PART II

The Beginning

The view atop the only vacant mountain in Daegu is spectacular. You are cold but everything is worth it. It’s funny how the urban-filled buildings and the simple houses after every farm collides to create a beautiful chaos. You take in your surroundings as you tighten your grip in the railings. You watched in awe as your tear fall from your cheeks and unto the ground. You start to question yourself: are you doing the right thing?

The ledge you’re standing on has become slippery, due to the never-ending downpour of the ruthless rain. You are drenched, from head to toe. You feel your bones slowly shivering. You put your left foot into nothing but thin air and urged for the courage to support you.

Now that a foot has been out, you only need to coordinate with the other foot and everything will be set. Within moments, you’d be flying, teasing life and death. Everything will finally be over. No one will have the opportunity to snicker at you. Your relatives will no longer gossip about you as if you weren’t there.

You don’t need to try hard anymore, because in the afterlife, everything will be fine.

Because that’s what death is, according to you. The world for you is a big examination paper. Humans are being tested. Some pass the test, some excel at it, while others fail. It’s natural to fail a test, even those who study hard sometimes get low scores. And most of all, no one has the right to tell you how long you’re going to take the exam. It all depends on you.

And you choose the ending to be today.

Will it hurt?

“It’s going to be useless,” you heard someone say.

You craned your head to follow the direction of the intruder. You had to squint your eyes to see him. It was difficult to see over the rain. Someone was standing behind you, only he was safe at the rooftop and you at the edge of the terrace- positioned to jump. You squinted further. It’s a man. You estimated him to be several inches taller than you, although he wasn’t at a remarkable height. He looked as white as a ghost.

Maybe he was really a ghost. Or the grim reaper, here to collect your soul.

“Don’t jump,” he said, his voice muffled by a loud clap of thunder.

“You can’t tell me what to do,” you snapped at him.

Your hands held the rusting metal harder now to support yourself. Drops of rain fell into your face. In your mind, you rehearsed possible sentences you may use whenever the need to defend yourself comes up. How childish, you corrected yourself. If this stranger has any plan to doing anything to you, you simply put both of your legs in the air, take a deep breath and dive into the welcoming arms of death. You can’t let some stranger dictate you what to do. You had enough of those. You suffered enough.

No one will harm you now, a little voice whispered in your head. You are in control of your life. Forget the stranger. Forget your parents. Forget your friends. Just remember yourself, and jump.

You waited for the mysterious man to speak back. Waited for him to contradict your thoughts. Waited for him to beg you not to kill yourself. You waited for him to say something, but the man simply looked at you with uninterested eyes.

You stared back. His cat-shaped eyes transformed from dark blue to black then brown. You figured it was due to the sky lightning itself. He was a regular looking guy, roughly around your age. His face seemed familiar, only because his features was nothing different than the other guys in your school. His black hair clung unto his forehead. His left hand tucked into the pocket of his ripped jeans- even though it’s winter- and his right hand holding a flashlight.

That was the first time you saw him. All the way back to the last day of school before winter vacation. You were completely unaware back then how this rude stranger will mean the whole universe for you. Up until now, you still daydream about the miraculous day of 2010.

“Do it this Saturday,” he said, still stoic-faced.

“What?” you shouted.