Until now, everyone had been sitting in silence, waiting for Kim Joon to speak.
He sat on the floor, absentmindedly tracing invisible patterns with his toe, or perhaps simply trying to pass the time.
"Should we go to our rooms?" Jinhun finally asked when Kim Joon remained quiet.
Kim Joon didn't answer.
Seeing that the silence wasn't going anywhere, Jinhun glanced at Yomin, silently asking what they should do. Yomin only shrugged and leaned his head against the back of the sofa. Somehow, he had a feeling this matter wouldn't be resolved anytime soon.
Several minutes passed before Kim Joon finally spoke.
"What you did to her today... Wasn't it the same thing she supposedly did to you?"
Jeon.J lowered his head.
"I... I just wanted her to stay away from me. Before, I thought I held some kind of importance in her eyes. But today..."
He paused, struggling to put the feeling into words.
"Today I saw this strange confidence in her, which ignored me. It made me angry. And before I even realized it, I was talking about her. I knew she was standing near the door."
The room fell silent again.
"Maybe Zoya isn't the girl you think she is," Kim Joon said carefully. "Maybe all of this is just a misunderstanding."
A faint, bitter smile appeared on Jeon.J's face.
"I thought that too."
He took a slow breath.
"That's why I went to the Central Mosque. I wanted to clear my doubts. I was sitting in the office, waiting for Mr Donghyun because I wanted to ask him the meaning of those words."
"How do you know Mr. Donghyun understands the meaning of your words?"
"Or did you go there just to see Zoya, and if anyone asked what you were doing there, you would simply use this as an excuse and say that you had come to ask Mr. Donghyun something?" Kim Joon said, staring at him.
"And tell me this—since you met Mr. Donghyun, did you even ask him the question you supposedly went there for?" Kim Joon pressed further.
Jeon.J had no answer.
Kim Joon was beginning to lose his patience, though he was still trying to keep his anger under control. Among all of them, Jeon.J had always been the one who handled life and difficult situations with wisdom and composure. Seeing him lose control over his emotions like this was frustrating. More than anything, Kim Joon felt disappointed because Jeon.J was not acting like himself.
His eyes drifted somewhere far away, as if he were reliving the memory.
Hearing Kim Joon's words, Jeon.J did not answer. He had no answer to give. Instead of responding to Kim Joon's questions, he continued speaking, as if trying to avoid the truth that even he could not explain.
"While I was waiting, I heard some girls talking in the room next to the office. The window faced toward the office, so their voices carried through."
He swallowed.
"Then... I heard her voice."
Everyone listened quietly.
"She started reciting the same words."
His voice grew softer.
"She hadn't even finished them when Jea called me. My phone rang, and the moment it did, she went silent because if I heard her voice, definitely, she heard my mobile ring, and then I got up and left.
"But you said she didn't finish the words," Yomin interrupted. "Maybe the words you hear in your dreams and the words Zoya recited are different."
Jeon.J gave a small nod.
"I tried telling myself that too."
For a moment, he couldn't continue.
"But before I ever met her... before all of this... when I rushed to Busan after hearing about Bamson..."
His voice trembled slightly.
"A girl was sitting in the seat ahead of me on the plane. She was crying."
The room became even quieter.
"And then she started reciting those same words."
Jeon.J looked down at his hands.
"I tried to see her face... but I couldn't."
He paused.
"Later, I found out that—"
"Wait."
Kim Joon suddenly cut him off.
"You investigated all of this yourself?"
Jeon.J hesitated.
"No."
"Then who did?"
"...Jea."
The answer came almost as a whisper.
Kim Joon pushed himself to his feet immediately.
"Ugh... Jea knows too?"
His frustration was obvious now as he started walking toward the door.
Before he could leave, Jeon.J's voice stopped him.
"My misunderstanding ended the night they were at my house."
Kim Joon froze.
Jeon.J slowly stood up as well.
"I heard everything from her own mouth."
His throat tightened.
"She was terrified that night... and she was crying so much."
The memory hit him harder than he expected. His eyes filled with tears.
Kim Joon turned around.
