Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

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Rona looked at a calligraphy painting attached to the wall in front of her. She squinted her eyes to look at it. Simple Japanese kanji calligraphy in black ink on a white canvas. She took her phone and took a picture of it to find out the meaning of the text. After struggling with her phone, the result of her curiosity appeared on the screen of her phone.

Ichi-go ichi-e

One time, one meeting

Once in a lifetime

She tried to understand the explanation of the word carefully. A Japanese philosophy inspired by the quote of a tea brewer who always makes tea with the thought that he will make the last tea in his life. A philosophy that looks at the present, not the past or the future. Enjoy life in the present without thinking about the future so do what you want without waiting for tomorrow.

She read the next paragraph and that made her love this phrase even more, a once-in-a-lifetime meeting. An important meeting between someone with other people who might be a very special person in that someone's life. Once in a lifetime, that's what should be valued by every human in this world when meeting with another human because if you miss it then regret will continue to haunt your life.

Fate

A meeting between two humans who had been written in their life storybook.

One time, one meeting

Ichi-go ichi-e

The image of her ex-boyfriend suddenly flashed through her mind, the memory of their meeting as their fate. She wondered if that day he didn't help her jump over the school wall, what would happen to them? Will she experience ups and downs, joyous and hurt, happiness and sadness, smile and cry as she had been through all this time?

The realization of their status created a bitter smile engraved on her face, maybe they weren't meant to be together. Maybe he wasn't her once in a lifetime, their story might have ended on that day, on the 100th floor of Hera Palace. And now they acted like strangers. In fact, the last time they met when he took her to meet his mother, he treated her coldly, as she's just a daughter of his mother's best friend. Even when she cried, he no longer lent her a chest to lean on, no longer gave her a warm hug with words that comforted her.

Rona was too lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear the community room door open, which she knew later was Lee Minhyuk that opened it when he came down the stairs and greeted her.

"What are you doing here?" The former bully who was now her friend immediately asked her a question while shifting the chair beside her.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking what are you doing here? You don't live here anymore."

Since his apartment was destroyed by Mr Joo's men, Minhyuk lived at his grandfather's house. That was why she didn't understand why Minhyuk had come to Hera Palace.

"I brought people from the cleaning service to my apartment as they were assigned to clean up my apartment. My dad wants to sell it so I have to get the apartment clean again. And I was bored of waiting there, so I just came here in case I found something more interesting and there's you." Minhyuk replied while winking at her before taking out his phone. She rolled her eyes.

"Then your parents will still decide to divorce?"

"It seems so. The last time I saw them at the police station, they threatened each other with divorce." Her question was only answered with a casual nod as if he didn't feel sad or burdened by his parent's divorce.

"And you're still leaving for military service at the end of next month?" This time, her question made the man who's sitting beside her while playing with his phone turn to look at her.

"It's a coincidence you brought it up as I wanted to tell you this. I don't think I will be enlisting in the military this year. My grandfather knew that I was going to enlist in the military. He invited me to talk about this and discussed postponing military service until next year with the excuse that I was the only son in my family after my dad was in prison, and emphasized that I'm still in an emotional state because of the case with my parents and their divorce. He said that he could get me to be allowed to postpone my military service." She saw Minhyuk's eyes shining with admiration as if he never thought it would happen.

"You're not an idol or an actor, is it that easy for you to avoid military service?"

"Hey!! I'm not avoiding military service. That's not what I wanted." She saw Minhyuk pouting as he was offended.

"I didn't mean to accuse you of that. Why are you easily offended? I mean, is it that easy to grant a request to postpone military service?"

"That's my question too. But I think I know the answer." Minhyuk stared at her before continuing.

"My grandfather still has quite a bit of influence in government." Again admiration appeared in his eyes.

"Then are you going to continue to enlist or are you going to do what your grandfather wants you to do?" After hearing her question, Minhyuk leaned back against the chair he was sitting on and stared at the wall in front of him.

"I don't know, I still want to enlist. But when my grandfather has a wish, he will definitely be sure it will happen, whether I agree or not about this postponement."

"If your military enlistment is postponed, what's your next plan?"

"Don't know yet. My original plan was military service, as much as possible I will stick to that plan. Besides, if I don't enlist I have to live with my grandfather, and living with him is very hard for me."

A smile was engraved on the corners of Rona's lips, she looked at Minhyuk who was staring blankly at the wall in front of him. His gaze and gestures showed that he was not lying.

