectation had nearly sunk into despair when he found no one sat in the corner of the room, Krystal’s favorite seat. If she were there, who would she bide her time for? The only thing she knew is: Seunghyun was on the plane—whether she prayed for his safety or not—or maybe, she did pray for meeting him one more time. Repeating from the square one if it was needed.

Seunghyun was taught to draw on the time thoroughly. Then again, how many days has it been since he began his little adventure with Krystal? Shoot. He forgot. Not because it wasn’t memorable enough—he swore the time flew pretty damn quickly when they spent the day together, until he even forgot to simply look over the clock on his smartphone. At least, he didn’t fail to remember anything she mentioned even though it was just some trivial and unimportant details.

The youngest Jung would be dragging him around to whichever place she felt like going, since he wasn’t that familiar with this city yet. Their first destination would be the Korean restaurant near the hospital. She said she was just going to pick up her father’s lunch and after that, she’d promise to show him some cool places to hang out.

Whenever Seunghyun switched out the car engine, Krystal would only glare at him. Making him tempted to do nothing but ask, “what’s wrong?”

“The owner is Korean.” She said. “He might get the wrong idea if he saw you and me walking around together.”

“So?”

“Stay inside.” She forbade as she smiled cunningly, “I won’t be long.” 

How could a devil have a smile of an angel?

“Anything else?” the owner said, writing down his earlier order on the paper bill.

“No.” He took out his wallet.

He remembered it clearly when he first encountered her in the cafeteria—when he foolishly pretended to pay with Korean Won instead of US Dollar, so that he could bring off his first move to say the least, hear her talking voice in such close distance. But then, he kind of regretted his dumb initiation because up until now, Krystal still believed he didn’t own at least one cent in his pocket. So, tell me now which one is the dumb and which one is the dumber? He owed her too much. Not just a drink but she without asking a question, plainly paid for both of them starting from the drive-through meals to the movie tickets.

“Umm, could I take your photo, Sir?” The owner asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, sure.”

So, is this her biggest fear? Nope. Obviously not a fear of being taken a photograph. Her face had been shown numerous times on the magazines and nobody could deny that every photo of her turned out excellently. She was just afraid of picturing herself and Seunghyun in one frame. As for Seunghyun, he didn’t know since when, but her biggest fear could be his one and only desire at the moment. He would pay with, or trade with anything for possessing a photo of them together.

He heard, when visiting someone in hospital, he shouldn’t come empty-handed. But where did he hear of it from? It wasn’t even written in the rules. As someone who thought highly of the rules, he still came with something—an only companion. Because who needs ‘someone’ when ‘something’ is willing to keep him company without even making a fuss?

3:30pm. Did Seunghyun come in the right time? Of course he wasn’t talking about the warm and freshly cooked meal he bought from Mr. Jung’s favorite restaurant. Since it was too late to partake of lunch and still too early to partake of dinner. Mr. Jung was seated on his bed, occasionally stealing a glance at Seunghyun whom he wasn’t sure if the guy was entering the wrong room or not. As far as he could remember, Mr. Jung didn’t have an acquaintance that was half of his age or certainly way younger than him. The young man was now ensconcing himself across him, looking fixedly at the marble floors down his feet instead of glancing back at Krystal’s father.

This young man surely knows how to clothe himself. And that was his first thought when Mr. Jung studied Seunghyun for the first time. The more he got a load of Seunghyun, the more conclusions he could draw. He seemed like a type of friend her daughter would hang out with. Somewhat damaged hair because of constant change of style—his daughter was indeed lucky because she now had so much free time to treat her almost bald head. Maybe he is an idol just like Krystal? Since he looked extremely good-looking for a random customer his daughter bumped into at the local cafeteria.

“Are you looking for Soojung?” Mr. Jung broke the silence.

Soojung? Ah, he hadn’t called her by her first name until this time. He only addressed her as ‘angel’ at one time, but now he comfortably called her by ‘hey’ and ‘you’.

“Yes.” Seunghyun nodded.

Since he nodded fitfully, Mr. Jung could finally get a glimpse of his face. At first, he was just hazarding a guess of what Seunghyun truly looked like. From the way he dressed himself up, even though he didn’t forget to remove the price tag, Mr. Jung was just aware that the fancy outfit he wore was costing the earth. No wonder Soojung didn’t want to be bested by him if Seunghyun himself was being picky when it comes to fashion sense. (And Mr. Jung here literally had no idea what is going all out to win over the opposite )

“She’ll be back for sure.” Mr. Jung convinced. “It may take a while but—“

“Come on, dad. It’s all set and the doctor said you’re free to discharge—“

Krystal should’ve knocked on the door before she entered the room, on account of how late it was from the visiting hour but now she immediately regretted her action. She took a good look at both men in confusion. Right before her eyes, her father was plumping himself on the bed, not putting on the hospital white, polka-dot gown as usual but his casual collared polo shirt and a pair of beige trousers. His hand was clasping his travel bag where he placed most of his personal belongings there.

“Speaking of the devil.” Being eyed strangely by his own daughter, Mr. Jung welcomed her back with a very warm greeting. “You have a guest. Did you forget your manner, kid?”

She directed her attention to Seunghyun whom she consciously or not, had been neglecting his presence ever since. She had a gander at him, checking him out from head to toe before she sounded out. “Oh, it’s you. Why are you here?”

“I have nothing to do. So, yeah…”

She clicked her tongue, rolling her eyes as she was psyched up to chew him out but after noticing her father’s being there, she faked a smile. “Dad, this is Seunghyun and Seunghyun this is my dad.”

Seunghyun got up from his seat, coming toward Mr. Jung so that he co