Wishlist [txtzy#1]

Wishlist-34(waiting)

Chaeryeong's head was spinning, every word between them a sharp blade that tore at the fragile thread of their connection. She could feel Taehyun's steady presence behind her, his hand barely brushing against her as if he was afraid to touch her too much, yet she felt the weight of it.

"Why do you always do this?" Chaeryeong's voice cracked with frustration, her heart pounding in her chest. She spun around to face him, her eyes wild with unshed tears.

"Do what?" Taehyun asked, the confusion in his voice only fueling her anger.

"Care about me," she snapped, the words biting through the space between them. "Why do you keep doing it? After everything?"

"I don't know," Taehyun said, his voice soft, almost defeated. He had no answers. His heart wanted to reach out, but he didn't know how to explain why he couldn't let her go, why he still cared.

"Stop doing it then," Chaeryeong's voice trembled, the exhaustion of it all finally breaking through. "You know we're not together anymore, right?" Her words stung, like a slap to the face, but it was the truth. They weren't together, not anymore.

"Yes..." Taehyun whispered, his voice barely audible. It should have been enough, but it wasn't. He could feel her slipping through his fingers, the distance between them growing wider with each passing second.

"I can't leave you alone like this, Chaeryeong," Taehyun finally admitted, his words trembling as if the confession was something he had been holding onto for too long.

"Taehyun, it's tiring," Chaeryeong said, her voice full of exhaustion. "I'm tired of everything—of hoping, of waiting, of pretending like things are still okay between us." She stepped back, her hands shaking as she wiped away the tears that refused to stop. "What am I supposed to do with all of this, Taehyun? You can't just keep showing up, acting like nothing happened."

"How could you say that?" Taehyun's words came out in a sharp, desperate rush. "It was easy for you, wasn't it? You left, you went to the U.S., and you just moved on. And here I am, waiting like a fool, thinking you'd come back, that everything would go back to the way it was. But no... You just started a new life."

Chaeryeong's chest tightened as the words hit her, the raw pain in his voice making it even harder to breathe. She wanted to argue, to fight back, but something in his eyes stopped her. "How could you say that?" she asked, her voice a whisper as her tears flowed freely. "You don't know what I was going through, Taehyun. You have no idea how much I needed you... I spent all that time hoping, waiting for you to come back, to hold me and tell me everything would be okay."

Taehyun flinched at her words, but he couldn't stop the rush of emotions that came flooding back. He wanted to say something—anything—to make it right, but the guilt was suffocating.

"You cut me off, Chaeryeong," Taehyun finally said, his voice low, the weight of his pain clear in his eyes. "You stopped talking to me. You disappeared. I didn't know where you were, what was happening. I was left in the dark, wondering what went wrong. You were the one who pushed me away. You cut me off."

Chaeryeong's breath caught in her throat. She wanted to argue, to defend herself, but the truth of his words stung too much. She had left, yes—but she hadn't meant to cut him off. She thought she was protecting herself, trying to move on in the only way she could. But now, hearing it from him, it all felt like one long, painful misunderstanding.

"I waited for you, Taehyun," Chaeryeong said softly, her voice trembling with the weight of her regret. "I spent those days in the U.S. hoping you would reach out, hoping I would hear from you. But you never came."

The silence between them was thick, heavy with everything they had never said. Taehyun felt the sharp sting of regret settle deep in his chest. He had been waiting for her, too—but he didn't know how to reach out without making things worse.

"I was there that day, at the beach," Taehyun said, his voice quieter now, filled with the weight of the confession. "I was watching you. But you... you never knew. I couldn't bring myself to go to you, to show you I was still here. I didn't think you'd want me to."

Chaeryeong's heart broke at the words, a pang of realization shooting through her. "I knew you were there," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "I could feel your presence, Taehyun. I was waiting for you to come, for you to walk up to me and tell me that you still cared. But you didn't. You didn't come."

Taehyun's breath hitched as he remembered that day. The moment he stood there, watching her from afar, too afraid to reach out, too paralyzed by his own fear to take a step closer. He had thought that if he just stayed back, everything would work out. But now, he saw how wrong he had been.

"You didn't come," Chaeryeong repeated, her tears falling harder now, each drop a silent testament to the pain she had carried for so long. "I kept waiting for you. But you didn't come."

The words struck him like a thunderclap, and Taehyun's world seemed to shatter all over again. "I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice barely audible as he fell to his knees. The weight of everything—everything he had done wrong, everything he had let slip away—pressed down on him, suffocating him.

Chaeryeong took a step back, the finality in her voice clear as she spoke through the tears. "I've lost hope, Taehyun. I've lost hope in us. We were something once, but now..." She shook her head, the sorrow in her eyes too much for him to bear. "Now we're just a book that can't be opened again."

Without another word, she turned and walked away, leaving Taehyun kneeling in the rain, his heart breaking as he watched her disappear from his life ,again.