Thousand Times of My Heartbeat
Main Casts: Kang Daniel - Kang Hyewon - Miyawaki Sakura
Supporting Casts: Ong Seongwoo - Lee Chaeyeon - Choi Yena
Genre: Sad but funny , one shot story

 

It was a heavily raining night with storm and lightening on the sky. The whole mansion was all surrounded by darkness. No body the light; and each room was left uncleaned since the female owner already left.

Outside the mansion, it was only heard of lightening and raining drops. The tall man walked out from his dirty bedroom in his messy clothes, toward to the next room of his sister.

Since his sister left here, he had nobody else to depend on anymore.

Slowly, Daniel passed his hand to open the door, entering the room with his heart broken. He still doubted why he was left here alone and the real reason of his sister’s disappearance.

This time, he decided to find out the truth.

Inside the dark room with broken lamp, he couldn’t help himself not to use phone’s flashlight and tried to look for something in her desk.

He finally found it.

It was an unfinished story of his step sister, Kang Hyewon. He immediately opened each page and started reading in order to look for some untold truth that he lost in the past few weeks.

His hands started shaking since the beginning of the page. He suddenly held his chest tightly, trying to prevent the pain inside his heartbeat.

It was his sister’s handwriting, he was sure. He couldn’t believe that this writing suddenly flashbacked him to something he didn’t want to remember in the past.

………………

 

She looked at her phone screen silently... Her hand wanted to reach for her phone, though her mind reminded her not to. I miss you. She was in mind of a mess. Her mind really was in an unorganized state. She could be sweet with you yesterday and today could be salty to you. Because she was possessed with history. The pain history that kept echoing and violating her senses. A person with history was a mess. I’m a mess. She closed her eyes tightly and all she could see were you and that girl. The face similarities caused her pain. You remind me of her. She didn’t want to repeat that mistake again. Yet she couldn’t hold the pain of her jealousy. She was afraid to lose you. She wanted you to give special attention to her. But her dawn lips were tightly tied which different from her action. To calm those mixing feelings, she decided to rest for a while to fix herself. I am a coward who ran away from problems, right? Thanks for coming into my life... 14th February 2019, Valentine’s Day... Her eyes scanned the chocolate and flowers. She was still in hiatus period. Yet she felt guilty enough to left her girlfriend alone in the house to go somewhere alone for fixing herself. She didn’t know what to buy, so she bought both of them. She didn’t know if the girl was still in the house. She wanted to knock the door, yet her mind told not to. So, she just left a bunch of rose, chocolate and a letter to her girlfriend, Kura.

 

Dear My Love, Kura How have you been? Did you eat well? Happy Valentine’s Day! Do you miss me like I do? I know you are angry that suddenly I left you like this... It’s not like I don’t love you. It’s just I don’t want to see me salty to you again and again... There might be a lot of people are waiting for you while I am gone, right? I always feel like giving up and hopeless to myself. I thought I would never been good like other people to keep you. I don’t understand myself too... Are you tired with me, girl? I really do hate myself. I love you, Take care.

 

p.s I hope you can wait for me...even though you might gonna get tired and ditch me already... Love, Hyewon

 

As she left the house. She was back to the place she released herself from mess feeling. She took a deep breath and looked to the sea.

…………………

This… this can’t be happening…!!

She is not dying yet.

No! she is already dead!

But why? Why hell took her life just because she was rapper from the hell?

 

The tall man shook his head, seem like he couldn’t accept this fact. He remembered now how his sister ended up dying in the ocean.

Daniel flopped himself to the floor and hugged his kneel crazily. He unexpectedly felt pain in his chest again.

Of course, he was afraid of this pain. He hated to be left, betrayed and fooled around. He had no one else because everyone was leaving him already; even the woman he loved all his life also spoke lies to him too.

“I need painkillers... I can’t handle this anymore.” he tried to look for painkillers in the room. He finally found a bottle of pills and started taking all things.

“I hope this can help me from being pain…” he closed his eyes and laid down on the floor.

