It's getting closer....  My heart hurts...  But anyways, CNBLUE Blind Love came out today!  Congratulations; it sounds wonderful!

Chapter 43:  The Day Before

            “You’re leaving?!” I exclaimed.  Yonghwa clamped his hand over my mouth.  He came to my house a few days before my birthday to tell me something.

            “Shhh, no one knows except the other members and our families.  CNBLUE isn’t breaking up permanently, anyways.  We’re going to announce it to the public at our last concert.  So, we’ll have your birthday party a day in advance because the concert is on the day of your birthday,” Yonghwa explained as he pushed me into my house.  I was really shocked.  I thought CNBLUE would never break up.  I felt really sad, but I knew it had to happen someday.

            “Yonghwa, will you visit?” I asked as tears started to form in my eyes.  He smiled gently at me and wrapped me in his arms.

            “I’ll try, kiddo.  We’ll see,” he whispered as he hugged me.

            “I know it isn’t your birthday, but since I’m leaving tomorrow, let’s all spend the day together!” Yonghwa exclaimed at my front door.  I peered behind him and saw all the other CNBLUE members standing behind him.  Jungshin waved and Minhyuk smiled brightly at me.  Jonghyun looked at me briefly, but avoided making eye contact.  I smiled at the four guys.  This might be the last day that they would be together as a band.  It was an honor to get to spend that day with them.

            “Okay,” I said to Yonghwa as I stepped outside and locked the door.  “Then, let’s spend as much time together as possible!  But since the concert is tomorrow, don’t you have to rehearse?” I asked the 4-man band.

            “I’ve spent too much time rehearsing; ditching one day won’t hurt anyone,” Yonghwa said nonchalantly.  I chuckled and held Yonghwa and Jonghyun’s hands as we walked on the sidewalk.

            We spent the day walking around doing random things.  “Oppa!  Want to try some of mine?” I offered Jonghyun the ice cream I was eating.  Yonghwa burst out into laughter and I was confused.

            “T-that’s what I said right before Jonghyun butted into our ice cream date,” Yonghwa choked out as he laughed.  I remembered perfectly what had happened.

            “Yup!  Wait, date?!  Yonghwa, you didn’t tell me it was a date!” I said while lightly hitting Yonghwa’s shoulder.  Yonghwa shrugged.

            “Even Jonghyun could tell I was trying to ask you out,” Yonghwa said as if he was discussing the weather.  I blushed and looked at the floor awkwardly.

            “I accept your offer,” Jonghyun said as he the ice cream cone.  Minhyuk chuckled.  We all realized a long time ago that although Jonghyun was good at changing the subject, he did it very awkwardly.

            “Go ahead,” I said as I turned to face Jonghyun who was sitting on the bench beside me.  It took skill to eat ice cream while someone else was holding it, so Jonghyun’s lips were covered in a layer of light pink ice cream.  I laughed at him and clutched my midsection.  “Oppa,” I said while out of breath.

            He planted his ice cream covered lips on my cheek and smeared the ice cream all over my face.  It was warm outside, so I could feel a giant cold spot on my face.  “OPPA!  GROSS!” I exclaimed while gently hitting his shoulder.  He chuckled and got a napkin.  He held my face in one of his hands and used the other to gently wipe the ice cream off my face.

            “Errrm,” Minhyuk said.  I realized that everyone was staring at the two of us and I blushed.

            “Hmm, where do you want to go next?” I asked Jonghyun.  Yonghwa wanted to go to this ice cream parlor because it was where we ate ice cream together.  Jonghyun thought for a moment.

            “The park!” he shouted.  I looked at him with a confused expression.  There were many parks, so I wasn’t sure if he meant a specific park or a park in general.  “You know, THE PARK.  The one we went to after eating dinner at Minhyuk’s house,” Jonghyun said.  I smiled.  I wasn’t sure why Jonghyun wanted to go to places where we could reminisce also, but I agreed.

            “Mmkay, then Minhyuk can decide where we will go afterwards,” I stated as we got up to leave the ice cream parlor.

            Jonghyun and I sat down on the swings.  Minhyuk, Jungshin, and Yonghwa didn’t even know that we went to the park after dinner, so they didn’t question what we were doing.  I don’t know why, but I felt that Yonghwa was holding back from telling me something.  I didn’t question him because I feared that it would ruin one of his last days with the band and my birthday.  “Do you want me to scream at you?” I teased Jonghyun.  Jonghyun chuckled.

