February 14, 2017 – Present day.

"Did you hear?" The blond girl gushed. She snapped her head around for any unnecessary eavesdropper and lowered her voice. "The guy from our Uni's dance team is out again..."

"Who-"

"Aish, you pabo!" She hit her friend's arm lightly and continued exasperatedly. "You know, the hottest one, the one who still held onto a dead relationship."

The tall brunette's eyes widened. "Ah, that one! Shownu oppa? He's still hanging on? Gosh, I thought he has a thing with Jieun from the Law faculty?" She asked, her eyebrows met in confusion.

The blond girl shook her head, her short bob swirled around her neck. "She thinks so, but Shownu oppa hasn't moved on at all. And here's the thing, he still goes to the same place bringing a few cherry blossoms with him...he did last year."

The brunette glared at her friend. She was unimpressed by Chaeyoung's nosy self. One of these days her friend would get it for snooping around other people's business.

"How are you even sure? What if-" She started but her words were cut short when a familiar girl walked past them, heading to the counter. The cafeteria was vacant at that time of the day, since most of the students were still in class.

The petite girl was oblivious of two sets of eyes that were eyeing her closely as she busied herself with that day's special. Her eyes skimmed over the list of food and turned to the lady behind the counter to place her order. She had another few hours of classes before her day will end so she thought she could use the food to regain her strength.

"...and can I please have a cup of cappuccino?"

"Of course love." The lady tapped on the cash machine and looked back up to her. "That'll be 7,000 won honey. Wait a sec."

The girl watched as the lady went to get her orders and returned a while later with a tray. She paid with a smile and turned on her heels, walking to a nearby table with the tray on her hands.

But as she spun around to face the quiet cafeteria behind her, her expressions faltered. Gone was the smile that she wore ever so often, giving no trace of it on her pretty face.

"You see?" The blond girl whispered again, her eyes was still trained on the girl who had found a table not far from them. "If her boyfriend isn't ignoring her for another girl, why would she have that look on her face?"

Her friend remained silent. She pitied Jieun. If she was in her shoes, she would have given up on Shownu a long time ago.

Besides, it have been years.

xxxxx

"Okay, let's call it a day." Shownu said, breathing in deeply as he walked to the corner. He plopped down on the floor next to his bag and grabbed the bottled water he brought with him into the practice room.

He felt his heart beat wildly as he wiped his sweats with the sleeves of his shirt. The new choreography was hard and they were close to perfecting it. But close wasn't close enough.

He had a bitter memories of proximity that still haunts him in his dreams.

His phone dinged again, signalling that he had just received a new message. He glanced at it. Jieun.

He paid no attention to it of course.

"Hey man. That was some sick moves." Wonho sighed. He sat in front of Shownu and grabbed the bottle from him, earning a glare. He chugged half of the water down and tossed the bottle back to Shownu who rolled his eyes.

"But it is worth it." Kihyun said and his teammates nodded. "We will definitely get the crowd."

He sat next to Wonho and the others followed, forming a small circle as they either sat or lay down on their backs.

Minhyuk swiped his blond bangs out of his face. "What do you guys have in mind for today?"

"I just broke up with my girlfriend." Wonho shrugged casually. "So I guess I'm going to stay in tonight."

"Cool bro. We should hang out at your house, you know, play some COD." IM grinned.

"Go find a girl dude. I don't want a guy as a date." Wonho narrowed his eyes at IM, but he grinned back anyway. "7pm, and bring some beers."

They bumped fists and laughed as Kihyun whined, "Don't leave me out."

Jooheon shook his head and nudged Shownu with his feet. "How about you? Do you have plans with Jieun?"

Shownu stared at him blankly. "I'm busy."

Before Jooheon can say anything else, he gathered his things and walked out of the room, leaving his friends dumbfounded.

xxxxx

'Oppa, where are you?'

Sent.

'Do you think you can make it tonight?'

Sent.

"Jieun, you're going back?"

She snapped her head up at the familiar voice, and as usual the robotic smile was stretched across her face. She was tired of it. She was tired of her façade, her whole set up. She have painted the walls around her in bright colours when all she could provide for herself was dull grey. She jumped around merrily while wearing shoes made out of thorns.

Oh, how she envied her professors who have anger management issues. Although most of her friends' complaints were resulted from it, but truthfully she felt that they were blessed. She smiled it out when all she wanted was to scream. Scream out until her heart's content. But she could not. She can never cry anymore. She was exhausted from months of it, and she just stopped. And worse still? The person who should know about it do not even care enough to notice.

Jooheon smiled back at her as he closed the distance between them with his long legs.

"Finish for the day?"

The girl nodded and her smile widened. He looked at her sadly. He knew she was hurting, yet she was holding it in. It was even harder for him when he actually know the cause but he cannot do anything about it.

"You too?" She asked and he nodded. She glanced at his back to see if any of his members were with him, but she saw no one. She suppressed her sigh and forced another smile that seemed like a grimace instead.

