Aera finally felt the toll it took on her to just let the day pass by eventfully without following a single thing on her schedule. It was time for her to wake up from this dream, or nightmare, and go back to reality. Her reality - the one where she goes uneventfully to work and back home everyday, without meeting and talking to random strangers under the hazy lights of lamp posts on the street.

"Aera-ssi, please stay? Even for a while more?" Jungkook said from behind her as he placed a hand on her shoulder, "I really don't want to be alone."

Hearing the uncertainty and sincerity in his voice, Aera stopped trying to get his hand off her shoulder and just stood there. Aera knew the feeling of being alone -- almost but not quite lonely when there were a hundred other people passing her by in the streets, coming and going in the coffee shop everyday.

So they stood there. For seconds, minutes, a few moments of silence that spoke of the understanding conveyed between them. They stood there, with Jeon Jungkook's hand on Jang Aera's shoulder, and breathed silently.

Jungkook dropped his hand and broke the silence first, "I'm sorry for being like this, Aera-ssi. It's just... I had a bad day, too."

Aera nodded to let him know that she was listening, but she didn't turn around. After a moment of silence though, she changed her mind and faced Jungkook who was watching her with expectant but sad eyes. She almost took a step back at this sudden change from the confident man she was talking to just five minutes ago.

"You know what?" Aera said in a light, cheerful voice.

"What?"

"I changed my mind. I'm staying because I believe you owe me an explanation. You said that you were waiting for your friends, but now you're lonely?" She mustered a smile, trying to lighten up the mood and bring back the man she was talking to earlier. It surprised Aera, how fast she grew attached to the easy-going side of a man she met barely half an hour ago.

Jungkook looked away, "I never said I was waiting for them. I just said that I have fun by myself when they aren't around."

"Not around?" Aera said as they both walked back to the bench under the lamp post, a tense silence that wasn't there before trying to creep into their stinted conversation. Their ice creams were still in their hands, starting to melt stickily onto the cone and their hands. She licked hers just for the sake of keeping clean and shivered. Sweets were really not her thing.

"Not around. They all moved away a long time ago and never visited again. They're all busy living their own lives."

"So how about you? You said that you always do the things you want to do. What is it that you want to do, anyway?"

"Dance. Sing. I don't know."

Aera raised an eyebrow to his unexpected response. "You don't know," she said flatly.

"Well, I do know. I love singing and dancing, even if it's just for small performances here and there. Doing choreography, covers, soundtracks. Things like that. There's just some days when I think that I can't keep on dancing and singing when I get old, even if I wanted to. Then I remember my friends who gave these things up but are happy with their lives. I want to see a stable life ahead of me but I just can't see myself working behind a desk everyday for the rest of my life like them. I can't see myself ever stopping from dancing or singing."

"Is that the reason why you're having a bad day?" Aera probed silently, afraid to say something that would cause him to close up and leave. Ironic, how she was treading fragile ground when she was supposed to be the one that's offended from their earlier conversation.

"Yeah." Jungkook replied airily with a deep sigh. An air of finality telling Aera that she didn't need to say anything else. That it was enough that she stayed seated, ice cream in folded hands, beside his slightly hunched form - a real, breathing weight to keep him from falling deeper into his own thoughts. Someone stable.

And it was then that it hit Jang Aera. The realization that the two of them were so different from each other.

That in complete opposition to her strict and rigid schedules was his strong desire not to be caged in by rules and routines. To his uncertain and unpredicable life was her life of constancy and surety. That while she would've avoided people who slept standing and leaning against lamp posts, he reveled in the feeling of spontaniety and in seizing the moment as it came. That while she was perfectly content with her quiet life, he was always seeking for places to visit, people to meet, opportunities to grab, things to try and feel and remember.

Aera couldn't help but look at Jungkook as these things flitted through her head, one after the other with surprising clarity and speed. She watched as he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, young face softly illuminated by the warm yellow-orange glow of the lamp over them, and she traced his features with her eyes. His forehead and eyebrows covered by slightly damp dark hair that gently moved with the autumn breeze, down to his high-bridged nose that gently slowed to the slight curve of his lips.

It was the first time that Aera found the courage to openly look at a man that was just beside her, and she was glad that Jungkook couldn't see her with his eyes closed. For some weird reason, Aera had the strong urge to memorize all his features so instead of averting her gaze, she looked. At his ears and the earrings that told her he'd always been a free soul, to the way the muscles in his defined jaw worked and moved sineously under his skin. To the smooth skin of his neck and the mole located just above his collar bone. Even the clothes that he wore, and how his hands looked strong and dependable under the heavy cloth of his coat.

And it bothered her that with these realizations and thoughts came another thought so fleeting that she felt both giddy and scared at the same time. The thought that she would very much like to become the one thing that stayed constant in his life full of changes and surprises, and that she would like it very much if he was the only one whom she would break her routines for.

But as her thoughts were fleeting and full of fantasy, so was the man beside her. Jeon Jungkook was just like the autumn rain that left her drenched this morning but left as quickly as it came.

"Thank you, Aera-ssi. For listening, I mean. And staying." Jungkook said, eyes still closed. Aera let herself go and reached out for his hand - the one nearer her, resting silently on the bench.

Jungkook startled at the feeling of her hand on top of his and opened one eye. Looking at Aera, he raised an eyebrow.

"Should you be doing this, Aera-ssi?"

Aera felt herself blush but she tried to keep a straight face as she replied, "Hmm. Last time I checked, holding someone's hand still wasn't illegal, so..."

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Ahhh! But wait! One chapter left. :(((