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After the most awkward situation a human being could ever suffer through, Juhyun finally left his house. When she turned to him so she could close his front door behind her, she was crying.

God.

He'd never meant to hurt her. Never. However, it would be wrong to pretend he still had feelings for her when it was simply that he just missed her presence. It was super unfair for Juhyun to profess her pent up feelings for him not even a week before she was due to be wed! For the first time, Kyungsoo actually felt sorry for his old friend.

He told her strictly that he was no longer interested in rekindling a relationship with her. That night was full of tearful confessions. When Juhyun left at midnight, Kyungsoo found it hard to stop himself from tearing up — it was honestly difficult but relieving to have poured his heart out to her.

Kyungri was due to be in his care for another week in six hours and Kyungsoo was chuffed. He managed to convince his manager to let him leave early to pick her up from school and surprise her. He'd finally have someone to be with at home instead of eating cartons of ice cream and rewatching stupid chickflick movies. The amount of ice cream he was consuming was beginning to have a detrimental effect to his health — he swore everytime he had something cold it triggered an automatic brain freeze.

Ara, on the other hand, was cool, calm and collected. She finally got her last assignment from her professor due for the next time she came back to university. It was a long essay in preparation for the twenty thousand word dissertation that would determine whether her three years in university were actually worth it. No pressure, though.

"You'd better take so many photos," Mira threatened as she dropped Ara off near her neighborhood since she was running out of gas fast. Mira just garnered her driving license, going quite crazy by driving and picking up her friends everywhere. "If you don't, I'll kill you."

"Will do," Ara winked in response as she hauled her lazy self out of the pine cone smelling vehicle. "Love you!"

As Mira backed away from the curb, she screamed a, "love you too," from the distance. Grinning, Ara stumbled her way through the park she remembered strolling around with Kyungsoo a few days back. She slung her monster of a bag over her poor shoulder, kicking crunchy leaves in the process as she walked peacefully through the park.

Her sister and Mom were due to arrive from Busan by train at eight in the evening and Ara's job was to pick them up from the station since it was a reasonable distance from her own apartment. It would be the first time in ages that Lia visited Ara from Seoul as it was practically a mission to get her older out of her house in the first place.

With wearing the new dress, her and Taeyeon's special hair and makeup appointment tomorrow and the actual wedding, Ara's mind was frazzled with so much to do. She was beyond excited to finally do her hair and look less like a hobo than usual, but she also wished deep down inside that she wasn't actually invited and that she could just go about her everyday life. Boring, yes, but it was comforting. Unlike many people, Ara enjoyed routine and staying consistent.

She bustled through the park soundlessly whilst observing the old couple strolling peacefully, the woman with her dog running amok and...Juhyun?

The smartly dressed woman stomed through the park, displacing leaves in the process, and caught up to the confused Ara. "I need to speak to you! Why didn't you reply to my calls?"

"Your calls?" She fumbled into her pocket to produce her useless phone. Turning it on, it showed a bunch of missed calls from Juhyun herself. She turned her head back to the latter, wanting to erase herself from the situation. "Oh! My phone was on silent, I'm sorry. What's up anyways?"

"I was going to fetch you from your university! It's serious," Juhyun huffed to Ara's sheer bewilderment. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Her eyes widened as Juhyun's pupils dilated from pure anger. "Tell you what? Huh? Let's just go straight to my place to calm it all down. I'm going home anyways."

"No! I'm not going anywhere with you," the wife–to–be shrieked back as Ara attempted to grasp her arm gently. "And you call yourself my friend. I can't believe you."

"Juhyun, please tell me what I did!"

Ara was perplexed at the situation. She was so puzzled at why Im Juhyun was screwing at her in the evening where she just returned from a hectic day at university. The last thing she wanted was a cryptic reason to be shouted at.

She let out a sharp sigh, the sound painful to Ara's ears. "If you're going to act so clueless, you didn't tell me about your relationship!"

"Relationship?"

That word was very foreign to the university student. It wasn't a word she was personally aquainted to since her gruelling breakup years back. Her confusion seemed to fuel Juhyun's anger further. The older clenched her fists, filled with hostility and fury — ready to dump it all onto the innocent girl.

"You didn't tell me about your relationship with Kyungsoo!" She deadpanned, Ara blanching in shock. She wasn't aware of it either. "Because he certainly had a lot to say about it!"

"Such as?"

"That it actually exists!"

Juhyun was screaming now, garnering attention from the fellow park users as she continued to scold Ara with no shame. The latter felt embarrassed, astonished and a little teary. She wasn't someone who's actually been shouted at in her whole twenty–one years of living, and it wasn't a good feeling. Especially because she didn't know about it.

