“Wait”

Hyun Hee felt herself saying. She turned towards Kyuhyun’s direction, regretting the words that drew him away in the first place.

She suddenly realized that she did not want him to go.

She bit the inside of her lip, ignoring the reluctance that was preventing her from saying the words she wanted and needed to say.

“For the record, you sang perfectly the first time,” she said, her lip quivered as she did.

Free of the antagonism, her tone was more pleading now. “But can you blame me for wanting to hear it over and over again?”

Kyuhyun’s silence fell even more silent as she stepped even closer and diminished the length of the small distance between them.

“I haven’t heard your voice in so long,” Hyun Hee remarked, her voice faltering. “I’ve missed it”

The room grew warmer; she was so close.

Wordlessly, he turned back and surrounded her with his arms.

She leaned on him. She didn’t plan on crying, but she felt tears well up in her eyes.

With the bashfulness of a young girl, she hugged him back.

I’ve missed you

But it was only in her mind that she did this.

In reality, she stood there, her feet frozen where they were and her hands stiff on her sides. As soon as the door met the threshold and clicked into place and she was, once again, alone, her knees buckled and Hyun Hee fell to the floor.

Tears did not fall from her eyes nor brushed her cheeks. did not resemble a frown; in fact, her face resembled no emotion at all. She was not faint nor was she ill. She simply collapsed with the weight of emptiness, heavy on her chest.

Resigned and irresolu