CHAPTER 2  Lonely Nights

They continued walking side by side, chatting and joking. Chanyeol went with her all the way to her meeting and left as soon as they arrived to the company, he only took the time to wish her good luck and hug her lightly before leaving.

She raised her head for a moment to stare at the high elegant, yet intimidating building, took a deep breath to relieve her stress and walked in.

Two hours later, she was already walking home. She had waited for about an hour but her interview only took few minutes. She wasn't really satisfied after meeting the manager, she could have done better, she thought. Well, she wasn't expecting to be employed anyway, there were so many other job seekers waiting with her there, and only three of them were going to be selected, but she at least tried. She tried for what seemed to be the 100th time.

It was a beautiful fresh starry night and she thought that spending it alone at home since 8 PM was a loss. She then went to the almost empty park. It was a small park in the neighborhood where she used to go with Chanyeol when they were kids, they used to play Yutnori every Lunar New Year, and even though the game required four players, they would play twice each one as if they were four or they would invite some other kids in. Chanyeol had always done his best to help her forget about the loss of her family.

She took a seat on a wood bench under a huge oak tree, rested her head against the back of the seat, put her headphones on and started listening to her favorite tracks while contemplating the night sky. At first, she only kept counting the myriad of stars as Wang Lee Hom's songs were playing on in the background, but she was soon lost in her thoughts, taking a look back at her rocky road in life.

  "Recently the world has been a bit strange          It seems like it's lacking a piece *

              My heart’s melody                          With its incomplete emotions."

Meili was born in China to a Chinese father and a South Korean mother. Her parents had met in China and loved each other for years. Her dad was the vice president in a notable company, “Global Mobile Phones”, that manufactured mobile phones and sold them globally. Mr. Yichen used to work for his friend, the president of GMP. He was his best friend, actually. They studied in the same university and continued their path together. His friend got married first, and three years later, when his wife was three months pregnant with a boy, Mr. Yichen got married and two years later his wife gave birth to Meili, their only daughter. For the next four years, the two families lived in China and were very close. Everything seemed to be perfect until the tragic accident happened. The president of GMP moved to the U.S with his wife and his son after three months and Meili stayed with her uncle for six months before she moved to live with her grandmother for about 10 years in Korea. That was everything she could know about her own family. That was all what her grandmother told her before passing away. She couldn't remember anything from her past before the accident, she was only 4 when life turned against her and she had to live as an adult since then. Seeing her parents dying before her eyes at an early age, being unable to do anything to prevent their death even though they saved her, all that left her shocked and traumatized for a long time. If she hadn't met Chanyeol after two years, that accident could had taken over her life. When she was 14, again, she had to lose another family member, the only one left as her mother was an only child, and the only uncle she had from her father’s side lived in China. She was only 14, but she knew very well the real meaning of separation. Not once had she experienced it. Not twice. But three time. Her grandmother never really was good to her and had always treated her like a stranger, she could never accept her daughter’s marriage to Mr. Yichen. They couldn’t move to Korea because of Mr. Yichen’s business in China. She had always said that because of him, her daughter abandoned her and preferred living in China with him instead of staying with her old mother, she had extremely opposed that marriage, her daughter asked her to move with them to China but she refused, and even when Meili was born she didn’t want to see her. If she kept the child with her for years, it was only because the poor thing didn’t have anywhere to go or anyone to take care of her. Her grandmother always found ways to blame her for things she didn’t do, she figured that she could do nothing to change that but to apologize. “Sorry for this… Sorry for that… Sorry for everything and anything…”. Sometimes she even wanted to apologize for existing. Maybe if she wasn’t born, her mom would have survived and her grandmother would have been happier. And that’s how Meili developed the habit of constantly apologizing. Nevertheless, her death deeply saddened Meili and the thought of the new life awaiting her filled her with dread and anxiety. Her uncle couldn’t take her in as he said he couldn’t afford raising another child. He kept sending her money for her living and her studies until she reached 17. He didn't even bother to call and tell her that he couldn't provide her studies expenses anymore. He only continued sending her small amounts of money for few months but ended up by completely letting her down and cutting all ties with her. Meili was alone again but, luckily, Park Chanyeol helped her get through it all and took good care of her as if she was his own little sister. He was her only family. When her grandmother passed away, her friend managed to f