Drizzle falls down to the earth. While the sky looks white, indicating that the rain won’t stop anytime soon. But the girl standing at the graveyard doesn’t give any sign that she will leave for home. She still keeps up for a long time standing there, in front of a tombstone. The tombstone where the name of the one who gave her his eyes was carved on. The name of her cousin whom is also her love. The name of Minseok.

Dots of water from the drizzle covers up her own drops of tears on her face. Her eyes never leave the grave. She looks at the handsome man in the photo stuck on the tombstone. She misses him so much. That’s why she is still standing there. Hoping that the man in another world would notice her. That he would still look at her from the other world. That the man would know that she will stay in faith and never erase him from her heart. That she will not accept the arranged marriage his father set for her with another man.

The girl, whose name is Youjung, still remembers well memories about Minseok like it was just happened yesterday. The memories always play clearly in her mind like a brand new movie disc played in the DVD player. So clear that even his scent, his soft laugh, and the way he would speak, Youjung still remembers. Even though the fact is Minseok has already gone for 7 years now. Normally people will forget some details.

Sometimes, Youjung will sense Minseok’s presence. But it is so vague. A smile would creep on her beautiful visage when her memory about her and Minseok walking together or when they were just sitting together and talking about nothing, or when Minseok was playing piano for her is playing. But Minseok isn’t there anymore. Youjung doesn’t know anymore how to live because she has to erase him, she doesn’t want to. Often, she thinks of committing suicide so she might be able to be with Minseok again. But, does that what Minseok wants? No, if it were, Minseok would never gave his cornea for her to be able to see the beauty of the wolrd again. But the world won’t be as beautiful as when Minseok is by her side. And there is a possibility that they won’t meet in another wolrd. A possibility of separation. And it is not what Youjung wants. All Youjung wants, and needs, is to be with Minseok. The thought of it summons loud sobs from . She misses him so very much.

Minseok’s name, that is now barely permitted to be mentioned inside her mansion, Youjung never wants to erase. Not that she doesn’t want to be happy, she just doesn’t want to betray Minseok by agreeing the matrimony with another man her father has chosen. It’s just felt wrong. It doesn’t feel right to erase Minseok for someone else. Hence, her father hates it when she mentions Minseok’s name.

It is not that Mr. Kim Jiyong, Youjung’s father, hates his nephew. However, Minseok is his own blood-relative nephew. His younger brother’s, Kim Jihoon’s only son. Jiyong loves Minseok too, but he was not a person who agrees romance between cousins. He feels bad, really, for Minseok’s death. If he ever knew that everything would be like this, he would accept the youngsters’ fate. But it’s late now, Minseok has gone, His very own daughter’s love, his younger brother’s only successor has gone already and will never come back. Jiyong just doesn’t want his daughter to be always sad and depressed. Seven years should be enough as condolence periods. Life should go on, and so should his daughter’s life. She should move on. That was why he chooses a perspective spouse for his daughter. But Youjung says that she refuses.

Oppa, you should remember that I always will love you the only. I will only promise myself to you. I will only devote my heart to you. You remember our memories like I do, don’t you? Even though you are no longer here, I won’t ever forget. So please do remember me in that world. You have to wait for me there, then pick me up when my time comes. Yaksoo?

_.:Gone:._

Minseok has just come back to his homeland, South Korea, after nine years living abroad. For some reasons, he had to leave to China. Hence he got his Chinese name, Xiumin. He is a music genius. It might be from the blood of Kim’s family. Minseok’s sense of music is in piano. Since Minseok’s dad, Jihoon, is the businessman type, he didn’t really like practicing music compared to studying about accounting when he was younger. So, Jihoon requests his older brother, Kim Jiyong who is a pianist, to take care of Minseok in piano private lesson. Jiyong had agreed.

As a luxurious silver car, had parked at the right side, in the front of the black gate, the same type of the car, the black one, just arrives and parks at the left side. The driver of the black car quickly gets off from the car and opens the back door for his lady to come out. The young lady who is the daughter of the head of Kim’s family, Mr. Jiyong’s daughter, Kim Youjung gets off from the car by a bit help from her driver. The driver escorts Youjung until they reach the gate. An old butler at the gate, Jang ahjussi as Youjung likes to call, bows to greet the girl as she walks pass by the gate. But she can’t see him. She can’t see any longer, after a car accident that takes her mother’s life away happened about two years ago. So she only walks forwards, carefully not to get tripped by anything that might be on her way to reach the building of her mansion.