            “Hey, I was the one who started yelling at you first,” Jonghyun said.  We sat on the swings for a while and watched Yonghwa play on the slides like a little kid.  Minhyuk and Jungshin were sitting on the seesaw, but they were way too tall for it so it looked strange.

            “I’m going to miss days like this,” I told Jonghyun as we watched everyone have fun together.

            “Me too,” Jonghyun whispered barely loud enough for me to hear.

            “Why don’t I get to choose a place to go?” Jungshin complained.  We had already roamed around and done many things.  It was Minhyuk’s turn to pick what to do.

            “Because you’re the maknae,” Minhyuk said pointedly.  “Let’s go to my house,” Minhyuk said cheerfully.  He held my hand and dragged me along.

            “Happy Birthday!” Minhyuk’s mom said as the door swung open.  I smiled widely, but corrected her.

            “Thank you omoni, but my birthday is tomorrow,” I said politely.  She herded everyone inside.

            “Nonsense, we can celebrate a day earlier!” she said as she ushered us to the table.

            When we finished eating dinner, Yonghwa exclaimed, “Present time!  I probably won’t be able to give you your present tomorrow, so we decided that everyone would give you your presents today.”  I smiled and thanked Yonghwa.  “Mine first!” he said excitedly.  I chuckled and nodded.  Yonghwa almost always got his way.  He was a spoiled child.  He handed me a box and an envelope.  I opened the envelope first.

            “You got me tickets to see your last concert?  Gomawo~” I said as I hugged Yonghwa.  He laughed and patted my head.

            “That’s not even the present.  I forgot to give those to you earlier,” he said as he urged me to open the box.  I almost died of laughter when I saw what was inside.  There were several items in it.  There was a framed picture of the five of us, an old towel with the CNBLUE logo, and a signed Yonghwa poster.

            “Haha, this is priceless,” I gasped while looking through the box.

            “Mhmm, I knew you would like it.  Jungshin said you wouldn’t.  The photo is a token of our friendship, and I looked in your diary and found out that you wanted to catch MY towel,” Yonghwa posted.  I blushed and Jonghyun spit out the water he was drinking.

            “I never said that!  I said that it would be nice if I could catch a CNBLUE towel,” I strongly denied.  Yonghwa laughed at my denial of admiring him.

            “Sure,” he said sarcastically.  “The poster is just something I decided to throw in,” Yonghwa added while pointing out a little doodle in the corner near his signature.  “Look, that’s me and that’s you.  We’re holding hands,” he winked at me.  I whacked him on the head playfully.

            “Why don’t you have any pants?” I teased as I pointed to the male stick figure.  Yonghwa had nothing to say, so Jungshin butted in.

            “Here,” he announced while dropping something on my lap.  “It’s not anything big because I figured that since I’m not leaving I can get you something better next year,” Jungshin said as I opened the small package.

            “Ewww, is that your face cream?” Minhyuk said while peering over my shoulder.

            “Hey, she’s lucky I bought her some.  I don’t share my face cream with anyone,” Jungshin told Minhyuk.  I laughed loudly.

            “Thanks, ‘unni,’” I said teasingly to Jungshin.  He stuck his tongue out at me.  Although I received weird presents, I loved them all the same because I knew that they came from the heart.

            “Is it my turn yet?  I had so much trouble,” Minhyuk said from behind me.  He moved Yonghwa aside so that he could stand beside me.  Yonghwa pouted but did not say anything.  Minhyuk’s mom had left the room a few minutes earlier, so it was just the five of us in the room.  “You said that all I had to do was be here, so I got us something so we can always be together,” Minhyuk said.  Everyone was looking at him strangely, and I had no idea what he was saying.  “After I bought this, I realized that your necklace already had our picture in it,” he sighed.

            “It does?!  I didn’t even know it opened,” I exclaimed while fiddling with the necklace that was hanging around my neck.  Yonghwa laughed at us.

            “Anyways, here you go,” he said as he dropped something in my lap.  It wasn’t wrapped, and it appeared to be a device similar to a phone.

            “What’s this?” I asked Minhyuk as I picked it up and turned it over in my hands.  There was a clip so that you could attach it to pants or a belt.

            “A long distance walkie-talkie that has video,” Minhyuk said while showing his matching one that he pulled off of his belt.

            “Isn’t that like a phone, but you can only call one person?” Jonghyun said pointedly.  Minhyuk’s face dropped.

