They went to St. Petersburg.

The minute Alex stepped out of the airport, he froze. This was Russia. The furthest he had ventured out of his homeland was to Tokyo and Beijing, and the foreignness that surrounded him made him feel quite alien—and intimidated. It didn't help that large flakes of snow were drifting down from above, adding to the already knee-deep layer that covered the ground, making him feel like an icicle both literally and figuratively.

"Now you're regretting coming here? Can we go back to Seoul?" Daehyun sniggered. He had been protesting the entire way, but Alex was dead set on following Eunri to Russia.

"No, I'm going to find Eunri," Alex said with determination. He took a deep breath and looked around, trying to orientate himself in the unfamiliar territory. He thought to ask for directions, but he wasn't sure it would work with the smattering of English he knew.

"And where are you planning to go look for her?"

Alex didn't respond, because he had no idea.

Right now it was almost dinner time and he was hungry, so finding something to eat had to be a priority.

"Hey Daehyun, do you know what's good to eat in Russia?"

"No."

"Thanks. That was helpful."

Eventually, Alex managed to find the bus station and find a ride to the city centre, using a combination of flailing hand gestures and random words to communicate with the bus driver. When he got off the bus, he headed into the first restaurant he caught sight of. It was a quaint little place that even had a grand piano in the centre and a pianist playing soothing music for the customers. managed to get himself a seat and get his order taken. Thankfully the menus were not entirely in Russian. They had English translations. Alex couldn't read much English, but Daehyun could, so he simply pointed at the entry on the menu that Daehyun recommended.

"What did I just order?" Alex whispered.

"Monkey brains."

"What?" Alex yelped and leapt out of his seat. Everyone in the restaurant turned to stare at him. He quickly sat down and tried to not look so awkward.

"Just kidding. I wouldn't put that into my own body."

"It's not funny," Alex snapped. "I'm impressed that you have a sense of humour though." He was beginning to think that Daehyun had no funny bone whatsoever because he was forever talking about serious matters and work. He also never laughed at Alex's jokes, which Alex reckoned were pretty high tier.

Just then, the restaurant's doorbell jingled as a new customer entered.

Alex was still trying to get Daehyun to tell him what exactly it was that he had ordered when the waiter interrupted his conversation. "Excuse me sir, do you mind sharing a table with someone else? We are full and there are no other empty seats," the waiter asked in halting English.

After Daehyun translated, Alex nodded. Sharing a table was no big deal.

"Mr Lee?" a familiar voice echoed from behind him.

Alex turned around slowly. He had already recognised her voice before seeing her, but his mind couldn't quite process the coincidence. Eunri was standing a couple of steps away, wrapped in her white winter coat with her scarf obscuring half her face and snow sprinkled in her hair.

"Wow. Did you know she would be coming here?" Daehyun asked.

"No..."

"I'm impressed. Looks like fate hasn't given up on the two of you yet."

"Lee... Daehyun?" Eunri said again, probably wondering why he was seated there gaping and not responding to her. She walked over and sat down on the chair across from Alex that the waiter had helped to pull out.

"Uhh..."

"You're behaving like a bumbling fool again," Daehyun reminded.

"I-I-I-... I didn't expect to see you here," Alex replied honestly.

"You don't mind sharing the table, do you? I mean, if you do then I can always wait for another table."

"No, no! Not at all!" Alex frantically waved his hands about in denial. "You're more than welcome to join me." His heart leapt into the air with delight. He had been expecting to have to trawl the streets of St. Petersburg for days to get a whiff of Eunri's whereabouts, but the heavens had brought her to him instead.

She smiled at him. "So what brings you to St. Petersburg? I wasn't expecting a familiar face here!"

"Uhh..." I was looking for you?

"You can't tell her that stupid. Say you're here for a meeting," Daehyun volunteered an answer on his behalf.

A meeting sounded reasonable. After all, Daehyun was permanently flying around the globe attending various meetings, and technically they were in St. Petersburg to meet her, so it wasn't exactly a lie.

"I'm here for a business meeting," Alex blurted.

"Oh I see. Well it's such a coincidence bumping into you here! I didn't think we'd see each other again after Shanghai!" Eunri picked up the menu and scanned through the list. She ordered item number three. Alex peered over curiously but had no idea what that was. Then again he had no idea what he had ordered himself.

Throughout dinner, Alex and Eunri had a rather pleasant conversation about everything and anything. Seeing as he couldn't reveal who he really was, he had to tell her Daehyun's life story instead. It was a good thing that Daehyun seemed rather cooperative today and fed him the relevant information so that he could complete his story, albeit with a slightly snarky tone. Eunri on the other hand, told him more about herself. She was a History major in university and only had one year of school left before graduation. She decided to come to St. Petersburg because she had just been reading about the Russian Revolution and thought it would be interesting to come check out the place for herself.

Of course, Alex had already known all that about her, but it was something new to Daehyun, so at least one of them was entertained. Alex had never shown much interest in pursuit of history, but Daehyun on the other hand, was pretty well read in that field himself.

"How the hell do you know all these things?" Alex asked Daehyun when Eunri stepped away to go to the bathroom. Minutes ago, Daehyun had fed him with a little known fact about Russian Communist history that Eunri seemed pretty impressed with.

"I read. Maybe you should too."

"Pffttt. Intellectual snob."

Throughout the conversation, Eunri didn't mention a single word about Alex, which made him rather sad. Had she well and truly forgotten him?

Time flew by and soon the waiter came over with their bill, signalling the end of their dinner. Alex was panicking inside. Once the bill was settled, then they would have no excuse to hang around any further. They would have to go their separate ways.

"I'm tired. You can go find her again tomorrow. Can we please go to the hotel now to get some sleep," Daehyun yawned. It was almost ten and they had spent half the day travelling.

"What if I can't find her tomorrow?"

Alex watched as Eunri took out some money from her purse and paid for her bill at the restaurant counter. After she was done, she walked back over to him with a smile stretching across her delicate face.

"That was a lovely dinner. I'm glad I bumped into you here, Daehyun. I'm going to head back to my hotel now. I'll catch you around maybe?"

Alex nodded awkwardly in response, even though his mind was working overtime to think of a way to get her to stay for just a little longer. He watched as she picked up her bag and started heading for the exit.

A solution popped into mind.

He rushed up to the piano at the centre of the restaurant and sat down. With a deep breath, he placed both hands on the piano keys and hit the first chord, then he started playing.

#

Eunri stopped in her tracks when she heard the music play. She turned around slowly. There in the spotlight in the middle of the restaurant was Daehyun. He was playing the piano. And not just any song—her favourite song.

How does he know this song?

Taeyeon's "Missing You Like Crazy".

The first time she heard the song was when she watched "The King 2 Hearts" on TV. It hadn't even been a sad scene, but she had bawled her eyes out anyway because the lyrics and melody of the song had managed to stir the innermost strings of her heart. Back then, Alex had laughed at her and called her a silly little girl for crying over a song. She had ignored him and wiped her tears all over his shirt, much to his horror. From then on Alex always ran away to hide whenever he heard the song starting to play on TV, but on Valentine's day the year before he had played the keyboard and sung the entire song for her. He had been secretly learning how to play it behind her back so that he could give her a surprise. She burst into tears there and then, even though they were in the middle of a crowded bar.

But right now the person who was playing that very song on the piano wasn't Alex.

It was someone else.

Eunri felt a single teardrop slide down her cheek.

#

Here's the song for those who are interested: 

https://youtu.be/EgKnBPChgnA