Chapter 22:

            “Aigoo!” Onew said and touched her face. “Her name is SaeMi. She’ll be 2 years old soon.” SaeKo said. “Oh-new!” SaeMi said as she touched his face in return. “Aigoo kyeopta!” he replied and startled to cuddle her. “Why are you here anyways? You said you had a check-up?” Onew added. SaeKo then looked at YiBum, smiling. “Well…” she said and nodded with a smile. She touched her belly and rubbed it. “Ah! You’re pregnant? Ommo! Congratulations!” he said and continued to play with SaeMi. Then another knock was heard from the door.

            “Come in.” he said and found his parents coming in. “Oh! It’s been a while since we saw each other.” YiBum said as he came to his parents. “Umma, appa.” Onew said as they got it. SaeKo got SaeMi and put her in her arms. “Ah, you remember SaeKo. She’s my wife now. And here’s our soon-to-be-2-year-old daughter SaeMi.” YiBum added and showed them SaeKo and SaeMi. “It’s been a long time.” SaeKo said and greeted them. “Yes it has. It’s good to see you again and now as a family.” Onew’s appa said. “I guess we’ll be going now. Onew ah! Get well soon okay?” YiBum said as he got hold of SaeKo and they took their leave.

            “Goodbye.” His parents sent them off. “It’s been a while since I saw them again. It’s great seeing them, and now, they have a daughter!! I wonder what gender the next one will be.” Onew said in great delight after that visit. His parents sat down in silence and seemed to be in deep thought. The TV was on the whole time as Onew was watching. “Ahh…I can’t wait till I get back up and go behind the camera again. I feel so jealous of the other SHINee members and AeLin.” Onew said after a while of silence.

            “JinKi ah, you also need your rest. Don’t strain yourself that much.” His umma said. “Umma ah, I’ll be fine. I’d be more sad if I were to be confined here any longer.” He said with a smile. His appa then gave off a sigh. “JinKi ah, we need to tell you something.” His appa said and looked at his smiling face. “What is it appa?” Onew said. “Your scar…on your chest…” his umma started. He looked at his parents.

            Onew then gave off a sigh of his own as well. “I know…what’s wrong with me…” he said. His parents looked at each other. “For 3 years I’ve been going to the hospital for repeated check-ups. No one would tell me what was happening to me so I did some research myself. Don’t worry. I’m fully aware of it.” He added. His umma then started to cry. “We’re really sorry…we didn’t mean to…but you were just so…we didn’t want you to be burdened by such a problem.” His umma said.

            “Umma, this is JinKi. No problem would ever burden me. Would it be cancer or much worse, as long as I enjoy myself to the fullest, I don’t mind having such complication. As long as I get to do what I want to do, even if the time to take me from this world comes today I’d be okay. Have faith in me please, just a little more.” He replied. His appa got up and went to him. “We raised you well son.” He said and hugged his son tightly.

            “You know what, when you were born you didn’t cry.” His umma said. “We got so worried that you umma collapsed due to fatigue and because she was worried. I followed you out of the operating room and into another room where they checked on what was happening to you.” His appa added.

~Flashback~

“Doctor, what’s happening to him?” Onew’s appa said as he followed little Onew to the other room. “Sir, he’s a blue baby, we need to operate on him and patch up the whole in his heart. He can’t breathe and circulate blood well with a hole in his heart.” The doctor replied hurriedly. “You were really tiny then, closed eyes, you were moving, but still there was no cry heard from you.” He continued. “I sat there beside you when the doctors came rushing in to check on what was the problem.

            “When I woke up, I saw your appa by my side with tears in his eyes. As I saw him like that I immediately sat up and thought of what happened to you.” His umma said. “What happened?” his umma said teary eyed. His appa just kept on weeping and had his hands on his face. “Ya, tell me! Please!” his umma said and shook him as she started to cry herself. “He’s…okay…he cried.” His appa said and gave off a smile. “I was so overjoyed when I heard his say that. I was so excited to see you and have you in my arms that day. But because of that I didn’t get to see you until a week or so when I was allowed to go visit you in the nursery along with other babies.” His umma said.

            “Lee JinKi. That’s what I’ll call him.” His umma said. “What a cute little boy.” His appa added. “We’re blessed to have him. We shall take care of him and support him in any way we can.” His umma said and held hands with her husband as they continued to stare at their first child.

~End of Flashback~

            “And you grew up so well…we’re really blessed to have such a son like you.” His umma said. “Umma ah…” he said and gave her a hug. “It’s been really great seeing you guys again here. Although it’s just a short while…I’m still happy.” He said. “Take care of yourself son. We’ll be here always to support you as we promised.” His appa said. “I know…I’ve been blessed to have such parents as well.” He replied and gave his appa a hug. Soon his parents had to go because they had work to do still.

