“Hyo Joo-ah, you okay?” Chae Won asked.
Hyo Joo got choked by her food when Chae Won told them that she met Joong Ki. She nods while her left hand is busy hitting her lung, coughing the food out from her wrong pipe. Geun Young immediately gave her water which she drank until its run out.
Chae Won stared at her, worryingly. She didn’t think that her news will almost kill her chingu.
“She’s fine. You said you met him again, Chae Won-ah?” Geun Young gets back to the topic, ignoring Hyo Joo who’s still trying to catch her breath back.
Chae Won hesitated for a while before she made up her mind and tell her two best friends everything that happened.
“Since then, he kept coming back to my café every day. He only came in the morning, but sometimes when he doesn’t have a schedule he came alone and just sat at a corner table for hours. It happened almost two weeks now.”
“Two weeks?! And why do we only know this now?” Hyo Joo demanded.
“I’m sorry. Both of you are busy with your works. I don’t want to add more to your concern.” She felt bad for not telling them sooner but she can’t do anything about it.
This is the first lunch they had together since the last time they met over a month ago. Hyo Joo got so busy with her upcoming brand that’s going to launch next week and meetings with clients while Geun Young’s schedules made her barely sleep.
“You can call us, you know.” Hyo Joo sighed.
“This is something I couldn’t tell over a phone call or text message, chingu-yah.” Chae Won smiled. She left her food remained on her plate and drank her apple juice.
Suddenly Geun Young’s phone is ringing. She paused a second to see who’s calling and then pick it up. “ne, oppa… yes, I’ve finished my lunch. What? You already waiting outside?” she turned her head to looked outside the restaurant and found his manager’s car. She sighed. “yeah, okay. I’m coming now.” She said as she hung up the phone.
Geun Young is still in her tight schedule but she insisted her manager to take a lunch with both of her best friend because she misses them so much. Now that the lunch is over, she had to go, and Chae Won knew that. She smiled, “you should go, Geun Young-ah.”
Geun Young felt bad because she had to leave early.“I’ll call you both, okay?” she said while waving her hands and after she saw them nodded, she hurriedly walking to the car. Chae Won and Hyo Joo looking at the car leaves in their seat.
“So…?” Hyo Joo opened up a conversation again.
“What?”
“I want to know more.”
Chae Won took a breath and shook her head.
“Nothing more. I ignored him the best I could. He didn’t talk to me either, unless he wants to order something. He usually just sat there, reading a book or something.”
Something from Chae Won’s voice made Hyo Joo thinking that she’s a bit disappointed. Maybe Chae Won thought that Joong Ki came everyday to talk to her, but in fact he didn’t do anything other than enjoying his free time in her café.
“Well, if you’re not comfortable with him hanging out there, asking him to leave.” Hyo Joo simply said it, made Chae Won looked at her with disbelief.
“Hyo Joo-ah, how can I ask him to leave? He came as a customer. And my employees seem to like him so much. I heard them debating about who get to serve him the other day. Auuh, those girls, did they forgot there are still other customers? Joong Ki-sshi looked like he was enjoyed them serving his orders too.” She leaned to her chair with her hand folded.
Hyo Joo stared at her. “geureso, are you jealous?” she asked accusingly.
“What? No, it’s not like that. I was just…” Chae Won stammered with her words. Her cheeks became flushing. Hyo Joo read her chingu’s reaction for a moment and then she leaned to her chair.
“This is not good.” She whispered to herself.
“What’s not good?”
Hyo Joo looking into Chae Won’s beautiful round eyes which stare back at her --confusedly. It made her hesitated for a while. She loves her chingu so much, but as a best friend, she had to do this.
“Chae Won-ah. You remembered why you and Song Joong Ki broke up in the first place, right? Now that you’ve seen him again, did it change? Do you want to be with him again?”
Hyo Joo’s words are like slapping Chae Won right in her face. Hyo Joo sighed, she and Chae Won are being friends long enough to know what’s on each other mind so she already know the answer of her question.
“Chingu-yah. You know how hard for you to let go of him before. You even asked for Geun Young’s trick of how to play antagonist character for him to believe that you want to break up because of a third-wheel between you and him, right? Do you want to let it all go waste because now he’s back in to your life and you met him every day?”
Chae Won swallowed hard. She can’t even defense herself.
On the other side, Hyo Joo felt worst. She knew what she said must have hurt Chae Won. But she remembered 2 years ago, when someone called her after she got back from the office.
“Oh, Chae Won-ah. What’s up?” she picked up her phone thinking it was from Chae Won. But instead, it was some ahjusshi who called her.
