reconnection
Jihyo was driving on her way to work when she received a text message from her younger sister.
"Unnie! Father said that we'll have a dinner tonight. Can you come?"
"Hey Seoyeon, why are you texting me at this hour? You should be listening to your teacher now. Let's talk about it later."
"Okay Unnie! Hope to see you later! I miss you already!"
"Yah, i haven't agreed yet if I will be coming."
"The teacher's here gotta go!"
"Good luck on your day, Seoyeon."
Jihyo isn't at the mood yet to meet her father. Their closeness faded when her father told her to stay away from Im Nayeon.
She tried to be the straightest person in the planet as she could be, but, her heart says no to men.
Jihyo is stuck now in the middle of the traffic. Thank god she always leave her place an hour before her working time. She decided to play some music to ease her boredom.
She played "the 1" by Taylor Swift.
"Well, I guess this is my favorite track in her new album. She doesn't ran out of good lyrics, I think it's amazing." Jihyo said while she was relaxing in the driver's seat.
She looked at the left car window and she saw high school students buying something from the convenience store.
"Ah, I miss those days. When me and Nayeon ditch our first class to buy food at the convenience store." Jihyo was smiling as she was remembering those moments.
But, there's something inside of her. Something that reminds her to stop bringing back old memories with someone who isn't with her anymore.
She grabbed their class photo hidden on her car cabinet.
Jihyo remembers something while she is looking at their class photos. She sees her 14 y/o self standing beside Nayeon. Arms on each other's shoulders.
"We were so happy together back then. They thought we were twins because they can't distance us from each other." Jihyo smiles again.
Her smile fades away.
"We used to eat together after class, we used to go to cafes when we're bored, we used to talk about our random shits until midnight, we used to study together, we used to be best buddies, you used to be my ride or die." Jihyo stops.
"Used to."
Those words sting.
She heaves a sigh. The pain comes back. She didn't expect that those words would be able to broke her heart everytime she remembers her ex bestfriend, or should i say the girl that she loved and admired the most for a long time, Im Nayeon.
"No, stop Park Jihyo. This is not the right time to cry, you still have work to do." Jihyo said while she was returning the class photos to her car cabinet.
She looked at the left car window.
She saw someone. Someone who she has been longing for a long time. She can't believe she is staring at Im Nayeon who is standing at the bus stop right now. Her world stopped.
She was about to get out of the car to run where Im Nayeon is standing right now.
The beep of the cars behind her, brought her back to reality. She saw the traffic light, it is now green.
When Jihyo looked at the bus stop where she saw Im Nayeon, she saw nothing.
She heaved a sigh. "I think I need more sleep." Jihyo said to herself and she moved her car forward, she continued driving to work.
"There's no way that's Im Nayeon. She wouldn't ride a bus now. I heard she is now a CEO of a well-known company. She should have her own car by now." Jihyo tells herself, denying the fact that she really saw im Nayeon back in Seoul again.
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I thought I saw you at the bus stop, I didn't though.
___________________________________________________
Jihyo finished her workload a bit earlier today. She decided to message Jeongyeon.
Park hyomas
hey jeongie
Yoo
oh hey park what's up?
Park hyomas
wow, you replied a bit faster today, don't you have work?
Yoo
i'm on my break...
so what is it
Park hyomas
Should I go to the dinner with my dad?
Yoo
Why not?
Park hyomas
Seoyeon informed me about it earlier, i don't think i'm in the mood to see my dad...
Yoo
Jihyo, you can't run away from seeing your father all the time, he's still your father no matter what happens.
Park hyomas
ok fine, i'll be going now. Thank you, Jeong.
Yoo
No prob, remember i''m always here.
Jihyo went to the parking to get her car.
When she was about to head to the restaurant, her car acted up.
"Not now please." Jihyo said.
She went out of the car, and took a look at the engine.
"Having problems?" Jihyo a heard familiar voice behind her back.
It was Daniel. Her boy best friend and workmate.
"Oh hi niel, I can't start my car. I don't know what's wrong with it."
"Do you have an important appointment or something? I saw you heading here hurriedly." Daniel asks while he takes a look at the engine.