She began to backtrack on everything Kyungsoo placed onto her. "Look, Juhyun—"

"Don't look, Juhyun me! You were meant to be a friend to me and you did this! He's my ex–husband, therefore as a friend you know not to date him! You're a sick excuse of a friend, you know that? I actually feel disgusted to be in your presence—"

"—what's happening?"

To make the whole situation more pleasant than it already was, standing hand in hand with Kyungri was Do Kyungsoo.

—

With Juhyun escaping to the confines of her own home, Ara was sat in her apartment with a stony face and tears still yet to drop. She was upset; Im Juhyun gave her the worst shouting at when her own wedding was tomorrow and Ara was worried her invitation was revoked. That would be terrible due to the fact that her family were on their way to Seoul today! She was also beyond angry at Kyungsoo for causing all of this. If he hadn't shut his mouth about her, this would've all been nicely avoided.

Kyungsoo told me you're mad at him. He's also told me to go pick up your family at the train station, so leave it all to me! Now go sort whatever rift you have with Kyungsoo because you two can't fight! You're meant to be our rolemodels!

Ara couldn't help but grin at Taeyeon's cute message, mentally noting to herself to give her a huge hug for saving her a boring bus trip to the train station.

On cue, the door knocked. Ara stood up from her seat to open the door and revealed a remorseful Kyungsoo. He held a plate covered in cling film in his hands, and it seemed to contain a cake in the middle. Although Ara could do with some cake, she was pissed.

When it yet again dawned on Kyungsoo that one of the kindest people in the world was angry at him, his heart sunk. "Can I come in?"

Ara opened the door slightly, not as happy as usual, but not completely cold to his relief. She watched his figure move to the sofa and place the delicious looking cake on the coffee table before him. Standing near the door with not a slighest grin on her usually smiley face, she clasped her hands together.

"Before I start blaming you unreasonably, I'm going to give you some time to explain," she began sharply, Kyungsoo cringing at her unfriendly tone. Not once in his life did he ever expect to see her this mad. "So explain."

"Thank you," he uttered first and as sincere as he could. The only thing he wanted to do was to beg for her forgiveness. The last thing he ever wanted to do was to hurt her — but that's all he had seem to have achieved. "I didn't expect all of this to happen. Juhyun's never been the mature type, yet I thought better of her. And I'm totally willing to call her up and clear this all up because you did absolutely nothing. It was all me."

"What exactly did you tell her?" Ara challenged with a quirk of her eyebrow and a glint of curiosity mixed in with annoyance in her shining eyes.

Kyungsoo remembered everything he told Juhyun, but telling Ara seemed to be the hardest thing he's ever done. Well, after the whole looking after his daughter thing. But right now there wasn't time for cutting corners and saving his own ass in the expense of his neighbor, it was time for coming clean.

"I actually told her how much I liked you," he admitted to Ara's shock. After what Juhyun said, she had a small flavor as to what she was talking about, but it coming out of his mouth now was something a whole lot different. She stood there at her door without a single word in response. A little ounce of him hoped that she would reciprocate his budding feelings, but that was too much to ask. Ara was too perfect for someone like him.

He suited people with existing problems: people who needed a hand to hold, an ear to listen. For the first time he met someone who promised to do the same for him, and he's lost her already.

"Kyungsoo..." she began, unable to say anything but that.

"N—no, I get it," he frowned before standing up. "I shouldn't of hoarded you with my feelings."

She strode towards him, her mind swarming with conflicting thoughts and feelings. "It's not that and you know it."

"Then what is it?"

"I'm done! With everything!" Ara equally screamed back, letting out all of the pent up feelings she held from the rude Im Juhyun onto her next door neighbor who seemingly threw her under the bus. It was sad and she knew she'd regret it, but it had already been unleashed. "Firstly, I have to deal with your sad, jealous ex–wife who can't seem to get her nose out of my business. Secondly, I'm still mourning! The last thing I want is to be bombarded with other stupid, trivial issues that I'm not even aware of. Thirdly, I've just started my period and I have the worst cramps ever. So today's really not my day."

Ignoring Ara's last problem, Kyungsoo decided to forget that one as the first two were her main problems with him. He felt guilt wash over him, the pain of adding Juhyun to her stress let alone his was definitely unfair.

"I'm sorry, okay—"

"—please, just go," she concluded with her voice not amounting over a whisper. "Thank you for the cake, but I just need some time alone. See you tomorrow."

Instead of fighting against this, Kyungsoo accepted defeat and left.

What hurt more than anything was she didn't stop his figure from leaving the house once. Instead she watched. To Kyungsoo it seemed like her simply not liking him the same way his heart pounded extra fast for her, but little did he know thatAra was hurting so much more than him.

