Chapter twenty-six:

Yoseob’s POV:

“You what?” I thought I heard her wrongly
“I don’t remember anything from my childhood. In fact, I don’t remember anything that had happened before the last two years.” She confessed.

“What happened?” I asked curiously. “I mean…why don’t you remember?”

“Well, two years ago, I got an extremely high fever. It damaged some part of my brain, and I got amnesia. I couldn’t remember anything. Thank goodness I had a good friend who took me in, and I’ve been living with him ever since.” She said.

I felt a pang of sympathy for her. Imagine losing all her memories, just like that. Not being able to remember her childhood, and not being able to remember anything. A person’s childhood memories were his or her most precious memories, and she couldn’t keep them.

“But what about your parents?” I asked her. “Didn’t they come to find you?”

“My parents? Well…they died. At least, that’s what I heard from my friend.” She replied, a tinge of sadness in her voice. Just a tinge

“I’m sorry….” I whispered, feeling guilty for asking her that question.

“It’s fine.” She shrugged, but looked pretty wistful. “I don’t really remember them, so…maybe losing my memory was for the best…”

“I’m sure they would have been really proud of you.” I smiled at her, trying to cheer her up. It worked. She smiled gratefully.

“Yoseob-ssi, can I ask you something?” She asked, rather hesitantly, after a moment of silence.

“Anything.” I replied easily, much more easily than I would have normally. Maybe it was because I still felt pretty guilty for asking her about her parents.

“I know it’s rude of me, but I really want to know. Remember the first day I met you? You were kind of…cold…You ignored me and stuff like that, and you just seemed to, I don’t know, like push yourself away from…girls…And…Umm…Doojoon…he said you behaved like this after a particular incident, but he didn’t reveal anything about it. And I’m dying to know what happened, so…could you…tell me?” She looked genuinely curious, her big eyes imploring.

Oh.

That incident

The truth was, I had never really told, in detail, about that incident.

Sure, I did tell the other members briefly about Kim Inyeong, but I never actually told them what happened between us. All the laughter, the smiles, the promises…They never knew about it. I never brought it up.

Probably because I didn’t want to remind myself about those happy memories

They never really understood why I couldn’t just let her go. It was understandable, considering they weren’t the ones spending time with her. They barely even knew anything about our relationship, aside from the fact that I loved her immensely. So they never got it.

Should I tell Ms. Park?

A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t even have this dilemma. I wouldn’t have told Ms. Park anything. Never ever.

But I didn’t know why, spending time with her made me feel so…comfortable. So happy. So relaxed. So peaceful.

When I spent time with her, I honestly stopped thinking about Inyeong, for those few hours every day.

She made me want to completely open up to her, to cry in her arms, to express what was really in my heart.

I wanted her to comfort me, just like a mother would.

I really, really wanted to .

Which was ironic, considering that she was younger than me…

“If you’re uncomfortable talking about it, I totally understand.” Ms. Park reassured me after a moment’s silence, but looked slightly disappointed. “I totally understand.”
“No, it’s okay.” I took a deep breath. “I should have told this to someone a long time ago, anyway.”

“Although this wasn’t in the news, two years ago, I was actually kidnapped. I hid it from the media, and no one except the B2ST members and CUBE entertainment knew about it.” I started to talk, which earned a small gasp from Ms. Park. I continued. “A girl...she witnessed everything, but unfortunately, she was discovered by my kidnappers, and they kidnapped her along, as well, because she had seen too much. They tied us together in an abandoned warehouse and left us there.”

“So naturally, we begin to talk. We talked about everything, from our hobbies, our interests, our life stories and things like that. I got to know more about her. Turns out her name was Kim Inyeong.” I realized I had been smiling unconsciously the whole time. I always did that whenever I thought about her.

“She was an extremely optimistic girl. Despite being kidnapped, and knowing that the kidnappers could kill her any moment, she remained cheerful. She never once blamed me for getting her into this mess, although it was all my fault. She was also a really strong girl. She lost her parents, and lived alone. She had the sweetest giggle and the gentlest voice ever. We made many promises to each other. She promised me that she would pursue her dreams and follow her heart, and I promised her that I’d make her my girlfriend and live with her after we got ourselves out of this mess. I promised her that we would escape together. I promised…” I mumbled, holding back tears. I took a look at Ms. Park. She was listening intently, absorbing every word, her eyes wide with curiosity and shock.

“We shared our first kiss. She fell asleep in my arms soundly. I carried her on my back when she was too weak to walk. I hugged her tightly when she was sick, and took care of her. I…I loved her. And I promised to protect her. I promised…”

“Then that day came. The kidnappers were going to kill her, but we managed to escape with some help. She was still running an extremely high fever, and couldn’t run, so I carried her. The kidnappers were catching up, so she told me to put her down and we ran together. The kidnappers were still catching up. So I ran. I ran as fast as I could. All I could think about was escaping. It was only after a few minutes of running when I realized that I had lost Inyeong. She was nowhere to be seen. That was the last thing I remembered before I out.”

“When I woke up, I was in a hospital. The police had managed to save me before the kidnappers could kill me. When I tried to look for Inyeong, the police said that they had not found anyone with me. Inyeong was gone. She…she…was nowhere to be found…” I couldn’t hold my tears back anymore. Those feelings – guilt, regret, anger, pain – came rushing back all at once, engulfing me.

“I deserve to die.” I choked, sobbing. “Why Inyeong? Why her? What did she do wrong? How could I abandon her like that? If I had just made sure she was running with me, instead of running selfishly ahead to save myself. If I had just held her hand, or continued to carry her…” My voice trailed off, followed by a series of hiccups.

“ I couldn’t imagine how helpless she felt, seeing me run further and further away from her, but not being able to do anything. I couldn’t imagine how terrified she must have felt. To think I promised to protect her! To think I made all those useless promises with her! To think I promised that we would escape together, yet I left her so mercilessly!”

“I…I miss her…so much.” I admitted, my shoulders shaking up and down uncontrollably. “I miss everything about her. I miss her smile, her laughter, her sparkling eyes, her optimistic attitude about everything, her soothing voice, the warmth she brought…She was really beautiful you know? She had long, black hair, and huge eyes. Her skin was fair, and her cheeks were slightly rosy. She was always smiling, even in her sleep. She was an angel…and I let that angel die. Why? Why was heaven so unfair? She shouldn’t have died. She didn’t deserve to, not at all…I…I…I wished I had died instead…” I buried my head in my hands, tears streaming down my cheeks.

Then I felt a soft pair of arms wrap themselves around my shoulders, squeezing me gently. 

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HAHA OKAYOKAYOKAY

I KNOW MANY OF YOU GUYS WERE EXPECTING YOSEOB TO FIGURE OUT EUNMI'S INYEONG OR WHATEVER, AND I WAS LAUGHING LIKE CRAZY WHEN I READ YOUR COMMENTS LAST WEEK xD I'M SORRY GUYS FOR LEADING YOU ON AND GIVING YOU FALSE HOPE, BUT THE STORY CAN'T END SO QUICKLY! (: We must give Woohyun a chance to prevent Yoseob and Inyeong from reuniting, right? RIIGHT?

Oh, by the way, I know I've said this before, but I'm currently planning for my story to have about 70 chapters! Is that too long? Should I cut out the long process of Yoseob figuring out the truth or just jump right in to the drama? Because I could cut out a significant portion of the story (the more redundant parts) you know (: So do let me know your opinions in the comments!

THANKYOU <3 Here's wishing all Chinese a happy chinese new year (: