CHAPTER 30: Back to Seoul

Numb, she felt numb. This couldn't be happening. After everything they'd been through. After the countless love confessions and promises to be there forever...how could he just walk away?



There was a sense of betrayal, a mounting and inescapable pain threatening to swallow her whole, something greater than anything her parents could do. Without Jiyong, her world was crumbling away. How could he break his word? How could he just run at the slightest sign of trouble?



The elevator ride up the second time was worse than the first, an excruciating amount of shame and embarrassment filling her to her core. Her father would probably gloat, and she couldn't bear the possibility that he was right...that Jiyong was wrong for her.



When she entered the penthouse suite, she tried to escape quickly to the guest bedroom but the elevator bell announced her arrival before she could do so.



“Hmph, so he left you, did he?” her father sneered.



“Yobo,” her mother said, trying to offer some compassion for her daughter.



“What kind of man runs away at the first sign of trouble?” he countered.



Wait. Hadn't she just said the same thing? And suddenly it dawned on her that her fears and her insecurities and the sense of betrayal were just a reflection of what her father had told her all her life whenever she was close to finding love.



“Trust us, darling. It's all for the best. I know it hurts that he's gone. But I think it's noble in a way. He wanted you to have what you deserve. He was man enough to admit he wasn't. You'll forget about him soon. You always do. And then you'll be back where you belong,” her mother said, placing an arm tenderly around her.



Her tears dried completely and clarity came like a flash of light. And finally, a smile found her lips again.



“Umma, don't you understand? Don't you know why I left for Korea in the first place? Don't you know why I felt like I had to run away, to lie, to hide and be a completely different person?”



“You wanted your last taste of freedom, we get it...” her mother began.

“No, you don't. Please hear me out. It wasn't just a taste of freedom. Why would I do all that if I was happy the way I was? If my life was complete and perfect and just where I needed to be? Why would I go through all that trouble to get a little bit of freedom from you if everything was right the way it's supposed to be, and I was the person that I had always imagined myself to be? Please don't get me wrong. This life we live...the luxuries we have...they're wonderful. I can't begin to thank you enough for everything you've always given me. But the material things don't define who I am. I've never been myself truly...ever in my life....until I met Jiyong.”



Her mother stilled, , a hard-pressed line at the beginning, softened with compassion and understanding.



“I found myself with him. I really found myself with him. Who I am who I want to be.....and if you think that I'm better off without him, then you really don't know me at all. He makes me better. I'm competent in all I do. I would make a great CEO, but with Jiyong I would make an outstanding one. He brings out my passion, my drive, my life. I want to be more just so I can feel I deserve someone as wonderful as him. I love you. I always will, but I cannot give him up, and I hope one day you'll understand.”



She hugged her mother and kissed her very shocked father on the cheek as she grabbed her things and headed out the door for the second time that evening.



“Dara! Sandara! Don't you think of coming back! You're no longer my daughter!” her father screamed after her as the elevator doors closed behind her.



“Stop. She's won. Couldn't you see it in her eyes, yobo? She's found her love. I've never seen her more alive.”



“But yobo,” he protested.



“No. We let this play out. We cannot sway her this way. Don't you remember when you were just starting this company? How my father called you insane for pursuing a cosmetics company? How he abhorred you for making his precious angel work and struggle alongside you? How he forbade us to marry? Is Jiyong so much worse for her than you were for me at that age? We end this now. No more meddling. If she chooses to come back to us and give us another chance, we embrace them. He isn't Jason. And Jason is dead. Let it go. Don't punish the boy with a punishment meant for the brother.”



“But...” he grumbled then submitted, a heavy sigh of an overprotective father escaping his lips.



“It wasn't the spending of the money or even that she was spending all this time with a boy. It was because that boy was Jiyong, wasn't it?” she asked softly.



“Of all the people to find her after this horrible crime against her....his twin brother? His TWIN, yobo. How cruel can fate be? Of course she deserves the free time to forget the horrible events that took place. But how can she truly forget with that man sharing the monster's face?”



“And yet she has, yobo. She's miraculously in love with him. And she's blossomed into a fiercely loyal and bold young woman. She never used to talk back to you before,” Dara's mother smiled.



“I liked it better that way,” he muttered.



“Ah but that is not an independent fireball that can take this company into the future. That is a drone that is fed what to think by her parents. I think I like what she's become. She was a fighter before, but now....she is truly in command of her future as a true CEO should be.”



