Chanyeol threw a look of pity to the girl in front of him who was walking away; probably making her way to her room. He knew she was suffering because he was too but they both there was nothing that they could do to get him back. He was gone; for eternal. His heart had stopped working. His brain couldn’t react with his body. His cells and nerves were dead. God had arranged his fate to be so.

            Byun Baekhyun died at the age of 21. The car that he drove hit the road divider as the car flipped numerous times before it got hit by a truck. He was sent to the hospital but it was too late. He didn’t breathe anymore once they arrived at the hospital.

            Chanyeol sighed. Even thinking about Baekhyun’s death made him cringe. It was totally a bad memory to be remembered. It should be thrown away from his mind but he couldn’t. He was used to the fact that he always remembered everything about Baekhyun. Baekhyun was his best friend and even though he wasn’t here anymore, he remained as his best friend forever.

            He wasn’t the only one who was impacted by the sudden death of Baekhyun. There was someone else who seemed to be suffering more than him; well he tried his best to cover his feelings but this one particular person just couldn’t do so. It was Baekhyun’s girlfriend; Yoo Ara.

            The moment when they received the news of Baekhyun’s death, Ara was the one who immediately collapsed to the ground but thanked to Chanyeol’s fast reflexes, her body didn’t come in contact with the hard floor.

            Ara’s soul was slowly gone together with Baekhyun’s life. She was losing her sane. She became a completely different person; from the cheerful and bright Ara who was deeply in love with her boyfriend to a girl who seemed to be oblivious with things around her. What she cared for was only Byun Baekhyun; the deceased Byun Baekhyun. She couldn’t even accept that his boyfriend wasn’t living here on earth anymore, not even for 0.01%. She believed it was her scariest nightmare. She told herself that it was only a nightmare and she hadn’t woken up from her days of sleeping yet.

            And that just hurt the people around her. That was why they decided to take her out on a vacation. It was Chanyeol’s idea anyway. But it seemed like nothing changed. She was still in her poor condition; telling herself to wake up from the nightmare.

            As Chanyeol was too into thinking about what could he do to make the old Yoo Ara come back, a scream shocked him. A running blonde-haired girl came upon him with widened eyes.

            “What’s wrong, Alice?” he asked worriedly after seeing her horrified face.

            “Ara...” she couldn’t continue as she tried to catch her breaths.

            Chanyeol shot up. “What’s with Ara?” his big eyes just became bigger as he shook Alice’s body.

            “She isn’t in the room. When I returned to the room, she wasn’t there! Everything that related to Baekhyun wasn’t in the room too! What to do, Chanyeol-ah?!” Alice started to cry. She was panicking once she found out Ara wasn’t staying in the room as she thought it to be so.

            Chanyeol tried to calm down for a few seconds. He didn’t want to get panicked or everything would become a mess. There were only him, Alice and Minhyuk or probably with Baekhyun’s spirit.

            “Don’t get panicked, Alice! We should try to find her first. I believe she isn’t that far yet from here,” Minhyuk tried to comfort Alice whose tears were already falling like a waterfall.

            “I’m scared, Minhyuk. What if we lose her, just like how we lost Baekhyun?” Alice asked her boyfriend as she clenched his hands tight. It was scary enough to lose Baekhyun, how could she face the probability of losing her best friend and cousin since childhood, Yoo Ara? She knew Ara too well. She was capable of doing everything for the one that she loved.

            Chanyeol got worried when Alice mentioned about loss. No, he couldn’t bear it to lose Ara. Ara is as important as Baekhyun in his life. The thought of losing Ara was panicking him as he ran out from the rented villa to search for the girl.

            Seeing Chanyeol who disappeared in a flash, Alice held onto Minhyuk for support as she told him, “Let’s search for Ara.”

            Minhyuk nodded his head and gave a lead to his girlfriend. She was a strong girl but he knew she was too weak for the time being. Yoo Ara was Alice’s main weakness. They grew up together and they rarely separated. They weren’t real sisters, but they were so close to each other.

