"Who's it from?"

"They said it's from So Yi Jeong!"

"The famous potter?"

"How does he know her?"

Ga Eul pretended not to hear her co-teachers as they gossiped about her while passing through the halls. She was sitting at her desk, keeping her back to the door, acting like she was busy with something while waiting for the students, while, in truth, she was just thinking of ways to murder Yi Jeong sunbae without anyone getting suspicious. Running him over with a bike was still an open option. Or maybe now she can run him over with a car, maybe Woo Bin sunbae will let her borrow one of his cars? She'll have to talk to him about that. She looked around the classroom, narrowing her eyes at the dozens of red roses that filled it. What in the world was he thinking?

Earlier that morning…

Ga Eul checked her reflection in the mirror one last time before she left for work. 'Good enough', she thought. She opened her door and almost fell flat on her face because of stumbling into an object that she doesn't remember being there the night before. She bent down and picked up the neatly wrapped gift. She looked at the card, it simply read:

Ga Eul yang,

Don't say you can resist this.

Ga Eul frowned at the note. Yi Jeong sunbae left this?

She opened the gift and felt her heart skip a beat. Inside was the prettiest headband she has ever seen. She guessed that even after four years he still remembers her favorite way of wearing her hair. It was sequenced with diamonds and the colors were beautiful. It looked like it was the only one made in this world. It reminded her a little bit of the necklace Jun Pyo gave Jan Di. She felt a smile creeping up her face until she remembered the note. He thinks she'll fall right back into his spell after one gift? No way. Ga Eul wasn't going to let one extremely expensive, pulchritudinous gift ruin her chances of ever getting over Yi Jeong. Hesitantly (it was so pretty!), she put the headband back in the box and left it where she found it. If he comes by again sometime today, he'll see she's no longer interested.

After the initial shock at his doorstep gift, Ga Eul managed to compose herself on her way to work. she climbed the steps of the school and let herself in. she first noticed that something was not right when the first couple of teachers whom she didn't know kept looking at her. 'Is there something in my face?', she thought to herself, getting weirded out with the attention. As she entered her classroom, she felt the blood rise to her cheeks. There, covering almost half the classroom, were bouquets beautiful red roses, looking like they were freshly picked. She noticed a card on her desk and picked it up to read.

You're probably smiling to yourself, huh? Silly Ga Eul yang. I'll pick you up after work.

He was assuming again! This got Ga Eul even more pissed off. Clearly, he thought she hasn't changed at all. Well, she was going to prove him so very, very wrong.

So here she was, conjuring up ways to kill him. Okay, so maybe this wasn't the best way to prove him wrong. But how was she supposed to do this? She doesn't think she can trust herself being in the same room as him, let alone have a heart to heart talk with him….yet.

She heard the bell ring and the familiar noise of the children making their way to their classrooms filled her ears. She stood up and quickly got all the roses she could get and shoved it in one of the cubby holes. There were too many, though, and she only managed to hide half of them when her class came in.

"What are those Miss Chu?" one student asked.

"Are those from your boyfriend? The one who came here?" another one asked.

"Okay, class, uh, never mind all this," she said, gesturing to the remaining roses, "someone must've just left it here by mistake. Let's get started."

The rest of her class went by smoothly, no surprise gifts from returning Casabovas came her way, thankfully. She almost forgot about Yi Jeong's visit up until the time she was cleaning up after her class and saw his note. She quickly grabbed her stuff and ran to her classroom door only to bump into a well-dressed man, she didn't even need to look up to see who it was. His expensive suit said it all.

"Ga Eul yang, were you going to run away from me?" he asked, smiling that heart melting smile. Ga Eul suddenly found the ground interesting, completely avoiding his gaze. This didn't get past him, he placed his finger on her chin and lifted it up. Ga Eul shivered at the sudden physical contact and shoved his hand away.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him, looking anywhere but his eyes.

"I told I'd pick you up." He answered simply, still smiling.

Still not looking at him, she replied

"I don't want to see you." She answered coldly. This shocked Yi Jeong. That didn't sound like Ga Eul at all. Before he could have a chance to reply, Ga Eul scooted past him and ran to the exit of the school. He quickly caught up with her and held her back.

"Can we just talk?" he asked in a tone alien to him and to her.

"No." she answered, walking away again. He called after her but she didn't turn around.

Don't, Ga Eul, don't, she kept telling herself. She made it to the exit and was now running down the steps. After stepping down the last flight, he caught up with her. He wrapped his hand around her wrists and turned her around.

"Why do you keep on following me?" (New Caledonia flashback! :) she asked, outraged. He wasn't supposed to do this! He wasn't allowed to make her feel all these sorts of things with just one touch. Not anymore.

"Why do you keep running away?" he fired back, confused as hell on how she was acting. He thought if he apologized, everything would be back to normal, better than normal, even. But she hasn't even stopped long enough for him to do that.

"Haven't you gotten the message yet, sunbae? I don't want to talk to you." She turned her back again, and quickly got in the cab that has just been vacated. She leaned in to her seat and closed her eyes, letting the tears fall freely.

