11 Il Hwa's memorial day

"I'll be meeting my family soon?" asked Il Hwa while sitting on Jaeho's bed. While watching Jaeho fixing his black necktie in front of his mirror. Today was actually her memorial day. Therefore, her family had texted Jaeho last night that they'll be meeting him at the memorial park.

"Yeah… what's wrong?" asked Jaeho "Aren't you happy?" asked Jaeho as he sat next to her. Il Hwa shook her head as she gave him her dry smiles. "It's not that I'm not happy…" said Il Hwa as she paused for a while. "I'm kinda nervous and at the same time I'm afraid I will cry because it's been so long…" said Il Hwa.

"They must be so happy if they know that you'll be there too…" said Jaeho softly as he brought her near him and caressed her arms gently. "It'll be okay… I promise." Said Jaeho.

***

As soon as they reached the memorial park, Jaeho noticed that Il Hwa's parents has arrived. Jaeho unbuckled his seatbelt and notice that Il Hwa hasn't said anything ever since they went out from their house. "I don't think I'll be able to go there and see my own grave…" said Il Hwa while looking at Jaeho with tears pooling in her eyes. "It makes me feel like I'm really gone in this life…" said Il Hwa.

"I don't think I am strong enough to watch my parents cry in front of my own grave…" added Il Hwa as tears escaped her eyes. Jaeho who couldn't see his lover cried in front of him, he straight away hugged her tightly. "I'll be there standing next to you. I promise, it will be okay." Said Jaeho softly. As he too, till now couldn't believe that she's gone. But to know this time, she is next to him, it feels so unreal.

Both of them were walking side by side while holding hands. Il Hwa was holding his hands tightly. After a few minutes of walking, they have arrived in front of her tomb. Both of them noticed that her parents are placing flowers and pray in front of her grave.

"Mom, dad…" called Il Hwa as she went near them with tears streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry I left you both… I'm really sorry…" said Il Hwa. She wanted to hug them, but she can't.

"Dear god, we pray that Il Hwa is happy up there." Prayed Mr. Choi. "Il Hwa-ah, mom and dad are fine now… but we missed you so much my dear…" said Mrs. Choi as tears escaped her eyes.

Il Hwa was watching and listening to the prayers made by their parents. Then, Jaeho place the flower that he bought just now while they were on their way next to her parents flowers that they placed just now. Jaeho prayed in silence, making Il Hwa curious to know what he had prayed for her.

Right after it ended, all of them left the cemetery and have a small talk at the parking lot. "How are you doing now, son?" asked Mr. Choi.

"Was the house alright?" asked Mrs. Choi and Jaeho nodded. "Yeah, the house was good and I'm fine now… feeling better than I deserved right after I moved in." answered Jaeho. "Thank you very much for letting me stay there Mr. and Mrs. Choi." Said Jaeho and bowed slightly to show his politeness.

"That's okay son… if not, we have thought of selling the house… we're having so much trouble to accept the fact that our daughter has gone… Mrs. Choi kept on crying every night… so I thought we should move to a new place and start a new life…" said Mr. Choi.

Il Hwa who was there, listening to their conversation. "Thank you dad for not selling the house.. If not, I wouldn't be able to meet Jaeho again…" said Il Hwa as she hook her arms on Jaeho's arms.

"Do you… perhaps have seen the white door?" asked Mrs. Choi suddenly.

"Oh yeah, about that… I'm sorry because I've seen what's inside… that day the door was slightly opened and I got curious and saw it… I'm really sorry…" said Jaeho.

"That's okay… we're about to tell you that's Il Hwa's room… we told you not to see it because that time you still can't remember who she is… now that your parents told us you remember about her, we were so glad to hear it… because you both love each other so much…" said Mrs. Choi and that made Il Hwa's blushed.

"Mom… you don't have to say that~" said Il Hwa and that made Jaeho chuckled.

Then, they talked for a few more minutes before they bid a goodbye. It was hard for Il Hwa to say goodbye to her parents and she doesn't even know when she can see them again. Right after they bid a goodbye, Jaeho decided to have dinner outside.

"What do you want for dinner?" asked Jaeho while driving.

"I don't know… you choose." Said Il Hwa.

"How about… the chicken restaurant that we used to go before?" asked Jaeho and Il Hwa widened her eyes in surprised. "Are you serious? Oh my god, I missed that place a lot!" exclaimed Il Hwa and Jaeho found her cute. "Okay then, to the chicken restaurant we go~" said Jaeho as he drives away.

Once they've reached the chicken restaurant, Jaeho ordered the menu that they've always ordered. Right after he's done, he noticed that Il Hwa was looking at the surroundings with a smile plastered on her face. "Remember that we used to sit here, am I right?" asked Jaeho and Il Hwa nodded with a smile.

"Of course. Back then whenever I'm hungry, right after class ended we would be here~" answered Il Hwa.

"And sometimes Saeron and Hyukjin would suddenly join us and disturbing our date~" said Jaeho and Il Hwa nodded.

"Yeah… those days… those happy moments…" said Il Hwa and gave him her dry smiles, remembering those old moments of them before she died. But now, she can't do all those things normally like how she used to. She missed all of it. And to know that she only less than a month left, she feel sad about it.

"What's wrong?" asked Jaeho when he noticed that Il Hwa was quiet for a while. Il Hwa who heard him, shook her head.

"Nothing… just thinking~" answered Il Hwa.

"About what?" asked Jaeho as he took a sip of his coke.

"What if, I'm leaving soon?" asked Il Hwa suddenly and that made Jaeho stopped sipping his coke.

"Y-you're leaving soon?" asked Jaeho "N-no, I mean, if I'm gonna leave later, how do you feel?" said Il Hwa. "you know that I'm still here for a reason and also you're the only one that can see me… so, once we've known and solve the case on how I died and who is the one who planned all of this, sooner or later, I'll be leaving…" explained Il Hwa.

Jaeho was silent for a while thinking about what she had just said. It's true, he did know that all of this is just a temporary. Sooner or later, he knows that Il Hwa will be gone and he will never get to see her again.

"Jaeho?" called Il Hwa.

"I will spend my time every day with you." Answered Jaeho. "Before this, the way you left me, it was too sudden… if you know what had happened to me, I'm not sure whether you'll be okay or not… I was depressed. I was feeling down almost every day. I couldn't accept the fact that you're gone till I went to a place where I last saw you almost every day too. I remembered how the truck hit you and I blamed myself for not being able to save you. I regretted." Said Jaeho.

Without they realized, tears has been pooling in their eyes. "One day, I had a vision of you suddenly calling me on that road. I crossed it without any thinking. Therefore, I got hit by a car and I had a concussion that made me lose some of my memories…" explained Jaeho.

Then, he took Il Hwa's hand and hold it, not wanting to let her go. "So, if you're leaving soon, I'll make sure to spend my days with you. I would buy you things that you want, places that you wanna go and everything. I don't want to leave any regrets. So Il Hwa, please. I hope you won't leave me like last time... I beg you… I love you so much…" said Jaeho as he kissed her hands.

Il Hwa who was listening to what Jaeho had said, couldn't believe that he has to go through all of that. Never would she have thought that he was suffering.

"I promise, I won't let you suffer like how you were before and I'll make sure that we both would only have happy memories." Said Il Hwa with a smile as tears escaped her eyes.