In Loving Memory of Yoona

I have never met you.

I have never spoken to you.

You told me you liked my story and that you had read up to Chapter 20.

You said you liked the music and asked me to send it to you.

You said you would check out out Midnight City when you had time.

We only exchanged two messages.

I told myself I would send it.

I told myself I would read your stories soon.

But time ran out for both of us.

I am sorry Yoona.

God must have loved you so much that he had to take you away.

He must have loved you so much that when cancer couldn't take your strength to live, a car crash and a cold had to come to take you away.

What was in your mind when you wrote?

It doesn't matter if we have never met.

I hope you are in somewhere pain free and happy now...knowing that all your readers are saddened by your absence.

R.I.P Jung Yoona
July 5, 1990 – September 13, 2007

Her story is now posted on Soompi. It is called: "Her Name was Han Sarang"

Dear readers, First, I want to apologize if you see any grammar mistakes or spelling mistakes or typos. As a sophomore in college, I should know better, but I’m still shocked…and sorrowed about this whole ordeal.

My sister, Yoona, was diagnosed with cancer when she was fourteen years old. She’s been fighting a hard battle ever since. During some good periods, it’d be like she was a normal kid again. She’d come home from school, do her homework, get ready for practice for her traveling soccer team ,baby sit, hang out with friends. But as she entered her junior year…things became worse. She would get faint and have to sit out during many soccer games – eventually, she was named the “honorary” manager. She had started chemo when she was diagnosed, but there started to be worse effects as she got older – she became weaker. It was hard seeing someone as energy-filled, someone as active as Yoona to meet this kind of fate.

But as her junior year ended, the symptoms started to lift – she began to improve immensely. She became less tired and exhausted and she was the active Yoona again. She even took it upon herself to start writing a story (The Dictionary) for the days that she had to stay in bed on the doctor’s orders.

And then came the car crash.

Really, that was just like a nightmare on the side. It was already enough to have to deal with Yoona’s cancer…but her in a coma? I found it ironic; it was like God was taking her away not for the cancer that we thought would be the reason but for some stupid drunk driver. But we were lucky; Yoona woke up a week later.

She woke up a week later, but she was weak again. Her return post may have fooled you, but Yoona was exhausted. She was allowed back home for a week only and then she was back in the hospital as a permanent resident – her cancer had elevated to that horrible of a level. But, she didn’t let that stop her. She still studied her hardest, she even started to study before the school year started, and she even started new stories on Soompi such as (We’ll Sing that Lullaby and Who’s on Soompi?!) and she still talked to friends and on very good days when she was feeling healthy, the doctors would let her leave and hang out with her friends for a little while.

But while she was on one of these little hang outs, she caught a cold. Now, to a regular person ,a cold may be just something of a nuisance. But to someone who has cancer, a cold can be deadly because cancer weakens the body immune system.

Yoona became so sick and the doctors became so worried that they ordered her to stop studying. One of her doctors, a kind Korean woman who read Yoona’s stories (and even contributed ideas to TD), told her to stop writing stories – even that could exhaust Yoona. That is why Yoona went on hiatus.

But no matter how much of a fighter Yoona was…she lost in the end. After about four days of extreme pain and sleepless nights, Yoona passed away peacefully in her sleep on 9/13/2007. If it makes you feel any better, she actually had a smile on her face when we checked up on her…

…Yoona told Kim and I (her sister, Yoomi) not to tell the soompiers about her condition and we respected that. I think she liked soompi because she had many friends and it was a place where she could momentarily forget about her cancer. And everyone was so kind to her…I love you all for that. I’m only telling you guys now because I think you guys deserve to know…no matter how painful it may be…you guys deserve to know instead of just leaving you guys clueless when Yoona did not return around thanksgiving…

…I’m only on Kim’s soompi username because I didn’t think it’d be right to go on Yoona’s. When she was sixteen, Yoona started to write a story…a story that was based on her own, but she used different characters. She left me a note asking me to post it…it broke my heart. The way she wrote her note….it was almost as if…she knew that she wasn’t going to be alive any longer. And the story itself…it’s heartbreaking. And it just goes to show how big of a heart she had. In her note she stated how she felt bad for leaving her readers without any closure to any of her stories. She also told me to thank all of you readers for supporting her and that she loves all of you for taking your time to read her story, even though she felt it was disappointing at times. And what broke my heart is that on the note…there were actual tear splatters…the ink was running where her tears had fallen.

Please everyone, please wish that Yoona has found peace and please…please wish well for my family. Especially my mother…she’s…she’s taken this the hardest out of all of us. Yoona was basically the light of everyone’s world.

Thank you,
Yoomi.

Yoona, you’ll be missed.
Even though I’m not sure you can read this..
But Yoonie, I love you.
You never wasted a minute…you always always told me you loved me.
And when did I tell you that?
I cried all of Friday knowing that I rarely ever told you I loved you.
But you knew.
Even though I didn’t have the courage to say so, you knew.
And I love you for that.
Jung Yoona.. .. RIP. <3

Fragile

I always hear this song when I go dancing and I always thought "What a nice song!"

I never knew this is a really meaningful song...

Fragile
Sting

If blood will flow when fresh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrows rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay

Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetimes argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
How fragile we are how fragile we are

The Dancer

I could and can always just watch him the whole night.

A dancer whose love for dance took him away from home and to many foreign countries...Sol is someone Gary and I really look up to.

We always felt he should be more famous than he is now. Maybe it is just his easygoing personality but we really feel he is comparable to many of the big names in Salsa today. We have had the honor to see some of the biggest names in Salsa this year on our little island. Everyone comes with their personal style and no doubt, the skills that have earned them their reputation.

Sol, is a little special.

Maybe because he's a friend? Maybe because he's easygoing? Maybe because he's so passionate? Maybe because he dared to do the things many of us don't have the courage to do? Maybe because he's Asian?

Dancing with Sol brings out the smile, sparkle and potential in his partner. I have seen many a female dancer show sides of them I had not seen before while dancing with him. I know because am one of them. Mnay have agreed with me...watching him dance and dancing with him is really different. It's the feeling he gives you that cannot be felt or comprehended when you dance with him. Even his students who have danced with him for 2 years say they still feel the same excitement when they dance with him.

We guessed that if he were here, the floor would clear for him and it did happen. It was nice seeing our visions of him dancing in Singapore finally come true after months of waiting.

I am going to make the best of his stay here *laughs*