years later, in a box tucked away, proof of his time with her still remained.
his memories of her would never fade. as time went on after she'd disappeared he wondered if they would. they seemed so bright and stark then, but he wondered if one day he'd squint into the sun and only be able to come up with a vague and fuzzy picture of her in his mind.
that'd never happened. he remembered her like she was at his side yesterday.
however, that didn't mean that he didn't still need reassurance. yes, he could easily remember her touch and her smell, but that didn't tell him it all hadn't been a dream. even years, decades later, he sometimes doubted it. that short period of time with her had been so fleeting that he needed to know it hadn't all been in his imagination.
when times like those struck, there was always one thing he would go to. even when he'd packed them away, deep in a closet in the basement downstairs as he moved on with other partners, other jobs, other houses, he made sure he knew where they were.
deep within a box he'd have to blow the dust off of he'd find them. the two little matching trinkets they'd gotten at the amusement park. they were a little worn now, fraying on the edges and dull in color, but they still made him smile. still made him want to cry. still made his heart ache and yet jump for joy at the same time. because they meant that she was real.
heejin. the girl he was positive had been his soul mate had once walked this planet. her feet had been planted firmly on the ground, next to his, and the words and feelings they'd exchanged had been real, not just a figment of his imagination.
he'd sigh, his lips twitching towards a bittersweet smile. brushing his thumb across them, he'd place the two keychains back into the box, reluctantly closing it and walking back up the steps and away into his new life without her. a life that he didn't regret, one he quite frankly enjoyed, yet one without her.
because he could feel those two trinkets, even when he was miles away. he could feel heejin with him wherever he went. he could just feel it, and he knew that no matter where he was, or what he was doing, he was positive he'd meet her again somehow.
"i hope one day you'll be reunited with the person you cherish." and he knew he would be.
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