Sometimes in life we come across people that leave a deep impression on us, even though we might have not known them for long. There are people who rise against the thousands of obscure faces that form the fading memories of life. The person may not necessarily be family, friend or an acquaintance, it could be a well wisher, a passer by or a person that you had met at crossroads in life when there was no ray of hope and no direction, they come into our life like a gentle breeze that lifts up the leaf that was abandoned by the tree and whisks it away for a new, better future.

While wading through the pools of fast turning muddy memories, siwon can see the face of his angel, his saviour who had brought him light when he was in extreme darkness and left with him, some of his brilliance that had helped siwon pick up the pieces in his life and move forward. The reason he was able to gain courage to do such a thing was because kyuhyun has set him free from the shackles of worry that had bound siwon and was restricting his life.

Siwon vividly remembers the day; his life had ended only to begin anew. It was the Valentine’s Day, the day celebrated in honour of the patron saint of love St. Valentine who had risked his own life to unite lovers back in the hostile dark ages. He was in a jubilant mood as this was to be the last Valentine’s Day he was to celebrate as a single man; he was getting married next month to Choi Sooyoung who was the daughter of the chairman of CHOI industries where he was a director. This marriage was a way for Mr. Choi to announce to the world that siwon was his successor and his heir that would steer the company to mammoth heights. Any outsider would have taken siwon as a gold digger, who had managed to latch his talons on the chairman’s daughter. But those people did not know the kind of person siwon was. Siwon had entered the company as a bright eyed intern at the age of 18 and quickly rose through the ranks on the basis of sheer hard work, grit and determination to succeed. The drive that siwon possessed to excel in work easily seeped into other aspects of his life. He gave his all to achieve the goal he set his sights on, so when he was introduced to the beautiful daughter of chairman choi, he had fallen head over heels in love with her and did all he could to woo her. The earnest efforts that siwon displayed while wooing sooyoung had not gone unnoticed. Chairman Choi being a business man at heart saw the benefits of marrying his daughter to siwon and naming him his heir ensuring that the dashing young man will always be by his side. Sooyoung too was not against the decision, as she was swayed by the desperate attempts of the handsome man in wooing her, and took up the opportunity to lessen her father’s interference in her life and gain an enviable husband to flaunt in the process.

The setup seemed to fulfil the wishes of everyone involved in it. But alas! The decisions made with mind over matter were to come undone when siwon decided to surprise his wife to be with a valentine day gift. With a bouquet of red roses, sooyoung favourite flowers and a box containing couple rings that siwon had personally designed to showcase his undying love for sooyoung, the platinum bands had intricate native Scandinavian designs that symbolised everlasting love. He rang the bell to her house and waited for few moments and when he could not hear any response he decided to wait for her in the house and entered using a duplicate key that siwon possessed. He walked through the house which was quiet, save for some muffled moans that seemed to be emitting from the bedroom. Curious as to what was happening, siwon walked towards the bedroom and found the door slightly ajar; he realised that the sounds were indeed coming from the room, so he slowly pushed the door open and the sight that siwon saw, broke him into pieces. It felt as if someone has pulled away the very earth he was standing on and he was now falling in a bottomless abyss. His legs gave away and he slumped to the ground, the sound of him hitting the ground seemed to have brought the two people who were in throes of ecstasy down to earth and they both simultaneously looked for the disturbance in their mating.

Seeing that both the performers now had their attention towards the sole member of their audience, the expression of pain, shock and horror that siwon was wearing was curiously not mirrored by the other occupants of the room. With an almost lazy and worn out expression sooyoung got down from the bed with a hand near her chest effectively covering her body with the bed sheet. The guy however showed no intention of covering himself up and was now watching siwon with contempt. The scene that followed was something that siwon had tried to forget but was unable to do so, but time had effectively removed any emotional associations from it.

Siwon got to his feet and made his way out of the house as fast he could on his wobbly legs and ran away with just a tear betraying the fact how broken hearted he was. He ran as fast and as far his legs could carry him and stopped only when his legs protested and refused to budge further or bear the brunt of the broken heart. With a sigh, siwon sat down under the shade of a tree when he realised that he had managed to run all the way to central park. With his whole body effectively hidden by the shade of the giant sycamore, siwon attempted to put his frazzled body and mind to order.

