The Gift
Picture Book of MemoirsIt’s already been a week since Danielle left. What’s left of apartment #33 is just emptiness. The tenants in apartment #34 still carry on their everyday life. Waking up in the morning, going to school, coming back home and doing chores then sleep. It looks so ordinary in the surface but each one of them are battling turmoil of emotions inside.
They barely talk about Danielle. They don’t even so much as glance at the next door when they go out. Whenever something makes them remember her, the atmosphere immediately gets awkward. As to what happened can be traced back one week ago.
When they got back from their outing, everyone was feeling blue. Danielle is leaving. However they have decided to support her even if they have to part ways. Although they are not looking forward to the day she leaves but they want to send her off feeling good and not with despair. So as usual they bid each other goodnight.
Everyone went to school the next day and got busy with school work. About two days they haven’t heard anything from Danielle yet of when she’s leaving.
“Hyung, did you receive any txt or call at all from noona? Jongmin asked Donghyun. “No. You?” he asked. Jongmin shook his head. They asked the others and they too have gotten no message at all. They went to the next door and rang the bell. No response. They tried calling her but the line is out of service. “Danielle already left.” it was the apartment’s manager who told them. He saw them in front Danielle’s apartment. “I thought she told you, she left last Monday.”
They were all looking at him with blank expressions. They are at a loss, how to react or what to say, simply speechless. They wondered in confusion. Danielle never said anything to them.
“What the….Why the….Ugh!” Donghyun can’t even finish his sentences in frustration. They went back to their apartment without saying a word. The maknaes, Kwangmin, Youngmin and Minwoo went to their rooms. Youngmin laid on his bed and covered his crying face. Minwoo is staring at the wall while Kwangmin was looking at both of them wanting to say something but couldn’t bring himself to.
Hyunseong was watching Donghyun worried what he’ll do. It’s pretty obvious that he’s completely mad. Jongmin bombarded Hyunseong questions “Why the hell didn’t noona tell us? Why is it that we have to know it from other people? Didn’t she say we are her family? She should have said something and not treat us like this.” Hyunseong stayed silent, he himself doesn’t know and understand. Everyone was feeling frustrated and betrayed. After that day Danielle has become a taboo.
A couple of days after, their anger finally receded and they miss Danielle but they already got used to the feeling. “Youngmin, open the door someone’s ringing the doorbell.” Jongmin told him. Youngmin opened the door and found the delivery man handing him a package.
“Hyung! Hyung! Hyung!” Youngmin shouted. They all came out to the living room rattled by Youngmin’s voice. “Look.” he handed the package to Donghyun. “What’s this?” “Look at the return address hyung!” Youngmin said excitedly. They all saw it, the address is from New York and it’s from Danielle.
They opened the package and saw a book with a lock along with an envelope. Inside the envelope are a card and a key.
The cover of the card says “I’m Sorry…” Jongmin opened the card and read the hand written message out loud.
Donghyun, Hyunseong, Jongmin, Youngmin, Kwangmin and Minwoo,
First, I’m really, really sorry to leave you without saying goodbye. Knowing you all I’ll bet you’re all mad at me.
“It’s good that she knows that….” Donghyun interrupted. “Ah hyung let me finish reading first.” Jongmin said
I wanted to say goodbye to you all, but I changed my mind. I don’t want to say goodbye, I want to say I’ll see you all as soon as I can.☺. I thought if one of you might tell me not to go, I might change my mind. When Youngmin asked me to stay, it made me want to stay. So I decided not to let know when I’m leaving, I’m really sorry.
As you can see there is a key, use that to open the book I sent you. I love you all, I hope you know that.
I’ll see you soon. I miss you already.
Love,
Noona Danielle
“That’s all.” said Jongmin. “Come on, open the book now.” Minwoo said. They unlocked the book. On the first page they saw a beautiful picture. It was the city of Seoul taken gorgeously. At the bottom was a miniature picture of Danielle smiling and a caption.
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"I went to Seoul for a vacation and met wonderful friends. My Korean family…..I will dearly miss them all…" |
They flipped to the second page. It was a picture of a cake. “Hey! This was the cake we bought for Danielle noona’s house warming party.” exclaimed Minwoo.
