It was the coldest day in town, he sat on a tree stump waiting for his love. She had promised to come see him as soon as she was done with her shift but the wait felt like an eternity. He shivered and rubbed his hands together for warmth, hours passed and still no sign of her. His eyes wandered around and hoped to see her walking in the distance towards. His ears were on high alerts, waiting to hear the sound of her shoes violently clicking on the concrete pavement but nothing. Just the sound of the quiet night breeze.
Hours later, he was hunched over with his hands on his knees. He felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up. She had finally arrived but she looked different... perhaps tired? Hungry? Irritated? No, it was more than the mundane feelings one gets after a long day's work.
She sat down next to him and held his cold hands in her gloved encased ones. "Sorry to have kept you waiting so long, I didn't mean to but we were really busy tonight. The crowd wanted encore after encore." She smiled.
"It's alright. I thought you might have had a demanding crowd tonight. But I guess that's what happens when you're talented."
She didn't respond. Instead, she bowed her head, her face turning a flush pink colour. There was something on her mind that she wanted to tell him but she didn't know how to. She wasn't sure if he'd still love her if she spilled the news.
He noticed her mind was elsewhere. "Is there something wrong?"
"No, not really. Well, there's nothing wrong with me I guess but..." she turned away from him. "I don't know how to put this."
He started to grow anxious. "What is it?"
"I'm pregnant." She said and shut her eyes tight, waiting for him to respond. There was silence and she looked at him again. "Did you hear what I said?"
His face went paler than usual, eyes grew wide and his heart began beating erratically. He got up from the stump and backed away from her as though she had some fatal contagious disease.
"Please don't hate me? I'm also terrified right now but you and I, we can make it work. We're different, sure but we've made it this far right? A baby shouldn't divide us. It should bring us closer." She said with hopeful eyes.
"I don't think this is okay. You know what will happen if we have that child."
"But Kang..."
"No, Nara. You need to get rid of it somehow and after that, you and I can't be together again. We shouldn't have fallen in love in the first place. Your kind doesn't go with mine and we both knew that."
"But isn't our love stronger that our differences?"
Kang shook his head. "Please listen to me, you can't keep that child. Think of the consequences."
"I don't care."
"Well I do! Do as I say. If you don't, I'll be forced to deal with this in my own way." He peered down at her, his eyes darkened.
They seemed to argue for ages but after a while, Nara made the brave decision to run away and never return to Kang or the small town where she had made a name for herself as a flute player.
She arrived at her small room and packed whatever clothes she had and fled town but not before taking something of value to Kang. Something that would change the course of his entire life and possibly even punish him for an eternity.
