"People thought death would end everything… But, some also said that it was just another beginning."

It was a typical chilly morning in the end of November. Yongguk and Jaerin would start their trip to spend the weekend outside the city. They felt tired with their hectic life in the city they had lived in for many years. That was why a little inn located in the foothills, around fifty miles away, looked so tempting to spend for the whole weekend. It was also a made up occasion for their second wedding anniversary, which was already last month, that they have celebrated only in a BBQ place near the apartment.

                All the preparations they’ve got to make were done. The girl put in some clothes, toiletries, even snacks to the traveling bag. While the young man was in charge for maintaining the car, so it would be ready for a quite long struggle on the road. When the hour hand was about to hit ten, they finally left their place.

They met in a coffee shop, four years earlier, in a windy autumn night. She was struggling with her piling papers, while he was working on packs of lyrics he should submit the next morning. With a hope to pleased his over-demanding client.

                Jaerin was a sophomore student in high school, who lived alone and had a part-time job as a barista there. Her working shift was over, that means the time to work on her tasks already began. The coffee shop owner, Mr. Jung, had known her since she was a baby. Both of her parents were his friends, they passed away by a car accident, two years earlier. He felt responsible to take care of their only daughter. But, the daughter herself, wouldn’t take his help as a free of charge. She chose to help him at the coffee shop. Along with Mr. Jung’s only son, which also her childhood best friend, named Daehyun.

              Yongguk was an independent man, who made living as a well-known composer of the town. He used to live by himself at a very young age. That night, he pleased by the barista girl he saw was sitting three tables away from his. And as designed by fate, that was the two of them left at the coffee shop later in midnight. He asked her to bring him more coffee, she refused, saying that she was already not in charge. That was why he asked for her phone number, in exchange for the coffee order she had refuse to make. She gave it quickly, as long as the young man would leave her alone.

               When he arrived at his apartment, he couldn’t wait to tell about that girl to his roommate, whom already left him with just a note. Said he had to move out from there, to do an important thing outside the country. Yongguk lost his bestest friend that night, he didn’t even had the time to tell him about the girl he just met.

                Yongguk find the only exciting thing to do was visiting the coffee shop. He got to see that girl more often, every time he ordered his favorite cappuccino. Besides, the girl wouldn’t return his call, so that he came almost every day since.

Almost an hour and half since they left their apartment, Yongguk made the car stopped at a rest area. He needed to use the restroom, while Jaerin felt like they have to grab some lunch. She didn’t pack any proper meal for lunch inside the bag. She looked for a table in the middle of busy lunch time, while her husband went to the restroom before buying the meal.

              Yongguk was walking in to a line while checking on his smartphone. It was a queue for mixed rice, when he bumped to someone who wore a black coat and same-matching-color flannel pants, which stood in front of him. He said sorry and that person turned his face on him.

                “Bang Yongguk, is that you?”

                He raised his head and surprised seeing who said that. His long-lost roommate, who left too sudden, that often he long for. They stayed away for years, without any interaction. Because that person never give a call to his old place. He looked a little bony than the last time Yongguk saw him. But, he made a quick response with a hug.

                “Kim Himchan!”

                The two of them spent most of their waiting time on the food counter sharing many stories they’ve been kept, for years they have separated. When Yongguk asked his old roommate to sit on a same table as he and his wife, Himchan refused. He said he was supposed to be somewhere else very soon. Before he took his wrapped food, then left, after Yongguk said that they should meet again in a near future.

Jaerin had a weird belief about letting someone get in to her life. She got that, after a car accident took her parents life. She felt like everybody that she had known will leave her eventually. That was why she made a gap between herself and Daehyun. Although, it was very hard to keep herself away from him. Especially with the facts that they went to a same school, they worked in a same place, and even though, she knew he might be the love of her life.

              Years passed, Jaerin and Daehyun turned from best friends into just two people who knew each other’s name. They stopped walking together from their house to the school. They stopped working on together, solving many problems on the school tasks. Jaerin even started to throw away the special feeling she had for Daehyun, which was the one thing he never did. He always loved her. Even when he figured it out that girl started to open her heart to a young man, whom visited the coffee shop almost every day.

                Later, he knew that young man’s name was Bang Yongguk. He started to do things that Daehyun always did before he came in to Jaerin’s life. He accompanied that girl working on the papers until the middle of the night, at the coffee shop. Daehyun had never done it for a couple years, but he still kept an eye for her behind the coffee counter, every day since she choose to made a distance between them. He even did her papers sometimes, when she fell asleep on the table. When she woke up in the morning, it was already done like a magic.

               But, that never happened again since she started letting Yongguk be her company. Because Daehyun chose to let him be as well. He believed that Yongguk was more capable to be the man of her life. A young man who didn’t give up easily even when Jaerin rejected him, and keep trying hard until the cold heart of her got melted. Unlike himself, who didn’t try to do anything at all, even just when she started to move her seat, not to be with him anymore in their class.

Himchan was sleeping on the bus he rode from the rest area. On his sleep, he dreamed about the young man he met earlier, Yongguk. The both of them were hanging out at the club they used to go to hit on girls, when they were still living together as roommates. The weird part was, Yongguk didn’t make any efforts to attract any girl, said he was already found the right one. Himchan made fun of what he said, but Yongguk left him alone after that. He tried to find his old roommate, but he couldn’t find him anywhere. That was right before he woke up, and noticed his destination was just about six blocks away.

