In the distance from where Yue Ling and Lu Tian stood, the person she was searching for watched from a hidden spot as the couple indulge in a romantic kiss under the rain.
As the rain pour harder and water covers the grounds of Imperial, he raises both his hands and pulls the hood under his dark gray coat to cover his head.
His well-defined face was quickly hidden away from view leaving only the bottom half of his face for one to see.
"Hyun, why are you just standing there? Did you get rejected by someone?"
From behind, the sound of footsteps approaching enters Qin Jun's ear follow by a young man's chuckling voice full of jokes.
Song Jing Li stops at the side and looks at Qin Jun. However, seeing the man was paying no attention to him, he turns his head and looks in the direction he (Qin Jun) was looking at.
He didn't have to search as his eyes landed on a figure that froze his entire body like he had been struck by lightning.
"T-That's…"
Unlike the scene Qin Jun had witness, Yue Ling and Lu Tian were now walking hand in hand towards her car. Lu Tian then helps Yue Ling get inside the passenger seat before walking to the driver side.
As the white car drives away, Song Jing Li takes a step forward like he was going to commit suicide by stepping in front of the many passing vehicles.
"Noona… Noona!"
He chokes a whisper before yelling out after her like a child who had been abandoned by his mother. However, before he could take another step further, Qin Jun reach an arm to stop him by the shoulder.
"Don't."
Song Jing Li stares in disbelief at the back of Yue Ling's car. His lower lip trembles and he turn his head to look at the person who had stopped him.
"Why? Why did you stop me?!"
He didn't understand. If they could see her, shouldn't she be able to see them? Does she not miss them?
Qin Jun looks at Song Jing Li with pain in his eyes. He knows that the boy misses Yue Ling every day and has been contemplating whether to see her or not. However, his hand on Song Jing Li's shoulder gently squeeze and he shook his head.
"We can't let her know that we are here."
Hearing these words again, Song Jing Li press his lips together to keep them from trembling. He inhales a deep breath through his nose and shrugs away Qin Jun's hand like he had some kind of disease.
"Why?"
His eyes turn red with tears and he glares at the older man. Raising his hand, he point in the direction Yue Ling had gone.
"You keep saying we can't tell her, but out of all of us, she's the one who deserves to know!"
He stares at Qin Jun with his chest breathing heavily. However, not able to understand the man's reason and not wanting to look at him (Qin Jun) anymore, he storms away in the opposite direction of Yue Ling.
As Song Jing Li walks away, Kira stood behind the two without saying a word. He held a red umbrella to keep the rain away from him and glance at Qin Jun.
"He's right, you know."
He takes a calm step forward and stares out to the street across from them. It was the exact spot Yue Ling and Lu Tian were standing before leaving.
"How long do you plan to hide this from her?"
His head slightly turn to look in the direction the couple had driven off.
"She has every right to know that Shin's death was not an accident."
Qin Jun remained in silence as the rain pour over his body soaking him from head to toe. He stares in the same direction as his friend before he finally found his voice again.
"I know… I know that she deserves to know about what happened to Shin."
He close his eyes and the image of Shin before his death appears in his mind. He gently squeeze his eyes before opening them again.
"But I made a promise to take care of her. Even if it's eating me on the inside, I can't let her know. If she knows, what about the happiness she has finally found?"
He turns around and face the direction Song Jing Li had walked off.
"We all know that out of all of us, she's the one who has suffered the most. Even if it isn't much, by taking this secret to our grave, we can help lift another weight off her heart."
His words fell and a trace of guilt cross his face.
"I can't stay by her side and take care of her, but I will do it from the shadows after we find him."
Without looking back, he takes a step forward, but was stopped by Kira's next words.
"Then why did you let her see you?"
Kira stares at Qin Jun's figure from behind. He understands why the man is so fixated on keeping Shin's death a secret from Yue Ling, as he felt the same. However, what he didn't understand is, why didn't he (Qin Jun) hide but let her see him?
Qin Jun swallows a hard and difficult gulp as he was unable to answer the question.
The only reason why they are at this part of Imperial was because they had to collect information on Choi Li Sun. However, before they could reach the source, Chief Kim informed them that someone had hacked into the database in City Z and was able to gather a minimal of their information.
Knowing that it was too risky for them to meet the source, they had to turn back.
When they were blending in with the crowd to pass through the street, it was then that he saw her across the street.
He didn't know what overcame him, but he couldn't bring himself to move at all. He felt relief to see that she is doing fine in person, but another part of him was in guilt that she has no idea about what happened to Shin.
In that moment when their eyes locked, he had the sudden urge to walk across the street and go to her.
He wanted to get on his knees and beg her forgiveness for keeping her in the dark. He wanted to beg her to help them find the man who murdered Shin.
However, when he saw Lu Tian approaching her, he could only suppress the urge to cross over and hide from her as he remembered why he didn't want her to know.
He can't bring her back to the life she wanted to escape from, nor does he want to see her sad expression again.
Coming back from his flashback, he takes a deep breath to calm his mind, and brush every feeling aside.
The look in his eyes that once held guilt and agony is quickly replace with indifference.
"I won't make the same mistake twice."
His words fell in assurance and he walks away without saying another word. He swore inside that he will be more careful from now on and never let Yue Ling find any trace of them.
He only hopes that when tomorrow comes, she will forget about seeing him and go on with her life.
Kira watched as Qin Jun walks further away like nothing had happened. He heaves a long sigh and takes out his phone from inside his coat pocket.
Unlocking his phone, he looks back in the direction Yue Ling had gone. Even though her car was no longer in view, he continues to stare into the unknown like it was still there.
He press a button his phone and a CCTV footage appears on the screen. In the footage, it captures him standing alone as he stares out to the street.
"I really hope this is the best choice."
He murmurs the words to himself before pressing another button on his phone. The footage of him self-deletes and he walks away to catch up with Qin Jun and Song Jing Li.
It was as if they were never there in that part of Imperial and had vanished with the wind.
