Chapter 08: Thirty Days

There is silence. 

And then there is another silence. 

Sometimes it is like this. A silence that conveys nothing. Yet conveys everything. Because Jin Ho could understand the silence. Could understand what Na Eun is doing amidst the silence

Na Eun seems to be thinking of something.

It is something that happened to her in the past and it is about him and because of this memory, for a moment she did not say anything

On the other end of the line, Jin Ho seems to be waiting for her answer. The silence seems long….

'Let's meet at the café near your house' he then said.

'Unh. Nine'

'Unh' she replied back. 

And after a few second, Jin Ho ended the call. Na Eun slowly put her phone back into her pocket and sighed.

She then looks forward and saw that the open road in front of the building had already had some snow falling down on it.

'Everything is over' she thought to herself. And then she closes her eyes, feeling the cold winter wind blowing across her and then she sighed as she opens back her eyes.

She looks at her watch and knows that she had some time before she had to meet him. 

She then walks to the open space and go to the parking space and quickly drive her car to her house 

Not before long, it was already near 8.30 pm and after getting ready she went to the café. When she arrived there, she saw that Jin Ho is already inside the café and he seems to be waiting for her.

She walks in and then sat on the table, looking at each other. There is one cup of coffee and a milk tea on the table.

Jin Ho then said 

'I know you like your coffee hot'

Na Eun only smiles at this and nodded

Then for a moment there is only silence. They stay on the more secluded spots. Knowing Jin Ho, this café might also be one of his properties

Or maybe the one in charge of this café is someone who have relation with Jaeil group or one of his business subordinates. 

After all, the few tables around them were emptied. 

While Jin Ho never revealed all of his holdings and properties, after spending a long time with Jin Ho she notices some things when they are hanging out together

Most of the time, the places they go is always not crowded. At first it is not that weird but after a while, Na Eun obviously think that this has something to do with Jin Ho

'What did you do? Rent the entire place?' she said while taking a sip of the coffee.

Jin Ho shakes his head and spoke

'Only to cordon this area'

Na Eun only smiles bitterly at this. 

'I forgot you rich you are'

Jin Ho smiles and simply said

'I take that as a compliment' 

She put her cup down. The atmosphere between them is pretty weird. But Na Eun did not show it and neither does Jin Ho.

The café is playing love song on the radio. Outside, the cold wind blows. The heat of the coffee rises up into the air. 

Today, for some reason she could not look Jin Ho right at his face. Because if she looks up and saw his face, she fears that her mind would be thinking of something else. 

She would wonder where is the part that she had kisses him and where is the part that he had kissed her.

She would not be able to maintain her calm. 

Instead, what she asks was

'You said you want to talk?'

Jin Ho nodded.

He then put two of his fingers below her chin and push her face up. The sudden move shocks Na Eun. 

This is not the first time he did this. But for some reason this time, it felt different. There was something about it that just made her heart leap.

'Na Eun, look at me'

Na Eun looks at him. There is a smile on his face and he release his fingers

Na Eun then asks

'What do you want to talk about?'

'Us'

Na Eun halted for a second

'What about us?' 

Jin Ho closes his eyes for a second. He then opened it and then said

'What are we?'

'We're friends'

'Even after last night?'

'What more could we be?' she said. 

Na Eun seems to remember that day six years ago, on the same Valentine Day, in a cold winter night

'Something happened' he said. Another silence appears in the space between them

'Do you remember it?' she suddenly asks

Jin Ho shakes his head

'I also don't remember it' she said almost a beat later

Jin Ho could not help but scoff

'So, if we don't remember it, it means nothing?'

Na Eun did not answer but take a sip of her coffee. Jin Ho shakes her head

'Something happened last night. I don't know what but I am sure that it must be something. It might be something you did or it might be something I said or did that make us that way'

Na Eun smiles bitterly. 

'Then what should we do now? Be a couple again? Don't be ridiculous' she said as she got up, grabbing her bag. And she was already turning to go out from the café.

