That day Ha Yun was moving around Jinki uneasy. She barely read the book to him, although they reached her favorite part - when the main’s character father finally reunites with the Orange Girl - and she was trying really hard to smile.

Jinki knew something was wrong and he was tempted to ask but he was in a foul mood that day.

His head hurt very much, one of his old friends came to visit and he could see the pity on his eyes, the doctor called his parents to speak with them and worse he still couldn’t move his legs.

Maybe Ha Yun felt his uneasiness because she turned off the tv they were pretending to watch and rose up from her seat.

“I have a surprise for you today!” she announced placing both her hands on his bed near his dead legs.

“Really?” he asked not that excited. Her surprises were normally either a snack he liked or a new game or a friend that came with her. “I don’t feel hungry and I don’t want to see anyone right now or play any games.”

“I know but this surprise you can’t eat and it’s not alive! Also, it’s not a game! Wait for a second!” She said leaving the bedroom and him alone.

Jinki stared at the book still open beside him and grabbed it, his eyes moving on the words.

He then closed it before placing it over the bedside table his attention returning to the door where Ha Yun was now.

She pushed a wheelchair closer to his bed and Jinki looked at it knowing exactly what it meant.

That was the reason she was nervous the whole time, the reason the doctor called his parents. It was time for him to start leaving the bed, to start his life as a disabled person.

“I thought that maybe we could have a picnic outside. It’s a sunny day and the hospital has a beautiful garden. Besides your doctor said it was a great idea!”

Jinki lifeless eyes moved to hers and Ha Yun looked at him apprehensively. He hated it. He hated the idea and what that meant but she was probably told to insist, that the best way for recovery was for him to stop thinking of himself as a person dying. He needed to get out of depression, he needed to go out and see the world. He almost could hear the doctor saying that to her and his parents because it was the same he told him the day before when he mentioned the chair.

“I don’t want to.” He simply said.

“B-but I made kimbap and a lot of delicious things for you to try!”

“I said that I’m not hungry!” He insisted and for a while, Ha Yun seemed to accept it. However, she pulled the covers from over his legs making him stare at her.

“What the hell are you doing?” He asked angrily.

“I’m taking you out on a picnic because I spent a lot of time preparing it and you are a gentleman and as a gentleman, you need to accompany me!”

He groaned upset pulling her hands away just when she grabbed his legs trying to pull him to the edge of the bed. It was worthless since he was heavier and stronger than her but she didn’t seem to want to stop, still fighting against him, her hands firmly grabbing his legs.

“CAN YOU STOP WITH THAT?” Jinki screamed “I'M NOT YOUR PET!”

She stopped immediately raising her teary eyes to him making him swallow in regret. Maybe he shouldn’t have yelled at her but still, she needed to respect his will.

“I don’t want to go.”

“Why? Because suddenly the cripple has feeling and a will?”

Her words hit him exactly where it hurt.

“I thought you preferred to die! That there was no Lee Jinki inside you anymore….just a hollow shell….guess I was wrong.”

He bit his lower lip split between saying he was sorry and screaming with her.

Ha Yun was right. He was still Lee Jinki even if he couldn’t walk.

“Your mother taught me how to do fried chicken the way you love. I slept only two hours last night to prepare everything and you know why?”

He did. Because she loved him! The thought of her losing her rare hours of sleep to do that for him made him feel loved.

“I know you are not a pet. I just really wanted to show you how life outside this bedroom is still the same whether you walk or not. Humans adapt Jinki….you need to stop hiding and start living your life again. Only that way you will recover.”

She took a deep breath after speaking as if she was holding that inside her for days and was now finally able to say it, tears of anger and frustration falling down her cheeks.

“Spicy fried chicken?” He asked with a neutral voice, knowing that she was right. He was a gentleman after all.

“Yes!” Ha Yun smiled beautifully moving her hand on the mattress beside him. That caught his attention even if she didn’t seem to notice. How their fingers touched slightly…

It wasn’t as if it was the first time they touched each other but somehow that moment was different for Jinki.

