A Year Later….

“Dr. Ro, the medicine was released in the system, almost an hour ago…we even used air mediums to spread it throughout the planet…” Kon, Ro’s assistant spoke and she nodded, her eyes on the screen in front of her, “Well done. Now all we can do is wait,” she leaned back in the chair, but her eyes never left the screen.

They waited for an hour, but soon the results were seen, “Dr. Ro! Got a report from the hospital, patients’ conditions are improving!”

“Jungshin, status on outside life?” Ro looked at her partner and he picked up the file and spoke, “Virus is dying. The team we sent out has reported that the virus has died in most parts of the world. It worked in an hour. In a few days, everything will be back to normal.”

Ro had a satisfied smile on her face and then she sighed, “Yes!” she did a little victory dance in her head and nodded to herself with an unfamiliar smile on her face. Jungshin sat next to her looked at her amazed, and she looked at him, “What?”

“I have never seen you smile like that… but ever since you returned from Earth…” he trailed off and she turned her gaze to the screen, pretending to reach the statistics, but she was paying attention to him, “Really? I didn’t notice.”

“Aye…don’t lie,” he scoffed and then she glared at him momentarily before looking away, “Whatever.”

Jungshin smiled in victory but then when he glanced at Ro, he saw that sad look on her face, which was always seen whenever he or anyone mentioned Earth. Ro was scolded a lot by the Head of Medical research for running off to Earth on her own, but at the same time her actions were heroic. A lot of damage had taken place in two years, but many were saved thanks to her.

Saving her planet brought joy to her, but not the kind of joy that Jungshin thought was satisfactory. The day she returned, she began working on making the cure portable and mixable with water and air particles. In two days she succeeded with his help and they sat here, three days later her return, fixing the planet.

“You know, now that its done. Let’s take a night off. Kon, watch the lab!” Jungshin dragged Ro out and the walked to their teleports and teleported back to Ro’s home.

“I thought you said you’re taking a night off?” Ro looked at him as she walked to her room’s closet and he shrugged, “If I leave you alone you’d be back in the damn white lab. I want you to take a hot bath, wear comfortable clothes, drink wine and relax on that costly sofa of yours, while we talk.”

“Talk about what?” Ro stretched her arms and somehow she felt better coming out of those four walls.

“I’ll tell you later. First go shower,” he pushed her into the bathroom and then pulled out clothes for her to wear. He was amazed that her clothes were either white or black. How depressing, he thought.

Jungshin knew Ro ever since they were born. Their parents were best friends, they were born on the same day, in the same hospital, next to each other, on the same time of the day. They were like un related twins. But they never considered each other brother and sisters. Their relationship was beyond any lovers of friendship. They were just close. And nothing could break this bond, or so they thought. They told each other everything, but when Ro returned from Earth, he n=knew something had changed. Like something was awfully wrong with her cold blank eyes. They had a glitter in them, the kind which he depicted to be sad. And he wanted to know why.

Ro walked out in  her bath robe and then picked a pair of shorts and a lose top and sighed, “So what do you wanna talk about?”

“Wait…wait…” he pushed her to the living room and poured each of them a glass of fine red wine, that was gifted to her a while back.

“So what happened on Earth?” he was quick to ask it. Ro took a big sip of her wine and then gulped it down. She felt the bitter sweet alcohol hit her, since she hadn’t had it for a while.

She threw her head back and laughed, “I went there, and in a day found the wretched man’s cat, and now I’m back after two years. It took by two years to travel and one day to search. That’s my report.”

“I am not asking a report Ro…” he spoke in his usual husky tone and Ro quickly finished her glass of wine, which Jungshin found very  strange. She exhaled deeply and then lay down, keeping her head on Jungshin’s lap, “Jungshin-ah…” she spoke in an unfamiliar tone and then continued, “Do you know I met six beautiful people on that planet. Who helped me without asking any reason? Do you know, people like that don’t exist…” her voice cracked and Jungshin sighed, ‘So it’s a gut after all…’ he thought and ran his hand through her long black hair, which seemed to look longer, maybe he could ask his stylist to give her a new haircut.

“They were all tall, and had slant eyes, smaller than mine. And were just beautiful…”

Or maybe not, longer hair looked better on her.

“And then one of them fed me chocolate cake. And the other fed me a delicious delicacy called Ramen. And then this one guy helped me make money  so I could buy Orion…and then the last one lent me clothes after spilling coffee on them. After that I met the other two. One of them gave me Ramen for my journey…and the other gave me his clothes for my way…the grey sweater in my cupboard belonged to the tallest one…he saved me from cold…” she was sort of singing like a little girl. A distant girl lost in her own world.

“Hmm…” Jungshin whispered and continued her hair.

“But Jungshin-ah…” her voice cracked as if she was crying, “Why does my chest ache?” she looked at him, and unknowingly her eyes were filled with water, “Why does it feel like my heart is being pulled by its muscles and blood is boiling at a high temperature?”

Jungshin was a bit taken aback. He had never seen her cry but he knew she would cry someday, and he had to be ready to comfort her, “It’s okay…I know it hurts…”

“It pains a lot…I feel like…I feel like dying…” she pulled him closer and buried her face into his abdomen sobbing loudly. Her cried filling the empty room. Jungshin bent down and hugged her shaking body and gave a bitter smile, “It’s going to hurt…it’s okay to cry…”

***

Nichkhun sat on the railing of the roof, when Taecyeon approached him, “Hey! It’s time to go back.”

“I’m coming…” he sighed as he got off th railing and then Chansung looked at him sorrowfully, and Junho whispered, “Ah…why is still like this?”

“It’s been a year…all the hyungs got over Ro….but he…there’s no way we can help him…” Chansung sighed and then saw Nichkhun get in the van with his feet literally moping the floor.

Taecyeon didn’t know how to help him…neither did Junsu or Wooyoung. They were hurt too…they wanted to see her again, but as time passed, the believed that she wasn’t coming back. She was, now, galaxies away from them.

But Nichkhun, his story and mind set was so very different. It happened in three seconds. The girl made his world stop, and made him create the perfect picture. The second Mona Lisa. No, she was way better than any Mona Lisa. She was Ro, the girl with the smile that would make angels fall. And he longed to see it again.

But it was only recorded on his sketch pad, and his mind. He longed to see it on her face in real life, but didn’t know how. How much he had begged God, that she wouldn’t leave and come back out of the feield, and they would have turned around, and started afresh. A new life, a new beginning.

His eyes were fixated on the rare view mirror where he always hoped to see her, waving at him to turn the car and re unite. But who was he joking? They talked for like…an hour? And he wanted to spend the rest of their lives together?

Why was his heart so stubborn?

He cursed it everyday. It ached so much. It felt as if his blood was boiling and his hear was being torn apart into shreds by a lot of force. And every day he wondered, did she feel the same? Or just…did she feel anything for him?

Reaching the dorm, Nichkhun changed into comfortable clothes and walked into the balcony, admiring the night sky, full of stars. But he felt lonely…it was such a curse.

“Indeed…” he sighed, “Being human is the most terrible loneliness in this Universe…”

___________________________________

Theme: Astronaut by Simple Plan.

Yeah...thanks for reading "Lost in Seoul"

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