Jin Ho got up, grabs her wrist and stop her from leaving. She turns to look at him and he was looking at her with that gaze.

That gaze she once saw on him when she was in her teenage years. When they were together. When they were….in love

That unshakable eye

He then said 

'Date me for thirty days' 

'And then decide whether that is ridiculous or not'

And hear heart flutters

The snow falls silently outside the café. 

…

2012

Sitting outside, he looks at that window. And he sighed. And he goes away. He returns to his home. 

That dreary home.

The room is dark. The room is like his life. 

He could see nothing in front of his life. Outside, the world is getting colder. It would not be long before winter. 

He sighed. He shakes his head. He laughs. 

He did not know what to do with his life. So, he hung that rope toward that ceiling. He just saw her from a distance. 

And he engrave that woman visage into his eyes. He had many bad memories. But at least before he leave this world, he wanted one good memory

And she is his one good memory. 

And he close his eyes. 

'It feels surprisingly normal' Jin Ho thought that when you decide to take his own life, he would feel some kind of feeling. He does not know about others. 

But he thought he would feel different

But he could not help but think like this is like any other day. If there is a difference it is that he would take his life today.

That after today he would not exist. Yet, he still wanted to eat noodles and chicken. He does not have much money but he could afford to order noodles and fried chicken. 

At least, he wanted to eat his last supper. Even killers get their last meal. Why should he not? So, he orders a noodles and friend chicken.

 He waits for another fifteen minutes and then his delivery arrived. 

He eats it. He eats it calmly unlike his usual demeanor. In the past, he would eat it voraciously like he has no time left.

It is surprising that a change of mindsets would change his behavior. 

Since he knows that his life would end today, every second, every moment, even the most mundane moment, mundane second, meaningless seconds and moments, each and every moment felt slow, felt precious and beautiful 

"Because it ends. So, it is beautiful" he smiles bitterly when thinking of this. He drinks and eat below the hanging rope. 

Outside, rain started falling all of sudden. Jin Ho look outside the window and scoff. He finish his noodle and fried chicken. 

And then he washes it. He cleans his room. He cleans his small living room. And after he look around, everything is clean. 

He lives alone. In a small house. In a small area. Hence when he dies, someone would probably not know about it until a few days. His body would be rotten by then. At least his house would be clean. 

And the people only need to clean his body. 

It is morbid. Then after finishing all of this, he brought a chair. He looks at the chair and the hanging rope and nodded

"It would be painful right?"

He then got up on the chair. He put his neck near the hanging rope. And close his eyes. And in that moment, there is faces flashes through his mind. 

Surprisingly there is not many. And then he put his neck into the rope. He kicks the chair and then the rope choke shim. He felt pain almost immediately. 

And he sees hallucination. Maybe because of the lack of oxygen. And in that moment, suddenly thunder flashed. 

BOOOM!

The entire building lost electricity. 

THUD

The sound of the chair fell first. A shaking sound of the thunder follows after. And then there is another thud sound. 

But before the thud sound, there is the sound of a window being broken

On the floor of Jin Ho house there is the chair. There is the rope. And there is Jin Ho. The rope is burnt on the ends of it. 

The most nonsensical thing happen to him. And Jin Ho look at the rope. Even though there is no electricity right now., the lightning outside provided light

And he could see it. There is signs of burning on the rope. 

"What nonsensical thing" he thought to himself. The lightning burns his hanging rope. 

'How many times that this has happened before?' he thought to himself. But tonight, he is determined to kill himself. But then his phone shakes. Like an alarm 

And then he looks at his phone. And when he looks at it, he shakes his head

"What the hell?"

That night, life changes for Jin Ho. 

A lightning struck him and a bolt of goof luck fell into his lap. 

The life of Jin Ho is alternating luck and misfortune. But since that night, all of his years all become a life full of luck and fortune. 

…..