Alas, she was not as discreet as she thought she was. Jooheon saw through her act but since he did not want to come between his friend and Jieun's relationship, he just kept quiet.

"I was the last one out," He said, wanting to help her a bit. If she was waiting for Shownu, he was not here.

"The other members went ahead, but I have to clean out the practise room since it's my turn." He grinned sheepishly, raking a hand through his hair. Jieun's mouth formed a small 'o'.

"Alright, I gotta go now. I'll see you around." He said and stepped around her, sending a small wave before he went on his way.

Jieun sighed when his silhouette disappeared outside of the entrance. Her eyes fell back to the phone in her hand and the look of disappointment was apparent on her face as she realised that her texts were unanswered. As they always did.

She did not even notice when she arrived at the parking lot. She was surprised when she saw the red car in front of her. She heaved a sigh, lately she was developing a habit of getting lost in her thoughts whenever she could. It scares her a lot but she could not seem to stop it, not when the source of her troubles keep on bugging her. Her eyes prickled as she thought of his face. What went wrong?

She forced herself to calm down and opened the door to her car. She threw her bag to the passenger side and started the engine. A while later the sleek red car was moving out from the parking lot to the usual route.

Just as she reached the street, her phone dinged, signalling that she had received a new message. Keeping her eyes on the road, she palmed on the passenger seat beside her for the device and quickly snatched it out of her bag when she felt its rectangular shape. Her fingers swiftly entered her passcode and immediately swiped over the message button with a red '1' bubble. She glanced on the road, making sure that she was still on her lane before drifting her eyes back to the new message.

I can't make it. I'm busy. Don't wait for me.

She suck on a breath as she felt her eyes watered again. Her hand on the wheel tightened as the unwilled tears trickled down. She bit on her lip. Her tears may have fall again, but she would not let herself from fully breaking down. She would not let him break her apart, he will never take the last of her sanity from her.

But she knew she was just prolonging the inevitable. She could hear her heart breaking every time he push her away. She was slowly but surely losing it, she was close to her last straw. What exactly went wrong?

What happened next was just a blur. The sun was just setting leaving golden streaks on the horizons, and as the sky was dimming, the street lights turned on replacing the natural light. She was lost again in her feelings that she did not notice that she had strayed from her lane, going fast to the side. Smaller vehicles manouvered sharply around the red car that was going to the opposite way, some hit the honk hard that she snapped from her thoughts.

Her eyes widened when a pair of big highlights blinked in front of her. Her heart basically stopped as she veered on her wheel abruptly, going back into her lane and barely dodging her death. The truck zoomed past her leaving a long trail of angry blare. That was when she understood the answer to her question. She was wrong.

She stopped on the side of the road after making sure she was in a safe lane. She threw her phone back onto the next seat and stared up ahead blankly. When the silence was too much, she cried her heart out.

She was broken.

xxxxx

March 05, 2014.

A girl was standing at the entrance looking around with a small frown on her face. She was trying to read the floor map she printed out from the web but she was lost, and she have not even ventured into the building yet. Sighing softly, she cursed herself for not taking her cousin's offer of walking her to her first class. She politely declined Jisoo's offer that morning, saying that she wanted to be independent. Now she felt so stupid for turning such generous offer down.

Needless to say, the day was gonna suck and it have just started.

There were three main hallways that branched out to a lot of smaller hallways leading to lecture classes and offices. She was supposed to find a sign that point where the offices were since her floor map only showed numbers. But no matter how she looked, there was no sign board.

"Um, ohayo gozaimasu." Someone said behind her, making her swirled around.

A girl around her age was smiling sheepishly and bowed slightly.

"Ohayo gozaimasu." She replied, mirroring the girl's act.

The girl looked flustered and she was even more confused. Was the girl lost too?

"Ano... Doko ni- uh... iku ni..."

What- she thought as the girl tried to make up what she was trying to say. Is she trying to...

"Aish..." The girl grumbled. "Where are you going?"

She widened her eyes as the girl said the words in English, her accent was very heavy. She smiled. It pleased her that someone actually tried to help.

"It's okay, I can speak in Korean quite fluently." She chuckled and the girl visibly relaxed.

"Oh my gosh! I thought I would have to use my broken Japanese to converse with you! Wait, you're a Japanese right?" She nodded and the girl smiled, raising her hand for a shake. "I'm Lee Jieun."

She happily took Jieun's hand and shook it. "Myoui Lisa."

Maybe her first day's gonna be alright after all.

xxxxx

April 10, 2014.

A month have passed and Lisa was catching up with her studies pretty well. She made a few friends and so far her lecturers were great.

She was texting Jieun who was already waiting for her in the cafeteria since she finished her class when her classmates caught up to her.

"Aren't you coming with us, Lisa?" Angel, another foreign student said as she walked past her who stood like a mannequin outside the class. Another two person stood beside her, looking at her expectantly.

"Yeah, come with us. We're going outside to eat." Areum said. She slightly pushed her big glasses up.

"I uh... Sort of made a promise to someone."

