Ji Hyo woke up to Gary surfing the net.

“What are you doing?” she asked as she walked over to hug him. He turned around to kiss her. He tugged her arms so she sat beside him.

“I was thinking… if we should visit a children’s hospice?”

“Eo?”

“You know, kids with terminal diseases… I mean, we’re lucky that we can reach adulthood before we are diagnosed with this, but these children might not have the chance to.”

Ji Hyo nodded. “You’re thinking of doing something for them?”

“Eo… what do you think?”

She nodded. “Okay, we could get them presents!”

Gary nodded. He called the centre for permission. They agreed.

Gary and Ji Hyo went to shop first.

Gary tried on a clown suit.

“How do I look?” he asked, putting on a funny face.

Ji Hyo laughed. “The children will like it.”

“Should I rent it?”

She nodded, her eyes still twinkling in laughter.

Gary took off the suit to put on the counter and continued browsing through the racks.

“Ji Hyo! Try this on!” he said excitedly, holding out an angel suit.

She laughed again. “No!” she said, pushing his hands away.

“Try it, try it,” he pestered. “You’ll look good in in.”

She sighed and gave in to pacify the big baby. She came out of the fitting room shyly, adjusting her dress. Gary stared at her, stunned by her beauty.

“You look gorgeous,” he murmured, walking towards her. She blushed.

You’d probably look as pretty as this in your wedding dress, he thought.

“We’re going to rent this,” he insisted.

“Do we have to?”

“Rent it, rent it, rent it,” he pouted as he held her hands, shaking it from left to right.

“Okay, okay,” she relented again.

They also got a Santa Claus costume (for Gary) and an elf costume (for Ji Hyo).

They arrived in the hospice centre in the afternoon. They changed into their clown and angel costumes, before going to meet the children in the room.

They were nervous before they went in to meet the children. They weren’t trained professionals, of course they didn’t know how to handle the terminally ill children, both emotionally and physically. They expected tantrums and cryings, but it didn’t turn out like that. They appeared almost normal, if not for their lethargic movements (and wheelchairs). There were slightly more than 20 of them in the centre. 9 of them were in wheel chairs. Their ages ranged from as young as 3 years old to 15 years old. A couple of them had braces attached to their body, while the youngest kid had tubes attached to his nose.

But apart from that, they were behaving normally- no crying, no tantrums, no wheezing in bed. Just quietly doing their own things. A couple of them were talking, and the younger ones played together.

“Hello, kids!” Gary called, attracting their attention. They turned to look at him, surprised to see a clown. While normal kids may run towards him or start cheering, but they just stared at him, stunned for a moment. Gary looked at Ji Hyo awkwardly, who shrugged.

It was only after a while, an older kid walked towards