1 - YONG

“Can’t you just call later? I’m at the library.”

Yongsun was half whispering at her phone, half annoyed at her friends constantly calling her every 30 minutes or so.

They were checking in on her. It was the first time she went out of the country after the accident 3 years ago.

They were worried.

They know it wasn’t for vacation. She wants to find Her.

And she’s been doing that roughly 5 months after the funeral.

She was sorry.

She didn’t mean every word that dropped that day.

She was lost.

She knew it wasn’t Her fault, she knew, but there was no one else to blame.

It wasn’t Her fault.

She was wrong for taking out all the blame on her when she was just doing her job, she didn’t even know.

Regret? Pain? Guilt? Maybe that was all.

If only I could take all of it back. Yongsun thought.

“Okay, okay. Just… don’t do anything stupid. We love you.”

She put her phone away and proceeded to find a quiet place, away from the presence of the other people flocking inside the massive space of the library.

Most of them were just trying to take some pictures. Marvelling around the spaces, gasping in awe at all the collections in every shelf.

She turned a corner, there was a chair and a table beside a big window overlooking a view of the greenery outside.

It looks relaxing, making you want to fall in a slumber instead of reading a book and she might as well do that.

As she was approaching the space, there was someone on the seat across.

She couldn’t believe her eyes.

There She was, sitting across the chair she was eyeing.

“Byulyi…”, she whispered.

Legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed.

A book on the table with an open page, glasses rest just beside it. She was wearing an expensive looking outfit much different from what she used to wear.

Way, way different from the red stained clothes she was wearing the last time she saw Her.

Light from the window illuminating her figure, it looked like a perfect painting.

She didn’t want to interrupt, she just wanted the time to stop and leave it at this moment.

But the universe has left her unheard.

A woman appeared at the corner of her eye, approaching Her.

She leaned down close. Too close.

It felt suffocating to look.

She turned away, hid behind a shelf.

It hurts, it hurts so much.

She composed herself, ready to confront reality, ready to meet her eyes already.

But they were gone, She was gone.

So, she ran.

She’s not one to break rules but she did, she ran and ran and ran.

Eyes desperately looking far and wide as she made her way to the nearest exit.

But She was gone.

Again, She was gone.

No, no no no no. Byul-ah

She couldn’t help it.

Her eyes filled with tears, like a dam in a storm flooding her face, drowning her heart.

She went back to her hotel, packed her things and bought a ticket back home.

It was enough, she saw Her.

She was there about two metres away from her, she was alive, breathing.

It was enough, but it wasn’t.

And she rode a cab to the airport.

***flashback***

The rain was pouring, and Yongsun