Note: Hello! I'm terribly sorry for the long absence. I've been swamped with works *lie* LOL in reality I was quite stuck and almost forgot about this story :p Determined not to let this story go, I forced myself to sit and read the story from the beginning again and let Ji Hoo and Jae Kyung forced me to write their ending I hope you all like this chapter! This particular chapter has always been in my head, this just has to happen! Now that it is finally crafted into the story, I can get a good night sleep enjoy!

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Chapter Thirty Six : of One Chance in A Lifetime

BGM: 바보처럼 "Fool" by 2PM (OST of Personal Taste)

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Ha Jae Kyung has been staring at her ceiling for hours now. Sleep evaded her this night. She stared at her fingernails. They are ugly. She has a bad habit of biting her nails when something is bothering her mind and oh… how she has been bothered for the last 10 hours by a particular man.

She huffed and sighed… then continued her staring contest with the ceiling. She wasn't really thinking, in fact, she was not thinking at all. Her brain had done enough thinking her head felt hot and her heart had done too much feeling. Currently she just lay on her bed blinking away the minutes.

In her hands were the two rings she bought years ago when she was engaged to Junpyo. In her mind was him…

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The office phone rang twice before he picked it up. "Dr. Yoon, Mr. So is here to see you." He replied that he'd be out in a second and thanked his secretary.

Yoon Ji Hoo stared at his phone for a second because he was sure that his lunch appointment was supposed to be with Woo Bin and not Yi Jeong. Maybe he needed something? He took off his white suit and replaced it with his brown jacket.

"Hyung." Yi Jeong who stood near the reception desk greeted him with his usual bad boy smile. "Sorry I asked Woo Bin to back off because this lunch is my treat." Ji Hoo raised an eyebrow in bewilderment but his best friend only smirked, threw his arm around his shoulder and began dragging him to the elevator.

Yi Jeong took him to his Tea House, with a 'closed' signage hanging. "You closed your Tea House today?" Ji Hoo asked because it was weekday and business hour. His friend smiled and answered cheerfully that he closed the Tea House just for this lunch with him, which only caused him to raise his eyebrow again.

"Here, try this. I asked Ga Eul yang to make this for us." Yi Jeong put a plate of grilled Sea Bass with Miso-Mustard Sauce served with mashed potatoes and a glass of white wine.

"Fancy." Ji Hoo commented after seeing the bottle of Felton Road Chardonnay 1998. Yi Jeong merely raised his wine glass for a toast and said, "Only the best for my brother."

Ji Hoo tried the fish and was absolutely surprised that it tasted wonderful. It must have showed on his face that he loved the fish because Yi Jeong said, "I told Ga Eul you love fish and she prepared all this, she even chose the wine herself. Isn't she an amazing woman?" Ji Hoo smiled at the obvious pride and boast in his friend's tone.

"That she is. Why wouldn't she be, since she obviously tamed you, the wild Casanova." Ji Hoo teased.

"A Casanova is never wild! I was smooth." Yi Jeong answered indignantly. They ate the delicious lunch and talked about many things but mainly Yi Jeong's plan for marriage after he met Ga Eul's parents for official proposal.

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"So why is it Woo Bin agreed to let today be yours? I never know him to be so agreeable especially when he wants to have one of his Special Lunches." Ji Hoo took a sip of his wine and stared at Yi Jeong casually. Whenever Woo Bin has something to say, he would take them / one of them out for 'lunch' where they all have to sit and listen to his piece of mind. Over time they all named it as 'Woo Bin's Special Lunch'.

Yi Jeong chuckled. "Because I told him to trust me this time and stop being a mother hen for once." Ji Hoo laughed at the term and raised his glass for another toast. "Well said, hyung."

They were silent for a few minutes, lost in their own respective thoughts, before Yi Jeong finally put down his glass, took something out of his pocket and put it in front of Ji Hoo.

"For you."

Ji Hoo eyed the crafted clay on the table. They were obviously old and crudely made, unlike Yi Jeong's usual perfect handiwork. Two pieces of puzzle, each tied with old beaten brown leather. He took them and examined the pieces. Each has a Han character crafted into it but it seemed incomplete.

"Morning… and meeting?" he looked up at Yi Jeong, not understanding what they supposed to mean.

"It's a Japanese term," he answered with a small wishful smile. Yi Jeong took the pieces from Ji Hoo's hand and set them on the table. "The complete set is in my private studio. These two pieces are taken apart long time ago. I have the one with the word 'meeting' and Eun Jae held the other one. I asked it back from her when I decided to finally let my past go. These are precious to me…"

Yi Jeong stroked the clay gently and drew an invisible Han character beside each of the pieces, "here and here are where the pieces with the word 'one' crafted in them belong. Together they read 'Ichigo Ichie'… it's a popular term in Japanese team ceremony."

Yi Jeong was silent for a moment and Ji Hoo waited patiently for the meaning behind all this. He took a deep breath and looked out at the Tea House's glass pane.

"Ichigo Ichie means one chance in a lifetime."

"I loved Eun Jae long time ago, I'm sure you remember, but I lost her because of my own cowardice. Ga Eul yang made sure I faced that fact. She can be very mean when she wants to be. But I'm grateful for her, because I learned my lesson well."

Yi Jeong suddenly looked deep into Ji Hoo's eyes. "Eun Jae is Jan Di for you, Hyung."

"You lost your one chance with her. Your Ichigo Ichie, when you decided to fly to Paris for Seo Hyun unnie and everything in life is Ichigo Ichie. If you missed it, you lost it forever. The second and third chance will never be the same as the first one, but doesn't mean that they are less than the first. Because I swear that Ga Eul yang is the best thing that ever happened to me and I would gladly lost another Ichigo Ichie with Eun Jae, went through the pain and tears if it means I get to meet and be with Ga Eul in the end."

"What are you trying to say, really?" Ji Hoo cut in crudely.

"Don't be mad, hyung… What I'm trying to say is that, every chance given, every person in our lives comes with an Ichigo Ichie. Every opportunity, every meeting is different and cannot be compared with one another. They all come in different time, situation and chance.

As a friend, as a brother, I'm sharing to you what I learned and what I gained because I took the scary step of opening my heart again… Ji Hoo yah, will you not let your feeling for Gum Jandi go? Let the past be the past because Jae Kyung too came into your life with an Ichigo Ichie, like Jandi did years ago.

Question is… what will you do with it? You must decide soon… this is your Ichigo Ichie with her, will you risk it?"

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That night, Yoon Ji Hoo sat alone at his house porch accompanied by the bottle of wine Yi Jeong gave him. In his hands were the puzzle pieces Yi Jeong gave him. In his mind was her…

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