A/N: Sorry for the late update, guys. I got married recently, so I've been a bit busy. But I am still working on this story, and there are a few more chapters left to go, so stay tuned! As always, thanks for your support :) Enjoy :)

So it had come to this, Ga Eul thought, as she entered Yi Jeong's old studio. Lamplight shone through the windows into the near-darkness of the empty space where once clay vessels in various unfinished states rested on tables and on the wall-to-wall shelves. Now, the room had been stripped of all such adornments. Tables, chairs, Yi Jeong's potter's wheel—these were nowhere to be seen. She'd heard the place had been renovated in Yi Jeong's absence, but in truth it looked so different—so devoid of the memories of him she'd always kept close to her heart—that she felt herself tearing up already.

They were back to where they had started and yet not where they had started. Not at all.

'Be strong, Ga Eul,' she berated herself. At the moment, she didn't have time for tears. It also wouldn't do for what she was about to say.

She'd been thinking long and hard about it, and she'd decided to let him go. Not because his family scared her—though they did—and not because she felt she'd betrayed him—though she had—but because she wasn't good for him. No matter how she saw it, she didn't fit into his world, and his world certainly didn't—and wouldn't—make room for her. Perhaps it was fortuitous that he had asked to meet her here. They could end where they had begun.

The door creaked open behind her, and when she turned around Yi Jeong stood there in a black three piece suit, sans tie, his hair disheveled and damp with rain.

"Hi," he greeted her.

"Hi," she replied, shifting nervously in her black heels.

"Don't," she continued when he reached for the light switch. She preferred the darkness for this particular encounter. "I mean...Wouldn't that make it easier for the reporters?"

Or your grandfather.

"You've gotten wiser."

"I hope so...Did you...listen to my messages?"

He nodded.

"Jan Di...She told us what happened with your brother. Are you...okay?"

Her brother? Oh, right. That. As bad as it sounded, she'd tried to push that new information to the back of her mind where she could process it later. One ill fate at a time.

"Yes...Yes, I'm all right now. It...It was really shocking at first, but it explained a lot, I guess. Especially why my father hated Gong Yoo Oppa so much...Speaking of"—Ga Eul lowered her voice and looked at her shoes—"Sunbae, you have to know that I don't remember that night hardly at all. I would never...knowingly...I mean...I would never want to hurt you in any way. Ever."

"I know."

When she looked up, Yi Jeong's expression remained calm, perhaps too calm, but still he did not approach her.

It was better this way. She didn't need him so close she could breathe him in or lean forward just to fall back into his arms.

"You do?" she croaked.

"I know. I know you'd never intentionally hurt me."

That's not true. All I do is hurt you.

"I'm not...angry with you. If anything, I'm angry at the bastard who kissed you and more angry at the bastard who took the picture."

"But...you wouldn't talk to me for almost a week. You just...disappeared."

Yi Jeong shifted from side to side in a rare show of nervousness.

"I was...thinking things over and...I think it'd be best if—"

"If we stop here," she finished.

"What?"

"I just..." Ga Eul swallowed down the knot in her throat. "I don't think I can do this any more, Sunbae."

I can't mess things up for you anymore.

"What do you mean? This what?"

"I just mean that...M-maybe you can deal with it. You've grown up with all the publicity. And the criticism. But I just can't do this," The well-rehearsed speech felt foreign on her lips when she said the words out loud.

To him.

"I thought I could," she continued haltingly, "but I just can't. My parents aren't too happy with all of it either."

"So you..."

"I want to break up."

"You...You want to..." His voice wavered in what seemed like disbelief.

"I'm not the girl you thought I was, Sunbae. I'm not even the girl I thought I was. And I just can't." Ga Eul stuffed her shaking hands into her coat pockets and gripped the used tissues buried in them. In the dim light, he couldn't see the tears brimming in her eyes, could he?

"Why?" Yi Jeong stepped closer to her, and suddenly she could see the tiredness in his eyes. "Ga Eul-yang, if this is about those articles, I told you I'd take care of it. I'm making them print a retraction."

"It's not...It's not about that."

"Then what?"

"Sunbae, you were right. I'm just a country girl after all. I don't...want...my whole life to be splashed on the front page of the news. For photographers to stalk me day and night."

"Ga Eul-yang." Yi Jeong took a few more steps until he was almost right on top of her.

"You can hate me for this if you want, but I've made my decision. Here, t-take it," Ga Eul stammered. She held out her engagement ring to him.

He knocked her hand away, and the ring clattered to the floor.

"What are you doing, Ga Eul-yang?"

"Goodbye, Sunbae." She tried to push past him, but he grabbed her wrist and swung her around to back her into the counter behind them. He'd prepared tea for her on that same counter an eternity ago.

"Sunbae, you're hurting me," she pleaded as she struggled to break her wrist free. "Please let me go."

"What did my grandfather threaten you with now?"

"Nothing!" she protested, perhaps a bit too vehemently. "Nothing, I just...Sunbae, please—"

"Not until you tell me the real reason for this!" Yi Jeong urged, gripping her arms.

"I just told you," Ga Eul exclaimed, twisting herself away to no avail.

Yi Jeong let her wrists go and leaned against the counter, putting less space between them even as he released her. Boxed in, Ga Eul could only stare at the wisp of a charcoal thread separating from the collar on his dress shirt.

She couldn't look at his eyes, at the pain she knew she would find there.

He didn't speak for a long time, but when he did, his voice came out chillingly quiet, "Someone once told me that children don't let go of what they want because they know if they do they will cry."

"A child told you that."

"It doesn't matter. No matter how you look at it, when children grow up, they still cry when they lose something they love."

He twisted a few tendrils of her hair around his fingers and combed them off to the side. Trailing his hand down the side of her face to her neck, he cupped her chin.

"Ga Eul-yang."

"Sunbae." Pulling his hand away from her face, she brought it down to his side where she clutched it in her own hand nonetheless.

"You worked so hard in Sweden," she began quietly, "and you were so excited about your exhibition...and...don't you see? This is bigger than you or me. I'd only be pulling you down more if I stay with you. I don't want to ruin your reputation...everything you've worked for. If I thought I would make you miserable, I'd rather not be with you at all."

"Make me...You think you make me miserable? Ga Eul-yang, you're one of the only people in my life who doesn't make me miserable."

"But I—"

"When I first saw that picture of you and Gong Yoo"—he paused and she flinched—"I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty pissed off. I was angry at you for being so stupid and then at my grandfather for having you followed and then at Gong Yoo for taking advantage of you like that. But the more I thought about it, I was mostly angry because there was another guy kissing my girl. I told you I'm not a good guy. I can be as selfish as Jun Pyo when I really want something, and I'm the most selfish guy in the world when it comes to you. Just the thought of another guy touching you, making you laugh"—he let out a heavy breath—"making you cry...It's too much. I won't stand for it. Not unless I'm dead." Taking her other hand in his, he continued urgently, "Do you know what I was most excited about when I came back from Sweden?"

Ga Eul shook her head, threading her fingers through his though the gesture was perhaps too intimate. She didn't care. It was her only anchor in the deluge of emotions threatening to overwhelm her.

"That I'd get to see you every day. That's the thing I wanted most when I was in Sweden. I wanted it even more than I wanted to be a great potter again. And the thing is, if I had to choose between being a great potter and being with you, I'd pick you. Every time."

"Y-you say that n-now, but you—"

"Shhh." Pressing a finger to her lips, he whispered, "I'm picking you."

"What?" she mumbled as he drew his finger back.

A faint glimmer of mischief shone in his dark eyes, boasting equal parts confidence and childishness.

"Sunbae...what did you do?"