“Yobo!” he sighed. “But we really did like Seungri for her, didn't we?”



“Truth be told, she hit the nail on the head. I wanted him for myself more than for her. He isn't what she needs, yobo. He's what we wanted for us and for the company.”



He sighed and nodded.



“Stop calling her, yobo. Give her some space. We'll catch up with her in Korea.”



“Fine,” he mumbled, shuffling off to the bedroom like a boy denied his bedtime story.







* * *







She knew now that he didn't leave her at the first sign of trouble. He was being noble, like her mother had said. He really believed she was better off in this world without him, that she deserved better. Something from tonight had made him feel that way.



Jagi, don't you see....without you, I'm back to that little girl stuck in a life where everything is expected and never given, everything is forced not shared, everything is restricted not free. I'm back to being that little girl that wants to escape life and live in a Van Gogh painting. Jagi, you're the key that opens me up, that brings out the life I've always wanted. I thought you knew. Jiyong....



Tears spilled from her eyes again. How could he think that she wanted to stay in all this without him? He didn't know. That was exactly the problem. He didn't know! He thought that he was taking her away from everything she wanted. He didn't know that everything she ever wanted began the moment he told her he loved her. She needed to make him understand. She couldn't let him go without him understanding that. If he just knew that, everything would be okay. She just knew it.



She dialed his number furiously.



Jiyong, please! Answer the goddamn phone!



Grabbing an umbrella from the doorman, Dara wandered the streets of New York aimlessly for hours, not having the slightest idea of where to find him. She tried the cafe they had gone to, the airport, then she thought of MOMA. She rushed to catch the doors just as they were closing.



“Wait, please. I'm looking for someone,” she cried out desperately to the security guard who was closing the doors.



“I'm sorry Miss. We're closing for the evening. Building's been cleared out. There's no one here.”



“Please! It won't take but a second. Please,” she pleaded, tears in her eyes.



He looked at her and yielded, her beauty even in sadness to powerful to resist. “Just make it quick, please.”



She smiled and thanked him, rushing past him to the Van Gogh exhibit. She looked frantically everywhere to find a trace of him and almost slipped on a puddle of water in front of Starry Night.



Jiyong were you here? What were you doing wandering the streets without an umbrella, you idiot! How dramatic can you get?



She gazed at the large pool of water on the floor just in front of the painting they had examined earlier, wondering what he could have been thinking here and what made him leave. When did he leave? How far could he be? She sighed deeply and left the museum after checking the nearby restrooms, thanking the security guard on the way out.





* * *







The next morning, Dara stood waiting by the terminal of the flight they were supposed to take. He had said he would take commercial. She had pulled some strings and found the flight he would be taking. When she couldn't find him last night, she had checked into a different hotel and spent the night waiting for his phone call. She had ignored her parents' phone calls, washing her hands of her inheritance, her title as CEO. She took her personal savings and funneled a reasonable amount into a different account inaccessible to her parents that would probably buy her a few months to get on her feet in the real world. She didn't want to take any more than she needed. Didn't want to be tied to them in any way other than blood. She would become a beggar on the streets before she let Jiyong slip out of her life.



Just then a courier approached her saying, “Miss Dara Park?”



“Yes, that's me.”



The courier breathed a sigh of relief, stretching an unseen kink in his back as he retrieved his package from his bag.



“Thank God! I've been looking for you all morning. I've been from the Four Seasons to MOMA to the Hilton to here. You're quite the difficult delivery. Please sign here. I have a package for you.”



Puzzled, she signed and took the box from the man. She dialed Jiyong's phone again. Something inside the box started playing a jazz tune. She hung up the call. The jazz music stopped. She dialed again. The music started anew. Her heart beating a mile a minute, she tore open the box to find Jiyong's iPhone inside, playing the jazz tune from Paris. It had a sticky note on it which read:



Go to videos and press play on the one titled Sorry



She scrolled through the various functions and found the appropriate video, pressing play.



A slideshow began to the tune of that same jazz melody from Paris, showing the various selcas and confirmation shots they'd taken at each of their dates. Paris, Hawaii, every nook and cranny of Seoul, Disneyland, San Diego, Vegas, even New York. It was all there. And at the end, there was a photo taken outside a Tiffany's shop followed by a close up shot of a Tiffany's box, the telltale baby blue with a cream ribbon tied around it. Dara gasped as tears started to well in her eyes. She looked frantically around for Jiyong but couldn't find him anywhere. Suddenly, his voice rang out from the phone as the video continued, with Jiyong standing under a narrow shelter from the rain.



