edited 'cause i update this once i woke up from my sleep. like really, hahahah. anyways, enjoy the last chapter! love you all!
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As soon as Jaehyun had vanished from her life like a speck of a dust, Byul was devastated and painfully full of regret for not been able to save Jaehyun from the demon grasp. She had promised to him that she will save him but, she couldn't. She was just a completely human being, who had tried her best on living as normal as she can while surviving in the cruel world which she cannot avoid by using some super power or magic.
She is just a human.
But even she is a human, it did not stop her from getting and having Jaehyun back to her.
She was told by her best friend about Yuta and how she encountered or more to; how she got Yuta back after he was taken aback by the demon.
Her best friend had experienced the same situation as her, which it made more sense to her as to how Yuta and Jaehyun seem to know each other on their first encounter that day. Out of all the plot of her story, Byul had herself fully focus on how her best friend got Yuta back with her. She had found Yuta when she was travelling in Hongkong, where he was actually working in a bakery with a guy called by Sicheng.
It may sound weird, but Byul actually took her friend advice seriously and went out of her comfort zone; her hometown, and venture over the seaㅡ to Barcelona.
Don't ask why but something about that place made her choose it over other countries. Maybe, that time, she should follow whatever her heart told her to do. Before she flew to Barcelona, she made a call to her brother, she did not know why she actually decided to call him. Well, maybe because he is the only family she got?
"Why Barcelona out of sudden? Now, I'm kinda worry. Is it because of me?" she felt bad when her brother blamed himself for the cause of her sudden wish to go to Barcelona.
She averted her view from looking at the other passengers to the window, eyebrows knitted together as she played with her fingers in anxious, "Baek, trust me. It's not because of you."
"I told you already that I'm going with Hima and her boyfriend, so, don't worry."
She can hear him sighing from the other side, making her heart beat in nervous. It had been a long time, since she had someone, a family member, actually worried about her well-being. It used to be Hima and her secretary. It was kind of new, to have her brother worried about her after a long time.
"Alright then, kiddo."
She smiled at the nickname. He used to call her that back then.
"So, urm...are you going to miss my wedding too?" she can imagine that her brother currently having his left foot on the floor, tapping the poor floor. He used to do that whenever he felt embarrassed by his own words.
She laughed at him, making the latter groaned at her, realizing that his little sister still remember his habit. She was too engrossed with the phone call till she did not realize that her flight was about to fly.
When Hima tapped her shoulder, she knew that she needed to end the call.
"I'm not going to miss it, I promise you."
She looked around her, the other passengers already turned their phone off.
"I...urm, talk to you later then."
Before he can say anything, she ended the call and turned the phone off afterward. It was too obvious that the both of them were not ready to end the call at all.
Her hands kept on unclasped and clasped in repeat mood as she gulped a lump of water from the bottle she got from Hima, since the latter knew her better. Whenever Byul had mixed feeling, she usually drank the entire bottle in one shot.
A warm hand slipped into hers, making her looked at the person, wishing that the warm hand was Jaehyun. Oh, how she miss his warmness after he disappeared from her solitary life.
"Hey, I promise to him that you two will see each other again, okay?"
Yuta's words seem to ease her anxiety as her lips curled into a small smile. That little smile made both Hima and Yuta smiled like a proud parents. They just could not bear it if Byul was not in a good condition. To have Byul to break a small smile to them, already made their heart warm.
She is that special to them as she was going through the same situation as them before.
Byul hold both Hima's and Yuta's hand in hers, firmly gripped onto both securely.
"I think I got this. Thanks, guys."
The couple gripped back her hands, smiling at their so called little girl. Before Hima break the mood with her own remark.
"But, I'm a woman. Not a guy."
Her remark made both Byul and Yuta rolled their eyes at her.
"Babe, thanks for breaking the mood."
"Yeah, he means it, Hima."
"Well, you're welcome then."
And the three of them laughed at each other, forgetting all the sorrow and hoping for a miracle.
▫
Once they arrived in Barcelona, Yuta and Hima were jet lagged except for Byul. Even she did not believe it but there was something steer in her, telling her to go out for a walk instead of staying in her hotel room.
"Are you sure, you're going to be okay without us?"
They sure love making Byul rolled her eyes toward their so-parents-mood on her as if she was their little girl.
"For goodness sake, I'm a grown-up woman already!"
Her reply made the couple chuckled at her. They just could not let her go easily despite of their close gap of age. In their eyes, Byul was indeed their little girl ever since the last event.
