It was just an ordinary day when something extraordinary happened to me.

I, Kim Kibum, have just been told that I’m going to die.

He just sat down beside me as I am enjoying my coffee.

“You have two more hours.”

He tells me calmly.

“What?!” I exclaim.

What did he mean I only have two more hours?

Two more hours for what?

“You have two more hours to live.”

Is he kidding? Is this a prank?

I have done bad things in the short 21 years of my life,

But who would pull this prank on me?

I have no friends, no family.

I have nothing.

I have nothing except for money and power.

As if sensing my doubt, he decides to show me.

He clenches his fist and looks intently at me.

I feel the breath going out of my lungs.

I feel myself slowly slipping away.

Does nobody notice this?

I am sitting in a café at 9 o’clock

With so many people around me,

But nobody notices?

It suddenly hit me, hard.

If I died, nobody would care.

Nobody would shed a tear.

Nobody would feel the slightest bit of heartbreak.

Suddenly I can breathe again.

I take in as much air as I can, clutching my chest.

I stare at the stranger sitting next to me.

I study him carefully.

Is he really a stranger?

He smiles slightly and simply repeats what he told me.

“You only have two more hours.”

But he adds something before leaving me in shock.

“Make the best of it.”

After sitting in the café for ten minutes in utter shock,

I glance at my watch.

I have wasted ten whole minutes.

Ten whole precious minutes of my existence.

I grab my jacket, paid for the bill,

And ran as fast as I can down the streets.

Where am I going?

What am I doing?

I stop on a bridge.

I double over, panting.

I don’t have anybody,

So what should I do with the last hours of my life?

I cannot decide.

Because I have nowhere to go.

Suddenly I hear the best sound I have heard in a while.

I hear music.

In confusion,

I turn around.

I turn around only to be breath taken by the sight before me.

You have your eyes closed,

Your face the picture of utter bliss.

I stare in disbelief as you play your violin.

You’re playing your violin in the middle of an empty bridge?

I make my way over to you.

I couldn’t quite make out your features in the dark night.

All the same,

I think you’re beautiful.

I stand next to you and listen to you play your violin.

I could spend the next hour of my life like this.

I really don’t mind.

In fact, I could spend the rest of eternity with you.

As if sensing my presence, you smile.

You smile and I am taken aback.

Do you not know sorrow?

Do you not know pain?

Do you not know evil and sins?

How can your smile be so perfectly pure and happy?

You finish playing the song and I reach out.

I reach out and use my finger to trace your jaw line, your cheekbones.

I know that I am tracing so much more.

“Hey.”

You say.

Just one word and I am captured.

Your voice moves over my soul.

So beautiful, so serene,

I want to listen to it more.

I cannot get enough of you.

“Hey.”

I reply.

Hoping you would speak more.

Tell me more, tell me more about yourself.

You smile and look down,

Your violin in your hand.

Why won’t you look at me?

I gently tip your chin upwards.

I look into your eyes and you stare straight into my soul.

But something about your eyes isn’t right.

I frown and was about to ask when your beautiful voice sounds again.

“I’m blind, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

Oh.

“Oh.” I say as the realization dawns on me.

“Do you look down on me now?” You ask.

Look down on you?

How can I?

How can I think that you’re anything lesser?

You’re beautiful.

And so I tell you.

“No, I don’t. You’re beautiful.”

I whisper and you smile.

A small smile, just a small smile.

Do you not believe me?

Why not?

Before I can say anything, you ask me

With that beautiful voice of yours and once again I am enthralled.

“What are you doing here alone?

I always come here for some peace and quiet.

But why are you here?”

Why am I here?

That’s a good question.

Why am I here?

I am here because of you.

“I only have two more hours left to live.”

I finally whisper softly into the night.

I know you hear me all the same.

“Oh.”

This time it is your turn to say.

We both sat down on the hard ground.

You lay your violin gently beside you.

You put your arm around me and I snuggle closer.

I stare out to the river before us.

I see the moonlight reflecting on the water,

But you don’t.

I see how beautiful you are,

But you don’t.

How does it feel to not know how everything looks like?

I wonder and wonder but I do not ask.

You put your other arm around me and I smile.

I have not felt this warmth for a very long time.

I have not felt the warmth of another person for a long time.

The body heat, the closeness.

The love.

I glance at my watch.

One more hour to go.

I don’t want to be anywhere else except right here, right now.

In your arms, feeling like I can be anything I want to be.

In your arms, where it’s the happiest place on earth.

Time ticks past and I am aware.

Yet somehow I do not care anymore.

If I had to spend the last of my life with someone,

I cannot be grateful enough that it is with you.

I feel the sorrow seeping through my veins.

I want to stay longer; I want to stay here forever.

But I know that my time is up.

It is time for me to go.

And so I look at the moonlight reflecting upon the surface of the river

While I listen to your beautiful voice singing only to me.

It is beautiful, you are beautiful.

I close my eyes and lean back into your embrace.

I let myself find the crook of your neck where I settle myself in.

We fit each other seamlessly.

In more ways than one, I become one with you.

Right there on the bridge.

Our bridge.