            “I know… I didn’t realize that we could just call each other…” Minhyuk said sadly.

            “Thank you!  I love it!” I said to Minhyuk.  I hugged his arm because he was standing up.  “I’ll use it often,” I told Minhyuk as I attacked it to the waistband of my skirt.  Minhyuk’s face brightened immediately.  He patted my head cheerfully.

            “Jonghyun’s turn~” Yonghwa sang.  He was dancing while standing up and I started laughing.  Jungshin snorted and Minhyuk chuckled.

            “Mhmm,” Jonghyun said as he stood up to get something from the corner of the room.  “Take care of my baby, okay?” he said as he handed me an old looking acoustic guitar.

            “Oppa!  I can’t take this!  Take it back!” I yelled at Jonghyun.  It was no exaggeration that his guitar was his baby.  Sometimes he even slept with it.

            “No, Misun-ah,” he said while smiling weakly, “there’s a reason for everything.” He placed the guitar in my arms and held my hand in his.  He placed an envelope in my hands.

            “You can’t read this until tomorrow after the concert,” Jonghyun said solemnly, “Promise me?”  I looked at him suspiciously, but reluctantly nodded.  I set the guitar in its case and took it from him.

            “Okay,” I said.  Jonghyun looked surprisingly serious.

            “Let’s eat cake!” Yonghwa said to lighten the mood.  “We all tried our best to make this.  Minhyuk’s umma helped a little,” Yonghwa said while pulling a cake out of the refrigerator.

            “Oh my gosh,” I gasped as the misshapen light blue cake came into view.  It was slightly lopsided and “Happy Birthday Misun!” was scribbled onto the top in white icing.  I chuckled at the faces that they drew out of icing.  I couldn’t tell which one was me and which one was Jungshin because there were two smiley faces with long hair.  “Is that Jonghyun-oppa?” I asked while pointing to a white splotch on the cake that had a face scribbled on it.

            Yonghwa snickered, “You can tell because of the pale skin, right?”  Jonghyun blushed.

            “They told me to use that color,” Jonghyun said while pointing to the blob that slightly resembled his face.  I laughed.

            “Okay, this is Minhyuk because of the eye smile,” I said while pointing to a peach colored circle that had curvy lines for eyes.

            “The handsome one is me,” Yonghwa said while pointing to the only smiley face that had eyebrows on it.  I could tell Yonghwa drew it because he tried to make the hair detailed.  It looked like the other guys just smeared a dark colored blob of frosting on for hair.

            “Which one is me?” I asked Jungshin as I pointed to the two smiley faces with long hair.

            “The pretty one,” Minhyuk said jokingly and Jungshin lightly punched his arm.  Jungshin pointed near the center of the cake.  I realized that there was one member in each corner of the cake and “I” was near the center.

            “Did you guys all make this together?” I asked while my eyes started to moisten.  The guys nodded.

            “Thank you!  It’s too cute to eat!  I want to take a picture with it!” I exclaimed as I pulled everyone behind me.  Minhyuk got his camera out and took a picture of us.  Yonghwa barely fit into the frame, and the picture was taken in a very awkward position.  “Minhyuk-ah, send me that later, okay?” he nodded and put his camera away so Yonghwa couldn’t delete the photo.

            “Thanks guys; this was the best birthday ever,” I told the four CNBLUE members as Yonghwa picked his face off the cake and ate it.  “That’s a little disturbing,” I said as I watched him eat his own face.

            “It’s not your birthday yet, but I’m glad that I could spend our last days as CNBLUE celebrating your birthday,” Yonghwa said.  I laughed and placed a chunk of cake on Jonghyun’s plate.

            “I love you guys,” I told them as I purposely stabbed my fork into what was left of Yonghwa’s face on the cake.

            “That’s mean, but I love you too kiddo,” Yonghwa said as he tried to take the rest of my cake away from me.

            “I love you too Misun-ah!  I can’t even remember life without you here,” Minhyuk said cheerfully while stuffing his face with cake.

            “Same here,” Jungshin said while smiling at me.

            “Love you too,” Jonghyun whispered softly so I could barely hear.  I smiled at him and thanked God for meeting such wonderful people.

This was supposed to be a fairly non-dramatic chapter...  Well, because the next one is heartbreaking.  I cried while writing it.  This one and the next are pretty long, but they are really important to the story.  I appreciate your comments!