Irene sat alone inside her room while sipping a hot chocolate. It was a cloudy and cold morning. She is frozen icy pole. She was drenched in agony and despair, and her misery is like clouds hovering over her head. An odd feeling overcame her as she read a news article in a magazine about a young man who committed suicide as a result of his girlfriend’s infidelity. She started to feel as though she was being viciously and irrationally battered at various times during the day, but she had no idea when it would happen. Her mind started to become rife with worries, burning her thoughts. Irene, however, became serene and like a spring night as she recalled how devoted Grey is to her. Irene radiantly smiled. Her smiles provided warmth for her chilly body, like a fireplace ember and a sunbeam.
She heard a knock on the door at nine in the morning. She could tell it was the person she was expecting. The delicate knock caused her heart to skip a beat as she pressed her ears against the door trying to listen to the thousand feelings he was attempting to express through his breath. She saw Grey when she opened the door. Grey grinned and pulled her into a warm embrace. Her heart, her throat, her entire body wanted to meld with him and become one with him as she lay with her face buried in his shoulder, in the loving flesh.
“I love you, Grey. I’m the luckiest woman in the world.”
“I have never known anyone who could believe that I was enough, Sweety, I miss you so much,” he gushed, becoming as gentlemanly as his beau-the embodiment of pleasure and happiness. “Finally, after a month, I hug you again, and caught your floral scent.” His eyes, which were already twinkling with joie de vivre, started to well up with glistening tears. His pharynx narrowed. Although having a latent leonine power, Grey had a soft heart, especially when Irene was strapped into his brace.
She was aware of the reason Grey had come to see her since, in a month, their paths will diverge. Long stretches of Grey’s absence from her will mark the beginning of their long-distance romance. Grey is a seafarer who recently completed his training at an institute in Gensan. She was ecstatic for Grey since she knew he was thrilled to be joining a crew of seafarers navigating the sea of solitude. His heart will long for Irene’s tender touch as the sea will separate them and turns into an obscenely large, merciless expanse surrounded by miles and miles of nothing, unsure if the two will have a profound connection again. Though Grey will leave Irene behind and become alone like a withered flower, it was his career to sail the world’s oceans.
She felt Grey giving her a firm hug. Irene felt cherished as he kissed her hair, shoulders, and neck. She did, however, see the melancholy in Grey’s eyes. Perhaps it was due to his impending departure and the realization that he would leave her behind. Nevertheless, she could withstand a long-distance relationship, because she love him, his voice, and his priceless blood, like pieces of a puzzle, she and Grey fit together. Grey’s soul, though, yearned to tell her something as his thoughts screamed downhearted. How could he tell her something that could give shards in her heart if her sweet scent and a kiss caused him to temporarily lose his mind? All vanished mysteriously. It was under Irene’s embrace and perfume, his secret which was brilliant but useless whilst it was shrouded in darkness.
When he finally let go of her, he claimed her lips and gave her a passionate kiss while his hands caressed her hair as if to express how much he loved her. Their bodies were joined together in a tight embrace. They alone were able to feel and sense the beat of their hearts as their bodies danced passionately together. Grey intensified his kiss as though it were their first, but Irene knew in her heart that it was their last. Irene was on the verge of crying but Grey captured the first droplet with his lips and dabbed it away from her cheeks. Irene's heart began to race as he carefully returned the kiss to her lips, giving her butterflies in her stomach. Finally, Grey let go of her lips and sobbed while burying his face in her neck.
“Grey, it’s ok, we can still communicate via mail and even crosses paths again even once a year. I’m here always, waiting for you.” Despite the presence of Grey, Irene felt lonely. While tears of sadness silently streamed down her cheeks, she made an effort to gather herself. “Grey, nobody will ever be able to fill the space that you hold in my heart. You own my heart, and you will always do.”
“Sweetheart, I’m going to leave you soon.” He mourned.
Irene kissed him on the head. “I was certain of it. I’ll get myself ready for the pain of your departure.”
He raised his head, looked squarely into Irene’s eyes, and grinned bitterly. He enquired as to Irene's ability to survive without him. He asked if Irene could live without him. Irene shook her head as tears started to form in her eyes. Gray countered that since it would be her new life after he’ll join the seafarer team sailing, she must live without him. Irene cried heavily. Gray then pressed a challenge. A week without Grey will transform her life into a painful and deceptive illusion. If Irene surpasses the challenge, he is guaranteed she will receive a significant surprise. Irene’s heart shed tears filled with shards. Her acceptance of the challenge left her bleeding ceaselessly; there is no known remedy. Nevertheless, she thought that Gray's proposal to her was a surprise.
The challenge arose like the dawn. Grey and she never exchanged words. She spent her life for one keeping Grey under wraps. She acts as if Grey and she are strangers who have never met, as if they don’t belong in this world and that their paths weren’t meant to cross. In the world of her fantasies, her masquerade inched closer to falsehoods and suffering. Like a piercing spear buried deep into her heart, she felt sorrow that tore through her. Nevertheless, she made it. After one week he visited Grey at their favorite coffee shop. Grey, though, wasn’t there. So she went to his house to see whether he was there. Irene anticipated the price—whether it would be an engagement or Grey staying in the Philippines.
The price of the challenge lies in a huge room wasn’t something she presupposed.   She remained motionless in the door as if she were in the midst of one of her terrifying nightmares but had been powerless. This must have been a nightmare or something that had pulled her away from reality. Her thoughts began to become terrified as the atmosphere in the room became depressing. The coffin and the dashing Grey who sleeps and rests in peace inside the coffin became increasingly vivid to her as she glanced again to be sure she wasn’t dreaming. She let out an enormous sob, covering her face with trembling hands. Her chest was torn open by gut-wrenching cries. Her heart hammered as she struggled to grasp the thought that Grey died and left her alone in this world. She thought that in months he left her because he sails, now Grey fadeth in the west. He was gone passed the setting sun.
“Grey, you’re so handsome in your warm casket. There’s no such thing as a happy ending.” She whispered.
That day, she found out that Grey wasn’t going to set sail the next month. Since he was seven years old, he has a cardiac sarcoma that should have been removed by surgery but was declined because of his family’s financial situation at the time. He was given twenty years to live by the doctor. And last week, Grey’s penultimate day on earth, he shared a kiss with her as means of farewell. Irene, though, loved him much more after his death. When she went out a few hours later the sun was setting. Then darkness fell.