In the darkness, he started crying and waiting for the painkillers reduce some of the pain he was suffering right now.

In the end, he ended up falling to the floor meanwhile, a music was suddenly by someone else whom just entered the room.

Love is a bad memory
Love is a hurt memory

When will things be okay?
When will the sun rise again?
Are all farewells this…

Love is love only when it hurts

When will things be okay?
When will the sun rise again?
Are all farewells this painful to death?
I’m choked up,
I can’t even breathe
Time goes by but it’s no use
Please heal my heart
So I can smile a little

This headache won’t get better
I pull my pillow into my arms
The thorns keep piercing my heart
I scream in my unlit room
This severe cold won’t get better
I swallow two, three pills without water
A dirty morning, a severe cold
Why am I coughing again?

Though I’m sick to death, I only think of you
I guess you really are my medicine
I guess the story is already over
I am, I am crying
(My cold won’t get better)

When will things be okay?
When will the sun rise again?
Are all farewells this painful to death?
I’m choked up,
I can’t even breathe
Time goes by but it’s no use
Please heal my heart
So I can smile a little

I need a painkiller
Help me take my pain away
I always thought
You were a harmful person to me
Ma mistake
I can’t live without you
I can’t even take care of my body
What do I do?
At this rate, this will kill me

Though I’m sick to death, I only think of you
I guess you really are my medicine
I guess the story is already over
I am, I am crying
(My cold won’t get better)

I want to hang onto the leaving footsteps
And beg but
I’m so sick that I don’t even
Have that kind of courage

When will things be okay?
When will the sun rise again?
Are all farewells this painful to death?
I’m choked up,
I can’t even breathe
Time goes by but it’s no use
Please heal my heart
So I can smile a little

(This headache won’t get better
This severe cold won’t get better
She won’t pick up my phone calls
Love isn’t finding me again
This headache won’t get better
This severe cold won’t get better
She won’t pick up my phone calls
She won’t pick up my phone calls)

She won’t pick up my phone calls

“Uncle… ? Uncle.. do you hear me?” the little girl kept shaking him, but he never woke up.

………….

Flashback to a month ago

“You, evil sister. I can’t believe we are family.” Daniel slapped Hyewon’s head before he took away her banana milk bottle and ran.

“Yah!! Kang Daniel! You have my curse. I won’t forgive you.” Hyewon kept cursing her brother all along.

Of course, since Hyewon was adopted in the family, they never got along. Daniel and Hyewon always had the same taste all things even women. Currently, both of them were gays.

Hyewon had a crush on one of the twin girls in her college; meanwhile, Daniel was dating his best friend, Ong Seongwoo because he was educated to not involve with women.

Today, they had fill trip and went on camp together. Hyewon and Daniel was arranged to be in the same group with 6 members. Professor told them to clean the trash at the top of mountain.

Those six members were included Hyewon, Daniel, the twin sisters that Hyewon had a crush on, Seongwoo, Daniel’s boyfriend and Lee Chaeyeon, their team leader.

The elder sister of the twins, whose name was Sakura, was Chaeyeon’s girlfriend and the youngest one named Kura, was seen to have not involve with any relationship.

Yep, that one-person Hyewon loved.

After cleaning the trash, all of them were tired. Six of them started thinking about new dare game to play.

They started thinking of some dares till they found the craziest challenge in the dare game. It was called couple challenge.

They started switching their partners for a week after selecting the names. Chaeyeon and Seongwoo ended up dating each other. Then, Daniel needed to take Chaeyeon’s girlfriend. What was more exciting was Hyewon achieved her goal to date her crush, Kura.

This game sounded fun but they didn’t know that unexpected broken heart and friendship were waiting for them in the future.

Days without Seongwoo, Daniel found himself hard to breathe. He used to have him tagging along and shared some fun games with him.

He was like the best brother to him. However, since he started dating Chaeyeon, he was trying to reduce some time from him.

Daniel was just bored and he spent his time alone. He didn’t know how to date woman even though Sakura was currently his girlfriend.

What was more bitter, he saw Hyewon and Kura got along too.

