Summary:

Jonghyun and Amethyst were once college sweethearts but after graduating university they slowly lost contact with each other, resulting into a break up. Amethyst still finds herself having feelings for Jonghyun despite the time apart -- but she has not seen him in almost 10 years, that is until she finds herself walking down cherry blossom lane on one fateful day.

10 years prior.

 

The graduation ceremony was long and painful but finally they had their degrees and the world in their hands. Jonghyun and Amethyst were free for a brief moment from the academic stress, essays, midterms and exams – they were the proud owners of bachelors degrees. “I can’t believe we have finally made it through university,” Jonghyun cheered with his hands raised towards the clouds, gripping onto the flimsy paper that cost a little too much. Amethyst laughed, one that she only reserved for him.

 

“ For now – you’re going to be jetting off to another country after this summer to expand your mind even more.” She had relentlessly all semester on this fact but in reality she was going to miss him more than she could communicate. The two had been friends since first year and slowly their friendship blossomed into love; they were pretty much inseparable and were deemed the it couple within their friendship ground.

 

“Class of 99’ baby!!” Minho yelled into the air beside them – a close friend of the two of them and had seen their relationship grow throughout the years. 

 

Jonghyun, Amethyst and Minho found their friend group among the crowd, dragging them away from relatives – they had plans. They ditched their robes quickly and rushed to the forest – the girls relieved themselves of the uncomfortable high heels and opted to be barefoot. They all had spent a lot of time in the forest, it was a safe haven from university – they could be themselves in peace. Hidden behind a group of bushes within the forest was a small round opening with tree stumps following the round shape. The group snuck in, making sure no one was watching them — some other group later would find this spot and claim it for their own but for now this was their world.  The giggling was infatuated throughout the group – a natural high. Minho pulled up a bag hidden in a surrounding bush, it clinked as it arose. “Let’s celebrate,” proclaimed Minho, as he pulled out champagne and glasses from the backpack. The pop of the champagne echoed throughout the forest and this infused the laughter within the group even more. 

 

Jonghyun and Amethyst snuggled close together while sipping on the champagne, which tasted cheap but it didn’t matter. The sun was in an orange state and the sky seemed to be on fire. The group promised no matter what to never forget this moment, to stay in contact and to grow old together. It was only a promise. Soon enough, obligations called…members of the groups had to celebrate with their parents and relatives – suddenly Jonghyun and Amethyst were all alone. “You promise me you’ll email me when you get there?” she asked Jonghyun. 

 

“Of course! You really do need to get a cellphone — “

 

“Can you do long distance calls?” 

 

“I’m not sure...” Jonghyun paused, “but I will email you – I love you.” 

 

10 years later.

 

Amethyst longingly looked out at her bedroom window, the moon had been absent for some time but now the moon rays glistened and danced throughout the night sky; even the stars seemed to be gliding around the moon with happiness and then she smiled to herself. A reminder of words she hadn’t heard in some time echoed in her mind, “I think time really is a medicine but, sometimes, it’s hard to know how to swallow that medicine.” Time…she thought to herself, time is such a strange thing. It passes quickly without us even knowing while we complain that the days are slow and drag on…perhaps if we were smarter with our words then time would slow down. She crept down from her spot on the window and rummaged through her closet to find something with importance, a memory box. She nestled into the closet, clothes stacked up for donation supporting her back and she opened the box. 

 

Ticket stubs, photographs, letters, and an abundance of random items filled the box…it was surprising how the box even stayed closed with the amount of memories enclosed within it. Amethyst lingered for a while, somewhat afraid to dive into the memories she had tried to swallow away with time…was it a good idea to revisit the past? Was she even ready to look through those moments, it still hurts even ten years later. She decided to leave the memories in the box, they didn’t need to enter her mind once again. Shoving the box back into the closet she sighed deeply. I don’t think time will ever make things okay. Time had passed on without her really knowing. The spring was around the horizon and Amethyst made a promise to herself that by the time the cherry blossoms bloomed she would finally be over him…easier said than done but she was determined to move forward finally. Do you really ever get over your first love?

