.

“No, no… Why are you talking like that?” Ban Yeo Ryung cried in a tearful voice. “I… I prefer remembering you. That’s what I want to do just like you.”

Rubbing my cheek, I uttered, “Without you, Yeo Ryung, I couldn’t stand any longer.”

“Me too, Donnie,” replied Ban Yeo Ryung, then she almost wept over the phone.

It slightly bewildered me, but shortly after, tears also sprang to my eyes.

“Ban Yeo Ryung, I’m sorry.” With a pause, I continued, “The reason why I didn’t tell you that a part of my memories is lost… it isn’t because that I hate you. If I confess the truth, I was afraid you would also see me as a stranger or don’t like me anymore…”

Unlike before, words came out of my heart so fluently. It was possible since I finally had faith that Ban Yeo Ryung wouldn’t hate me regardless of the situation.

Anyway, as Yoo Chun Young did, Ban Yeo Ryung also liked the current version of me. Even if her memories of myself before thirteen were different from what she actually knew, Ban Yeo Ryung wouldn’t dislike me.

She also uttered, “Why would I hate you? Silly… You don’t know how I feel…”

“No, you’re the one who doesn’t know it. I really like you with all my heart,” I cut her off.

“You think I’m not? I love you more!”

In the end, we began to desperately confess our feelings for each other like a couple who fought for the first time ever since they started dating.

Yoo Chun Young, beside me, stared at us with an indescribable look on his face. That was when a thought entered my head. To think of it, he had done me a great job to overcome this situation. I gave a thumb up to him.

“Thanks. I was able to realize my true feelings because of you,” I praised him in a dignified voice.

Looking a bit pale, Yoo Chun Young murmured, “It wasn’t to remind you something like that though…”

At that moment, the small cafe door was flung open with a cheerful bell sound. When I turned my head in the direction, Eun Jiho was looking at us, reclining his arm on the door. His platinum blond hair was all tangled up.

Taking the phone slightly away from my ear, I asked, “Eun… Jiho…?”

“Your phone looks fine. Why didn’t you answer the call then?”

As soon I came into his view, Eun Jiho tossed the question. I showed him the phone so that he could take a closer look.

“This isn’t mine. It’s Yoo Chun Young’s. Mine is broken,” I said.

Furrowing his brows at once, Eun Jiho asked, “Broken? How come?”

“I dropped it.”

“… Anyway, dude, we don’t have time for this,” said Eun Jiho. “Hurry.” Dropping that word, he stretched his hand out to me.

After a little thought, I stuck my hand out to him. Holding my hand immediately, Eun Jiho grabbed Yoo Chun Young’s wrist too, who was also standing absentmindedly as if the situation was none of his business. Yoo Chun Young’s brows met in the middle.

He asked, looking displeased, “Why?”

“Hey, aren’t you aware of yourself as a celebrity? How come you’re drinking something in a cafe with a girl?”

“Eek,” I held my breath.

Eun Jiho was right. Now, Yoo Chun Young shouldn’t stay with me alone without having someone else together no matter how long we had been friends or how accidentally we had bumped into each other.

Besides, this cafe was nearby the location where Yoo Chun Young had been shooting just now. There was, of course, a possibility of his fans, who didn’t leave this area yet, having found us staying close together.

I asked, “Did something happen? Was there something on the web?” Being concerned, I added, “… Or on the news?”

“No, not there yet,” he replied, then held his phone out to me.

When his phone screen came into my sight, I was at a loss for words.

My phone did offer some simple internet service, but due to the astronomical price of accessing it, I wasn’t able to use any web browsing options at all. However, as if it didn’t apply to the super-wealthy Eun Jiho, his large phone screen showed Yoo Chun Young’s image on it.

It was obviously a photo taken at the cafe that we’d been staying just now. The warm, orange lighting was shining on Yoo Chun Young’s blue-black hair.

Beside him, there was also me in the picture, but thankfully, most of it was cropped; only my head slightly lowered to the front and my hand holding the glass of juice were shown. Another good thing was that the photo was taken at an angle that had my brown hair covering my entire face. Thus, even my profile face wasn’t revealed in the picture.