"You should know it, if you don't want to stay at your grandfather's house you should at least know where you're going to sleep. Tsk tsk tsk." She shook her head.

"Maybe I'll sleep here, I don't mind sleeping on the couch." She saw Minhyuk looking towards where the couch was.

"Tch, someone like you can sleep not on the bed? " She raised her eyebrows.

"Someone like me? You seem to underestimate the changes in me. I'll prove to you that I've changed. Not the spoiled and stupid boy I used to be."

"Aigooo… you may not be spoiled but stupid? Dream on." She mocked the boy who was surprised by her words.

"Bae Rona? You hurt my feelings! How am I stupid? I'm an SNU student!" Minhyuk glared at her, but she was only smiling. Their growing closeness after auditioning for the resident of Cheong A Art Center made her want to tease him even more.

"If you're a little smart, you definitely won't be confused about where to sleep. Your apartment is still available, you just have to prevent the purchase of your apartment. Hasn't since your parents been in prison, all matters regarding selling your apartment fall into your hands?"

"Ah! You're right!" Minhyuk then smiled and brought his face closer to her.  Rona, who saw that, instantly knew the evil intentions in his head.

"What? What do you want?"

"Then, since you also live alone, help me adapt to living alone okay?"

"What? Do it yourself! You think I'm your maid who always takes care of you?" She pushed Minhyuk's forehead with her index finger.

"Tch, I asked you to help me, not asked you to take care of me." He leaned back.

"It's just a play on words. I know I'll end up being a maid that will take care of you and your house."

"Hey! You're possessed by Jeni's soul, aren't you? Judging my innocent intentions."

Minhyuk's answer made her chuckle. His words caused her to realize that she did act like Jeni. Fighting with Minhyuk was not something she usually does, that's Jeni's job. But for some reason, she's now actually arguing with Minhyuk.

"You're right, what happened to me today?" She shifted her eyes upwards, staring at the ceiling of the community room.

"... Humm … speaking of Jeni, where is she now? I thought when I came in, she was here." She smiled at Minhyuk who lowered his head, hiding his curiosity about Jeni's whereabouts.

"Oh, she has already left for her academy. If you had come 10 minutes earlier, you would have met her for sure."

"Too bad. Not my lucky day." The frown of the boy wearing a light brown t-shirt made her laugh.

"You really don't give up, do you? How many times have you been rejected by her, still chasing after her like there's no other woman?" She teased Minhyuk who then gave a small smile and raised his eyebrows.

"Then how about you? Still thinking about someone named Joo Seokhoon? Didn't you meet him not too long ago?" Minhyuk's question made her look at him in surprise.

"How do you know?" Minhyuk's face shortly changed, no longer giving her his teasing expression.

"Yoo Jeni, she told me about … you know … her father …"

"Ah ... so she told you?" Minhyuk nodded shortly after hearing her question.

"Yes, at that time maybe she was feeling awful because of what her father had done to her best friend's mother. She called me in tears, and she told me all about your mom's death, including about her father's role in it."

"Ah.. is that so?" She leaned back against the chair she was sitting on, didn't expect the story behind her mother's death to have spread to almost everyone.

"Don't worry, I'm not my parent. I won't tell anyone." She looked to her side, Minhyuk looked at her with a small smile, trying to convince her to trust him.

"Tch, that's good then. It turns out that Minhyuk has really grown up." She put her hands on his head and ruffled his hair like a proud sister.

"Hey!" He pushed her hand away and she couldn't help but laugh at his red face. After a while, his face changed again.

"I never thought that Ms Cheon would dare to do that, after what your mom did to her daughter."

Minhyuk's words caused her to lower her head down, her fingers playing with the hem of her shirt. She began to feel a stabbing pain in her chest. Again, remembered her mistake in helping Ha Eunbyeol. Her silence seemed to be noticed by Minhyuk.

"Back to the original topic. So how is your relationship with Joo Seokhoon?" She woke up from her thoughts and looked back at him and saw his teasing smirk again.

"Tch.." She just shook her head.

"Come on, tell me."

"I don't know." She shrugged.

"You're so secretive ... just say you don't want to tell me." His mouth changed from a teasing smirk to a disappointed frown. She just sighed as she lowered her gaze from Minhyuk's face to her lap.

"It's not that I don't want to tell you, but that's the truth. I don't really know what our relationship is now. But it might stay like before. We've broken up and he's stuck with his wish for us to be strangers like he never knew me before."

