Ae Sook went to her room and locked the door, making sure no one would even try to break inside, and that included her father. It wasn't like she didn't want her father to be around, it was just that she needed privacy this time. She felt sick, and she wanted space.

She went inside the bathroom and washed her face with warm water, feeling calmer than before. She looked at herself in the mirror and noticed that she became paler than before. It was strange to her, and completely new. She usually looked healthy and bright, but now, she looked quite the opposite.

She traced the veins in her neck with the tips of her fingertips, until her fingers reached down to her collarbones. Her collarbones could be felt more now, compared to before. She grew worried; she really didn’t want this to end yet.

Just not yet.

She gave her reflection in the mirror a weak smile, and she muttered, “Why are you so weak, Ae Sook? Aren’t you supposed to stay strong for mother?”

Her heart felt heavy again, and she blinked a couple of times so that the tears wouldn’t fall one by one as if it signified her sadness like the rain. She exited the bathroom and made her way to her bed, sitting down slowly as she rested her back on the soft mattress, feeling the cold bedsheets just beneath her. She wondered if she would be able to feel this before her last moments. But she slowly shrugged those thoughts away with a small smile.

She reached out to her cabinet that was just near the bed, and she opened the drawer. She took out a brown journal and opened it to a new page.

The journal was thick and it looked rather worn out, with some of the pages wet from her tears, with some parts torn because of too much use and too much flipping. What do you expect from a journal that was more than 10 years of age? Yes, she still had it ever since she was in first grade, and now she was graduating soon. The journal saved all her memories, all her treasured moments, all her secrets and everything she had been keeping from everyone for a long time.

She has been isolated and she was somewhat like a timid person, but all she had was her journal; it was like her bestfriend who would always listen to what she had to say, or rather write. She got her pen from the drawer and started to write the things that had happened today, and how she felt when Kai gave her all the attention she could ever ask for. She smiled while she continued to write, biting her lips occasionally, focusing more on the pages. She didn’t even hear the knock on her door, and when she snapped out of her daze, she heard it.

“Ae Sook? Are you alright in there, honey?” Her father asked and she sighed