            ‘Ara-yah, please be safe.’

                                                                                             -

Chanyeol wouldn’t stop running. His heart was shaking hard. Where was her? Could he find her? She would be okay, right? Wouldn’t she harm herself? Park Chanyeol was terrified by those thoughts.

            “Yoo Ara!” he put his hand beside his mouth and screamed out her name. His eyes frantically looked around for any sight of her.

            He knew it wasn’t a time to give up. He wanted to believe she was safe. “Yoo Ara! Just where are you now, Ara-yah? Answer me if you hear me, Yoo Ara!” he continued to shout.

            As he was nearing the beach, he noticed a slender figure was standing by the seaside. Chanyeol let out a sigh of relief to find her there but it wasn’t long enough when he watched how she dragged both of her feet towards the sea mindlessly.

            Realising what Ara was up to, Chanyeol immediately ran to the beach while bellowing her name. “Yoo Ara!!”

            It seemed like she was aware of his presence as her pace quickened. It was hard for her to run in the water as the wave kept pushing her backwards. She mentally begged the waves not to be a blocker. She was determined to end her life that day at that moment at there. Why must she live if the person that she loved had been gone?

            Then she heard a strange voice in her mind. But later on, the voice sounded familiar much to her hearing.

            ‘Don’t do this, Ara! It’s not worth it! You have to continue your life, even without me by your side. We’re not going to be together for eternal even if you do this. I beg you, please stop. It’s hurting me to see you in such condition. It’s not going to be over even if you try to make it over. Don’t hurt yourself, Ara because it hurts people around you too.’

            “Baekhyun-ah...” she unknowingly whispered as she stopped herself. Just then, a big wave hit her as she stumbled down in the deep water. Everything became unidentified to her except for a deep and raspy voice which she believed belongs to Park Chanyeol.

            “Yoo Ara!!”

                                                                                   -

A week passed after the startling incident. The week must have been passed normally for other people but not for Ara. Even Chanyeol and Alice were stressed about her worrying state. She became quieter and didn’t even talk a word to people around her. All she did was being or just called it as trapping herself in the room for 24 hours a day. She barely ate any food that was given to her by Alice.

            It was a long-awaited day for her family and Chanyeol when Ara finally stepped out from her room without being forced by anyone looking alright. She wasn’t that bright, but it was enough to see her trying to curve a smile.

            Ara was sitting on the sofa while reading a magazine when Chanyeol came and sat down beside her. She gave a quick glance at him as she knitted her eyebrows; trying to figure out what he was going to talk about with her.

            “Are you... alright?” he cautiously asked as he observed her reaction to his question.

            She closed the magazine and put it down on the table before giving him a flattering smile. “I think I’m still recovering. Thank you, Chanyeol-ah.”

            “Why thank me?” he questioned.

            “You saved me. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t think I’d survive. And I’m sorry too, for being such a troublesome. I don’t know what I was thinking that day. I’m such an idiot,” she sighed; remembering the chaos she made.

            “I could understand why you were acting that way. It wasn’t entirely your fault, but promise me not to do that again, will you?” he tried to made her promise him.

            Ara gave a warm smile. “I’ll try.”

            “I know you’re a good kid,” Chanyeol said as he jokingly patted Ara’s head.

            She narrowed her deer eyes at him. “For your information, Park Chanyeol, we’re in the same age and if I’m a kid, so do you, kid.” She softly slapped his hand away.

            Chanyeol laughed in his big deep voice. He’d always been missing this old Ara so he was glad she was slowly coming back to her old self. Just then he remembered something.

            “Hey Ara, I’ve something to give you. I’ve been keeping it for a while now so I think I should give it to you already,” he told her with a change of his facial expression.

            Ara turned her head to look at him. “What is it?”

            Chanyeol stiffly opened his backpack bag that he always carried out with him. After a few seconds of looking inside it, he found the thing he should have had given her. He took it out from his bag and he could see Ara’s stunned face.

