Chapter 31: Slow Motion

The bad things that occur in your life seem to happen in slow motion, just slowly drifting passed you as you wait for it to surpass, and when the happier times come, it just seems to fly by, as if you’ve thrown a clock out a window. You don’t necessarily mean for it to work that way, it just does. There’s nothing you can do about it.

One thing that I do often, is try to savour a perfect moment, try and capture it in a bottle and store it in my heart forever, so when I look back at it, all of those peaceful memories, comforting scents and the warm feelings will come back to me, like a rush of water, engulfing me in a strong aroma of nostalgia.

But whenever I try that, I can never seem to remember it as clearly as I would like to. There’s always a piece of the memory missing and sometimes they get jumbled up with other memories.

If that happens with good memories, why is it always the opposite with the memories you don’t want to remember?

Thinking back to all the painful times in my life, I can almost perfectly remember exactly how I was feeling, the pain I endured and the situation I was in and even the number of tears I shed. It was like everything was in high definition, unlike the good memories where the picture was hazy.

As the events unfolded, I found them doing exactly that, going in slow-motion. Even as Tiffany stormed into the room and grabbed Yoona by the hair, dragged her out of the door. Even Yoona’s yelps were in slow-motion, echoing through my brain. She slammed the door shut, turning to me.

There she stood, right there. The picture in front of me seemed so much clearer than usual. I could see literally everything. Her tear stained cheeks, her smooth porcelain skin, her perfect cheekbones, and her fringe that swept just past her eyebrows. Her eyes, the way they burned with anger, betrayal, frustration and confusion. I could see all that, even though there were tears spilling out endlessly.

It was only until she slapped me, hard, across the cheek, that I came back to reality. Everything at its normal pace, and the realization of what had just happened flushed over my body as if I was going through menopause.

Yoona just kissed me...on the lips... and Tiffany walked in as it was happening.

My senses kicked in again as I began to feel the stinging of her hand spread throughout the side of my face. I put my hand on my cheek, my eyes glued to the ground.

“Get out.” She said in a harsh and hurt tone. I got the impression that if she had yelled she would just end up breaking down. I knew her too well.

I slowly raised my head to see her looking away from me, her tears falling. It was probably too much pain to look at me now. I knew I had done nothing wrong, but this was not the time to explain or argue.

Without another word, I left the room, walking straight past her. I reckoned that I would be sleeping on the couch tonight. Since the living room was empty, Yoona had probably gone back to her own room, or left for good. I was hoping it was the latter.

Tiffany slammed the door behind me, as I heard her sobs through the piece of wood separating us. The moon was my only source of light in the dark room.

I walked over to the couch, picking up a glass and throwing it against the wall, hearing the glass shatter into a million little pieces, scattering everywhere, some of the pieces probably lost, much like the way Tiffany’s heart was right now.

I ran my hands through my hair in utter frustration. I had done nothing wrong. It was all Yoona’s fault. The alcohol from the event had made me a little tipsy, I wasn’t really in full control over my body, and so it was probably easier to take advantage of me.

I slumped onto the couch, putting my hands behind my head, staring up at the ceiling, listening to Tiffany’s sobs in the other room. I wanted to go in there and comfort her, but I knew she would just push me away. Things would have to be sorted out back in Korea, in a more private place, not here.

I let a tear finally escape my eye. If I had just pushed Yoona away, then maybe we wouldn’t be in this predicament right now.

* * *

We walked through Heathrow airport, our guards making a circle around us to stop anyone coming near. The flashing of the cameras was making it hard for me to see. There were tons more reporters and fans than when we had actually arrived in London.

When we woke up this morning, one of our guards had informed us that Yoona had already left on an earlier flight back to Seoul. She probably didn’t want to face us after what had happened.

So that just left Tiffany and I, alone. She had not said a word to me since last night and it was literally killing me from the inside out. She had barely even acknowledged me. I hated this, I hated Yoona and I hated fighting like this with the person that means the whole entire world to me.

I had to talk to her, now. I didn’t care if this was a bad time. We had to sort this out now. I sped up my walking pace to catch up with her, grabbing her wrist. She spun around as even more camera flashes rained down on us.<