Chapter 8

"Yah Heo Young Saeng… why did you have to do this to me?"

Ji Eun mumbled as she fell down on the sand, worn out from throwing the many 
stones and shells she picked from the beach.

Flashback

"Ji Eun ah, mianhae. Hyung didn't want you to know about it"

"Why? Why not?"

"His chances of survival was slim, the tumor was too rare"

"But I could at least be by his side… he didn't have to come out with all those…"

"He wanted you to forget him and move on"

"…"

"Miane"

"Is there anything else you're keeping from me?"

"The donor, is Hyung…"

End of Flashback

Everything that Jungmin had told her over the phone, was still fresh in her mind.

She couldn't believe they had kept everything from her all this while, and that 
she had even once doubted and gotten upset at him.

She tried to recall the events that happened in an attempt to piece everything 
together, but realized there was nothing she could really visualize.

The only things that she supposedly saw and felt, was through his voice.

How could she have known that he wasn't well?

And that he had actually planned everything to minimize the pain that she 
would have gone through?

What about him?

--- 

Kyu Jong returned to the office to pick up his phone after the meeting and got 
worried when he failed to reach Ji Eun.

"Kyu Jong hyung, is that you?"

"Jungmin ah, yes it's me. Wae?"

"She found out about it"

"Mwoh? About what?"

"Young Saeng hyung. I didn't know she was the one on the line when I called 
to remind you about his anniversary…"

"What did you tell her?"

"The truth. We can't possibly keep it from her anymore"

"Yah! Why did you have to tell her?!"

He sped off to her home after hanging up on Jungmin and made his way down to 
the beach after her mother suggested that she might have gone there instead.

"Ji Eun ah…"

Kyu Jong stood behind in silence as he waited for her response. 
He knew she had heard him, but was probably feeling too confused to speak.

"The first time we met, did you already know about it?"

"Miane…"

"I really don't need your pity…"

She didn't quite like the fact that people took extra care of her because of her 
disability back then. In fact, she kind of hated it at times.

"It's not that Ji Eun, I really"

He knew that everything was gone when she freed herself from his grasp before he 
could finish speaking and ran off, leaving him standing alone in the darkness of the 
beach. It took him several seconds before he came to his senses and began 
running after Ji Eun, only to find that she had boarded a cab and left.

He never meant to, but it was Young Saeng's wish to keep it from her as long as 
possible so that she could forget him and move on. Young Saeng knew that she 
would eventually find out one day, but hoped that perhaps the hurt could be 
minimized as time passed. 

And Kyu Jong would be the perfect person he could entrust Ji Eun to.

Kyu Jong was reluctant at first, but gave in as he saw Young Saeng's health 
deteriorating. It all began out of concern, but somehow gradually turned into 
something else more than that. 

Sighing as he lifted his head from the steering wheel he had been lying on for the 
past half an hour, he decided to make his way to her place, just to ensure she was 
home safely. How was he going to help her get over this? And how was he ever 
going to convince her about his true feelings again?

"You knew about it, didn't you? "

Ji Eun asked her parents who were seated in the living room, waiting for her to return. 

Locking herself up in the room after getting a response from them, she began 
rummaging through her drawers hoping to find at least a photo of them that might 
have been left behind, but there was none. Nothing that could have reminded her 
of the times they spent together.

"What was it about capturing and preserving the most precious moments in life? 
You could have at least left me a photo…"

Knowing that her daughter was already awake and most probably didn't sleep 
through the night, Ji Eun's mother knocked on the door again for the last time 
before leaving the house the next morning.

"We're going to visit the boy. Are you coming with us?"