Chapter 8

Birthday

Twenty-two years old.

That is supposed to be my age right now.

I’m supposed to be growing one year older and I guess I am since I’m not really dead, but it still couldn’t change anything.

Getting tired of the rooftop, I went back down to the dorm only to be welcomed by some candles on a cake. From there, I looked up to see Mir smiling at me, holding the dessert in his hands while he had one of those pointy birthday hats on his head.

“Happy Birthday Hea Jung-ah!”

 “How… did you know?” I was completely shocked and not really sure if I should cry or not. I don’t even remember the last time someone wished me or even made a cake for me and seeing him like this I was left confused. “Your father told me”

“Thank you Mir but… I don’t think it’s really necessary”

“What?! Off course it is! It’s your birthday and we should celebrate!” He looked at me like I have just given him the biggest insult or whatever and it only made me laugh but deep down, I was just trying to hide how uncomfortable I was feeling. “I know it’s been hard for you but can we just forget about what’s going on for one day and enjoy this? Please?”

I looked at him still not sure if I should accept his offer or pull away but with the way he was looking at me, it was still hard to believe that he actually cared. He was insisting on celebrating my birthday, something that I haven’t done since my mom died, and it made me happy. I bit my bottom lip as I walked a little bit closer to him. My gesture made him smile once again and I couldn’t help myself but smile back, finally giving him the answer he was waiting for.

“In that case, I will gladly celebrate my birthday with you… Thank you for doing this, you know you didn’t have to, right?”

“I know, but I wanted to… It’s the least I could do”

His words caught me speechless. I didn’t know how to respond and felt stupid by simply looking at him, while he locked eyes with me, not saying anything either. We were like for I don’t know how long until I realized that the candles on the cake were starting to fade making me look at them instead of him.

“Hmm, Mir? The candles are, hmm, kind of gone…”

“Huh?” He looked down and placed the cake on the coffee table of the living. He walked up to the wall next to him and turned the lights on making the living room a little bit more bright. I walked up closer to the cake and chuckled, still barely believing that my name was written on it as a celebration. “You like it?”

He came back and sat on the couch while I sat on the floor across from him, on the other side of the coffee table. “It looks delicious… Describe the taste for me? Like you did before with the wind, please?”

“I would love too but it’s a fake one.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not a real cake… I didn’t think that it would be fair since you can’t… eat it, so I thought that this would be a good idea”

And once again, he caught me by surprise.

How could I respond to this? Since I’ve met him I’ve been nothing but gloomy and completely depressed and yet he is doing everything he can to change that. A simple ‘thank you’ isn’t enough for all of this… It never is when it comes to him…

“Hea Jung-ah? Are you okay?”

“Huh? Oh, hmm… yea”

“What were you thinking about?”

“I’m trying to figure out why are you being so good to me”

He gently smiled at me and got up from his seat to sit next to me on the floor. “Because you deserve it. Just because you’re like this, it doesn’t mean that we still can’t be friends”

Friends.

That’s all we were and that’s all we will ever be.

And I hated this.

Because I wanted to be more than just a friend to him.

“Cool…”

In just a split second, everything became awkward. I didn’t know what he was thinking and I was getting kind of curious to know if being a friend is the only thing I am to him and thinking about that, I guess it was impossible to ask for more, I mean… it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?

“So… what do you have planned for today?” I tried giving him my best smile, hiding behind my empty heart ache, which worked as he went on rambling about ideas he thought would be good for us.

My gaze went back on the cake, smiling like an idiot. By simply listening to him I could hear the excitement in his voice and it made me happy. I was happy to know that someone was at least glad to spend time with me and from the looks of it, it was as if he planned this surprise for a while now.

“So how about we start?”

“Huh?” I looked at him as he snapped me out of my gaze. He lets a small laugh out, letting me know that somehow my expression was funny to him. Shaking my head, I changed my expression when I noticed that the sun wasn’t even out yet

“Mir? It’s like 3 am in the morning, where do you want to go at that time?”

Puppy eyes were staring straight at me, as if I had just told him that Santa Claus didn’t exist. “We still have the entire day, don’t worry about it.” I showed him my smile, making him feel at ease now that the small embarrassment passed. “Then… what do you want to do now?”