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"They brought me a cake. They said it’s for my house warming party. Aren’t they sweet? I was really happy and thought I was really lucky to have them as my neighbors. We got to know really well. I was hoping to meet an oppa but it turned out they were all younger than me..hehe. It was Jjang nonetheless. " |
The next picture was a picture of all of them. They were eating and laughing. “Hey I didn’t know she took this picture at all.” Jongmin said. Everyone nodded. They were all showing a smile on their faces just remembering those moments. Next was a picture with all of them including Danielle.
She wrote: I’m making this book in the middle of the night while eating the cake they brought me. I am so excited I can’t wait another day to make this. “Ah so that is why she got sick. It was because of this.” Hyunseong confirmed. The next page was a picture of the maknaes, Youngmin, Kwangmin and Minwoo sleeping. “Hey, this was when we were watching over noona.” Minwoo said. “I think noona really loves candid pictures. But the pictures really came out well; she’s really good at what she does.” Youngmin said. “Yeah no wonder she’s already well-known.” Hyunseong agreed.
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"These are Kwangmin, Minwoo and Youngmin. Aren’t they just adorable? I’m sick and they’re taking care of me. We have known each other for just a couple of days yet look at them…they care for me. I’m really touched. I want to cry. My mom left me with my dad and she’s never cared for me. How come strangers can do this and not my own mother?"
When they read that, they all looked at each other. They felt sympathy for their noona. They never knew about her mom. The following pictures were when they were cooking breakfast for her and eating.
Caption:
"Donghyun scolded me, they were ganging up on me, huhuhu, but it was fine I know they cared that’s why they were angry. I cried though, I was really touched."
The next page contains a picture of Youngmin’s side view looking dejected and pissed off. Youngmin laughed out loud when he saw the picture. “Why?” Donhyun asked him. “It was when I went to noona’s place because we were fighting.” He pointed Minwoo. She wrote: Youngmin looks scary. He has a problem with Minwoo but he isn’t telling me anything.
The next picture was Youngmin and Minwoo talking together with smiles on their faces. Caption: They made up. I’m so proud of you guys. ^_^. They’re such a great family. I’m glad I was able to help them. The following pages contained their pictures at the amusement park. Every picture shows they were smiling or laughing. There was a picture when they were betting at a shooting booth. She also took a picture of the prices they got, the bear and the bunnies. The last one was the picture where everyone had serious faces. Danielle asked them to pose like that. They did ask why but she never told them. Now they knew why.
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"They protected me from the bullies, though I wasn’t in danger at all. Those girls were too young to bully me. I could’ve made them cry but what a waste, my friends already shooed them off. " |
“Hahahah, I never thought noona has this kind of personality.” Kwangmin laughed. The next pages were pictures of landscapes and them sleeping in the van when they were about to go to the resort. All of them felt pain creeping in their hearts they remembered this was the last time they were with Danielle before she left. They saw pictures of them in the pool, when they were eating and playing around. The last picture pricked their hearts and caused their eyes to cry. It was a picture of all of them with swollen eyes.
She wrote: This picture was taken after I finally told them I was leaving for good. Even now that I’m writing this I’m still crying, my heart is aching and I can’t seem to bear the thought of leaving them. But, I have decided, this is my dream, and I’ve always wanted this. I know they will understand. I just got an email from the company and they want me to fly back as soon as possible. I’m leaving tomorrow. Goodbye Seoul. Goodbye Donghyun, Jongmin, Hyunseong, Youngmin, Kwangmin and Minwoo I will always be thinking of you even if I’m away. Meeting you all is the best thing that happened to me here. I hope I can still come back here in Korea and meet all of you again. Take care of my Picture Book of Memoires; I’ll get this back someday, when I meet you again. ☺Take care always and stay healthy.
That was the end of the book. Everyone was wiping their tears away and smiled. They finally understood Danielle. They miss her so much. “Hey. I’ve got an idea why don’t we write a letter to Danielle noona too.” Youngmin said. “Can’t we just email it?” Minwoo asked. “Of course not! A letter is more personalized.” Everybody agreed and went to their rooms to write their own letters.
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