What forever feels like -- 7
What forever feels like; Jinki/Minho; G
note: Chapter 3 is my favorite. = 3= What can I say? Child-dubu's thoughts and actions are a lot easier/more interesting to write. Now that I'm writing the grown-up Jinki, the old person in me is slipping out and it's all nonhalf-sensical mumble jumble that takes a bit of time to digest. SIGH.
prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven
Chapter seven
Did you know?
Goodbyes do not put in the period where it belongs.
Goodbyes are not capable of resolving anything.
Whereas you can bid someone farewell without truly meaning it,
the end always comes with an intentional act.
......
After so many years of silence, of nothingness, while I am utterly unprepared, there comes a message about Minho.
Not from him, of course.
I hear it from my mom. It finds a neat space in our afternoon conversation. At first, it feels a little strange because I haven't heard his name said out loud in ages. And yet there is my mom, sitting right in front of me, saying it over and over again so naturally. Choi Minho. Choi Minho. Choi Minho. I don't know whether to laugh or to scowl in annoyance.
She says she found out about it through our neighbor and apparently our neighbor first caught wind of it from her eldest daughter. Her daughter, who is living and working in another city, supposedly heard it during her graduating class's fifth year reunion at her old university and the information came from her former roommate. And why would that woman know anything about Minho? Because the world is small, of course. Her current husband-her second one to date, my mom supplies helpfully-happens to be the grandson of Minho's great-uncle.
That the news has managed to make it all the way into my ear-it counts as a miracle, doesn't it?
On this particular New Year's Eve, I am told:
Choi Minho's company is undergoing expansion again.
Choi Minho's business is going strong despite the lull in the economy.
Choi Minho has struck it rich like no other. He is so rich, in fact, that even his most distant relatives back here in Korea have stopped worrying over their finances.
Choi Minho-yah, you still remember right?
He was your best friend starting when you guys were in diapers.
You two always went to school and came home together.
The tall skinny frog-eyed boy who was very good at sports?
The really quiet one.
His family immigrated when you were still in junior high or something...
Right, right, right!
Him.
Have you heard?
Choi Minho is getting married.
Then my mom goes on about how people really change, how amazed she is that a kid who never said much could become such a successful businessman. Maybe she even uses the opportunity to take a jab at me, pointing out how much I am trailing behind my 'best friend' in both my personal and professional life, how I don't have enough ambition, how I lack filial piety. She tells me how I shouldn't misunderstand, because money isn't the issue-I have been sending home more than enough, she reassures me-and how all that she really wants is for me to call her more often and to come home more often. How all that it would take to make her happy is to see me married and happy. To get to name my children, her grandchildren. To hold them, to spoil them, to show them off to all her friends...
I want to say that everything is too sudden, just because I have been caught off guard.
But in reality, nothing is sudden.
I'm sure the decision wasn't sudden at all for Minho.
......
A/N: F* (can't spell it out since I rated this a G hahaha). Suddenly, I think he sounds like a girl. Orz asldkjga;gha;hgh /pulls on hair
......
eight
note: Chapter 3 is my favorite. = 3= What can I say? Child-dubu's thoughts and actions are a lot easier/more interesting to write. Now that I'm writing the grown-up Jinki, the old person in me is slipping out and it's all nonhalf-sensical mumble jumble that takes a bit of time to digest. SIGH.
prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven
Chapter seven
Did you know?
Goodbyes do not put in the period where it belongs.
Goodbyes are not capable of resolving anything.
Whereas you can bid someone farewell without truly meaning it,
the end always comes with an intentional act.
......
After so many years of silence, of nothingness, while I am utterly unprepared, there comes a message about Minho.
Not from him, of course.
I hear it from my mom. It finds a neat space in our afternoon conversation. At first, it feels a little strange because I haven't heard his name said out loud in ages. And yet there is my mom, sitting right in front of me, saying it over and over again so naturally. Choi Minho. Choi Minho. Choi Minho. I don't know whether to laugh or to scowl in annoyance.
She says she found out about it through our neighbor and apparently our neighbor first caught wind of it from her eldest daughter. Her daughter, who is living and working in another city, supposedly heard it during her graduating class's fifth year reunion at her old university and the information came from her former roommate. And why would that woman know anything about Minho? Because the world is small, of course. Her current husband-her second one to date, my mom supplies helpfully-happens to be the grandson of Minho's great-uncle.
That the news has managed to make it all the way into my ear-it counts as a miracle, doesn't it?
On this particular New Year's Eve, I am told:
Choi Minho's company is undergoing expansion again.
Choi Minho's business is going strong despite the lull in the economy.
Choi Minho has struck it rich like no other. He is so rich, in fact, that even his most distant relatives back here in Korea have stopped worrying over their finances.
Choi Minho-yah, you still remember right?
He was your best friend starting when you guys were in diapers.
You two always went to school and came home together.
The tall skinny frog-eyed boy who was very good at sports?
The really quiet one.
His family immigrated when you were still in junior high or something...
Right, right, right!
Him.
Have you heard?
Choi Minho is getting married.
Then my mom goes on about how people really change, how amazed she is that a kid who never said much could become such a successful businessman. Maybe she even uses the opportunity to take a jab at me, pointing out how much I am trailing behind my 'best friend' in both my personal and professional life, how I don't have enough ambition, how I lack filial piety. She tells me how I shouldn't misunderstand, because money isn't the issue-I have been sending home more than enough, she reassures me-and how all that she really wants is for me to call her more often and to come home more often. How all that it would take to make her happy is to see me married and happy. To get to name my children, her grandchildren. To hold them, to spoil them, to show them off to all her friends...
I want to say that everything is too sudden, just because I have been caught off guard.
But in reality, nothing is sudden.
I'm sure the decision wasn't sudden at all for Minho.
......
A/N: F* (can't spell it out since I rated this a G hahaha). Suddenly, I think he sounds like a girl. Orz asldkjga;gha;hgh /pulls on hair
......
eight