20

The Caretaker's Story

Somebody sent me this ending for the fanfic: And Choi Miyoung was blown up in a car accident. And Sehun and Haneul lived happily ever after while Woohyun found someone else to bother. And Sungyeol remained a brownies lover forever. And L loved chocolate milk forever. And princess Sunggyu lived in a castle with prince Sun Hi. and Dongwoo and hoya forever remained the ‘cool ones’.

And no one attended miyoung’s funeral.

Her body mysteriously disappeared.

I thought it was quite funny xD What do you guys think of it? But the fanfic won't end like this :P

Well, have a good day/night! Oh and do tell me what you think of this chapter!


 

“We were standing here as children about 8 years ago,” Woohyun said while staring me in the eye. I didn’t say a word and let the cool wind calm me down.

The sun had set and the lights of the field went on. A bit of the moon could be seen in the sky but clouds covered most of it. It was a cool night, but the cold was comforting. It was the type of cold I always liked.

“How can you not remember, Sehun? It was an important match.”

“I do remember,” I whispered.

Woohyun’s eyes lit up just a bit. I could tell he was glad that I remembered. Why he was glad remained a mystery to me, though.

“The final match,” I said, a bit louder this time.

“Our teams were tied,” Woohyun continued.

“Only a minute was left in the game,” I included.

“Then you shined once again,” Woohyun finished.

Silence took over as I remembered that day again. This bittersweet memory seemed to never leave me, no matter where I was. Even within this hospital, amongst people who were too weak to play soccer, the memory followed. I guessed that dreadful night was destined to remain with me forever.

“You were amazing that day,” Woohyun said quietly. Contrary to before, Woohyun kept his head down. He wasn’t staring at anything in particular but his eyes remained set in one position.

 “Everybody says that,” I pointed out.

“And so?”

“So I’m unfazed by those comments now. With everybody pointing that out all the time, I sometimes began to wonder if I was actually a horrible player.”

“That makes no sense, Sehun.”

“Yes, it does,” I paused. “With the amount of people who told me I was amazing, there had to be people who wanted to tell me I was horrible. But nobody would ever tell me that. All I ever got were more and more compliments. I was a trophy for my parents in our little soccer world.”

“So how exactly were you a bad player?” Woohyun finally looked up at me.

I stared him back in the eyes, “Because I was too perfect and so was everything else.”

Woohyun furrowed his eyebrows, still not understanding me, “That still makes no sense at all.”

I shrugged my shoulders before turning around to look at the soccer net. It stood tall and proud with its net blowing here and there every once in a while.

“What about you?” I asked. “You weren’t bad yourself.”

“I know,” Woohyun said, “I wasn’t horrible as someone else claims himself to be.”

“You were even better than I was,” I said thinking back to the days when I would sneak over to his practises. I would watch him play from afar and study his moves well. He was my biggest rival but I never made a big deal of it. My somewhat stalking ways were kept secret and I didn’t tell any of my teammates that I was set on beating him.

Woohyun scoffed, “We all know you were the best play back then.”

“No, I was horrible, remember?” I looked back at him.

Woohyun didn’t say anything but looked off to the bleachers. I followed his gaze to the empty seats, imagining a crowd of cheering people. Amongst the imaginary crowd, all I could see was my Father watching my every move. But I could also see my coach’s wife watching him from behind. And that was how the whole scene replayed in my head over and over again.

“God, I wish I could play again,” Woohyun said.

“What happened?” I asked in an almost inaudible voice.

Woohyun looked up to the sky, “lung disease.”

My eyes widened just like before and I blinked trying to digest the new information, “What do you mean?”

“A lung disease, Sehun. It’s a lung disease and boy does it ,” Woohyun chuckled bitterly. “It started off a couple of months after we lost and you won. I was practising my soccer moves with a couple of friends of mine when I all of a sudden couldn’t breathe. It got so bad that I thought I was going to die right at that moment.”

Woohyun began walking forward towards the bleachers and I followed silently. When we got there, we both sat down and Woohyun continued his story.

“I ended up being rushed to the hospital and spent the night there. The next day, the doctor came into my room and all of a sudden, my life turned upside down.”

“How are you now?” I asked. My head was kept down but my heart was beating faster with every word that Woohyun said.

Woohyun chose to ignore my question and went on with his story, “Before I knew it, I had a doctor’s appointment booked for every day of that week. I was allowed to go to school but missed homework a lot because of the appointments. I wasn’t feeling bad so everything was okay.”

“But three years later, it came back. That time, though, it was much worse. I remember being unconcious a lot of the time."

“Wait, stop for a moment,” I said. Woohyun’s life story was attacking me and I needed a chance to breathe. Thoughts of what I left behind on the soccer field were buzzing through my head.

If I had stayed on the team, would I know Woohyun from before? Would we have been friends? Questions like those roamed around and picked at me. But the one thing that hit me the most was that I didn’t recognize Woohyun. Now that I know I played against him once, he seems so much more familiar.

“Go on,” I urged after I was ready to listen some more.

“So, I spent a lot of my time at the hospital. Every time I would be allowed to leave, something new would happen and I’d have to stay there once again. It went on like that for a while. Although for two months I was allowed to go home.”

I nodded my head as Woohyun spoke.