"Fineee, you can go-"
Byul eyes lit up like a little child upon that and immediately ran away from them before Hima could finish with her words, making the latter along her boyfriend smiled at her since it had been a long time Byul acted like a teenage girl. Her youth was wasted before because she was too engrossed on trying to survive by herself, acting like an adult when she was supposed to enjoy her youth.
"I believe that, she's in the right place."
Yuta said as he kissed the crown of his lover head with adoration. With that, Hima peered up thru her eyelashes to the male, heart soften instantly because of the touch.
"You think so?" which she got a soft hummed as a reply.
After that, without any words from her lover, she was lifted up from the floor.
He chuckled before jokingly confessed to his lover, which it made the latter laughed at it.
"Let's go to sleep cause, being parent is exhausting."
▫
Byul never feel so free until just now. The YuMa couple never left her side after the eventful event with the demon and also, after the disappearing of Jaehyun. What they did for her were not a bad thing at all and she appreciated it. And to have the couple by her side was a good different but sometimes, she also need a space for her own self. She love them but she need that alone moment too.
She was glad that she had enough sleep before they were on plane and even thru all journey on the plane. She bet that Hima may had put a sleeping pill in her water bottle just to ease her from anxiety. If it was a normal day, Byul would have scolded the latter for doing that but at that moment, she actually thanked her best friend for doing that. She had a good sleep and even avoided herself from experience the infamous jet lag.
Since their hotel near by the La Rambla Street, she could not help herself but to feel the giddiness of walking alone in the foreign street. It was her very first time of going for a walk, alone, in a very foreign street and not in her usual neighborhood street.
She pulled out her phone, typing the password before getting herself an access to her already bookmarked website about '20 things to do in Barcelona'. She scrolled through the countless of suggestion until her eyes caught with the one place she anticipated to read.
Byul read it with half of focus on it and the other half was focused on street. From the blog, she was told that the street is the busiest street in Barcelona, where she can also enjoy coffee, great food and drinks in one of the many restaurants and bars. Extra note was, she can also prepare herself for the street artists, vendors, flower shops and stalls with ice cream, waffles and other treats.
The last statement for the La Ramble Street caught her eyes and made her mouth drooled over the sweet invitation of sweet treats. She was not a fan of sweet but after living with Jaehyun, she had being spoil by him with pancakes in the morning, macaroons in the evening and cookies before going to sleep. And yes, he treated her as if she was a little girl and she loved the feeling of it after stressing over work and getting herself spoil whenever she got home.
Jaehyun had changed her life style so much that it made her felt downed after he gone from her life and hearing that she could get him back into her boring life, made her feel alive again. Right then, she decided to go to any waffles shop in that street to calm her nerve down a bit. She did not know how or where to search for Jaehyun but did know how to calm her dear self from missing him too much; getting a sweet treat that was almost the same of what he used to made for her.
She waltzed herself into one of the waffles shop, feeling giddy like a little girl she used to be. She felt relax as soon as she got herself at the order section, eyes scanning through the variety types of flavor for the waffles and was so into the menu board.
Behind the order section counter, a tall boy made an appearance but she was not aware of it until the boy greet her with his deep but bright voice in English.
"Hi, hello! How can I help you, My Lady?" the endearment made Byul snapped her head to look at the tall boy behind the counter bar.
The smile on her face suddenly flatten and she fall into her thought again, thinking about her first meet with Jaehyun. He used to call her that and it actually made her felt like there was someone pinched her in the heart. Mentally and obviously— by that tall boy.
She looked over at the boy and got herself a name. The name tag had crafted JEFFREY as his name which she thought that the name did not suit the boy at all. She ignored it and shrugged the endearment away from her thought. She was about to order her food when suddenly, another tall guy came into the picture with a roll of white towel in his right hand, making Byul stopped for a seconds.
"RULE NUMBER ONE; DO WORK INSTEAD OF FLIRTING WITH THE CUSTOMERS, LUCAS!"
And she knew already the purpose of the white towel. It served as a hitting tool and it hit the suppose-to-be-Jeffrey's head harshly. She was baffled by the scene and almost felt sorry knowing that the Lucas boy was not just breaking the rule only but also, wearing his other co-workers nametag.
"Johnny, do you have to hit me right in front of the lady?" she thought she heard the tall boy was talking in Korean.
