The Beach Trip (Part 5)

"You have no idea how much I was dying to spend some quality time with my girlfriend!"

Seeing his face so closer to herself she quickly turned back towards the ocean, "Look, how beautiful this is…" She tried to change the topic.

He stood beside her, his arms still wrapped around her waist, "Yes it is…"

"This trip has been really good so far, isn't it?" She said still looking at the ocean.

"Yeah…"

"You know what; it reminds me of our first trip…The hot springs!"

"Yeah, right. When I was in New York, I always used to think about the times we had spent together, especially that trip. We had so much fun."

"The best part was going on that hill!"

"Yes!!!"

"Do you remember how much scared we all were?"

And remembering that time both of them started laughing.

"And….And Jun's face when...when we decided to go up there…."

"Hahahaha!!!"

"That was epic! I never knew that Jun was scared of such things…" Ray said.

While Ray was talking, Mia remembered the memory she had always treasured about that trip and that was her first kiss.

'I wonder why he never mentioned about it ever again….' She thought. 'Is he embarrassed about it?'

"Hey Ray…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember on more thing about that trip? A very special thing?"

"Umm…" He thought for a second. "Oh! You mean the legend about that hill? That story?"

"Umm….It's kind of connected to it…But I'm asking about a memory, an incident, which happened on the top of the hill…."

"On top of the hill? I never reached there!"

"What?"

"Yeah…For the most of the time, I was lost in the jungle…And I never reached the top…." He said scratching back of his head.

"Then who the hell kissed me???" She blurted out.

"What?"

"…."

"Someone kissed you?"

"Please, god don't tell me that was SiWoo…Please…Please…." Mia begged.

"No. SiWoo was with me all the time!"

Her eyes were wide open in surprise since Ray had said that he never reached the top.

"Then…Then…Who was it?"

"That hill was haunted, remember? Maybe you kissed a ghost!" He said jokingly trying to lighten up the mood.

"That's not funny, that's scary!"

"I was just kidding. There is no such thing as ghosts, Mia."

"Yeah but then who was it?"

"Maybe….Maybe you just imagined it…"

"I imagined it?"

"Yeah…Maybe you wanted to happen that so badly that you imagined it and now you think that really happened…."

"What? What are you saying? I am not crazy!"

"No no no. I didn't mean that." He looked at her, she was clearly upset. "Mia…" He called for her. "Why are you getting so much worked up for it? Just forget about that memory…"

"But that was one of my precious memories…"

"We can still make them, you know…" He said as he came closer to her.

Holding her chin he gently turned her face towards himself.

First his eyes wandered over her face and then stopped at her eyes.

She was also looking at him but there was confusion, an uncertainty in her eyes.

"Wh-What are—"

"Shhhhh….." He interrupted her, "I'm just trying to make some precious memories…."

"….." She tried to pull herself back but he was holding her waist closer to his.

"I love you…" He said and slowly moved in for a kiss.

Seeing him, approaching towards her face like that, she pulled herself more but he still kept coming.

"STOP!!!" She shouted and pushed him away from her.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I….I can't kiss you!" She said.

"Why? What is wrong with that?"

"…."

"We've been together for the last 3 months. And I think it's normal for a couple to kiss, right?" Ray asked.

"..."

"And hope you know that you haven't even said you love me!" Ray said.

"Because I don't! I don't love you, okay? This whole thing, this-this relationship or whatever it is, you just forced it on me!! I never asked for it!" Her eyes were welled up as her grip on the railing tightened.

She looked at him, thinking that her words might have hurt him.

But to her surprise, there was a smirk on his face.

He chuckled to himself, turned back and went to sit on the chair.

She turned to him, "Uhh….Aren't you….gonna say something?"

He smiled at her, "I'll ask you one thing…"

"…."

"If you don't love me, then who do you really love?"

"Huh?"

"Because I know someone, who loves you more than anything. For him, you are his everything and to see you smile he can do anything…"

"…"

"….Even crushing his own heart along with his feeling towards you…."

"….Juna…." She said under her breath.

"Yes, you are right! So if you also love him…Then my work here is done." He looked at her from the corner of his eyes and when he saw her looking at him frowned, the same smirk reappeared on his face.

"What-What do you mean?" she asked.

"I think the time has come that I tell you everything from the beginning." He said and told her to sit down on the chair before him.

Being unsure of what she was going to hear now, she did what he told her and sat down.

"First of all, Mia…I didn't come back to Korea just like that. Jun was one of the main reasons I came here…"

"….He is?"

"Yes. When I went to America, he was the only on among us with whom I was in contact with. I used to call him at least ones a month in the beginning but then I got busy with some things and he got caught up in his practice schedules. So the calls had almost stopped. And as I remember it correctly, he called me for the first time….after almost a gap of six or seven month…This was in the last December…"

"…"

"…He called me and then without asking about anything else, the first thing he did was confess to me…"

"Confess?"

"Yes. Confess. About the letter thing. That he was the reason, you didn't come to meet me that evening and he was the reason I went to New York and because of him, we were not together."

Mia looked down, as she remembered the time when Jun had confessed to her the same thing.

"…And he kept saying sorry to me again and again." Ray continued. "But you know what was weird, I…I didn't get mad at him….I just couldn't."

She looked up at Ray.

"….The only thing which came to my mind at that time was, he was in love with you, Mia!"

"?"

"Yes! For him, to do all those things shows that he was in love with you!"

"..." She thought for a second, "But…But then why didn't he tell me anything?"

"I don't know….But maybe, he was unaware of his feelings at that time, when he threw that letter in trash."