            Ara looked at Chanyeol then looked at the mp3 again. She wondered why would he give her an mp3? And what was the content anyway?

            Chanyeol tapped the mp3 on his palm once before his lips nervously. “Do you somehow remember what Baekhyun told you a few days before his... death?” he could not mention the word ‘death’. It was painful to mention Baekhyun and death.

            Ara tried to maintain her face. She didn’t want to break down anymore. She wanted to be strong. She needed to be strong. She momentary looked at the mp3 for an answer before she finally remembered what did Baekhyun tell her about. She nodded her head at Chanyeol firmly.

            Chanyeol broke into a small smile. “This is it. The song that he recorded is in here. And there are also recorded messages from him to you. Don’t worry, I didn’t listen to them. I’m just being a ‘postman’. I hope you’ll listen to them because it’s his last message to you or probably all of us, I’m not sure about that. I have to go now since I’ve given you this will of his. Bye, Ara,” he bade goodbye to her as he reassuringly patted her shoulder.

            The girl unpredictably touched his hand on her shoulder. “Thank you, Chanyeol,” her lips formed a thankful smile at him.

            “My pleasure,” he said before leaving.

                                                                                   -

Unsurprisingly, Ara broke down into huge tears after listening to the mp3. The song that he wrote for her was so beautiful that her tears kept falling down although she tried not to cry.

            She couldn’t even take a listen to the message he recorded especially for her. She was too busy replaying the song over and over again as her tears became her companion that night.

            “Baekhyun-ah, I wish you’re still here to sing me this song,” she wished quietly but she knew that just wouldn’t happen.

                                                                                   -

The next day, Chanyeol met up with Ara upon the latter’s request at a coffee shop. It shocked Chanyeol to see Ara had arrived before him when he entered the cafe. The girl was throwing a look outside the glass mirror; perhaps thinking.

            He pulled the chair backwards before sitting down in front of her. It did receive her attention. She turned her head to look at him before giving him a weak smile.

            “You’ve arrived,” she shortly said.

            “Yeah. I’m sorry if you’ve waited long for me,” he excused.

            “Nah, I just arrived though,” she assured him before letting out a sigh.

            It didn’t take a genius to notice her sigh. Chanyeol gave a curious look as he asked, “What’s wrong, Ara?”

            “I miss him so much. I’m missing Baekhyun badly. I miss him even more when I’m listening to the song he wrote for me,” she revealed.

            It gave a sudden pain to Chanyeol to hear what Ara had told. She missed him. She missed Baekhyun. Then how would he do it? She seemed like she would never get to be over him. Baekhyun would always be her eternal love. He would always be her eternal Peter Pan.

            “What should I do, Chanyeol? I need him by my side. I’ve tried to get over it, but this is so hard for me to take. It’s so hard for me to be sincerely happy after losing him,” her gloomy face was telling him that she was going to burst into tears in any second.

            Chanyeol got up from his seat and instantly moved to the seat besides her. “You can do this, Ara. You can’t try but you must to do it. I’m going to help you to be happy again. Not just me, but Alice and your family too. We’ll help you to be the one that you used to be. The bright Ara; we’ll make sure she comes back.”

            “I love him so much, Chanyeol. Too much that I can’t believe he has been gone for weeks. How do I forget him when he left me with such deep memories to be cherished every moment. I’m afraid I can’t be the old myself. How do I return to my old soul when half of my soul isn’t here anymore?” she finally breaks into tears as she ran her face to Chanyeol’s chest.

            He hugged her to assure her. He didn’t care if his clothes was soaking wet by her tears but he just wanted her to stop crying. He wished she would eventually stop crying over the dead him.

            “How do I try to erase him from my mind, Chanyeol-ah?” her voice came out muffled since he was hugging her tight.

            Chanyeol kept quiet. Yet his mind thought of something that was impossible for him to tell her.

            ‘Be with me, Ara. I’ll make you happy; even happier than before.’

             He wished he had the bravery to say it out loud to her but he just couldn’t.

Comment maybe? (;