| Fan Fiction |
by shattered teardrops
“That day… You asked me why I didn’t go, right? Well… I don’t really believe in happy endings.” He and Ga Eul were sitting side by side outside Yi Jung’s car after he and Ga Eul drove off from Jun Pyo’s curtailed wedding. They drove off somewhere remote, somewhere near the same garden of yellow flowers where they had their talk. Yi Jung’s expression was grim as looked at the view of the ocean in front of them.
At first, Ga Eul had been crying out of admiration for Jae Kyung’s bold move to personally stop her wedding with Jun Pyo. Ga Eul realized that Jae Kyung was in fact a true friend to Jan Di. And this really touched Ga Eul’s heart to the point where she shed tears of happiness and admiration. After a while, she began to relax and
Ga Eul nodded. “I want to know why you turned her away when she was ready to tell you about her feelings… You turned her away even though you loved her…” She replied in a soft and calm voice. Although Ga Eul knew that what she was about to hear would break her heart, she decided to listen to Yi Jung anyway. If this is one way of being able to understand and share Yi Jung’s inner torments, she’d be willing to endure it.
“I was… doing the usual thing that night. I came home with two girls from the bar. I found Eun Jae waiting for me by my work shop. She told me she wanted to ask a favor from me. She handed me a letter and left… That same night, I nonchalantly placed that letter by the mini bar and chose to entertain my guests. I remember suddenly receiving a call from my Mother…” Yi Jung’s face darkened. “My family had always been a source of resentment for me… I lost control of myself and spilled the drinks… I guess I forgot about Eun Jae’s letter then… I never knew what favor she wanted from me…” He narrated.
“Sunbae… Even though it’s years too late… Aren’t you curious about what favor did she want from you?” Ga Eul asked.
“I try not to think about it anymore… It’s already a thing of the past. Eun Jae seems happy now and that’s what’s important, isn’t it?” He replied, looking at a distance as if lost in his own trail of thoughts. It was true. He saw it with his own two eyes. Eun Jae was smiling in his brother’s company. She seemed to have found the person who could make her happy.
Ga Eul huffed with a disappointed expression on her face. Truly, she was disappointed with Yi Jung’s reason for taking Eun Jae for granted. No wonder he wasn’t able to find a decent girl to settle with all these years. “Well, I think there’s a lesson you need to learn here.” She said with an unperturbed expression of determination.
“Mworagu? What lesson?” He asked.
“Regret. Taking something for granted and regretting it years later.” Ga Eul smiled. “Some things… Well, some of them happen only once in a life time… And if you take them for granted, you’ll forever regret it… You have to learn this lesson, Sunbae…” She said mysteriously. Truth be told, Ga Eul already knew what Eun Jae was about to show Yi Jung that day. She simply decided to listen to his own version of the story. And she was really disappointed in him.
Yi Jung smiled. “That was deep. Where did you get it?” He asked jokingly, trying to lighten their conversation.
“Yah… That was all original you know!” She conceded and smiled. “I’m just glad that Jan Di and Jun Pyo are settled for now… I wonder what they’re doing…” She thought out loud. Originally, she had been worried over Jan Di’s situation as the Bride’s maid at the wedding but now that Jae Kyung has backed out of the wedding, she somehow felt relieved.
Yi Jung sighed. “Well, I already gave Jun Pyo some advice about these sorts of things. Jae Kyung seemed to have had her bodyguard prepare something as well. If everything goes according to plan, Jun Pyo’s mother may have to get ready for a grandchild soon…” Yi Jung smiled as if he just said something really, really clever. But this only earned him Ga Eul’s scowl.
“Grandchild?! Yah! Sunbae, what did you tell Jun Pyo this time?” Ga Eul sounded alarmed and flustered at the same time. How could Yi Jung urge his friend to do something like THAT. Jan Di was only in high school as well!
“Nothing much…” Yi Jung stood up and went towards the driver’s seat. “Just tricks involving ropes and bed posts… Jan Di isn’t exactly an easy girl to deal with. I told Jun Pyo to make sure.” He chuckled and entered his car. He just loved seeing Ga Eul’s flustered expression as he teased. It was simply priceless.
“Sunbae!” Ga Eul bellowed both flustered and surprised.
-oOo-
The next few days have been extremely pleasant although Jan Di had to find another place to live in. She ended up living with Ji Hoo as she was easily dragged away by Ji Hoo’s Grandfather to live with him. Since she could not refuse and Ji Hoo’s Grandfather would not accept a ‘Np’, Jan Di had no choice but to live with them. Ga Eul would have wanted Jan Di to live with them since Kang San was no longer with Jan Di, but it seemed that Jan Di was hesitant because she was worried that Ga Eul’s family might also be affected with her fight against Jun Pyo’s mom. After all, that woman would stop at nothing to get rid of Jan Di.
On the other hand, after getting back from Jeju Island, Yi Jung realized that his hand was no longer capable of creating beautiful pieces like it used to. It was no longer the same flawless hand he had. It had been broken and rendered useless. He realized that he could no longer be the same master potter that he had been months ago.
Sitting alone inside his work shop with the lights all turned off, he could not help but remember how Ga Eul forcefully insisted that she would not let him stop his craft. Yi Jung smiled at the thought. Ga Eul was indeed naïve and headstrong. What would a potter do if his hand was already useless? Of course, he’s stop being a potter, right? But Ga Eul… She refused to let him give up.