He bit his lip, praying for them to disappear all.

While he was watching Seongwoo and Chaeyeon were going on deeper and deeper, he could only peek him near the garbage can.

“They are getting along now. I doubt if I can get back my girlfriend.” Sakura suddenly popped up next to him, her ice cream.

“You aren’t jealous?” he asked curiously.

“As long as Chaeyeon is happy, I can let her go to someone she likes. I am okay.” She said simply.

Now Daniel was blank space. What about his boyfriend?

“Do you know why Seongwoo never come back to you?” she asked.

The man waved his head with his clueless expression.

“Because you are salty. You can’t fulfill what he needs. Look at me as an example, you can’t flirt me or make me feel touched when we are dating.” She giggled and hugged her stomach.

“Dawn you!!!” the man stood up and looked at her angrily.

How come she spoke so straight forward?

“You wait and see. I will make you fall for me.” He pushed her head to hit the wall and ran away quickly.

“Yah!! Kang Daniel!! You, bully!” Sakura screamed out loudly and touched her head.

………….

When Daniel arrived home, he already saw her sister’s girlfriend moved to live with them. They started getting along day by day.

I doubted if everyone here wanted to go back to the previous relationship they had? Even his sister was successful, yet he was still being salty with his dared girlfriend.

Daniel spent his days to check internet and looked for some tips to help. Since he was lack of romance, no body expected that he could pass the line.

He tried to check pickup lines and every day. He didn’t know that the afford of his investment to be a sweet boyfriend, was slowly developing his feeling towards her.

It started becoming a habit of having her around.

One day in February, they started dating again. Wind blew softly and it made the weather was getting colder.

After having some dinner, he walked her house. During that time, he tried to check his phone and looked for some pickup lines to satisfied her.

“Can I follow you to your house? My parents taught me to follow my dream.” He hide his phone in the pocket and immediately started conversation with her.

Sakura started giggling with his joke pickup line too. She unknowingly developed that emotion with him too.

The deadline of couple challenge already passed. However, all of them didn’t go back to where they started yet.

Seongwoo kept dating Chaeyeon.

Hyewon was still with Kura and Daniel started going deeper and deeper.

………….

Every day, he almost gave up on everything just tried to cheer her up. He even competed with his sister to show off their romance though.

As they said, happiness was really short for fool people. It was no longer exciting feeling after the truth was told one day.

On the rainy day, the man was told buy milk bottles. He passed by unexpected couple in the supermarket.

There were a middle-aged man and a familiar woman as a couple. He couldn’t guess if she was his girlfriend or his sister’s. Thus, he decided to call his sister.

“Where is your girlfriend?” he asked

[She is next to me, why?] she asked curiously.

“Okay, I got it. Thank a lot.” He smiled and hang off his phone.

He decided not to follow them. He suddenly discovered that he was being two timed. Plus, he remembered that guy was pork seller in the market. His store was next to Sakura’s mom’s chicken store.

Because Sakura loves eating pork, so she decided to date that man secretly. He finally understood. However, he couldn’t say anything. He reviewed his relationship again and remembered that they were just in display relationship.

He completely had no right to be mad. He decided to hide all pain alone in his chest.

Days passed by, Daniel couldn’t help himself to fix up his unusual breathes in his chest. He tried to smile and pretended as nothing happened.

He started thinking if he should go on this relationship. However, he couldn’t imagine the day without her.

One day in the mansion, the man discovered his sister sitting alone in the living room. She even turned off the light and there were many bottles of soju on her table though.

He was about to turn on light; yet she interrupted him.

“Don’t turn on the light. I didn’t want you to see how dirty and ugly I am now.” She said in a crying tone.

“Are you-u-u c-r-y-i-n-g? Hyewon!” he was in shocked because he never witnessed this brave sister was in a sad mode.

“I am.. I can’t think of anything more. I love her. I really love her. But everything was just game. It was all from that stupid challenge” she started crying more and more.

“Are you okay? You can tell me what happened. I saw you two got along though” he put down his knee and sat in front of her.

