"I do need help," admitted Hana after an hour of looking fruitlessly for the lock that she said she remembered putting it at.

"That's why I'm here," said Namjoon without raising his head as he kept on looking for a silver padlock with Hana ♥ Ryan 4eva and a flower sticker on it as described by Hana.

"It's good that you didn't say 'I told you so'," Hana straightened from her crouching position as she thumped her stiff back.

"I know women hated to hear that, as to why I didn't even if it's at the tip of my tongue."

"Hey!" protested Hana.

Namjoon turned to her. "See, you hated that. I didn't say it."

"You just did," she huffed as she turned one of the padlocks at the fence. "No offence, but how did you know about that if you don't have any girlfriend?"

"I did have them before I became a trainee," defended Namjoon.

"Wow. Them, as in plural? You're quite a lady's man, Kim Namjoon," Hana was amused.

"Just two and no, I didn't know that from them. The only thing that mattered to us at that time was how to get our parents to buy toys or the latest snacks shown on TV."

"That young? Wow. What happened to them?"

"One of them just decided that I wasn't cool anymore when there was a boy showering her with snacks and she just friend-zoned me. Another one dumped me when I refused to push the swing for her. I wanted to play on the slide," Namjoon sighed dramatically.

Hana just laughed, "That's so cute. How old were you at that time?"

"I don't remember. Probably six... or was it seven?"

Hana laughed at his remark until she saw what she was looking for. "Found it!" she exclaimed. "Help me take that cutter out from my bag."

Namjoon walked to Hana's backpack that she put in her task to look for the lock. The wire cutter that Hana bought wasn't small. It was an industrial-sized bolt cutter that stuck out of her backpack.

He recalled how his jaw dropped when he saw her haul that cutter up at the hardware shop.

"You're not serious, are you?" he asked as he pointed to the cutter in her hands.

"I do need this. I truly regret the moment I brought my own lock across the ocean for that bridge," said Hana.

He understood what she meant as he handed the bolt cutter to her. Her lock wasn't the normal type of lock that the visitors would put at the fence. It was a thick bulky padlock hidden in between the other colourful padlocks.

"This just shows that bulky padlock doesn't ensure a long relationship," said Hana as she positioned the cutter. "Darn, this is hard," she said as she didn't manage to cut the padlock off.

"Let me help you with that," said Namjoon as he placed his hands at the handles. "Why don't you sit back and let me do this?"

Hana shook her head. "No. I really need to do this myself, but I don't have enough strength for it. Can you help me with it?"

"Okay, sure."

Namjoon put his hands next to hers as both of them squeezed the cutter together.

"Yes!!" cheered Hana as the padlock was cut through. "We need to cut the other side. This lock won't turn if you only cut at one part."

"Okay," said Namjoon readily as he flexed his fingers before putting his hands back to the cutter.

"On the count of three. One, two, three!"

The deed was done and the padlock finally fell on the ground with a thud. Hana picked it up and took her marker out. She covered her writings on the padlock and dumped it graciously in the nearest recycle bin.

"Fuck you, Ryan!" she shouted to the bin which attracted a lot of attention from the other visitors at the bridge. Namjoon smiled embarrassedly at them and bowed apologetically before urging them that everything was fine.

"Let's get to that bench over there. My feet are getting tired," urged Namjoon.

Both of them sat heavily. Namjoon passed her a bottled drink they bought earlier and drank his. Hana looked at the bottle sadly and much to Namjoon's surprise, her tears started to fall.

"I'm sorry I still haven't gotten you anything for being with me today," Hana was valiantly trying to hold her tears but failed miserably. Namjoon bet his monthly allowance that she wasn't crying just because of that. She was hugging herself tightly and turned her back to him as she silently wept.

Namjoon looked at her helplessly. It wasn't in his culture to just hug a person they're not familiar with that easily, even with the same sex. He wanted to comfort her but he wasn't used to doing it to anyone. He patted her back awkwardly hoping that would help even by a small degree. "Cry it all out," he said softly.

Hana did just that.

"He promised me that we could work the distance out when Brown turned me down," Hana turned at him. "Can't he just be a man and say that to my face. He even sent me to the airport when I came here. We even talked on the phone yesterday and I didn't see that one coming. Such a hypocrite."

"He's a fool," said Namjoon. He honestly meant that.

"It hurts," said Hana as she wiped her eyes. "We've been together since freshman and he dumped me just like that. What did I do wrong? Breaking off just because of the distance is just so stupid. He didn't even try."

"I don't think any of this is your fault. I don't know you that well but judging how good Aunt Chae is treating you, that meant something. Aunt Chae is a good judge of character and she's quite selective at that. It's his foolish choice and his loss."

"Do you think so?" asked Hana through her teary eyes.

"I know so," said Namjoon.

Hana sniffled at that as she blew her nose with tissue paper. "Stay here for a bit."

Hana stood up abruptly and left Namjoon on the bench. She returned not long after with two packs of padlocks and sat. He was puzzled as she handed him a pack.

"I don't know when else I would be able to come back here again after I go home and I don't want today just to be lost in the space of time. I know I still need time to get over Ryan and you're here helping me means a lot to me. Another thing I know about this love lock bridge is that it's not only for lovers to lock in their padlocks. It is also for family and friends. I'll put mine with my name and yours and you can put yours and write your name with anyone's name you have in mind. Are you okay with that?"

"Sounds fine. Let's do this," Namjoon removed the padlock from the plastic pack and uncapped the marker pen, hiding a bit of his disappointment. What did he expect? Namjoon berated himself. They've just known each other and she saw him as a friend. Nothing more than that.

"I'm done," said Hana as she capped her marker pen. "How about you?" she peered at his lock.

"Done!" Namjoon turned to Hana as he covered his writings. "Let me see yours."

Hana put up her padlock. She wrote 'Hana & Namjoon was here'. "Did I get the Hangul right? I don't know what to write. It would sound like someone's dead if I put 'in memory' which is what I had in mind in the first place. What did you put on yours?"

"I'm suddenly out of ideas. Kind of corny huh?" he put up his padlock and Hana beamed at his handwriting. 'Namjoon & Hana – No darkness is eternal'.

"Wow. You're such a wordsmith. That's just brilliant," gushed Hana. "You know, you don't have to write my name on yours just to make me feel good."

"No, I'm writing that because I want to. For the memory that we have today," Namjoon looked back at his padlock hoping that he didn't act like he had his heart on his sleeve. He felt a bit stupid, but what did he have to lose?

"Cool. Let's put it on the fence," Hana stood and went to the spot behind the bench they sat at. "I just hope they won't demolish this bench or the whole fence in the future. I want to be able to find this when I come back," she snapped the padlock and Namjoon did the same with his. "Let's take a picture for today."

"Let's do that."

Hana took pictures of them with their locks with her digital camera and checked on the pictures through the display afterwards. It turned out great

"Can you send me those pictures?" requested Namjoon.

"Sure, I'll e-mail it to you after I transfer it to my notebook," Hana's stomach grumbled on cue. She was getting hungry all of the sudden. "I need to find food."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Let's go and eat some ramyeon. Your talk with Aunt Chae earlier made me want to eat it so bad."

*******************************************
Author's note:

Hangul: Korean alphabet

P.S: I know we were all blown away on how smooth and hot Yoongi was with That That - the song and his appearance in the MV. Seeing how lithe and agile he was with the choreo shows that his shoulder is totally recovered, yeay!

I'm a bit slow with the update and I do try to get at least 2 chapters per week. Thank you for staying tune for this story. Love you guys! 💜