Remember When

Where You At, My Love?

"How can you say that I pushed you to Tae-hyung's way?" Woo-jin asked when Somin couldn't speak.

Her mouth opened, closed and opened.

Finally she said, "I heard you guys talking. Remember when I was getting you and Tae-hyung drinks back in your junior year? You were telling him to date me, Woo-jin."

He started laughing bitterly. "I was just joking, Somin. I admitted to him later that I might be a little interested in you." He looked at her with eyes filled with pain. "But then you suddenly confessed to him. And I thought that it was him you were in love with after all. That I had just lost my chance. So I gave in graciously, Somin. I let you go."

She closed her eyes. "Oh, my God."

"You don't know how hard it was." He closed his eyes, pinching his nose. "Whenever I saw you kissing him. Whenever you were in the bedroom with him. I just... Why do you think I dated a lot of girls? I was trying to forget you but it was just so damn hard."

"I never slept with him," she said so softly he almost missed it and his eyes flew open. "There were times when we almost went all the way but somehow... we would always stop." Her wet gaze slid to him. "Because at the back of my mind, I still wished I was with you instead."

Woo-jin's chest tightened. Somin started crying and he gathered her in his arms, holding her tight.

"I messed up," she whispered against his chest, her breath hitching painfully with every sob, each sob burning a hole through him. "I shouldn't have been impatient. I should have known that that was Hara on the balcony. But it was dark and I was just so hurt. Especially when I saw she was wearing your hoodie and you were half-naked."

He buried his face into her hair. "You know how she likes to steal my hoodies, Somin. And I took my shirt off because her son threw up on me."

She stiffened, her head went up and she straightened away from his embrace. "Son?" she asked in shock. "She has a son?"

"It's a long story," he hedged.

She stared at him for a long moment, her gaze narrowing.

Then she shook her head and in a small voice asked, "But why didn't you come to my musical, Woo-jin? Why weren't you there?"

He pulled in breath through his nostrils then sat back. And finally just decided to stop hedging and tell her the truth.

"It was because of Hara too."

**********

"Oppa."

Woo-jin closed his eyes when he recognized the voice on the line. He gritted his teeth then said, "Hara. Why did you call?"

"I... I need your help."

"Again?" Woo-jin moved to go to his closet. He had just got out of the shower when his cell phone rang and registered an unknown number on the display. "Hara, if Dad cut off your allowance again I'm guessing it's because you did something stupid again. What did you do this time? Cut classes again? Stayed out late? Bomb your exams? And whose phone is this?"

"I'm calling from a public phone," she answered once he stopped ranting. She was quiet for a second then blurted out, "I'm pregnant, oppa."

Her answer made his whole body jerk then froze and he stared wide-eyed at the ceiling. "If this is another one of your jokes, Hara, I swear to God—"

"Mom kicked me out of the house, oppa," she whispered with a sob. "She kicked me out without even letting me get my things. I even left my phone. Please talk to them."