EunJu didn't dare lift her head. Damn JiYun! She couldn't believe JiYun leaving her her along with him...JaeWon...she wondered if he was still there.

"Oh God," he whispered. It was her. After 3, or was it 4, months of not seeing her, not talking to her, he couldn't believe it. But what he really couldn't believe was that he hadn't even been able to recognize her. Her hair was longer, yeah, and she was wearing some clothes he had never seen before, but she was still the same EunJu that he had cared for so much. He wondered if he had missed her so badly that he let himself forget her.

EunJu had heard his choked whisper. She remembered all the times that sweet voice had whispered in her ear and all the times that he was there for her...and the times he wasn't. The pain came. She didn't know why she was being tortured like this. She couldn't do it. She couldn't sit here and pretend that everything was okay. For the past four months her life had been a living hell. But it was for the best. For both of them."

"EunJu," JaeWon softly touched her hand.

That touch she had missed so desparately -- she finally had it but not in the way she needed it. She couldn't do anything about that now. It was her choice and for the better. She finally raised her head.

JaeWon inhaled sharply. She was so beautiful. He couldn't break down now. Not after blocking himself from everyone else so that no one could ever get close to him. He couldn't afford to let his guard down now. It would cause him more pain. He pasted a bright smile on his face. "Hey, EunJu," he said cautiously. "Long time no see."

EunJu smiled also, but her smile was even more fake than JaeWon's. "Yeah, long time no see." she echoed.

"It's really good to see you," JaeWon said sincerely. "I mean, really. How have you been?"

EunJu's smile quivered. She closed her eyes and swallowed. "Good!" she said a little too loudly. She blushed, lowered her voice, and said, "I mean, I'm good. I guess. Um, how are you?"

JaeWon could feel EunJu through her words. She was hurting as much as he was. Why did they ever have to break up? He knew they were meant for each other...and so did she. He didn't understand it. But did he want to put himself out there again for her just to hurt him once more? He wasn't sure. "Seriously, EunJu, I'm not doing so well. I guess, what I really mean to say is... I don't know." He said in a rush. He caught himself and willed himself to calm down. "I really missed you."

EunJu could feel herself slowly melting. She wanted to be with him more than anything else in the world. "Yeah?" she whispered.

He caught both of her hands in his. "Of course," he replied, slowly rubbing her hands in his, just like he always used to. He knew it now, EunJu was everything he wanted.

"Me too..." she whispered, losing herself in his touch.

"How's your mom? And your job?"

"She's better, she's... doing real well, and my job, well --"

Ring, ring!

"Oh!" JaeWon said, taking out his cell phone. "Just a minute, EunJu." he said to her. "Hello?... Yeah... Uh-huh... oh really... ok I'll be rite there!" He clicked off his phone and turned back to EunJu. "Listen, EunJu, I'm really sorry, but I gotta go. How about we meet up somewhere later? We have a lot of catching up to do."

Watching JaeWon, EunJu was reminded again why she broke things off with him. No, this wouldn't work, not now, not ever. "No." she said loudly, startling even herself.

"What?" a confused JaeWon asked, a sense of dread creeping over him.

"I...I can't..." EunJu's voice cracked. "I can't do this, oppa. I... I just remembered why this just doesn't work between us... I gotta go." With that, she jumped out of her chair and quickly disappeared into the crowds, leaving JaeWon stunned and more hurt than he was before.

*Chapter 27

WooHyuk and YooRa were once again, left alone to work on the dances. WooHyuk closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. YooRa's arrogance and bossiness was really annoying him, as usual. She was constantly nagging, nagging, nagging, as if all her complaints were all WooHyuk's fault.

"Would you shut up??" he finally snapped. "You complain so damn much, why don't you try fixing the problem instead of telling me about it? Don't you think I already know?"

YooRa narrowed her eyes. "Don't talk to me like I'm one of your groveling fans, cuz I'm not,"

"Oh, don't worry, I would never treat my fans the way I treat you," replied WooHyuk.

"Don't you ever forget who I am, Jang WooHyuk!"

"Ooh, she uses my full name," WooHyuk said sarcastically. "How could I ever forget, with you always nagging it into my brain? Kim YooRa, the dance genius from that American school, Juilliard, the prodigy, the one in a million. Pshhhh... let me ask you a question that I never did ask before... if you were so great there and you loved it and everyone was a thousand times better than anything here, why the hell did you leave and come here to bother me? Huh? You tell me that!"

YooRa flushed as WooHyuk's words hit a nerve. She willed herself to calm down, but tears came to her eyes, anyway. Fixing her glassy eyes on the floor, she whispered, "I don't have to explain anything to you..."

WooHyuk, heated and furious a second ago, now was fully concerned. Obviously, he had touched on a really sensitive subject. Why, were those tears in her eyes? Immediately remorseful, he apologized to her. "You're right, I'm sorry for asking,"

"I have to go to the bathroom," she said, and briskly walked away.

