Gaeul stands in front of the children as she turns on the television in the living hallway. Every Tuesday and Thursday, Gaeul walks down to the children cancer treatment center. Here, she plays with the children and teaches them basic math. In the 20-minute break time, she turns on her favorite childhood television show, Spongebob square pants.

“Teacher, teacher! Which episode is this?” Hyunwoo asks eagerly as he sits down next to her on the couch.

Gaeul smiles tenderly. “I’m not sure Hyunwoo, let’s find out together!”

Walking by the Cancer center, Jongin notices Gaeul sitting in the children’s lounge. With the children around her, Gaeul’s eyes are also fixed on the television screen. The cartoon seems to be about some yellow sponge with eyes. Jongin walks into the lounge and sneaks behind Gaeul, who is too focused on the television to notice.

“I never knew you would enjoy this type of kiddy cartoon.” Jongin whispers into Gaeul’s ears from behind.

Gaeul screams with terror as she hears a sudden voice behind her. “Oh my god!! Doctor Kim, you scared the sh- daylight out of me!” Gaeul quickly changes her vocabulary as she notices Hyunwoo staring at her.

“So you like kiddy cartoons?” Jongin asks curiously as he stares at the yellow sponge. Why would they base a cartoon on a yellow sponge? Jongin shakes his head as he wonders what drug the creators were on while producing this cartoon.

“Kiddy cartoons? This is spongebob square pants! The spongebob square pants!” Gaeul emphasizes as she points to the yellow sponge.

Jongin shrugs. He didn’t understand why he was supposed to know about some sponge.

“Do not tell me you do not know spongebob….”

Jongin nods. “I didn’t have time to watch a cartoon about some yellow sponge.”

“You didn’t watch Spongebob? Oh my god…you don’t have a childhood. How could someone not know Spongebob square pants…poor soul!” Gaeul sighs with disbelief. Spongebob square pants defined her childhood! She would spend her glued to the television to watch spongebob!

“I’m sorry my childhood missed out on Spongebob square pants. I’ll make sure I catch up on it to save my poor soul and childhood.” Jongin chuckles.

“So loud! Shhh, Gaeul noona and doctor, can you guys have this conversation outside? Jesus, adults these days have no sense of manners!” A child from the front seat turns around and demands angrily. This was his favorite time of the day, and some stupid doctor who didn’t even know about spongebob was ruining it!

Jongin smiles at the kid who looks frustrated. He grabs on Gaeul’s arm and pulls her out of the lounge with him. Gaeul looks at him with confusion. She clearly wanted to stay in there and continue with the cartoon.

“Why’d you drag me out? I have to finish this episode!!” Gaeul turns around to go back into the lounge, but Jongin holds on to her arm tightly, refusing to let her go.

“I think you’re done watching that cartoon for the day. I’ll show you my Spongebob one day.”

“You have a spongebob?!!” Gaeul looks at him surprised. He just told her he didn’t even know about Spongebob!

“Yeah, I use spongebob to wash my dishes every day. He’s sitting in my kitchen sink, so feel free to come visit him any time.” Jongin teases as he tries to pull Gaeul.

Gaeul frowns. And for a minute she got excited. Feeling stupid she tries to pull her arm away. “Let me go! I want to finish that episode!”

“Gaeul…trust me, you’ll want to come with me.” Jongin reassures her as he tries to drag her out.

However, Gaeul adamantly pulls back. She wasn’t going to move one feet out of this place before he gave her a proper reason.

Finally, Jongin turns around and sighs. “Look, we just received a heart. We want to try it on you first. So please come with me, and I promise I’ll let you watch that episode again.”

A heart?? Already? Her last heart transplant failure was only a year ago…she thought she would have to wait another 5 years. This was a miracle!!

Immediately Gaeul nods and follows obediently.

A new heart…could she finally leave this place? Maybe she could enroll into school? Or was she too late? Maybe she could join a class in baking and later open a coffee shop? Or maybe she could try to join a firm as an assistant…there were so many things she could do!

“Maybe I could become a flight attendant!” Gaeul squeals as she happily as she dreams about the limitless opportunities. They seemed so close now, so close that she could achieve them any day.

Jongin looks at Gaeul’s happy expression. Nothing could make this a bad day for her. She was beyond happy or ecstatic. He could tell she was restraining herself from jumping up and down. Seeing how happy she looks, Jongin smiles too.

Quickly, he leads her to the heart transplant center and walks into the meeting room. In the meeting room, another 5 doctors are sitting around a table studying the heart and Gaeul’s medical charts.

