The Seventh Time I Stopped Waiting Chapter 08

The Seventh Time I Stopped Waiting Chapter 08

I turned and went back inside. Linden chased them out.

The next few days, Jude shut everything down.

He dismissed his crew. Blocked calls from the production company.
Put his four-year documentary on hold.

Still, he hovered around me—never too close, but never out of sight.

When I washed clothes by the stream, he stood on the far bank and filmed me.

When I worked in the garden, he hauled water for me.

As I knelt in the courtyard drying herbs, he stood nearby, casting his shadow over me to block the sun.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Can you just leave me alone?”

Jude froze. His hand trembled as he held out the silver hairpin.

“Yuna, give me one more chance. Please.”

I looked up. Calmly studied the hairpin covered in cracks.

“We’re out of chances.”

I turned the drying herbs over. My voice was flat.

His arm hung frozen mid-air. He refused to lower his hand.

I looked at him. Sleepless nights had left him haggard. He’d lost his former spirit and confidence.

“Yuna.” His voice was dry and rough.

“I stayed up all night putting it back together. See? Good as new.”

I looked at him quietly.

“It’s not the same.”

Jude’s throat bobbed. Panic flooded his eyes.

“Why not? The hairpin is the same, and so am I.”

I put down the herbs and slowly stood up.

A dull, lingering pain still throbbed in my ankle with every slight movement.

“But I’ve changed.”

I looked at him earnestly and asked, “Do you remember how this hairpin came to be?”

He nodded. “Of course. Your eighteenth birthday. I ventured deep into the mountains to gather hardwood and carved it by hand. I said that when I finished filming these mountains, I’d take you out of here with this pin and marry you.”

He said it smoothly. Like he’d memorized it.

Yet all I felt was bitter irony.

“Do you remember the day I carved it? It was pouring rain.”

Jude blinked. His eyes went empty for a second.

He’d forgotten.

I wasn’t surprised. I’d expected it.

That day, the rain came down hard.

He stayed in my little log cabin, carving the hairpin by the fire.

I knelt by the stove, making him hot potato soup.

Mountain nights were cold. I was afraid he’d freeze. I quietly slipped the thick flannel jacket Granny had given me over his shoulders.

He turned around, smiled, and ruffled my hair. Said Yuna was the sweetest girl and he’d take good care of me forever.

“You see? You’ve long forgotten all of this.” My voice was soft.

“You only remember the promise you made. Not how many nights I suffered for that promise.”

Jude’s hand started shaking.

“I can remember. I’ll remember everything.”

He tried to put the hairpin in my hair. Desperate.

“Yuna, let me put it back. Like before.”

I stepped back. Out of reach.

“We can’t go back.”

I pointed at the hairpin. “It doesn’t matter how well you glued it. The cracks are still there. It’s not the same.”

Jude’s breathing went ragged.

He stepped closer. His legs were unsteady.

“Yuna, I was wrong before. But I always loved you. Only you.”

“Loved me?” I repeated the words. They sounded ridiculous.

“Is this the love you showed me? Making me trek down the mountains seven times in vain? By giving all your care to Ada?”

I looked straight into his panicked eyes.

“Do you know what the weather was like the fourth time I went down?”

Jude stood frozen. He couldn’t answer.

“A storm washed out the path.”

“I ran three miles through mud, barefoot, to get to town before the registrar’s office closed.”

“The soles of my feet were shredded. Mud and blood ran down my legs. But I made it.”

“I stood outside the registrar’s office for three hours waiting for you.”

“I still remember how cold it was.”

“The wind cut through my wet clothes. I couldn’t stop shaking.”

“But I still hoped. I thought you’d come any minute.”

“Instead, I got a call from you. Casual.”

“You said Ada almost fell off a cliff while scouting a shot. She was scared. You had to take care of her.”

“You said I’d understand. Told me to wait longer.”

“I was so stupidly understanding back then.”

“I wiped my frozen tears and said I’d wait.”

“What you never knew was that my knees began to throb sharply whenever it rained after that.”

“I thought that was the last time I’d cry.” My voice was barely a whisper.

“Yet that was merely one of countless disappointments you brought me.”

Jude’s eyes went red.

He clutched the mended hairpin and fell to his knees.

“I was wrong.”

“Yuna, I know I was wrong. I was blind. I couldn’t see what was right in front of me, and I threw away everything you gave me.”

“Give me one more chance. Let me make it all up to you. Please, just let me make it right.”

I shook my head, my heart completely numb.

“Some things can never be made right.”

“Jude, just let me go.”