"excuse me, is mister jung hoseok here?"
hoseok raised his head to look at the delivery boy standing at the doorstep of their classroom.
the senior glanced at their literature professor in front who just gave him a nod before he excused himself.
he faced the delivery boy and smiled. "it's me. what is it?"
the delivery boy handed him a medium sized box which hoseok reluctantly took.
"what's this?" he asked while scrutinizing the box, confused as to why he had a package.
the delivery boy did not answer his question and went away as soon as he took a bow. hoseok was in a hurly-burly, but with a shrug on his shoulder, he went back inside his class with the box.
-
classes ended and hoseok started on his feet, leaving to his home to open the box so that his confusion will finally be solved.
all throughout his class, hoseok couldn't take his wonders away from the box and wanted to know what was within, but he fought the urge to open it and decided to just rip it open once he's home.
what confused him to the core is that there's no any single address written on the box and to whom it came from. he couldn't even remember asking for someone to deliver him a package. but even if he could, no one would ever think of giving him something.
well, except for his ex-girlfriend. jisoo loves giving presents to him, but it's still not christmas yet.
once hoseok reached home, he quickly ran upstairs to his room and threw his stuffs on his bed. then he pursued on ripping the box open, only to see papers stacked inside.
but what caught his eyes first was the open note above the stacked up parchments.
his hands extended to get the paper, and startes reading what's written on it.
" this is from lalisa manoban, to jung hoseok ♡♡♡ make sure you read every single of what's written on the parchments, hehe : ) "
that was what's written on the note and hoseok's heart flipped after reading the familiar name.
lalisa manoban, hoseok smiled after remembering the girl's face. it has been a month ever since he saw the girl and the last time he did was on their first and second practice.
he could remember dancing with her but after the following days, she suddenly disappeared and after a week, the club's president announced that hoseok's partner will no longer be lisa but momo.
he had questioned the president about the sudden change of partners but the answer didn't reached him. he was so confused and worried, to mention that he had warmed up with the girl unconsciously ever since he had met her.
hoseok even went to lisa's classroom but found out that the girl has been absent for weeks now without any apparent reason.
actually, that was the reason why hoseok and his now ex-girlfriend drifted apart; he's been so busy looking and waiting for lisa that he didn't realise the lack of attention he's giving to jisoo.
hoseok sighed and moved on, taking all the parchments out of the box and figured out that all of the papers are numbered from 1 to 29. he glanced at the note and turned it around, it has the number 30 on it.
he began reading all the poetries from the first parchment all the way to the last one as his tears went cascading from his eyes.
he should've known right from the start, that someone is hurting because of him.
he should've known that lisa is in love with him, and if he wasn't such a coward and made the first move, then the situation happening now would be the exact opposite.
yet life really is cruel, even destiny is playing the role of an antagonist.
hoseok hugged the last poetry close to his chest and cried, and cried until he started to hiccup.
"i-i'm... s-sorry-" he coughed, covering his mouth as he continued to cry helplessly. the pain inside his chest started growing, like needles pricking his heart, and he struggled to catch his breath. "i-if only i- i t-told you sooner that i-"
but hoseok couldn't finish his words.
it's so unfair.
the universe is so unfair.
when he finally know to himself that he needed her, it's when the world is keeping her away from him.
it took moments before hoseok regained himself from pain and read the last poetry once again.
the words "illness" and "good bye" would constantly make the boy tear up and it broke his heart into millions of pieces.
"... even if you can't reciprocate my pitiful and hopeless feelings.." hoseok read the last part over and over again while shaking his head as if he's opposing it.
"n-no.." hoseok mumbled, fresh hot tears streaming out of his eyes again. he gripped on the parchment hard that wrinkled both sides of the paper.
"i-i love you, that's the t-truth... but i can't tell you b-because i believe i like j-jisoo and not y-you.. b-but..." hoseok breathed, then continued. "i-i just r-realised how much i-important y-you are than her, and t-that i needed you m-more t-than her-"
and he broke down into a crying fit, collapsing onto his bed with the paper hugged close to his chest. the feeling of regret swirling around his mind and squeezing his heart.
if only he listened to his heart and made the first move.
if only he knew all too soon about the girl's feelings for him, then they should be together by now.
but destiny had other plans, and that is to end their story in a tragic one.
"i'm sorry, l-lisa," hoseok whispered, tears still escaping his now hallowed eyes. his heart still aches in excruciating pain, and he could feel how the oxygen is being sucked out of him. like he was being strangled to death.
he closed his eyes and whispered for the last time. "yet don't worry, my love. i won't let destiny end our love story, not even shakespeare himself."
and he fell asleep, but to eternity.
»»----> FIN <----««
