P r o l o g u e 

I was happy with my life. It was normal, but I wouldn't call it perfect. I had the normal parents who were just madly in love with each other, as well as the normal brother who'd bicker with me from time to time. I went to school, ate, and slept everyday of my life, and I liked it. I liked this plain life of mine.

Around the beginning of senior year, things started to change. My parents started having their first lover's quarrel, bickering at one another for the first time in their lives. But then it continued again and again to the point of them fighting at least once a week. Their arguing created some rough edges in the family. And of course, it affected everybody. Everyone.

It only took one day--one single day for the smile on my face to disappear. It took just one day for me to feel outcast from the world, slowly drifting away from the small handful of people I called my friends. It took just one day, just one single day, for me to hate the world. That very day, my mom had given up on life itself, deciding to meet with God a bit sooner than everyone else. I think it was the fact that she was in so much pain, so much misery that she just couldn't take it. She was happier and better off dead, sealing her life off in the end.

Soon after, my brother turned to drugs, theft, and alcohol, even though he was only at the age of fifteen. Him and his group of friends were caught by the police and were sentenced to a juvenile detention center for three years. By the time his probation ended, he packed his bags and left home, calling it the worst hellhole known to mankind before storming off.

My father left right after. It wasn't just Mom and my older brother that left, but my father did too. But of course he would leave; there was nothing left for him but painful memories. It was hard for him, for all of us even, so I couldn't blame him.

But for me, I couldn't leave no matter how hard I tried. That was the house in which I was born, learned to walk, talk, read, and just live life. I couldn't leave that place just yet, no matter how much it pained me to just stay there. Even if I felt suffocated staying at such a place, the long-term memories made there were much more important in the long run.

Although at one point in time several months after, realization just hit me. In the end, I did notice the stupidity in it all. What was the point in staying when everyone had already left? Why should it just be me who has to salvage the memories that would be long forgotten by everyone else? Why do I have to be the only one attached? But it was no use. Even after moving into new apartment, those memories came with me, haunting my very being.

That was when I met Myungsoo.

It was around four years ago on a hot day in summer--at least, that's what I remember it to be. It was around that time when I first met him. Myungsoo, that is. Kim Myungsoo, the popular one. Always the center of attention, always the one who was everybody's friend, always Kim Myungsoo. Just Myungsoo. He was the friendly type. You didn't have to gather up all of your courage to even utter a word to him; he would confront you himself, flashing the smile that would always make all the girls in our grade swoon.

As for me, I was purely the opposite of him. A quiet little girl sitting alone in the back with a book in her hands; that was who I was. Just Ji Eun. Lee Ji Eun. I passed the first three years of my life as a high schooler never expecting much. And that included Myungsoo even bothering to say hello. But of course, it ended up happening in the end anyway. He seemed to change me, just with the action of a simple hello as we passed each other in the hallway.

We then continued to bump into each other more and more often, and every time we did, we always smiled and wave at each other. Of course he made it all seem so natural, while I was doing the opposite, awkwardly showing my pearly whites as my stiff arm would raise high and above to stiffly wave back. And as we often greeted each other with short gestures, our conversations would prolong after each and every time. We began begin speaking more and more, and soon enough, we were comfortable with one another.

Sooner or later, we ended up falling in love. It was then that we decided to live with each other after high school, where we would live together because we just couldn't stand a life without the other. And for a few years, I was content with my life. Everything seemed normal once again, and I liked it. It was almost like before, and with every passing day, I fell for him even harder than the last.

But then he started to changed.

And as he changed, I did along with him.

But what can I say?

I love the man.

This is a contest entry for The Sky Is The Limit || Writing Contest. I know I shouldn't be so doubtful of myself, but I really am 99% positive that I probably won't win, and that is because all of the writers I glorify entered the contest. However, there is still that 1% in me that is hopeful. That there really is a possibility that I have what it takes.

And that was how this story was created. From that one percent hope that maybe I can do this!

So here I am, presenting you with this new story I thought up after reading an article on Hybristophillia.

I hope you enjoy it!

- The Queen

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Credits to: 500sunny500 for Review 2 at Modern Times - Graphic and Review Shop