The present…

Yonghwa is looking at the clear, blue sky.  He is listening to Seohyun’s story and how they travelled to Jeollanam-du and how everything lasted for almost two days.  It was a weird and a funny story. He tried a few times to close his eyes and go back to that faithful day, but he could not.  He tried to get the memories back but all he sees is darkness with white spots.

Yonghwa looked at Seohyun. She was sitting silently beside him. He looked around. They are in a gasoline station, that gasoline station, where they supposedly walked under the rain. Where they supposedly shared a kiss.  Supposedly.   He looked ahead.  They were sitting in a quiet corner, under a tree, away from the maddening cars which kept rolling unto to the station to get their tanks refilled.

Seohyun looked at the man sitting beside her.  It took them a few hours to get here. The trip was a silent one. Yonghwa pretended to sleep, trying to avoid any conversation. Seohyun tried to get a shut-eye, too. But the emotions are too much to contain. This would be the turning point for her.

When Yonghwa asked what they were doing in the gasoline station, Seohyun told him everything.  What happened two years ago. If it was able to trigger any memory, Seohyun could only guess, for his face showed or betrayed nothing.

How long is he going to be silent, thought Seohyun.  

What should I say to her, Yonghwa kept thinking.  

Yonghwa looked at Seohyun. For a slight second, he felt something warming his heart.  He wanted to touch her face, run his hand through her hair.  He wanted to pull her in his arms. Why? Yonghwa asked himself. Why?

Yonghwa averted his eyes and took a deep breath.  “Is that the reason why I broke the engagement with Shinhye?” he asked.

Seohyun could not answer. She was hoping more than that. She was hoping that he would know what happened next.

“Why you?” asked Yonghwa bluntly. “I’m sorry, but I need to be honest Seohyun. Why you?”

Seohyun felt something pulling at her heart. “I don’t know.”

“Cause if I am happy with you, I would’ve remembered,”  Yonghwa said.

Seohyun felt the pull became a squeeze. Her heart felt it was going to burst from the pain.  “I wanted to know why, too.”

“You know what,” Yonghwa faced her. “I remember what kind of girl Shinhye was to me. She was the best. And I can’t understand why I would throw away something that I have shared with Shinhye for a long time for somebody that I have only met a few times.”

“If I have the answers to all your questions,” Seohyun responded. “I should have provided you the answers, two years ago.”

“You got me thinking,” Yonghwa started to say but Seohyun placed her forefinger against his lips, signing him to be quiet.

“Don’t think,” Seohyun said.  She took her forefinger off his lips and placed it on his chest, on his heart. “Try to remember from here.”

Yonghwa felt his heart hammering, as if it is straining and trying to get near to Seohyun’s warm hand. He brushed her hand away.  “The heart can only feel, it does not remember anything.”

“Then make it feel me,” Seohyun silently answered. Her eyes are now misting.  She knows that this trip, this conversation is going nowhere.