The anger that had been burning inside him disappeared as quickly as water running over stone.
Because now he understood.
These weren't ordinary feelings anymore.
Somewhere along the way, Jeon.J had given her a place inside his heart.
Kim Joon stopped near the door.
The room fell silent.
For a few moments, Jeon.J didn't speak. His eyes remained fixed on the floor as if he could still see that night unfolding in front of him.
"I thought she would blame me."
A bitter laugh escaped him.
"After everything that happened... I thought she would hate me."
He swallowed.
"But when I opened the kitchen camera feed..."
His voice faded.
"...she was standing there holding a glass of juice."
The memory wrapped itself around him again.
"Then she looked directly into the camera (ceiling camera in the kitchen,)."
A shiver ran down his spine even now.
"I still don't know how, but it felt like she knew I was watching."
Nobody interrupted.
"Then she started talking."
His fingers slowly curled into fists.
"First, she talked about Ji-won."
His jaw tightened.
"She talked about the wounds... the slaps... the cuts on her arm... the way her scarf was pulled in front of everyone."
His breathing slowed.
"And the whole time..."
A pause.
"...she wasn't angry."
Yomin looked up.
Jeon.J shook his head.
"No."
His voice cracked.
"That's what I couldn't understand."
He looked away.
"Anyone else would have cursed me."
Another pause.
"Anyone else would have blamed me."
The room remained silent.
"But she didn't."
Jeon.J closed his eyes.
"Instead, she said she would keep praying for me."
His throat tightened.
"Even after everything."
Nobody spoke.
The words still sounded impossible.
"Then she started talking about me."
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"At first I thought it was another confession."
He laughed softly.
"I hear confessions everywhere."
His eyes lowered.
"But this..."
He shook his head.
"This wasn't a confession."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"It felt like someone was quietly handing over their heart while knowing they could never keep mine."
The room grew heavier.
"She said she didn't know me."
A tear gathered in his eyes.
"She didn't know how famous I was."
His lips trembled, fell silent for a moment.
His eyes remained fixed on the floor.
Then he laughed softly.
A tired laugh.
"You know what shocked me the most?"
Jeon.J slowly looked up.
"She said she wasn't even my fan."
Yomin frowned.
Jeon.J nodded.
"At first, I thought she was lying."
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"But then she started talking about the first time she saw me."
The room remained quiet.
"She said I was holding a little girl's hand on stage."
A weak laugh escaped him.
"And for a few seconds, she thought the girl was my daughter."
Even Kim Joon couldn't help looking up.
For the first time since the conversation started, something almost resembling amusement crossed his face.
But it disappeared quickly.
Jeon.J's expression grew serious again.
"Then she said something I'll never forget."
His voice softened.
"She said her father was sitting right in front of her."
A pause.
"She was scrolling through her phone."
"My video appeared."
His eyes became distant.
"She looked at the screen..."
"...and then she looked at her father."
The room fell silent.
"He was talking to her."
Jeon.J swallowed.
"So she put the phone away."
His fingers slowly tightened.
"And listened."
Nobody interrupted.
"Three days later..."
His voice lowered.
"...her father passed away."
The silence in the room deepened.
Jeon.J looked down.
Everyone is shocked and feels hurt for Zoya.
"She said she doesn't remember anything."
"...is looking away from the screen and listening to her father."
Nobody spoke.
Because suddenly the story felt much bigger than any of them.
Jeon.J released a slow breath.
"That's when I realized something."
His eyes lifted.
"I wasn't the reason that memory stayed with her."
A pause.
"I was just there."
His voice softened.
"A small detail in one of the last ordinary moments she spent with her father."
The words settled heavily inside the room.
Jeon.J looked away.
"When people confess to us..."
A faint smile appeared.
"...most stories begin with us."
His eyes lowered.
"But hers didn't."
Another pause.
"Her story began with her father."
His voice grew quieter.
The room remained completely silent.
Jeon.J rubbed his face.
"She said she was supposed to go to China."
His eyes became distant again.
"She had plans."
"A direction."
"A future she thought she understood."