 

A few weeks had passed since Amethyst had pondered the past, the air was crisp with change and the sound of songbirds — the cherry blossoms had begun to bloom. I suppose it is time, she thought to herself. She decided – unlike other years — to take a stroll through the cherry blossomed lane, she had avoided them for so long due to the fact she was always reminded of him when she saw them and in turn had hated them. She now saw them with new eyes, they had such a beauty to them…so simple and elegant in their pink and white shades. She watched as the wind blew gently through the trees making petals float through the sky, how magical…how did I ever hate such a thing? When was the last time that nature made me feel this way…I suppose it was that evening of graduating university. Amethyst was preoccupied by looking at the dancing petals in the sky and suddenly bumped into another person. “ I’m so sorry! Here let me–” Amethyst began to speak but suddenly her words stopped due to shock. 

“ Amethyst! ” He said surprised, his features were more tan than the last time she saw him but his almond eyes with a rich brown were the same – he had aged a little and that made her heart ache. Time passes. 

 

“Jonghyun…” she caught her breath, “what are you doing here?” The back of her neck began to sweat and she wasn’t sure if she could deal with this sudden interaction, the man who broke her heart was standing right in front of her. She wasn’t sure what to do, she was panicking that is for sure – what was he doing here?

 

“ What are you doing here?” 

 

“I was going to ask you the same thing…”

 

“ I would’ve called you if I had known –” he interrupted her running thoughts, “but I couldn’t find you in any of the phonebooks, I asked some of our old friends but they hadn’t heard from you since… ”

 

“Since we broke up.” 

 

“ Yeah… ” 

 

They looked at each other unsure what else to say, unsure on how to move forward with the conversation and with each other. It had been a long time since they had spoken to each other and there was so much to say but Amethyst was afraid to say anything at all that would remotely make her feel closer to him due to the fear that after this brief moment she would never see him again. “ How long are you here for?” he asked her. 

 

“I live here now, I decided to go back to school a few years ago and this is where I ended up going.”

 

“ You did? That makes me so happy. I hoped after graduating you’d change your mind on going back to school – you were always smarter than me.” 

 

“What brings you here?” she felt her heart freeze over, she wouldn’t allow herself to crumble in front of him. 

 

“ Oh…yeah – I’m here for a wedding.” 

 

A ring glistened on his finger – “Your wedding.”

 

Yeah…yeah.” Jonghyun looked down at the floor and then back at Amethyst, “ you know, I never stopped looking for you. I never stopped thinking about you, about how you were, what you were doing — I just thought… ”

 

 “That we’d meet in a different circumstance?”

 

They both laughed – a deep belly laugh that eventually turned into tears. “ Come on now, we can’t cry – we need to celebrate! We finally caught up with each other. I need to hear what you’ve been doing all these years without me. You think I’m letting you go that easy?” Jonghyun smiled at Amethyst – her heart leapt like it did the first time she ever saw him. The two of them strolled down the lane of cherry blossoms while both reminiscing and catching up at the same time, the conversation flowed so naturally — their hands met each other like old habits do… the sun began to set, an orange glow set upon their faces. 

 

“This sunset reminds me of the one when we graduated…I can’t believe I bumped into you! And you’re getting married!” 

 

“ What timing huh?” Jonghyun paused for a moment, calculating what his next words were going to be, “ I should go…I have things to prepare for tomorrow. If you want you can come to the wedding, it’s the church just up the street from here… it’s in the afternoon” 

 

“Oh…yeah I’ll see if I can make it.”

 

He lingered for a while before he left, leaving Amethyst alone – staring out at the sunset. Alone again. Suddenly she heard footsteps behind her, Jonghyun was running back to her. “ I’m sorry but I just need to know before —” 

 

“Before what?”

