DAY 10

Myungsoo visited the hospital again that day. He somehow hoped that the day before had been a dream and that she would be there waiting for him, but she wasn't. He laid down the bouquet of violets on her bed which had already been stripped clean. It was empty of any sign that she had been here, that she had even existed. Myungsoo felt tears roll down his cheeks, she had promised him that she would be safe, why had she broken that promise?

Myungsoo sat there, the same spot that he had dominated everytime he visited her, and for a moment he felt like she was still there, smiling and blushing at him. But when he turned his head to the side to check, all illusions disappeared and he was left feeling empty and alone. He stayed there until a nurse told him kindly that he had to leave because another patient was coming in to use the bed. Myungsoo nodded dejectedly, I guess she's just another patient to them he thought sadly. 

Even after he left the hospital he didn't head home. Instead he took a taxi to a large musuem which looked magnificent in the low evening light. He paid the driver before entering the museum. He knew where he was going; he had been here many times before. It was the place where he had been planning to bring her. 

After passing through a series of doors he entered a huge room with a low ceiling light. Although the room was quite dark there were lights dotted around the room, spotlighting a few models replicas of big cities and landscapes. He walked slowly between the models, looking at them one by one. He passed New York with it's empire state building, America with it's White House, the Himilayas, China along with many other places, even Antarctica. Myungsoo sighed and felt his eyes prick and he rubbed them angrily. He had wanted to show her, let her travel the World before she died. He had wanted to hold her hand the whole way through and just as they reached the end of the exhibition to call her name, look her in the eyes and tell her that he loved her. But he hadn't even been able to do that. He had been planning it for days before, he had been musturing up all his courage for the night before, he hadn't felt brave enough to confess to her before but now it was too late. 

Myungsoo lowered his head as he let his tears flow freely down his face. Suddenly his phone rang and wiping the tears away and clearing his throat he picked up.

"H-hello?" he whispered. His throat hurt when he spoke, a painful lump was forming there and he felt like crying again.

"Hello, is this Myungsoo?" The voice was female and sounded unfamiliar and he wondered how she knew his name. 

"Yes," he replied uncertainly.

"Well, I'm sure you know that ______ passed away yesterday and lets say she left something in my hands and told me to pass it on to you," 

Myungsoo heart pounded. Had she left him something?

"What is it?" Myungsoo asked, clearly flustered. His hands were sweaty and he rubbed them on his trousers while listening intently for a reply.

"Well, if you would so kindly meet me at Seoul Lama coffee shop at six thirty then I will show you," the woman said. Myungsoo told her that he would be there before hanging up. He  rushed out of the museum and got a taxi again. It was quarter to six when he arrived at the coffee shop but luckily the woman who had also arrived ealy and was sitting in the corner smiled and waved him over. He rushed towards her and after checking that they had met the right people the woman gestured to the seat opposite her before opening up her laptop.

"She told me to show you this," the woman said opening a video file and turning the laptop towards him. 

She was sitting there, looking beautiful as always even with her shaved head. The tears in her eyes made the soft, brown lens of her eyes shine and sparkle even in the dim light. 

"Myungsoo, I will be dead when you receive this but please don't be sad. I always knew the end would come someday and it was fortunate that I could meet such a great person like you before it did. I will never forget the day we met, I thought you were an angel, can you believe that?" she laughed weakly, looking embarrassed. I smiled at her, tears making my vision blurry. "I never knew what I wanted to do in the last few days of my life before I met you, you made me smile and laugh when all I felt like doing was crying. If I didn't have cancer then you would have probably been the kind of guy that I would have married and had a family with." She stopped for a bit to wipe the tears from her face. Her voice was starting to crack and I heard her heave a few sobs before continuing. "You would have probably been my boyfriend, my prom date and we would have been happy. But then I also find myself thinking that if I didn't have cancer then maybe I would have never met you. I guess it did bring me some good in life." Then she laughed again, "I guess I'm being all soppy, right?"

Myungsoo shook his head although he knew she couldn't see him. 

"I really hoped that somehow I would be cured and that we would have a proper happy ending but I guess life isn't like that. I guess miracles only happen in movies. I really hope you will remember me but please don't hold onto me. Carry on with your life, it will make me happy. Please send a message to your sister telling her that she was the greatest friend I could have ever hoped for. My last wish is for you to live my life for me, get a girlfriend, graduate, get married, have children and maybe someday we might meet again."

She looked straight at the lens and swallowed. 

"I love you."

Myungsoo who had been holding onto his grief and sadness until now, just let it all go. Resting his heads on his hand, he heaved heavy sobs of grief and regret. In that moment he forgot everything else and just let the tears come. People were staring at him but he didn't care anymore - he just wanted her back again. 

She was supposed to have lived one more day. He knew that it would have only been one extra day but to him and to her it would have been way more than that. It would have been one more day to live, one more day of precious memories. 

To him she had meant everything, even though he knew that she was dying already when he met her, he hadn't thought it would be so unexpected. He had promised her that it wouldn't hurt, he had broken that. 

Myungsoo let out one last sob before lifting his head to look at the love of his life on the screen in front of him

He gazed into her eyes and it almost felt like she was there gazing straight back. 

"I love you too," he whispered.

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10 YEARS LATER

A young doctor was sitting on the chair next to the bed of a young cancer patient. He was a very loved doctor at the hospital where he worked, he managed to get along with everybody and relate well to all the patients. He was a specialist in cancer patients.

The young doctor gently patted the back of the ten year old girl who was sitting on the bed, she was crying because she had been made to shave her hair that morning to prepare for chemotherapy.

"People are going to stare at me," the girl cried hiding her face in her hands. 

"No they're not, your still pretty even without your hair." the doctor said smiling as the girl looked up at him.

There was a look of doubt on the little girl's face.

"Really?" she asked and he nodded reassuringly. 

The doctor chuckled lightly and patted the girl on the head. 

"I've got to go now to check your blood test results now."

As the doctor stood up to leave, the girl grabbed his hand. It was obvious in the girl's expression that she didn't want him to go. He could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she thought of a mehod of making the doctor stay.

"Doctor ahjussi, why did you decide to become a doctor anyway?" the girl asked curiously.

His eyes carried a distant look as he smiled. 

"Because of her."