“What...do you mean by that?”

He watched her carefully as another tear slid down her face painfully. He tightened his grip on her wrist, fear taking over his entire self now. Ji Young was scaring him. Really scaring him.

“Even now...I’m only left with faint memories of you,” she said finally, in a soft breakable voice. She pursed her lips hard together, as though to stop the tears from falling over; but it prove to be otherwise. She couldn’t hold back her sadness any longer.

“I thought...since you weren’t going to come back, it’ll all be for the best. I was okay with it, I’ve come to accept it.”

“Ji Young-ah,” Myung Soo called out to her urgently as he shot up from his seat. “What are you talking about? Forget what? Accept what? You’re scaring me.”

She turned to look at him, giving him a small, tired smile. Slowly, she placed her left hand on top of his and squeezed it gently.

“I’m not mad at you, Myung Soo-ah. I can never be mad at you. Maybe it’s because, I’m starting to forget the reasons you left anyway. If you hadn’t come today, I’d probably have forgotten all about it totally.”

“Ji Young, are you sick?” he asked her in a hoarse voice, gazing into her eyes regretfully. “Is there something that I should know?”

She shrugged her shoulders casually, pulling her hand away from his grasp slowly.

“They told me, this is actually a very unusual case,” she said as she walked a few steps away from him. Wrapping her two arms around her fragile figure, Myung Soo noticed her shivering slightly as the wind blew past them.

“They didn’t even know this was possible...for a person to lose her memory bit by bit over time.”

Her words were like an arrow piercing through his heart, sending a shocking jolt throughout his whole body. He stood there frozen on the spot as he tried to make sense on what she was telling him.

“I...I don’t get it,” he said unbelievably, nearing her slowly. “You’re kidding...right? You’re just trying to push me away.”

She stopped in her tracks and turned back around to face him, with a pained smile etched on her beautiful, worn-out face. She let out a soft sigh as she brought up both hands to touch either side of his cheeks tenderly.

She them lovingly for a few good seconds, causing Myung Soo to close his eyes and feel the coldness from her touch against his skin. It was heartbreakingly painful, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He had missed her so much.

And he felt so guilty; as though he had brought all these sufferings upon her.

“Life must go on, Kim Myung Soo,” she told him in a dazed voice, staring into his two eyes as she did so. She inhaled deeply as fresh tears started b in her eyes once again. “This might be the last time I’m going to call you by your full name.”

“Shireo,” he whispered back fiercely, grabbing hold of her two hands and intertwining their fingers together. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“When I’ve forgotten about you, really have no idea about your existence...you mustn’t come and find me. Okay?”

“Don’t say things like that Ji Young-ah,” he pleaded with her desperately. “Please, you will get through this. I’ll be here for you. I won’t leave you again.”

She shook her head sadly and forced her hands away from his tight grip.

“This is for the best,” she said softly. “You have to trust me.”