Chapter 39: Chapter 39
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Yoo Chun Young was then gazing at the TV with serene eyes. I stared at him for a while until when soone tapped my arm and had my head turned to the side.
It was Eun Jiho who had a perplexed look on . When our eyes t, he frowned his brows and pouted his lips. He seed to be hesitant about sothing. Then he asked in a whispering tone.
“Is that what you also ant?”
“What?”
“Your absence would make us… erase you out of our head sooner… was that what you ant?”
At last, I understood what he was talking about. Eun Jiho was asking the reason why I wanted them to act like strangers in high school was for them to clear out as soon as possible. He might have been thinking I would rather choose to live in solitude than to hurt their feelings in a worse way.
Eun Jiho’s jet-black eyes were never so serious as now. It looked as though he was exasperated or driven to despair.
As I was thrown out of my stride and tried to tell him it was not, Jooin’s voice flew toward from behind. We were then all drawn to him turning our heads back.
His golden-brown eyes were exactly on . He then said with a grin on his face.
“The girl from that drama…”
“Yeah, what about her?”
“She looks like you, mommy.”
“…”
Who could describe the silence that approached the living room at that mont? It was not the sa as what Yoo Chun Young led after his words. The sudden loss of words that Jooin brought was sowhat ridiculous and outrageous.
That was because the actress in that TV drama was Song Hye-Kyo, who once ranked the 5th place of the most beautiful woman in the world.
As I had a blank stare at Woo Jooin and turned my head back, the three boys looked puzzled and beca even more speechless.
The first to break the ice was Eun Jiho. He stretched out his hand and poked my head, which was right in front of him. He then said to my furrowed face.
“Dude, do you really think you look sothing in common with Song Hye-Kyo? Hand on your heart, and tell the truth.”
“W…hat? What do you want to say?”
“What’s wrong? Donnie’s cute.”
Just as in the morning, Eun Hyung, who sat next to , had my back. I was deeply appreciated to Eun Hyung that I tried to express my gratitude but had my head back and looked at Woo Jooin. I was not sure whether he was complinting or humiliating .
As soon as Jooin noticed my attention, he rolled his eyeballs and smiled awkwardly at Eun Jiho. He then said,
“I an… not that I’m trying to ntion mommy and Song Hye-Kyo look alike.”
“Oh, it was indeed not, right? You almost got , bro.”
“Hey!”
Ban Yeo Ryung snarled in a lower tone and smashed Eun Jiho’s foot with her hand. That’s my girl. As I ignored Eun Jiho screaming out of pain and looked back at Jooin, he continued.
“What I want to say is that… the role inside the drama. That character reminds of mommy.”
“The girl who dates the guy terminally ill?”
Eun Hyung asked from behind in wonder. I was also pondering over the character as well.
As Woo Jooin’s words usually have been, I could not clearly grasp what he ant right away. As I knitted my brows being slow on the uptake, it was Eun Hyung, who surprisingly delivered the ssage that Jooin tried to attempt.
He said, “Jooin, I get what you’re talking about. Why the girl and Donnie are alike.”
“…?”
“The day when Donnie said she disappeared from this world… is there anyone among us who realized that she was gone?”
When Eun Hyung looked around and said that, all I could do was to have my mouth shut. It was a sudden change of subject as well as a shift of the ambiance. The living room was soon filling with chill air.
The story that I brought out to everyone but nobody talked about was ntioned by Eun Hyung for the first ti. I thought while having my gaze at him.
At that day, obviously, no one reacted as if they were aware of my disappearance. It was today that I got to know Jooin was calling for 6 hours that day but he did not show any signs of the fact at that ti.
Soon, Jooin spoke in a heavy voice from the back.
“I, on that day, was looking at my phone in my bed.”
“…”
Eun Hyung lifted his greenly dark eyes and had them on my back. Jooin’s low voice was slowly continued.
“Ham Donnie’s na and number were on the receiver section, but the mont when I typed in my ssage, I forgot what I was trying to do. It fell weird since it never happened to in my whole life. Then I saw the number and thought who the person was. That doesn’t make sense, isn’t it Jiho?”
“You’re not such a person who forgets things… I’m truly aware of that.”
Eun Jiho responded with a straight face and remained silent again. Since he almost grew up together with Jooin, he would know a lot about Jooin having exceptional mories.
Woo Jooin kept on his words right away.
“I called that number imdiately but it appeared to be a non-existing number. Totally not in service.”
His words brought a solemn look on everyone’s faces. So did I, who was looking at Woo Jooin. What he said sent shivers down my spine. I rubbed my arms feeling creeped out.
Their numbers appeared out of service to when I was lost in this world. So was mine. This was never known until now.
Woo Jooin continued, “It could happen once for to forget about sothing and just move on… but I couldn’t resist the strange feeling, which I never had in my life. So I browsed my inbox and call lists but no records of Ham Donnie was left. That day, I was holding my phone all day. I called her every once in a while and maybe after about 6 hours? I thought my phone could go wrong. So I did try to borrow soone else’s phone, but no one had theirs except . And therefore, I went to a phone booth that was a 2-minute walk from my house. I pressed the keypad firmly to make a call but had quite a hard ti from the stiff buttons. Her number was still suspended, so I had to give up and went back ho.”
“…”
“And then in front of my house, I found out soone crouching on the stairways. Ever since I saw that, things all ca back in my head. Do you even understand how I felt at that mont?”
I blankly stared at Jooin. He had an odd grin out of fear or despondency.
As I looked behind, Yoo Chun Young and Eun Hyung’s shocked face ca into my sight. Even I could not help myself being struck dumb. Woo Jooin shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah, as you all know, what I did next was calling everyone into my place. Would I make all the fuss calling you guys about Donnie just sitting in front of my house? But nobody seed to rember. Maybe, myself as well, if I weren’t sending the text to Donnie… I would have been the sa.”
“…”
“As Eun Hyung said, when Donnie was gone, no one was aware of it. What I grasped was that there was an unknown number in my contact.”
When I looked behind, Eun Hyung ca into my eyes with an outstandingly pale cheek under the yellow living room light.
He was staring at Jooin, then the floor, and finally . His lips were then opened.
“The guy at the drama… he’s done when he’s gone. If we’re allowed to cross the river of oblivion after death, the guy would erase all the mories of the girl. But not her.”
“…”
“Now I get it. The reason why Jooin said that girl and you look alike.”
My eyes were wide opened. His smile revealed mixed feelings inside him.
“The girl rembers everything about the guy and the ti they spent, which leads her to a tornting pain… That would be relevant to Donnie. We can’t rember anything, but you are not. Our existence and the tis we had are still inside you regardlessly…”
“…”
“Would the tis we had turn into a painful mory one day? Would that day ever co?”
Just like the girl, would there be a day when you are left alone and cry out of sorrow?
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