“I will not do as you wish!” Jonghyun shouted at his parents as I stood there unable to move, “She will be the only one who I am going to be with for the rest of my life!”

           “Jonghyun, we need you to listen to us. I know this is hard for you, but you have to do this for your family,” his father explained.

           “You and this wonderful girl could still be together until you graduate from high school. After that, you need to move to Canada and take the hands of the daughter of the Song family’s,” his mother said.

           “No! I will not marry someone I don’t even know!” he hissed through his teeth, his knuckles were turned white.

           “You will eventually know her, you will learn to love her,” his father said.

           “I will NEVER marry anyone except Eunae!” he screamed and pulled my hand and ran out.

           I was still in shock that I couldn’t even remember how we got to my house. He parked the car outside my house and turned off the engine. I had never seen him that mad before, he was fighting against his parents for me. For someone he met just for a month.

           “Eunae, are you okay?” he put his hand on my cold hands, “Don’t even listen to anything they said, I will not leave you, never mind marrying another girl. If I have to, I would leave Korea just to be with you.”

           “You can’t do that! You can’t leave your parents for me!” I shook my head.

           “If they won’t accept you, I will not accept them!” he held my face up, “Even if I have to leave school now and go to work, I will! I will do anything for you! I could even get a job and earn money for both of us so we can leave this country together.”

           “No, you can’t! I won’t allow you to do that for me, I am not worth it,” tears were starting to run down my cheeks.

           “Of course you are worth it, Mini,” he kissed my tears away, “Now, let’s get you inside and take you to bed. It’s too much for you to take in just one night,” he opened the door for me.

           He could see the fear in my eyes, “I will never leave you,” he assured me.  He held my hand and walked into my room, “Now, go to sleep, jagiya.”

           A couple of weeks went by; Jonghyun still would not go home to meet his parents, so he stayed at my house. After begging for a long time, he still would not listen to me and dropped out of school so he could get a job to earn the money for the both of us. I told him my parents have left enough for the both of us, but he would not listen. He insisted I keep the money for university.

           One afternoon, I woke up to the sound of my door bell. I thought it was Jonghyun, but it was not. It was his mother. When I opened the door, I didn’t know if I was dreaming or something. I could not believe she found my house and the most shocking thing was she is standing outside of my door.

           “May I talk to you alone?” she asked politely.

           “Actually, you can come inside. Jonghyun is not home right now,” I said, stepping back to let her in.

           I led her into the living room where Roo was sleeping on the couch. I picked her up and put her in my room. When I walked back, I found Jonghyun’s mother looking around the house with a disgusted emotion on her face.

           “Is there something wrong?” I asked.

           “No, of course not,” she said, turning her head to look me in the eye, “I came today to talk to you about my son, Jonghyun. I understand he would not leave you because of the feelings he has for you, but they are just a crush. It would not last forever. And as I said last time, we found a good future for him. We know the daughter of the Song family would bring him a great future.”

           As I listened to her, I could feel my heart being ripped into pieces. She was saying that I was not good enough for his future even though she did not use those words directly. I was just an ordinary girl who could not fit into a high class family like his family. I knew his mother was asking me to leave him so he would go back to them.

           “It was a nice talk with you; I believe I should get going. I hope you can think about the things I have told you,” she said, when she heard Jonghyun unlocking the door, “Hi there Jonghyun, I was just leaving. It is very nice of seeing you again, Eunae.”

           “Umma? What are you doing here?” he said.

           “Just having a little talk with your lovely girlfriend. Now I have to go; good bye. Think about it, Eunae.”

           “Jagiya? Don’t even think about what she told you! Listen to me; I am not going to leave you. I will always be with you, don’t listen to her,” he said as he ran up to me and hugged me.

           My body understood but my heart did not. I knew I needed to leave him so he could go back and find the future that was made for him. I wanted to be with him too, but it just does not work like that. I needed to leave him; I couldn’t be with him anymore.

           I pushed him away, “Your mom is right. I am not good enough for you; your future should not have me in it. You need to listen to your parents and find your future,” I tried to hold back my tears because I knew if I started to cry he would not believe me and I would not have the strength to leave him.

           “But you ARE my future!”

           “No, you need to leave. It isn’t right for you to be with me anymore,” I pushed him out the door.

           “Jagiya? Eunae?  Please! Don’t do this to me. You are the only one I want to be with,” he begged.

           “Leave! I don’t want to be with you anymore!” I screamed at him and closed the door on his face. Tears ran down my cheeks like a rushing river. There was not end to it; they just kept on running down my cheeks. I ran to my room and curled up in my bed. This was the best for him; I could not destroy his future. I needed to leave him no matter how much it hurts.