"Love is for the weak, Jongin."

"Loving someone doesn't make you weak, Soojung."

Soojung stopped right in her tracks and turned to face the tan male that she had been conversing with.

"Love is a liability. Its an option. You don't need love. Why does everyone seem to think that their life revolves around loving someone?"

Soojung turned away to start walking away again.

Jongin quickened his pace.

"Their lives don't revolve around loving someone,Soojung. Love gives people purpose. Its the most beautiful feeling to know that the person you love, loves you back."

Soojung scoffed.

"I don't intend with filling my life with such minor purpose."

"Well, Taemin clearly did. Back there. He confessed to you, Soojung. And you know how he is. That took him a lot courage, and you simply rejected him? You stepped on his pride, Soojung. And pride is important to any man."

Jongin stood in front of Soojung, blocking her path with his lean physique.

Soojung rolled her eyes.

"Haven't I already told you that love is for the weak? If his pride is so easily trampled on, he has already doomed himself for a life full of misery. What did you want me to do anyway? Accept him? I think we both know better."

"You could have given him a chance."

Jongin reasoned.

"A chance to what? Drag me to be his unwilling partner in this stupid love masquerade? I'm not going to fall for sweet confessions and superficial love gifts,Jongin. Now stop blabbering on about love, please."

Her words were polite but her tone was brisk.

Soojung continued walking, her breathing steady and her feet light.

Jongin sighed once more before catching up with her again.

"Okay, fine. You win. But haven't you at least thought about falling in love?"

They settled down on the wooden bench in the deserted pavillion at the back of the campus with their books and prepared to do the assignment they had been given for their module.

"Yes, but then I ended up having my heart broken. Smashed. All for the love of a man who spared me no regard. Now when I look back at it, I felt like I was so-"

"Weak. I know."

Jongin cut Soojung off.

Sometimes he wondered how Soojung managed to be so convincing.

She must love someone.

Jongin didn't know who, but he was sure that the girl who had cried three times watching Werewolf Boy had some love in her.

Someone just had to find it, peel away the hard shell she had trapped herself in.

Soojung nodded curtly.

"Now may we please start, Mr Kim? Or do you want to keep acting like a love stricken hormone-ruled girl?"

"Fine. Just let me take out my laptop."

"Just as I thought."

Soojung took another sip of her coffee before stifling a yawn.

Jongin didn’t even look up from the references he was reading.

The two had been working for close to 3 hours straight, on a Friday night.

“The Friday of Freedom”, it was said.

“Okay, let me guess. You were up till 4am, reading a book about a couple who were tragically torn apart because the man was obese and the woman’s parents hated cellulite. ”

Jongin amused himself.

“And I suppose that you have finished reading your references then, Jongin?”

Soojung spared the young man a questioning glance before reverting attention back to annotating her set of notes.

Jongin coughed awkwardly before looking down at his references again.

After 5 agonising minutes, Jongin knew his attention span was long overdue after reading the same sentence 4 times.

“Soojung, why not we take a break for now? After all, the assignment is only due in 2 weeks.”

Jongin looked at Soojung expectantly.

She wasn’t the type to procrastinate, well not too often anyway.

But who would have known, the female he had been working with was nestled in her own arms, lying on the table.

Jongin noticed the dark eye circles tarnishing her porcelain skin, and he felt his heart wrench a little.

He gingerly brushed away stray strands of hair from her seemingly perfect face.

Because afterall, he was the only who knew that behind this beautiful facade lay a battered soul.

Pain seemed all too familiar to the 19 year old girl.

She was forced to grow up even before completing adolescence, alone.

Soojung was the least to blame for her inability to love.

Or at least to realize that she loved anything at all.

“I just want to do something that I want to do, for once. Why can’t I?”

Tears streamed down the pale cheeks of a desperate girl.

“You can, Soojung. Go to university. I’ll be there with you, even if the entire world thinks you’re not worth it, I will.”

So the sight of a beaten up 18 year old girl who had gone through all too much, ruthlessly thrown out of a house filled with heartless hypocrites was there for all to see.

But Jongin was there for Soojung, even when the world wasn’t.

Soojung’s brows furrowed, and Jongin was left to wonder what had bothered her even in her sleep.

She stirred and started waking up all too soon for Jongin’s liking.

Her fatigued eyes fluttered open and she was greeted by the sight of Jongin supposingly reading his references indifferently.

Soojung shook her head, as if trying to miraculously shake away the migraine she could feel was coming on from the lack of proper rest.

