Meteor

Twenty Four

"You f*cking coward!" She shouted at him and gave him a hostile scowl.

"I'm really...sorry," he averted his eyes and puckered his lips.

"You deserve way more than just a slap, you know?"

"I know, you can do anything you want to me later on. Slap me, punch into my face, fling your drink at me, or whatever. But please...hear me out first, this is very important. And I'm doing it for Eun Chae," he said and put Eun Chae's journal onto the table.

"What's this?" Hae Rin sat down and took a look.

"Eun Chae's journal. You can keep it for a while and read it when you come back home. But most importantly, there's a farewell letter that she wrote for you at the back of it."

"Farewell letter?"

"Eun Chae was actually...battling with pancreatic cancer so even if there wasn't any accident, she didn't have much time left to live. She prepared the letters in case..."

"Is this a joke? She would have told me," Hae Rin stared at Yu Jin with a flustered face, and he quietly shook his head. She began flipping to the first page and became convinced that this was really her friend's journal, "This is...this is really...Eun Chae's handwriting."

She kept scanning through the pages, not being aware that her hot Americano was served. Her face soon became a teary mess. She was looking at the journal with her reddened eyes. Her cup of coffee got cold without a sip being taken, with a pile of damp tissues placed next to it.

"I...I can't take it anymore," she weakly shook her head, closed the journal and pushed it towards him when she was only halfway through it.

"You need to read this," Yu Jin turned to the last pages where the farewell letter Eun Chae wrote for her was located, "I know it's hard to accept, but please read this...it's only about one page. Eun Chae...had a lot of things...to tell you."

Yu Jin also wanted to cry, but he could not. Partly because he could not cry in front of Hae Rin, partly because he had been crying so much that he already ran out of tears.

"Hi Kitty Kang, it's Eun Chae, your little chick here!

You must be very confused and flustered when you're reading this, right? I'm sorry for not telling you earlier that I was dealing with cancer. I know that's very mean and selfish, but please listen to my excuse. I just wanna have fun with you, as we have always been doing, for the rest of my life. I don't wanna see you weeping every single time we hang out together. If so, then there's no more fun going out with you, right? I can't ask you to forgive me, but I think I need you to know the reason why I made such a decision. I'm really sorry for not having the courage and strength to destroy the happy time I have with you.

Thanks for being my friend. When I had just come to Hansung High, I was really reserved as I felt bad about my background as an orphan. All Hansung students were rich and smart, and I was afraid that you guys would look down on me and bully me, like what I experienced in secondary school. But you came and dissipated all of my anxiety. You are open, communicative and always willing to lend me a listening ear. You're my first friend ever, and also my best friend ever. I love you, Kitty Kang! In the next life, please be reborn as a boy, I'll be your girlfriend then.