June 2011

HyeMi rang the bell of the Kang residence. The door opened to Daesung’s mother who smiled at HyeMi as she escorted her in.

“HyeMi, how are you?”

“I’m fine, umma-nim. Is Daesung here? I wanted to check on him,” HyeMi asked as she sat down with the woman of the house.

“Actually, Daesung decided not to come home for a while. He’s staying at the company’s dorm. He said that he just needed some time by himself.”

HyeMi looked off and sighed.

“The day of the accident, I went to the church and prayed. That’s all I could think to do for him,” Daesung’s mom grabbed HyeMi’s hand and held it tight.

“That’s all you can do for him right now. Just pray and wait.”

HyeMi sat in her room, running thoughts through her mind of Daesung and how he could be at that moment but she couldn’t. She thought about him without his smile and she couldn’t fully comprehend it. JiEun walked into the room and saw the upset look on her roommate’s face.

“Hey. How are you?”

“I don’t know. I just…I wish I could be there for Daesung but I don’t know how he feels.”

“Well...I don’t know if you should see this,” JiEun handed HyeMi her smartphoone. HyeMi looked at the screen to see comments on an article. Negative comments came one after another on the comment section. HyeMi’s heart dropped. The word that stood out the most was “murderer”. HyeMi felt her hands clench into fist. She wanted to throw the phone but she held back the urge. HyeMi jumped up out of her bed and started to leave but stopped in the doorway and dropped to the floor, crying. There was nothing she could do. She tried to visit him at the dorm before but he just wouldn’t see anyone.

“Why don’t you try calling again?” JiEun said as she helped HyeMi back to the bed.

“He won’t answer. He hasn’t answered me since the accident.”

“Well, at least leave him a message,” HyeMi looked at the phone JiEun was handing her. It was all she could do until Daesung wanted to talk to her. HyeMi started to send a text message but stopped and dial his number. The phone rang and rang before it went to voicemail.

“Daesung-ah! It’s me, HyeMi. Are you…Please be okay. Don’t do anything that you’ll regret and please talk to me. I miss you.”

For the weeks that followed, HyeMi left a message for Daesung on his phone. At first, she hoped for an answer from him soon. As the weeks turned into months, she lost that expectation but as everyday she called and found that his voicemail box was not full, she knew that he listened to her messages.That gave her hope that he was okay.