Police and emergency were at the spot in a moment, but they were too late. The driver experienced a shock. He claimed that he saw a girl running to the street and the boy after her. He hit brakes, but the road was too slippery and he lost control of the car. Man broke down in tears when he saw a helpless body laying on the road. Police found his documents to help identify the body. He was young, too young to die.

It's Youngjae's birthday and his first school friends are here. The house is full of chatter and laughter and young feet running around the house. Youngjae's mom made sure to prepare snacks, bake the birthday cake and even allow sugary drinks. It's children birthday after all.

In his first year Youngjae made three friends who always played together in the playground. First years in school are fun times of playing and just little steps towards your future. Carefree days full of fun, like birthdays, but you don't get so many sweets every day.

His cousins came over as well. They were boys younger by few years and they followed the older ones around. Youngjae's aunt squeezed him in her tight embrace while wishing a happy birthday and his uncle patted him on the shoulder a bit too strong, but the birthday was a lot of fun.

When he opened his eyes the blind darkness was gone and replaced with familiar place. It was his classroom in the High School and Youngjae found himself sitting on the floor in front of the blackboard. He stood up in the complete silence like before and wondered who will he meet now. Something in his head told him to go to his seat. It was nostalgic to be back here and he walked to his desk and sat down. From his seat he had a window view and when he looked outside he couldn't see any other human being. After all, he was dead and in heaven now?..

But there was something else. The same voice in his mind told him to put his hand under the desk which was full. Piles of letters fell from underneath and Youngjae abruptly stood up making his chair krease the floor with a screech. What he saw were all love letters. They were written by one person, one girl who fell in love with him madly and wrote him these letters every day, leaving them under his desk, in his bag, in his locker, passing them through other hands. He liked her as well, but they could never had became together, because the most famous boy in school was in love with her. She had small, but beautiful eyes that turned into crescent moons when she smiled and cute tiny teeth peeked through her pink lips. A beautiful girl that was in love with him. And she broke his heart.

Youngjae looked at these letters now with his face wrinkled in hate mixed with sadness towards her. Suddenly he felt another presence and when he looked up from the floor his eyes met with darker ones and a familiar big smile in front of him. It was his High School friend Kim Himchan.

He was wearing school uniform, amusement evident on his face.

"Himchan?"

"You weren't expecting to see me?" Youngjae was wondering if he killed him too.

They met in High School where Himchan was his senior. Attractive face that made everyone look at him. He was also the president of school's music club. Multi-talented and playing few instruments, bringing awards. He was a good student and even if he could have any girl he wanted he wasn't dating.

Himchan pointed at letters scattered under Youngjae's feet. “They are all that you received from her. Impressive pile, right?

Youngjae sighed and sat on his chair. "You're one of the people I'm supposed to meet?"

"I am."

"What are you going to tell me?" Himchan was amused with his impatience.

"There's no time in heaven, we're not aging." He said matter of factically. "Do you remember how your love story happened?"

He met with Youngjae's strict look that was nowhere near pleased about the memory and carried on.

It was Monday morning, but Youngjae felt rested when he entered school in time as always and went to his locker. He unlocked and opened the door and a piece of paper fell out. He bent down and picked it up and felt sweet scent of women perfume coming from it. After opening the paper he found small and neat handwriting full of warmest feelings towards him. The letter was shy, but full of cute emoticons and Youngjae smiled unconsciously. After reading it he looked around suddenly feeling uncomfortable, but no one was watching him. That day he was more careful about his surroundings, paying attention to each girl in the class or those he passed in corridors. By the end of the day he still had no idea about who could had been watching him all this time and had a crush on him. Letters continued. They all had the same scent he grew fond of and he found them every day. Under his desk in the classroom, secretly slipped in his bag making him worry about a girl stalker before they started coming directly from other pupils' hands. "Is Yoo Youngjae here?" He heard a voice and raised his head from the notes he was reading to see a cute girl peeking in the doorway of the classroom. "He's there." A classmate said pointing at him. Suddenly his mouth got dry and heart began racing. Could it be her? He slowly got up and walked to the girl feeling everyone's eyes set on them. "I have a letter for you." She said brightly, handed him the sweet-scented paper and left. He was staring at her for too long until it was too late to ask from who it is.

