My Decision
Protect UsDaehyun was rummaging through the garage and finally came out. "Look what I found in your garage." He showed me the sled in his hands. "Now where's that hill?" he asked. I pointed towards the hill just behind our house. We trudged through the snow to get to the hill, since it snowed a lot last night. Daehyun was way ahead of me, walking through the snow like it was nothing.
"Wait for me!" I called out. He stopped and looked back with a smile. I finally caught up to him. "You and your legs," I huffed.
He chuckled and held out his hand. I was confused so I held out my hand with my palm facing up. He suddenly grabbed it and said, "I'll help you." I felt my cheeks burn up on the cold winter day. It felt weird, but nice at the same time. My heart kept beating loudly though. Seriously, it wouldn’t stop.
We finally reached the top of the hill. It wasn't too high, but it was pretty steep which made it a struggle to climb up. Daehyun sounded really bad when he tried to climb that hill with me. His breathing was really heavy. I tried to convince him to stop but he wouldn't listen.
"We should stop. We can do this when you're feeling better." I tried to pull him back home but he refused.
"No, we have to do these today. I don't care if my health is poor or not. Your list has to be finished before midnight."
"Why does it have to be today? You're not feeling well!" I chided.
"Because it's Christmas." He looked at me and smiled. "I want to give you a present and it is to finish your list by today. If it's not by today then it's pointless. I don't care if I'm sick or not, it's your happiness that matters the most."
I softened. "Didn’t I tell you that you guys are all I need?"
He squeezed my hand. "Today is the day where I make it the most memorable day of your life. I'm going to make myself the one you need the most. I'm the one who makes you breakfast in the morning, massage your shoulders when you're tired and hold your hand when you're climbing high obstacles. I'm going to be right beside you."
I just stared at Daehyun who was smiling sweetly at me while we were climbing up the hill. My heart couldn't take it anymore. It wanted to jump right out of my chest. His words sounded sincere and promising. We finally reached the top of the hill. Daehyun placed the sled on the snow and helped me get on it. I was about to go down but he stopped me with his foot. "Yah, are you planning to go by yourself?" he frowned.
"This only fits one person though..."
He smiled, shaking his head instead of the usual scoff. He made me move down the sled to make room for him. I stiffened at straightened up when he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to his body.
"See? Two people can sit on this. Hold onto the sled tight," he whispered in my ear. I shuddered at the feeling of his breath on my ear.
He pushed the sled with his feet and we went soaring down the hill but the sled couldn't take weight of us. It toppled over and we went rolling down the snowy hill.
Once I landed back on the bottom, I groaned. "Told you it couldn't take two people." I sat up and dusted the snow of me. "Are you okay?" I asked.
I stopped dusting off the snow when Daehyun didn't reply. "Daehyun?" I looked around for Daehyun but he was nowhere to be seen. "Daehyun this isn't funny. Come out!"
There was still no reply. Scared, I ran to the upside down sled to see if he was there. I lifted up the sled but there was only snow under it. I ran to the place where we fell off but he wasn't there. "Daehyun!" I cried. "Where are you?"
Hot tears streamed down my cold face. I frantically looked around. Daehyun disappeared somewhere under the deep snow and on top of that, he could have a major fever. He was wearing a white jacket, which didn't help my search at all.
I ran up the hill to get a better view, and through my blurry vision, I spotted a dirty blonde speck down in the snow. I hurriedly ran towards Daehyun and knelt down. His face was face down into the snow. I flipped him over and let him lay on my thighs. "Daehyun! Daehyun, can you hear me?" I dusted the snow off his face and hair. "Daehyun, don't scare me!" Tears were uncontrollably running down my cheeks.
His eyebrows were furrowed and his breath was quick and heavy. I felt his forehead and it was burning hot. I quickly pulled out my phone and called the ambulance. I didn't know what to do while I was waiting so all I did was hug him and rub my hands on his to give him some warmth. Minutes later, the ambulance arrived and carried him into the truck. I was sitting in the back, still holding onto his hand with my forehead pressed against it. "Please be alright," I whispered.
