It Began With a Text

More Reveals

     "J.One, I'm so sorry!" Felix said. Gosh, he felt horrible for prying. He had no idea of the tragedy his friend had gone through.

     J.One was too broken down to answer Felix. Felix felt a lump in his throat, seeing his friend in such despair. Finally, after a few minutes, J.one was calm enough to say more.

     "It's fine, Felix, you didn't know," he said. "I'm... usually fine, I just have... those times where I become like this."

     The two boys remained silent for a few minutes.

     "... we did keep in touch after I moved," J.One finally said. Felix hadn't wanted to ask any more questions but it looked like J.One was ready to talk.

     "We texted a lot and did video calls and stuff," J.One continued. "We never stopped doing them, even as time passed. We were both really lonely..."

     "But one day, he didn't answer my texts. He didn't come for video calls. He just... disappeared. Our parents weren't friends or anything, so I had no way of finding out what happened."

     J.One's breathing got harder as he remembered more.

     "Then one day, when I was picking up the newspaper, I saw the front headline. There was a huge bus crash on the highway, in Seoul. Countless lives were lost and even more injured."

     Felix nodded. He had heard about it when he had first moved to Korea. It was apparently something nobody could forget, an entire portion of the highway had to be rebuilt and schools had closed because no transportation could reach them. Felix suddenly knew what was coming next.

     "There... was a list of those who... lost their lives," J.One said slowly.

     "He was on that list."

     J.One's voice got really quiet at that last part. He went silent. Felix let him. It was probably so hard for him to recount those events.

     "My parents found out," J.One finally said. "And that's... the main reason why we moved back. They said it couldn't be good for me to be living in a different country after hearing that my friend died in another one. They felt guilty that because of us moving, I never got to spend more time with him."

     He sighed. "So yeah. I moved back around the start of high school. I gave myself a new name and tried to make myself a new life." He chuckled to himself. "As you can see, that didn't work out."

     Felix gave a small smile. "Thank you for telling me all of this, it must have been hard. I'm really sorry about your friend."

     J.One smiled sadly. "You have that quality about you Felix, anyone can feel comfortable around you. And yeah, it sucks. I miss him a lot."

     Felix's heart warmed at the compliment. "So what was your friend's name?" he asked out of curiosity.

     "You'll find this funny," J.One said. "Lee Minho. Gosh, I had to come up with a nickname for him because of how common that name was."

     "Oh!" Felix said, surprised. "Then it must be hard to have... another Minho in the chat."

     J.One shrugged. "I've gotten used to it. It's unavoidable. Still hard, but bearable."

     "You know..." Felix began. "New names don't necessarily mean a fresh start. Care to tell us your real name?"

     J.One shook his head. "Not yet, maybe soon. Having others call me that brings back too many memories."