2008

The first snow that Ahyoung saw through the hospital window. It's been couple weeks she was in the hospital. She did not hear anything from Sehun after that day. The sound of the door sliding made her turn, it was Kris. The boy who was helping her at the time when she thought he was Sehun.

"You're so neat, visiting me with a tuxedo." She looked over at him with a thin smile.

He looked at her in thoughtful then closed the door behind him. He walked towards her and sat down at the chair next to her bed. He looked at her, "I just came from Jihye's funeral."

Her eyes shaken, "What? Why didn't you tell me?" 

She wanted to move down but Kris stopped her. "It's better you stay in the hospital."

She shook her head. "No." She pulled her blanket.

He stood and held her shoulders tightly. "Just hear my words." He gave her a stare.

"How can I stay here when I saw how she died." She swallowed at the end of the words like it tore off her chest again.

"They claimed Jihye committed suicide."

"What are you saying?" She glared at him. 

"The police stated that Jihye committed suicide."

Ahyoung shook her head. "No." She hurried to move down but Kris held her back again. "She was killed in front of my eyes!" She yelled at him.

Kris paused, sighed, and sat down again. "There is nothing you can do."

"I'll tell my dad!"

"Even your dad..." Kris looked into her eyes hesitant.

"He changed the story about your accident to the police to protect Mino's father. That's why Jihye was made as if she committed suicide and you have nothing to do with her." 

Ahyoung fell in silence, she couldn't believe what just she heard because her parents didn't say anything as long as they accompanied her in the hospital. 

She looked away in confusion. All emotions filled her chest. "Get out."

"I am—"

"Just get out," Ahyoung said coldly as she lay on her bed and turned her back on him. 

"Okay, I get it." He looked over at her before walked towards the door. "You can call me anytime." He said after sliding the door and leave her alone.

After a few minutes, Ahyoung glanced at the door and got up. She pulled the drip from her hand, a little blood comes out from there. She walked quickly to the lobby with tears rolled down her cheeks. When the bullet pierced through Jihye's head, it was still a clear memory that made her chest tight. The face of that man still loomed in her sleep. How can someone be so cruel to eliminate events that they don't even see in an instant when she who sees them not even be able to bury them in one night.

"Dad!" She entered the meeting room where there were some people who were also there. "How can you do that?!" She gave her father a shoot on his face.

"I am sorry, your daughter forced in to see you." A secretary came in quickly after her.

Mr. Kim sighed and nodded that it's okay. He looked at his employees as a signal for them to get out of the room. After only the two of them left, Ahyoung asked about Jihye's death. She has told everything to her parents but why were they silent.

Mr. Kim relax. "This is my way of saving our family." 

"Save? What do you mean?"

"Mino's father will soon be serving as the deputy mayor of Seoul. We will have a hard time surviving, my company, you and your mother."

She bites her lower lip in disbelief. "You don't care about us. But, your position. You're part of his dirty politics."

He looked away, couldn't stand looking at his daughter. "After this, you go to New York and continue your studies there."

"She's my friend! I saw her killed, Dad!" She swallowed.

"But, no one will believe you! Do you know why?!" He yelled back at her. "Everything is planned! Only you were the one see and only you were must be silent!"

"They even want to kill me too!"

"But you're still here and alive." 

She couldn't believe her eyes to seeing the other side of her dad. "Mino! How about Mino?!" She raised her eyebrows. "He saw what happened that night too."

"Mr. Song gave him a choice, told them what happened to Jihye, or became a prisoner for drug smuggling. Of course, he chose to protect himself."

She smiled thinly, "You're a lawyer, Dad." She loosens her tense from her shoulder. "You can defend Jihye."

"I can't defend someone who is dead."

She shudders. "I can't believe this is you." 

"Look at your hand, you better go back to the hospital."

"My hand? I can't even save my friend with these damn hands."

Kris waited for Ahyoung to leave the law firm's corporate building. He followed her from the hospital and just watched her from afar. After half an hour he waited, Ahyoung walked out in a daze. 

He started the engine and drove slowly behind her. He watched her from top to bottom, she was only wearing hospital clothes and a slipper. It's so cold outside that makes him worry, but he knows that she needs to be alone. It must be shocked to hear the whole thing.

Ahyoung got into the bus and the bus wasn't headed for the hospital. She got off at a bus stop and sat there. She watched people who walked like there was someone who hoped to appear there. 

Kris remained in the car while continuing to pay attention to her. He convinced himself to hold back and leave her alone. 

The sky was getting dark, the air was getting cold and she was still there. Not long, she was getting up suddenly while her eyes rested on something. He looked at her direction and saw Sehun was there. 

She was waiting for him.

Ahyoung seemed to want to call him but hesitated, so she followed him walking from across of him. She kept looking at him and stopped when Sehun looked to meet someone, a woman that he met once in his flat. She seemed to be increasingly hesitant then suddenly ran towards the telephone box.

Kris noticed the movements of the two on the opposite side of the road. Ahyoung seemed to call Sehun because now he picked up her call. After that, Sehun turned to her but he was standing still. Their eyes met, there was a pause between them but he hangs up the phone and continues walked with Jiyoon. 

Ahyoung ran after him and called out to him but he got into the taxi. Kris wonder what she had in mind when she ran jumped into the road, a car almost crashed into her and she stopped. Kris almost got heart attacked because of her. He drove his car towards her but in the next two seconds, as she continues walking, another car came and hit her until she was thrown aside making him stop the car automatically.

Kris got out of the car and quickly ran towards her. 