"Nothing important... it's... just a dinner with... my dad." Jihyo sighed.
"Jihyo, family is important. You haven't seen your dad for a long time right?" Daniel looked straight at Jihyo's eyes.
"Yeah, and I don't think he cares." Jihyo looked away.
"I can take you there, just tell me the address." Daniel offers.
"No, I don't want to bother you. I'll just ride the bus." Jihyo insists.
"Jihyo, you are not a bother. I will help you when you need it, that's what friends are for." Daniel tries to convince Jihyo.
"Ok then, I'll treat you tomorrow. I promise."
"You don't need to, just talk to your father." Daniel smiled at Jihyo.
"But—"
"No buts, let's go now hehe." Daniel opened the door of his car for Jihyo to enter.
They've been quiet for the first 5 minutes pf the ride.
Jihyo broke the silence.
"What if you just join us in our dinner?" Jihyo offers.
"What? No! It's a family dinner, I respect your privacy." Daniel shook his head upon hearing Jihyo's offer.
"You're a family to me too, like what you said, that's what friends are for. So... Please accept my offer" Jihyo said as she is making cute faces for Daniel to agree with her offer.
"Ok fine, stop being cute now I'll go with you" Daniel said after looking away at Jihyo and focused on the road.
"Yes!" Jihyo said cutely as she received victory.
___________________________________________________
(Flashback)
Jihyo and Daniel became very close friends after Jihyo cutted her ties with Nayeon.
Daniel was a new student back then. Jihyo became his first ever friend on this University.
"Hi! Looking for something?" Jihyo asks the boy who looks lost.
"Hello, I'm a new student here. I'm looking for class 1A's room." the boy replied.
"Oh, what a coincidence, I belong to class 1A too!" Jihyo replied.
"That's nice! By the way, my name is Kang Daniel, you can call me Daniel" Daniel said with a smile.
"I'm Park Jihyo, you can call me Jihyo hehe" Jihyo replied.
"Wow, you have the same surname with Mr. Park, He is the one who own this school right?" Daniel asked.
"Actually, he's my dad hehe... unfortunately..." Jihyo said.
"Wow, I didn't expected that. You're the first one who showed kindness to me in this school, I thought the children of the director has an inappropriate attitude, but I was wrong." Daniel said.
"Not just because I am the director's daughter, doesn't mean I don't act appropriately."
"I'm sorry." Daniel said bowing down his head.
"No! It's fine! Shall we go to our class now?" Jihyo offers her hand to Daniel.
"Okay let's go." Daniel replied.
Jihyo grabbed Daniel's hand and they went to their room.
They don't interact that much because Jihyo has a lot of friends and he doesn't want to bother her.
One afternoon during lunch break, Daniel saw Jihyo ok the garden crying.
He doesn't want to invade Jihyo's privacy but he can't stand seeing Jihyo crying like that so he went to ask her what happen.
"Jihyo? Are you okay? Why are you crying?" Daniel asked with a very worried face.
Jihyo didn't say anything. She just hugged Daniel.
Daniel let her cry on his shoulders, he waited for Jihyo to speak.
After crying, Jihyo told Daniel everything.
"I feel sorry for you Jihyo." Daniel said sadly.
"This is life, we can't always get what we want..." Jihyo said while sniffing.
Daniel doesn't know how to respond. Suddenly, some words came out of his mouth.
"I know I can't replace your best friend but, I promise I will be here if you need me. I will always stay beside you."
Jihyo smiled and hugged Daniel again.
"Thank you so much." Jihyo said.
They've been interacting and spending time with each other a lot after what happened.
Daniel became close friends with Jeongyeon too.
Every Saturday, Daniel and Jeongyeon visits Jihyo's house for their group study. They play video games after.
Daniel was a big help for Jihyo to forget Nayeon for a while. But it didn't last.
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After reaching the destination, Jihyo and Daniel went out of the car immediately, they were 5 minutes late because of the traffic.
As she went to the table where she saw her sisters were sitting her father spoke.
"Ah, just in time. Jihyo's here." Mr. Park said.
Jihyo saw two other girls sitting on the table.
