Ibuki returned home to find his mother back. He hugged her and asked how she felt. She nodded to let him know she was doing well. That night, Ibuki slept peacefully, embedded in dreams that extended beyond his conscious into his subconscious desires for freedom, joy, love, and success. After the events of the day, he felt more confident in himself. He felt all he needed to fulfil his dreams was to work hard and never stop believing. However, the one thing he always failed at was his never-ending escape attempts from the cages of his harrowing memories of his father's death. These memories were like mountains surrounding Ibuki's heart, letting none in and letting none out. They were heights that could not be scaled, heights that seemed endless, stretching outwith the skies.
And so, a dull morning arrived. With the morning arrived a day that Ibuki detested. Of all the days in the year and, more specifically, all the days of June, this very day was the most forgettable day for Ibuki. It had been so since his father passed away, leaving him with shattered dreams he could never fix again. Ibuki had struggled to turn this day into one of many days that would pass, coming and leaving in the blink of an eye. But he kept failing, for this was one day that stretched beyond infinity, reminding him of his harsh memories again and again. What if he could stop his father from taking his life? What would be different? Maybe the anxiety and stress of his father would pass on to Ibuki. But then the same happened even after he ended his life. Ibuki considered what had happened to be for the overall good. Yet, he could not control his feelings of despair and frustration, sinking into an immense wave of anxiety and anger.
Despite the day being as it had been for years, it still felt different. Ibuki woke up without realising what day it was. He blissfully went to have breakfast until his eyes fell upon the torn calendar hanging from the wall. All his joy faded that moment, and he directed himself out of the house. He went to the tiny shop Rui had taken him to yesterday. He took a seat and clasped his hands on the table. Thought overtook him, and he got up and left after a while.
Misao was alien to Ibuki's conditions on the day and went to meet him at his house. However, she had to return when she found he wasn't there. She strolled in the park when she saw Joon-Woo. She waved at him, and he waved back. Joon-Woo approached her and bowed, "Thank You!"
Misao smiled, "Ah, enough with acknowledgements. We are friends."
Joon-Woo rose back upright and spoke, "Lovely day to be out."
Misao nodded in agreement.
"The play turned out great."
"Thanks."
The two strolled about the park chatting about school when a black car pulled near them. A man, blonde-haired, formally dressed, stepped out of it and walked up to Misao.
"Miss Park Misao?" he asked.
Misao nodded sceptically, "And you are?"
"I am Ko Chang from Cheongug Pharmaceuticals. Mr Choi wants you to hand this letter to your father, Mr Park Heechul. We intended to do it ourselves; however, we had to be present somewhere urgently and stumbled upon you. Would you hand it over to him?"
Misao agreed and took the letter from Chang. Citing the importance of the letter to Joon-Woo, she bid him goodbye and immediately left for her house. When she arrived, she was met with a familiar laugh. She went in and found Ibuki sitting next to Rui. She smiled, "What are you doing here?"
Ibuki got up and replied, "Came to meet you. You weren't here, so I sat with Rui-shi."
"Ah, drop the honorifics. You can call me Rui," Rui claimed.
Misao giggled and then realised she had to give the letter to her father.
"Hey, brother, where is Father?" she asked.
"Appa should be out," Rui replied.
Misao handed the letter to Rui, explaining the meeting and asked him to give it to their father. Rui nodded and took the letter. Misao took Ibuki with her up to her room.
He sat near the window while Misao rummaged through her dresser, looking for something. She came, sat next to him, and handed a box wrapped in gift paper. Ibuki took it, perplexed, and opened it. Inside was a phone.
"Do you like it?"
Ibuki smiled and hugged Misao, thanking her.
"I will get something to eat. Wait for me." Misao went downstairs to get something.
Ibuki looked at the box and felt happy. However, after a moment, he felt like he did not want to keep the gift.
