Author’s Note: I don’t own anything.

/own thoughts/
italics – past lives
 

"Love may wait. Love may be patient. But how weary I grow, standing still so it can catch up."

"I just need a pack of tissues," Jiyong recited, staring at his rearview mirror. "I have allergies."

It wasn't his fault that the drugstore just happened to be in the general vicinity of the Park home.

"I have allergies," Jiyong repeated stubbornly. "It can't be helped."

/Liar/

He scowled and thumped his slim hands on the Jeep's steering wheel. As if it had a life of their own, the car turned down Itaewon Lane. He gulped as the Park estate loomed before him.

It seemed that his allergies would just have to wait.

The doorbell rang and Dara jolted, her knee hitting the leg of her desk and toppling a book to the floor. Her mood had not improved since spotting Soohyuk in the parking lot after school, and a throbbing knee did little to soothe her temper. Muttering darkly, she stalked over to the hallway and jerked open the door.

"WHAT!" she snapped. Her eyes widened.

Jiyong lifted a meek hand to wave hesitantly. "H-Hello, Dara."

Before the sentence was completed she had slammed the door in his face.

He sighed.

/"Well, that went well."/

She leaned against the closed door and let loose a muffled scream of rage. My God, would he not leave her alone?

"Who was that?" Dara straightened at her mother's voice.

"No one," she scowled, stomping off. "ABSOLUTELY NO ONE!"

"I see." Eun-ju whistled through her teeth as she watched her daughter stalk off. Raising a slim eyebrow, she crossed to open the door to see who the no one was. Her eyes, so different from her daughter's startling black, narrowed.

Jiyong paused, his hand raised and poised to knock. He smiled awkwardly.

She slammed the door with enough force to have the glass shaking. Turning, she stalked off towards the kitchen. Her food was probably burning.

Jiyong stood, shell shocked at the front door. He blew out a testing breath, raised a hand to his nose to test if it was still there.

Luck, it seemed, was not looking down on him with a smile today.

Bom wisely made an excuse to get out of the house, knowing the signs of her sister's warpath. And it seemed a shame to spend a sunny day like this inside with homework, she mused. Closing her eyes to savor the warmth on her face, she shrieked in surprise as she collided with a brick wall. A very familiar feeling brick wall.

/oh, no./

She closed her eyes in mortification. "I'm so very sorry..."

"Park Bom." The voice was laced subtly with amusement. "Do you ever watch where you are going?"

She tried to work up a smile. "I try not to."

He simply lifted an eyebrow and watched her with impassive eyes. Her cheeks heated, and she cursed herself and Dara's temper.

"Look," she began, the words stumbling in as he continued to stare. "I'm sorry. I said so."

"Aa."

Her eyes narrowed. "I apologized. And, it wasn't entirely my fault," she stated, temper rising. "You should have gotten out of my way. This is a public sidewalk, and I can walk and daydream if I want to. You should have been paying attention, not me."

"Aa."

"Oh, shut up," she snapped, tossing her braid over her shoulder. Her infamous temper only spiked after he crossed his arms across his broad chest and leaned back against a lamp post as if to enjoy the show. "I don't have the patience to deal with you. So why don't you go and...just go," she finished in a huff.

"Just go, Bom."

She looked at him, wounded. His back was so stiff, his words so pained. He looked as if he were about to break in half. Her hands, flexed -once, twice- on her lap before she rose.

There was nothing she could do. Nothing, she knew, that he would let her do.

"I...I'll be in my room. If you need me."

He didn't answer, but continued to look out the window at something just beyond his reach.

"I...TOP," she whispered. He turned slightly, but his hair hid the ice of his eyes. "I...I love you."

For a lifetime his erratic breathing was the only sound in the room. Then he turned away.

Her heart broke. Just shattered into a million pieces.

"Just go."

Blindly, she d for the door, closing it gently behind her.

Pausing for a moment to breathe, she smiled painfully.

"I love you too, Bom," she pretended before giving a mocking laugh. Hot tears spilled over her cheeks as she gave into her weakness and leaned against his door. "Of course I love you."

She straightened determinedly, furiously brushing away the wetness on her skin. Turning one last time to face his door, she murmured what she had come to tell him.

"I'm ill, TOP." she nearly choked on the words. "The doctor said that I might be dying. Just thought you would like to know."

And she ran away.

"Park Bom?"

With a jolt, Bom snapped herself back to reality. Slim hands rose to feel her wet cheeks, and she stared at his mildly concerned face with a pained expression.

"Bom, what is it?" He lifted a hand to brush away a tear, and she jerked away. Hurt, his hand dropped to his side as he struggled to find something to say.

It gave something inside her a viscous satisfaction, to see him so awkward and unsure.

Not so calm and in control now, are we, Tabi?

Her cheeks paled even more, and she shook her head briskly. "I-I'm sorry about running into you. Excuse me."

And she ran away.

Great going, idiot.

He watched her flee, his ice eyes pained and pleading. /For what?/

He heard the sound of her padding out of the room, the sound of the door closing shut with a muffled click. He nearly sighed in relief, but couldn't find even the will to do that.

Her voice floated through, but he couldn't make out the words. Curious, he moved closer to what separated them even as he felt her lean against it.

"I'm ill, TOP. The doctor said that I might be dying..."

His world fell apart.

"Just thought you would like to know."

And as she ran, she left a man sitting on the cold floor of his dark room, shell shocked. With a single, bitter tear trailing down his skin.

It always seemed to be the people around him, close to him, who suffered.

TOP felt the strength leave his legs, and he sat suddenly on the pavement with unseeing eyes. The sky opened up, and he welcomed the storm.

Jiyong scowled at the rapidly darkening clouds, his bangs sticking to his face.

"Today is just not my day," he muttered as he jumped into his jeep and backed up with a restrained violence. The thunder cracked, making him jump.

/Wait. I'm in the car. Why am I still wet?/

He groaned out loud, glancing up. He had forgotten to put the top up. What kind of idiot forgot to put the top of his car up in a frickin' thunder storm?

"Christ. This is just not my life." Slamming the car in park, he stabbed the button and waited impatiently for the stop to slide in place. "First, I have the door slammed in my face by a girl that I'm inexplicably stalking. Then, if that wasn't enough, I end up having her mother slam the same door in the same face." He raised his eyes to the heavens, watching as the black roof slowly blocked him off.

"What else could go wrong?"

"The girl the you are inexplicably stalking's father could come home and find you still in his driveway."

Jiyong nodded, contemplating. "Yeah. That would seriously ." He turned warily to meet golden, slanted eyes. "Hello."

Hyun Suk smiled from underneath the large black umbrella that he held. It was feral. "Hello."

/Yep. So not my life./

I miss you. I love you. I would go anywhere, do anything for you. But sometimes it seems as if I've used up all my chances. Made too many mistakes.

There is no going back.