Lessons From Romance

Goodbye Stranger

Again, he was forced to sit by the side and watch Namjoo destroy herself with alcohol. He hated this side of her.

They were alone by the corner of a bar. The wooden counter she was leaning against coarsely reflected the light from above. In this sleepy atmosphere while others chatted and laughed behind him, he watched Namjoo take a long gulp of the bottle of beer in her hands. The frustration and the helplessness only stressed him more. He would have joined her if they were out casually, but in this situation Namjoo barred him from touching anything.

"Namjoo," he tried, "please stop."

"That was a jerk move," Namjoo ignored him.

He gazed softly at her, "I just wanted to help you."

Namjoo snorted, "Help? You ruined my family dinner."

Her eyes were narrow slits of painful anger and lifting the glass up to her lips sipped more of the medicine that substituted for Luhan.

"Can't you try and set aside your feelings and give him another chance?" Ki Chan pleaded.

"Why!?" Namjoo raised her voice. "Why me!? What about my feelings!? Are they nothing!? Do they mean absolutely nothing!? They did this to me and you're asking me to understand him again!? Why am I the only one who needs to be considerate? I didn't even do anything and all of a sudden I'm a bad guy? I'm the one who did wrong?"

Tears brimmed her eyes and Ki Chan felt sorrier.

"I think he really loves you, Namjoo."

Rolling her eyes she laughed, "Love? That's funny."

"I...wish you would stop doing this to yourself," Ki Chan said and watch her roll her eyes to the side in a fight to withhold the tears from falling. "I only want you to smile again. I know you've been fed a lot of lies and you're very hurt because of it, but you shouldn't hold onto such things. They only destroy you and make you miserable. Look at you now, are you happy? I don't think you are. No matter how sad you are and how difficult it is, the sun will still come up and let you try again. There's a lot more to life than being miserable. Don't you remember it? Happiness, laughter, excitement, and joy. Why let it rain forever, Namjoo? This isn't you."

Tears built up in her eyes and when they became too heavy for her lids quickly dropped down her face. Ki Chan could see then, that she was still innocent; that she still wanted the bright side of the world. The purity he'd missed was still there, only masked by a brick wall. This was her fight against herself and the world.

"I hate them," her lips trembled, "it's not fair."

A hoarse sob made her body shake.

"Why am I the only one crying?" Namjoo asked with a small whimper of exhausted pain falling. "I...really liked him...but it was all a joke."

Covering her face with her hand he watched her cry away all the sorrow and he was glad she was finally crying. It must have been hard to keep it inside, all that anger turned into a grudge. How she had suffered during this period...

Reaching over he gently patted her back.

"====="

Chae Yoon hesitated and gripped onto the bag of goodies in her hands. She was nervous about approaching Luhan again. He had never threatened her before. Actually, she'd seen him angry before, but not to the extent where he threw items across the room or pound the wall with his fist. By now, he should be over it, right?

Gulping, she knocked and waited for him to answer the door like he always did for her. He didn't come though, so she knocked again and waited. When the door didn't open she reached for the doorknob and found it unlocked.