“In order to make your heart strong so that it won’t easily be broken… You said it had to be turned upside down, be trampled and it must withstand the heat inside the kiln… It’s not over yet… You haven’t done everything yet… You still can’t say it’s over… This hand… I will make it work again…”
Her words lay etched inside his memory forever. The way she spoke, the way her eyes sparked with determination, the way she held his hand, even her touch. They were all forever in his memory. The one woman who did not give up on him… Chu Ga Eul… But somehow, having her… Would her determination be enough?
It had been a few days since Ga Eul talked to Yi Jung. She had told him at Jeju Island that she was out to teach him a lesson about regret. She also told him that’s she would do everything in her power to make his hands move again. And she wasn’t bluffing. At first she didn’t know what ought to be done… But she realized that if she wanted Yi Jung to experience regret, she would have to show him how he took the only woman he loved for granted. It was the best example…
And so, Ga Eul began her quest to find that which Eun Jae had wanted to show Yi Jung on Valentine’s Day, three years ago. Every night, Ga Eul would check out one building at a time and stay at the rooftop until sunrise. With a small notebook at hand and a bottle of water, Ga Eul did her best. Apparently, this took a toll on her health as she grew paler and weaker each day. She had been lacking rest but since she vowed to make teach the Casanova a lesson, she wasn’t going to easily give up.
“Sunbae!” Ga Eul was sweating heavily and even panting when she went to see Yi Jung.
“Ga Eul…” Concerned and deeply worried over her seemingly weak physical condition, Yi Jung immediately assisted her as she entered. Ga Eul honestly looked like she was going to collapse anytime sooner so Yi Jung had to support her.
“Yi Jung-sunbae… I finally found it…” She breathlessly said.
“What?”
“I said I finally found it…”
Hand in hand and although Ga Eul was tired, she bravely took Yi Jung’s hand in hers and brought her to one of the tallest buildings in Seoul. Of course, her sudden arrival and somehow suspicious demeanor made Yi Jung wonder what she was up to but he decided that he would watch. They stayed by the building’s rooftop until the wee hours of the morning. Ga Eul told him to wait as she was about to show him something that will only happen briefly.
After a few hours of wait, Ga Eul finally stood up with a smile on her face. She took his hand in his and led her to watch the direction where the sun rose. Although a bit doubtful, Yi Jung silently conceded with her. She looked at her watch and stood a step behind him, only to cover his eyes with both her hands.
Ga Eul slowly lifted her hands which covered Yi Jung’s eyes. It was time for him to know what Eun Jae had wanted to show him on Valentine’s Day three years ago. Although it’s three years late, Ga Eul didn’t Yi Jung to stop and wonder what could have happened if he came to Eun Jae’s invitation. This is the last step for Yi Jung to finally move on. And Ga Eul wanted him to face it bravely.
As the sun slowly rose up the horizon, its light somehow blinded Yi Jung. However, this wasn’t what caught his attention. It was the adjacent billboards in front of them. As soon as the sun rose up, its light somehow managed to hide a portion of the billboard and for a few minutes, those two billboards stood together in a simple message of love.
“I love you Yi Jung.”
It took Yi Jung a few seconds to recognize what Ga Eul had done. He slowly felt his chest tightening as he continued to stare by the billboards. A swarm of emotions suddenly overwhelmed his chest with such precision that he did not know what to expect or what to feel. Yi Jung was dumbfounded.
“That day… The sunrise was at 7 AM…” Ga Eul narrated. “This message… was only visible at sunrise for a few seconds…”
Yi Jung’s hand slowly crept up to his chest as he felt searing pain. His eyes were slowly filled with tears. His expression was in deep pain and much sadness. The Casanova, So Yi Jung… was in fact crying. He was cryingin agony for a woman. And the very feeling that was evading his chest other than sadness… was deep remorse… Regret. Just like what Ga Eul had told him.
Tears slowly fell down one after another as Yi Jung was lost in an uncontrollable swarm of emotions. “Stupid…” He whispered. He had been very stupid. “Even if you best knew how stupid I could get… You still… gave me this difficult situation… What was I ought to do?!” Yi Jung shouted as if he was back in time, talking to Eun Jae. But in truth, he knew that he made one of the biggest mistakes in his life.
Regret. He knew it perfectly now. He knew it by heart.
Standing beside him, Ga Eul could feel her own heart breaking. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to reach out her hand to him and comfort him. She wanted to give him her shoulder to cry on. But she knew that Yi Jung was only experiencing the heat inside the kiln. To become a better person, he must endure this on his own. And although she has shown him what regret it, he still has to surpass it by himself.
To Be Continued…
- - - - - - - - - -Preview of Chapter Twenty-Eight:
‘Ga Eul… You’ve come this far… Are you backing out now?’ She thought to herself before proceeding to enter through the door of Yi Jung’s work shop. Once inside, she was surprised to have seen a bare-footed Casanova as he tried to mould clay with his foot on the floor. With a puzzled expression on her face, Ga Eul stared at the Casanova.
Yi Jung, seeing that Ga Eul had made no action to say anything, decided to speak first instead. “I have both good news and a bad news. Which do you want to hear first?” He asked, still thumping his feet on the semi-wet clay laid out on the floor.
Ga Eul still didn’t say anything. She was too surprised to see Yi Jung working with clay again to even bother asking him.
-oOo-
a/n: Mianhae, everyone… The reason I have not updated earlier was because I downloaded the whole BBF episodes in order to keep track with the Soeul Scenes. I had to re-watch the soeul scenes in the final episodes of BBF because I wanted to capture everything and write it down in detail. The frustrating almost kiss-scene would be in the next chapter… :)
-oOo-
Date Written: May 13, ‘09
Date Posted: May13, ‘09