Chapter 38

The sounds of sirens tore through the dark & somber night. It rained heavily, beating the windows of both the rich & poor. Jejung tossed & turned in his sleep as he suddenly awoke in cold sweat. Something nagged at him & he mussed his hair as he sat in a sitting position at the edge of his bed. He couldn’t sleep no matter what. He let out a huge sigh & walked towards the window. Outside, it rained furiously as he touched the cold glass. As an ambulance speed past his mansion, he pressed his forehead closer to the window, wondering who could possibly be going to the hospital at this time of the night.

The ambulance rushed past roses park & past the poor & rich neighborhoods before it finally stopped in front of the Asan Medical Center Hospital. The paramedics quickly opened the door & a young lady jumped out quickly before they unloaded the unconscious girl onto a stretcher. She was then rushed into the emergency room with the young woman who accompanied her in the ambulance, running alongside her. Her face was streaked with tears as she put a hand to , unable to stifle her sorrows any longer. When they reached an operating room, one of the paramedics put his hand out to stop her, “Miss, you can’t go into the room. Please wait out here.”

Sunny halted in her footsteps as she nodded, tears streaming down her face. She paced around the waiting room for what seemed like hours in disbelief of what state she had saw her friend in. She had never encountered so much blood in her life & to see it flowing freely from one of her most dearest friends was just too much to bear. She sank down into a chair, bowing her head & clasping her hands. She whispered a prayer & prayed that Tiffany would be able to pull through & be alright. Not wanting to be out of sight of the operating room, she didn’t step outside to make any phone calls. Tiffany’s condition was more important. She will just have to wait until she was out.

Inside the operating room, one of the doctors shook her head sadly, “There’s nothing more we can do. We were able to stop her bleeding. Good thing it was just exterior wounds & nothing internal.” She looked to the doctor beside her who also shook his head sadly, “We better notify her friend outside to prepare her for the news.” He continued to shake his head, “So young & beautiful. Why did this have to happen to her?” He commented, & walked outside with the other doctor & some nurses. Sunny immediately stood up at the sight of them & wiped away her tears, anxiously waiting to hear what they were going to say.

As the doctor spoke, Sunny’s knees buckled & two nurses had to rush to her for support. Sunny shook her head furiously in disbelief, “No, tell me that you are just joking. This couldn’t have possibly happened to her.” Tears flowed down her cheeks, “Please no, this can’t be.” The doctors looked at her sadly, “We are sorry but we tried our best.” Sunny ran into the operating room, flinging off the nurses with surprising strength. She grasped her friend’s hands in her own, staring down at her face, “Tiffany, no. Please no?” The nurses took her arms again, & pulled her away, “Miss, please let us finish our duties?”

Sunny’s eyes never left Tiffany as the nurses wheeled her out on a stretcher towards a room. Once inside the room, Tiffany was carefully deposited onto a bed. When everyone had left, Sunny was left alone with her & she cried excessively, unable to stop her tears at her friend’s sad fate. She placed a shaking hand over her eyes, “Why did this have to happen to you, Tiffany? Why didn’t you tell any of us about your condition? Why didn’t you tell us that it was this serious? How could you have kept this to yourself?” Sunny cursed herself inwardly for not noticing the signs earlier. She placed one of her hands over Tiffany’s, “Don’t worry Tiffany, I will be with you every step of the way. I will be by your side to support you all the way through.” Hearing those words, a tear slipped out from Tiffany’s close eyes.

As soon as his chauffer pulled up at the front of the school, a bunch of girls screamed & ran towards him as he stepped out of the car. Jejung smiled at everyone, although he surreptitiously scanned the parking lot, expecting someone to fly by on her bicycle. When he saw none, he tried hard not to look too disappointed because in the eyes of all these girls, he was single again, no longer shackled to anyone. It was amazing how practically all the female population in the school started befriending him at startling rates now. He looked around the front of the school once more before sighing, reprimanding himself to not look for her anymore.