“How about you go to sleep?  And we’ll start in the afternoon?”

x    x    x

The small wind was letting the waves gently crash at the shore with the moon and the stars lighting it up. With the bond fire right behind us, we were both sitting on the sand enjoying the view of the beach with nothing disturbing us.

Even though it was a long day, I enjoyed having to spend it the way I did today. The only thing that I was missing in all my life was finally there and I didn’t want to let go.

But there was still that problem and it was only getting bigger every time.

How did I know?

Because the Angel of Death was back.

Shaking my thoughts away, I looked at Mir who was calmly looking at the sea, letting the wind softly hit his face. With all the energy he spent today, I’m surprised he’s still awake at this hour.

After he woke up from his sleep, it was already noon and he dragged me out of his dorm, walking towards a carnival that was going on in town, followed by a circus that was passing by and all this to end the day right here, on the beach where fireworks happened just a few minutes ago.

Even though I am a ghost, I don’t remember having this much fun, or at least, watching someone having so much fun. Just for today, he was able to make all my problems go away, letting me enjoy something that was absent in the life that I was living, with a smile that never went away. “What are you thinking about Cheolyong-ah?”

He turned his head to look at me as he took a deep breath.

Something was wrong.

I could feel it.

I was starting to get worried when he wasn’t answering me, suddenly afraid that everything good that happened today was going to wash away from his words. I didn’t want it to happen. Please, don’t let it happen.

“Hea Jung-ah… There’s something I think you would want to know…”

The look in his eyes was painful. It made me want to cry but I held it in, not wanting to ruin the last birthday I was having. “Wh-what is it?”

“It’s about… what happened to you”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s… an investigation going on about you… The police went to your father and said that… you were caught in a crossfire between drug dealers or something…”

“I-I don’t understand.” I was starting to get scared about his words. Does whatever he was saying even made sense? He turned his body around so he could be properly facing me with that same painful look in his eyes. “Apparently, someone tried to kill you, thinking that you were someone else since you both had the same name…”

I could hear the shakiness in his voice. But what also caught me was the slow anger that was rising as I suddenly realized that because of some stupid mistake, I was the one dying at the end. I looked away form his eyes but he saw right through me as I felt him sitting closer to me, placing his hand above mine while I was taking a tight grip on the sand.

I looked at it because I couldn’t feel it.

It broke me.

I couldn’t control my tears anymore.

My life was wasted away just because of a stupid shady business gone wrong and I was caught in the middle of it and for no apparent reason.

“I’m sorry… I-I thought that you should know”

I looked at him and I was surprised to see the early tears at the corners of his eyes. “Why are you crying?”

“Because it’s hurting me to see you like this. It’s hurting me to know that I can’t do anything to make you feel better; that I can’t even do anything at all”

“Cheolyong-ah, you did a lot to try and make me feel better. Even today! The carnival, the circus, the fireworks. Yes, it that I can’t be able to have that day as a human, but I am still here and you were able to do something about it and I really can’t thank you enough, so don’t ever think that you can’t do anything, please-”

“Then what about-”

“No! Stop it! This matter, about what is happening to me is out of your reach either way, okay? It still doesn’t change the fact that it happened even though I was the victim of it and it makes me angry, but… that’s how life works for me. There’s nothing you can do that can change this, okay?”

I knew that he wasn’t happy about my words because he turned away, letting go of me with his jaw suddenly tight, trying to control his anger. “Please don’t be mad at me. I can’t have you being angry at me, Cheolyong-ah…”

He looked down and closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. I noticed a single tear falling on his cheek. I don’t know what got into me, but I leaned forward, trying to wipe the tear away only to have us both locking eyes and wide open, completely shocked at my action. I couldn’t believe what I had done, but either way, the tear was still there, falling down his cheek.

“I-I’m sorr-y, I don’t kn-know what has gotten into me…”

I pulled away, ready to disappear until he called me out, making me stop. I looked at him, waiting to see what he wanted from me.

“It’s getting cold… Do you want to go back to the dorms?”

I chuckled while shaking my head thinking that he might have said something about what I did but he fooled me and I was glad that he was able to change the atmosphere to the way it was, light hearted. “Sure, why not”

His smile took my breath away once again.

That smile is the only thing that I’ll hold onto once I’ll forever be on the other side.

Next: Am I Strange?

A/N: Finally the 8th chapter! \^o^/

And there is only two chapters left meaning that it's almost over T.T

I hope you guys enjoyed it so far :)