A Piece of Eternity

TWENTY THREE

 “Yong, I’m going to sleep now.” She whispers to him.

Yonghwa instantly realize what those words mean.

            “Really? Alright….sleep well.” His voice cracks.

            “Don’t cry….” She tells him in a faint voice.

Yonghwa looks at her face and does his best to hold back his emotion. He wants to send her off with a smile on his face so that she won’t be worried.

            “Hm.” He says while smiling a bit.

Seo Hyun sees Death raising nir head. Nir handsome face is expressionless. Ne stares at her with those black and cold-looking eyes. That’s it….ne’s going to take her.

Yonghwa cups both of her cheeks and gives her a kiss on her forehead.

Farewell, my beloved—her mind says.

Seo Hyun’s arms holding on to his arms loosen their grips before finally falling to the sides. Yonghwa’s tears roll down his face as he remains in that position for a moment. He swallows hard. Seo Hyun is gone.

He then embraces her. Yonghwa cries hard while holding Seo Hyun’s lifeless body tightly. Her appearance slowly returns to its original self.

            “Seo Hyun!!!!!” he cries.

In his black suit, Yonghwa enters the funeral hall. The Seo family’s lawyer is the one in-charged as master of ceremony while the former servants helps in assisting the guests. There are only few people here and most of them are from their neighborhood.

He stands in front of Seo Hyun’s funeral altar. Her photo is in the middle of the floral wreath. In that picture, Seo Hyun is an old woman.

            “Those are lady Joohyun’s favorite flowers.” The old woman tells him. She’s the same old woman he talked with that day. Base in her action, it seems like she doesn’t remember about their encounter.

There is no indication that she recognized him. Is this what Seo Hyun told him before? She said that once she’s gone, the things that happened will be erased from people’s memory. But for him, things are very clear. He remembers every single detail from the first day he met her up to now.

His eyes water up so he decided to go out for a little bit. Yonghwa bows his head a bit to the old woman.

The lawyer returns from taking a phone call. His eyes caught the last name written in the funeral log book. Jung Yonghwa.

            “Is this person in here?” he asks the receptionist.

            “Ah…Yes, attorney.”

            “He’s inside then?”

Yonghwa walks pass them.

            “That’s him.” The receptionist says.

The lawyer follows her gaze and sees him.

            “That young man?”

            “Hm.” She nods.

He quickly follows him.

            “Excuse me.” He calls.

Yonghwa turns around.