He could only vaguely hear the lame excuses that sooyoung had provided when she was caught red handed cheating on his fiancé with another man on their very first valentine’s day. Now when siwon though about it, sooyoung had not even made an attempt to apologise and was in fact defending her behaviour saying that she wanted to be free and to be in an open relationship; she hated being bound by her father and when she saw the first ray of freedom, she got hold of it and used siwon to fool her dad and finally live like the free soul she was. She had asked him to understand as he too was interested in her after she was introduced as the chairman’s daughter. He had used her for her position and she in turn for the freedom that she could get by living away from her father. She even had the nerve of saying that nothing had to change, if he was willing to look the other way she too would play up the charade of being the perfect trophy wife in public and his ticket to CHOI industries.

Siwon took a deep breath in an effort to calm himself and thought that this was not something that if ignored could be relegate to the back of his mind or disappear altogether. He had to decide on what course he would take. He could both stay with sooyoung and play the little game to get hold of CHOI industries; after all he had given close to eight years of his life to the company and had spend many countless nights in the office to reach where he was now, to lead a highly successful but loveless life or leave now with at least his dignity intact and write his success story elsewhere. After all he was the youngest director in Korean corporate, there ought to be more avenues for him that he could explore. But the loyalty he felt for the company and his mentor Mr. Choi and after what had transpired the heart that was broken but still beat for sooyoung was making his task of taking a decision very hard.

When the pain of his heart has travelled through every inch of his body did he contemplate of ending his life in an effort to get away from the pain, and that was when he heard the most melodious voice that he had then attributed to an angel who had come to rescue him from his hell and take him away to paradise. He looked up only to be met with the most beautiful faced boy, who had a strange glow surrounding him, looking down at him and asking if he was okay. The boy had a bunch of roses in his left hand and was wearing a full white ensemble consisting of white dress shirt that was long enough to cover his knees and white skin tight jeans with white sneakers on.

“Hello, I said would you like a flower? Are you even listening to me?” the boy asked when his questions went unanswered. Siwon, who was still fresh from his heartbreak and in middle of a serious contemplation of deciding the very course of his life, looked every bit bewildered like a kid asked to describe the theory of relativity. Seeing that siwon was yet to answer his questions and noticing trails of dried tears, the boy sat down next to siwon on the bare earth without any regard to his pristine white clothes. Then with a soft voice he asked “hey, are you okay? Is there anything I can do to help you?” Siwon considered the pros and cons of telling something extremely personal to an unknown stranger. Sensing the hesitation in siwon’s eyes the boy raised his right hand towards siwon “here, let me introduce myself. I am Cho Kyuhyun and I like taking walks in the parks and talking to total strangers and what about you? Do you enjoy sitting under trees and gawking at strangers who take an effort to introduce themselves?” it was the soft but curt introduction that the boy offered still pointedly looking at him, did siwon notice the outstretched hand. Heartbroken or not siwon was raised to be a thorough gentleman, and only in the worst situations does the real character of a person come out in the open leaving the mask of deception and falsehood behind. And siwon was determined to pass the test that life had thrown at him and face the stranger with his dignity intact, even though he was feeling worthless and as valuable as the blade of grass he had rested his hands on.

Wiping his hands of the dirt that had stuck on it, siwon held the outstretched hand of kyuhyun “sorry for not paying attention. It’s just that…I just had the worst possible day today…and I was a bit startled to see you speaking to me. I am Choi Siwon, Nice to meet you. ”

“Oh, is that the reason why you were blankly staring at me. Thank god, I was beginning to regret my decision of coming up to you as you kept staring at me like a ert.” said kyuhyun with a smile. Hearing those words a ghost of a smile crept over siwon’s face but it was soon taken over by the shadow of pain. Sensing that siwon was in the need of consoling kyuhyun said “you know there is another of a very famous attribute of mine that I forgot to mention while introducing myself. I am told that I am a very patient listener and have the knack of giving out the right advice. My success rate is 98%”

Smiling a little siwon asked “okay I will bite the bullet. What happened with the other 2% of people?”

