Chapter 50: Unlucky

Hye Rim slept all night in a chair by Sun Hi's bed. She wasn't awake when Woo Bin placed a blanket over her or when he kissed her sweetly on the lips. She wasn't awake when he looked at the sick girl in the bed and felt sorry for her. That girl did not know what his friend had gone through, not the extent of it, and did not know why Ji Hoo would have done something like this. But he supposed he did not know much about her either, let alone her reasons for being where she was that night with who she was with.

Woo Bin had always been the person asking his friends to walk away from situations that seemed to cause more harm than good. He was good at using words like 'Just forget about it', 'it's not your problem', and 'let's take your mind off of it'. Staring at the young girl now, he saw that he did not want to give the same advice when it came to her. After all, he had never seen Hye Rim care about another person this much, not even himself. And Ji Hoo almost seemed like a different person with Sun Hi in his life. She had to be a good person, but he didn't know how to convince Ji Hoo of this. He also didn't want this girl to end her life over his friend's actions and words, whatever they had been. He knew from experience that the F4 treated those they loved more harshly than anyone before they came to their senses.

Before he left the room, Woo Bin told himself that it would work itself out. Most things did these days when it came to him and his friends. But he also told himself that he would try to talk to Ji Hoo the next day with the others. Certainly there had to be two sides of the story.

On top of all of this, his engagement party was in a couple of days. It would be depressing if everyone was in a bad mood for it. He longed for the day that the drama would end and everyone could be happy. For once, he wanted all of them, including himself, to be happy.


"Yah! Ji Hoo, open up!" shouted Yi Jeong, banging on Ji Hoo's front door.

Woo Bin, Yi Jeong, and Jun Pyo had been standing outside for who knew how long. Eventually, Woo Bin became frustrated and let them in himself. They found Ji Hoo passed out in one of his guest bedrooms, an expensive bottle of tequila sitting empty on the floor next to him.

Ji Hoo was never one to drink to get drunk, especially an entire bottle of something. Jun Pyo shook him awake in a panic and it took several tries for Ji Hoo to open his eyes. He looked around at all of them but said nothing.

"If you wanted to drink, you could have invited us over," Woo Bin joked gently.

"What are you guys doing here?" Ji Hoo slurred. "Go home."

"Ji Hoo, this isn't like you," said Yi Jeong. They lifted him off the floor and sat him on the bed. "Let us help. Tell us what happened."

"The inevitable," he mumbled. He reached for the tequila bottle and frowned when he saw it was empty.

Jun Pyo's patience wore off. "Ji Hoo, what's this about kicking Sun Hi out? Last night was not a good situation, but kicking her out?"

Ji Hoo responded to Sun Hi's name by wrenching away from all of them and attempting to stand. He fell back onto the bed and swore. "Don't mention that liar."

"So she did cheat?" Woo Bin asked with slight surprise.

"Impossible. If Jan Di trusts her, then she has to be innocent," said Jun Pyo. "There has to be a misunderstanding. What exactly did she say?"

"She didn't have to say anything. It just needed to end. She's not suitable." Ji Hoo tried to stand again but failed. "Don't say her name again in this house."

"You didn't get her story? Her side?"

"Her story is that while I let her into my life, she was seeing her abusive ex-boyfriend behind my back!" Ji Hoo shouted. "She promised she would never see him again and then she did!"

The three of them frowned at the word 'abusive', not knowing that this was something she had experienced. All they knew was that her ex-boyfriend had kicked her out a long time ago and had cost Ji Hoo his job after starting a fight with him. Woo Bin thought about the guy from last night. He wasn't holding hands with Sun Hi, and when Ji Hoo swung the first punch, he didn't seem to want to fight either. Something must have changed, and that something must have been whatever Sun Hi had talked to him about. There was a real explanation here, but obviously Ji Hoo did not care about that.

Woo Bin decided to bring up something he would care about. "Ji Hoo, you know Sun Hi has tried to commit suicide before."

"I said do not mention that name."

"What makes you think she won't do it again? What makes you think you didn't provoke her to try in the future? Hye Rim is keeping watch over her, but how long can she do that for?"

"Suicide?" Yi Jeong asked. It must've hit a sore spot with him because he glared at Ji Hoo now. "Yah! How could you have kicked her out, knowing she was capable of this?"

Ji Hoo seemed deep in thought, as deep as he could be with alcohol still coursing through his veins. "She'll be fine. She won't attempt again. She'll just go back home."

"This is not you," Jun Pyo growled. "How can you let this happen to someone you love? You're her protector, not her abuser."

Ji Hoo grabbed a hold of Jun Pyo and stared at him for a long time. "Please, make sure she gets home. Take care of her until she gets home."