She was there, alive, warm, beside him, losing hours of her life arguing, thinking of him, wanting to help him not because he was his blood, just because she liked him. If that wasn’t special he didn’t know what was.

“Can you help me?” He asked moving his head in the direction of the chair.

“I’ll call a nurse to help!” She said turning around with a spring in her step that made him smile. 

 ♦ Ha Yun ♦

Ha Yun was happy. She made him come outside and even though he was silent beside her watching the trees she knew she had made him give a step closer to recovery.

He also praised her food and ate a lot which was rare for him ever since he had the accident.

She couldn’t wait to tell his mother how he ate all the fried chicken and even his fingers. And it was the one she cooked. She couldn’t be more elated.

“We should play a game!” She suggested because he seemed to be falling into depression again, his silence worrying her.

“A game? We play a lot of games!”

“Games are fun! You like games!” she said sitting on the bench beside his chair. He often played games on his phone all the time but ever since he entered the hospital his phone was always forgotten beside his bed. It was as if Jinki didn’t care anymore about the outside world, about the games or other things that used to make him happy. Now he was more focused on his pain than anything else.

“Yes let’s try to find things on the shapes of the clouds!”

He looked at her amused, judging her because she chose a childish game to do and that only made her happy. That was her old Jinki forgetting about his wounds and just being himself.

“How old are you?” He asked chuckling, the beautiful sound making her lean closer to him.

“We are always children at heart. Also, it’s not like you can call yourself an adult either!”

He frowned moving his eyebrows cutely making her laugh but he didn’t deny her accusations.

“So are you in?”

He nodded his head and both looked at the sky trying to be the first one to find one to share with the other.

“There!” He said quickly pointing at a huge cloud “That’s a hippo!”

“Hey!” She looked at it “It’s more like a sheep.”

Jinki his lips “How can it be a sheep? It’s huge!”

“It’s a mutant giant sheep then!” Ha Yun shrugged her shoulders and Jinki mumbled an aigo, his eyes still on the sky.

“That one is a one leg chicken.” She said pointing at another cloud making Jinki tilt his head to see it behind the trees.

“What the hell!” He exclaimed while she laughed out loud at his reaction “You are terrible at this game. It doesn’t look like a chicken at all.”

“What does it look like then?” Ha Yun asked making him stare at it for a long time.

“A cloud!”

She couldn’t argue with that and he smiled softly.

“This game is kinda stupid!” He said rubbing his ear, his attention moving from the clouds to something else below.

A toddler was walking on the grass followed by his parents, the father holding his small hand while he did some uneasy steps, the mother watching them. They were probably going to visit someone at the same hospital.

Ha Yun wondered why that seemed to catch his full attention and she looked at him curiously.

He glanced at her by the corner of his eyes before he looked away hiding his teary eyes from her.

Then it hit her.

Even that toddler could do something he couldn’t. He was slowly developing that skill Jinki lost and he had a whole life in front of him. He could also build a family and have kids.

Ha Yun knew how that seemed to worry Jinki too. He didn’t speak to her about those worries but he did share them with his doctor.

 Was he still a man?!

 Yes, he was. Apparently, he still could get aroused, he was still a man, and he could have children even if he didn’t walk. He also felt a tingling sensation on his legs and sometimes he was able to feel when others touched him.

He would walk again. She was sure he would and she just hoped he would start to believe in it soon.

Ha Yun stood up from the bench and she walked behind the wheelchair. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a tight back hug, rubbing her cheek against the back of his head. He didn’t push her away so that was a good sign.

“Someday you will also grab your son's hand and walk beside him like that.” She felt him sob but he didn’t say anything “I’m 100% sure of it as you are of that cloud looking like a cloud!”

He released a soft cry and she knew he found her comment funny in a way.

Ha Yun waited until he stopped crying, her arms around him. She hugged him before but never like that, never with that meaning.

She closed her eyes feeling him cry in silence on her embrace, hiding his face with his hands and she was sure of it. Wherever he would go she would follow.

She did promise it to him and she would do it. The only way to get rid of her now was by running very far away from her and she hoped he would be able to do it someday even if that meant breaking her heart.