"Gifts. Yes, I have seen what they did to my father. Gifts ruined him. They will ruin me, too." Ibuki thought to himself and then got up. He kept the box on the table and wrote a note placing it atop the box. Then he left without letting Misao know, and when she came back up, she was confused. She took the note, and it said: "Misao, thank you. But I shall not take it. Gifts are to me like poison that will spread in me slowly and then I will have no choice but to take my own life. I will fall into a pit and keep falling."
Misao sank to her bed, feeling down in the dumps. Why did Ibuki refuse to take the gift?
From there, the day began taking the course of inflicting mountable pain on Ibuki. He locked himself in his room, turning the order of it upside down. He threw things around and kept sobbing.
"Why doesn't this day just end already?! Why?!" he yelled, tearing his things into pieces and sobbing afterwards. He was on his knees, sobbing heavily, when anger took him over, and he blasted out of his room and ran out. His mother tried to call after him, but he paid no heed.
Ibuki kept running without even pausing for a moment to take a breath. His legs, although weak, kept him going in a fit of rage. He began sweating and panting but did not stop. He ran through streets, colliding with a passerby occasionally. But nothing stopped him. Finally, he made his way into the old rusty building that had become to him his only way to freedom from his life. Still engulfed in rage, he rushed upstairs and dashed across the roof to jump.
At the pinnacle of the moment, his rage let go of him, and he realised what he was about to do. His fear took him over, and he tried to stop himself, but it was as if something alien was controlling his body, and he could do nothing. It was too late for him to fight the momentum he had built up. Momentum was no less than God's will, and Ibuki could not go against it. He closed his eyes as the floor beneath disappeared, and he was at the mercy of yet another God's forces. However, reluctant to give hope, in the fraction of a second he was between life and death, he hung onto the former. He held to an iron rod protruding from the walls of the building in a bid to keep himself from falling to death.
He cried out loud in pain as his right hand could not hold its grip and gave way, bleeding heavily. All his fate now hung on either his left hand or his will to live, whichever was the strongest. The hand eventually proved to be the weaker and caved in, but his will did not. Only in a brisk of a moment when his hand let go, he felt someone's hand hold onto him, preventing him from ascending to the heavens.
Ibuki was dragged up to the roof by the person, and when he opened his eyes, he saw a blonde-haired man accompanied by a few more men, seemingly bodyguards of sorts. Ibuki gave a huge sigh before laying himself on the floor.
"You were lucky we passed by. Had we not, you would have died," the man said briskly.
Ibuki gulped his fear down and asked, gasping, "Who.... Who are.... Who are you?"
The man held Ibuki up and replied, "Ko Chang from the Cheongug Pharmaceuticals."
All then from there on, Ibuki remembered barely anything. He was taken to the hospital whilst mainly in a trance state. His head was dizzy, and voices around him seemed bulky than usual. Once he had been admitted and given care, he was left alone for a while to rest.
Ibuki's fits of rage and running away from home were not uncommon occurrences, and his mother and sister were used to them. They knew that even after all of this, he would return home nevertheless. Hence, they generally did not bother looking for him. But if he did not return by his usual time, they would grow concerned. That, however, had not happened. So, today, too, they knew that, expectantly, Ibuki would return. Alas, the unexpected happens when the expected is hoped for.
Ibuki was still in the hospital and, preoccupied with his near-death experience, forgot he had to return home. Although even if he did remember, he would have chosen not to return, for he would have to explain his injury, which he did not want to do. As he sat on the bed looking at the white walls, Chang entered.
"Chang-shi, I did not get to thank you for saving my life. I feel stupid even thinking of taking my life," Ibuki said.
Chang smirked and then replied, "Yet you did. Yet you still decided to take your life. If you are so scared of death, why did you choose to face it?"
"Chang-shi, there are a few who are not scared of death, but most are, and yet most choose to face it when their life is too grim than death itself," Ibuki answered as he lowered his gaze.
Chang sighed and grabbed a seat near the bed. He looked at Ibuki and said, "Is your life grimmer than death?"
Ibuki lifted his gaze and turned to Chang, "Yes, I assume."
"Why?"
"I lost my father. Or better yet, my father left me on my own with no security whatsoever."