The four of them were quiet now, not knowing what to do. Ji Hoo seemed to have decided, Woo Bin thought. Though it was clear he still loved Sun Hi, he had given up on her.


Hye Rim dreamed that they were on the beach again, all eight of them together. They were all watching the sunset, their faces basking in the light of it while they laughed and awaited their futures. There was a feeling of completeness, a feeling she had never truly felt before. It was a dream she did not want to wake up from.

She did wake up however, and when she woke up, Sun Hi was not in the bed. At first, Hye Rim was not alarmed. She checked the bathroom and then slowly began checking each room when Sun Hi wasn't found. 'Slowly' turned into 'frantically' as she called out the girl's name throughout the house and continued searching. Woo Bin was nowhere to be found either. When Hye Rim sent him a text, he replied that he was visiting Ji Hoo with the rest of the F4. Sun Hi was not with him.

Before she broke down, Jan Di and Ga Eul arrived at the house. Woo Bin had called them over to help with Sun Hi before he had left.

"Unnie, please help me. I can't find Sun Hi. She was really sick last night after the break up." Hye Rim was breathless when they entered.

"She's missing? Ottoke!" cried Ga Eul. "You don't think she'll try to hurt herself again, do you?"

"You've seen the marks too, Unnie?"

"Nae. I saw them when we were at the beach."

"Have you looked—" Jan Di began to ask, but Hye Rim confirmed that she had.

"Ji Hoo sshi kicked her out, and she has nowhere to go! Unless she went to your house, or yours Ga Eul Unnie," Hye Rim explained.

"I don't think she would come to our houses," said Ga Eul. "But she has to have gone somewhere."

"Back to the country?"

"No," said Jan Di quietly. "If she still has an ounce of hope left, I think I know where she is."


The three of them arrived at the porridge place. To Hye Rim's surprise, Sun Hi was standing behind the counter in her apron, looking miserable and sickly.

"Sun Hi!" Hye Rim approached her. Jan Di and Ga Eul followed. "What are you doing here?"

Sun Hi shuffled about like a robot. "I'm working." She sneezed loudly and squeezed out tears as if the sneezed had caused her pain.

"Sun Hi," said Jan Di gently, "you shouldn't be here. You'll get the customers sick. Come to my house. Get some rest. "

"No," the girl replied. "I need to work. Dr. Yoon got me this job."

"Dr. Yoon is a fool," sneered Hye Rim.

Sun Hi glared at her. "Unnie, please don't say that about him. Please. He's not a fool, I am!" She burst into fresh tears and caught the attention of some of the customers. "I'm so unlucky."

"Take her to the car," Ga Eul whispered to them, blocking the customers' view of them consoling the girl. "I'll serve everyone the rest of her shift."

"Ga Eu—" started Jan Di, but Ga Eul waved it off.

"You remember what it was like," she told Jan Di, loosening the straps of Sun Hi's apron. "We once felt unlucky, when it came to them. We had to do it alone, but we need to make sure she doesn't."

Hye Rim asked no questions. She helped Sun Hi take off the apron and handed it to Ga Eul, who slipped it over her clothes. She then guided Sun Hi out the door, allowing the girl to lean into her arm and cry. She hadn't realized it but Jan Di was on her heels, helping to open the car door and help Sun Hi inside. Hearing what Ga Eul had just said made Hye Rim feel guilty. She had never felt true heartbreak when it came to Woo Bin. In the beginning, when she was against marrying him, she certainly felt unlucky. Even then, however, she had no idea what it felt like losing the one you loved.

She watched from the driver's seat as Sun Hi cried into Jan Di's shoulder. Jan Di only made eye contact with Hye Rim once and afterwards, seemed to be in a distant memory of her own. An unlucky memory.

Hye Rim would never know what it would be like to step into the heels of those girls. Jan Di, the poor daughter of a dry cleaner marrying into the wealth and power of Shinwa. Ga Eul, a regular girl in love with a man who was an artist of women before he admitted his love to her. And now a young girl named Sun Hi, crying over the one person who gave her shelter, dreams, and his deepest love only to take it away.

It was the first time Hye Rim saw them for who they really were, understood why the F4 had chosen them out of girls like herself, rich, pompous, and unappreciative. They were the only girls who could love them for who they really were. Then there was Woo Bin, the one guy who began to love her for who she really was.

She vowed silently to herself that she would not just protect Sun Hi, but Jan Di and Ga Eul too. And Woo Bin. She would cherish him more for being the man she didn't deserve.

A/N: Ji Hoo and Sun Hi are both in a lot of pain. When Ji Hoo is in pain, I think he becomes cold and withdrawn. I think he's at a point where he's just given up and he's doing what's called self-sabotage. Anyway, look for another chapter next week! "2 more" to go.