"No way, I know Joo Seokhoon. After all the truth is revealed that his father wasn't the one who killed your mom, he couldn't possibly not use the opportunity to get back with you."

"So you're also aware that he broke up with me because of his father?"

"Of course. That Joo Seokhoon is really crazy about you. He can't just break up with you without reason. And it must have been his father who was the reason."

She just smiled bitterly at the words that Seokhoon was crazy about her. His attitude after he broke up with her didn't look like he felt that way at her.

"I also thought like that, his father must be the reason behind his decision. Even though I told him that his father's fault was not his fault. But after everything was revealed, it seemed like what he wanted was for us to break up." She shifted her gaze out the window of the community room.

"Don't be pessimistic, have you really asked him? Have you ever discussed that with him?" She looked at Minhyuk and shook her head.

"Then try to ask him for certainty. You tell him you know the reason but you still want to be with him no matter what his father's doing to your mom. Talk to him ... if it turns out that his decision still won't change, then you let him go." She was silent when she heard what Minhyuk just said. The advice given by the boy that what she knew during high school never had the wisdom he had just now made her look at him with a hint of admiration. The boy sitting next to her realized that she was staring at him, he looked back at her curiously.

"What?"

"Wow, it turns out that you are now a little mature, Lee Minhyuk." She smiled a little.

"A little?"

"A little."

"So mean."

The two of them laughed together before she recalled her worries.

"But, is it possible? I mean, he and I are talking about this. Will he let me talk about us?" She looked at Minhyuk.

"Try it first. Try asking him to meet."

"What if he refuses? That day, the day I met him again, he just dropped me off at the door of Hera Palace and didn't take me to my apartment. Looks like he can't wait to get away from me." She lowered her head and fiddled with the hem of her shirt.

"Keep trying. Look at me! I never stopped trying to win Jeni's heart. Until she says no as a rejection to me, I will continue to pursue her." She chuckled at Minhyuk who changed the conversation to be about him.

"You really have no shame. Besides, Jeni has never rejected you? Hasn't she rejected you countless times?"

"Did you ever hear her rejecting me? She always dodged it and just said that I was crazy. Never directly say no." She looked at Minhyuk when he answered. Minhyuk's words were true because Jeni had never directly rejected him.

"So Bae Rona ..." She saw Minhyuk turn to her and look her in the eye.

"Try to ask directly to Seokhoon. Or maybe, make this as your last resort and you won't do it again after that."

Minhyuk's statement made her pause, remembering what she just read before. Her eyes then looked at the calligraphy on the wall in front of her.

Ichigo Ichie

Once in a lifetime

"Rona-ya?" She saw Minhyuk's hand waving in front of her, waking her from her thoughts.

"You heard me right?" Minhyuk looked at her questioningly.

"Yeah, I heard you." She lowered her head.

"So?"

"I'll try to ask him to meet today. Maybe you're right, I should at least say what I want to say to him. It doesn't matter what the result will be. I really need to talk about this with him."

"Remember Bae Rona, it's not for him but-"

"But for me. Yes, I know that."

"Cheer up!" She felt Minhyuk tap her shoulder.

"Tch, you act like I'm the miserable one. Isn't your fate actually sadder than mine?" Minhyuk stopped his hand that wanted to pat her shoulder and looked at her in annoyance.

"You are a cruel girl, Bae Rona." She smiled seeing Minhyuk leaning his back.

"At least I have to believe that I am not the saddest one. At least I have known that someone that I liked, liked me back."

"HEY!"

She laughed seeing Minhyuk who protested with an annoyed frown.

"Not funny."

"It is very funny."

The community room was filled with the sound of her laughter and a dark aura signalling annoyance came out of Minhyuk's body.

"Hey, Bae Rona… I have an idea."

"Idea? About what?" She stopped laughing seeing the seriousness on Lee Minhyuk's face.

"What if at the age of 40 each of us is still single and lamenting the fate of lost love, we marry each other?"

"ARE YOU CRAZY?" The reaction she gave as soon as she heard her friend's crazy idea was to shout at his face. She didn't care if Minhyuk looked in pain from her screaming voice. It was a natural reaction that would be given when hearing a crazy idea as the one Minhyuk had just suggested.

"You don't have to scream like that."

"That's because you just said something crazy."

"What's crazy about my idea?"

