It Began With a Text

Han's Story: Part Four

     Warning: This chapter is sad. Like, just sad. There is no happiness.

     Han stood in the middle of his empty room, only his bed remaining.

     The doorbell rang downstairs. He knew immediately who it was. "It's open!" he called out.

     In a few minutes, Lee Know entered the room. "Whoa..." he said upon seeing the barren room.

     "Yeah," Han said. "My parents said if I didn't get to packing, they'd leave me behind." He laughed. "So naturally, I didn't pack, but then my mom confiscated my Nintendo..."

     Lee Know smirked. "That's such a Han thing to do, good job." He was going towards the bed until his foot hit something.

     It was a small photo. Lee Know picked it up. It was the selfie the two of them had took back during their zipline adventure. Both were frozen stiff in that photo.

     "You dropped this," Lee Know said.

     Han took the photo and laughed after seeing what it was. "Yeah, I made sure to pack all my photos in a safe place."

     Lee Know sat on the bed. A silence went over the two of them. None of this felt right. The room was too empty. It used to be filled with so many things, littered with movies and video games, even food that the two would sneak in for a midnight snack. Now, it was all gone.

     "When are you guys leaving?" Lee Know asked.

     "Tomorrow afternoon," Han said. "Make sure to come here by 2 to say goodbye."

     "Of course..." Lee Know's voice cracked horribly at that.

     "Believe me, I hope our flight gets cancelled," Han groaned. 

     "But you'll get a new start," Lee Know said. He said it so softly at first that Han almost didn't believe he said it.

     "What do you mean?" he asked.

     "I mean..." Lee Know began. "A new country, a new start. You'll go to a new school, and make new friends. Nobody will know who you are, so you can start off fresh and control what kind of life you want. It'll suck at first, but you have the power to make it better."

     Lee Know smiled sadly. "And that's a good thing. I really hope that makes you feel better. So that's one of us who will be happy. But meanwhile..."

     "I'm stuck here. Nothing is going to change, except for the fact that now, I won't get a break from everyone who hates me. And I'll no longer get to hang out with the only person who makes me feel myself."

     "I'm... going to hate it so much."

     And at that, Lee Know went silent. His body was shaking again. At loss at what to do, Han scooted closer to Lee Know. He saw the tears escaping his eyes, and at that moment, nothing scared Han more.

     Lee Know was crying.

     In all those years Han had known him, Lee Know had complained. He sometimes had silent breakdowns. He even got angry. But never, never in all their years of friendship, had Lee Know shed a tear around Han, even when things got hard.

     This must have been the final straw.

     "I don't want to leave," Han replied in a small voice. Screw new starts and all that. If Lee Know wasn't there, he didn't want any of it.

     "And I don't want you to leave!"

     The dam broke. Lee Know burst into tears, trying to stop himself with heavy breaths. But in the end, it was no use.