picture perfect | [mysmes]

4 - Goodbye

[5 years ago...]

"Don't go!"

"I'm sorry, but I have to."

To both, the pain was unbearable, no one could tell who felt in more pain. She was even more burdened than Jihyun, though Jihyun felt ever so... well, it was a mix of emotions. Sad, angry, confused... everything but joy.

He felt stupid. Not just stupid, but crazy, helpless, everything depressing. How come he hadn't realized? He was angry at no one but himself. Was he really blinded by so much infatuation— no, LOVE he hasn't realized all along...

That her joy was just a mask?

"I-I'm stupid... I never knew... I never realized, I-I'm so sorry!" Jihyun cried, tears blinding his vision. He held on her drained hand and never wanted to let go.

"Jihyun... let go. Please." She weakly begged, on the verge of tears. But she fought it. She fought the urge to cry. She didn't want Jihyun Kim, the love of her life, to see her break down and be weak. She wanted to be strong just for him. Only him. She felt that no one else mattered. Nothing else mattered.

"I don't want to let go!" Jihyun yelled, but she showed no emotion of shock. She couldn't bear it. He was breaking down in front of her frail, pale, dying body.

"But... you must."

She finally turned her head to look at Jihyun eye-to-eye. She used her remaining strength to gently wipe his sad tears away.

"Please don't cry," she whispered. Jihyun closed his eyes shut, unable to see her drained face. The face that was once so astounding, so perfect to him.

She was perfect to him.

She was his star in his void. His light to his night. His bandage to his wound. His bright crayon to a blank page.

His wings to his failure.

"Ji...hyun... go..." she didn't want him to see her like that.

"Hey. Before I leave... do you... do you love me?" He suddenly asks, though his voice is shaking.

Silence. Her eyes come to a close and her breathing shortens.

His nightmare is turning into a reality.

"No! Stay with me!" He screamed, tears blinding his vision once again as the monitor's steady beeping comes to a halt. A deafening ring is all that's heard, besides Jihyun's desperate screams.

Just before he's completely now left in the dark, she whispers to him, her hand slipping away...

"I do love you. Please forgive me."