Jang Dongwoo opens his tightly closed eyes to find himself in a hospital room. He touches his chest and feels his arms and legs. He stands slack-jawed because the excruciating pain that he’s felt earlier is magically gone now. The door slides open and his parents and sisters walk in with heavy steps. He raises his hand for a greeting but is interrupted by presumably the doctor.

“I’m sorry. We did our best.”

Jang Dongwoo turns around and finally realises. He watches with bated breath as the nurses cover his limp and bloodied body with the white cloth. His family are all crowding around the bed with bloodshot eyes like they haven’t slept in days. He stares at his now translucent hands then back at his body beneath that sheet. He continues to look back and forth in disbelief.

“What the hell?” he exclaims and if it isn’t for the fact that he can’t be heard, he’d swear that his shout is loud enough to wake even the dead.

Jang Dongwoo is only 23 when he dies.

His mother and sisters are decked in traditional hanboks and his father is in a black dress suit which he has bought initially to wear during Dongwoo’s graduation. Jang Dongwoo attends his own wake with a heavy heart.

“I’m sorry for being an unfilial son and leaving before you,” he says as he kneels in front his parents.  

Dongwoo finally runs out when he couldn’t bear to see the painful smile on his mother’s face anymore. His face is covered in ugly sobs as he passes through buildings and people. He has no intention of stopping at all. He is probably going to run across the entire globe if he hasn’t heard his name in this small uncertain voice.

“Dong…woo sunbae?”

He tries to stop but only manages to brake his soul completely after another 5 metres or so. He suddenly thinks about inertia that he’s learnt some time back in high school. The girl gasps and when he turns around to face her back, he realises that he must have run through her.

“Eh!?”