He touched her hand very tight in order to charge her some energy.

“Hyungnim. What should I do? What can I do? I’m tired of everything. I’m tired of all pretending activities. My heart is just hurt. I’m with her but her heart is not mine. I’m a human too. I’m not Kang Jaehee in the mystic messager. I’m Kang Hyewon, a human too.” She grabbed his arms and went into his embrace.

“What is wrong with you?” He started confusing.

They used to fight each other in the past, now he was the one who stayed here and accompanied her.

“She already had another girlfriend. I am being two timed. Of course, she had someone else before we had this display relationship game. I told myself it was okay. But… this kept bothering me. I was happy with her and it was the best feeling to have her by myself. However, when I thought of her spare time with her real lover, I felt hurt. My heartbeat went wrong. Every breathe I take is hard and hot. I don’t know what to do anymore. I want to quit it because I can’t go on this suffering anymore. I just don’t know how to live without her. How am I supposed to live without her?” she spoke while she was crying with her heartbreaking speech.

The brother suddenly quit his breathe. He could feel how his heart was chopped into pieces. They shared the same storyline. Just Hyewon could speak how she felt but he couldn’t.

Even though Daniel knew how this hard, he kept forcing his smile and pretended to be okay in front of her. He rubbed her hair gently and used his first soft words to her.

“It’s okay. All pain will be gone once you sleep. Don’t worry much. You will pass this state soon. It was okay.. it will be okay… and okay..” he kept murmuring like he was telling himself.

“I’m jealous of you because Sakura seems into you. She likes you a lot. You picked up the right one.” Said the sister.

Daniel gulped his pain pass through his throat. No body knows about him more than himself.

Then he closed his eyes painfully.

He really wanted to quit breathing and his heartbeat. They were giving him pain now. He wished he could find painkillers which helped him to heal this pain.

Days passed by, he left Hyewon alone. He thought she needed sometimes. Somehow, he still saw his sister forced her smile and continued that painful relationship and pretending flirts all along.

He couldn’t stop her to not going to hurt herself because he couldn’t even stop himself either.

Time passed by, he started being tired of pretending to be happy and cheerful. He lost his cheerful characters when he was trying to hold his jealousy.

He couldn’t go back to Seongwoo since he already passed the line of this pretending relationship. He didn’t dare to ask his girlfriend though about that man. He was afraid to discover the truth and it would hurt him.

Even though he tried to avoid the truth, it never helped him better. He could sense it already.

Another sad night came again, he saw his sister hiding herself in the room and drank again. He knew she was suffering. She was just hurting herself.

“Kang Hyewon! Give up already. Are you crazy to continue hurting yourself like this??” he screamed out and threw all drinks from her table.

“What can I do? Painkillers couldn’t reduce my sadness. The more I try to avoid her, the more my heart is calling for her. When I see her, all I gained is suffering. I can’t understand anymore.” She started crying again.

“Stop it already. Stop it please.. I can’t calm to see you like this anymore.. I understand your feeling... I really understand it.” He said in a calm tone and tried to raise herself up.

Somehow, he ended up dropping to the floor.

“I’m sorry brother, I lied you all along. I know your girlfriend had someone else.” She spoke while she was drunk.

It was like a rock hitting Daniel’s head. How dare his sister lied him too?

“It’s okay. I am fine.” He gulped and kept smiling.

“I’m sorry… I’m really sorry. I think it’s time for me to put all stops here.” she kept trying.

He pulled her in his embrace and patted her hair.

“Yeah, you should stop. It’s time to put a stop.” He whispered it. It was like he was telling himself too.

Next day, Daniel found himself in the room alone. Hyewon disappeared all of a sudden. No matter how he tried to find her, she was just gone from his world.

 

Too to hold on the pain and sorrow, he decided to face the reality. He wouldn’t do like his sister did. Even though he knew he would lose his breathe to face this hurt truth, he remained to go on.

He was waiting for Sakura till night in front of her short course building. He found her walking alone and her eyes were swollen.

