Start Again

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Audrey

Audrey,

Long time, no talk. How are you?

I miss you. It's been lonely here without you. Not much has changed since you left. Everyone is still the same.

How is it in Korea? Are the people nice? Have you met anyone yet?

I'm sorry I was such a bad friend when you were still in Australia. I should have been there for you. You were my friend first. Adam has been a real jerk lately. He's become quite the... play boy. I've lost all respect for him. You were right about him.

I hope we can still talk and be friends.

From,

Jessica

I stared at the email that morning, my heart pounding in my chest. It had been so long since I had heard any news about Adam, let alone Jessica. I enjoyed my months without social media. I enjoyed not knowing what he was up to.

Putting my phone down, I climbed out of bed and got ready for my class.

The day passed quickly. I couldn't focus during the lesson. I couldn't stop thinking about Jessica contacting me. Why was she regretting it now? Why could she not have been there for me when I asked her in the first place? She was my best friend for so long and we lost contact all over Adam. All over her wanting to stay his friend.

When I got home that afternoon, I opened my email and typed a response.

Hi Jessica,

It has been a long time. I must say, I never thought I'd hear from you again. You're a bit late in trying to reach out, but I appreciate it. Maybe we can rekindle our friendship, but we can never hang out like we used to. Those times are gone.

As for Korea, I love it here. I've made some really great friends and I am currently seeing someone. He's five years older than me and I don't get along with his parents at all. But he gets me. He's completely different to Adam. Even putting them in the same sentence is wrong. He's the reason I went to Korea. He's the more in my life I was searching for: proof that there is still hope. Proof that there are genuinely good people still in this world.

Sorry if that sounds rude to you, but you weren't a great friend. I'm willing to give this another chance though.

How's life in Australia? How's university?

Please don't ever inform me about Adam again. I've moved on from that. Our lives are separate now and I don't want to ever know about his existence again.

From,

Audrey

*

The days began to fly by quickly. Faster than I knew, I was sitting my end-of-semester exams.

For once in my life, things were going smoothly. I felt happy. I'd wake up and enjoy my talks with Hye Ri. Every Wednesday night I met with Do Yun for English tutoring. Every other day I saw Joon Soo. Albeit, he was getting busier these days, training his replacement. He had handed in his resignation and agreed to stay until the end of this issue, which ended in one more week. Then he was finished. On the other hand, his friend's place was close to the uni, so he had more time. He often dropped around to join us for dinner.

The peace in it all was comforting. My life had been an endless pile of stress after stress. Yet, for some reason, the comfort made me nervous. I was so used to drama, that simplicity seemed odd. Just a tired expression from Joon Soo had me wondering if perhaps he was rethinking our relationship. Then not long after, he'd complain about being up late, editing articles, and my worries would brush away. Despite knowing I was worrying for no reason, I was still nervous.