"What?" She looked at Minhyuk in disbelief.  "Of course it's crazy, you just… Wait. Do you actually have feelings for me, Lee Minhyuk?"

"HEY! Are you crazy?" Now it was Minhyuk's turn to shout and stare at her in disbelief.

"Then why did you come up with such an idea… What? Marry you if I'm still single?"

"That's the keyword, IF ... If at the age of 40 we are still single, we will get married."

"Tch"

"Think about it, there's nothing wrong with it."

"There are so many wrongs with it. It's not something simple about getting married to each other. Tell me the truth, what plans do you have in mind?" She looked at Minhyuk carefully. Minhyuk's eyes that looked at her then turned to his fidgeting fingers.

"Nothing, it was just a sudden idea that crossed my mind without reason."

"Don't lie!" 

"I'm not lying."

"Lee Minhyuk!" Her interrogation succeeded in making Minhyuk look at her in surrender.

"Okay, you won. It's just if Jeni continues to reject me and I am ordered by my big family to marry and I don't have a partner, I should marry someone I know."

"You'd better reject their order if that's the case." She shook her head at her friend's ridiculous answer.

"That's the problem, Bae Rona, I have no choice to reject. My grandfather would definitely force me to marry because I was the only man in his family. Instead of me marrying the person of his choice, I should marry someone I know."

"Sorry, I declined your offer."

"You know, I'm the sole heir to my grandfather's fortune." She saw Minhyuk wink. She instantly took a book and hit it on Minhyuk's head.

"What kind of woman do you think I am?"

"HEY! It hurts, you know! Are you Rona or Jeni?" Minhyuk touched his head while wincing in pain.

"It's your own fault." She leaned her back, but what she didn't expect, Minhyuk stood up and shifted his chair. She narrowed her eyes in confusion, especially when Minhyuk started to kneel in front of her.

"Bae Rona, if in 20 years we don't have a partner, will you marry me?" The mischievous look in Minhyuk's eyes made her hold back her laughter. She finally decided to join Minhyuk's play.

"Of course, Lee Minhyuk!" She pretended to be surprised and happy. The boy named Lee Minhyuk soon stood up and pointed at her.

"Really? Then that means you've agreed." 

"HEY!!" She took the book again and was about to hit Minhyuk but the boy quickly dodged her hit while laughing.

The sound of the phone on the table interrupted them, Minhyuk who saw it immediately picked it up.

"Yes, are you done?" She saw Minhyuk nod after that.

"Okay, I understand. I'll be there now." Minhyuk said before hanging up his phone and putting it in his pocket.

"I'll leave now. Ah, I thought I'll be here until I meet Jeni." She saw Minhyuk waving his hand at her.

"Go to her academy. She only had one lesson today so she'll come home early. Ask her out on a date tonight."

She watched Minhyuk pause and look at her before giving her a thumbs up. "You're right."

"See you later, Bae Rona!" She waved her hand in return and watched Minhyuk walk up the stairs. She was just about to sit back down, Minhyuk called her again.

"Bae Rona, fighting!" Minhyuk looked at her sincerely with a smile. He clenched his fists as a sign of encouragement to her.

"Tch, thank you Lee Minhyuk." She gave her a smile while looking at Minhyuk who had disappeared as the door closed. A sigh escaped her mouth.

"Yes! Fighting, Bae Rona! The battle isn't over yet." The encouragement she said to herself before sitting down and staring at her phone. Minhyuk's words rang in her ears, without realizing that her hand had taken her phone and typed.

She looked again at the text she typed before deleting it because she sounded desperate. She turned her eyes to the window and looked at the view outside the window of the Hera Palace community room. After looking at it, she looked back at her phone and started typing again.

She stared again at the text she typed on her phone. After a few seconds of silence, she didn't feel like changing her typing, so she pressed the send button.

Ichigo Ichie

Once In a Lifetime

She will make this as her Ichigo Ichie moment where she will do it only once. Meet him and talk about her feelings and won't repeat it. So if later they agreed they stayed separated, or Seokhoon didn't want to give them the chance to be together again then she wouldn't ask for it again. And if later Seokhoon changed his mind after deciding they couldn't be together, then she won't give him another chance. She gave him enough chances. So it's not that she's asking Seokhoon for a chance but it's her giving Seokhoon the last chance. Because there's a love that isn't worth fighting for. That's why she hoped that Seokhoon could come to let her know their love is the love that is worth fighting for or not.

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