“Ye, yeoboseyo. Do you maybe know a girl with long wavy hair about shoulder length?”
Even with that small info he gave, she already knew it was Chae Won. That ahjusshi called her from Chae Won’s phone so who else would it be?
“N, ne. She’s my friend. What happened to her, ahjusshi? Is she okay?” Hyo Joo felt worried. What’s wrong with her chingu until a stranger used her phone to call someone?
Heard of what happened she immediately went to a place he mentioned just to found Chae Won passed out on the hotel bar and that it was the bartender who called her earlier.
“She drank a whole bottle of this.” He said to Hyo Joo while showing her an empty bottle of wine. Hyo Joo eyes widened so large it’s like the eyeballs would roll out from it.
“Oh? Han Hyo Joo?” Chae Won opened her eyes to see someone looked like her chingu beside her. “it is Han Hyo Joo indeed.” She grinned. “ahjusshi, this is my chingu. She was supposed to be an actress like Geun Young, but she had to let it go because her father wants her in their company. Isn’t she beautiful?” she chuckled softly.
“Chae Won-ah. We should go home now.”
Hyo Joo dragged Chae Won out of that hotel bar after paying her drinks. She took her inside the car and paired Chae Won’s seatbelt before hers. She started the engine but then turns it off again and let go of her seatbelt. Her body faced toward Chae Won, she sighed before decided to let out an anger she had since she saw her passed out in a bar.
“YAH, MOON CHAE WON!!! ARE YOU CRAZY?!”
Chae Won got startled at her yelled. She felt her voice buzzing in her head.
“Auuh, my head hurts. Lower the tone, chingu-yah.” She held her ear. Hyo Joo scoffed out of disbelief.
“Yah, you must be crazy right?! You know you’re pregnant but what did you just do?! You drank a whole bottle of wine!! You want to kill it?! Oh?! Is that it?! Is that what you want?! Tell me, you crazy bit…….!” She held back what she wanted to say. She almost cursed at her chingu because she’s too furious to her.
She let out a loud breath of distressed. Silence was spread inside the car for a couple minutes before in a low voice, almost whispered, Chae Won spoke up.
“Hyo Joo-ah… I finally… broke up with him today.”
She didn’t look at Hyo Joo, her eyes was stared straight ahead. “I dump him with the harshest words possible. I broke his heart…… but at the same time I broke mine too.” Her voice cracked as she tried to hold back her tears.
“And all that was because this happened.” she softly tapped her stomach.
“Chae Won-ah…”
“He wanted to be a great actor that’s why he came here to Seoul to achieve it. He just started to gain his popularity. Not everyone knows him yet but he could be famous. He had that potential inside him, I know that. But…” she paused for a moment, her eyes couldn’t hold the tears any longer it starts to fall on her soft pink cheek.
“If anyone knew about this baby before he could achieve his dream, it could ruin his career. It could ruin him. He said it to me that this is his last dream after every dreams he had before had been crushed and he had to let go. I would do anything for him to keep his dream.” She felt that she would burst in to tears anytime now, but she tried so hard to hold it.
“So you decided to kill the baby?” Hyo Joo asked it again. No matter what, the baby is innocent. She shouldn’t try something that would cause harm to it. Chae Won shook her head hard, ignoring the buzzing sound inside her head that made her dizzy.
“It’s just… I felt really terrible after that. A little… just a little, I kind of hate this baby. I don’t care whatever happens to it. I just want the pain to go away.” She then turned her head to look at Hyo Joo. “I’m the worst, am I? I don’t deserve to be a mother. I don’t have a right to keep this baby in me…”
She can’t control herself anymore. Hyo Joo hugs her tight as she let her cry out. She doesn’t know how hurt the pain that Chae Won must have felt right now. Saw her like that made Hyo Joo heartbroken too. That was the first time Chae Won let herself get controlled by an alcohol.
Hyo Joo drove her --who had fallen asleep after got tired of crying-- back to her house. She stared at her beautiful and caring chingu, who’s soft and never get mad, who’s always put others before her, even now. She had to let her love of her life go because she knew it was better for him if she –and the baby she carries in her-- out from his life. That thought made Hyo Joo’s tears started to fall too.
Life was so hard for Chae Won after that. She has seen it all since she’s the one who was always there when Chae Won needs her chingu. That’s why --more than anyone-- Hyo Joo doesn’t want to let the history repeated again.
Joong Ki has been out from her life for more than 2 years now. They were never met each other in between those times, so why now? Why after things got better for Chae Won, after she could get through with everything that has happened to her?