His question made the latter snorted and hit his shoulder along 'serve you right' before smiling sweetly at Byul, totally ignored how the younger boy whined at him for hitting him.
"I'm sorry for the inconvenient scene just now. How can I help you, miss?"
The Johnny guy even surprised her when he suddenly asked her in Korean language. She blinked in confuse, making a gummy smile appeared on Johnny's face.
"I'm actually Korean but I was dragged away from America because of my best friend, Jeffrey. He loves cooking and insist me to go with him here, out of nowhere. And I love him too much that I actually let him dragged me here just to open a big waffles shop."
He made a face and acted like he is a mother that would drop everything for his one and only son. Not going to lie, it made Byul laughed at his antic. Well, he is the first one that actually made Byul cracked a light laugh.
"Well, that's so sweet of you."
As a smile appeared again on her face, "Then, I would love to have one of your classic waffle with chocolate flavor and one hot caramel macchiato drink."
He nodded at her as he typed down her order through the cashier tablet and later, stopped for a seconds to ask for her name, which she shortly replied with a 'Byul'. She even calculated already the amount for her food and her drink so, she handed him the cash with the right amount, gaining herself a wide grin from the latter with a little thank you.
"You may take a seat first while we prepare for your order. I'll let one of my workers to call your name as soon as your order ready."
She gladly thanked him and made her way to the table for four people right beside the window, where she can see people from the inside. The blog was sure true. It is the busiest street.
It was fun to watch people and her fun was disturbed by the notification sound from her phone. She took off her eyes from the window view to her phone screen. Hima's name took her full attention as she already predicted what the content of her message via LINE app was.
To tell the truth, Byul was not into the famous app but she was forced by Hima to use it cause it fun to contact each other using the app. And Byul only had Hima in her LINE's contact but later on, following by the latter were her assistant and Yuta.
The message was surely the same as what she had predicted already. Typical Hima and her attitude as if she is Byul's mother.
She was too engrossed into the conversation with Hima as she failed to see the new person who just came into the shop.
"Jeffrey, my man! How's the piano competition? "
Her ears perked in interest when Jeffrey's name slipped out thru Johnny's lips. She was curious to see the guy but and she just thought that, she can see him later after replying to the tons of messages from Hima. They were sort of into the conversation about her where about and what she getting from shop.
Oh, how wrong she was once she heard his voice.
"Cut it out, Johnny. I thought we're already promise that when there's no customer, we will use Korean?"
She suddenly stopped breathing as her fingers halted in the mid of typing back to Hima. That voice.
Her heart beat with unusual pace as she whirled her head to see the face that she longed so long but instead of seeing him, she only saw Johnny, who smiled at her despite how pale her skin had turn.
She thought again, maybe that isn't him? I mean, they call him by Jeffrey. Not Jaehyun, idiot.
She sighed and continued typing back her reply solemnly.
The thought of seeing Jaehyun again was kind of impossible to her but seeing how Yuta and Hima together again, it gave her a brand new hope. A hope that she never actually believe in before.
"Miss Byul?" she almost got a heart attack when she realized the gap between her face and him were so close.
Lucas's face.
Byul was not a fan of screaming whenever she shocked or anything, she just would not scream but instead, she will have something in her hands, ready to hit that someone or something. In which, Lucas is the dumbest person who came across Byul with— her phone.
She wack her phone into his jaw, making the latter fall back onto the floor. Both of them winced at the same time because of different cause. One; Byul was too surprised by the latter sudden closeness. Two; Lucas was hit by the jaw by Byul. Poor boy.
Regardless of been hit by her phone, the boy still smile goofily at her as he stand up as if he did not fall just now. Byul suddenly felt bad for the boy. It just that, he had been too close.
She was about to say sorry but the latter hold his hand up and muttered a small 'you don't have to' while grinning like an idiot.
"You're something else, Miss Byul. Whenever I did that to the other girls, they will be madly blush." He chuckled.
And Byul just raised her left eyebrow at him, "Well, sorry to burst your bubble, kid. I'm a woman, not a girl."
"Well," he scratched the back of his head bashfully. "Obviously, you're a woman."
And they both laughed at each other.
Lucas cleared his throat to clear his mind as he remembered the reason why he had come to her personally.
"Actually, I come here because my friend there, had been calling for your name but didnt receive any respond. I bet you were so into texting with your boyfriend, I guess?"
His question made her lifted up her phone and showed him the screen, where there was just her's and Hima's conversation.