“Gaeul-ssi…hi…do you mind giving us a second?” Baekhyun greets her quietly. He forces a smile as Gaeul tries to read his feelings.

Something was wrong. No…something better be right…Gaeul prays as she realizes that all the doctors looked stressed and worried.

“Just tell me directly. I’ve been in this hospital way too long to be pushed aside. I have a right to know now.” Gaeul tells him firmly.

Baekhyun looks at Jongin for help. He didn’t want Gaeul to hear the harsh truth right here. However, Jongin agrees with Gaeul and nods his head.

Baekhyun sighs. “This heart has ventricle problems too and if Gaeul receives the heart it may malfunction. This heart transplant only has a success rate of 5%...” He mutters regretfully.

And again…

Gaeul’s dreams shatter as she realizes her future still lay behind these walls. As high as her hopes jumped, her emotions came tumbling down. Was she fated to be stuck here? Is this a sign that she was meant to live here her whole life?!

           Noticing Gaeul’s devastation, Baekhyun takes a step closer to her. But Gaeul raises her hand and stops him from coming near her. She closes her eyes, hoping this is a nightmare. However, this was reality. She couldn’t run away from reality.

           Gaeul turns around and sprints out of the suffocating meeting room. She ran down the corridor of the white hallway and dashed out of the hospital. But a step outside the doors of the hospital, Gaeul was forcefully pulled back. A firm arm holds onto her arm, pulling her back into the hospital.

“Let me go!!!” Gaeul screams desperately, “just let me go!” She tries to throw a fit as she struggles to keep herself away from the hospital.

“I’ll let you go! I promised I’ll let you go. But not now.” Jongin tells her firmly. In his voice there was an undeniable sadness too.

After Gaeul ran out of the room, Baekhyun was about to chase after her, but Jongin pushed him back and quickly followed behind Gaeul. The moment he heard that the heart transplant was likely to be another failure, his heart dropped too. He really hoped this heart was her heart.

“You don’t understand! I really…please let me just die.” Gaeul pleads as Jongin is dragging her back into the nightmare.

Jongin turns back abruptly. How dare she ask for death! He stares at her furiously.

“Never say you want to die.”

“If you were in my situation, you would have already killed yourself.” Gaeul mutters back with tears rolling down her cheeks.

“No. You don’t know me. I would have fought harder. Even if I had to live my whole life in this hospital, I would have lived. So stop whining and accept this life. Once you embrace this life, you’ll get over yourself.” Jongin tells her angrily. He knew his words were harsh, but there was no way he was going to let her give up. He would not let his patient give up.

“You can’t say that…you’ve never lived this life.” Gaeul closes her eyes to stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks.

Sohee stares outside her window, into the main garden in the center of the hospital. Sitting on a bench in the garden, Gaeul and Jongin share a coffee. As if the world was spinning around them, they are joking and having fun.

“I want her to disappear from my life.” Sohee mutters angrily. This was taking her whole life away from her. From her father, Baekhyun and now Jongin…

Sohee stares furiously at Gaeul who is laughing at Jongin. She didn’t understand how her life was falling apart because of some stupid girl.

Baekyun looks up from his desk to see Sohee glaring out into the window. He didn’t understand why she hated Gaeul so much. Sohee was a girl who had everything so she was unaccustomed to something called sharing and loving. Baekhyun believed Sohee’s love for him wasn’t love but obsession and a desire for possession.

“Sohee…I feel sorry for you.” Baekhyun mutters as he looks at his envious fiancée.

Sohee spins around. Their eyes meet for a split second, until Baekhyun rises from his seat and leaves the room with a sigh.

“Oppa!” Sohee calls after him and chases behind. She runs behind and clings onto his arm. “Why do you feel sorry for me?” She demands. At the same time, she was scared to hear his answer.

-beep-beep-beep-ALERT-ALERT-

Baekhyun’s phone vibrates with an urgent call. Baekhyun pushes Sohee’s hand away and looks at the emergency call.

“Sohee, later.” He tells her firmly as he rushes down the stairs.

Unsatisfied by his response, Sohee chases after Baekhyun again. “Oppa! Tell me.” She grabs onto his arm desperately as he is running down the emergency stair.

“There was an accident between a car and a bus. The bus ran into a traffic light, and now I have 3 kids in urgent care, and 7 children who are suffering from injuries! You’re not the only one living in this world.”

“No, in your world, I should be the only living thing.”