Ibuki continued to tell how he lost his father to suicide and how his father left the family with a substantial financial burden they are still dealing with and, at this rate, will continue to deal with till their death. He said how he had tried to take his own life because of the stress of finance on him when he wanted to enjoy his life.
Chang put his hand on Ibuki's shoulder, "I believe there are other ways to deal with such problems. Can I make you an offer?"
Ibuki looked at him, startled, "What?"
"Cheongug is in the process of developing new drugs and needs volunteers to test them. How about you volunteer? We shall pay you."
Ibuki was taken aback by the offer. It was an ethically off-the-wall proposal, and Ibuki could not say yes straight off. He asked for time to consider the offer, and Chang agreed.
As time passed, Mrs Cho realised that Ibuki was not to return at his regular time and became concerned. Maki was at a friend's house, and hence, Mrs Cho went to the police station to report Ibuki missing. But when she reached, she was forced to wait outside the office, and no one bothered taking her complaint seriously. They said that since Ibuki was nearly an adult, he was responsible for himself and would return by morning, and if he did not, then Mrs Cho should consider reporting him missing. But Mrs Cho insisted they at least tried for her comfort. But the police blatantly refused and kept her waiting hours through the night. Realising the police would ignore her despite her grievances, Mrs Cho headed back home.
Moments later, Ibuki arrived. This was the first time Mrs Cho yelled at him angrily for disappearing without a trace and returning late at night. She was furious. Since Ibuki's father had passed away, Mrs Cho had been soft with her children to help them heal from the disaster. But today, Ibuki's actions had made her realise that she needed to be stricter with him.
"Why?! Ah, why?!" she hit him on his shoulder as Ibuki stood with a lowered head. "I had to go the police station to look for you and wait hours before coming back. And here you are. No concern, no care, no responsibility!"
Ibuki was too scared to reply, and when his mother finally let him go to his room, he crouched in the corner near the window, drowning in his tears of disparity.
Finally, the day had ended for Ibuki, but the memories hadn't. The next day was gloomy. Dark and dense clouds hovered, and rain lashed alongside heavy thunders. The weather wasn't Misao's liking. But she felt hopeful, for she had decided to take Ibuki out for a picnic of sorts. Even if it were raining, she wouldn't let it ruin her plan. So, dressed up and freshened, she left for Ibuki's home. The rain was scourging so heavily that it was hard to walk through it, but Misao was undeterred and kept going. She made her way through the street that was empty because of rain. When she knocked at the door of Ibuki's house, Mrs Cho opened.
Misao asked for Ibuki, and Mrs Cho replied with the incident of yesterday. Misao was shocked, and when Mrs Cho explained why Ibuki had been like that, she felt even more heartbroken. Now, the weather seemed not so acceptable, and for the first time in her life, Misao felt something she had never felt before. She was feeling depressed. The rainy weather irritated her more than ever, and she felt a weird urge to break into heavy tears. Her confidence was shattered, and the rain now felt too hard to fight against. The empty street pricked her heart, and her strength was losing its footing.
Misao reached home with a downcast face, and her brother saw her. He did not bother her, for he thought that she would be back to normal, but it did not happen. All the day, Misao lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. The walls felt like they were closing in on her, and she could not get a hold of herself. Then suddenly, she got up with a jerk.
"No! No! No! I will not let myself drown in sorrow like this. Sitting here and crying about what has happened will not change it, Misao. You either fight it or let it sink into you to the point you are too heavy to stand up against it. I will not fall for it; I will fight it. For you, Ibuki!"
The moment her confidence had aroused again, there was a knock on the door. In came Ibuki, sulky and drenched. Misao ran up to him and hugged him.
"Great you came here. I have something interesting to tell you," Misao said enthusiastically.
But Ibuki's face was expressionless and he did not react to her excitement. He held her hand and sighed, "Misao, I have something to tell you. Please support my decision. Will you?"
"What is it?" Misao asked, confused.
Ibuki lowered his gaze and then stared back at Misao, "I am dropping out of school."