"Kim Ahyoung!"

The nightmare ends. Ahyoung woke up and saw Kris still sitting on the sofa in front of her bed. She looked out the window, the sun shining brighter than yesterday. It's not snowing today anymore. It has been more than a month she stayed in the hospital.

"Are you awake?" Kris slides his phone inside his pocket and walked towards her bed. "You must be impatient to go home today, right?"

Ahyoung smiled. "I'm happy because I don't have to see you again holding back sleepiness from keeping me here."

"I feel sad instead."

They laughed. Kris was glad to see her bright face again even though she seemed to only hide her sadness. After the accident, her arm suffered a serious injury. She suffered trauma to the limbs that caused the hemorrhage in the ulnar nerve which influences her fine motor movements, she couldn't move her right fingers and doctors call it as a cubital tunnel syndrome. It's taken years of therapy.

"I'm going to continue my studies in New York," Kris said made her looked up in furrowed. He shrugged, "I want to continue meeting you."

Ahyoung hangs opened then laughs like she thought he was kidding. "No way."

He giggled. "It's true."

She looked at him and pressed her lips. "You know, I—"

"We are friends. You just can consider me a friend who can't leave his friend alone there and want to always cheer her up."

Ahyoung only responded to him with a smile. She wasn't sure what to say to him, so she didn't say anything. Kris was so warm and kind to her, it makes her uncomfortable. Shortly, Minah came with her ordered cake from two days ago. 

"What time do you go home?" Minah puts the cake on the table next to the bed and sits on the sofa.

"Wait for the doctor to come, then I can go home," Ahyoung answered her.

Minah nodded with understanding, she looked at her in glazed. "Next week is our graduation day, but you will not be there." 

"There is Kris." Ahyoung gestured towards him.

Kris chuckled. "Before you leave, let's take photos in our uniform school together."

"Oh! You are right!" Minah agreed in excitement.

"Why didn't I think of that."

Ahyoung smiled a lot when there were friends, she would laugh and throw jokes as usual at them. Then, night comes, she was alone, sinking under tension. 

Everything feels empty, her feelings, and also her mind. She feels lost. 

When finally she returned home, she couldn't see her parents' eyes. It made her angry every time she talked with them. She stayed in her room a lot, stressed out of over her situation, but she thought that she deserved this after what happened to Jihye. If only at that time she had not forced her to keep her baby, maybe that night would never have happened. If only she could turn back time and not trying to changes her mind.

A few days before she left for New York, Ahyoung went to her studio. One more thing that tore her heart was the fact that she could not reach her dream. It was so close yesterday but today she can't see it anymore. 

She looked herself on the mirror, her right hand was still bandaged stiffly. She tried to move her fingers but it didn't work. Deep inside her heart, she was very afraid that she could not move it forever, and she could only cry over it. She could not even be angry because she felt God gave her a fair ending. She considered this a punishment for her who could not do anything to Jihye after her tragic death when she knows, but she can't talk and she will be forever a bad friend. She will never be able to forgive herself.

"What are you doing? Don't change anything in this room." Her grandfather came and stopped her from taking off her paintings from the walls. He put back two paintings that had been pulled from the wall.

"Never throw away your handiwork." He warned her in a serious face.

If Ahyoung blinked, the tears would be falling. She tried hard to hold it, "I think there is no reason for me to keep it all of them." She shrugged.

"You will be back." He said. "You will."

She bites inside her lips to stop the trembled, but she could no longer hold back her tears after hearing her stern grandfather's words. It was not the end, but it felt like it was the end of everything.

Grandpa rushed to give her a hug, tightly. "Oh, my dear..." Seeing her granddaughter, broke his heart.

Without saying anything, she just cried in his big arms and felt warm. She just wants to cry and doesn't want to stop. All the weight on her shoulders was gone for a while. After feeling quite calm, she slowly stopped crying. The blurry on her eyes become clearer, her point of view fell on a hand painting on the wall. She could read one name that sticks in her mind every day, all day.

She paused involuntarily while continuing to stare at the painting, all the memories of the day were clearly drawn in the back of her head. "Grandpa, there is someone I want to meet before I leave but he doesn't want to see me. What should I do?"

Grandpa let go of his arms and saw her face. He wiped the tears still on her cheeks and smiled, "Who wouldn't want to meet a beautiful girl like you? He must be stupid."

The corner of her lips turned up, "It's not like that."

"If you think you will never be able to see him again, try until he wants to see you. If he still doesn't want to meet you, you don't need to regret that you tried."

The words from Grandpa became her strength to step into his place a day before she went to New York. She stood in front of the door for a long, not even ringing the bell. She became doubtful and afraid. She turned to the side and found Sunghee standing there in surprise. 

"W-what are you doing here?" Sunghee stammered in front of her. 

Ahyoung smiled and bow a little to her. "I want to meet Sehun, is he here?" She asked.

Sunghee swallowed. "No, he is not here now."

The door suddenly opened, Ahyoung automatically turned to the door and found a familiar man's face in front of her. Their eyes met, Ahyoung steps backward with a stiff expression.

Sunghee walked faster to the door. "You can wait for him outside." Sunghee glanced at her and went inside while pushing her father. 

Ahyoung ended blankly looked at the door. She pressed the doorbell after a question came to her mind, but they have no opening the door for her.

"I just want to ask," Ahyoung said. "Were you asked to be silent about what happened that night too?"

The door opened slowly and only left a slight gap. "I just want to say that Sehun doesn't know anything about this, so don't drag him into your story."