That lasted few more weeks. He read letters every day, all of them stating how much she loves him, admiring him, but nothing about herself or meeting up to confess her feelings face to face. Strangely, Youngjae found himself falling for a girl he never saw. He was more than pleased with all the sweet words and praises that anyone would enjoy. He brought those letters home with him and sometimes liked to hold them inhaling the perfume and imagine how she looks like.

He wondered if her hair is long or short, straight or wavy. How does her lips curl in smile, how do they even taste like? He never dated before and thought, no, he wanted to date her.

The secret games of one-sided love letters finally ended. Maybe she needed to gather her courage which she did confronting him in the hallway full of pupils. Youngjae was walking to the canteen when he felt a pull on his sleeve and turned around to face a girl he never saw before. She was beautiful. At that moment he somehow knew it was her, but she was way more beautiful than he had imagined her to be.

“Youngjae.” She said his quietly enough just for him to hear. She smiled, a beautiful smile displaying her pearl white teeth. He smiled at her and he somehow knew his dream of dating her will come true.

With the simple lunch ended their first meeting, but it started everything that came after that. Meeting in school during breaks, talking all the time and slowly getting to know each other. Youngjae loved to learn new things about her everyday, he loved to fell in love with her more with each day. He just couldn’t understand how persistent she was with the letters for someone so shy, but he brushed it off as soon as they started to date officially. His mom noticed the changed in him soon and she asked him one evening cheekily.

“So who is she? Will you introduce her to me?”

Youngjae blushed bright red before mumbling something incoherent, but his mom only smiled and she understood him. It was nice to be in love. They might had a couple of dates that didn’t include them being together in the school.

The girl was really beautiful and someone else had eyes on her. He was known in school for the best looks and for being a bully, but girls love bad guys. However, he only had eyes for her and that’s when he heard the rumours of her dating some boring kid in school he never heard about before. He decided to follow the girl to find out it’s true. Youngjae in his eyes was a nerd and he should have stayed with his books rather than dating. The bully thought it was his job to remind Youngjae that and by reminding he meant force. The first time Youngjae’s back collided with a hard surface was the same day after school. He recognised school’s face and instantly knew he was in trouble, but couldn’t figure out what he had done. He brought his face so close to him and spat.

“Stay away from her. She’s mine.”

“She’s dating me.”

No one knows how he found the courage to say that. The second thought he knew he was thrown on the floor and with repeated threat bully left. Youngjae’s legs were wobbly as he picked himself up from the floor and stared in his direction. He knew he shouldn’t get scared and listen to some jerk trying to ruin his happiness. And he didn’t give up so threats repeated again, each time with more force used to slam Youngjae against the wall or throw on the floor. His girlfriend didn’t knew that, she couldn’t see his bruised back or feel his pain and weakening resolve, but she made him smile and that was his strength to stand still. Himchan was the only witness one of the times and he ran up to them, pushing the bully away.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“It’s the musical genius.” The other smirked and looked at him in a mocking manner. “Why don’t you go play piano with other girlies and stay away from men stuff.”

Youngjae could see Himchan’s fists clench. Himchan was no weakling, he was whole head taller than the other.

“Stay away from my friend.”

His voice was calm and deadly cold. The bully just shot them glares before walking away. Himchan helped Youngjae up. That’s when he told his friend about her for the first time. He told him everything starting with the letters to the situation he found him in. Himchan listened to him before telling that he’s willing to help his friend and protect his happiness. Everything became peaceful since then and Youngjae began to relax living the same day after day without ever being pushed and tossed around. Until he heard rumours. At first they were only words some classmates told him and he didn’t care about it. He wasn’t in the best relationship with others and they might had been jealous. Another reason was because it’s school, one of the places where gossips fly around like a spread virus and are more interesting than what their teachers has to tell them.