She wondered who are those girls.
The two girls stand up and looked at Jihyo.
The girl who was sitting on the right corner turned around. Jihyo froze.
"Long time no see, Jihyo." The girl said with a smile on her face.
It was Im Nayeon.
Daniel was surprised to see Nayeon. He checked on Jihyo if she was okay.
"Jihyo, aren't you gonna greet your friend?" Mr. Park asked.
"It- It's nice to see you again, Nayeon." Jihyo replied while she is trying to hide her nervousness.
"Daniel, you're here too." Mrs. Park said.
"Good Evening, Mr. and Mrs. Park." Daniel replied.
"He drove me here, my car acted up earlier. I was just wondering if he could join dinner with us today as a thank you." Jihyo asked.
"Of course, I'm happy to see you again Mr. Kang." Mr. Park smiled at Daniel.
"Daniel, this is Ms. Im Nayeon, our company partner and this is her friend, Ms. Hirai Momo. They went here from Japan for a business meeting. Ms. Nayeon is also Jihyo's friend back then.
Daniel looked at Jihyo. Jihyo tried her best to smile.
"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Nayeon and Ms. Momo." Daniel said.
Nayeon nodded at Daniel with a smile.
"It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Daniel. Are you Ms. Jihyo's boyfriend?" Momo asked.
"Uhm—" Daniel's words are stopped.
"Yes they are in a relationship." Mr. Park said.
Daniel and Jihyo's eyes widen.
"Let's eat now." Mr. Park suggested.
They started eating. The whole table was quiet.
Mr. Park broke the silence. "I called for this dinner for you to meet each other. We won't talk about business matters tonight. Just catch up with each other. It's been a long time."
"So... Jihyo how you'd been?" Nayeon asks.
"I'm fine. I am enjoying my job." Jihyo answered.
"How about you Ms. Im? How did you established a company?" Mr. Park asked.
For the past hour, all they do is catch up, tell stories like how Nayeon managed to bring her company on top from starting at the bottom.
Momo discussed something about her restaurant back in Japan and telling that their specialty is jokbal.
Jihyo is now feeling a bit uncomfortable so she decided to go to the bathroom. Daniel looked at her as she stood up, Jihyo gave her a look to inform him that she's ok and she can handle herself.
Daniel bowed and smiled at her.
Jihyo went to the bathroom. She locked herself inside the last cubicle. There was no other people on the restroom that time. As soon as she entered the cubicle, tears began to fall from her eyes.
Was there a more hurtful thing than seeing your best friend after a long time living a happy life while you are still broken because of the past?
She's not yet ready to see Im Nayeon.
After all these years, she's still in love with her best friend.
She's been crying so loud for about a minute now. Suddenly she heard splashing of water noises coming from the sink outside.
There's another person inside the restroom. Jihyo stopped crying and she listened to the noise coming from outside.
After a few seconds, the person outside broke the silence.
"Jihyo-yah, you can continue crying you know. I know you're not okay, let it all out." A familiar voice said.
It was Im Nayeon.
"Let it all out." A phrase that Nayeon tells her whenever she is hurt or sad. It became Jihyo's comfort phrase, her healing medicine.
Jihyo froze after hearing those words.
"Jihyo, are you still there? It's just me, Im Nayeon, your best friend, or should I say... your ex best friend?" Nayeon said.
"I know." Jihyo replied.
Jihyo is trying to be strong. She doesn't want to fix things with Im Nayeon because it will cause another chaos. She will fall in love again and her father would do anything to stop her ending up with a woman like her. She doesn't want to feel the pain again, she doesn't want Nayeon to feel the pain again too.
Jihyo wiped away all her tears and she came out of the cubicle as if nothing happened.
She avoided looking at Nayeon's eyes.
"Hi, long time no see. How are you?" Nayeon asked.
"I'm fine. I hope you're having a happy life. I'll go back to the dining table now, goodbye." Jihyo replied as she rushed to the door.
"You're leaving me behind again." Nayeon said.
Jihyo froze.
"Go. That's what you're good at right? Shutting people out from your life without saying a word." Nayeon said bitterly.
