After the dinner at the restaurant, Dongwoo finally decided that he couldn’t just waste his life like that. He thought maybe his friends were right. Maybe she wasn’t worth all the pain. “I mean she’s the one who left without a single word.” He went home that night and took out the diary that was filled with letters he had been writing to her ever since she disappeared.

Day 1. This isn’t the first day you left me, but it’s the first day I realized you weren’t going to be by my side anymore. I tried to play it cool, but it hurt too much. I might not be able to let you go. Ever. Is this really what you wanted? Are you hurting as much I’m hurting? No, I hope you will be able to forget about me. You deserve to be happy. You deserve the world. You deserve more than I ever gave you.  I think I’m mad at myself more than I’ll ever be mad at you. I promised to be by your side until you died. Will you forgive me for not keeping my promise? …I love you.

The first letter was much longer and incoherent. He mind was a total mess when he wrote the first letter. His tears left their eternal marks on the page, no matter how much he tried to blot them off. Day by day he wrote a letter, each one shorter than the day’s before.

He took this diary and placed it in a box he organized a while back full of stuff that reminded him of her.

“I guess this is goodbye forever.”

---//---

He went to visit his mother a few days later.

“Dongwoo,” his mom called out softly when she saw him enter her room.

“Sorry I couldn’t come earlier. Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?” He was holding a small bouquet of his mother’s favorite flowers, tulips.

“I’m fine, son. It looks like I should be worried about you. You’ve lost so much weight. You look so weak.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m okay.” He put the tulips in a vase and placed them on the stand next to the bed. He took a seat next to mother and held her hand.

“It’s that girl.” It wasn’t a question. It was one of those I’m-you-mother-so-I-can-read-your-mind kind of statement.

“I’m forgetting about her, Mom. It’s already been months since I haven’t seen her.”

“My friend has this daughter who is really pretty and really smart and…” Dongwoo’s mother kept talking, but he just nodded his head every now and then acting like he was still listening. He was forgetting about her, but he was not ready to meet another girl. He knew his mom was just trying to help, and he didn’t want to worry. “Do you want me to get her phone number?”

He hesitated to answer. “No, I don’t think I can handle that yet.”

She gave his hand a squeeze. He wasn’t trying to show his broken heart, but she could see it. It was broken into a million pieces, and the girl who broke his heart like this took a few of the pieces with her. Even if someone used all the glue in the world, no one would be able to put it back completely without the pieces she took. Only she could fix his heart.

“Son.”

“Yes?”

“Go find her and hold onto her. Don’t ever let her go again.”

He looked questioningly at his mother.

“She might be closer than you think.”

---//---

A couple days before Dongwoo came to visit, Dongwoo’s mother asked her husband to take her around and out of the hospital in the wheelchair because she was tired of being stuck in her bed all day. The doctor told her that it was too soon to be moving around because the wounds that were just starting to heal might open up again, but with much persuasion he allowed the couple to move about.

“Honey, have you talked to Dongwoo recently?” she asked her husband. He was pushing her wheelchair slowly around the hospital, just enjoying the time they could spend together.

“He came with Hoya the day you got in the accident. Why?”

“He has never been so sad. He was always so focused on studying, and even when I asked him to get a girlfriend he would always say his education came first.”

“Everyone breaks up with someone at least once in their life. It’s part of life.”

“Not everyone. You were my first love.”

“Fine. Not everyone, but almost everyone.”

“Honey?”

“Yes?”

“You didn’t say I was your first love!” She turned around and playfully punched her husband in the stomach. He chuckled and placed a hand on her shoulder as he continued to push his wife through the hospital lobby.

“Oh, isn’t that Woohyun? What is he doing here? Is he sick?” Dongwoo’s father pointed at Woohyaun who was sitting on one of the benches outside.

“He’s with a girl. We shouldn’t disturb them. Let’s go the other way, honey.”

“Isn’t that… Isn’t that Dongwoo’s girlfriend?”

As they got closer to Woohyun, they realized that Woohyun was with their son’s girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend). They decided to just turn the other way, not wanting to get into the young people’s business. But Woohyun saw them before they could get away.

Surprised, he got up and started walking towards the couple. “Mr. and Mrs. Jang!” he called out as he bowed.

“Oh, Woohyun. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine. Are you feeling better, Mrs. Jang? When can you leave the hospital?”

“I’m feeling a lot better. Yes, I should be able to leave in a few weeks. It seems like you’re with a friend. We should let you go.”

“It was nice seeing you again. Feel better soon!”

And with that Dongwoo’s parents watched as Woohyun made his way back to their son’s ex-girlfriend.