5. Pleasant Walks

“Tell people that pleasant walks are a reason to live for because you’ll see the new day, you’ll meet new people, you’ll know that you’re alive, and you’ll remember good old days, just because.” - Tyler

Suzy wondered what life would be like if she had it all: family, friends, and a life. Would she still have thought of jumping off that rooftop or would she perhaps be lying on the morgue, waiting for no one to collect her body, and mourn?  She pondered the answers to those questions, and imagined the scenarios. Alas, Myungsoo snapped her out of her reverie.

“What are you thinking about?” Suzy looked up and saw that Myungsoo was no standing in front of her, with his tousled hair and familiar grin.

Suzy shook her head. “I just wanted to say thank you.” She realized that she didn’t need the answers nor did she need to imagine scenarios; she was here now, with Myungsoo somewhat helping her, reasoning with her in his own kind of way.

Myungsoo merely smiled.

“Where are we going today?”

He shrugged. “To wherever.”

After Myungsoo had turned his shirt the right way, he and Suzy took a pleasant walk to the bus stop in comfortable silence. Halfway there, she heard Myungsoo humming to a song she had heard before. A very familiar song, yet, she couldn’t quite wrap her fingers around the title of the song. Nevertheless, it reminded Suzy of her mother, and the good old days.

“Hey, Myungsoo?”

He halted humming and responded, “Yeah?”

“I used to take pleasant walks like this with my mother, of course that was when she was alive, and I was still a kid,” Suzy said. “She used to hold my hand and hum me a song, the very song that you were just humming. Those were my favorite days, Myungsoo, taking walks with her.”

Myungsoo didn’t say anything, simply because something in her voice told him that she wasn’t finish. There was more.

“I miss her. When she died in that car crash, along with my father, I never took walks anymore. I hated it because it reminded me of her, and then I’d feel her warm hands holding mine. Still, it is a memory I love; a memory I cherish,” Suzy turned to look at Myungsoo, who was looking at her with an uncharacteristic look. Then, Suzy flashed him a sad smile.

He said nothing to her, again; instead, he looked forward, hummed, and took her hands into his. Myungsoo felt the warmth of her fingers against his skin, and he decided that maybe they didn’t have to take the bus to go wherever; maybe they could go wherever like this. “Pleasant walks are a reason to live, you know,” Myungsoo started to say, “if you’re walking alone, you're clearing your mind, seeing new things, meeting new people, and breathing the new day. If you’re walking with someone, you know that you’re simply not alone; thus, it is pleasant. If that even makes sense.” He chuckled. Then, after he had said those words, he decided that they didn’t need to take the bus, for now.

“Myungsoo, we’re walking past the bus stop!” Suzy exclaimed.

“I know.” He smiled at her widely, and squeezed her hand gently.

Suzy, understanding everything all at once, smiled back.