Chapter 24; Already Gone

YeongHee took a good look at the plum dress JiHwa bought for her on her birthday. She outlined the bow with her fingertip and ran her hand down the smooth material. Should she take it with her? It held memories, but in the end it would just remind her of Jonghyun. At the remembrance of Jonghyun, she clutched onto the silver treble clef locket. Maybe it would be best if she left this behind and kept the dress. What YeongHee was willing to do to avoid heartache was amazing. However, she never realized how much it hurt the others. Key was a perfect example. She was so afraid of being cheated on, she left Key heartbroken instead, She kept the secret about Jessica but didn’t realize how much it really hurt JiHwa. And if Jonghyun ever found out she left the necklace behind….let’s just say he’ll be added to the broken heart’s list.

The thing is YeongHee didn’t see the necklace in the same light as Jonghyun. To Jonghyun, this was a token of their friendship. To Yeonghee, this was a symbol of her unrequited love. She was close to almost ripping it off when…

“Knock, knock”, Jonghyun poked his head through the door. Like he always did.

“Jonghyun!”, she turned around in utter shock.

“Hey…”, he said slowly as his eyes shifted to the suitcase on the bed.

“Hey”, she nervously chuckled.

“What’s this?”

“Just thought I’d get a head start on packing.”

“You found an apartment nearby or something?”

“No, stupid. I’m packing because I’m going back to New York.”

“W-When did you plan on telling me this?”, he said with sullen voice.

“Why did you assume I would stay”, she responded attitude and all.

“I just thought you were here to stay for good.”

She said nothing.

“Apparently I was wrong”, with a swift turn he exited her room, leaving behind a small blue card by the door. YeongHee opened it carefully, afraid to know what was coming.

YeongHee, thanks for always being there for me!

I know you’ll always be around. ^___^

“.”, she groaned as a puff of air came out of her.

At the moment all YeongHee felt was extreme guilt. Not wasting another second, she dashed down the stairs to see a sulky Jonghyun at the bottom of the steps. She grabbed Jonghyun’s elbow with her soft hands and warm touch.

“Jonghyun, you can’t just walk out on me like that.”

“Like you’re doing to me?”

She turned him around and gave him a big hug, “I'm not walking out on you. I’ll be there whenever you need me.”

“So stay.”

“I can’t--”

“You promised me!”

“When did I promise you?”

Jonghyun pulled out of her hug and angrily left the house, leaving a confused YeongHee. She had more importance to him than she thought. Why was Jonghyun so upset about this? It’s not like they couldn’t email each other or talk on the phone. But Jonghyun couldn’t see their relationship like that; it wouldn’t be the same. No one care for Jonghyun like YeongHee, except for immediate family. No one understood him better. But if she moved away? They would grow apart and she would fall in love with someone else. He couldn’t picture her with someone else.

He could imagine his whole life spent with her. They would get married and instead of wedding vows, he would write her a promising song, they would honeymoon in Bora Bora, they would have a beautiful baby girl and YeongHee would be great and nurturing mother. With Jessica he saw no future. All he saw was a bridezilla that just ends up ruining their expensive marriage by sleeping with other men. It wasn’t fair to her though. Jonghyun was in love with someone else…