Memory is a precious treasure. Most people have it, be it happy or sad, good or bad, they possess it deep in their mind, stored in the layer upon layer of brain. Some memories are short-lived, kept no longer than 20 seconds inside the nerve, then deleted, vanished to nothingness. That kind of memories is usually trivial, unimportant, and irrelevant. Eating, breathing, walking, all the activities which are considered to have less to no significant emotional attachment to heart.

On the other hand, some memories are long-lived. This kind of memories, where there is strong emotional involvement behind it, stays longer. The time span of storage can last from several days to years, even to death. This memory is often recollected, remembered, kept as a treasure. This memory is a memento, a walk to remember the past that would never come back.

Mr. Wu Yifan has such kind of the latter type of memory.

Yifan can still remember all that. Crystal clear. The memories of his love. As it was just yesterday. She was his first, and  his only, love. She was the girl he fell in love with for the first time, the girl he married, the girl he spent his life with.

Her name was Seohyun.

He was beautiful, well, not all the time. She was beautiful when she had grown up, but not when she was just the kid of the same age of his. The truth, she was the ugliest girl he ever saw before.

Seohyun was horrible.

Seohyun was like spiky squirrel. Her red, bob hair would stood, sticking up everywhere as she shook her head. Her teeth on the front was missing, the rest, ugh ..., they were black, victim of excessive consumption of candy. She smelled, bad, mixture of stinky sausage and old socks which was burned by sun. She had troublesome freckles all over her face. Her narrow eyes somewhat doubled her horrifying appearance. She was a complete wreck of girl. Except one thing.

Her smile.

It was her smile -- which was flashed after she accused Yifan for illlegally enter her "club" in a deserted house near his home, but then ended up recruiting him (though not really voluntarily) -- that made Yifan startled. It was her smile, who moved the little him to go accross a plank stretching on the hollow second floor, to retrieve his balloon which flew to the plank end at the moment she shook his body in her accusation before. It was her smile, that she displayed after his blue balloon was flown to his room, followed by herself in the night, sneaking into his room to read her "My Adventure Book", where she put all information about a great adventurer they both admired, along with her all obsessions toward her own adventure, under the light of flashlight inside the tent she made with his blanket. It was her smile that made the fracture in his right bone, the result of falling from second story building, eased. It was her smile, that made him fall in love with her, exploding the blue balloon he was hugging as he witnessed her running back to her house.

Seohyun completely changed as the time passed. It was like the tale of ugly duckling. She was like a princess on their wedding day. She was beyond pretty, her hair was long, silky smooth, and fragrant. Her teeth was full, shiny white, even. But still, she possessed too much energy, as usual. He was kissed, by her, after they finished the vow to spend the rest of their lives together. He didn't complain though. He was beyond happy, just happy.

They moved to the very house where everything started, the house where he first met her and fell for her. Together they transformed the old wreck into such nice, cozy colourful house, where they spent lovely life together. They found a work at the same place: zoo, her being a keeper while him being a balloon salesman. They lived a decent live but they managed to live it the fullest. Walking down the street, having romantic dinner, reading their favorite novel on the couch, going to picnic on the hill, they were simply full of happiness. Except for one thing.

Baby.

It was all they want. They saw baby everywhere. On the street, on the TV, on the newspaper, on radio, even on the clouds when they were laying under the shade of their picnic tree. They had been trying to conceive one. They drank and ate everything that their parents, families, friends, relatives told to consume to increase their fertility. They prepared a room for their upcoming baby boy or girl. They became more intimate. Everything to make their ultimate dream come true.

But a visit to a doctor crushed them both, making them drowned in devastation.

Seohyun was told she was infertile ....

It was the darkest period of their life. Seohyun's heart was broken, she lost all the lights she possessed. She was gloomy and weepy all day long, sitting on their backyard, looking through the distance, busy with her crushed dream. Yifan's heart was broken too, for he couldn't see her destroyed. He came to her, who was sitting somberly, promising her that he would always love her no matter what happened. He was sad that he would never have a child of his own but it was more painful to see her in pain. He gave her a book of their childhood, her "My Adventure Book", saying he would never leave her alone and they would find out another dream to make true.