“I couldn't wait. I'm sorry. I wanted to make this perfect...back at home in Seoul. I wanted to get your parents' blessing. And everything just fell apart tonight. I'm sorry I left you standing there. It was probably the most stupid mistake I've made in my life...”



It's okay, Jiyong....just tell me where you are so I can find you!



“...But Dara, you have to know that I didn't leave you there because I was scared. I just didn't think it was right for me to be selfish. To pull you from your world and into mine. To take you from your family. I had to wrap my head around it. I should have done it there with you. I'm sorry...”



Look at you! You're soaking wet. Where are you!



“...All I know is this. I can't survive without you. I can't live without you. I'll win over your parents and friends in time. I know I will. I'll work hard. I met a wise soul tonight. He brought me back from the abyss. He said that when you come upon someone who'd give up almost everything they have just to stay in your arms, that that's someone you shouldn't let go of. So, I'm gonna listen to that old man. I'm gonna be selfish, D...”



She wiped tears that were flowing freely down her face, looking around to see if she could spot him. He was nowhere to be found.



“...I'm never gonna let you go even if there comes a time where you shout and kick and scream and tell me to leave, Dara. Because there were twenty nine days where we woke up in each others' arms and wanted to stay just like that for just a little longer. Even for the one time you said I'm your forever. That's enough for me to cling to your side for a lifetime and eternity. And I figure if I can just keep you happy, give you a smile whenever you get melancholic like you did in front of Starry Night, then maybe just maybe it's okay for me to be selfish about this. Let me ask the question I've been dying to ask you since that date at Shinsegae Department Store. Turn around baby.”



Then the video stopped. Dara whirled around to find Jiyong kneeling on one knee behind her, a single lily and the Tiffany's box in one hand, a dazzling diamond ring in the other.



“Dara, there's only you. There will never be another. You're my forever, my always. Will you marry me?” he asked, voice trembling.



He looked a disheveled mess, hair in disarray, dark circles beneath his eyes, face pale from exhaustion, lips still trembling from his damp but nearly dry clothes. But he was perfect. Just perfect for her. The tears spilled uncontrollably as the anxiety and fear that had been pent up since he left her last night came to a head with him kneeling before her.



“Jiyong.”



“You don't have to answer....I know it's a lot to take in. But I just had to...”



“YES!”



“Huh?”



“YES! I'll marry you Jiyong....YES!” she cried out, tears rolling down her cheeks.



He took her hand and placed the ring on her finger, kissing it gently as he got to his feet. He smiled tenderly, taking her face in his hands, placing a loving kiss on her lips.



“I'm sorry I left.”



“Don't. I understand. I was so worried about you. Where did you sleep last night?”



“I didn't,” he said, his voice still trembling.



“Jiyong, you're burning up. Have you been in these clothes all night?”



He nodded, his head suddenly feeling heavy, the airport suddenly spinning around him.



“Jiyong, maybe you should sit down.”



“I'm all right, D. Just let me hold you,” he murmured, taking her into his arms.



He was damp, but she didn't mind. What worried her was the heat coming from his body. He had a fever.



“Ji. We need to get you to a hotel room or something. You're not well enough to travel in this condition. Give me your ticket, I'll arrange for us to take a later flight.”



He handed her his ticket. His head was in a fog. His legs were so heavy, he barely could move them anymore. It was a miracle he could fall on his knee for the proposal. He was so tired. But he was happy. So very happy. She said yes. After that abomination that was his abandonment last night, she still said yes and welcomed him with open arms, no questions asked.



Dara came back from the airline ticketing station, carrying two new passes.



“I got us open ended tickets so we can go when you're feeling better, Ji.”



He tried to nod his head, but he suddenly felt as if his body was suspended in a thick gel, every motion delayed and sluggish.



“Ji? Here. Come sit down,” Dara went to support his weight and guide him to a seat.



But before she could reach him, a darkness came over him and he began to fall.



“Jiyong! JIYONG!!!!!!” he heard her scream as the world faded away to nothing.

A/N: you read that right, I said CHAPTER 30 not DATE 30 .....oh? what's happening? Well...there was a trilogy wasn't there :)