Jiyong, Sohee and I were best of friends… Sohee is the most beautiful girl in the campus while Jiyong is the heartthrob among female students… while I’m stuck from being a ‘simple Jane’…


We have each other for a very long time… along those times…. I couldn’t help not to grow my feelings for Jiyong, I don’t see him only as a friend… If only I could be with him… If only he likes me instead of Sohee…


Who wouldn’t like her…? Many boys are drooling all over for her…she’s like a fallen angel with her innocent beauty… but me and Jiyong both know that behind those angelic feature she has, is a treacherous man deceiver… but even though she’s like that, Jiyong still loves her… maybe love is truly blind.


I am just at their side watching them as they grew closer… pain stung my heart as whenever I saw him head over heels in love with Sohee… My love for him tells me to just accept everything… just to see him happy is good enough for me…


I realized that if I would confess my feelings to him, it would just be useless… first is I know I’m not the one he loves, I would just make myself into a complete fool… staking our friendship for my stupid reverie would not be a good idea… second, I know I can’t love someone… anyone…


As time passed, they become the hot topic in the whole campus…. The ‘perfect couple’… I would just stand from afar… watching their happiness, suppressing the sadness that filled my heart…


Then one day, Jiyong ran to me… he saw Sohee in the arms of another man… she even dumped him when they had an argument about it… it seems like our friendship was completely wasted…


I comforted him with all I can… seeing him in despair breaks my heart… if only I could be the one who could bring happiness to him…


He tried his best to forget about her…. While I’m still beside him waiting for his happiness to come back… he had changed, he began to be soft and caring for the pass days that we’re together… I felt happy that he was not like the playboy type anymore… Somehow I gave credit to their breakup because of what he has become now…


Then one day, out of the blue…


“Dara, do you want to be my girlfriend…?” he asked me


I don’t know what to feel… should I be happy because at last he noticed me? Or should I feel sad because I’m not sure if he really feels the same way towards me… but the only thing I know is that…. I can’t love him…


“I’m sorry Jiyong-ah…. I don’t want you to have another loss…” 
 

I said in a weak voice… as much as I want to shout yes to him… I want to be with him even though it would just serve as his way of forgetting someone he truly loves… but I can’t… I just can’t…


We became distant to each other after that incident… I feel sorry for myself, for not at least giving myself a chance to be with him…


[Jiyong’s POV]


I love her… I love her so much that it pains me when she turned down my confession… since the three of us were still friends… I already love her… her simplicity brought up her beauty… I love every single detail about her especially her pure heart…but she kept on pushing me away even though it’s not intentionally… I could feel it in her… I thought that if I would mingle myself with other girls she would at least notice me… but when Sohee and I became a couple, she drifted away from us… away from me…


I was not happy when Sohee cheated on me… but I was already expecting it… I tried to look lonely just to get back on Dara… and she welcomed me with her warm comforting… days passed that we’re together… those days being with her were just the best… at least for me… if only she could love me back…


I tried to change just to show her that I’m not like the old me back then… I just want to suit her… if being a playboy back then didn’t mean anything to her… maybe being a sweet and loyal one would at least make her to notice me…


Then one day… I got the courage to confess my feelings…


“Im sorry Jiyong-ah… I don’t want you to have another loss…” 


I didn’t get what she meant by it… but it pricked my heart to be turned down by the girl I truly love…


Days passed after that incident… we didn’t see each other that much anymore until I didn’t see her completely… I’m getting worried about her… I don’t know her where abouts… I tried calling her and going to her house but she wasn’t there anymore…


I felt my heart shattered into million pieces….


Then one day… I received a call from the least place I would want to go… it was a genera hospital… they said that Dara wanted to see me… I didn’t think twice and just fled towards the hospital…


There I saw here lying in the bed… totally helpless… she’s wearing a beanie on her head… her body is so pale and her eyes were not as lively as before…. I could not help but to cry with what I’m witnessing….


I held her hand and sit beside her… the girl that I love is here lying on the this cold bed… fighting for what she has left…. It pains me to see her like this…


“Jiyong-ah… mianhe… I didn’t tell you about my sickness because I don’t want to you to worry about me…” she tried to speak with all the energy she has left…. Until now she still cares about what I will feel…


“Dara-ah… it’s okay… don’t worry about me okay… you have to stay strong and continue fighting for your life… we still have a lot of things to do you know…” 


I tried my best to sound strong… it’s the only thing I could do for her….


I caressed her cold face… she closed her eyes when she felt the warmness of my hand… I rested my head on her shoulder as my other hand held hers…


“Saranghae… please don’t leave me….I still didn’t get any chance to take you on a proper date… I have loved you since Sohee, you and I were still friends…. Please don’t leave me just yet…” 


I said as I closed my eyes trying to feel at least some warm from her…


I felt tears streaming down from the side of her eyes… she tightened the hold in my hand…


“I love you too Jiyong-ah…I love you so much… “


I kissed her forehead then her cold lips… she then said that she wanted to go out… at least to have our first date… I stayed strong even though in the back of my mind it says that it would be the first and the last date we’ll have….


I carried her in my back… the doctors let us to out… maybe they think that it would be the last thing they could do for her… her family were crying as we made our way out of the room… I tried my hardest not to cry and stay strong… her head is resting on my back as she wrapped her arms around my neck….


We made our way towards the hospital’s yard…. We sat on a bench under a cherry blossom tree… She rested her head on my shoulder as I held her hand tightly afraid to let go of her…


She just stayed quiet while I hummed her a song…. Before I end the song, I felt her hand loosened the hold on mine… I already know…. Tears started to roll down my cheeks as I ended the song…


“Saranghae Dara…”