[A Month Later]

 

"… You should probably go oppa," I say with a sigh, glancing at the darkened window. "You don't want to keep your parents waiting."

 

JeongHan gives me a sad half-smile, tilting his head down. "Yeah," he says and moves to hug my mother tightly. "Good night, ma'am."

 

"Good night," she says sweetly, smiling at him as he goes to shake my father's hand.

 

"Good night, sir," my boyfriend JeongHan adds.

 

"Good night," my father repeats. "It was good to see you again."

 

Avoiding my parents' and my boyfriend's eyes, I head for the back door. "C'mon, I'll walk you out," I say.

 

"All right," he agrees, giving my mother and father one last smile and wave before following me out the door.

 

I hop off the porch quickly and walk a few steps away from it, close to the trampoline that sits by the wall of the house. Here, in the dark of the evening, with his parents' car idling in the driveway around the corner, it's a nearly perfect spot to say our goodbyes.

 

JeongHan follows less quickly, and as he approaches me he says half-jokingly, "I thought I was the one walking you up to the house –"

 

I cut JeongHan off by placing my hands on his cheeks and pulling him close to me, pressing my lips to his in a passionate, slightly desperate kiss. He barely reciprocates, although his arms fall naturally around my waist; the kiss is mostly take and little give, but I don't care. After only a few moments he pulls back slightly, and when I frown he gives a breathless, stunned explanation: "I felt like we were about to get caught."

 

"Oh." I risk a glance at the kitchen window, but no accusing faces peer out, and I sigh, releasing him.

 

JeongHan steps around me as if to leave, but spins to face me once more and wraps his arms around my waist again. "One more hug," he says, and I hold him tightly, my arms around his neck.

 

After a minute he says with a quiet voice in my ear, "And one more kiss." I lift my head and JeongHan kisses me this time. It is gentler than the other, this kiss, the last we will have for at least a month. His lips are soft and the evening air is warm and smells of freshly cut grass and his newsboy cap brushes against my forehead, and I think that this is a good kiss to remember in the coming weeks when he is gone.

 

"I love you,______(Your name)" JeongHan says when we break apart, bringing tears to my eyes.

 

"I love you, too Oppa," I almost whisper.

 

"Goodbye," he murmurs, holding my gaze as he steps back and went to his Limo.

 

"Bye," I echo, reaching out my hand in a futile effort to make him come back as he turns and walks away. I can't bear to stand there and watch as his red shirt disappears into the dark around the corner of the house, so I hurry back into the house, my eyes stinging with tears that I refuse to let fall.Now, JeongHan on his way to America to continued his study abroad.