And the first thing Shin Hye saw when she came into her lecture room was a small notebook with a cover in pastel blue. Even without seeing the contents of the book, she knew from whom it was. And her face wreathed in smiles as she thought of how sweet he can be. She could hear his melody in her heart and he has become the reason she would fight for her life.

Let’s try our best and move forward
Melody
The one thing I can hear from whoever’s next to me

The pastel blue notebook was on her study desk in her room and she’s sitting in front of it with her eyes fixed on it. She didn’t look at the content when she found it at college. She was afraid the content would make her thought flew away from focusing on the lectures. And so here she was staring at the book in her room.

“Thank you,” Shin Hye muttered to Yong Hwa as she walked back home with him, few hours ago, clinging to him like a child asking for candy.

“For what?” Yong Hwa played dumb.

“Hehe...don’t pretend as if you don’t know about that,” Shin Hye giggled, pinching his cheek. “You look cute when you play dumb.”

“Then...should I do that often?” He .

“No, you can’t!” And the words were followed by a spontaneous reaction of Shin Hye hitting Yong Hwa’s back continuously.

“Ouch...stop..stop...okay..okay..I won’t.” Yong Hwa raised his hands in a sign of raising white flag. “Ouch...I didn’t know my girlfriend can be this fierce.”

“Your girlfriend?? Yah...who said I wanna be your girlfriend?” Shin Hye continued her scheme of bullying Yong Hwa.

Yong Hwa raised his eyebrows in disbelief. His eyes grew wider as his jaw dropped at the question. He blinked few times before he got the right words to say. “Alright...then what do you want to be? Honey? Sweetheart? Darling?”

”Isn’t that the equivalence of girlfriend?” And now it’s her turn playing dumb. She gave him a curious look, still clinging affectionately to him but she didn’t see Yong Hwa’s reaction coming. Yong Hwa unlinked his arms from her clinging before he cupped her face in both of his hands and...

There it went. So sudden like a jolt of lightning hitting her, she looked at him in stunned silence.

“Hoho” Yong Hwa gave a satisfied, boastful laugh. “That...is a winning peck.”

Shin Hye laughed at the remembrance of the incident happened that evening and that brought her back to the present. “Winning peck, huh?” She flipped open the first page of the notebook in front of her.

To the Love of My Life, Park Shin Hye

I’m sorry if what happened between us was so fast that both of us are now barely catching up with it. I would like to take this opportunity to get to know you better and hence here it is, this book, that I dedicated for you to write down all your wishes for me to fulfill it for you. I want all the time that we will be spending together to be memorable moments for you, filled with your laughter as your wishes and dreams come true. Though I know I am just an ordinary guy who can just afford to do what other ordinary guys do, I will try my best to fulfill it for you. You can return the book at the same place as when you found it.

- Jung Yong Hwa -

She was touched. If only he was there, sitting next to her, she would have given him a tight warm hug and whispered to his ear how thankful she was to have found him in her life. Shin Hye inhaled deeply. She grabbed the pen that was in the wooden stationery stand on the desk and slowly, she began to write her wishes down.

To Jung Yong Hwa, my love, my heart, my life...

I have always dreamed the dream that every girl dreams...When I find the love of my life, I wish to....

The clock continued ticking as she stopped in a while to think of the wishes she ever had in her life. Now that she thought of it, why was it hard for her to figure out her wishes when she was conscious of it. It never happened as she went on with her life. She would spontaneously blurt out “How I wish....” given she was in a specific situation. Again, life is being ironic. Or maybe...maybe she was aware of the one who was going to fulfill it for her. Yes...maybe that was the reason. So she just wrote down whatever came into her mind. When the calm night wind blew softly through the opened window, Shin Hye took a glance at the shiny metal clock on her table which showed it was almost 11pm at which she ended her wishlist with her final wish.

Of all, I wish nothing more than for you to put me up on the pedestal.

- Park Shin Hye -

She signed off her name and put down the pen. She stretched her hands up in the air and inhaled deeply. Time for medicine. She drew out the drawer under the desk and took out few small plastic bags containing pills.
…........................

July 17th, 2011

Of all, I wish nothing more than for you to put me up on the pedestal.

The words were still there, in the same notebook that he handed to Shin Hye, unchanged. Their feelings might be the same as well, unchanged, or at least that’s what he thought. The only thing that has changed was that she was no longer there at the same place as he was. 

He could still remember the day he got the notebook back from Shin Hye, he was surprised that all of her wishes were just common wishes that any ordinary girls would have wished for. But the one that he’s staring at right now, the one that Shin Hye ended her wishlist with, was more than both him and her thought they could ever wish for. 

A wish that he didn’t have to put much effort in it but instead requires a pinch of love, a dash of affection, a spoonful of tenderness and the most important ingredient of all is a bowlful of patience. Yes, patience is the most crucial ingredient to make the serving of relationship something that we will always treasure and protect in our whole lives. And patience is exactly what they needed along their relationship for theirs was not the same as what others experienced.  

Yong Hwa turned to the picture on his study desk. Slowly, surreptitiously, he muttered to himself and the picture as if the picture could hear and respond to his words.

“Shin Hye-ah, do you still remember? The night we went to watch the stars together, the night we spent at your house having a Studio Ghibli’s movies marathon, the day we shot our own coffee commercial, the day we went shopping together although you suddenly had your unexpected tantrum and things got chaotic between us...” He paused, wiping the uninvited tears that started to roll down his cheeks. Just then he chuckled ruefully, “I’m sorry that I argued with you over small things on that day. If only I knew...if only...” His voice trailed off as he couldn’t contain his emotions anymore.

“Will you at least come back on the day of our performance? I...I miss you...so much...”

Waiting has always been painful and tiring...so they said...just as what all of us are well aware of.....

…............................

A/N: Dear readers, presenting to you the 11th chapter of Separation Anxiety. To all my readers, I have made up my mind to give this story a happy ending hence I hope all of you can put your worries to an end already. Just as I promise, the last monologue of Yong Hwa showed that Shin Hye will be back in his arm in the last chapter.

I guess it has been two weeks since I last updated this story. Am really really sorry about that. First, it was "writer’s block" and then it was due to my busy schedule as I just got back home. And sadly, I have to announce in the next one month, I will probably be able to update once a week as I will be starting on my work next Monday. I will try my best to at least update another chapter before next Monday. Thank you for always being patient with me and as usual, thank you for reading this poor work of mine. ^_^