Looking at the text written under the photo, I heaved a deep sigh. Oh lord, I knew this would happen.

‘Just a minute ago, Yoo Chun Young was here at our cafe. He ordered a warm orange juice lol I never heard it in my life, but since Yoo Chun Young wanted to have it, I did my best to make it for him.

The girl beside Yoo Chun Young kept talking that she’s an old friend of him, and nothing was going between the two. No one asked about it, but she was desperately explaining their relationship, which looked so cute. I get that, honey, won’t get you wrong lol.’

Perhaps the warm orange juice was likely to impress the server as well. The one bright spot here was that she left her comment about myself confessing the useless information of our relationship––Yoo Chun Young at that moment asked me with his eyes why I was explaining such things for no reason.

Watching my face getting covered with a veil of relief, Eun Jiho detached his lips.

“You guys could have been in big trouble without the following comment. Ham Donnie, you did a great job explaining for nothing. Nice of you, BUT you know that you shouldn’t be sitting there in the first place, huh?”

Haha, I laughed and averted my eyes from Eun Jiho. Narrowing his eyes, he stared at me for a moment, then turned around abruptly.

“Next time, don’t try to follow him even if he’s buying dinner for you,” he asserted.

Yoo Chun Young, walking after Eun Jiho, replied, looking a little disturbed, “Hey? Am I a kidnapper or what?”

In Yoo Chun Young’s point of view, he couldn’t just walk past me since I was revealing quite an odd expression on my face. Thus, he could feel upset seeing Eun Jiho out of the blue and getting treated like a perpetrator for no reason. Well, I also would have not followed Yoo Chun Young earlier unless I had something to talk about.

Eun Jiho did a long stare at Yoo Chun Young, then turned his head. He replied, “You know, she was at risk before because of me.”

His voice sounded surprisingly subdued that it bewildered me for a second.

Still not looking at my side, Eun Jiho kept on speaking, “Besides, you’re now a celebrity, so I’m suggesting both of us keeping some distance with Ham Donnie for her safety.”

“No, please don’t,” I blurted out.

That was when Eun Jiho, quietly walking ahead of us, and Yoo Chun Young, who kept his mouth shut for a while, turned their heads to look in my direction.

I uttered, “Even if staying with you guys can put me in danger, I’m more concerned about both of you putting a distance between yourselves and me and not talking to me anymore.”

Throwing a piercing glance at me, Eun Jiho soon furrowed his brows. It scared me right away.

Yikes, did I make him angry? Well, the kidnapping incident sort of traumatized Eun Jiho, so myself talking about my safety without sensitivity might sound very unpleasant to him.

However, unexpectedly, he didn’t seem to get pissed off. ‘Geez, I truly have no idea about the things that he gets angry over or the point when he explodes…’ I thought.

Eun Jiho slightly knuckled me on the head. He asked, “So, you don’t care it can shorten someone’s life, huh?”

“What the heck are you talking about?” I replied apathetically, avoiding his hand.

Eun Jiho responded, “If you’re in danger, tell people, ‘My life span actually goes along with Eun Jiho’s. Two people’s lives are within me, so please reconsider the situation.’ Get it?”

“Yeah yeah, those people would definitely stop what they’re doing after those words, huh?” I grumbled sarcastically.

Eun Jiho also complained, “Dude, you don’t know how praiseworthy and warmhearted I’m trying to be, huh?”

Unlike his remark, Eun Jiho was grabbing my wrist with a more tightening grip than he did earlier.

In front of my house, Yeo Ryung and Eun Hyung were standing together to welcome me back. Eun Hyung seemed to look surprised at Yoo Chun Young, following faithfully beside me, with his wrist in Eun Jiho’s grip.

“How did you meet them and come here together?”

Looking dumbfounded, Eun Jiho stuck his phone screen out to Eun Hyung just as he did to us before.

“Anyway, it’s only me who’s considering the public eye. All you guys are living in your own worlds…”