@starlightkr / / continued from here.
〔 제이。〕 just the way the sun drops off the sky at night, only to rise once again in the morning, that’s how people come and eventually go in anyone’s life --- he’d always say. but does he even know how it’s like to lose such a close family member? his peers back home are healthy, happy, unconcerned with the darker outcomes of life. even if he doesn’t fully understand her pain, defeat is no option for his notably kind heart, refusing to appear powerless in front of her. while unable to say much, he can’t remain silent either; his thumbs gently wipe and at the corners of her puffy eyes, before lifting her head, enabling him to take a better look at her.
“listen” --- he doesn’t like saying what people want to hear, his remarkably overlooked wisdom instead picking at what someone needs to know, whether the tone of his words is harsh or impersonal --- “you can cry for days, months, years, that still won’t change the current state of things. i mean, i don’t care if you stop or not, that’s really up to you. you can go dry and wither, if that’s your choice, but no tears will bring them back. crying brings no one back.” would he listen to his own advise should he find himself in her situation? difficult to predict, but this isn’t about him. this is about his friend, weakened by pain and grief, who’s yet to learn how to cope with her loss. “we never go back. we just move on. you’ll still feel pain. tomorrow, in a year, when you’re old. it never goes away, but you’ll learn to accept it. somehow you learn how to do that. sure --- if you still want to cry, do so. i mean it. cry your heart out. but don’t give up on yourself. wouldn’t that infuriate your parents?”
wouldn’t they also feel angry at seeing an outsider like jae playing the psychologist with their heartbroken daughter --- an outsider who can never perceive her reality until he’d go through the same thing? but the dead have to stay that way, and the living simply go on. that’s his unshaken world view.