As soon as he saw her sad expression, he decided to give up on everything he thought at the moment. He walked her home, and tried to comfort her while he was hiding a pain in the chest.

His pain was eating him more and more. He still pretended to be normal and cheered up people around him.

He sometimes got jealous of his sister. She could have someone to listen to her stories; yet, he had no one to hear him.

He hated how himself born as a strong person. He always put all pressure in his chest and never let it out.

“Everything is going to be okay. I cheer you up.” He told her.

“I’m okay.. You are late. Hyewon must be looking for you. It’s okay. I can be alone..” she smiled softly.

“Yeah… that brat must need me right now.” He murmured.

The disappearance and anxiety of Hyewon was untold to anyone. Daniel hid all things.

Smiling again, he suddenly felt like his heart was almost bomb soon. He had too pressure here and his curiousness was really annoying him.

He couldn’t calm anymore, and decided to ask.

“Sakura.. who is that man?”

“yeah?” she suddenly surprised.

“The man you walked with week ago, I already knew it” he asked again.

“he is my boyfriend.” She gave him a sad smile.

“Okay, I got it now. You can go to sleep. Goodnight.” He smiled and walked out immediately.

He didn’t know where he should go anymore. He just wanted to walk and walk till he could escape from this world.

His heart was hurt like many worms were eating his brain. His heartbeat was faster and faster like the heart was going to bomb soon.

What a fool man he is!

“Ah……!!!” he couldn’t hold on anymore; thus, he screamed out loudly. He screamed all his pain and sorrow to go away.

His legs were all weak enough to make him fall to the ground.

“Daniel, are you okay?” Sakura ran back to him immediately.

It was too late because he ended up faint near the street.

 

10 minutes later, he was sent to the hospital. Doctor said he was suffered from anxiety and overdose stress. He could face mental issue and cause his memory loss.

Since Daniel’s parents were oversea, Yena as his niece and cousin’s daughter came to take care of him. Now, everyone started discovering the disappearance of Hyewon. They tried to contact her but no one could reach her yet.

Even Kura started pissed off too. She left her all of a sudden without telling her what happened.

Waking up again, Daniel found himself not to remember things happened during these weeks. He only remembered that he dated Seongwoo and forgot all things happened between him and Sakura.

He was curious why his sister suddenly left too.

He just came back to his normal life and lived the way he used to do. He ignored the twins too since he didn’t know them.

Somehow, he felt that his heart was hurt when he saw her.

He didn’t understand why he was like this.

“You really don’t remember me? Fine..” the girl gave him a sad look, biting her lip calmly and then she took her leave.

No one could describe how she felt when the man she liked suddenly left her.

After leaving the hospital, Daniel moved back to his mansion. Yena visited him twice times a week to see if he was okay.

The mansion was left unclean and the man was living in the mountain of trash right now.

He sometimes hid himself in the darkness, trying to discover the truth what had happened.

At that night, rain started falling heavily. He remembered something about his sister, so he left to her room.

And he discovered the truth and what happened to him on the previous time.

…………………

Opening his eyes again, the man could hear sobbing sound from girls. He saw Yena and Sakura were crying next to his bed.

He raised his hand to rub Yena’s head, but his eyes gazed at the woman he liked Sakura.

“Uncle, you are waking up? Why did you do like that? I hate you. Hyewon auntie already left me and now you wanted to leave me too?” Yena started screaming out loudly.

“I’m sorry… I was suddenly weak.” He said softly.

“I hate you to commit suicide. I hate how you avoid the problem this way..” she screamed more.

“I committed suicide?” he was clueless now.

He just suffered from pain and needed painkillers to reduce some pain. He didn’t know it was this deep.

“Kang Daniel, if you are trying to do something silly again, I won’t forgive you.” Sakura cried, wiping her running nose and tear on Yena’s shirt.

“Auntie, you are disgusting” Yena tried to push her head away.

“Sorry, Miss. Why would I need your forgive? Go to find your boyfriend.” He felt annoyed to remember her and his pain again.

“My boyfriend is already here. He is suffered from overdose stress and memory loss. He left me a broken heart. I hate him already.” She kept crying.

