Can you recall your last phone call?

Who was it from? Who were you on the phone with? A relative? Your mom? Your dad? A friend? Best friend? Or your significant other? Maybe your boss?

Where did the call come from? Home? School? Outside of school? The mall? Maybe your workplace?

What was the call about? Is there any food at home? Are you hungry? Your whereabouts? The time you’ll be arriving?

How long did the call last? Seconds? Minutes? Hours?

Was it a call that made your day or ruined your day?

Let’s start from the beginning.

Yein was nineteen when she gave up her passion and love for a higher education all for multiple part-time jobs in order to support herself. Because once she had turned 16, her parents—her mother, the family breadwinner, worked and died in her professional field. Her father, who couldn’t cope with the loss of his beloved wife, wasted his sanity and soberness away until he landed in the hospital with a coma. With any money left in her mother’s safe, after her father went through and spent most on drinking and gambling, was taken out and put into keeping her father on life-support.

Nineteen was a rocky road for her. But at nineteen was also the same year she found her one and only partner, Dongyeon Kwak.

They met through customer service at one of her part-time, he was happy-go-lucky despite being one of the many broke college students in town. Some call it love at first sight. Others claim it's love at first attraction. But to them, it happens to be love at destiny’s finest. Not only once but they ran into one another four times that day.

First at Yein’s part-time for breakfast where greetings and smiles were exchanged. Second at the nearby neighbor-friendly grocery store, where both of their items were ringed up and done at exactly the same so they caught one another’s eyes at the exit. Thirdly at Yein’s night time job, where Dongyeon and a colleague were going to grab snacks together before working in a lab together. And just before the clock struck midnight, they met again at a bus stop.

Yein had just gotten off work and Dongyeon were headed for home after group sessions. It was on the bus where despite it being completely empty, Dongyeon took the seat across from Yein. The lass had bowed her head a little before hearing his words, “I believe it’s not a coincident that we’ve met for the fourth time just now,”

It was that one line that started their friendly conversation and had them acquainted.

Then the days follow where Dongyeon would show up to her workplace, claiming he came because the service and food were too good to pass on each day. At the same time, Yein gave him discounts if he promised to stay as a regular customer. Soon Yein’s fake smiles turned into sincere, honest smiles. And so more boys, including some of Dongyeon’s colleagues, begin hitting on Yein, wanting her smile, her attention, her body. But Yein did not care for any of them. Dongyeon was the only boy she looked forward to hearing, seeing, and meeting as time passes.

Finally, on Yein’s twenty-second birthday, Dongyeon proposed she move in with him. He was well aware of her father’s condition and wanted to help her financially. Yein knew like her Dongyeon lived alone, in fact, he was studying and living away from home, from his parents and three siblings. Knowing that Dongyeon’s family had high hopes and faith in him, Yein did not want to burden him or become dead weight. But still, Dongyeon insisted and finally won her over with, “I’ll even do the shopping for the both of us. So what do you say, Yein?”

When they moved in together, into a bottom two-room apartment, it was the first time in a long time that Yein felt safe. Though Dongyeon habit of always locking the doors. After having to live alone, Yein became paranoid, even with the slightest movement of the doorknob, it would scare her. So at home, she made sure the door was locked and still locked every while, especially if the sight of the silver knob was not in her sight. It took Yein six months before she could get used to keeping her door unlock and open again, just like when her mother was still alive and her father wasn’t gone.

Yein and Dongyeon grew to know one another better as they lived under the same roof. Planted in the back of their brains were each of their likes, dislikes, and preferences. Yein knew Dongyeon wasn’t just into films but he loved using film reference in his everyday life as well as learn of directors, actors, and staffs’ names. Dongyeon can recognize Yein’s favorite dish, how she liked it cooked, what she likes added and what to leave out, its level of spices or sweetness.

Not only did they become aware of each other’s interests and passion, but their interests and passion in one another also deepened. Their teasing would end with their hands in one another, warm embraces, and kisses.

After turning twenty-four, they got engaged and shared a room, turning Dongyeon’s room into his own work studio. With school done, Dongyeon had begun picking up a career in the filming industry.

Yein, on the other hand, went from four part-time to one. She worked and finally saved enough to go to school. In the end, she wanted to become a nurse practitioner, to get a better knowledge of her father’s state, and thus aimed to major in the medical field.

In less than a year they moved into a home of their own. Yein spent more time outside of the house while Dongyeon nearly lived at home unless he had to travel for work.

Even though they lived together, getting together happened on rare occasions. Only at certain times when Yein would come home to a sleeping Dongyeon, who was taking a break from work and was waiting for her, on the couch. Some nights she’d cover him with a blanket and fall asleep watching him or she’d squeeze in next to him and use her arms to keep him warm. Where she would feel his breath against her bare temple.

In those situations, Yein would either wake up to a Dongyeon embracing her tightly or a Dongyeon who had swap places with her and was watching her sleep. Despite the outcome, every morning was filled with warmth and happiness. They were like a newly-married couple.

