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"I'll have the usual orders, one taro milk tea and one grapefruit ade!" said the man who just entered the restaurant as he strode from the counter to one of the seats near the window. The cashier smiled at him as he sat.
"Still ordering the usual, I see," the bartender said as he proceeded to work on the orders that the man has placed after punching them on the computer. The man who was seated near the window was smiling while waiting for his orders to arrive. Although ordering two orders, he was alone.
"Are you still waiting for him, Seongwoo?" the bartender asked out loud. It wasn't really a busy day and there were only 3 customers, including Seongwoo, so it wasn't a bother of talking to him out loud.
"Yes, Jisung-hyung!" Seongwoo answered cheerfully, his spirit seemed not to falter. He was happy, as always, and Jisung always loved that about his regular customer. Despite the sorrowful words that he always breaks to him, Seongwoo never gets sad.
"What if he doesn't come again today?" Jisung asks. He's no longer afraid of asking him the same question for God knows how many times already. Seongwoo has already been waiting for someone for as long as he could remember.
"Then I'll wait again tomorrow!" Seongwoo cheerfully answered.
As I always have...
"Gosh, Seongwoo," Jisung cried as he brought him his ordered drinks, "there are a lot of guys out there. With your looks, you can surely find one in the blink of an eye!"
Seongwoo shrugged at Jisung's suggestion, which made the older give him a disappointed look. Seongwoo brushed it off, as he was used to the older's usual antics.
"Come on, Seongwoo! You got looks, a nice body, a wonderful voice, a lovable wit... who wouldn't like you?" Jisung continued.
Seongwoo laughed all of what Jisung said and looked at him in the eye, "Are you telling me these because you want to hit on me?" and as he said those, he winked at Jisung, which caused the other to cringe and walk off, loudly saying words like never mind or this is why they don't go back . Seongwoo simply laughed at all of that.
How long will I wait, though?
Seongwoo always asked himself that. He was always there, waiting, hoping that one day, he would come back. That one day, the one he cherished would be back at the same place they met, a year ago, and rekindle the fire that was lost.
A year ago...
It was the same spot that Seongwoo was seated on, where he met Minhyun. It was the exact same feeling that he had as right now, unsure as to what will happen, when they first met. The feeling was very similar, the uncertainty of what would happen, but of course, Seongwoo continued with it even though it was a risk that he wasn’t sure of the outcome.
A risk that would decide the pain of the future…
And just like what you would expect, Seongwoo and Minhyun eventually ended up dating. How fast things went, or how surprised all of their friends were, they didn’t care. What mattered for them was that they were both happily in love with one another.
That’s what matters the most, right?
Although the road wasn’t really easy, the two of them endured a lot of difficulties. Seongwoo’s trust issues and Minhyun’s anxieties added to the trouble, but no matter what happened, they would find comfort with each other. They would always try to reach out to one another and open up with each other’s problems, until eventually, they would be okay.
But it wasn’t truly okay…
Even though the other was there to comfort, there would always be damage, whether minimal or too much to bear, there would be damage that both of them would not speak about. At first, minimal damage was ignored by both of them, but in the long run, the pain from the emotional and mental damage they left unnoticed grew and grew. That is where all the difficulty started.
And it grew more difficult…
Small fights became big fights. Hours of not talking to one another because of a fight turned to days. Warm and sweet words turned into cold and bitter ones. The saddest part of it was that one day, the love didn’t seem to exist anymore. Nothing was there but pain.
Seongwoo, despite the turnout of events, never learned to hate the other. He didn’t know why, but despite the treatment that he got, the painful words and the experience of the heartbreak, he never learned to hate Minhyun. No matter how hard it was for him, he did his best to endure the pain.
Besides, it was all for love…
One day, Seongwoo and Minhyun had a fight that was so much, Minhyun unexpectedly blurted out the most painful things that Seongwoo wouldn’t have wanted to hear:
“It’s none of your business, anyway! Why do you keep on meddling?”
And at the end of the sentence, Minhyun left Seongwoo crying, alone, kneeling on the floor, suddenly unsure of all the decisions he made in life. He was no longer sure if he chose the right person, or if he fell in love in the first place. He started to question what their relationship was for, if the only thing that Minhyun would have said was that it was none of his business.
A week after the incident, Seongwoo got a message from Minhyun asking that they should break up. It was no longer working. It wasn’t fine anymore. They no longer supported one another. It was no longer a bond of love. It was all gone.
But his feelings weren’t… Just not yet…
And weeks after their breakup, Seongwoo continued to stay at the same restaurant they had both met, hoping that Minhyun would come back. He was sure that word came to him that Seongwoo was always there, waiting for him, because he got a message from Minhyun saying that he should stop waiting, because there would be no ‘them’ coming back.
But Seongwoo never bothered…
It was already dusk when Seongwoo realized that he had been thinking too much. Drinks half finished, Seongwoo stood up from the table where he was seated and proceeded to go to the counter and bid Jisung his goodbye.
“Seongwoo… please stop giving yourself a hard time. I know it hurts, but… he’s not coming back. Okay?” Jisung spoke to the other, tear-jerked because he could not bear the pain of the words that just came out of his mouth. Seongwoo, on the other hand, didn’t feel the pain anymore. He wasn’t mad, nor was he offended by the words.
“Jisung-hyung… Thank you.”
And Jisung was sure from those words that there was nothing that would stop Seongwoo from waiting continuously, no matter how long it was, no matter how difficult it got, no matter how stupid he seemed - he didn’t care. He learned to love the heartbreak, a little less than the person he loved the most.
“When will you be coming back to wait, Seongwoo?” Jisung asked, to which Seongwoo replied, words as simple and as cheerful as they always have been, as if Seongwoo has been repeating the same words over and over, as natural as it could be, as if they did not carry the pain of losing someone you love dearly.
“Tomorrow. For Sure.”