“Well…I just did not like them, so why waste a perfectly good advice on them, Right? But something tells me that I will be able to help you with your problems. So why don’t you try me?”

Siwon smiling an awkward smile said “well…you know…you are a total stranger and it hasn’t been more than ten minutes since I have met you. How can I pour my heart over to you?”

“Actually, I am the best person that should listen to your problems. See since I don’t know you, I won’t have any preconceived notions about you and not only that, there is a chance that we might not meet again, so no awkward silences among us when we meet next time. It is the perfect situation. So what do you say?”

With puppy dog eyes kyu looked up to siwon. Siwon was actually surprised that a person who exudes such confidence and a little rebellious attitude was capable of aegyo. With a sigh, he surrendered to the silver tongue kyu and relayed his story, baring the whole bone and flesh without omitting any detail. Kyu listened silently and asked a few questions where siwon was not being clear and maintained a poker face. Even when he mentioned about sooyoung’s betrayal, kyu did not have a look of pity on his face or said anything in a condescending manner. As being cheated on by a girl had a very emasculating effect on a man. Only after siwon was finished with his story, did kyu say something. “So now you are conflicted, as to what should be your next action. Should you leave sooyoung and in the process leave your mentor and the company that you gave eight years of sweat and blood or leave the cheat and the company and everything familiar to you and wade in uncharted waters?” Siwon was shocked to see that kyu was able to perfectly understand siwon’s though process.

“Why do you look so shocked? There is also something that I would like to add, those two weren’t the only options you thought off, right? You thought about putting an end to everything by taking your own life. By the look of your face I can safely assume that I have hit the target. ” siwon looked at kyu as if he had seen a ghost, how was he able to correctly guess what was going on in his mind. It was very eerie and unsettling for siwon to see that the stranger he had met not ten minutes before was here reading him like an open book.

“You know your life is not so fickle or worthless that you can just end it over some petty issue. Your life is a gift that god has bestowed on you and you show your appreciation to him by living to the fullest and smiling even through the tough times. ” kyu smiled a very warm smile at siwon that seemed to alleviate the fear that was rising in him, with the direction this conversation was taking, siwon was starting to become very uncomfortable. Siwon was in two minds, should he politely ask this stranger to not delve in his personal matters or listen to the advice he was giving, seeing that he himself was at a loss on what to do. Better sense prevailed and siwon reasoned that he was the one who has opened himself to this stranger and made himself emotionally vulnerable, the guy could have taken advantage of the information or worse he would have used to information to condescend him or make fun of him; but kyu was doing neither, he was clinically analyzing siwon’s problem from various aspects that had managed to escape form siwon’s clouded mind.

“It is easy to give advices or opinions sitting on the sidelines, only the person experiencing the pain knows what he is going through. Have you ever felt as if your heart is ripped out of your chest and stomped on, in the most bestial manner? The pain, the suffering that is felt when your whole carefully crafted world comes crashing down on you. You will never be able to comprehend the depth of my loyalty to Mr. Choi or my love for sooyoung. The dreams that I had for my life will now never be realised. Do you even understand the torment that I am facing?” siwon asked kyu making it clear that he was not to take his action of unburdening himself of his miseries in no way as an act of some pathetic low life who does not care enough about his life and lives blaming everyone but himself for his misfortune.

Kyu remained silent after siwon’s outburst and when he felt that siwon was calm enough to let his words get through his rationale, did he speak “you are right, I have never had the experience of being cheated on or the betrayal of fate in such cruel manner. But that doesn’t mean that I have never faced any difficulty in life. There may come many instances in life where there may be questions on our very existence but that doesn’t mean that it gives us the right to take away something that is not really ours. ”

“Think about it. When you were young there must have been some incident where you felt that your life was smashed into smithereens and the very reason of your existence threatened. Remember how you had responded to it and think, does the incident still makes you want to kill yourself or have you come to terms with it and lived a better life then the one that you had imagined.  ”

Siwon was momentarily stunned with the calm demeanour kyu spoke in. it was soft and comforting, the same way his mother had spoken to him when the news of his parents divorce was broken to him. To the ten year old siwon, his family was everything, the news of his parents splitting broke him completely and he took it hard. He was in depression for a month, when finally his mother succeeded in talking to him and explained him the ways of the world. The hurt that he had felt at that moment was healed through time, even though he bears the scars of the same.

