Hopelessly in love. Some of us humans are bound by that term. It defines how we continue to be in love with that person even though we know that our love won't be reciprocated. To be more specific, it's a one-sided love. But what do you call the type of love in which you are waiting for someone?
It can't be termed as one-sided, since you know that the other person feels the same. But you can't call it proper love since you both haven't confessed. Nothing would seem more pathetic than two people clearly having feelings for each other, but not confessing their love.
Maybe the situation leaves them helpless. And in Yuel Kim's case, totally hopeless.
Yuel Kim. It was a name nobody knew, but a person everyone knew. And how couldn't they? She was always found sitting on one of the benches near the beach, playing her mandolin. She would sit in silence and talk to none, indulging in the strings of the mandolin. Since nobody knew her name, she was termed as the 'mandolin girl'.
Her soothing and heart-warming tunes might have caught everyone's attention. But what they failed to notice was the fact that she played the same song every day. Maybe it was because it was too insignificant to notice, or people were too busy in their lives. Anyway, the young black-haired woman continued to entertain the whole town with her mandolin.
Until she met a kid.
"Excuse me?" Her hands stopped playing on the mandolin. She looked up as she was greeted by a boy. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Before you ask me anything, first settle down." She patted the place next to her as the boy obliged to her. "Now, what did you want to ask me?"
"Why do you always play the same song? Don't you get bored by playing the same thing?"
"Hm . . . That is really a good question." She murmured to herself as she bent down to the boy's level. "Tell me, do you like seeing your mom every day?"
"Yes, I do."
"Don't you get bored by seeing her every day?"
"No, I don't." The boy huffed in anger, making a cute pout. Seeing the boy act like that, a chuckle escaped from Yuel's lips as the boy crossed his arms. "I love my mom."
"Just like how you love your mom, I love playing this song. That's why I can never get bored playing it again and again." A smile came upon her lips as she watched the seagulls fly over the crystallised sea.
"But in my case, my mom is a person. How come you never get fed up by playing the song every day?"
"Because this song reminds me of someone close to my heart." Yuel stood up from the bench as she held the mandolin tight.
"Why do you play a song that reminds you of someone?" The boy asked, following Yuel's gaze on the sea.
"When you miss someone dearly, the things that you used to do with them turns into your nightmares. Even though I want to remember that person for as long as I live, the small things . . ." She looked down at the mandolin before looking back at the sea. "It sometimes begins to hurt."
"My Mom says that we can heal a wound." The boy got up from the bench as he stood beside her. "If the song reminds you of a painful memory, why not play a song that will heal your pain?"
"Even deep wounds take time to heal and leave scars."
The boy chuckled. "Well, then find someone who will appreciate you with the scars."
"Wouldn't love be enough to make you appreciate someone regardless of their scars?"
The boy thought for a while. " . . . If it is love, then that person will love you no matter what."
Yuel turned towards the boy as she ruffled his hair. "You talk about things that aren't of your age."
The boy was taken aback. "Then should I not know about these things?"
Yuel smiled. "It's not bad if you know about these things beforehand." She kneeled to his level as she wiped a tear from his right eye.
"Tell me, what made you grow up so fast?"
After that day, Yuel Kim was never again seen on the dusty benches of the beach nor was found strolling through the lanes. The once nostalgic tune vanished into the thin frost winter. The song that used to warm everyone's heart wasn't there any longer to warm them. After a week, a news story had become the top headline for a whole month. A dead body was found washed up on the shores. The victim was holding onto a mandolin. A pretty familiar one . . .
Yuel Kim was the eldest daughter of three. Apparently, her parents had disowned her. It was pretty evident that they didn't want to associate themselves with her even after her death. So, the police were forced to close her case. Her death was ruled as accidental drowning.
For the people of the town, the case of Yuel Kim came under the category of hopeless romantics. What really might have happened, nobody knows. But what others don't know is that a boy had talked to her. Sharing a heart-to-heart talk with her.
And unknowingly, that specific memory of Yuel Kim wouldn't come back to him until a certain incident happened. A near-death incident.
Blurred. All of my surroundings look blurred, as if it was a painting ruined by water. The dark colours overshadowed the light ones, completely ruining everything. The light colours ran out as darkness covered everything.
I stayed in my place, completely motionless as I stared above. Everything felt cold, too cold for my body to bear. I opened my mouth as a bubble escaped above me to the surface. My eyes widened in shock.
I was underwater. And nobody could help me.
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