He felt like throwing his small self into the bottom of a ditch. Maybe a cliff edge. Or the bridge stretching through a wide body of river. Entering the confines of his home where Kyungri was fast asleep on the sofa, he recieved a text.

If you're not busy, come over to my place.

Kyungsoo thought about it for a while before realizing he couldn't leave his daughter at home alone. Being at Ara's place was different, he was literally yards away, but across the neighborhood was too risky.

Can't, sorry. I've got a daughter, remember?

Then I'll come over to yours! (: See you in a bit.

He frowned at the message. What was so important for him to come over? Especially at this dark time. Sitting beside his snoozing child, he watched a few sitcoms whilst opening a bottle of strong vodka in order to forget the day.

The door knocked, Kyungsoo drowsily moving to open it to revealing Jongdae and Choi Yuna. Their hands were interlinked, her eyes boring into Kyungsoo's intensely as her lips jerked upwards to reveal a sultry grin. The black hair she usually sported was replaced with an ashy brown.

"I hope you don't mind us coming over," Jongdae smiled as the pair entered the apartment beside each other. Kyungsoo minded, alright.

But he bit his irritation with a shake of his head. "No, of course not. Just make sure you're not too loud. Let me just take Kyungri back into her room."

After carrying the sleeping child and safetly placing her light body onto her bed, Kyungsoo returned to the living room where the two sat on the sofa watching the TV show that was on.

"So...what made you guys come?" He questioned once sitting down himself. It was the first time he'd seen Yuna in a year after her and Jongdae's previous breakup. Seeing her vicious face again made him feel disgusted.

Turning to his sickly sweet girlfriend, Jongdae flushed. "Yuna missed you. It was all her idea."

"Yeah, it's been so long since we've last seen each other!" She added, her calm voice sounding like death to Kyungsoo's ears. "I didn't want my problems with Jongdae to affect our friendship. I'm just glad we can be friends again."

We were never friends, Kyungsoo thought. "That's nice to know."

"I know I had a bad reputation," Yuna began clearing her name to the uncaring man who just wanted to fall into eternal slumber at that moment in time. "I've messed up real bad. But I'm different now, I think — no, I know — that Jongdae is the one for me."

Kim Jongdae's grin came into light as he clutched his girlfriend's hand tightly. "I feel the exact same."

Kyungsoo wanted to throw up. "Okay...this moment's cute and all, but all I just want to do, in the kindest way possible, is be alone right now. Is that too much to ask?"

Jongdae seemed to have understood, but Yuna's unmistakeable frown on her face proved that she didn't quite. To Kyungsoo's bewilderment, she didn't have a go at him. Instead picking up her belongings and accepting the cue to leave.

"I'll see you at the wedding," her voice dripped falsity, disguised with honey. "Have a good evening."

When the door slammed close, Kyungsoo finally let out a breath of relief. Finally, he could be alone. Returning back to the sofa, he realized that being alone unleashed all of the pent up thoughts and feelings he hid with the visitation of Jongdae and Yuna. Namely his relationship with Ara.

While he was cringing in every sort of way, the sound of small feet padding onto the cold wooden floor caught his attention. Kyungri, tired from sleep, edged towards her father whilst rubbing her eyes. She held onto a stuffed bunny that was a gift for her second birthday — Chanyeol's.

The first thing she did was situate herself between his legs, now looking up at him. "Daddy?"

Kyungsoo sighed, picking up his daughter and placing her tiny self onto his lap. "Why are you not asleep? I thought I put you in bed."

"I'm scared," she whispered shakily. "I heard loud things from the hall. Is Ara okay?"

For a young child of merely three, she was attentive. Whether this was a curse or a blessing was yet to be decided. Kyungsoo shook his head. "Don't worry about her, she's fine. Now let's get you back to sleep."

He carried the small girl straight back into her bedroom and tucked her in once she climbed back onto her bed. He was still quite intoxicated from drinking more than half of the vodka bottle, but seeing his daughter so worried sobered him up. Sucking her thumb, she gripped his shirt.

"Can you sing to me?" She requested in her exhausted, pleading voice that melted Kyungsoo's ice heart. It also brought back memories; the days when he was actually satisfied with life, married and happy, singing his lovely daughter to sleep every night without fail. Nowadays, she was lucky if he even gave her a kiss goodnight.

Kyungsoo took up the request and sat himself down at the end of the bed. "Of course, sweetheart."

That night, while Kyungri was dozing into a peaceful slumber, Do Kyungsoo drunkenly sung away his miseries and sorrows in an attempt to forget, yet treasure, the memories.

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