You knew you had sufficiently hurt Junhong, or Zelo as he was now called, enough when he stopped calling. The few times he did, he only spoke to his aunt. “Junhong-ah, would you want to speak to her?” her voice was soft and you could hear her coaxing him, trying to make him change his mind.

            You only walked back into your room so as to not hear his rejection. It was alright. This was precisely the way you wanted things to go. It had been your conscious decision to not let him say goodbye to you. And now, you wanted to believe that it was your conscious decision to make him mad at you.

            Your aunt hated that the two of you went this way but you never explained to her. She was always trying to make peace between the two of you but you would smile and tell her that what was done, was done. There was no use hankering for the past. You followed him, of course.

            It mattered to you how he was doing and when he came out with a duet with the leader, you were proud of him. He had improved so much in dancing and his rapping was beyond anything you imagined. You giggled to yourself when you read through the comments on the music video. People were finally noticing how good he looked as well.

            It tired you out to worry so much now. It was a good thing Junhong was doing well because if you had to be honest to yourself, if you worried anymore, you would probably explode. You laughed to yourself. You were slowly turning into one of his fangirls. “Go Junhong!” you cheered.

            But this was only predebut. When their first album came out, Junhong mailed back two tickets for you to go up and see them. His aunt was ecstatic. “He wants us to go to him! It’s this Friday!”

            Your face fell. “This Friday?”

            She turned to look at you and the excitement faded as well. “Right. That’s when you have to go back for your checkup. It’s an all day thing isn’t it?”

            You nodded. “Go auntie. Please. Junhong will need support. I can have our neighbor drive me there. And I’ll stay in the hospital for a while anyway. You can always come back and visit me. I won’t die during a checkup.”

            She shook her head. “Don’t’ say such things!” the older woman scolded. “Oh, Junhong will be so disappointed. He has been wanting to see you for a long time. It’s been almost nine months since he went away.”

            “There should be more performances. He better send us tickets too.”

            So arrangements were made. Before you left for the hospital, you tapped the elder’s shoulder. “Auntie, please don’t tell him about me. I’m just busy with school, okay?”

            You knew this was the hardest part. She never understood why you would hide such a fatal disease from him. But you still made her promise and she sighed, saying, “But you must tell him eventually.”

            The dialysis was painful and you could only reassure yourself with the fact that Junhong was currently fulfilling his dream and that thought made you feel reassured. You woke up once only to feel a stabbing pain to your kidneys and collapsed once more, downed in the ocean of anesthesia that the doctor had used to keep you subdued.

            When you finally woke up, you found enough strength to watch his performance. In a matter of two days, you had already memorized the dance and moved along with them. Junhong’s rap was impressive and you almost wanted to text him, to tell him how proud you were of him. But you didn’t.

            When his aunt came to pick you up, she said, “He was upset. He wanted you there. I told him that an emergency came up. He didn’t believe me. You need to talk to him.”

            You kept putting it out of your mind. But your functions were slowly diminishing. It hurt to stand, to move, to breathe. You knew you were at the end of your life and you didn’t quite know how to handle it. You were only sixteen and you should have so much more to look forward to. Instead, every day, every minute was precious.

            After another checkup, your caretaker brought you out of the hospital to find a black van waiting for you. She opened the door for you and someone’s arms came out to pull you in. Your mouth fell open.

            “J-junhong!”

            It was him. He had dyed his hair blonde and rather than the swishy hair, he now had a mop of curls. He looked older and a little more tired. You reached up to cup his cheek. “You need to rest.”

            He shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?” There was a sorrow to his voice and his eyes were glistening with unshed tears. You bowed your head. “If I knew, I would never have left.”

            The car was slowly moving and his aunt waved from outside. You couldn’t look at him. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. I wanted you to leave. You deserve to pursue your dreams. I didn’t want to hold you back.”

            He held you to him and you allowed yourself that brief moment of happiness and gave yourself in to him. He rubbed your back and you winced. He had touched a bruise. He noticed and pulled you away. “You’ve been hurting and you never told me.” He only sounded defeated and you held his hand.

            “I saw your performance in the hospital. The first one. It was impressive. “Burn It Up” had great choreography. You’re one of the best dancers in the group, I can tell. You improved so much. I’m proud of you.”

            “Don’t change the subject.”

            You shook your head. “I just want to talk about you.”

            Junhong hugged you and you leaned against his shoulder, allowing yourself to dream. This was the life you had wanted to live. The van pulled in front of the studio and he ushered you in. For the entirety of the performance, you were in tears.

            At the very end, you could no longer travel. But Junhong always contacted you and you talked whenever he wasn’t busy. But when the end came, you called him and told him that you loved him. He had to go the moment after the words were uttered. “I’ll call you back.”

            You had the hospital air their performance live. You knew there would be no other phone call. You watched him and cheered for him one last time. You could feel yourself shutting down. Everything hurt. But nothing did when you were watching him.

            At the very end, when they were ending the program, he said, “There is someone very special who is watching this program today. I love you, and always will. Thank you for supporting me. Hwaiting~” He blew a kiss to the camera.

            You giggled and reached out a palm to catch it. The kiss landed against your skin, butterfly soft and you placed it against your heart. You closed your eyes and smiled. A soft sigh escaped your lips and peace settled. The machines in the hospitals stated to beep. 

Because people requested for a sequel.

To help me move along the stories, I won't be writing anymore sequels until I open requests again.

Hopefully, I can diminish the list enough so that I can open December 10.

Although I want to push it back to after December 15 because that's when I find out that I'm rejected from college. Not even confident.

>-----<