 

But he didn’t answer her, instead he kissed her – with such passion that she had never experienced before and when the kiss ended she felt almost winded and unsteady on her feet. Then he was gone again and left her with the tingle of a sunset kiss. She stood there for a while unsure what to do with herself…did this happen or was this a strange, terrible dream to on her emotions? 

 

The Next Day, Amethyst awoke — yesterday wasn’t a dream she thought to herself…it was real. He was meant to get married today, he invited her but could she watch him marry someone after what happened yesterday? That kiss ignited those long forgotten feelings she had for him, they were asleep in her heart but now they were awake once again. She paced around her apartment multiple times, trying to figure out what to do – she wished she could talk to Jonghyun but in the whirlwind of all things of yesterday she forgot to get his cellphone number. She began to rummage through her wardrobe to find a silky, sleek purple velvet dress…if she was going to do this she was going to do this in style. Jesus christ, am I really going to do this? Am I really going to object to a wedding? 

 

The church that Jonghyun mentioned to her was beautiful, an old white colonial style church shone brightly in the sun. Traditional. There were groups of people entering the church's doors, family and friends she didn’t recognize which meant she could blend in without suspicion. She slipped into a pew that was half full, people around her were chatting so she made herself busy looking at the photo of Jonghyun and his wife to be. A sudden gust of guilt crept into her…looking at this woman — she couldn’t do this to her. Amethyst liked to call herself a feminist and doing this wouldn’t be very feminist of her but her heart ached…she wanted to be with Jonghyun, she never stopped loving him after all these years. The wedding was about to start but there was gossip flying through the air, the groom could not be found. Jonghyun wasn’t here? The time kept passing, she could hear a worried bride to be in the corridor sending Jonghyun voicemail to his phone, groomsmen were running around like headless chickens. It was chaos. Amethyst excused herself from the pew – making a slick entrance out of the church. She was going to find Jonghyun. 

 

She headed to the one place that she knew, the cherry blossom lane. She wandered keeping her eyes open for a lost groom among the blossoms and sure enough at the spot where they had kissed yesterday was Jonghyun. He sensed her approaching and looked up, his smile beaming. “ I knew you’d find me.” 

 

“What are you doing?” she sat down next to him, “there are people waiting for you.” 

 

“ I know…I mean, I told her yesterday that I couldn’t do it anymore – getting married and everything. She didn’t believe me, she told me it was cold feet and that she would see me tomorrow at the wedding. I even called her this morning to tell her I wouldn’t be there – she didn’t listen to me and now everyone is disappointed.” 

 

“Did you want to marry her before you saw me?” 

 

“ No. I just was going along with it I suppose, the right thing to do I guess? Which sounds terrible and makes me extremely unlikeable. She gave me an ultimatum: we marry or she leaves me. I still loved her at the time and I thought ‘well duh, you stupid boy you should’ve asked her to marry you ages ago.’ As time went on with the planning…it seemed as if the wedding was about her rather than us, life with her seemed to only be about her than us.”

 

“Did you ever speak to her about this? I’m sorry you felt that way though.” 

 

“ I did but she called me crazy, that I was reading into things too much. We have hardly kissed since being engaged and when I kissed you yesterday – I don’t know, I just thought to myself, ‘what are you even doing? Amethyst is the one you’ve always wanted to marry, you’ve never stopped thinking about her since you broke up – 10 years ago!.” 

 

“I never stopped thinking about you as well…the funny thing is, I told myself a couple days ago to get over you finally. That it had been way too long to still be hung up on an ex for this long and then you just showed up…it was like fate.”

 

“ I promise to never let you go again. Really Amethyst, I mean it .”

Amethyst leant over and kissed Jonghyun, sealing a deal that they would never let each other go, not like the time before – that this time they would grow old together, that they would share meals with each other and the stories of their day until they couldn’t anymore. After a long, painful separation they were finally together, as it should be.