Ji Yeon could hear the ticking of the clock and the faint sound of his breathing. She had been sitting there in that exact spot for as long as she could remember. She felt numb, her stomach wasn't groaning like it used to, her eyelids were not betraying like they used to. She was just staring at his face, his handsome face which she had looked up to whenever she needed help, for consolation, for advice, to lift up her moodiness…whenever she wanted to. Now, she just wanted one thing. She just wanted to see a smile on his face again. Unconsciously her fingers slowly traced towards his, the memoires of their past entwined.

The five years old Myung Soo ran up the grassy plane, panting as he held strongly onto the box in his hands. His little legs were running at the fastest speed a five years old could but, he still felt like he was not running at his fastest rate. He needed to get to the rock and he was already late. The rock came slightly in view and she was nowhere to be seen. Maybe, she already went back because he was late? But, it was not like she cared about punctuality. He searched around the rock, hoping to find her, calling her name ‘Ji yeon. Ji Yeon’ over and over. Had she wandered into the woods by herself? It frightened him to no end. What if she was lost? Bracing himself, he entered the woods.

“Boo!”

Screaming, Myung Soo fell onto the ground, dropping the little box from his hand. With a laugh, Ji Yeon jumped down from the tree, standing in front of Myung soo.

“You scream like a girl,” she said through her laughter

Wiping off the dust from his pant, Myung soo glared at this laughing girl and silently wondered if he did actually scream like a girl. He was sure he did not.

“So, what are you doing here?”

“I was looking for you. What are you doing in the woods? Your mom would be dead angry if she knows,”

“Well, you told me to wait by the rock. I got bored and what’s that box?”

He handed her the box, telling her to open it when she got back home. After playing hide and seek around till the sun set, they walked back home, running down the hill with the orange sky above them. The summer heat was still hot, but neither did care. When she got home, she opened the box, revealing the fluffiest teddy bear she had ever seen in her life. She wondered why he gave her a teddy bear out of the blues and suddenly remembered that three days ago, she was telling him about how her Mr. Joes got destroyed by her little brother. And, she smiled and named the teddy bear, Mr. Kim.

She remembered the very first time she was called into the headmaster’s office. It was during middle school and she clearly remembered the reason why. It was because she heard her upper classmen talking about Myungsoo, how he was a jerk and how disrespectful he was to his seniors because he was just simply popular. Knowing none of these were true, she gave a fist on the senior’s face, kicking him in the place and screaming, ‘No one dares to call my best friend a jerk,’ That was how she got sent into the principle’s room. And Myungsoo stood up for her. He sat with her in her afterschool punishment, helping her with wirting ‘I will never hit anyone else.’

“Sorry,” he whispered one day

She looked at him from her writing, puzzled.

“For what?” she asked

“For getting you into so much trouble. If it wasn’t for me, you won’t be sent to the principal’s office and writing these boring lines. I am so sorry,”

“Well…I don’t see writing these lines so boring and I don’t mind being sent into the principal’s office. Do you know that not everyone get to see his room? And I don’t think I will be obeying this rule anyways. If anyone ever tries to bully you ever again, I swear I will give that person my super fist,”

He smiled at her words and went back to writing.

“You know what, I should be saying these lines. I should be the one to protect you. It’s always the girl’s job to be protected,”

She just smiled, nodding.

The holidays were never boring for them. Usually, they would spend it by spending time in each other’s room, reading comics or playing video games. They would walk up to the rock and just watch the clouds drifting. They would make out the shapes from the clouds, arguing whether it was a horse or an ice cream. They would watch the stars which filled the sky, pointing out the constellations and competing who could name the most.  During junior high, he remembered that moment when she was staring at the blue sky while sitting on the rock. He had heard about the news.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked as he lied down next to her

“As always,”

“You did the right thing. I gave him a punch in the face after you left. Serves him right,”

“I am really bad with these things and this is not my first time,”

“Yes. Indeed you are. I am so glad and a part of me felt relief when you break up with him. I don’t know why,”

“Because you get to hang out with me again after school I guess,”

“Who knows?”

“Ohh…Myungsoo, what would I do without you?”

He did not answer, neither was she expecting an answer from him. She lied down next to him and watched the clouds with him. For some unknown reasons, the warmth from his arms was stronger that day.

“Damn Myungsoo. Don’t ever come back to me saying you are sorry. We are done,”

“I obviously, am not going to come back to you saying sorry. I am sure I make it clear now,”

“Excellent,”

She stormed away, banging the door behind her. Myungsoo launched a deep punch into the closet. Damn Jiyeon. It all started when Myungsoo officially announced to Jiyeon that he was dating a girl from another school. At first, she asked him questions about her, the weather was nice but later, he did not know what triggered the flame in her. She suddenly exploded, banging the desk and swearing at him, shouting he had forgotten the promise he made with her. How could he forget the promise?  But, she was out there, dating one man after another and he was getting sick and tired of this. He had had enough of this and when he finally got himself a girlfriend, she just exploded and he could not understand why. Usually, when they fight, both of them would apologize immediately or in the worst case, not talking for days but somehow, they always manage to patch up. But, this one was intense. What was even worse, he was not going to say sorry. And, the storm hit.

She heard the doctor saying in next a few hours everything would be done. She could hear Myungsoo’s parents crying as well as hers. It had been nearly twenty four hours and she had cleared everything. It had been like forever although it had been just a few minutes to twenty four hours, since they got into that fight, since the accident happened. She watched as Myungsoo slowly opened his mouth and held her fingers softly. And, she heard him talk.

“Jiyeon, I am sorry although I said I won’t say sorry but here I am saying sorry. If I had been more careful, none of this would happen. Knowing you for a long time, I guess it is the best thing that happened to me for my whole entire life. I am sorry for breaking the promise, the promise where I swear I would only love you alone. Actually, I won’t say I break the promise though. In the last twenty four hours I figured out that our friendship has been more than that ever since the beginning. We are inseparable and are always a team. We’ve got each other’s back. I would never be complete without you. I think of our good old times and I guess we were so stupid to figure out back then. Well, we are always so stupid and blind. All the valentine chocolates you made for me, all the late night talks we have, all the dates we had, all the nights where we watched the stars, now that I think of, I guess they were not as simple and innocent as we think. And of all the secrets I have, I have not told you this one, about the prom night during our senior high,”

Jiyeon eyes widened as she listened.

“That very night, I stole your very first kiss,”

The clock was ticking. One minute to twenty four hours. Jiyeon smiled as she walked towards Myungsoo and bent to kiss his lips. She could feel the tears rolling down her face. The clock was ticking. She smiled

“Thank you, Myungsoo. I love you too,”

Myungsoo heard the sudden alert from the heart monitoring machine. From the regular beeping sound, it had gone to a loud and continuous ‘teeeee’ sound. Pressing the emergency button, he called out the doctors for help. He could not let go this girl yet. He never was ready. Suddenly, he felt the warmth on his hand, the familiar warmth of hers before it disappeared with the blow of the wind. She was gone, along with the wind.