PART II

+ + + N i n e  y e a r s  l a t e r ; 2 0 1 2

Seoul Hospital

Seoul, South Korea

(Autumn- October)

This was the last piece of truth. What remained was the only letter she had ever received. It was burned in the center, but had caught the sender alone. Were they truly his last words?

Why I feel the sudden urge to relate, in pen and ink, a relationship of the most personal nature, which I have never before acknowledged, I cannot say. Perhaps it is this maddening illness which has been troubling me now and again of late - this cunning reminder of my own mortality - that compels me to make some record of what happened to prevent that memory from vanishing into the recesses of my mind, and from there disappear for ever from history, as fleeting as a ghost in the mist.

When there is love, do we speak the same language? But to this woman, whom I have never had the intention of meeting, I would like to give my whole heart to. She was in every respect, a woman with whom I believed I could share my life long and happily. I loved her. How she felt about me, however, was a matter in question. In the hours we spent together, in our discourse, debate and exchange of feelings, I experienced a kind of complete happiness, which had, until that time, been foreign to me.

~Leeteuk

Just hearing his name pulls her at a hundred ways and when she had tried to define them, it was useless. The accuracy of this reality was so haunting. It frustrates Taeyeon to not remember any of it. She knew a Leeteuk, apparently a commissioned killer that changed her life. He made her heart jump, and how he captured all the beauty he saw in his eyes through her ears. He taught her to see, to feel, to hear only the best that was meant to be. He taught her to play the piano, to sing in the rain, to dance in the dark, to feel the ocean beneath her feet, to love. How Taeyeon had always been in love with him unknowingly until the day he left her, completely.

Everything that was left unsaid, she had remembered having a mild hysteria before falling from a throbbing headache, and caused a concussion. Losing such an important part of her memory. Him, and everything he had ever meant for her.

                                                      “I’ll make this last.”

He linked their fingers together and she rested her eyes.

He died for love.

Incheon

          He woke up with a start, hearing murmurs from the side. Across him was a man clad in military attire and asked for his name. Park Jung Su, he told them. The view outside has changed, full of black smoke and foliage. It had been a miracle that he survived. There was nothing left with him after the crash, he might as well be perished with them. It was said how there had been a minor human intervention, an assumed war.

“You must not leave, there are enemies out there and you can’t survive, son.”

Jung Su started to bawl and cupped his face. The General hugged him and soothed his back. “I’m sorry, I know. I have a family waiting for me too. We all do, we are all going through the same ordeal.”

Jung Su nodded his head and bit his lip to stop his cries. He led out a choke and in a gentle voice told him, “Let me serve you. I’ll fight with you, Sir. Please.”

The next few days, Park Jung Su was registered as a national soldier; in the training of General Lee he spent nights working out in their little shelter camp. Often enough, it was apparent how he isolated himself from the others. He was a great fighter, much unlike his humble and soft appearance, he has had previous inculcation. The only difficulty was the ways he never dared to come into contact with an opponent. He didn’t want to hit anyone, much less to point a bullet towards them. Upon exposure to a gun, his hands would shake. Still, Jung Su endured them all, he was sent to be a soldier for a reason.

          During a night patrol, Jung Su met with another man from the opposing side. He tried to grab onto him but Jung Su defended himself and managed to block him away. All of a sudden, the man took out a grenade and placed it in his way. Out of fear, Jung Su managed to throw it away off the man’s direction and fled the scene. Seconds passed and the forest grew aflame. Much to his fear towards fire, Jung Su out a few minutes later.

In his room, he cringed at the incident that happened earlier. He looked at his filthy hands that had killed the man and closed his eyes. How will he touch his loved ones again?

“There was no choice,” his senior would tell him. It had been months since he last left the shores of Jeonju. Months since he last heard from Father Shim and his parents. Years since he left Taeyeon without a proper goodbye.