Jongin moved out a few days later. Haeun didn’t know where he went, she didn’t want to know either.

Six months passed, Haeun looked out of the window. The house was now only occupied by her and Daeun, it felt really empty.

She looked at the time. “The wedding ceremony should be over,” she whispered.

From afar, she saw a hotel. That was the hotel Jongin would be holding his wedding dinner with the girl. She felt the pain coming back, the pain of losing him. But she ignored, she tried to ignore it for the past six months. It’s best not to feel. It’s best not to think.

Five years later.

Haeun fought with her illness for fifteen years. Even the doctors were impressed and amazed with Haeun’s willpower and they thought it was already under control, and there was a slim chance her illness would relapse again.

She was a musical actress. Everyday, going to work, coming home, taking her medication. It was a simple daily routine.

For these past five years, she lived her life just like that, without knowing the whereabouts of Jongin. Their classmates said he went overseas to live with his wife and one kid, some saw him walking the streets of Seoul together with his family, some saw him wandering alone.

Haeun didn’t want to think about it. But it didn’t mean she stopped loving him. She loves him. She will love him for her entire life. She was sure of it.

It was when one day, Jongin’s father visited her. Jongin’s mother passed away two years after Jongin’s marriage, at least she saw her grandson born, she died with no regrets.

But Jongin’s father also said Jongin’s wife and son died recently in a car accident, and soon after, Jongin went missing. His father thought Jongin would be here, but apparently, he wasn’t.

Haeun went looking around Seoul for Jongin. She looked for him at the university they were in, looked for him in the bustling streets of Seoul. She looked for him almost everywhere, contacting every classmate for his whereabouts but to no avail.

Only when she walked to the bridge Jongin and Haeun chanced upon seven years ago, she saw Jongin sitting down, leaning on the edge of the bridge.

She immediately ran towards him. She noticed his appearance, his dressing.

He looked muscular than before, he looked more matured, and he looked, different. He looked like a responsible man, unlike five years ago, the younger version of him.

“Jongin,” Haeun whispered. Jongin slowly looked up at her and his eyes rounded in surprise. “Haeun..”

She squatted. “Jongin, everyone is looking for you, go back home,” she whispered. Jongin shook his head. “I want to be here longer.”

Haeun sighed and she sat beside him. “Jongin, I’m sorry for your loss,” she said. He weakly smiled and nodded.

She bit her lip. “Jongin, we can finally be together again,” she whispered. “The doctor said I have a slim chance of relapsing, we can get married, we can finally be together,” she whispered, smiling.

Jongin looked at her and he blinked. “Haeun..”

Haeun hugged him and she closed her eyes. “It’s been a long time since I hugged you. For these past five years, I never once stopped loving you,” she whispered.

He blinked and he quickly broke the hug. “Haeun, I’m sorry. But, I don’t think we can be together,” he replied.

Haeun’s eyes rounded in shock. “Wh-what?”

“For these past five years, my wife, she has been very good to me. At first,  I thought I will never forget you, I thought the only person in my heart was you, but my wife proved me wrong. Her selfless love for me, touched me. Her kindness and pure innocence made me fall in love with her. Our son, he’s our gift. For these past five years, I’ve lived a really great life,” he said.

“Haeun, I loved you. I will never forget you were my first love. But I don’t love you the way I used to. Now, I only love my wife. Even if she has gone, I will only love her,” he said.

Haeun shook her head. “No.. No.. Impossible..” Tears began to blur her vision. She lived for the past five years in misery and longing, while Jongin..

“Jongin, but what about those promises? We love each other from young, don’t you remember? We had this pinky promise, and we would be together forever and always, and, and, what you said to me at the concert, was it all a lie?” she asked, agitated.

Jongin held her arms. “Haeun, those are the past. They are only memories. Besides, you broke your promise first. My heart, is only for my wife. That time when you made a decision, I couldn’t accept it. But I had to, I resigned to my fate. I let go of everything and moved on. Haeun, you have to. You were the one who made the decision,” he whispered.

She stared at her lap. She was the one who destroyed her happiness. She looked into his eyes. They were frozen.

She knew, Jongin didn’t love her anymore.

Her tears came down, swift and cold. She took in a deep breath shakily, calming her nerves but she couldn’t. It was too painful for her to handle.

“I came here to this bridge because I remembered it was the first time I made my wife smile. I brought her to this bridge, at this corner.” He softened at the thought of her.

Haeun looked at him in fear and shock. “You brought her, to this place?” she asked shakily. He replaced her with his wife. He brought his wife to the place where they had their first kiss.

It was the biggest blow Haeun had. She couldn’t accept it. She couldn’t accept it. She had only one relationship for her entire life. Since young, she was already with Jongin, and now, the person she love the most told her he already love someone else, it was a big blow to her.

She clutched her head and she could feel her heart beating even faster. She gasped for air as she felt her heart exploding, her mind was blank.

She closed her eyes and she let out a scream.

Her illness relapsed.

At the hospital, she opened her eyes when she was semi conscious. She saw herself being pushed into an emergency room. She felt her breathing going back to normal with the help of the oxygen mask. But she didn’t want it to be back to normal.

What’s the point of living, when she felt her hopes and dreams all crushed by one single person.

What’s the point of living, when the person she loved doesn’t love her back.

What’s the point of committing her life and soul to that person that she has only dated, to only found out he has long moved on without her, in his life.

She slowly took off the oxygen mask and she gasped. Slowly, she closed her eyes.

Forever and Always? Does it really happen?

The happiness that lay in your hands, that decision that would either crush your happiness or give you everything that you wanted has to be considered carefully.

It’s not wrong to be selfless, but you have a price to pay. It’s not wrong to spare a thought for others, but those decisions are made by you, you have to accept the cruelty, you have to accept the outcome.

Not all stories have a happy ending, and not all lives, may recieve the outcome they expected to live.