She dug into her purse for her pain killers.

At this, Jongin peered up from the papers in his calloused hands.

“No, Soojung, you need sleep. Not painkillers.”

He snatched away the pills from Soojung’s hands.

“Jongin, please, I’m much too drained to fight with you. Give them back to me and we can continue with this assignment.”

Soojung weakly lifted her hand up, gesturing for the white pills she had taken so often.

Jongin stubbornly shook his head and pocketed the pills before shutting down his laptop and keeping his references, leaving the puzzled Soojung simply looking at him.

“We can continue some other time. Let’s get you back to the dorms before you faint on me. That would be embarrassing.”

Jongin stood up from the bench.

When Soojung began to see a double image of the man standing before her, she knew her limits and packed her stuff as well.

“Jongin, when I get her grip on my sanity again, I’ll make sure you’ll shudder at the thought that you had the audacity to take away my painkillers.”

Soojung muttered.

“We’ll see about that. That is, if you actually do make it back to school sane.”

Jongin ushered the frail girl along the path back to her dorm.

Soojung groaned slightly from the throbbing pain when she thought Jongin didn't notice.

But of course, he never really took her eyes off her.

How could he, when Soojung couldn't even walk in a straight line?

"Hey there Missy, you're going to fall of the pavement.", Jongin grabbed the Soojung's forearm so they could cross the road safely to the dorms.

Soojung barely noticed the worried looks her companion gave her as she  focused on not collapsing onto the ground and ruin whatever public image she had.

She remembered hearing Jongin scream,

“Soojung, move!”

Before she knew it, she felt Jongin’s arms around her let go and she found herself thrown on a the hard tar of the road.

Then, the sound of car tires screeching.

Soojung winced from the pain of her elbows and knees scraping against the rough road.

She looked back to the road.

There.

Jongin laid there, in a pool of his own blood. His hands were limp.

At a distance, a white van had stopped, halfway onto the pavement.

Soojung looked back at Jongin before she ran to him.

“Jongin!”

Her voice croaked.

Jongin’s face was washed in red liquid.

“You okay?”

He barely whispered.

“Call for an  ambulance!”

Soojung’s agonised cries echoed throughout the road illuminated by a few streetlights.

She lifted Jongin's upper body into her arms, holding him close.

Soojung didn’t even notice the clear tears falling from her eyes uncontrollably.

“I... don’t think I’ll make it, Soojung.”

Jongin coughed out more blood.

“No... Don’t say that. You’ll be fine. The ambulance is almost here. No Jongin, stay with me please.”

Soojung pulled Jongin into her chest as she looked desperately around.

Stay with me, she kept repeating.

“Protect yourself, Soojung. I won’t be here for you to cry on anymore.”

Jongin’s eyes threatened to close.

“No, no, no, Jongin, stay awake. Please. I love you.”

Soojung begged hopelessly.

A weak smile flashed on Jongin’s blood stained face.

“Didn’t you say love is for the weak, Soojung-ah?”

“No, I am weak. I love you. I love you. I love you. Stay with me.Just keep awake. I love you. Jongin, please.”

Soojung put her quivering mouth to Jongin’s forehead.

“You still have to teach me how to love.”

She breathed into his hair as she took his cold, stiff hand and held it.

Their hands fit perfectly in each other.

“I just did, haven’t I? I love you. You’ll find happiness, Soojung. You deserve so much better.”

Jongin used the last of his strength to caress Soojung’s paling face.

Soojung couldn’t find her voice and could only repeatedly shake her head as she held Jongin tighter.

“I’ll see you soon, Soojung. I love you.”

Jongin’s eyes fluttered close.

Soojung peeped from behind a bush.

There was a small procession of people dressed in black.

The ladies were crying, whilst the men simply had solemn looks on their wrinkled faces.

The sky was ominously dark the clouds hung low.

Soojung waited for the people to move out of the graveyard before she walked hesitantly to the newly erected stone plague.

"Here lies Kim Jongin

Loved by many

1994-2013"

Soojung sat herself down in front of the plague, running her slender fingers along the edge of Jongin’s picture.

“How could you leave me in this ugly world alone, Jongin? You said you’d be here for me. I was right, wasn’t I? Love is for the weak.”

Soojung slipped her hands into the pocket of the pair of jeans she was wearing.

She pulled out a pocket knife.

Digging the blade mercilessly into the flawless skin of her neck, Soojung glanced at Jongin’s picture one last time.

“Love is a liability.”