Inside of the mansion, Jiyong is supervising Minseok when the youngster is taking piano lesson with him. A long stick is in his hand, ready to be use to hit Minseok’s hand if only the youngster did mistakes. Jiyong is very strict like that, not that he is evil or something. But the stick is useless since Minseok never does mistakes. Jiyong must admit that the boy is indeed a genius in music. His fingers are dancing on the toots smoothly, resulting a really beautiful-to-hear melody.

“Nice one, Minseok,” Jiyong praises in the middle of Minseok’s piano playing, a confused expression plasters on his visage, “But, what song is this? I had no knowledge about this song before.”

“This? I just make it up, uncle. It resembles my mood currently.” Minseok says without even bother to stop playing the melody.

“Alright, but you must not forget that pianist should follow piano scores too.” Jiyong reminds.

“Arasseoyo, Samchon-nim.” Minseok then plays the music that is on the scores placed on the piano in front of him.

While his uncle is teaching, Minseok really doesn’t want to make any mistake. His uncle can be scary. So he lets himself to be drown into the music. But a figure of a girl walking outside the house that is visible through the glass windows in front of him really catches his attention. Hence his concentration gets shattered. His eyes now follow the girl’s figure no longer the song score.

“Isn’t that girl.. Candy?” Minseok asks himself in his mind.

It bothers Jiyong so much that the melody suddenly changes its rhythm. Jiyong bets Minseok’s concentration is no longer here, so he walks closer and bangs the piano to gain Minseok attention. Of course, Minseok gets shocked because of that.

“Concentrate.” Jiyong says sternly. Minseok nods and gathers back his concentration again.

But it can’t help if his curiousity starts to win over him. Minseok steals another glance to the girl again. She is now sitting outside the piano room, as if waiting. Minseok glances her through a glass window before forcing himself to concentrate back to his piano lesson.

_.:Gone:._

An hour later, the lesson ends and uncle has let Minseok to take his leave. Minseok takes his piano scores and rolls it. And then as he walks out through the door frame of the piano room, he takes out his pills. His doctor told him to regularly swallow a pill when the pain stings his cardiac. He feels a slight pain just now. As he is swallowing his pill, he walks pass by the girl from earlier who is walking into the piano room. He looks at the girl. But, the girl seem like doesn’t want to look at him or something, she just walks forward, as if ignorant of her surroundings. Seeing the girl up close, he is sure that the girl is Youjung, or whom he loves to call as Candy.

“She’s really Candy…” Minseok eyes keeps following Youjung’s figure until she disappears behind the door of the piano room.

“Please watch where you’re going, young man. What are you looking at?” his uncle’s unfriendly secretary, Park Dongjun, who is asked to Minseok to the front gate, says.

“It’s not what. I was looking at that girl just now.” Minseok points at the piano room, “She’s my uncle’s daughter right?”

“Yes yes. Now please go back to your car, your driver has waited long enough.” Dongjun pushes Minseok with not so gently way and Minseok feels a bit discomfort about it. But being a nice kid he is, he obeys anyway and easily forget the disrespect he gets from his uncle’s secretary.

_.:Gone:._

The next day, Minseok comes late to the piano lesson. It is because his dad, Jihoon, insists to drive him to the piano lesson. So Minseok has to wait for his dad to finish his work first. Jihoon walks his son to the gate of his older brother’s mansion. And there, both of them are greeted by a polite bow from Jang ahjussi. The two bow back to the butler.

“Good evening, young master, you come late today,” Jang ahjussi says with a smile on his face, “Now I guess you have to wait since young lady is practicing.”

“Ah yes ahjussi, daddy makes me late hahaha,” Minseok blames his dad jokingly and gets his hair messed by his dad, “Now I have to wait dad..” Minseok grins to his dad.

“It’s okay, only waiting for a bit won’t hurt you, son.” Jihoon answers, “Now daddy will go back home. Call daddy when the lesson ends, okay?”

“Alright dad..”

By that, Jihoon walks back to the silver car and Minseok walks into the brown house. Jang ahjussi the young master inside after closing the gate.

Minseok sits outside the piano room, right next to him there’s a glass window that allow him to see what happened inside the piano room. Like what he has expected, Candy is there. She is practicing piano, but uncle Jiyong keeps on scolding Youjung. It seems that Youjung is not that good at piano that uncle Jiyong has to use his stick to hit the innocent piano in front of Youjung. Minseok can hear uncle’s loud scolds to Youjung. Then uncle Jiyong hits the piano again before leaving. The candies and the small plates where they were placed on fall to the floor. Youjung raises from his seat and squats on the floor to take them. But as Minseok see, Youjung doesn’t immediately takes the candies and the small plastic plate, instead, she keeps touching the floor as if searching in the dark, even though the light is bright enough for everyone to see everything.

