Chapter 5 ;;

Beside the fountain, there is a pond with beautiful fishes swimming around. As I look around the place, I couldn’t help but wonder how much more beauty this place can offer me? Everything seemed perfect.

“This place is designed to be perfect. Only the heart of the people living here is not perfect.” The kid said.

“Do you mean there are other people who also live here?” I interrogated. This kid is intelligent for his age.

“Yes and no. Before, there are lots of people here but as their loved ones accept their death, everyone left leaving only me. And for your information, I’ve been here for more than twenty years already.” He told me. Twenty years? He doesn’t even look past fifteen.

“You’re right, I haven’t passed fifteen. I won’t say yet because I’ll never be able to do that. I’m Shim Yoosu, by the way.”

“Yoosu… what do you mean?” I asked him.

“When you’re dead, you stop aging. How old are you right now? Ah, twenty three. Even another ten years pass, you’ll still be twenty-three. There’s no time here. I keep track of time using the living’s world.” He explained. But where are the others? Isn’t it, statistics say there is someone dying every day?

“Some are placed in another place.” He said. He then ushered me to the pond and the fishes moved away. “You can use this. This pond is used to see how your loved ones are doing. You can only use this until they won’t let you go. And after they let you go, you’ll vanish here, like everyone else.”

“So, you’re here for over two decades, what happened?”

“Unfortunately, I am the only child of my parents and they still haven’t recovered from my death. They are on a mental institution right now and I’m staying here until they die. Hmmm, let’s stop telling stories. Go use the pond; I’ll leave you for now.” He was about to move away when I held his arm.

“Aren’t you going to teach me how to use this?”

“Just think of him and stare at the water.” He said. He took a, maybe, five steps forward before he vanished. Things are magical here.

I stared at the pond and thought of Jaejoong. The first though that came to my mind is the times when we’re cuddling each other.

On the pond, there displays a living me with Jaejoong; sitting on a couch while watching TV. We were still at the ‘bestfriends’ phase that time. His head is resting on my shoulder while mine is on top of his since I’m taller than him.

“Yunho… the character on TV looks like you and I look like the girl.” I heard Jaejoong say. I remembered how my heart beat rapidly that time. I remembered how I wished we can be like the characters on TV in real life―saying how much we love each other like there’s no tomorrow.

The picture in the pond vanished and was replaced by another scene. I didn’t know the scene at first. Jaejoong is fuming and he looked like he’s ready to kill. Soon, it displays a picture of me and my ex-girlfriend hugging each other. I chuckled and it went back to Jaejoong. He looked cute when jealous. I couldn’t help but miss all the times with him. I miss him already and I’ll be missing him always.

I let my tears fall continuously down on my cheeks. Still, this is like a dream. For the thousandth time, I asked myself again; is this reality? Am I really not dreaming?

Then the pond showed the recent time. Jaejoong is sitting on his bed, hugging the bear I gave to him―Uknow. He had named the bear Uknow because he said it’s as fluffy as I am. The bear is my first present to him since we lived together, which is after I drag him out of his parents’ house.

I remember how things went the first month we lived together. He is shy but he’s doing everything at home and I had to tie him on the bed telling him I didn’t hire him as my maid. Since then, we shared everything and I felt very grateful.

“Yunho…” I heard him whisper. “Uknow, your dad is impossible. He’s a liar.” He accused me. That’s Jaejoong when he’s mad. He just says things. But, hey, I didn’t know Uknow is our love child.

“He said he will never leave me. I hate him.” His words seemed to be true. It felt like he really hates me to the point where he despises me; to the point where he’s happy that I’m dead. But still, he cried.

“I hate him so much it pains. I want to die, too.” I saw him pull out a cutter and position it on top of his wrist. I panicked and looked everywhere for Yoosu, asking what to do. I even tried to use my telepathy power―if that’s what it is called―and called the kid but there’s none.

Jaejoong shut his eyes and looked up. He looked pathetic and poor. It hurts so damn well. When he was about to pull the cutter down, I touched his hand through the water and he stopped, dropping the cutter and crying ever so loudly.

“YUNHO! What do I do without you?”

Jaejoong, what do I do without you?

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