Sunday, March 05, 2006 @9:06 PM
The school had not changed one bit. Save for its derelict state, everything was exactly the same as Soojung had left it, five years ago.
As she entered the classroom, she could feel his presence, even detect a faint whiff of his unique lavender scent.
The classroom seemed so small now. The square blue desks, which had been vandalized countless of times, together with the old plastic hairs, several of them missing a leg or two; they were all paraphernelia of her past.
Soojung ran her hand over the blackboard, worn smooth with repeated use. Picking up a tiny stump of chalk, she began to scrawl across the board.
"I promise to wash my shoes."
"I will not cheat during Math tests again."
"I will not fight with my classmates anymore."
"I love Halu."
"I love Halu."
"I love Hal----"
The chalk fell to the dirty cement floor, breaking into tiny fragments, as a tiny cloud of white dust floated up towards Soojung.
She felt very much like an intruder as she treaded down the last aisle, right to the back of the classroom. She remembered vividly where the writings were. Pausing at the second last table of the last row, she eased herself into the small chair. This had been her seat. Halu had sat just behind her. It had been perfect for sleeping during boring lessons, or gazing out into the forest next to the school, daydreaming. Turning to the strip of wall next to her desk, the merest of smiles lit up Soojung's face as she found what she was looking for.
In faint blue ink, eternally faded into the wall, were the words, scrawled in childish handwriting,
"Halu sucks. >__<"
Right below that declaration however, in the minutest of inscriptions possible, was a paradoxical sentence,
"I love him."
As she got up from her seat, Soojung turned around, and as she sat down in Halu's seat, the tears started pouring forth, unstoppable, a torrent of grief and memories intermingling.
Bittersweet.
"Halu, Halu I miss you. I miss you and I wish you'd come back. Halu..."
And in that instant, for the briefest of moments, Soojung felt him next to her, all around her. He was laughing... he was sticking his tongue out, his eyes were dancing... His hair, tousled and obscuring his vision... His tall, lanky frame enscased in his messy, rumpled uniform... His mouth uttering her name.
"Soojungie!"
And then he was gone. Where do we go from here?