Seohyun latched onto his arm immediately as soon as he took one step. He tried hard not to gag at the overwhelming stench of perfume she wore. When he looked at her face, he tried to keep a straight face & not laugh at how she looked like a clown with all that makeup on her face. A much more freshly scrubbed beautiful face popped up into his mind. He could almost smell the scent of her bath oils. He closed his eyes & leaned forward as if to he could just savor her essence but what he inhaled in was only the bottle of expensive perfume that the girl on his arm drowned herself in. He wrinkled his nose, “Okay, come on, let’s get to class now.” He said, with a fake big smile. Seohyun practically squealed & fainted at the smile he gave her.

“Okay!” She squealed, & hugged his arm tightly.

“Um.” He cleared his throat, “Isn’t your class at the drama building where your acting class is?” Seohyun grinned at him, “I’m going to skip class today & go with you to your honors english three...um five hundred & eighty something class?” She said, but with a question mark. Jejung smiled uneasily. Before he could correct her, another girl grabbed his other arm & squeezed it tightly as well, “Jejung Oppa is going to his honors asian american composition class which is english 567.” Seohyun glared at the girl, “What do you know, you dumb fake blonde?” She shoved the girl off of Jejung, making her stumble back a bit, “Hey!” The girl retorted, “Who do you think you are, stupid tramp?!” She shoved her back & Jejung jumped away safely, shaking his head & frowning. He didn’t understand how he could have ever gone out with any girl like that before Tiffany. While they were arguing, he started making a quiet getaway. Without him realizing it, something fell behind him. Boa, the girl who was currently fighting with Seohyun, saw it fall from the corner of her brown, almond-shaped eye. She quickly pushed Seohyun & bent down to retrieve it, holding it close to her heart.

“Oh look, it’s mine. All mine. Jejung Oppa gave it to me.” Seohyun’s eyes opened wide when she saw what it was. She quickly tried to grab it out of her hands, “No, it’s mine. Oppa gave it to me.” Jejung sighed, wondering what he had dropped. It came to him in a second & he quickly whipped his head around & sprinted over to the two girls. His eyes followed the object in the girls’ hands & his eyes turned stormy & black, “Stop it right now! Give that back to me! If you two rip that or leave any dirty prints on it, I will sue you!”

The two girls let go of the rose pouch & let it fall out of their hands. Jejung quickly bent down to grab it before it could actually fall to the ground. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was okay. He didn’t understand how it fell out of his belt loop since he made sure that it was tied on tightly every morning before he left. Stopping himself from thinking too much, he straightened up & shot daggers at Seohyun & Boa.

“Don’t ever touch anything that I didn’t give you. I don’t ever want to see you two or anyone for that matter, take something of mine that I didn’t personally give to you.” With that, he stormed away & slammed the door to the literary arts building with a loud bang.

Once he was inside the building, the crowd outside started to talk about what had just happened, pointing at Seohyun & Boa with distaste in their eyes. Seohyun & Boa still stood in the same position as they were before, staring at the closed doors to the building with shock reflected in their eyes. After snapping out of it, they started yelling at each other again, blaming the other for making Jejung angry, calling each other terrible names. Inside the building, Jejung was alone in the classroom, much to the shock of the professor. He sat in the back row, his eyes on the rose pouch in his hands.

He had contemplated many times about what to do with the rose pouch. He opened the pouch & felt the dried rose petals inside & couldn’t help smiling a little at the beautiful memories they brought. He knew then that he couldn’t throw it away & destroy it. Despite what Tiffany did, he still did love her even though he tried hard to take her out of his mind, remembering what she did but the pouch was just too much a part of him that he couldn’t part with it. He had carried it by his side for over a decade, “No matter what, you will never leave my side even if everyone & everything else does.” He tied it back onto his belt loop, knotting it twice to keep it secure. The professor stared at him, blinking twice & scratching his head. It wasn’t everyday that you see this supposedly famous star alone in a classroom, talking to an inanimate object so lovingly.