She returned a few minutes later, acting as if nothing had happened. She picked up her dance, as well as the fighting with WooHyuk. WooHyuk, relieved that nothing major was wrong with her, gladly participated in the fighting, carefully avoiding the subject that had unexpectedly broke down YooRa's tough exterior a moment ago.

Tony picked up the phone to call YooRa, then put it back down. He didn't want JiYun to pick up. It would make things even worse. "Aish." He said. "Screw it!" He dialed the numbers confidently.

Ring, Ring!

"Hello?" JiYun answered the phone cheerfully.

Tony cursed to himself. "Hello?" he reluctantly said.

JiYun's tone turned stone cold. "YooRa's not here." she said shortly, then hung up.

Tony sighed, and hung up the phone. How did things get so twisted? He wished everything would go back to the way it used to be. He missed JiYun. He missed KangTa. And it killed him to see them together. YooRa didn't even seem to care that much about him, and truthfully, he didn't really care much about her, either. He had fun with her, sure, but things weren't the way they were supposed to be in a relationship.

Ring Ring!

Tony nearly fell off his chair, he was so startled. Recovering quickly, he answered the phone with a muffled hello.

"Tony!" blared YooRa's voice. "It's me! Can you come pick me up rite now? I'm at the YunSubShil... and make it fast! Please, take me away from WooHyuk! He's driving me crazy!"

"What? She's driving me crazy!" Tony heard WooHyuk say in the background.

"QUICKLY, TONY!"

"Tony!" WooHyuk's voice carried through. "Hurry up and pick her up! Please! Relieve me! Save me!"

Tony sighed. Those two...they either hated each other, or loved each other. He chose the first, not even bothering to think about the second. It couldn't be possible. "YooRa, I'll be there in five minutes."

*Chapter 28

The practice today was more calm than usual, noted HeeJun. He was finally satisfied with the way things were going. The last WooHyuk and YooRa dispute, number 3501, was solved by HeeJun as usual by combining WooHyuk and YooRa's ideas and smoothing them out. They were putting the finishing touches on their dance now -- it was almost performance level.

YooRa, too, was pleased. "See, WooHyuk, if you had listened to me in the first place, we wouldn't have wasted all this time... it would have been this good way sooner!"

WooHyuk bristled. "If I had listened to you? You should have listened to me!"

HeeJun groaned. He had spoken too soon. "Come on, guys. Can we please have one practice peacefully?? I'm so tired of hearing you guys go at it all the time... aren't you guys sick of it yourselves?"

WooHyuk and YooRa looked at each other disdainfully. "Sorry," they both muttered to no one in particular.

"One more time, guys," HeeJun said encouragingly. "Then we can all go home. Oh, and JaeWon? I need to talk to you before your leave today."

JaeWon looked up, surprised. He exchanged looks with the other members, shrugging his shoulders. He had no idea what HeeJun wanted to talk to him about.

Practice was finally over... and HeeJun had lied! They had done the dance at least six more times. Everyone had packed up their belongings and left the practice room except for WooHyuk. He was experiencing some pain in his back and he thought that he could loosen it up a little by stretching.

"Why are you still here?" YooRa's voice pierced through the silence of the room.

WooHyuk grimaced. "It's my practice room, I think I should be the judge of when to leave."

"Why are you stretching?"

"Are you still talking, YooRa?"

"Haha," YooRa sarcastically replied. "That stretching's gonna hurt your back, you're putting an awful lot of stress on it."

WooHyuk stopped and stood up, his full height towering over her. "Listen, YooRa. This is my body, and I have a feeling I may know a tiny bit more about it than you do. Stay out of it, and just go away!"

"WooHyuk, I might actually know something that you don't in these areas. What, does it hurt your stupid male ego pride that my extent of knowledge is far greater than yours?"

"This has nothing to do with my pride," WooHyuk said with clenched teeth. "Just my sanity."

YooRa leaned in closer. "Face it, WooHyuk, I'm right more times than you care to admit!"

Both pair of eyes were fired up with as much passion as anger. In that split instant, their emotions spilled over as WooHyuk roughly pulled YooRa towards him. YooRa eyes never wavered one bit, the fire burning steady.

"No." he said evenly. "I'm right."

"No," YooRa countered. "I'm -- " her words were swallowed into a surprised "o" as WooHyuk slowly leaned in and placed his lips on hers.

*Chapter 29

JaeWon nervously packed his bag while waiting for HeeJun...he couldn't help being a little nervous, HeeJun never wanted to talk to him like this before.

"JaeWon ah!" HeeJun called ,smiling.

"Oh! Hyung!" he said, relieved that HeeJun wasn't all serious. "So... what's up?"

"Let's talk somewhere else," HeeJun said, pushing JaeWon in front of him. "Do you want to go for a walk somewhere, or sit down at a cafe?"

The two ended up sipping iced cappuchinos in a quiet cafe down the street. JaeWon, grateful he had something to hold onto, clutched his cup tight and never looked up from his drink.

"JaeWon," HeeJun started. "I want you to be honest with me, in whatever we talk about today, ok?"

