Young-soo drove the car to his house. When he reached the house and entered in he felt the emptiness in the house. He went to Eunbi's room, looked around the room, and sat down on the floor beside the bed by stretching out his legs. 'I'm sorry Eunbi to make you leave the house out of your wish, I'm so sorry to do that to you,' he said that to himself.
He took out his wallet from his pants pocket and took out the passport size photo of his deceased girlfriend, 'Hyejin, do you know in the beginning she always wanted to get away from this house, I convinced her to stay in the house, but today I forced her to move out of this place against her wish. Every day in the evening when I return back to house from my office she used to open the door to me, but now she's not here to open the door to me, I felt like I'm staying alone in the emptiness.' He said by looking at Hyejin's picture.
'Why did you leave me and went without me to the God, Hyejin? If you have stayed with me I would've not met Eunbi in my life. Now everything has gone out of my hands, first you and then Eunbi. She said that she loves someone else, do you know how my heart ached to hear that from her. I love her a lot; I don't know why she couldn't able to understand my feelings. Love is not a forced feeling it should come naturally but I'm scared whether I'll force her to love me back if she stays with me. Therefore, I make sure to not create any problem with her until I divorce her, which is why I decided to make her stay at her friends place to end everything between us smoothly. But I never thought it will be this hard and painful to stay alone without her in the house.' He said and cried the tears were glistening in his eyes. He saw the illusion of Hyejin's presence, as if she came and sat down beside him on the floor.
"Did you just come here to console me, Hyejin?" He asked her. As she nodded her head with a gentle smile, he thanked her for the presence, rested his head over her lap, and said, "I'll forget everything if you stay beside me."
He felt as if she caressed his hair softly and consoled him, "don't worry Young-soo I'll stay beside you, now stop crying like a kid. You said that you'll give divorce to Eunbi, then why are you still thinking about her? Moreover, she loves someone else. She's such fool to not understand your love, and she's very unlucky to leave you because of some other man, one day she'll regret for rejecting you. Stop feeling bitterly because it'll only make you feel emotionally low. Try to forget her and move on; believe that everything happens for a reason."
He sat up on the floor properly and wiped his tears on his face, "yeah sure, I'll try to forget her and move-on but you please stay beside me."
She encircled her hand around his arm, "I told you that I'll always stay beside you, then why are you questioning me about it?"
"I'm sorry I'll not question you about it anymore," he apologized and asked her, "Do you remember the first time we met?"
"Yeah, of-course I do remember, how could I forget that moment of my life." she replied.
FLASHBACK:
Few years back when Young-soo was sixteen years of age. He used to go swimming practice at the weekends in one of the private indoor swimming pools to improve his swimming techniques to participate in the inter school competition. One day while he was practicing hard alone in the pool, he got leg cramp for the first time while practicing the butterfly stokes, and he struggled to get away from the pool but he couldn't.
As he saw a girl walking on the deck surface, he quickly bobbed his head up and down, and reached his arms up and down of the water signaling that he was in trouble. The girl saw him struggling in the pool with panic movement, and he was drowning. She quickly mustered up her courage to help him so she jumped in the pool to rescue him. She swam near to him and went behind him. She grabbed the underneath of his arms, used her legs to kick, and took him out of the pool.
She made him lie down flat on his back on the deck surface. As she saw him lie down unconsciously she was panicked and rushed to call some adults for the help. Within two minutes she brought her swimming instructor and the rescue operators. The rescue operators performed CRP to Young-soo. As he got back his consciousness she breathed in relief and smiled at him with worried expression of her face.
Young-soo thanked the rescue operators and the swimming instructor for saving his life. The swimming instructor asked Young-soo to show his gratitude first to the girl, who saved him, "she just took you out from the pool when you were in the panicked movement in the pool."
Young-soo lifted his head and looked at her. She gave him a smile mixed with worried expression. "Words can't describe that how much thankful I'm to you anyways thank you so much for saving my life."
He stood up and outstretched his hand to her to do the handshake, "my name is Lee Young-soo, and I'm a first year high school student."
She shook her hand with him, and introduced herself, "my name is Cha Hyejin, nice to meet you, and I'm also a first year high school student."
Cha Hyejin was also a sixteen year old girl; recently she's joined as a weekend part-time worker in the swimming pool for the pocket money. She's very ambitious, sincere, hardworking and a lovable girl. Her ambition is to become a professional swimmer, she wanted to represent her country in the Olympics, and win a gold medal for her nation.