Five Seasons: N.Flying series [On-going]

PAGE 14

Chapter 14
Leave or Stay

[ AREUM ]

Nara brought all my favorite snacks to the rooftop that night but I couldn't bring myself to eat them. I sighed for God knows how many times already.

"Is it really that bad? You're not eating." She said.

I blinked rapidly trying not to cry. My chest felt too tight. I took a deep breath, thankful that through all the years spent together, Nara really knows me too well now. She always patiently wait for me to talk whenever she knows I'm having a hard time.

"Yah,"

"What?" she asked.

"I really..." My voice trembled a little when I spoke again. "I really wish love was enough to make someone stay."

"Areum..."

"They divorced. Mom and dad."

Nara's expression softened before she pulled me into a hug. "I'm sorry."

"Is it really only good in the beginning? Does it only feel like the whole world is in your hands when you're beginning?"

"I don't know, too." She said sadly.

Nara grew up with a single mom. His father abandoned them even before she was born. And when we were sixteen, her mom introduced a new person who's now her stepfather. We both cried a lot. I was the one who bought her favorite snacks then.

"Honestly, I'm scared." I told her.

"Of what?"

"That Seunghyub, too, would leave me someday for his dreams."

"Areum..."

"And just like my dad, I might not have the guts to stop him because I know how much it means to him."

Nara sighed. "Just because it happened to your parents, it doesn't mean it'll happen to you and Seunghyub too."

I forced a smile, tears escaping my eyes as I looked up at the night sky. "I know that people come and go in our lives. I'm well aware." I said. "But I really want him to stay in my life."

"Areum-ah..." Nara looked at me wide-eyed.

I chuckled, looking back at her. "I think I'm falling in love."

She sighed, smiling. "Oh, shit."

"Why aren't you squealing?"

Nara grabbed a banana milk and chucked it with the straw before giving it to me. "I'm worried about you. I don't want you to get hurt and get scarred forever because of this. What if you won't believe in love anymore?"

"Like you?"

She grinned and chucked her own banana milk before clinking the plastic bottle with mine. "Like me."

My chest felt a little lighter. We sat next to each other in a comfortable silence for a while.

"It's alright, Areum-ah." Nara said later. "What did sixteen-year-old Song Areum tell me?"