“This time, I’m not letting you go”, he said to himself as he watched her from across the street, as she put on her Chloe shades and run her fingers through her smooth blonde locks in a swift movement. She was leaning on her red 4-seater Mercedes Benz convertible, waiting for her three best friends. Chaerin was her name, his Chae. They used to be together. They used to be the perfect couple everyone admired. She was a professor’s daughter and he was a CEO’s son. Everyone thought that these lovebirds would have their happy-ever-after but they didn’t know how cruel reality could be. No one expected the unexpected twist to their so-called fairytale. Blinded by the good times, no one saw it coming.

                This was the first time Jiyong travelled back in time. All those money couldn’t buy him a time machine. His riches couldn’t buy him a cure for his broken heart either. He was lost and desperate. He tried to move on but every time he tried, he would run a full circle and come back to square one, hoping for Chaerin to come back.

                “Time heals almost anything”, they told him but he needed more time; more time with her. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Jiyong successfully built a time machine, with the help of Chaerin’s father, Professor Lee, also the man who could have been his father-in-law if only the unfortunate did not happen.

                Jiyong tried to save her. He tried to make every time he had with her worthwhile but time passed by quickly when he was with her. “This is the first and last time you’re travelling back in time, Jiyong-ah. I am going to shut this machine down after you get back. It is time to face the music. She’s gone now. Go back and tell her your goodbye. This is the only time”, Professor Lee’s words played in his head as he fixed his Givenchy tee and got out of the coffee shop to follow CHaerin who just drove off with her three best friends.

                Jiyong slipped into his white Bentlley and put on his Ray-Ban aviators. “Here we go again”, he said as he chuckled at the situation he was so familiar with.

He was now back to the times when they were young and in love. The times when everything was fine and happy, the times that he used to keep as memories; he was living it again. He was back to the days when he would dance with her, even when there was no music playing. He was back to the night when they took their blankets and climbed to the roof. They were star-gazing as they talked about their future like they had a clue, except this time, his heart felt heavy as he knew he would be losing her. Trying to hold back his tears, Jiyong asked, “Chaerin, what would happen if one day, we lose each other?”. Jiyong expected her to be puzzled with the question as he was the only one who knew that he was from the future. However, she started singing, “Then in another life, I would be your girl. We’d keep all our promises, be us against the world” as she continued looking at the night sky.

                It was bittersweet for Jiyong to live through the past again. He was back to the day when he talked to her father. “I want to marry your princess and make her my queen. She’ll be the most beautiful bride you’ll ever see”, he repeated the exact words he said the first time.