On a certain Winter night over dinner, Dongyeon dropped the news that he would be traveling for his first big movie. Yein thought nothing of it as it wasn’t the first time Dongyeon had to travel. Before the night ended, Yein packed some of Dongyeon’s needed belongings for the trip meanwhile he did some chores. At the time Yein was five months pregnant. After she got done with loading his stuff into two luggage, Yein left the room and headed for the kitchen where she found her fiance. Dongyeon was storing away extra dried dishes in the cabinet knowing Yein couldn’t reach up high.

As she entered the room and went around to cuddled him from the back, Yein rested the side of her face against his back as she gripped his shirt at the waist. Dongyeon stopped in what he was doing when he heard Yein’s first words.

“It’s tomorrow, the ultrasound. We’ll finally get to hear if our twins are boys or girls,”

Yein felt one of Dongyeon’s hands over hers before hearing him say, “It’s better if I take and go with you, reschedule it for next week when I come back—”

“No,” Yein breathed in between tiredly, “it’s okay. I’ll manage fine. I’ll give you the news when you come back, so don’t worry about me and do well with work. You’ve been waiting for this moment to film your first project,”

Dongyeon hummed as he turned his upper body around and gently Yein’s cheeks, “I’ll have my mother come by and help you,” there was a pause and silence before he added, “if filming goes well, let’s get married when I come back,” Yein nodded with a soft smile as she and Dongyeon locked gazes.

The very next day after Dongyeon flight out to the Himalayas, Yein was at the hospital getting her first ultrasound and at that very moment, destiny took a turn for the worse.

“Congratulations, you’re going to have a baby boy and a baby girl,” the doctor had said.

“You should eat more since you’re eating for three and not two,” the doctors had said.

“I’ll walk instead,” Yein insisted instead of taking the elevator. When Yein and Dongyeon’s mother came out from the stairway room, around the corner, a child who was being chased by another ran into Yein’s stomach. Knocking the breath out of her before she felt the pain.

A week followed when she was finally discharged after her being hospitalized for the loss of her unborns. Broken and shattered. Yein wasn’t sure how she was going to passed the tragic news to Dongyeon. She knew it would hurt him just as much as it did her when she lost their only babies.

Life and death are out of anyone’s control. But preventing death could have been possible. Yein could only blame herself for not being careful. She should have taken the elevator. But no matter how many times she beat herself over it, the past could not be redone.

Yein lost weight and also a part of her soul. As her mother in law sat her down on the couch, they heard the phone ring. Yein was in a dazed when Dongyeon’s mother picked up the phone. Once the lady answered the phone, there was a long silence before she said, “I understand, thank you,”

Drained and tired, Yein was hardly focused when Dongyeon’s mother sat beside Yein and brushed her hair back with her fingers. Sniffings was heard from the older woman. “Yein…,” she whispered. Yein heard the woman’s voice crack, “your grandparents signed the lease and granted the hospital permission to remove your father’s life support,” the woman inhaled deeply as tears streamed down her face, “that was a call from the hospital, your father just passed. I’m sorry Yein,” the older pulled the stunned Yein close to her and embraced her.

As Yein processed everything, it took her a while to recover from the shock and there the news hit her and barely knocked her off her feet.

At nearly twenty-seven Yein was the loss of her twins, her father, and even Dongyeon. After the week that Dongyeon was supposed to be back, news covered the case and reported an accident in the Himalayas that took the precious lives of three, Dongyeon included.

That was the last call Yein received.

The call that said Dongyeon’s life was lost in an unfortunate event. The call that came from the police station. The call that lasted less than a minute but the call that tore down everything Yein had. The little things holding and keeping Yein sane and in full control of her emotions, feelings, and thoughts. Dongyeon’s life was what kept Yein’s life intact. His life saved her life. His life made her want to keep living so-called life. But his life came to an end. So abruptly. But still, it ended.

And it was that call.

The last call to Yein.

A call that ended her will to live.

A call that ended Yein’s destiny.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Twenty-seven and Yein put in all of her savings into a trip to the Himalayas. She wanted to see the beauty that took her love’s life. She wanted to curse it. She wanted to hurt it. However, in the end, Yein took a seat in the snow and hoped Dongyeon’s spirit would hear her because he would always listen to her no matter what he was doing. “It’s unfair…. To you and to me, life is unfair. You may already know this but I lost our babies,” Yein paused as she dried the tears on her face with the sleeves of her turtleneck, “did you know our babies were going to depart? Is that’s why you had left me too? Or did our babies come here and took you, their father, with them?”

There was no Dongyeon, no other person, no animals around but the howling wind answered Yein’s cry, and briefly, a smile crossed her face, “I guess it’s only right. After all, life is only fair to those who have nothing to lose. So to anyone who has too much to lose, it’s only unfair….Dad was this what you meant when you once said we should have followed after mom…?” Yein let out a hefty sigh, “And here I thought I should at least keep you from dying. But in the end you stayed alive just to take Dongyeon and my babies with you, does this mean I should follow everyone now that there’s no one else left?”