The ambulance arrived at the hospital and he was wheeled into the building right away, with me running right beside him. They wheeled him into a room, and I was going to go in but a nurse stopped me. "Sorry, you can't come in."
"What? Why? The doctor's not doing surgery!" I screamed. I didn’t want to let go of his hand.
"The doctor needs privacy to work with his patients. We need you to stay and do the paperwork. You can see him when we're done." She pulled my hand away from his and wheeled him inside the room. I closed my eyes and prayed for a quick recovery from him. If not...it would all be my fault.
By the time I was finished with the paperwork, the doctor wasn't out yet. I was shaking from the anxiety. Finally, after what felt like an hour of waiting, the doctor came out. I shot up from my seat and ran over to him. "How’s he doing?" I asked.
He nodded. "For now, he's fine. The fever went down a bit but you still need to be careful. His fever was almost at a point of dying." My heart dropped like an avil. "He needs to rest here for a couple days before he can be discharged."
I bowed in thanks and entered Daehyun's room. My eyes started to water again and my legs felt numb as I walked towards the weak body. I looked at the IV drip that was attached to his arm. If he needed that, he really must be human.
I sat down on the chair and looked at his pale face. He was weak and immobile. He wasn't the tough Daehyun I knew. I held his hand again. "I'm so sorry Daehyun. I should've told you. You're not that invincible, tough alien you were when I first met you. You're weak, and fragile like every human on earth. You’re prone to sickness and disease. Is this what you want?" I swept his bangs away from his face. "Do you want to be weak and fragile? It's all because of me that you're like this. It's because we got closer to each other that you have a beating heart. I can't allow this to happen to the others like it did to you. I'm sorry, Daehyun." I quietly sobbed and held his hand like I was never going to let go.
This was his first visit to the hospital and it hasn't been close to a year yet. I've lived 20 years on this planet and yet this was my first time in a hospital. I wasn't going to let the others visit the hospital any time soon. I will never allow them to enter a hospital. I made a choice. The only way to prevent them from coming into this place is to prevent them from becoming human.
I ended up crying myself to sleep, next to Daehyun. He stirred around, which caused me wake up. I straightened up when I saw him moving. My eyes widened. "Daehyun, can you hear me?"
After a couple of seconds, he opened his eyes. He whispered my name with his pale lips. A tear unknowingly slipped out of my eye but I quickly wiped it away. I called the nurse right away so they could check up on him.
After the doctor and nurse talked to him and gave him pills, I walked back into the room. He heard me come in and smiled.
I sat down on the chair without saying anything. He tried to sit up but I quickly pushed him down. "You can't! Just lie down and rest." I mentally cursed myself at how natural that came out. I wasn't supposed to be caring!
He obediently lied back down and said, "I worried you a lot didn't I? Sorry. When I said I'd make this a memorable day, I didn't mean it this way," he sheepishly chuckled. "So, this is a hospital?" he looked around. "I saw it on TV but I've never seen it in person."
"Stop being so happy!" I suddenly shouted. Tears were already falling down my cheeks for some reason.
"Eun Mi," he stuttered, "what’s wrong?" he reached out to wipe away my tears but I slapped it away from me.
"I'll tell you what's wrong. It's you. Why are you acting so happy? You almost died and you find the hospital interesting? Do you think the hospital is a place where people was to be? If you find the hospital interesting, you want to be sick your whole life? Where did that old Daehyun go? The one who'd make sarcastic comments and didn't give a damn about anything around him? How did you change in one day? You're cheery, you're nice, you like skin-ship, you're," I paused for a moment, contemplating whether I should tell him or not, "you’re human."
"Human?” he smiled. “That's great! That means-"
"No, that's not great! I don't want you to be human. Look at what that transformation did to you! You're in the hospital because of a stupid human fever. You're not invincible anymore, you're weak. Do you want that? Because I don't! Being human changed you. I want that cold Daehyun back, the one who didn't give a damn about anything or anyone. Especially me." I stood up and headed outside the room.
I closed the door behind me and slid down to the floor, muffling my sob. It hurts, to see him like this. If getting closer made him like this, maybe drifting away would do the opposite.
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