"Ooohhh, is it a guy?" Lisa turned red and the culprit laughed. He patted the girl on her back as Areum stared at him accusingly.

"Stop embarrassing her, Ren."

Ren rolled his eyes at Areum's word. She was small, but quite the nagger.

"But if this guy has some hot friend, do introduce them to me yeah?" He winked and Lisa turned redder. Areum scoffed while Angel looked like she was going to explode.

Suddenly, Lisa was hit hard on her back making her stumbled forward. Luckily, Ren was there to catch her before she fall.

"Shit, sorry. I didn't see you there." A deep voice said.

Lisa was met by Areum as well as Angel's shocked face, and Ren's dreamy expression as she stood up, gaining her balance. She turned around and literally forgot to breath. Without her knowing, her mind jumped into a fuzzy state. It spoke certain words as everything else were blurred out.

One minute and one second

Feels like endless hell.

Standing taller than her was a guy, she basically stared straight to his broad chest. She looked up and saw his mesmerising eyes first. She blinked, as her eyes automatically skimmed through his chiselled jaw and tousled hair. His face was stoic, void of any expressions but his eyes were swirling with them. He was gorgeous, gorgeous as any guy could get. Gorgeous as Channing Tatum from The Vow that she always imagined while she was working. But this guy's dark eyes was pulling her deep...

The more I look at you,

The greedier I get.

She vaguely heard him speaking though her eyes trailed to those lips as they were moving. It was like she was turning deaf but those pink lips were luring her.

My eyes are fixed on you.

Until she felt a sharp push on the small of her back. It was enough to pull her back from her trance. She turned to glare at Ren who dared to disturb her from 'the state'. The guy just widen his eyes as a sign and nodded slightly to her front.

Angel chuckled awkwardly and cleared her throat. "I think Shownu-ssi just asked if you're okay. After all, you look shook."

Lisa sucked a breath and Ren rolled his eyes.

"She's fine. Just enthralled by your beauty. Not a surprise though." Ren said casually, and Lisa gasped. She lightly slapped Ren's shoulder and turned back to the guy, whose name she has not learn yet she was embarrassed for her entire existence.

"I-I'm fine."

The guy simply nodded and went on his way.

"If the person you're meeting up has friends like him, you need to introduce them to me." Ren mumbled and Angel finally burst out, clutching on her stomach as she laughed out hard.

Lisa ignored him as her eyes still trained on the guy's back. She has unknowingly produced a full verse. Wonder if he would let her if she ask him to be her muse.

xxxxx

"I was worried that you won't turn up!" Jieun gushed as she took Lisa by her arm and led her to the cafeteria.

"Yeah, well... Me too." She blushed a bit as she thought of the guy from earlier. Those eyes were seriously haunting her. She needed to let it out with a piano or she would explode. Or maybe a guitar would help too.

"What do you want?" Jieun asked and Lisa snapped out of her thoughts. They were already at the counter.

She looked at the menu and felt lost, she was still on a daze. "I'll get whatever you take." She mumbled and Jieun shrugged.

That was how she spent her next fifteen minutes, munching slowly on a turkey sandwich with Jieun droning on and on about a guy who pissed her so much and worse still, he was in her practical group.

"I swear that guy is an idiot who thinks court is a game room or something!" She huffed, stuffing her mouth with more turkey sandwich and moaned.

Lisa learnt another thing about Jieun, she loved turkey sandwich so much.

"Well maybe he's just trying to get your attention." Lisa commented, staring at her new friend who gave her the 'are you serious' look.

"What for? He already has half of the class's attention." She scoffed and mumbled. "That stupid asshole."

Lisa stifled a laugh. "Well, maybe he likes you, because you're the only girl who doesn't care."

Jieun narrowed her eyes at Lisa and shook her head. "I'm just gonna act like you never said that."

Jieun shuddered with even the thought of Mark wanting her attention. She was not really a fan of him and she hated him with her every guts. Among the 103 students, Prof. Kim just had to pair her up with him. She mentally groaned, this was not how she imagined the semester to be.

Maybe she should grovel in front of her professor so that she let her change partners.

Except as much as she hated that guy, she hated to stain her pride. She was a top student with a lot of dignity.

Even her friends told her it was possible that Mark had some kind of feelings toward her. But she refused to listen.

"Who's that guy?" Lisa's soft voice pulled her back to the present. Lisa was currently looking at someone so she trailed her eyes to the person.

She undoubtedly blushed as her eyes fell upon the person Lisa meant. Her stomach flipped and did a nasty trick until she was unable to eat her favourite food anymore. She placed the half eaten sandwich back on her plate and tried to control the butterflies that turned into clowns in her tummy.

She cleared her throat. "Shownu. I guess you'd see him around since you're from the same faculty."

He was the reason why she applied for that particular University, why she sit on the same table every lunch because she knew he would be sitting two rows beside her. The reason why her heart stop beating and suddenly goes somersault whenever he's near. She was certain that he did not have any girl that he liked, he never even look at her more than five seconds.

So why did he stare at Lisa like she held his utmost interest?