❝ITWON'TSTOPRAINING❞

“Jinki-ah...”

It was Vickie's first kiss, a marvelous one.  Her heart had completely stopped its beating, her mind blank as if every little thing that were there just disappeared once Jinki's lips landed on hers.  Her eyes stayed open, looking at Jinki's closed ones.  She didn't know what was going on, but she didn't want it to end.  She never wanted it to end, but it had to.

“I- I'm sorry, Vickie, I—”

“Have you...”  Vickie paused to think of another way to ask Jinki,  “Do you... like me?”

Jinki gulped, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.  He couldn't manage to look at Vickie, not after what he'd done.  He nodded his head slowly, looking down.

Vickie scoffed softly, her lips forming a smile.  “So that's why Jooyoung told me that.”

This had Jinki's attention.  He looked up, looking at Vickie.  “What?”

Vickie shook her head.  It was her turn to look down at her feet.  She played with her jacket's cuffs, fiddling with the buttons.  She could feel Jinki analyzing her, if she was going to say anything, or at least do something other than stand there.  She pried her lips open, but closed it again sooner, the words she wanted to say creeping back into their corners in her head.

“I- I'm going back.”  Vickie said.  She turned around, quickening her pace.  She didn't want to leave because it was starting to get awkward; she was only worried.  Worried that she might say words that would make things more difficult for her and for her friend.

Jinki held his arm out in tries of stopping Vickie again.  He decided to let her go.  It was stupid to kiss her in the first place, he thought.  She probably thought of him as somebody else now, and she might even never want to see him again after that.  She might want to forget she'd ever met him even, but he was wrong in all of those.  He sighed and walked out the back door, where he and Vickie had entered together minutes ago.

Water was flowing down the glass walls of the bar, trails of them lengthening as it ends in pools down in the streets.  The sky was of a darker blue now, and there were no stars and no moon.  Just plain dark blue sky and gray clouds weeping, sending rain down to Seoul.

Wu Zheng straightened himself up as he saw Vickie walking towards their table.  “Vickie, if you don't want to come with me, it's oka—”

“I'm going.”

Two words, and it felt like two tons of rocks clogged up Vickie's throat.  They came out raspy and rugged, as if saying it was out of all her will.  Vickie felt a sting of pain in her head when she mentioned that to her father.  Her heart played tug-of-war with her brain, but her brain won.  Her heart was fragile, breaking into pieces when she made her decision of going back to Taiwan.

“Vickie, you don't have to—”

Vickie closed her eyes, shaking her head.  “Dad, I- I'm done with reverse psychology.  If this is what Grandmother wants me to do...  I'll do it.”

“Oh, Vickie.”  Wu Zheng stood out of his seat and enveloped Vickie in a tight hug.  “I knew you were a smart girl.”

Vickie felt slightly offended with that statement.  “I knew you were a smart girl”.  She's been smart, obvious from her studies and every other thing she did.  She was smart in music as well.  Generally, she was smart in life.  Her being told that she was a smart girl made her feel like it's the first time she did something good.  Like it's the first time she did something good and it pleased other people.  Vickie felt like a kindergartener getting an apple sticker on her drawing of her stick-people family.

Wu Zheng pulled away, proud of her daughter making a good decision.  That's what he thinks, that Vickie agreeing to go back to Taiwan was a good decision.  Vickie had nothing in mind.  Nothing at all.

“I'll pick you up later tonight.  Your school records will be mailed to your new school over to Taipei so you don't have to worry about anything.”  Wu Zheng said happily.

Vickie looked up with wide questioning eyes.  “‘Tonight’?”

“Yes!  Yes, Vickie, we're leaving tonight.  They need me to be there to accept your grandmother's testament, so I could become the official owner of the company.”

“I- I haven't even packed my stuff yet.  I won't have time, dad, I need more time.”  It was true.  Vickie needed more time.  She needed more time to settle things with Jinki.

“Oh, you'll have time.”  Wu Zheng waved a hand at Vickie.  “I'm sure Jinki will be more than glad to help you.”

Vickie looked around the bar randomly after hearing Jinki's name.  She played with the cuffs of her jacket again, lost in her pool of thoughts that seem lifeless.

“Speaking, where is he?”  Wu Zheng asked.

Vickie stood straight, ready to walk away.  “Excuse me.”

Vickie left her father standing there dumbfounded.  Wu Zheng brushed it off, calling the waiter over to clean the table up so that he could pay for the meal.  The staff greeted Vickie as she walked past them, telling her how great the song was and how beautiful her voice sounded.  She nodded her head and bowed slightly at them, trying to be away from them as fast as possible.

She quickly opened her dressing room, locking the door behind her just as another staff was about to compliment her.  Vickie walked over to the vanity table, zipping her backpack up and then placing her guitar inside its case, zipping it up as well.  There was a folded umbrella on the bed, to which she picked up to bring outside in the rain.

Vickie exited the dressing room as if some ghost was about to come and get her.  The staff didn't notice Vickie anymore as she s her way around the crowded hallways.  Her dad was already by the door waiting for her.  Vickie quickened her pace and, as soon as she had reached where her father stood, walked outside and opened the umbrella for her father.  They reached Wu Zheng's white car parked by the sidewalk.  Soon they were on their way to Vickie's campus.

The darkness closed in, leaving Jinki on his night-vision sense to avoid slipping over the wet sidewalk.  He was drenched in rain, but he didn't care.  A white car rushed past him just as he had reached the park where he had spent a day with Vickie together.  He stopped in his tracks, recognizing who that car belonged to.

His heart ached inside his chest, as if something was squeezing his heart, taking all its strength out.  Rain mixed with his tears as he stood there, sobbing quietly, his weeping in synchronization with the rain drops patting the sidewalk.

Drops of water pinned a white daisy on the ground.  Jinki continued crying, unmindful that he had stepped on the daisy, bringing it with him as he made his way to the college building.

Inside Vickie's dorm, Vickie sat in her bed, opening her wallet.  A picture of her and Jinki during the school festival back in their second year was beaming at her.  A stem sticking out behind the picture caught her attention, so she pulled it out, curious of what it was.

Vickie smiled, twirling a flattened white daisy in her fingers.

CAN I CRY RIGHT NOW

YEAH OKAY

WOW EVERYTHING IS SO BEAUTIFUL RIGHT NOW...

SHOUT OUT TO ELLA JUST 'CAUSE LOL HEY Y LADY!

THANK YOU GUYS FOR READING!