Seohyun woke up and glanced at the calendar, reorienting herself to the days gone by. Being indifferemt to the affairs of life, she used to not pay attention to it until the recollections of the accident started to disturb her.

It had been three days and that event was still haunting her. Every night, it would wake her up in the middle of her sleep to remind her every detail that should be guilty of. Her conscience would not let her rest even during the night when she supposedly could find a temporary exit route to her woes.

“We should be married in three days time but he was gone.” Seohyun once again remembered that phrase.

“So today is supposed to be their wedding,” Seohyun muttered. “You destroyed a life, Seohyun.” Her fingers traced the calendar to look for today’s date. She was surprised when she saw the date. What a coincidence, she thought. That was also the same date as her wedding a year ago. “This date is really not a good choice. It is a day of unfulfilled vows,” she sighed.

The wedding march was playing on the background as she walked at the aisle towards him who was waiting. She was smiling happily, thinking that she at least fulfilled her two sisters’ wish, to get married to the person she loves and build a harmonious family. She was an introvert so her sisters used to that she would not be able to get a man. But now, there was this one man who had always been there for her and stood by her through her trials in life. It was no other than her best friend, Jinwoon. She thought he was the one for her.

It was a very simple wedding, very simple decorations. White flowers adorned the aisle with a long red carpet at the center. It was a very solemn one in which a few friends was invited. The total attendees would hardly reach ten in number.

With every step that she made, she felt closer and closer to the life that she had been dreaming of. Her dreams all shattered at once when Jinwoon, her fiancé suddenly backed out and told her, “Sorry Seohyun, I cannot do this.” Her eyes followed him as he darted fast and ran toward the door without looking back.

Seohyun was devastated. She wanted to run after him but her gown did not allow her. She stepped on it and she fell down the carpeted floor. She was simply inconsolable. Even when the guests were already gone, she still stayed in front of the altar waiting for him to come back and say that he changed his mind and he just had cold feet. But with every hour that passed, the reality started to sink in and she ended up crying for it.  

A few days later, she went to his place to derive an explanation from him. She went to his apartment and knocked on the door.

“Jinwoon, I know you’re there. Can we talk? I just want to know what happened to you that day and why do you keep on avoiding me.” Seohyun said, staying as close as possible to the door so that her voice would be able to be heard inside.”You know what, I’ll understand if it was just a case of cold feet.”

When Jinwoon opened the door, she did not need an explanation anymore. The answer became clear to her when she saw a half- Jinwoon giggling with another girl. Jinwoon was surprised while the other girl looked confused.

“Who is she?” the anonymous girl asked. “Just go. I’ll see you later,” Jinwoon told her and then the girl left with a still confused expression.

Seohyun looked at him, tears b in her eyes. “How can you do this to me? I thought you love me.”

“I’m sorry,” he tried to hold her hand but she immediately pulled it away. “Don’t touch me,” Seohyun said sharply.

“Seohyun, I just realized that my love for you isn’t as the one you had for me. You misunderstood my actions.” Jinwoon replied.

“You just pitied me,” Seohyun sobbed.

"Seohyun, it's not like that."

“You could have told me earlier rather leaving me hanging there. You’ve given me a false hope.” She walked away with a sad heart. The truth hurts. It definitely hurts. It pierced through her heart like a poisoned arrow that was slowly killing her a day at a time up to the present.

She looked at her disheveled reflection in front of the mirror. Her heartaches had drained all the life out of her.

-----------------------

Ivory-colored envelopes, invitations with golden ts, a pair of golden rings, a pair of white shoes, and a long white silk gown; they are all laid upon the bed. They are now merely the remains of what could have been.  It was supposed to be the happiest day in her life but all that she could do now was just to stare at the memories that she could never ever have.

Victoria’s eyes travelled to the small recorder resting on top of her bedside table. She picked it up and went to sit at the corner of her room. She placed the earphones on her ears and listened to it while hugging her knees. She listened intently to his voice drowning out all the other sounds in the background.

Flashback

“Oppa, I can’t sleep.”

“Your insomnia is at it again, isn’t it?” he asked.

Victoria simply nodded.

“I’ll sing you a lullaby then.”

“I’m not a baby.”

“But you’re my baby.” He said innocently. Victoria chuckled.

“Next time, I’ll record lullabies so that you will be able to listen to it when I’m away.”