            YoonDuk also got to Onew before his parents went back. He had a little more time to discuss with his parents and about his complication. “Onew ssi, the others’ll be here as soon as they end their schedules so don’t worry.” YoonDuk said as he put down a couple of plastic bags which had fan gifts in them. “There’s been a lot lately.” YoonDuk added. “Sorry for causing you trouble about those.” Onew said. “Nah, this is how the fans show love to you so it’s my pleasure delivering them to you.” YoonDuk said. Onew gave him a warm smile.

            Time passes by quickly. Soon it was almost evening. Onew had nothing to do but to watch TV and drown himself in daydreams and boredom. A couple of visits from other idols like his colleagues from variety shows and stuff. “It’s almost 5pm.” Onew said. “So you’ll be having an operation done, Onew ssi.” A female nurse that he had befriended the days he was in the hospital said. “I guess so. I’m feeling a bit nervous to the thought of the operation.” He said. “Don’t worry. It’ll be over before you know it.” The nurse said and got a syringe from the basket she was carrying.

            “GaeYin ssi, thank you once again.” Onew said and gave her a warm smile. Sha GaeYin, the nurse, just smiled at him in return and prepared the syringe. “It’s been a while…since I’ve felt this carefree and light. I guess I should’ve told them sooner about me knowing about this thing that I have.” Onew said. “At least now it happened finally.” GaeYin said. “You were really a big help to me. If they couldn’t say what was wrong with me, at least I had you to honestly tell me what I wanted to know.” Onew said. “It was my pleasure.” GaeYin replied and finished off her work. “I’ll be going now.” she added then headed to the door. “*sigh* Only if you didn’t like him…” Onew thought.  

            It’s been a week after Onew’s hospitalization. 3 days from there on he’ll be released from the hospital. He’s now recovering from the operation they had. It was a success and that only check-ups are needed in order to keep track of his performance and status. Because of his absence some scenes from the new series he had to co-star in had been postponed. ‘The Lucky Ones’ had to film with only 2 of their main stars because of his absence. AeLin and MinHo spent most of their time together.

Everything was running smoothly as the days progressed. “So we’re going to visit Onew hyung today?” TaeMin said as they were in a van heading to the hospital. “Yeah. I feel bad I wasn’t able to visit yesterday.” Key said as he looked at the streets outside. “It’s been a while since we’ve heard the news. I still couldn’t believe that Onew hyung had such a complication. I never expected it to be that severe.” Jjong said as he held onto his phone.

“Ya, stop texting SeKyung ah. You’ve just met earlier, and now you’re texting her again? Sheesh. I wonder what got into SeKyung that she had to like this kind of guy.” Key said as he pointed out to Jjong who was acting silly. TaeMin was dazed as he was in deep thought. Then his phone rang. He got his phone and flipped it up. “AeLin ah…” he said as he looked at it. “Hello?” he answered. “Hello, TaeMin.” It was MinHo’s voice. He paused for a while as if time had stopped.

“TaeMin? Are you there?” MinHo added. “Ah! Uhm…yeah. What is it? MinHo hyung.” Key and Jjong looked at TaeMin. “AeLin just wanted to tell you that you that she wanted you to tell Onew hyung about what happened today on set.” MinHo started. “Ah what a pain. Can’t she call him and tell it to him herself instead?” TaeMin whined. “TaeMin ah!” then suddenly AeLin’s voice came up. “AeLin?!” he thought upon hearing her voice. It seems like MinHo passed the phone to her. “Ya, why let your silly story of your day go through me when you yourself could call Onew hyung?!” TaeMin said.

“Oi! Could you at least do me the favour? What’s so wrong with that?!” AeLin replied. “Ya! Even in the phone the two of you fight!” Key said in the background. “Hyung ah! This girl is crazy! She wants me to tell Onew hyung about her day when she can do it herself!” TaeMin whined to Key and Jjong. “AeLin ah! So you want to tell TaeMin about your day as well huh?” Jjong said out loud for AeLin to hear at the other end of the line. AeLin’s phone was in loudspeaker actually and MinHo happened to hear that,

AeLin did a small gasp and blushed. “Oppa ah! Yuck! No way! Well…uhm…then…oppa! Why don’t I tell you about my day instead? TaeMin! Pass the phone to JongHyun oppa!” AeLin got stuttered and said. “Why should I? It’s my phone! Call him yourself!” TaeMin replied. Then the two of them went into their frequent arguments again. “When will they ever learn?” Key said and sighed.