𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐒 | 𝐊- 𝐏𝐎𝐏

𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝗈𝗇𝖾 𝗁𝗎𝗇𝖽𝗋𝖾𝖽 𝗌𝗂𝗑𝗍𝗒 𝖿𝗈𝗎𝗋

Chapter 45: Goodbye

Taehyung looks up at Jin, the tears streaming down his face. Jin watches him closely, knowing that he's right.

"Oh God, what have I done?!" he asks, almost too loudly and the baby stirs in Jin's arms. Taehyung shakes his head as Jin turns to rock the baby, soothing him. "I'm sorry Hyung, you're right. I have to find her. I have to apologize." Jin smiles up at him.

"It's only 4:30am. I think you should wait until the morning." Jin tells him, placing his son back into the cot next to Jangmi's bedside. He turns to him. Taehyung shakes his head.

"She will have to work at the school in the morning. I need to see her before she leaves for work."

"Taehyung, it's Saturday. She won't be at work." Taehyung looks at him surprised and confused.

"What day?"

"Saturday. It's the 23rd," Jin answers. Taehyung's eyes grow wide.

"I know where she will be." He turns to rush out of the room, but turns back, grabbing Jin's hand, clasping it with both of his and bowing. "Thank you Hyung, thank you. Please give Jangmi my love, tell her the flowers are for her." He turns back to the doorway, grabbing his jacket from the chair.

"Does that mean the balloon is for me?" he calls after him, laughing at his own joke. Taehyung runs out of the doorway, disappearing down the hall and Jin turns back to his sleeping son, and his sleeping wife, and he smiles, contented.

***

Taehyung checks his watch as he rushes through the hospital lobby. He stops at the window of the gift shop and looks back in. He leans through the doorway and calls to the sleepy shop keeper.

"Do you have any pink roses?" She shakes her head 'no' and he bows and leans back out, resuming his dash toward the main exit. He rushes to the dark parking lot, unlocking his car and starting it remotely before he's even rounded the corner. He gets in.

"Clova, what time does the sun rise today?" he calls out to the digital assistant. A tone sounds and then it responds with a soothing computerized voice.

"The sun will rise at 5:35am."

"Clova, where is the closest flower shop open now?"

He puts the car in reverse and backs out of his parking spot quickly, his tires screeching as he throws the car into drive and peels off.

***

Hana sits in the back of the taxi clutching a bundle to her chest tightly. It's still very dark outside, but she can see a little orange on the horizon in the distance and she knows she hasn't much time until she needs to say her final goodbye. Her fingers slide under the fabric of the scarf wrapped around it and touch the cold surface of the urn holding what is left of her Grandfather.

"I don't think the park will be open until 6," her taxi driver calls back to her as he pulls onto the normally busy street surrounding the park. She shakes her head.

"It's fine, just drop me in front," she tells him. She hasn't been to the park before. She didn't have the courage to visit it when she moved to Seoul because of what it represented to her; his final resting place. The taxi pulls up at a park entrance and the driver looks around. The street hasn't woken up yet and it sits quiet and still in the darkness.

"You're sure?" he turns to look at her. She nods.

"Thank you." She hands him money and gathers her things together, stepping out onto the pavement. She shuts the car door, hearing the sound echo in the quiet space and turns to look at the entrance to the park and the heavy gate. She is aware that it isn't open, but, also aware that she needs to be in the park at sunrise as she planned, and if she has to climb the wall, she will.

She steps up to the tall brown door with the green wooden slats and pushes against it, finding it unlocked. She smiles up at it as it swing open, making a loud creaking noise. She sighs, feeling relieved, feeling almost as if her Grandfather made sure it would open to her. She steps through the door, leaving it ajar, and looks through the dark pathways, trying to decide where the pavilion is. In the spilled light from the city all around, she can make out a dark structure straight ahead and she walks towards it, cradling her bundle safely in her arms. As she gets closer, the large pavilion rises up before her and she walks directly to the stone steps that encircle it. She looks at the space, imagining what it was like in the 1950's, when her Grandfather would have been visiting, and spotted a young girl quietly eating her lunch on the steps. She smiles to herself, and then she thinks of Taehyung, and her head lowers.

'Why did it have to be his Grandmother?' she asks out loud, to no one in particular; to the sky, the stars, to whatever force is beyond. She wipes a tear from her eye and looks down into her arms, focusing on her grave task. She sets the little urn down on the top step, unwrapping the scarf she carried it in, and reaches into her pocket to retrieve the photograph of her Grandfather and Hyunsook. She places it against the base of the urn under the inscription and she smiles at the image. She sits down next to it as she looks around her at the empty vista of the little park.

'Is this where you saw her Grandpa? For the first time? Was she sitting here, waiting to meet you?' She feels a chill in the early morning air and shudders a little. She pulls her dark jacket around herself for warmth and she looks back up at the stars, just starting to fade with the coming light.

'I wonder if you ever wanted to come back and look for her. Maybe you did after Grandma died. But maybe you had me to take care of and you couldn't.' She frowns at the idea, and bites her lip to distract her from the tears welling up in her eyes. She drops her head into her hands as she sits on the cold steps next to the urn.

'Did you ever truly get to 'live to the point of tears?' she asks, her eyes filling. 'Because I did, for a little while anyway.' She half smiles through her tears.