Visiting Paradise Falls, the place where their idol, Mr. Great Adventurer, Park Chanyeol was rumored to live ....

Yifan was relieved when embracing Seohyun in his hug. She was sobbing, but this time happily, for they had each other. Two would never be three, but these two has eternal one: love.

Then their adventure began again. Changing the room they had prepared for the baby, they made a painting of their house on top of Paradise Falls, coating over the swan carrying a baby bundle painting they made before. The Visiting Paradise Falls required a lot of money and they had so little of it. They sold the crib, baby's clothes they once prepared and put the money into a jar where "Paradise Falls" was written on it. Coin by coins, small changes by small changes, they filled it up, promising to each other that once it was filled up, they would go to travel agent together and buy the tickets for two of them to leap to Paradise falls.

Well, the fullest line the money could reach was a half of the jar. Things happened, the first was that the tire of their car was broken. They both cringed as Yifan hit the jar with hammer, releasing the coins from its container. They counted each coin and paid for the workshop bill. They put the remaining coins into a new jar, swearing that this time it would be full.

And Yifan fell from the bathroom, they broke the jar for paying hospital bill.

Thunder crashed the big tree beside their house and it collapsed to their roof, they broke the jar for fixing the house.

Saving, breaking, saving, breaking, saving, saving, breaking, breaking, breaking. They grew tired of doing that and gave up. They already ran out of the jar anyway.

So they decided to forget Paradise Falls for a while. They just concentrated with their lives: waking up, Seohyun putting ties on Yifan's neck, going to work, have romantic dinner, dancing, reading their favorite books, going to movies, etc. They put aside their dream, for a while. They would continue running to it later, but right now they just needed a break.

Well, the break completely wiped the dream off of their minds.

They passed fifty years of their time together in such perfect life. They kept loving each other, seeing each others' heart as wrinkles started appearing their faces and white hair began covering their scalps. Tie after tie was put on Yifan's neck, dancing was still their favorite activity even though their movement was not as swift as before, their dinner was as amazing as it had always been. They were perfect.

One day, they cleaned their house. It was hard, considering that their bones were already stiff. It took a week to clean their house. Yifan smiled as he was dusting their old picture of Seohyun. It was the photo of little Seohyun. Chuckling, he cleaned the picture.

His smile faltered when he spotted the yellowish painting behind the picture. It was the painting of Paradise Falls. He felt like being punched. How could he forget to bring his love to that place. The worse, how could he forget that for years? Frowning, he looked at Seohyun who was sweeping by the window. A smile then curved on his lips as he finished a calculation in mind. The pension he received from government was enough to bring both of them there.

Then he brought her there, the picnic spot they always went for the last fifty years. But right before he could make it as a surprise, two tickets to Paradise Falls in Peru which were hidden in the picnic basket he was carrying, Seohyun fell when she was climbing their picnic hill. The flight was cancelled, the journey was suspended. Seohyun was brought to the hospital, taken care of by the doctor. And Yifan was told the message that crushed his life.

Seohyun was running out of the time.

Yifan wanted to cry. The moment he stepped into the room and saw his love lying there, weakly smiling at him, he almost spilled the tears. He then touched her thin, worn cheek, and he was defeated by his tears. Seohyun kissed Yifan's hand. She knew already that her time was not long. She handed him the old book that brought them together, My Adventure Book. She told him to keep living the best he could do, she made him promise not to shed tears when she was gone, she begged him to swear that he would be happy for the rest of his life.

And it was only that book, and a blue balloon, that accompanied him at the day of Seohyun's funeral. He fulfilled his promise to her. He didn't cry, even though his heart was like stabbed by thousands of rusty knives. He just silently walked to his house, holding the book on his left hand and the balloon on his right hand. The house was dark and empty. So was his heart, for the rest of his life.

* * * * *

2014/05/09

Aaaahhhhhh!!!!! See! That's why I hate UP! Cheese! I was sobbing when I was making this, continued when uploading it, and sniffing as I am rereading this. And what makes me more touched is the amount of people supporting this story already. Thank you so much! Just thank you ....

My gosh .... Onions, onions! Who cut the daamn onions here!

Sniff, sniff .....

Schandelierre