Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Tragedy

Summary: Kang Hyewon will do anything to see her, even just once.

Word Count: 2484

Hashtag: #IntoTheKangBiVerse_JustOnce

just once

*If you can, please listen to Just Once by Young Jae of 4men, sadly the song is not on Spotify :< (it adds to the feels, trust me)*

Kang Hyewon walked the same familiar streets just like the other day, faint traces of tiredness littered in her eyes as her gaze ran through the people coming and going, the beat of her heart in rhythm with the steps of these people, yet no one managed to look like the person she had been trying to look for. 

“나 처음 그대 모습 떠오르네요,”

“I think of the first time I saw you,”

It was blurry, and it was distorted, but if there was anything that Hyewon knew, it was that her heart, the only thing that she trusted in this world, the thing that kept her going, never forgets. Her heart, the thing that keeps bothering her to walk the same familiar streets, to look at the same places, misses someone. It remembers someone.

That tight curled smile. That mole. Those eyes.

Images that she once remembered with her head, now only lived in her heart.

“어쩌면 다신 볼 수 없단 맘에 아파요.”

“My head hurts at the thought of never seeing you again.”

Despite the bandage on her arm, despite the busted lip, despite every bruises she has on her face and body, Hyewon still kept walking. She kept her eyes forward, never faltering from searching, investigating each face that she could see, waiting for that familiar spark, that familiar tingle that her heart longed to feel for a long time. She kept walking.

Forward, never look back.

She couldn’t find it in her to stop.

“시간을 되돌려 그댈 다시 볼 수 있다면,”

“If I can turn back time and see you again,”

Everything shined so brightly in Hyewon’s eyes and it felt so…weird to be walking all alone herself in these streets, the feeling of companion lingering within her as she tried to remember who it was. “Hyewon-ah, don’t walk alone from now on, okay?”

Hyewon really wanted to remember. Who was it?

“I’m sorry.” Was the only thing that stuck in her mind as she played those words over and over again. 

Tears pricked Hyewon’s eyes as guilt filled her whole body, the shame eating her whole as she kept criticizing herself for not remembering.

“미안해요 이 말 한마디는 꼭 하고 싶은데.”

“I’m sorry – I really want to tell you that.”

“Forgive me.”

Hyewon continued walking, and she made herself promise that she would still keep going even if it would take her forever, just to see those eyes again.

One.

Two.

Three.

She stopped.

 She took a breath.

She brushed her thumb over the bright red ring on her ring finger.

She closed her eyes. 

She imagined that eye smile.

She continued walking.

She needed to see her.

She needed to find her.

Hyewon’s heart ached when she stopped by the intersection, holding on to a post as she clutched her chest, feeling so lightheaded after trying to squeeze her brain for information. 

Who was she?

Why couldn’t she remember her?

“한번쯤 다시 만나질까요... 정말?”

“Will we be able to meet once again really?”

She kept going as she questioned herself.

The more she walked, the more she saw and glanced at unfamiliar faces, the more her hopes faltered, her heart taking blows as strange eyes meet her tired ones.

“Hyewon, you remember where we would always find one another in case we get lost, right?” A smile. 

Her heart fluttered as she felt the ghost of that woman’s fingers playing with her own, her bright yellow dress flowing in her mind. “I will always wait for you there, Hyewon-ah.”

“언제쯤 그게 이뤄질까요.. 정말?”

“When will that come true, really?”

Those words rang in her ears as if it was whispered by the winds as she walked, and she balled her hands into fists as she held onto words.

“She said she will wait.” Hyewon whispered lowly to herself as she built up her determination once more.

“I will find you. I will meet you there.” Hyewon was never one to break her promises.

“걷다 보면 그대 흔적 하나 찾게 될까 봐.”

“As I walk along, in case I find traces of you.”

Finding someone you can’t remember in a place where you don’t remember as well would be a tiring mission for anyone, even if they are the best of the best out there. What more if you’re a beaten up woman with no way of knowing who she was trying to find except to remember her features that her heart can only supply? 

Hyewon could never go up to anyone to ask for help, finding it fruitless if she described the woman in her heart as she would sound so…basic. She can only rely on herself and herself only.

But it’s hard.

But she could manage.

Anything for the woman in her heart.

Anything for the woman who keeps her heart alive.

Looking with her eyes so strained with pain and hurt and longing, Hyewon knew it was bit awkward and strange, but she’s a person in a mission, to see the one her heart is longing and had been calling for every time she open her eyes, she had to do it. She needs to do it, even if the feeling of dread started growing as every passing minute her mind starting to not recall the same feeling she feels every time she sees those eyes in the back of her mind.