This new line of thought perplexed siwon. He was in the process of wallowing in self misery when this life boat came smacking on his face. What kyu said made siwon view this whole situation under a completely different light. Was his life really fickle to end over the betrayal of a silly girl who could not even fathom the love he had for her. Was he so weak that he could not build a career outside the choi industries? He was instrumental in making the company reach the heights it was in now, could he not replicate it. From childhood itself it was siwon’s dream to have his name among the biggest industrialists of the planet. Had he become complacent in his dreams when he was offered the choi industries that he had forgotten his dream of becoming a self made man?

Siwon was now starting to see the reason in kyu’s statements. He was just 25 years old and he had his whole life in front of him. He had yet to realise his dreams of taking a trip across the globe, drinking wine in front of the Eiffel tower and to bungee jumping from the tallest tower in the country. There were many dreams that siwon was yet to fulfil and he decided that throwing away a life of such potential would be a waste. He knew the only way to get back at the ones who had broken him beyond recognition was to live his life to the fullest and flaunt his happiness in their faces and prove to everyone that choi siwon is not a weakling, a coward that runs away from pain. He would use this pain and suffering as a valuable life lesson that will remind him of the most important thing in his life, the gift of love and life bestowed on him.

“I think that you are beginning to understand the true value of love and life” kyu then looked up to siwon and took the box of couple rings that siwon was still holding in his palm. “Throw away everything that resembles your old life and begin a life that will see the true siwon come to life and lead it the way it was intended.” Until kyu mentioned the rings, siwon was not aware that he was still holding them. He gazed at the red velvet covered box and all the painful memories came back to him like a film on projector. He knew that he couldn’t give sooyoung any more importance than he already had by breaking down like this. Her power over him had to be stopped, the thread, the vow the rings symbolised had to be broken and only then will siwon be finally free.

Siwon got up and dusted the dirt from his pants and shared a look with kyu who was silently encouraging him to go ahead and do the deed. Siwon opened the box and emptied its contents in his right hand. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and with all the might he could conjure up in this state he threw the rings far, very far away from him.

When siwon finally opened his eyes, the sun of a brand new day shined over him and he instantly covered his eyes with the rays trickling through his parted fingers. Siwon smiled a smile that truly reflected the state of mind he was in. Free. He was finally free, with the old gone, he felt as if a burden was lifted from his shoulders, he felt light and dizzy with the contentment and bliss that was now flowing through him when he finally realised the reason for his life.

He was going to leave sooyoung for good and the company too. He was now going to build an empire that would bear his name and he would treat his life, a gift as he should have from the very beginning, in the most loving manner and respecting it, by living every moment to the fullest and not having any regrets. With the determination to begin his life anew and casting the old aside, siwon felt that the very first thing he ought to do was to thank the very person who was responsible for his rebirth.

While trying up to come up with words that would express the gratitude that siwon had for kyu he turned around, only to find the boy was no longer sittingunder the tree. Siwon glanced through the park in a hurry to find him. It should have been easy as he was the only one wearing white in a sea of red. But to his dismay he could not find any trace of kyu anywhere. Just when he was about to leave the park heartbroken over not being able to thank the man responsible for the bliss he was feeling, his eyes fell on something shiny that was reflecting the sun’s rays on the roses that kyu had apparently left behind. Siwon went near the roses to find a wing shaped ring glittering among the bed of roses. He smiled and though that this was an appropriate parting gift from his friend, his angel. With a smile on his lips siwon put the ring on his finger and silently thanked the person who had allowed him to borrow his wings so that siwon could fly.

This story is dedicated to chemist4kyu  for commenting on my very first fanfic on this site. And also to jo_gill , fishyeknom, Beniikyuwon, nattieloveme, 

It was due to you guys encouragement that i kept posting my stories. Thank you guys.  Am getting little emotional now.

So, anyway watch out for new stories from me. Thinking of posting a chaptered story soon.