Listening to his voice made her miss him even more and she started sobbing again. Outside her door, there are her mother and Zhou Mi standing and they could hear her sniffles through it.

“She refused to eat. If she were to eat, it would be just so little. She refused to talk to anyone too and she would be just crying again and again,” her mother told Zhou Mi.

“Today is supposed to be their wedding. It is understandable why she is grieving that much.” Zhou Mi replied.

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There are four things that a Vessel must know. A Vessel is a person who has inside him a bit of time of another person called The Host and is using it to extend his stay on the living world so that he can be able to fulfill his last wish or whatever he has to do as long as it is of goodwill before going to the gates of afterlife.

1.      If a person is lucky, sometimes there is one person who will offer a bit of his or her time to a deceased person so that he can continue to live for an extended yet limited time. A maximum of 30 days is allotted for that person, no mor than that. The person from when a dead person can borrow time is called The Host.

2.      The Vessel must return the time to the Host after 30 days. All the memories of the Vessel coming back to life will be erased. However, the Vessel has the choice to continue living, that is, if the Host voluntarily relinquish ALL of his or her lifetime to the Vessel so that he can live again. All memories of his death will be erased. It’s either he returns it or take it all. It’s either the Vessel lives, the host dies or the Vessel dies, the Host lives.

3.      The Host shall also be the one to help the Vessel accomplish what he needs to be done.

4.       The Vessel shall never be recognized by anyone except for the person whom he came back for and the Host.

With a flick of Yesung’s hand, the scroll rolled upwards and disappeared into thin air. “So that means that only Victoria will be able to recognize you. Not even your family, your friends, or your colleagues. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, I understand,” Kyuhyun said.

“So it’s a deal then.”

----------------------

In a blink of an eye, they appeared in front of a small apartment which is a little bit shabby for Kyuhyun who was born with a silver spoon on his mouth.

“The one living there is your host. Seo Joohyun, 24 years old and works as a landscape gardener. She has committed several suicidal attempts in the past.” Yesung told him. Kyuhyun’s eyes widened and he looked inquisitively at Yesung.

“Don’t send me that look. Do you think I know everything?”Yesung said. “Anyway, you are really so lucky. That girl is obviously tired of living. You can just ask her to transfer all her lifetime to you.”

Kyuhyun glared at him. “How can you be so insensitive? Why would I do that? Everyone deserves to live and I don’t like to use this chance to steal somebody’s life to continue mine.”

“Fine then, Mr. Righteous. By the way, that girl is the one you saved on the day of your death. She felt so guilty that she wished she could give her time to you so that’s why you’re here. So let’s go inside” Yesung said, then Kyuhyun held his arm to stop him.

“How can we get there? It’s locked.”

“FYI, you’re a spirit.”

So they passed through the walls and went inside the apartment. The area was small and only few pieces of furniture were present. The window panes were dusty and there were already some cobwebs on the ceiling. They went next to Seohyun’s bedroom by passing through the wall again.

Seohyun was quietly sleeping on the mat with a disturbed expression in her face. Kyuhyun kneeled next to her and observed her.

“Now put your hand under her hand,” Yesung told him. Kyuhyun followed and slipped his hand under Seohyun's hand which was resting on her stomach. Yesung then placed his hand on top of theirs. He muttered some incantations and then a blinding light surrounded the room. Then the light disappeared as soon as it just appeared.

“You just have to wait for her to wake up.” Yesung told him and then vanished in an instant, leaving him no opportunity to ask anything. Kyuhyun touched his own body. He felt unusually warm inside. He just sat there and waited for Seohyun to wake up.

After a few minutes, he became impatient and bored. He leaned forward to her face. “Why do you take so long to wake up?” he whispered and he accidentally blew some air to her face. Seohyun stirred and slowly opened her eyes. When her eyes opened completely, she was shocked to see the person in front of her.

“Bwoh!” She immediately sat up and accidentally knocked each other’s heads.

“Ouch!” Kyuhyun exclaimed, rubbing the small lump that formed on his forehead. Seohyun continued to watch him with fright.

“Wait, so you can see me already?” Kyuhyun said all of the sudden. He touched the lump on his head. “I can feel pain.” He stood up and walked directly to the wall only for him to be thrown back. “I cannot pass through walls anymore.”

“I’m a living human already,” Kyuhyun exclaimed happily to himself.

“You are a ghost, aren’t you?” Seohyun asked him.