JULY 20, 2023

“WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME,” my friend, Aisha, says. All the memories stood still. “The news says there’ll be heavy traffic in an hour because of the rain.”

“I’ll be right over. Do you mind hailing a cab while I get ready?” I ask. She nods. I look over to the window, and torrents of rain are pouring amidst a grey, lifeless sky.

When I woke up this morning, I felt empty. Ten years, and I still felt empty. It’s as if I’ve lost a huge chunk of my soul.

Ten years. I thought I wasn’t part of that single entity anymore. And yet here I am, hurting.

“The whole entertainment industry is still mourning over the lost of a great friend,” I can hear the reporter say from the television downstairs. “Oh Sehun, actor and a former member of the boy group EXO, was found dead in his apartment yesterday. Police reports say…”

I blocked out everything. The noise from the television, the hissing and clattering of the rain. I tried so hard to go back to the time when I was so hopeful, when everything was possible. I thought having Thehun was the start of something special. I thought the odds of meeting Sehun increased dramatically, and I’ll be okay as long as I have this plushie with me. But things just don’t happen like that. Not everything goes your way. Somewhere in the road, I got lost. Real life kicked in, and it just didn’t matter.

One day, I hope we’ll meet again.

I guess it’s too late for that.

The end.

- - -

Author's note:

Last September 7, 2013, I went to a concert called K-Pop Republic featuring Dal Shabet, EXO-K, and SHINee. Unlike the parents of this story’s protagonist, my family  were quite supportive and actually bought me an SVIP ticket. We were told they are going to give away stuffed toys, and although I was feeling quite hopeful, I didn’t make a big fuss about it. I was like, “They’re giving away plushies? Cool.” I didn’t go, “ZOMG, I HAVE TO HAVE ONE! OMGGGGGG!”

But I did get one. From Sehun. It was crazy. It was not thrown away. He handed it over. Maybe my being tall helped, and the fact that I was insanely close to the stage. But I got one. I went home with a siberian husky plush from Sehun.

While there was no note attached to it, I went home ecstatic. In my head, I’m already romanticizing the whole thing. At first, I was so numb. It didn’t seem like a big deal. But a day passed and, in the words of my friend, I’ve experienced a “withdrawal.” I was hugging Thehun so tight, squealing like an excited pig.

I hope you enjoyed the story! :)