September

I'm back!! Well, not officially.. I'm just back for a little while, then I have to go back to reality again (yes, work work and more work)..

This was done on a whim. I didn't think about it much, I just came home one humid day and wrote because I could not get my tired b.utt to sleep.

I don't know about you, but September kinda always bring me down, hence the title. Hehehehe..

Again, I didn't mean to make Hyunjoong the villain, the idea just appeared..

Thank you Pam and Yawa for the artwork.

Anyway, please do leave me some love or some hate.. Whatever.. And oh, please do tell me if you spot errors.
~*~

She watched as the dawn slowly breaks through the lace-adorned windows. As the streaks of yellow light penetrates through the dark blue velvet skies, creating golden rays, it promises a new day.

Hyejung runs her fingers on the arm wrapped around her waist. Her back comfortably resting against the warm, muscular chest.

There’s no other place she’d rather be, no other person she’d rather be with. Somehow, despite the odds, despite the barriers and obstacles, when she’s with him, when their fingers intertwine, when their lips meet, when their bodies touch, everything seems all right.

She and the sleeping figure beside her are perfect for each other. But in this world that we live in, nothing is ever perfect. It’s not that perfection does not exist, it’s just that perfection is not achievable, never achievable.

As the light of the new day fills the four corners of the room, worries and fears start to rise inside Hyejung’s head. The screeching sound of reality gets louder in her ears.

It’s morning and it’s time to go back to reality. A reality that wreaks havoc between her brain and heart.

She ran her small fingers through his arm once more, enjoying the tingly sensation when their skin touched. One last time, she lets herself enjoy the warmth of their nakedness together.

Each time she was with him was like living in a fantasy, a dream. But dreams and fantasies end. Oftentimes, for them, it ends as the new fall morning paints new vivid colors over the horizon.

“It’s almost September..”, she unconsciously whispers. The other person stirs, detaching his arm from her waist and turned to the other side.

‘He must have heard me..’, she thought, ‘The words playing inside my head must have slipped through my lips.’

She took a deep breath and filled her lungs with air, hoping the oxygen entering her body would give her some courage to do what she has to do.

She cleared her throat before asking.

“Are you awake?”, she asked and immediately closed her eyes as if she’s afraid some sort of ghost will pop out.

Somehow, she wished he was still asleep, but the still, silent air inside the cold frigid room was answer enough. She could hear his breathing. It was not as relaxed as it was a while ago. He was awake, but he was trying to dodge the sudden confrontation.

“Hyunjoong, are you awake?”, she asked again just to make sure, but all the response she got was an gurgling sound that came from his throat.

“Did you hear what I said?”, she asked, this time her voice was no longer sweet. Now, it seemed strained, tense, trembling.

“I said, it’s almost September…”, she said again.

September—it was that time of the year when he relentlessly breaks her heart only to return at the peak of winter.

For two years now, he breaks her heart on September, and like a poor lost lamb shivering from the harsh winter weather, he comes back. And, no matter how many times her head battles with her heart, she accepts him with more than just open arms because she has fallen so deeply, maddeningly in love with Hyunjoong and she would take every risk and every pain just to have him hold her in his arms once more.

But Hyejung woke up with too much pain today knowing that it’s almost September and that he was going to leave her again.

She waited for him to respond, to give her some lame reason or perhaps the usual ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ type of reasons, but he lay in bed silently.

And she had no desire to probe for more, for she has made up her mind already.

A few more minutes passed, and her effort to clear the air between them fell on deaf ears.

As the pure, brilliant sunshine filled the entire room, Hyejung opens her eyes and lifts herself off the bed. She climbed down carefully so as not to wake the sleeping Hyunjoong and quietly put on her clothes before finally stepping out of the room.

She gathered as much strength not to look back and held her breath as she walked through the corridor. If she draws in one single breath, her tears might spill and that would be more tragic for her because she knows she just might turn around and beg him to stay.

Hyejung hopped on the first elevator available and was finally able to breathe again.

She has done it. She was finally the first one to leave. For two years, she was always the one left behind, but this time she wasn’t about to let her heart and soul get stomped on.

~
Hyunjoong opened his eyes to the sound of the clicking doorknob. The chambermaid quickly turned around upon seeing the man only covered by the think satin cloth sprawled in bed.

“Omo! I’m sorry, Sir. I thought you already checked out..”, she explained, a sheen of nervous sweat on her forehead.

“How’s that possible when I haven’t even paid for the room yet?!”, he snapped at the middle aged woman, scanning the room for traces of Hyejung, wishing she would not come out while the chambermaid was there, so as not to cause any scandal and at the same time wishing she hadn’t left him yet. There were so many things he still needed and wanted to say to her.

“Sir, the room has already been paid for by a lady. She left in a hurry and even paid in cash.”, the middle-aged woman said.

Her words rang on Hyunjoong’s ears because it could only mean one thing—that he was too late. He knew he should have asked her to stay last night. Now, the smell of regret left bitter tastes on his dry mouth.

“Give me 30 minutes. I’ll just take a shower, then leave.”, he forcefully said, and the maid left quietly.

Hyunjoong immediately scrammed for his phone and dialled her number, but the Blackberry Torch he gave her vibrated on the vanity. He left her and this time, she might mean goodbye.

He finally stepped out of the hotel, shielding his eyes from the vicious mid-morning sun.

He sighed heavily as his thoughts swarmed his brain, ‘It’s September and she was the one to leave this time. But when winter comes, will she comeback to me as I did many times before?’