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Yoongi looked over at Eunji, who was sitting on the other side of the couch from him.  She was staring down at her teacup frowning.

“Eunji, seriously.  Snap out of it.  Tell me what’s wrong.”

Eunji turned her sharp gaze on her brother. “Yoongi-”

“Nope.  Tell me.”

She sighed. “I’m in love with Tae…and I told him…but…he rejected me…”

“Ah.” Yoongi look out the window. “Well, maybe you’ll have to get over him…” He paused. “Or, maybe he’ll come back to you.” He looked back at Eunji.

Eunji took a deep breath. “But I’m engaged to Namjoon…”

Yoongi shrugged. “You know my love story didn’t go the way it was supposed to.”

That was true.  It hadn’t.  He had been engaged to someone, but she had broken off the engagement.  Then he had fallen in love with Nari.  Nari was from a rich family, and her parents agreed to marry her off to Yoongi.  But Eunji didn’t want the same thing to happen to her.

“But I want my own choice…”

“I understand.” Yoongi nodded. “But just, be careful.  You know Appa won’t be happy.”

——————–

Taehyung sat across Namjoon in the restaurant.  Namjoon had dragged him here, but he wasn’t sure why.  Besides, he wasn’t exactly wanting to eat steak right now.  He had just gotten over his cold, and steak just reminded him of the last dinner he had had with Eunji.  He picked up his knife before stabbing it through his steak.  He didn’t want to see steak ever again.

“Tae, why are you still ignoring Eunji?  She thinks you hate her!” Namjoon exclaimed, breaking into Taehyung’s thought train.

Taehyung looked up at Namjoon.  It took him a moment to register Namjoon’s question. “I don’t…know how to handle it…” He finally answered.

“What do you mean?”

Taehyung looked out the window, ignoring Namjoon’s sharp gaze.

“I wasn’t going to tell you…but…I’m in love with her too, Namjoon. I didn’t want to mess things up…” He turned back to Namjoon. “You’ve sacrificed so much for me; it was time to return the favor.”

“Why did you lie to her?”

“Because, Namjoon, she doesn’t love me the way she thinks she does.  It’s puppy love, she just likes the thought of me.  She likes my mask.  She doesn’t know the real me…If she knew him, she wouldn’t love me.”

“Stop acting like you’re secretly a horrible person.  You’re not.  The side she sees is the real you, the other side is your mask.”

“Why do you always talk about me like I’m the best person in the world?  I’m not.  It’s why I look up to you…because…you’re much better than me…”

“Taehyung…” Namjoon’s voice trailed off.  It appeared he was at a loss for words. 

The table was silent for a few minutes as Taehyung continued to stare out the window and Namjoon spaced out.  Taehyung broke the silence with a question as he turned to Namjoon.

“Why’d you stop talking?”

“Ah…sorry…I didn’t know what to say…”

“It’s all right.  I was thinking about when we met Eunji.”

It was Taehyung’s turn to space out as he replayed the scene in his head once more.

He stood next to his father, patiently waiting for him to stop talking.

“Appa, Appa!”

He looked over to see a small girl run over to them.  She ran to the man who Taehyung’s father was talking to.

“Honey, not right now.  Why don’t you go hang out with Taehyung?  He needs someone to occupy him.”

The man motioned to Taehyung, and the girl’s eyes followed.

“Oh.  Ok.”

Taehyung’s father smacked him on the shoulder.

“Take Eunji to one of the tables.”

Taehyung nodded quickly and grabbed her hand before running over to the table.  Eunji gave him a strange look.

“Do you know why we’re here?”

Tears sprang in Taehyung’s eyes.

“My eomma died…”

Eunji’s face fell. “Oh.  My eomma died last year…”

They stood in silence for a moment.  Then Eunji hugged Taehyung.  He was quite surprised, but very comforted by her touch, so he hugged her back.  That was the moment he fell in love with her.

Taehyung was brought back to the present.  He blinked tears from his eyes, letting them pour down his cheeks.

“Why did I fall in love with her?”

——————–

Eunji sat on her usual bench along the beach’s walking path.  It had the best view of the ocean, she had observed.  She now watched as the sky turned to a palate of coral, rose, and salmon.  The beautiful sunset reflected its colors off the water, making the scene almost seem surreal.  The sun was low on the horizon, but still blinding if you dared to glance at it.  She wished she could draw something that resembled it, so she could always see it.  Her camera couldn’t capture its beauty well enough to frame.

“Are you admiring the sunset?”

Eunji looked up to see a smiling boy with light brown hair that crowned his head.  She recognized him, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on why.

“I am.  I wish I had a way to capture its beauty so I could always enjoy it.”

The boy sat next to her. “If you could capture it, wouldn’t it lose its beauty?  Isn’t the beautiful part about it that it’s rare?”

Eunji looked at him. “I’ve never thought of it like that before.  I suppose that is true.”

The boy smiled and met her eyes.  She then knew where she recognized him from.

“Jin?”

“I wondered if you remembered me.”

Now that she thought about it, she remembered Jin well.  He was the most popular boy in high school.  He didn’t seem like the kind of boy that would be popular, but he had been a good pick among the girls for his looks.  His parents’ money would’ve been part of the factor as well, had they not been attending the most expensive school in all of Seoul.

“Who doesn’t remember you?  All the girls wanted to date you.” Eunji snorted.

“Yep.  I’m so glad high school is over.  I don’t have girls chasing me everywhere.  I can do mostly whatever I want without anyone bothering me.”

“You’re lucky.  My father is trying to marry me off as quickly as possible.  It’s almost like he doesn’t want me around anymore, so he’s just trying to get rid of me.”

“Wow.” Jin was silent for a moment before speaking again. “Maybe we could run away.”

“How?  Where would we go?”

“We could go anywhere.  We could just start with getting ice cream.  There’s a good ice cream place down the block.”

“You mean the ice cream cart?”

“Yeah, have you been there?”

“I go so often the guy has started giving me free ice cream for giving him so much business.”

“Wow, I wouldn’t have guessed from your physique you even knew what ice cream was.”

Eunji smiled. “People assume my small waist is from strict diets.  Truth is, I just workout a ton to work off all my ice cream.”

Jin laughed. “You sound like me.  Working out just so you can eat more.”

“Man, now I’m really hungry!  Let’s go get some ice cream before the shop closes.”

Jin shot up from the bench. “Race you there?”

Eunji smiled and quickly got up before running off towards the ice cream shop. “Loser pays!”

“Hey!” Jin hurried after her.