My kidnapping was sensationalized for a while; but then, life went on and everything was soon forgotten. WooHyun, Sunggyu and the others were in jail. My security was tighter. I was back to school. It seemed like everything was back to normal. But it never felt normal to me ever again.

Donghae and I were already talking but we never really brought up the army topic. I refused to talk about it, he did not insist.

I dreaded the days that passed by. The nightmares came more often. Dreams about the kidnapping haunted me for nights. It always ended with a gunshot and me looking down at the blood on my blouse. I didn’t even know which was worse – that or repetitively dreaming about doctors telling me my dad was dead.

Then from out of nowhere, a new kind of dream kept on recurring. It always starts with Uncle Leeteuk calling for me, asking me to sit beside him and ends with his machines beeping madly and the doctors telling us they were sorry. It was painful, actually. Everything after that. Seeing it all. Feeling it all.

“Honey, please. Not you too. You have to rest,” I heard my mom told my dad. It was mostly deja vu. Everything was almost the same thing over and over again. “You and Taeyeon have to be the most stubborn of all the people I have met.”

I longed to hear his cheerful voice once again. But with the way things were, I was being too hopeful.

“Why isn’t he waking up?” he would always ask. “I tried to save him. I did my best. Why isn’t he waking up still?” I heard him say again. Pain can be felt in his voice. He shielded uncle when they fell from the skis. He swam to him and shielded uncle’s body from the waves. It was because he was already unconscious and couldn’t take care of himself, he said. I did it so that he’d owe me, he joked. But we all knew better. He loved uncle like a true brother. They were life partners. I knew he’d do anything, even risk his own life, for him. I feel devastated as a daughter; I can’t bear to imagine how he feels as a brother.

As the days went by with no progress, the pain we felt increased. The ventriculostomy tube, which was supposed to help the simple clogged vein made things worse as the clogged vein progressed to hydrocephalus. The weeks went by and we tried to be as strong as we can be but everything felt so raw, every wound felt so open. Uncle was transferred home after a few days of arguing and weighing odds. A “hospital room” was installed to fit his needs perfectly. Two nurses per shift remained with him throughout the day and his doctors were ready to attend to him anytime.

Dad was finally discharged. Mom had him on house arrest and practically never let him out of her sight. During the day, they’d work on his therapy, as the lung punctures did major damage to his lung capacity. When the therapy is over, they’d drive to the Lee’s and spend the rest of the day there.

We thought we were prepared for anything. How wrong were we.

When I got to the Lee residence, everybody was already there. Donghae had called me a few minutes before and just told me to hurry back. I didn’t know what was happening but the heaviness in my heart would not go away.

I stopped when I saw everybody crying. My mind just completely shut off and my legs felt like jelly. I didn’t know how long I was standing there before Dong Wook turned and saw me. “Yoona.” He almost just whispered it. But the sound of my name resounded through the rooms.

I did not know how I did it but I got myself to walk. My tears wouldn’t come out and I felt like going into shock.

“She’s finally here?” I stopped, almost like a cartoon. It was a good thing I was already near Donghae. He was able to catch me before I hit the floor because the second I heard Uncle’s voice, it was as if my limbs disappeared altogether.

And suddenly, the keeper of time had gifted me with the opportunity to make up for lost time. Haha. No actually, I just stole a few minutes to post this because SuJu and SNSD is coming to my country and I am so excited to see Yoona and Donghae (hopefully) in one stage. And you know. MY feelings, hopes and dreams for YoonHae never really went away. I think that as long as neither of them are married, I will keep on praying that they end up together and make pretty babies and basically just be the dream couple. YoonHae is love. YoonHae is forever (in my heart).

Also, I was planning on changing the cover picture of the story but I can't really think of a concept that will fit the whole story. Any suggestions?

This was actually written a few months ago but I never really had the time to put it up because of my studies. It's unedited so please forgive the mistakes. I will try to steal time again to make the next chapters but I can't promise much. Anyhoo, forgive me for the super duper long hiatus. I promise to finish the story as soon as I can. Please do tell me what you think! Your comments are my lifeline, my sunshine in the darkness, my water in the drought. Lol cheesy. HAHA. But seriously. I love reading your comments so keep em coming!