Mia then remembered one thing, Jun had said to her when he confessed to her, 'I don't know Mia….I really don't know why I did that…' The words echoed into her brain.

"But maybe…When he called me…" Ray said, "He was very well aware of it."

"How-How can you say that?"

"Because the next thing he said to me was, 'I can't see her being hurt anymore. When I see her, the only thing I remember is I did that to her, and she is suffering because of me. And I can't see her sad, I want to see her happy and I don't care with whom she is as long as she's smiling.'!"

The tears started streaming down her cheeks with each word Ray was saying.

She didn't try to stop them nor wiped them.

Them being there was the proof that she had finally understood what Jun was going through for all those years.

Ray could see what she was feeling and he was nothing but relieved because her tears were telling him that she was also in love with Jun.

He further said, "That's why I decided to come back here, Mia. Just to make you two realize, how perfect you are for each other. Me coming here, buying the same café where you work, coming to you and trying to get back together, making you my girlfriend….all these were steps towards the ultimate goal of making you understand your own feelings."

"…." She kept looking at him with the tearful eyes.

"After coming back here, Jun strengthened my prediction that he was in love with you and was ready to give you up for your happiness. So the only problem was you!"

"Me?"

"Yes! You, dumbo! You just had no idea that you were in love with him and that's why I had to start this whole "In Relationship" drama. So I'd make you feel uncomfortable about this whole thing and you'd realize how much you were happy and comfortable around Jun."

"…"

"When I took you to expensive dates, you were uncomfortable, but when Jun and you went to have just Tteokbokki, you talked about it for days…

When I was alone in the same room as you, you'd become uncomfortable but when Jun was there, it would lift up your mood…

Just small talk with him, a call with him or even his small reply to your text would make your day happier…

There are a lot more things than this that tell me how much you two love each other.

He cares for you, you care for him. You two have been together since childhood. You two know each other's every single thing, and that's what makes your bond stronger. Stronger than anything I have ever seen!"

Mia's heart was pounding so fast that she didn't know what to do with it anymore.

"On this trip, when I saw you getting jealous and upset over April and Jun's closeness and then you got relieved after seeing it was not what you were expecting, I understood that this is the right time to finally tell you everything. And that's what I'm doing right now."

Seeing Mia sobbing, he got up from his chair and sat down on his knees before her.

He took her both hands in his, "Mia…"

"Ray….I….I…"

"Don't tell me that you love him. Tell that to him. Go and tell him, Mia. Just say everything, whatever you are feeling right now, what you have felt before, everything. Just say it."

She looked at him as he was also looking at her. He gave her a nod with a little squeeze on her hands.

"Now go!" He said again.

She got up with him and stepped towards the door. But then she stopped again,

"I just want to ask you one thing….Why did you do all this, Ray?"

Without any delay he answered, "Because I am your first love!"

"!!!"

"And you are mine. So I just want you to be happy with your true love and that is Jun! Not me."

"Ray…"

"And more than that, you two are my dearest friends! The two most important people of my life because one taught me love and the other taught me friendship!"

With those words, Mia stepped towards him and hugged him tight. "Thank you so much, Ray….Thank you…."

He caressed her hair, "Nothing will make me happier than seeing my two best friends together. So just don't make him wait anymore and go to him…"

She let go off of the hug and looked at him. His eyes were filled with tears. Happy tears!

She smiled and turned back to go.

He saw her running towards the door, 'Go get him, girl. He has waited long enough for this…' He thought.

Then opening the wine bottle, he poured it in the glass.

Sitting on the chair, he looked towards the ocean.

It was dark, the stars had appeared in the sky and the soothing sound of the waves was the only thing he could hear.

He whirled the glass in his hands and putting it on his lips; he took a sip of it, "Good job, Ray! You did well!" He said to himself.

.

Mia ran down and went towards the deck.

Mu Yeol, April, Ye Rin and Hana were sitting there.

"Do- Do you know where Jun went?" She asked catching her breath.

"Umm…He said, he'll go to take a walk on the beach…" Mu Yeol said pointing towards the direction.

"Yeah, and he hasn't come back yet." April said.

"Thanks!" Mia said hurriedly as she ran towards the stairs.

"Careful Mia!!!" April shouted from behind.

"Did you take a torch?" Hana shouted but Mia wasn't there anymore to answer. She had gone far away.

.

Mia came onto the beach. She looked around but couldn't see anyone.

The moon was shining up in the sky as its blue light was spread all over the ocean, making the waves sparkle.

"Junaaaa." She started calling for him as she was walking ahead. "Junaaaa."

.

Jun was sitting on the beach with his eyes closed. 'It feels really nice here…' He was thinking when, "Junaaaa." Mia's voice came to his ears from a distance.

'I can hear her voice in my thoughts too?' He thought and then again he heard her voice, "Junaaaa…" But this time, from a little closer distance.

He opened his eyes, 'Mia?'

He looked towards the direction of the sound and saw a figure running towards him in the moonlight.

"Junaaaa." He heard again.

"Mia?" He called back.

"Juna!" She saw him sitting down on the beach and she ran faster at him.

She came and sat before him as she was breathing heavily due to all the running.

"What are you doing here, idiot? I thought you were with Ray." He said.

She looked up at him.

"And why were you shouting my name all over the place like that? Crazy!"

She still didn't reply to him.

"Mia! I am talking with you!!!"

She just smiled at him. For the first time he noticed the tears in her eyes as they twinkled in the moonlight.

"M-Mia?"

And the next instant, she jumped on him, holding him tight in her arms, "I love you, Juna! I am so much in love with you!!!"

"!!!"

~