Jihyo took a deep breathe and she replied to Nayeon.
She is holding back her tears.
"What do you want me to do? Stay here and waste my time with this nonsense?" Jihyo asked.
"Is fixing things with people nonsense to you?" Nayeon raised her eyebrow.
"We have nothing to fix, if it's already broken leave it. We're just living a life, some people stay, some people don't. There are things that work out and there are things that don't even if you try so many times."
"Now if you may excuse me, I need to go back to the dining table right away." Jihyo said and she grabbed the door knob.
"Running away from people who's trying to fix things with you won't solve anything. If you want to be stuck from the past then I'll let you be, it's your life anyway." Nayeon said.
Jihyo didn't even tried to look back at Nayeon but, she heard all those words.
Jihyo's heart tells her to stay with Nayeon and fix things between them, but her brain tells her to stop and just leave it as it is.
Jihyo gave a forced smile when her parents, sister, Daniel and Momo looked at her.
"Let's go. Please." Jihyo whispered to Daniel.
"We'll be going now Mom, Dad. We still have some cases to study." Jihyo said and she and Daniel stood up.
"You haven't finished your food yet." Mr. Park said.
"It's okay Mr. Park. I'll just drive Jihyo to her dorm and I'll go home too after." Daniel said.
"Okay then. Take care of my daughter." Mr. Park said.
"We need to go now. Thank you for the food. It's nice meeting you Miss Hirai." Jihyo said.
Momo nodded at smiled.
As they're about to leave the table, Nayeon arrived.
Jihyo bowed at Nayeon.
Nayeon did the same.
"It's nice meeting you Miss Im." Daniel said.
"It's nice meeting Jihyo's boyfriend too. Take care of my childhood best friend." Nayeon said with a smile.
Daniel was about to object but Jihyo squeezed his hand.
"I will. Goodbye." Daniel said.
Jihyo and Daniel went to the parking lot and got inside the car.
The whole ride was silent. Just Jihyo sniffing and the sound of the rainfall could be heard inside the car.
"Jihyo, are you okay?" Daniel asked.
"I'm fine. I just... need more time." Jihyo said.
"Oh okay."
"About what my father said, please forget about it. I'm sorry. He just want to show Im Nayeon that I am over her, even though I'm really not." Jihyo said and she bowed down her head.
"It's okay. I understand. I saw how your father looked at me when he said that. It's nothing. I can pretend for you Jihyo. I'm always here. I won't leave." Daniel assured Jihyo.
Jihyo smiled at him.
Daniel has been in love with Jihyo ever since the first time they met. Even though it's hard for him to see that Jihyo is still in love with her best friend who was been away for a long time, he is still there beside Jihyo, he is ready to risk everything for her.
After Daniel brought Jihyo home. She messaged Jeongyeon.
Jeong, I think Jihyo needs someone to talk to right now.
You're together right? Why don't you talk to her?
I think I can't help her... since I didn't saw how she and Nayeon went. It's hard to give advices and comfort someone if you don't know what happened.
Daniel...
Jeongyeon please be there for her.
I'll go to her place after my shift. I will stay there for the rest of the night.
Thank you so much.
That's what friends are for. That dork only needs some of my shitty jokes and pranks. I'll cheer her up.
Ok then, take care.
Daniel is on his way home. Unfortunately, he is now stuck in the middle of a traffic.
While waiting for the cars ahead of his car to move, he open his car cabinet and she took out a picture of him and Jihyo. He remembered everything he and Jihyo went through, also those times when Jihyo was so broken because of Nayeon. Those times when Jihyo was trying to forget and stay away from Nayeon.
Even though Daniel doesn't want Jihyo to go back to the move on process again, he can't do everything because the two girls already saw each other after a few years.
Pain and memories will hurt even more when you thought you already moved on from it but you really don't, one scene together, everything will go back to zero.
"It's heartbreaking to see you like this. I can't even do anything to cheer you up. How can I tell you that I'm in love with you when you are still not over somebody else?" Daniel said while staring at their picture.
Daniel leaned on his seat and whispered something.
"I really like you Jihyo, ever since day one. Nothing would ever change that."
"Just give me chance..."