"I guess," JaeWon mumbled. He knew HeeJun was going to talk about EunJu. Maybe HeeJun was right, he should tell the truth. Who knew? It could even help him.

"I think you already know what I'm going to ask about."

"We broke up, hyung."

"I figured that part out... by the way you were acting, though. Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you. And I thought we were your best friends." HeeJun looked slightly hurt.

"I just...I just couldn't really deal with it. I mean, I didn't want to break up with her. I love her. I guess I was just trying to ignore it, just pretend it never happened, something. I don't know, and I'm sorry for not telling everybody, but I really didn't want to talk about it."

"I understand... but why did you guys break up? I thought things were going great."

"It's my fault...she says that I'm too busy for her, that I don't have time to be there for her because of this stupid gasoo thing." He laughed bitterly. "I never dreamed that I'd have to give up someone I love for something I love...like a trade off... why can't things ever be the way you want it to be?"

HeeJun sympathetically eyed JaeWon. "Hey, don't lose all faith... sometimes it is perfect but, you just have to wait out all the bad times...besides, you can have love while doing this thing. If you and EunJu are really meant to be together, then you will be."

JaeWon sighed. "I guess we aren't then, cuz there's no changing her mind. I saw her a couple of days ago, too, and... it hurts so much. She won't give it another chance."

HeeJun sighed too. His little JaeWonie... all grown up and going through these love problems. He wished he could help, but didn't know how.

Ring, ring!!

JaeWon distastefully looked at his cell phone. "This is the thing that got me in trouble in the first place," he told HeeJun. "Yeah, what?" he answered.

"JaeWon oppa?" tearfully asked a voice.

JaeWon instantly was fully alert, aware that something was wrong. "EunJu?? What? What's the matter??"

"I'm at the hospital -- "

"What?? What happened? Are you all right?" JaeWon asked, alarmed.

"I'm fine, but, but -- " EunJu took a deep breath. "It's my mom..." her voice broke. "I need you right now, oppa, I need you so bad... could you come to the hospital?"

"I'll be right there."

"What?" HeeJun asked, also concerned. "Is EunJu okay?"

"Yeah, it's her mom, but EunJu needs me. Hyung, can you drive me to the hospital?"

"Sure, no problem." HeeJun said.

JaeWon hurriedly paid for their drinks and left the cafe. This was the one time he really was going to be there for his EunJu, no matter what.

*Chapter 30

YooRa's defense melted away as she unconsciously responded to WooHyuk's kiss. She was blissfully falling, falling, falling...into a world where she never wanted to escape from, as everything bad in her mind was erased...all by this wonderful guy named WooHyuk. Wait... WooHyuk? WOOHYUK!! YooRa's eyes popped open as she realized what she was doing.

"Ack!" She sputtered, horrified. "Get away from me!!" She pushed WooHyuk away from her with all her strength. "Why in hell did you do that for??"

WooHyuk couldn't believe this happened, either. "I...I..." he stuttered. "I don't know, okay? That was as much a surprise to me as it was to you." he said, wringing his hands.

"What?" YooRa screeched. "What the hell are you talking about? You're the one that kissed me!!"

"Well you didn't exactly pull away." WooHyuk replied dryly.

YooRa blushed hotly. He was right, she didn't pull away. And she was embarrassed to admit why...she had liked the kiss, more than she could ever admit. How could anything coming from a guy like WooHyuk feel so good? She couldn't understand it. And she couldn't let WooHyuk know it...she could never let this happen again! Or else, there was no telling what could happen.

WooHyuk softened at YooRa's distraught expression. "Look..." he began. "I'm sorry if my kiss offended you -- "

"Your kiss?? Hey, don't take all the credit for it, I kissed you back!"

WooHyuk rolled his eyes. Distraught or not, she was still incredibly annoying. "Okay then. Doesn't that prove right there that the kiss meant something to both of us? Come off your tough act, YooRa...we've been attracted to each other since day one."

YooRa clapped her hands over her ears. "Nope!! No, no no no! How can I possibly be interested in someone like you? We can't stay in the same room for two seconds before we start fighting! You are seriously maddd tripping, WooHyuk! Let's just forget this thing ever happened... please!! And not ONE word of it to Tony."

WooHyuk threw up his hands. Maybe she was right. How could he possibly have thought that he was attracted that annoying specimen? "Fine!" he said angrily. "Just forget it, like you said, YooRa, forget everything!!" He grabbed the rest of his belongings and stormed out of the practice room, slamming the door behind him. YooRa later heard him bang things in the practice room.

"There's no need for violence!" she shouted, still mad at herself for even coming into this predicament.

WooHyuk's face popped back into the room as soon as he heard her comment. "You know what, YooRa, for once in your life, could you please shut up with your commentary on everything? I don't need your stupid advice...keep it to yourself, no one wants to hear them!" He quickly left before YooRa could prepare a stinging retort.

"Ahhh..." said YooRa, now hopping mad. "That WooHyuk!!!"