CHAPTER 24: A YEAR LATER

“Stop crying now…I promise. I won’t go anywhere.”

“Naeun-ah, even if it doesn’t rain, I will always stay here with you.”

“Hey. I promised you before, right? I won’t go anywhere.”

Just like how the rain crashed down on her and flooded the whole city, continuous tears effortlessly fell down from her eyes and drowned her in misery as she remembered these promises from the person she loved the most. This was the one that she held on to and kept her going for quite some time until the said promise turned into a sharp, piece of glass after it got broken. She bled in pain, but she just can’t let go of it no matter how excruciating it is already.

Naeun believed.

“You’ll be back…right?”

“Of course.”

But Eunji never came back.

“Please, confirm it.” The investigator politely requested before pulling up the white blanket, revealing a horrible sight underneath. Mrs. Jung gasped and screamed, while Minki just silently cried while trying to support her devastated mother. Bomi was dumbfounded and tears just continued streaming down her cheeks as she stared at the unidentifiable body.

“The car got caught in flames before it slipped off the road and crashed, which led to its explosion. Because the fire was immense, almost everything was burnt into dust.” He explained further.

 “No…this can’t be my daughter! It can’t be my Eunji!” Mrs. Jung was already hysterical and desperate. The body was too burnt for them to recognize if it was Eunji, so Mrs. Jung denied the reality presented to her and thought of the possibility that it was someone else’s body. “W-what if…what if someone took my daughter’s car instead and –“

The investigator took out a clear plastic containing a damaged watch from his pocket and showed it to them. “Is this Jung Eunji’s watch?”

Eunji’s mother fainted upon seeing the engraved name of her daughter on the watch. 

“You could have just told me that you wanted to come here again. There’s no need for you to run away always.” Bomi approached with a question and hovered the umbrella over Naeun who was just staring at the big lump of green soil. “It has been a year, Naeun-ah. You can’t be like this forever.”

“It has only been a year, Bomi-ya.” Naeun emphasized.

“I’m not saying that you already have to accept that Eunji is gone—“

“Do you believe that she’s already gone?” Naeun threw a question, interrupting Bomi’s explanation.

“Do you?” Bomi questioned as a response.

Without taking her eyes off of Eunji’s grave, Naeun replied with a question. “Will something happen if I believed the otherwise?”

Bomi clenched her fist. If only she could say yes…

Even if she wasn’t voicing it out, until now Bomi felt like something was amiss regarding the incident a year ago. How can Eunji leave her best friend dying and just have her own accident the following day? What if Mrs. Jung was right about the body found inside the car? What if her friend is still alive somewhere, only waiting to be rescued? It didn’t make sense for her, but the evidences forced her to accept the conclusion that Chorong and Eunji’s accident were two different cases and there was no connection between the two. Even if she wanted to fight for these possibilities, Bomi dropped everything and just accepted the cruel reality since it would only lengthen the Jung Family’s suffering for the loss of their only daughter.

Everything remains unsolved for Bomi and unfortunately, only Eunji knows the truth.

---

With eyes closed, Chorong gripped tightly on the steering wheel and breathed unevenly, crying after another failed attempt to regain her courage and composure to drive once again. Until now, she can’t bring herself to open her eyes whenever she’s seated in the driver’s seat because flashes of what happened a year ago still haunts her to this very day.

Everything seemed fresh and clear; like it’s actually happening again. Everything hurts.

 “Can you tell us what happened?” the police began his investigation after getting a go-signal from the head doctor. “You don’t have to remember everything. Just tell us what you can recall at the moment.”

Chorong held Bomi’s hand before she answered. “The brakes…I could not slow down…” her voice sounded frail as she explained.

“Okay, so you’re saying that the car’s brakes didn’t function?” He clarified, in which he got a nod as a response. “How about the surroundings, do you remember anything? Was it raining?”

“It…it was blurry…” Chorong tried her best to describe what she can remember. “I needed to turn but…I can’t control anymore…”

“I see…” The police kept on taking down notes as he listened. “Do you still remember anything after you crashed?”

The respondent shook her head. “Everything just went black.”

“Alright, thank you Ms. Park for your time. I wish for your speedy recovery.” The investigator bowed politely. He then gave a look at Bomi before excusing himself.

“Chorong-ah, I’ll just talk to him for a bit –“

“Excuse me, sir…” Despite her weak physical status, Chorong managed to gather all the strength she had to stop and call back the investigator, ignoring what Bomi was about to say. “Eunji…how is she? Did you ask her already?”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Park…” the investigator exchanged glances with Bomi once again. “We weren’t able to ask Ms. Jung.”

“Why?” Chorong, who finally noticed the eye signal being relayed by Bomi to the officer, shifted her attention to her lover who could not even look her in the eye anymore. “Where is Eunji?”

But compared to her almost fatal injuries, nothing compares to the pain that she felt upon learning about her best friend’s demise.

---

“So, any update?” Ilhoon talked through his phone as he stood by the glass panel, feeding his eyes with the majestic overview from his office.

“Bomi told me that they just visited Eunji’s grave. Wait, are you sure you’re letting your girlfriend travel that far without you?”