Seeing her crying like this, he felt bad too.

He sighed and spoke up “I meant go to your real boyfriend. He might be waiting for you.”

“My real boyfriend? I thought we already dated. Did you play with my feeling?” she cried more and more.

“Stop crying. I’m talking about that pork seller. Didn’t you date him already? You even told me he was your boyfriend too.”

“What the heck..!! Are you not okay yet? Should I call doctor to have your mental checkup? Since when he is my boyfriend. That man was at my father’s age. I told you he was my aunt’s boyfriend. They are at the same market, and they loved each other.”

After hearing what she told, Daniel felt that he was suffered from headache again.

What the hell happened here? Was he suffered from broken heart for nothing?

“By the way, uncle you had no attention to commit suicide, don’t you?” Yena asked once.

“No, I don’t.” he shook his hair.

“I was curious too. There was no way you try to commit suicide by taking overdose birth control pills. Then why did you take too much birth control pills?”

Now he started feeling dizzy.

“What did I take? Birth control pills? I was supposed to take painkillers because I felt pain.” He tried to explain.

“No, you discovered to take overdose birth control pill. Now the whole hospital was laughing at you. I felt embarrassed to be your niece now. Sakura and I wore masks to see you here.” Continued Yena.

“But… those pills belong to Hyewon. Why did she take birth control pill? Wtf..” he dropped his jaw.

“I think auntie was stressed too much till lack of period. You know, birth control pill can return woman’s period.” She answered.

“Yena help, I am feeling like I gonna faint soon.”

 

A week later, Daniel left the hospital. His relationship with his girlfriend fixed up again. He just discovered that he suffered too much from overdose stress, that made his ear heard wrong information from her.

Since he read Hyewon’s unfinished story, he decided to find her at the place she wrote in the book.

He was looking at the big sea in front of him, with his missing feeling.

“Kang Hyewon… how dare you left me like this?” he felt hurt again.

“Is this place she disappeared?” Sakura stayed next to him and tried to comfort him.

Yeah, they heard rumor from people in this neighborhood that there was a girl jumped to the sea here. He could guess it was his sister.

“I can’t believe she left me this way. My stupid sister..” he wiped his tear when he was feeling emotional.

After spending time at the place where Hyewon disappeared, both of them decided to leave. Sakura remember Yena had ordered her to buy fresh seafood here, so they went to the port.

“Salmon, Salmon.. fresh salmons are just arrived.” There was a familiar girl was selling salmons as soon as she arrived to the port.

“Daniel! Isn’t that Hyewon?” Sakura got shocked, pointing to that dirty girl with salmon in her hands.

“Ahjuma!! Please clean salmon for me 10 kg. I need to cook for my guests this afternoon.” There was a middle-aged man shouted to her.

“Oh okay.. I will clean it perfectly.” Then she started cleaning salmon.

“What the…. Kang Hyewon!!” Daniel shouted to her but she didn’t look back at him.

“Why is she like this?” He tried to go to her boat.

“hey, kiddo. Stay there and tell me how much you want. You don’t need to come here directly.” She accidentally saw him and stopped him first.

“Kang Hyewon! You don’t remember me?” he looked at her with his clueless expression.

“Kang Hyewon what? I’m Kang Salmon. You may confuse wrong person. If you don’t buy, don’t interrupt my business. Go away.” She chased him.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?” now both of them were full of curiousness.

The truth was told by a man next to him. He told them that Hyewon was helped by a fishing family when she was in the sea.

Mr. and Ms. Kang didn’t have any child, they decided to adopt Hyewon as her daughter. Now Hyewon was happy to live with her family and there was no more sorrow for her.

She lived with fish and found a lot of money. Her family even own a restaurant here too.

Daniel decided to meet her family. After that, he decided to leave his sister here with those nice uncle and aunt.

At least now Hyewon was happy with her current life.

He should not bother her anymore.

Well, Kang Hyewon already died; but another Kang Salmon was just born and live happily.

He hoped she would live well like this forever…

 

The end

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day