"Oh, best friend?" she gave him a curt nod as she put her phone into her bag.
She leaved the boy after saying thanks to him for been so kind to her. She made her way toward the counter, excited to have her favorite dessert and drink to devour. What she did not realize was, how her heart suddenly beating in abnormal pace.
Once her legs stopped right in front of the counter, she was greet by no one there, making her knitted her eyebrows in confuse.
"Urm, hello? I'm Byul and I come for my-"
Her words were cut by the THUD's sound that coming from behind the counter bar. Later on, a loud sorry greet her too and she winced just by hearing the voice. Jeffrey's voice. She mentally scolded herself for not been able to tell apart Jeffrey and Jaehyuns voice.
She tried to tell her mind that the voice belong to Jeffrey and not Jaehyun as she looked down to the floor, not noticing the Jeffrey guy was already on his feet with a tray of classic chocolate waffle and hot caramel macchiato.
"Did you order one classic chocolate waffle and a hot caramel macchiato?" when the Jeffrey guy no longer speak in English, she snapped out from her mind just to meet a tall figure.
A tall figure with blonde hair, a breath-taking smile along a pair of dimples on each side of his cheeks and a kissable lips adored his face.
Their eyes met and she was so caught up with his face until she forgot how to breathe properly. Tears threaten to fall as her breathing became shallow.
Jaehyun.
She knew that the Jeffrey guy who looked the same as Jaehyun know nothing about her so, she cleared her throat, trying her best not to break down right in front of Jae-Jeffrey.
But, she knew it already that her voice will come out as cracked as the crows sounded like.
"Y-yes. Can I perhaps change it from eating here to take out, please?" her question made Jeffrey confuse but later, he just nodded.
"Sure, you can." He flashed his dimpled-smile at her before turning his back to her.
"Wait a seconds, please."
Which it made her glad and in ease for a moment.
She took a steady breathe as she tried to calm herself before Jeffrey came into her view again with a brown paper bag and a single cup holder. He hold both up for her to take it, making her hesitate to move forward to take it since it was too much for her.
And it was because of Jaehyun's face on Jeffrey's.
With shaking hands, she reached out for her things and mentally thanked herself for spilling any of her drink on him. Once she got everything in her hands, she croaked an awkward smile to him despite of wanting to pull him for a very tight hug.
Because, the Jaehyun in front of her was just physically him without any memories of her and him in his mind nor heart.
She muttered a small thanks before she leaved Jeffrey—
—or so she thought when the familiar warmness touched her right shoulder for a seconds and disappeared again just to have a very quick steps from Jeffrey to be hear by her right behind her.
She almost loss the grip from holding both paper bag and the cup holder when the words she had been waiting for slipped out from his lips.
"Did we meet each other before?"
She was ached to say this; 'oh no, were not. We did more than met each other, Jae'. But, she did not want to scare him away on their so called first impression.
Instead, she decided to say this; "Urm, did we? Because, this is actually my first time being in Barcelona."
Maybe, that the only thing they will talk about before she returned to Korea, crying all day long for been so anti-social and for not been able to get Jaehyun back with her. She prayed with all her heart that this new Jaehyun, urm- Jeffrey will change everything for her.
"Is it, huh?" she was going to give up when suddenly, a tint of red color appealed on his dimpled cheeks. "Do you mind if I take you out for a tour around here?"
Well, something did not change at all. Her heart fluttered upon the blush that appeared on his cheeks.
While she was debating on what to answer, she can hear Lucas bantered about the shops rules right behind Jeffrey and got smacked by Johnny with a wooden whisk along saying 'fuck that. We are talking about my Jeffrey here! He never into woman at all until she comes here!', maybe, deep inside of that new version of Jaehyun, there was still a piece of an old Jaehyun, waiting for the day where both him and her met again.
She smiled ever so bright, heart clear of negative thoughts as she gave him the answer he had been waiting for.
"Sure. I mean, why not? You're the expert here and I need one for the vacation."
She pretended to look at his nametag, "Jeffrey, right?" and almost immediately, she received a light groan from him.
He saw how she suddenly had her eyes wide upon his reaction, "Sorry. It's just that, the name isn't mine from the beginning. It was Johnny's idea to call me by this name."
And her heart raced when she heard it. So, his name was not Jeffrey at all? Then, what?
"I'm Jaehyun, by the way."
And that was it. She decided to take a baby step, just for him.
Just for Jaehyun.