A faint laugh escaped him.
"But somehow..."
"...she ended up on a flight to Busan instead."
Nobody spoke.
Because all of them had seen enough strange turns in life to understand what he meant.
Jeon.J shook his head slowly.
"The way she talked about it..."
His voice almost became a whisper.
"...it didn't sound like she believed she had found me."
A long silence followed.
"She said Allah knows what she hides in her heart."
His throat tightened.
"And honestly..."
For a moment he couldn't continue.
Then he forced himself to speak.
"That was the moment I stopped feeling like the main character in her story."
The room fell silent again.
Because they understood.
For years, people had entered Jeon.J's world.
People changed themselves because of him.
Changed cities because of him.
Spent money because of him.
Built dreams around him.
But Zoya...
Zoya wasn't standing in front of him because she had spent years chasing a star.
She was standing there because she was trying to understand the path Allah had written for her.
And somehow...
Jeon.J had become part of that path.
Nobody dared.
Because Jeon.J wasn't in the room anymore.
He was back in front of that screen.
Back in that kitchen.
Back in that moment.
"Then she started talking about love."
His voice faltered.
"'Love, for me, was never about having someone.'"
The words echoed in the silence.
"'It was about praying for someone without them knowing.'"
Kim Joon slowly lowered his gaze.
Even he didn't know what to say.
Jeon.J took a shaky breath.
"Then she started listing all the reasons why we could never be together."
A painful smile touched his face.
"As if she were building walls between us one by one."
He laughed weakly.
"She said you were a global star."
"And she was just an ordinary girl."
"She said the whole world knew who Jeon.J is?"
"And nobody knew hers."
His voice cracked.
"Then she mentioned our age."
Teahun frowned.
Jeon.J nodded.
"She said she was born in '95."
A pause.
"And you were born in '97."
The room remained silent.
"Then she talked about language."
His eyes became distant.
"She said you belonged to a world she couldn't even understand completely."
A bitter smile appeared.
"Different countries."
"Different cultures."
"Different lives."
"Difference Language."
"And then..."
His voice almost disappeared.
"...she talked about religion."
Nobody even breathed loudly.
"She said some differences aren't measured by distance."
His eyes filled again.
"They exist inside people's worlds."
He rubbed his face.
"And the whole time..."
A painful laugh escaped him.
"...it felt like she wasn't trying to convince me."
He looked down.
"She was trying to convince herself."
Silence.
Heavy silence.
"Then she said something."
His voice broke.
"'Maybe our paths were never meant to meet.'"
The words hung in the room.
"'So how could they ever separate?'"
Kim Joon slowly sat back down.
For the first time he understood.
Those weren't the words of someone hoping.
Those were the words of someone letting go.
Jeon.J's eyes closed.
"Then she smiled."
A tear escaped.
"The kind of smile people wear when they've already accepted losing."
His chest tightened.
"Then she said she would keep praying for me."
His voice trembled.
"She said she always had."
A pause.
"She said she always would."
Nobody spoke.
Then Jeon.J looked up.
"There was something else."
His voice became even quieter.
"She said..."
A long pause followed.
"'I know all of you have figured it out by now.'"
His breathing slowed.
"'Yes... I am the girl from the plane.'"
The room froze.
Even now, the memory shocked him.
"Then she mentioned the MJ letter."
His hands tightened.
"Everything suddenly made sense."
"The plane."
"The mosque."
"The dreams."
"The letter."
"The prayers."
All the scattered pieces finally connected.
"And then..."
His voice cracked completely.
"...she looked directly into the camera."
Nobody moved.
"'Take care of yourself.'"
The words echoed through the room.
A painful smile appeared on Jeon.J's face.
"'Goodbye.'"
Silence.
Complete silence.
Jeon.J lowered his head.
"And for some reason..."
His chest rose unevenly.
"...that goodbye hurt more than every confession I have ever heard."
A tear slipped down his cheek.
Because for the first time in his life...
Someone had loved him deeply...
Prayed for him sincerely...
Let him go completely...
And asked for nothing in return.
To be continued...
Regards,
ZK