He didn’t believe until he heard for himself and from non other than his girlfriend. They were sitting on the bench while holding hands and there was silence between them. Something was meant to happen, you could slice the tension with a knife. Youngjae was waiting patiently for her to say what she has on her mind, he only sent quick glances from the side of his eye. He felt her hand slipping out of his and looked up. She brought her hands resting them on her lap and looked down, her hair covering her face and when she spoke it muffled her words she had to tell him.

“I have to tell you this. I’m sure you heard a lot from others so I no longer can keep it away from you.” She paused. “I’ve been seeing someone else for a while now.”

Youngjae could swear he believed the world stopped at this very moment as everything around him disappeared. He saw the girl in front of him that he loved and who made him so happy, but she used his heart like it was a recyclable thing.

“I’m sorry.”

He heard her whisper, then she rose and hurriedly left and he was left alone to bleed his heart out.

“I always liked you Youngjae-you were a smart kid and it was interesting to talk to you. You were my friend and I cared about you. I became like this thanks to the family that brought me up. I wasn’t a very loved child so I tried my best to earn that love and then I would hear how proud they are, even just for brief moment. Because of that I wanted others to be happy and I tried my best to do so.

And then I saw him attacking you and when you told me what’s going on I decided I will do my best to help you.”

Youngjae nodded.

“You were there and it mattered a lot to me. But why are you telling me this?”

Himchan smiled and crossed his legs.

“It’s because I’m the one who she cheated on you.”

Youngjae felt a wound in his heart ache and a sudden wave of anger run through his body. He narrowed his eyes at his school friend who was just sitting there with a calm expression on his face like he knew what will happen next and waited for it.

“What are you waiting for?”

He encouraged him and Youngjae felt jumping from his chair and onto the table Himchan was sitting, swinging his fist into his face. He couldn’t believe how much anger he had when he kept punching the older. This was heaven so there was no blood and there were no bruises. Himchan allowed him to let out as much anger as he wanted before pushing him and they fell on the floor, Himchan held him down.

“Relax.”

He was still struggling, trying to to hit him again and again until his anger releases through his fists. He went through a heartbreak and all this time he didn’t knew it was his friend’s fault, the one that stayed by his side even after that until-

“I had to do this to help you. I told you I will help.”

His words finally reached Youngjae’s mind and he calmed down, letting his arms fall by his sides that’s when Himchan had let go of him and he sat up slowly.

“I met her next day and it was easy to charm her. I told her immediately that I want to date her and that you can’t find it out. I wanted to see her reaction and when she agreed I instantly knew she would had broken your heart sooner or later. I had to save you.

We were dating in public places, it was part of my plan and it worked when the bully saw us together. I wanted to provoke him so that he leave you alone and focus on me. I thought I could handle him, but it was my mistake. They ganged me up and brought to an alley where I was one against five and they had steel poles and bats, so I did not stand a chance. They had their way with me and when they had enough of fun I was left on the ground until morning when I was found and taken to the hospital, but they couldn’t save me. They broke too many bones that ripped me from inside and I lost too much blood.”

“When I came here I had no regrets that I died, because I saved you.”

Youngjae swallowed the lump in his throat.
“You died because of me. I only knew you were gone from school, but the school’s authority never told us what actually happened.”

Himchan nodded at his words.

“I was waiting for you here.”

“Junhong told me the same.”

“Junhong was waiting for you. He’s a part of the story. I told you mine. And here’s something I want to tell you before I leave.”

“Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to.”

“I wanted to take her away from you by sacrificing myself, but in the end I sacrificed my life. You were still heartbroken, you didn’t knew what actually happened, but slowly you moved on.

“Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else.”

Himchan got up and gave his hand before pulling Youngjae on feet. He held his hand and looked in his eyes.

“Can you forgive me for what I’ve done? We were friends and I-”

Youngjae cut him off.

“Don’t say anything. I forgive you.”

They shook hands.

“Thanks.” Himchan gave him a weaker smile and turned to leave.

“But why did you stay here-in school?”

Himchan paused without looking back at him.

“This is where we became friends, what I did was outside the school area. I wanted to meet you where our good memories stayed.

He started walking again and stopped in the doorway giving him last look with a cheeky smile Youngjae knew so well.

“You found real love later, didn’t you?”