The room seemed loud with the beating of her heart as the grey stonewalls sapped warmth from the body. Before her draped the body of a boy, his face paling by the moment, his brown hair a mess, eyes peeking through it revealing the final moments of a tortured soul, for he had most recently taken his own life.

 

Her palms glistened with sweat as she held the metal towards her own chest. She was scared, would it hurt? Will they finally be able to be together? There was no return. Her mind wavered upon the desire to go no further, to let go of everything and run back home. However, the sight of the dead boy held her in place, preventing her from throwing the dagger across the room. His glassy eyes gave her a hollow feeling; a foreboding sense of loneliness, sadness, and a crippling sense of despair that shackled her. Drowning, sinking into the dark abyss, breathing deeply but suffocated all the same.

 

She took a deep breath, lifted the pointed end slightly away, her mind began to swirl with nonsensical thoughts, emotions bubbled with fear, the weight upon her chest was too much to bear. “Too heavy” she thought and with a final glance at the boy, in one quick movement, she plunged the dagger straight into her heart.

 

Suddenly, her eyes burst open; her chest still aching from the wound she never got and her heart, yearning for the boy she had never met. Fumbling, she the bedside lamp, doing little for her eyesight. By a cruel twist of fate, as her eyesight deteriorated, her dreams grew in clarity. What, at first, were fuzzy glimpses of a stone room, grew into the realistic dive into a cold illusion she had just had, whilst in her wake, her blue skies dulled into an ever closing vignette of night.

 

Morning came on the eve of her 20^th birthday, groggy from a terrible nights sleep, slowly she got out of bed and with her eyes shut, felt her way to the kitchen for breakfast. “Good morning soldier” her father greeted her, already at the kitchen preparing breakfast. “You do realize it’s morning right? Time to open your eyes!”

“What’s the point? I can barely see anything anyway.”

“Don’t say that, did you sleep late? You look tired”

“Just… a nightmare”

His face darkened for he knew exactly what she meant by ‘nightmares’.

“Look here sport how bout I take you to the gardens tomorrow for your Birthday? We can have a picnic and you can open your eyes to the beautiful sight.” He suggested with a meek smile.

“Really?” her eyes shot open, quickly scanning the room to find her father’s face.

“Really” he replied.

 

The next day her father drove them to the Capulet gardens, a visual feast blooming with life. Upon arrival, she quickly opened her eyes to the colors that greeted her.

 

“You gonna be okay honey? I’ll just be here setting up the picnic.”

 

“I’ll be fine dad, I’m already twenty one!” she replied as she walked up to the nearest spot of color she could see.

 

Kneeling down she focused on the blue flowers, her narrow vision slowly focusing until the forget-me-nots came into view. Drinking in the sight she was enamored by the softness of the colors, breathing in the fragrance, her moment of tranquility was suddenly interrupted by a brown boot crushing the flowers before her.

 

“HEY!” she yelled as her eyes tried to focus on who had ruined the moment. Slowly, her eyes focused on the running figure, it was a young man, his brown hair bounced as he ran and his eyes were warm and dark with a glint of urgency. She suddenly realized he resembled the boy in her dreams.

Quickly, she got up and began to chase after him, ‘what if he’s the one?’ she thought. Her vision shook as she ran, trying desperately to focus, but the distance between them only grew. Suddenly she realized the sky began to dim, no, it was her sight that was dimming. She ran as fast as she could, however she could only watch helplessly as the young man got into a car and began to drive off whilst the world finally closed around her.

 

She was suddenly swept up into a world of darkness, only this time not even a tunnel of light remained when she opened her eyes. “No… not now… don't go!” she yelled in frustration, continuing to run into the void until suddenly someone grabbed her and pulled her to the ground.

“Are you blind??” yelled a boy’s voice “You almost got hit by a car!”

“I am! So what?” she cried back, tears welling up in her eyes “Now I’ll never see him again!”.

“Oh… I’m so sorry” the voice answered back awkwardly “but no one is worth getting yourself killed for!”

“I followed him here, so I could meet him again, now I’ve lost my chance forever.”

 

“You’ll find someone else and even then, there’s no such thing as forever stupid!”

 

“You don’t understand,” She said, breaking into tears “I don’t want to die alone… it hurts.”

 

“It is inevitable that humans die alone.”

 

“What do you mean?” she asked between sobs.

 

“The chance of two people dying together at the same time, hand in hand, are rare, inevitably we will leave this world alone. It is far better to live for yourself, surround yourself with so many people that love you leaving no room for loneliness.”

 

“But what if it’s fate?”

 

“Then screw fate because I wouldn’t live for one person, there are too many people alive that love me for me to even linger at the notion of death” he said with defiance, causing her to chuckle.

 

 

“JI EUN!” she heard her father’s voice yell as he ran towards her “are you okay? Are you hurt?”

 

“I’m fine dad” she replied with a smile “Thanks to this person.”

 

“It was nothing, but I best be going,” said the boy as he got up to leave.

 

“Wait!” yelled JI eun and reached out towards the voice, only to grasp nothingness. A warm hand reached out to hers, “yes?” asked the voice. With a slight pause she managed to find the words. “What’s your name?”

“Taemin” he replied.

“Will we meet again Taemin?”

“If it’s written in the stars, I am sure we will Ji eun”.