Yi Jeong stared at the cab she just hailed, dumbstruck. He really thought that they'd be Ga Eul and Yi Jeong again, four years ago, after this. Didn't she like the presents? She's always been touched by those kinds of things. He scratched his head in frustration. Just when he thought he's figured things out, she proves him otherwise.

Ga Eul woke up to her phone ringing. After their little meeting, she went home and curled up in her bead and tried to just sleep it all away.

"Jan Di?" she answered after checking the caller ID.

"Ga Eul! Where are you? I've been texting you for hours." Jan Di asked, sounding kind of worried.

"I'm at home. I was sleeping."

"At this time?"

"Yeah, I was tired." That she was.

"Well, okay. I just wanted to check on you. Have you talked with Yi Jeong sunbae?" Jan Di inquired. The name itself seemed to give Ga Eul a headache.

"Uh, no…not really." She lied. Jan Di would just get worried if she told her the whole story so she just didn't mention it. Her best friend was engaged! She didn't need to be worrying about these kinds of things,

"That's weird. I thought that's the first thing he'd do after we got back…" she said.

"I have to go now, Jan Di. Someone's at the door." She said as she heard her doorbell ring.

"Okay, I'll see you soon, alright?" Ga Eul mumbled a 'see you' before hanging up and heading to the door.

As soon as she opened it, she regretted ever waking up. Another bouquet of red roses were in his hand and the gift he left earlier this morning was on the other. Ga Eul felt her whole body tense up as she saw him. he wasn't smiling anymore, at least. He let himself in, not even bothering to greet Ga Eul she closed the door and faced him. If she was going to do this, better do it now, she thought. She was done trying to avoid him, she was just going to come right out and say that she doesn't want to be connected to him anymore in anyway and he was just going to have to give up. Yeah, she'd do that.

"I don't like red roses." She said, as her greeting.

"I know what you're trying to do, Ga Eul yang." He said, causing her to look right at him with a confused look on her face.

"What?" she wanted to know.

"You want revenge. You want to be with me but you just want to hurt me first." He said, sounding solemn.

"What?" Ga Eul repeated. Where was he getting this? He thought she was punishing him and then rewards him after? He thought she's going to take him back after a few hurtful words or so? That wasn't her plan. Her plan was to see him regret and then move on with her life. She doesn't want to put herself through that pain again.

"You have it all wrong, sunbae. It's not the same anymore." She told him, trying to keep herself together. She wasn't going to let him see her cry. Not this time.

"Tell me how you really feel." He said, determined. He was going to get her to admit at least this. He was going to take every single thing she has to say if he knew he still has a chance with her. And if he did, he sure as hell wasn't giving up. If he didn't? he sure as hell wasn't giving up, either.

His last statement did it for Ga Eul. She snapped.

"You want to know how I feel. I feel pathetic! I've been feeling pathetic for four years! Why? Because of you, sunbae! You promised me you'd come back for me and yet you didn't call or write or even sent a freaking postcard! Do you know how that felt? Getting up every morning and wishing, in the deepest part of my heart, that somehow you remembered me in Sweden and wrote to me? Do you know how it felt to find an empty mailbox and wishing I never got out of bed? Do you know how pathetic I felt every time you called someone from here but never me? Like I wasn't even worthy of you precious time! Like everything I've been holding on to, everything that I believed in, everything you made me feel was all a lie. Do you know how that feels? And now you waltz back into my life expecting me to forgive you and to just forget everything. Well, I can't. Because it hurt. It still does. Every single day." She finished, not trying to hold back the tears anymore because that was impossible. She just admitted everything to him, without even planning to. She put her heart out there again for him to rip apart. She wasn't going to let him do that anymore. She was going to be strong, for her sake.

Yi Jeong couldn't even find the words. He just stared at her, thinking about everything she said. He was so stupid! How was it that he didn't think of the possibility of her hurting her this way? He couldn't even remember his reasons anymore for avoiding her for four years. All he could think about now are her eyes. The ones that were usually filled with so much love and forgiveness. The ones that were always so bright and alive. But as he looked at her, all he could see was emptiness.

They stood there in silence until Yi Jeong finally got the courage to speak.

"Ga Eul yang, I'm sorry…I didn't think…I-."

"That doesn't really make it any better." She said with such coldness that Yi Jeong felt himself cringe at her words. Silence once again dawned on them as the anger and the pain and the regrets hang between them. They stood like that for a minute or so until Ga Eul spoke.

"You know where the exit is." She said, her eyes blank. Yi Jeong felt weak, hearing such familiar words. He felt like all the air was knocked out of him. Wasn't what Ga Eul was, after all? His air?

Yi Jeong tried to think of more words to make everything alright again. He needed it to be. But as he stared at her cold and lifeless eyes, he realized there's really nothing he could say to have tonight end differently. So he turned around and let himself out, his heart stinging with pain he has never felt before.

The moment the door shut, Ga Eul fell to the floor and cried, everything she felt for the past four years all coming back to her at once. Frustration, pain, anger…love.