“Hani-ya, that’s why I hired you, remember? And Naeun knows better than to stab me behind my back.” He snickered. “Besides…everyone, including Naeun and her pesky manager, needs to see that I am really a changed man, just like what’s written in the articles.”

“The nerve to call Bomi ‘pesky’ while talking to me…”

“Okay, I’m sorry. Just describing her based on experience, hmm?” Ilhoon continued to tease. “So, is there any news about her whereabouts?”

“None, still. I’ve talked to some of your men and they all said the same thing.”

“Dang…Now I might actually believe the made-up news my men set-up.” He sighed. It has been a year and Eunji is still nowhere to be found. Chances are high that she could be already dead, but Ilhoon doesn’t settle for a ‘high chance’; he wanted a hundred percent confirmation. “Just continue searching. I want valid receipts before I could sit back and relax, understood?”

“No problem about that.”

After the call, Ilhoon took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to empty his head that’s currently flooded with unanswered questions about Eunji’s disappearance. He and his men have never encountered such problems in locating anybody regardless if they’re dead or alive, but this person that Naeun fantasized about was really a special one. Figuring out Eunji’s real condition is challenging him, but he doesn’t mind. He loves taking on challenges anyway.

“I will find you, dead or alive.”

---

“Hayoung-ah, is she here yet?”

“I’ll tell you, okay? And Namjoo…you know how hard it is to wake her up; it’s like asking a log to just stand up.” Hayoung answered back.

“You should have just dragged her –“

“Shut up, I can already see her from afar. I’ll drop the call now and you all just wait for my signal, alright?” Hayoung then immediately slipped her phone back in her pocket and waved at her friend who was already closely approaching, gesturing her to double-time.

“Today’s my day off though…” she complained as she lazily walked towards Hayoung, wearing her usual set of working clothes: a plain white shirt and a pair of loose jeans.

“I’m not sure too, you know. Uncle just said to bring you along to help me prepare Event Hall C since Namjoo was assigned to do something else.” The younger one reasoned out, naturally leading the prey to its trap. “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine.” She smiled with reassurance. “I don’t have any plans for today anyway.”

“Thanks a lot! I owe you one.” The taller one brightly smiled.

Not too long, both of them arrived at the said event hall and it was time for Hayoung to execute the signal. She then tried turning the locked doorknob thrice, before bringing out the set keys from her pocket to unlock the door. Meanwhile on the other side of the door, a group of people including Namjoo was just waiting for the two to enter the still unlit hall before they could reveal themselves. Soo-ah, who was crouching beside her, was the one holding the cake with now kindled candles.

After the door was unlocked, she went in first and the lights. “Hayoung-ah, I thought we’re going to—“

Her eyes widened when a combination of scream and loud popping sounds erupted around her. Namjoo approached her wearing a light blue party hat, along with Soo-ah who was carefully walking as she held the creamy white cake. Hayoung on the other hand just held on her stunned friend’s shoulders and pushed her towards the center of the whole area. With heartwarming smiles, everyone clapped as they sang and wished their dear friend a Happy Birthday.

“Make a wish.” Soo-ah instructed as she took a step closer.

The surprised fellow felt grateful for everything, but she was still confused about the sudden birthday party. “Wait, is today my birthday? I mean, no one knows about it, not even me…”

“That’s the point!” Hayoung threw her arm around the older one’s shoulders and pulled her closer. “Don’t you think today’s the perfect day for your birthday?”

She raised an eyebrow “Today…? Why, what’s special about this day?”

“It has been a year, you know.” Soo-ah explained.

“Ah…” That was when she realized what they all meant. Exactly one year ago, today was when she was given another chance at life. And with that, she clasped her hands together and thought of her wishes before finally blowing out the candles. Everyone cheered afterwards and wished her a Happy Birthday once again before the party started with a feast.

“Happy Birthday, Yeondoo!!!” They all greeted for one last time.

It was indeed like a birth, but this time, to a new identity: Kang Yeondoo.

----

A/N: So I don’t know how many times I’ve said sorry but here I am, saying sorry again.

I thought I’d be free after everything and update, but it turned out that worse than I was doing my thesis.

So since it was holiday, visitors came up until first week of January and I just have to help my parents with everything. We also went out a couple of times, and usually I end up sleeping when we arrive home. It got to the point where I wasn’t able to continue the holiday three-shot that I was planning to post. With that, I’m really, really sorry. I tried continuing but I realized that I’m just dragging the whole story if I focused on the holiday three-shot, and as you all know I really write slowly, so that’s when I decided to just to save that for later and continue on the main story. Aside from that, I also got sick twice this month. I got diarrhea two weeks ago and at the moment, I’m taking medicines for my tonsillitis. My immune system is really not in a good condition.

So that’s why I’ve been able to update only now.

I know, some of you have forgotten this, and some think that I’m just telling you excuses but I swear that these are true. And I felt that I needed to explain myself.

Even if there’s only a few of you waiting and commenting, I’ll still be updating this fic. No matter how slow I am, and even if I finally get a job sometime soon, I hope you guys know that I’m doing my best.

It’s late, but Happy New Year to all of you ^^ I wish that 2016 will be good to all of us, and thank you for staying. ^^

Like always, thank you for patiently waiting, reading, subscribing (hello to my new subs!), commenting, and liking this story. You’re the best! ^^