Minseok calls Jang ahjussi who is standing behind him. The said butler then comes closer to listen what the young master wants to say, “Yes, Sir?”

“Candy… What happened to Candy? She can’t see anything?” Minseok asks with little worry in his heart.

But, instead of answering, the butler makes a sign to Minseok to not say anything. Jang ahjussi only nods and Minseok understands that it is a sensitive subject he can’t talk about freely.

Minseok keeps observing Candy who is now trying to play piano. But she keeps on pressing on the wrong notes. Minseok takes a glance to Jang ahjussi and makes a silent question if he can come in to help the poor girl. Jang ahjussi agrees but he tells Minseok not to be visible by the great master, cause Miss Youjung might get bigger trouble later. Minseok nods before tiptoeing to the piano room. He doesn’t forget to look around, make sure that his uncle isn’t anywhere nearby.

And just like that, Minseok sits next to Youjung on the pianist seat.

“It’s not like that, but this way…” Minseok then plays the right notes. It makes Youjung smiles.

“Baozi oppa?” Youjung asks in a hesitate way.

Minseok chuckles as the girl next to him just called him by his old nickname, “You still remember me huh, Candy?”

Youjung only nods. And they then play the piano together. Actually it is Minseok who plays, and Youjung just sits there, smilingly listen to Minseok’s smooth melody.

Jiyong hears the melody being played from another room in the house. There’s nothing wrong at the melody, it was too smooth to be considered as Youjung’s play that was never good before. He then walks fast into the piano room to see if it is really Youjung who plays the piano that well, or it is Minseok. Because he saw Minseok sitting outside the piano room a moment ago. But when he reaches the room, it is only Youjung sitting on the piano seat, smiling at the piano. Feeling confused, he then leaves again. Probably his daughter is miraculously able to play piano well now.

After the footsteps fade away, Minseok comes out from his hideout behind the piano. He smiles when he catches Youjung’s sweet smile. He then sits back again on the piano seat next to Youjung. But before he can play the piano again, a sting of pain attacks his cardiac. It might be because of the shock he got just now when his uncle suddenly came inside the room. He quickly takes out his pills at swallow one.

Youjung hears something next to her. The sound is like someone is taking tiny candies from its container. Out of curiosity, Youjung asks Minseok what candy is he eating, and if she can get some.

“Ah, it’s nothing…” Minseok says. Then he sees Youjung’s candies on the small plates placed on the piano. He then takes a red one, and places it in front of Youjung’s mouth, “Here, I’m feeding you.”

Youjung opens and Minseok feeds her the candy. Youjung smiles as the sweet thing enters , while Minseok smiles at his pointer finger that touched Youjung’s upper lip just now.

_.:Gone:._

Even though it is wrong to have a feeling for the daughter of his dad’s own older brother, Minseok doesn’t feel it’s not right to feel his heartbeat becomes faster when Youjung is around him. It’s felt so right when he enjoys his blood rushing fast when Youjung touches his hands or when her skin accidentally touches his. He loves the way butterflies fill his stomach when he catches Youjung’s very sweet smile. And he just wants Youjung to know that he likes her, as a man to his woman. In the other word, he just wants to confess. He doesn’t need any answer though, because it is wrong, and Youjung might think it is. So, he just tells without any wish to be in a relationship with his cousin. Never he dreamt it before that his feeling is reciprocated. That his feeling is not unrequited, and he doesn’t have to hold it all alone. He’s so happy that he wants it so bad to bring Youjung on a date. But the problem is, how can he bring Youjung go without her father knowing? And so, only around the brown mansion, they use to spend some free times together, that they call it as the dates.

Like usually, today also, Minseok comes to the brown mansion not at the piano lesson time, but to date with Youjung at their usual spots around the house. Never they expects that Kim Jiyong had already knew their progress. The man doesn’t like it even a bit about their developing romance. He takes it as a sin that he has to stop before it’s too late.

Without any suspicion about what is going to happen today, Youjung and Minseok sit peacefully on the bench at the yard next to the brown mansion.

“So Baozi oppa, I wonder how you look like now really..” Youjung says out of sudden.

“Ah, I’m still the same.” Minseok lies. He doesn’t look the same. Because he has an illness, he doesn’t as chubby as before. And because he grows up, he becomes a more handsome man than before when he was a kid.

“Really oppa? I don’t believe, your appearance must have been changed.” Youjung says truthfully, as she reaches out her palm hands to touch on Minseok’s face, “You must be so handsome now… Your cheeks don’t feel chubby?”