“We’re now talking about two years ago when I was admitted into the hospital once again for full time care. I wasn’t as bad as before but I had to be monitored all the time. That’s when I met Mrs. Lee and…” Woohyun trailed off.

“Haneul,” I finished.

“Yup,” Woohyun confirmed. “We were the only teenagers in that area of the hospital at the time so we became friends. It wasn’t easy, though. Haneul refused to interact with anybody at first. It took me forever to get her to smile at me!”

I chuckled a bit at that. I could imagine Woohyun chasing her around and Haneul not replying to him.

“Haneul talked to me the first time we met, though,” I pointed out.

“Yea, she started to speak more after spending a year with me. We would eat every meal together and she would get me to read books with her. I always hated reading but did it for her anyway. Sometimes she would even test me on the book!” Woohyun exclaimed. We both laughed. Haneul’s love for books seemed to affect everybody.

“It was then when I decided to fill the jar up with paper cranes. So, I would spend my days making them whenever Haneul wasn’t around. I kept them stored under my bed and asked the nurses to get me new paper whenever I needed it.”

“How long did it take?” I asked, curiously.

“A good couple of months,” Woohyun said.

“Ah,” I nodded.

“But she rejected the jar,” Woohyun chuckled bitterly.

“I’m sure she had her reasons,” I said trying to keep a positive look on the situation. Woohyun shook his head but didn’t say anything.

“Kim Haneul,” Woohyun said as he looked up at the star-filled sky. “What an interesting girl.”

“Yea, she is.”

I could hear crickets in the grass and cars on the road. It was a very calm night as if everybody else knew that Woohyun and I needed anything but havoc tonight. We needed a chance to calm down and think, let our feelings out.

But nature’s calmness no longer mattered when Woohyun began speaking again, “I’m dying.”

“What?” I asked in complete confusion. I looked to my right to see tears running down Woohyun’s face as he bit his lip, preventing a cry from escaping.

“I’m dying,” He whispered this time.

“No,” I shook my head, “No you’re not.” Woohyun was alive and he was going to remain alive. I was sure of it.

“I have a problem, Sehun.”

“You’ve had it for so many years now. You’ve lived up until this point and look at you! You look perfectly fine!” I exclaimed in distress.

“How much longer can I live? My body won’t be able to handle it,” Woohyun said sternly. “I know it.”

I couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. How could someone say that about themselves!? And Woohyun especially! He was perfectly healthy. I saw him every single day and never did he show signs of death. He would sleep often but he was a patient, so I expected that. Woohyun had to live.

“No you don’t. Stop saying that!” My heart was racing as I watched the tears go down his cheeks, some forming in my eyes.

“Stop avoiding it, Sehun!” Woohyun roared at me. His body was fully turned to me and I could practically see fire in his eyes; fire that was burning him.

“Stop running towards it!” I retaliated.

We stared at each other for a while. Woohyun’s tears had covered his whole face by now and mine were still stuck in my eyes, threatening to come out. After a while, Woohyun’s body began to get limp and he turned away.

“I’m not, it’s chasing me,” He croaked.

“Then run. Run as fast as you can, Woohyun. Run like you’re playing soccer.”

“But I can’t play anymore. There’s nothing I can do which is why I need you to do something for me,” He began, “Since I’m dying—”

I stopped Woohyun once again, “No, you’re not.”

“Just listen,” He said in a stern voice. “I want you to play soccer again, for me.”

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BambooPillows
I changed the title of the story. Just letting you know :)

Comments

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cheonchoni
#1
Chapter 26: Awww sehun, you don't just 'happen to have 8 cards' lol
cheonchoni
#2
Chapter 9: I bet it's the purple flowers
oudusgirl
#3
Chapter 42: it's really a beautiful story...it would have been better if I find this story earlier... anyways thank u for this amazing story...keep up the good work authornim...
stephanie1138 #4
Chapter 42: It is indeed a beautiful story. I really like how simple the way it's written yet bunch of meaningful message are conveyed along it. I've actually been contemplating to redad this long time ago but I gave up during first two chapter because I'm actually not a fan of reading a friendship based story. I don't know what push me to re-read this story again but I surely didn't regret it. I've found beauty along the way I've been reading this story. Seriously. I've also learn many things throughout this reading session that I had for the past few days. Thank you for writing this story.
chocmaniac9
#5
Chapter 42: I seriously can't described my feeling rn tho~
The emptiness and hurt is soo real..it makes my heart wrench..

I truly wish i couldve found friends that is as amazing as that..
The one who support, hold you, and can detect what you feel just by gazing at you

Its a wonder actually...how life can be a huge roller coaster..
QueenLit
#6
Chapter 1: Wow...this is such a refreshing take. Sehun POV...I like it! This is legit!
haeri0610 #7
Chapter 42: Such a beautiful story... I really love it..?
angellovebeast #8
Chapter 41: THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I CRIED SO HARD FOR A STORY! YOU ARE TRULY AMAZING! Continue doing your best! Fighting Authornim!!
findaa #9
Chapter 42: I really like your story.. It's been a while since a read this kind of beautiful, motivating, and interesting story.. Thumbs up..
warmpenguin
#10
Amazing, amazing, and amazing. Twenty out of ten; would read again.