Love’s Crossing

Chapter 9

Park Chorong

Love, sometimes is stopping your car and letting a criminal walk away. I was the sheriff, and it was my duty to follow her… chase her… However, sometimes things are just too late.

It was the third week of January, and our quarterly exams. It was at the start of the week, that I finally get to talk to her. And probably reunite with her, actually…

I won’t forget that day.

I was inside the classroom, the first one to arrive since I want to study some more. As I was scanning my notes on my Science exam, the door opened and a petite girl walked in, with a cap on her face. Just then I realized that it was Yoon Bomi. Her eyes were a little dark, probably of lack of sleep. And the three books she was carrying just shows that she was going to study too, as much as I am.

I was expecting her to ignore me that she will pretend that I don’t exist.

She didn’t… in fact she approached me first.

“Good morning, Chorong unnie…” she whispered before taking a chair and dragging it close to me. I can feel my heart beating quickly as she suddenly intruded my personal space. I didn’t expect it at all.

“G-good morning, Bomi…” That was all I was able to mutter as she sighed and take out her notes.

“I didn’t get to say thank you last time when you visited me in the hospital. Thank you… and I’m sorry too, about my rude behavior. I shouldn’t have let you go rudely.” She apologized and bowed a little, which I quickly dismissed.

“No, I guess I did something wrong too! It was me who’s supposed to say sorry…”

She just nodded her head and gave a small smile. She went on then on studying, asking me from time to time about lessons and stuff. She was slowly coming back to her funny self whenever she’s near me. But something was weird… like something was missing.

“How are you supposed to do the transcription of DNA once again?” she asked me while checking the book, “This doesn’t make sense at all!”

“Did you even study?” I chuckled, “You have three days and you didn’t even open your book, don’t you?”

That’s the moment I saw her cheeks turn a shade of pink.

“Did something happen on the weekend?”

She just gave me a soft smile before shaking her head, “I got too busy watching animes whole weekend, sorry. And uhmmm…”

“Uhmmm?”

“Well, I’ve met Ilhoon last week… He kinda asked me to be his prom date this coming February.”

Something stopped me that moment, as if I got stabbed in the heart with something and my whole vision stopped something that made my heart stop too.

“Oh?”

She nodded her head slowly before closing her book and arching her head back, trying to relax for a bit. “I can’t even sleep lately because of it. I was used with confessions but then h-he…”

“You like him?”

She slowly shook her head, “I’m not like that. It’s just that…”

“Just that what?”

“I know Ilhoon… and somehow, he was able to do it… Make me think of him. I’m not saying I like him, unnie, but people are like that. Something changes in a moment… and it can be something unexpected and weird.”

Silence befell on us for a moment before I decided to ask her, “Do you… still like me?”

She froze and stared at the ceiling before she decided to look into my eyes, “I… I seriously don’t know anymore, unnie. At some point, my strong feelings for you won’t go away. However, there’s the fact that I am reluctant of loving you, maybe because you are still not stable with your heart.”

She didn’t press on anymore as she stood up and grinned at me, “I’ll be outside for a while. I guess I’ll just pass studying; it’s getting on my nerves already! I’ll see you later when exams start?”

All I did was nod my head.

Starting that day, I’ve noticed that everyone in class already ship Bomi and Ilhoon and I terribly don’t know why. Probably it has something to do with Ilhoon, the ever so confident guy of class, stutter in front of a girl. It didn’t help that they look absolutely good together. I wanted to know what I am feeling, but when I think of it, I don’t want to admit the fact.

I don’t want to admit… because I don’t want to regret.

“I can see that Ilhoon and Bomi have something going on?” Jung Eunji asked me on one of the PhysEd classes. I sighed softly before staring at her, “Is it unusual for someone to have a quick change of heart? I don’t know if it was me but I didn’t expect it so soon…”

She giggled at that, as if she finds it entertaining that I am having that problem, “Chorong unnie, I think Bomi didn’t have a quick change of heart. You know, people can change feelings quickly, because it only takes a moment for them to love someone. It even just needs three words for me to fall in love with you, to be honest—hehehe I’m not kidding though unnie, really.” She added the last part when I glared at her. “But what I am saying is, not all people are stupid in love. Some stops their feelings when they know it won’t be returned, or they suppress it when it’s hopeless. And sometimes they just want to give a chance on someone who was giving an effort to make them feel it, being loved back.”

“So you are saying that I should—“

“It’s all in you, unnie. What I just want to point out is…” she pointed at my chest and muttered ‘flat’ or something but dismissed it anyway, “Learn to understand what you friend here says. People just don’t know how to interpret and listen and to see. Open your two eyes and your two ears unnie. Make up your mind before you lose someone that means a lot to you. You’re gonna regret it if you let it pass, you know?”

I can’t say anything as I know Eunji was right.

Jung Eunji

Love is like a story from the songs coming out of the radio. It sometimes depends on the weather while driving too. There are songs that you’ll listen on a bright and sunny day, like a love story that just bloomed. Sometimes, the songs you’ll listen too are the gloomy ones, the ones you would rather here on a rainy day when droplets of rain pour on the window. Our story though, I don’t know what song it was. But maybe, if there was a song that I can always remember on my love for Park Chorong, it was that song.

As for Naeun, well… that’s for later, I guess.

Have you ever heard that song “Thank You for the Broken Heart” by J Rice? Maybe you do. It was nothing special for me… except that it was Chorong unnie’s favorite