Minseok just smiles, he takes Youjung palm in his and then leads it to his left chest, “Appearance might change, but this won’t…” He says.

Youjung feels her boyfriend’s heartbeat. Somehow it feels weak, but she stills like it because it is Minseok’s heartbeat. But then she feels Minseok’s palm of hers becomes stiff, and she hears a soft groan from Minseok’s mouth. Then Minseok quickly lets go of her hand. She pulls her hand back.

_.:Gone:._

“Quickly get your son from my house. Take him away from my daughter, and I mean now Jihoon.”

Jihoon frowns at his older brother’s impatient voice from the phone. But he obeys anyway, “Okay, I get it hyung.”

Jihoon hangs up the call and then he commands his butlers to pick Minseok up quickly. He has no idea as to why his older brother Jiyong seems to dislike his son nowadays. Jiyong even says that he is resigning from teaching Minseok a private piano lesson. Or is it because Minseok has more feeling for Youjung? And why it is so wrong? He just doesn’t get it. But it has been his nature to not go against his hyung.

_.:Gone:._

A sharp pain pierces on his cardiac again. Minseok hates it that it has to ruin their moment. He just wants to quickly get rid of his pain and he takes out his pills’ cylindrical container and then he will be in peace with Youjung again. But, before he even gets the chance to swallow one pill, he is being pulled by two people. Minseok recognizes them as his dad’s butlers.

“What? What are you doing let me go!” Minseok tries to get away from the two’s strong grip that is failed miserably.

“We’re sorry young master, but you have to be at home now.” One of them says, “It is an order from the great master.”

Kim Jiyong observes from the glasses window upstairs. He is relieved that his younger brother obeys his order.

Youjung hears the mess but it is not like she can do anything else other than calling Minseok’s name. The voices start to become further and further away, Youjung raises from her seat and walks aimlessly to look for any presence of Minseok.

“Oppa? Where are you?” She then falls on her knees. She tripped on something. When she’s putting her palm on the ground for a support to stand up back, she finds a cylindrical container. And she shakes it. The sound is the same like the tiny candies Minseok always eat.

“Is it oppa’s candy? The one he always eats?” Youjung grips the container tightly, “I will keep it for now, I will give it back to oppa later.”

_.:Gone:._

But Minseok never comes back. Not even to his daily piano lessons. Youjung doesn’t really know what happened, she gets scolded whenever she asks about Minseok to his father. And now she is grounded in her room. She is only allowed to come out the room when she has to practice the piano with his father. Even though his father doesn’t scold her neither hits piano with his stick anymore when she gets mistakes, she doesn’t feel it is better because Minseok is never there again. She just wishes her father would scold her, and then Minseok will come to play piano next to her again. The candies no longer taste sweet when Minseok is not around. Youjung misses him. She can’t sleep at night because she keeps on thinking about Minseok, if he is alright or not. She keeps on holding the candy container of Minseok’s. As if it can grant her wish to bring Minseok back to her. And it does somehow.

That night, it’s raining outside. Youjung is still grounded in her room. But she hears the front door being opened. The sound is ruining the silence of the house. But she doesn’t hate the sound. The footsteps, they sounds like Minseok’s. Then, a melody is heard from the piano room. And it is so smooth, just like Minseok’s. Youjung smiles with tears on her eyes, “It is oppa…”

Minseok plays the melody. But it is not from any scores he had learnt. He plays the melody based on his mood. Based on his feeling that is really sad to be separated from Youjung, the feeling of missing Youjung so much is poured into the melody.

When Youjung is enjoying the melody from inside of her room, the play start to be weak and then a bang is heard from the notes. Just like when someone falls on the piano while playing.

“What happened?” is the only sentence she wants to know the answers. But she never gets the answer.

Long silence, only the sound of the piano chair being moved aside and whispers that is almost inaudible from inside Youjung’s room.

Jiyong called his younger brother that the latter’s son is in his home, collapsed. And he doesn’t dare to meet his younger’s brother currently, when Minseok is on that state because of him. So he commands Jang butler to bring Minseok to the car where Jihoon is waiting worriedly. Jiyong takes his eyeglasses of and put it on the piano. He sits on the piano and continues Minseok’s playing earlier.

It was a sad melody. And it summons more tears in Youjung eyes. Even though she can’t see, she can feel it that it’s not Minseok who finishes the melody. And the feel is a bit different. But as her tears roll down, she smiles anyway. Because Minseok was there, he is alright. Or at least it is what she believes.

_.:The End:._