              Thirty minutes, Yongguk and Jaerin have spent to finish their lunch at the rest area. They chose to continue the trip, after buying some walnut snacks. When the car went out from the highway, he played some of his favorite hip-hop music as company while driving. His wife, who chose to get some sleep, turned the music volume down. The husband was kind of displeased. He needed some sleep too, but he couldn’t do that because he got to drive. He turned the music volume back up.

                They had a little quarrel just because that. She turned it down for a few times, when he turned it up after what she had done. On and on like that. He kept his hands on the wheel, but his face was on his wife. He didn’t concentrate on the road the car was moving on to. Before a huge honking from another bigger vehicle, which was on the opposite side of the road, startled him. Their car was already in the wrong way.

                It was too late, when Yongguk realized that they were about to crashed with the other vehicle. The only thing he had done was hugging the person next to him, whom he loved more than himself. Protecting her from the crash he knew would happen in a matter of second. Then, he heard a very loud crashing voice. Both cars front part collided very bad, its glasses shattered everywhere. He felt a huge pain all over his body, before it became much lighter just after a second. At last, all he could see was a very bright light, and one other thing came along… It was death.

In just a week after Jaerin finished high school. Yongguk asked her to move in with him. They have already been in a relationship for a year and a half. Jaerin thought she should talk about that to Mr. Jung first, as the person whom she considered as her own uncle. Mr. Jung himself, wouldn’t say yes immediately when Jaerin came to him to talk about it. He asked for Yongguk to talk to him face-to-face instead, and they really did. As a very conservative person, Mr. Jung asked him to marry Jaerin. More likely it was a requirement, so that he would let them live under the same roof.

                Yongguk gave thought about it for a while. His earnings were more than enough to add one, or even two persons to live together. And he never loved someone as much as he loves Jaerin. He proposed to her the next day after his personal meeting with Mr. Jung. She said yes to his proposal. But, she kept working in the coffee shop, even after they officially tied the knot. She couldn’t let Mr. Jung managing his coffee shop alone, because Daehyun chose to go to college outside the city, after the night she decided to be Yongguk’s wife.

                Yongguk and Jaerin decided to hold a very simple wedding, which just involve some closest family and friends. The ironic part was, they didn’t have any family left. Yongguk had lived by himself for around eight years, while Jaerin just had Mr. Jung and Daehyun, which she considered as her own family.

                On the wedding day, Jaerin was hoping that Daehyun would come. She already sent the invitation by e-mail. Because it was just a small wedding, all the invitations were sent by phone. But, she didn’t have the courage to call her old best friend, who actually did come to the wedding, then sat in the very back seat of the chapel. The wedding went smoothly, and Daehyun just left right after the ceremony was finished. He didn’t even had the time to meet his old man, who walked the girl he really loved through the aisle, to marry the other man that she loved.

                Jaerin had a panic attack after the ceremony was finished. She went to the bathroom immediately, she felt very dizzy. Later, she knew it was because she felt odd with the wedding vow. She hated the ‘until death do us apart…’ section.

“Wait for me…”

                Jaerin pursued the man she loved in a very wide savanna. But, the more she ran, the more she felt so heavy of her own body. The image of Yongguk’s back just kept getting far, no matter how much she forced herself to reach it. Until she broke down, because her breath was about to ran out.

              She couldn’t see her husband anymore. She broke down, while putting her head down on her knees. She realized, she had lost him. That was when a shadow covered her from the sun, which shone very brightly at that time. When she looked up, it was Yongguk who stood in front of her. He kneeled down, and wiped her tears.

                “I thought I lost you…” She said, before started to reach his sturdy arms.

             He used to take those beautiful hands of hers. Hold it all around every time he could. But, now he just knew, that he couldn’t. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to, it was because he really has to go. That’s why he refused it, and started to walk away instead.

                She stood up, “Where are you going? Take me with you...”

                He turned his back. “I can’t. You got a life to live.” He smiled, and then, he vanished.

                “No… No! Don’t leave me…”

              She started to run again, exploring the whole savanna with her lost breath. It went for such a long time, until she started to feel an awful pain on her head, which made her felt so groggy. Just awhile before some kind of familiar voice kept calling her name from behind, just before her vision went all black.

Back in their friendly days, Daehyun and Jaerin had a little box, that hidden below Mr. Jung vintage cups cabinet, near the coffee maker in the shop. That was where they kept some sort of secret messages, but often used for peace truces, because almost anything could cause he and she got in a little fight.  It was a sorry for stealing the cookies she just bought. Sorry, for getting mad at him just because of that. It was an apologize for leaving him whom getting up late for school, and ended up being suspended alone. Then, came another apologize for being annoying and refusing to work together on the homework, because what she had done earlier. They might not get along very well every time in a day. But, they surely had loved each other every day.

             Hundreds, or maybe thousands, small, ‘I’m Sorry’ letters they have been made for more than ten years since they were kids. Until one day, it stopped, because she started to build a distance. He put another writing in to the box, just after he left the chapel on her wedding day. But, she had never seen it. That last one said;

         I shouldn’t have let you go… I’m sorry.

Jaerin opened her eyes, and realized that she was in a room which she felt so unfamiliar. Someone was holding her hand, he was asleep on a chair, next to her bed. He woke up, when she started to move her hand a little bit. She was surprised to see that person’s face.

                “Daehyun?”

                She tried to make sure that it was really him.

                “Yes, Jaerin-ah… It’s me.” He tried to wake fully from his sleep.

                “Wh… Why??”

                She was trying to get her hand off him. He kept holding it, and finally let it go after a while.

                “Sorry… I just don’t want to lose you.” He said.