Finale
Sunggyu's Lonely Sonata
I
Hyosung was my best friend. She was the most beautiful creature I have ever met. No one could ever compare to her beauty. She wasn't the kind of beauty anyone would notice at first glance. She was the kind of beauty only I could see. She wasn't modelesque thin. Her smile wasn't plastic pageant. She had shape and her gummy smile lit up a room. The way she laughed made my heart flutter. The way she said my name, "Sunggyu-ah", was like a beautiful orchestra. I know I'm probably exaggerating but it's actually how I imagine it. But what I loved the most from her was whenever I played the piano she would always enjoy every piece. She was just her. She was my kind of perfect.
She was Jeon Hyosung.
She was my angel.
She was my princess.
When we started middle school, she started being self-conscious. She started eating less and she started looking at the mirror a lot more. She never believed me anymore whenever I told her she was beautiful. She started taking time in choosing clothes. She started noticing other boys. She started talking to them a lot. Girls started getting jealous of her. She started going on group dates a lot. She started dating a lot and sometimes with each heartbreak, I could see her fall apart bit by bit. It made me sad. I wanted her to break away from that life, from that pit.
But she started shutting me out of her life.
She was slowly slipping away.
We were slowly drifting apart until the string we weaved for a very long time was longer anything.
II
One night, she knocked on my door. For the first time in a long time, I finally talked to her. She held me close like she used to but the way she felt now was different from how she felt before. She was cold.
She was very cold.
"Sunggyu..." She stuttered.
She was shivering and crying. My princess was crying.
She looked like the glass doll she used to have when she was still seven. She looked pale and tired. She looked like she just drowned. My princess lost her crown.
"I...." Tears welled up in her eyes.
I knew. She didn't need to tell me.
I kissed her forehead and held her close. That night, she was back to being my princess again. She was back to being my angel. That night, she could let go of all her inhibitions because that night, for the first time in a long time I told her,
"You're the most beautiful I've ever met, no, you're the most beautiful girl that has ever step foot in my life."
She smiled, the warm smile I've always loved.
"Thank you.."
She soundly slept wrapped in my embrace for the first time in a long time.
III
Dear Sunggyu,
Thank you for always being there. Thank you for always reminding me I was beautiful. If I could turn back time, I would have never let go of your hand. I would have always been your princess if I could but I can't. You deserve better than me.
Saranghaeyo
I didn't know that that night would be my last night with her. The princess that lost her crown fell into her well. She would never come back from that well......
Along with the cherubim inside her womb.
The whole week during the funeral, I sat alone in a dark empty room with just my piano and I.
The only pieces I could play were requiems and sad sonatas.
The moon rose and the keyboard was drenched with my tears.
I don't know if I could ever find anything beautiful ever again.
I thought of joining her. Joining my princess in that other world where she is happily living. The only world I could find her.
IV
It was a beautiful summer morning.
The warm sunlight veiled the park as children played and laughed. My queen, the reason I am in this world today, stood beside me and smiled. The beauty that re-colored my monochromatic world.
She was my queen.
"Yah, Park Chorong!"
She turned while still holding my hand.
"What?" She said in an irritated tone.
"You're beautiful...."
She scowled but smiled afterwards. "You only knew that now? I always have been beautiful, idiot"
I smiled and held her hand. The hand that I would never let go. The hand I would hold on to forever.
"Saranghaeyo"
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