Chapter ten [part one]: Distance

Seoul, Korea

Gaeul gazed at her cellphone long enough to know she'd be disappointed. Again. It's been a month since he was gone. Silently, she left enraged, upset, melancholy, all at once. How can life be so normal when he left such a big empty space after his departure? It was as if the fairytale dreamland ended as soon as that plane took off. Gone was not only the love of her life. Also the reason to smile.

That arrogant Gu Junpyo, with his extreme protectiveness and concern for Jandi, almost suffocated her even when he was thousands of miles away. The phone calls. The short rude messages, yet so sweet Jandi would often smile to herself. How envy she was of Jandi.

Then again, what more could she asked for? A promise. That was all he was ready to give. She didn't even have the right to be angry of him. She knew she had promised to wait for him patiently, but she didn't know that waiting could feel so lonely.

The door of the porridge shop slowly opened and a dashing young man entered. A few men in black were tailing him closely behind, standing like a statue as to guard the door when the young man came in. "Gaeul yang," he called out.

She missed that – the door opened to the man she always seems to be least expected. "Sunbae." But it was not him.

He sensed it. She was missing him.

Flashback

"How have you been?" Woobin asked.

Yijung had called for the first time after two weeks of settling into his college life in Sweden. "It's been crazy," he admitted. "I didn't think living alone abroad would be this difficult, but I'll manage." he lied.

"I did what you told me to," Woobin said, changing the subject.

Gaeul yang…

Yijung choked back the stifling tenseness. "How was she?"

"Why don't you call and ask her that yourself?" Woobin said. There was a pregnant pause before Woobin continued on, "Sometimes, words speak louder than action. What you're trying to do or prove, she can't see it nor feel it. Call her, so she'd at least feel self-assured."

Yijung lightly shook his head. "Not yet. Not until I come back as a different man. Someone who will be able to protect her. Someone who will be able to love her unconditionally. I promised I'll be back, for her."

"Sometimes I just don't get how your mind works. Would it kill you to just call her and say a simple hello? At least you guys would feel less miserable."

Yijung breathed out a sigh. "Call me a coward or whatever, I just…can't afford to hurt that person because of my incapability. When I return, I'd change that. Woobin, can't you just trust me just this once?"

"What about her? Don't you feel sorry for her? She missed you like crazy!"

"That is why I had you to look out for her."

End of flashback

****

"I told you, I'm fine. You don't have to come and visit me everyday," Gaeul insisted.

"I'm just fulfilling a promise to my brother," he answered simply.

"Eh?"

"You may think he doesn't care, but it isn't so. He does care," he said, trying to confirm her of something they both knew so well. "The day before he left, he asked me for a favor, for the first time."

Her questioning eyes never left him.

"To take care of you while he was gone," he told her. "That was his way of showing his feelings." Then he added, "he might be a cold-hearted womanizer, but he's a pure childlike when it comes to love, totally clueless and timid. And he doesn't do well with self expressing and words."

"Why are you telling me all this?" she asked.

"Because I feel the need to let you know…of how he feels for you."

Gaeul was smiling weakly. "I know. That's why I promised to wait for him."

"Good," he said, clapping his hands. "From now on, Chu Gaeul, considered yourself to be real lucky. The famous Prince Song would be your bodyguard," he declared, "today onwards."

"Bodyguard?" she ridiculed.

"Yep." He nodded enthusiastically. "4 years is really long! I need to guard you from all those hungry wolves out there til Yijung comes back," he joked.

Gaeul chuckled. "Sunbae."

****

Stockholm, Sweden

Could it be? It can't possibly be her?! What would she be doing here anyway?

Involuntarily, his feet carried him forward as he walked through the crowd to get to her. The red coat, the long black hair, the petite figure, it was all unmistakably familiar. This couldn't possibly some cruel joke, was it? He had been praying to see that image again for so long. It turned out time went by really slow when you're missing someone. He felt that strange surge of emotion for the first time.

His hand was shaking when he touched her shoulder and muttered the words. "Gaeul yang."

****