Chapter 28
What She Couldn't Forget-Khun

**This is a story from Khun's POV, dated along 5 years ago when Omi is 14.

It wasn't sunny. That I remembered. It was such a horrible morning. The grass is still damp from last nights' rain, the weather is grey and chilling. The last thing I wanted is, to go out in the town. Like I said, it wasn't sunny, despite the clock is pointing 10am. When Omi didn't show up the whole week, I knew something is wrong. My phone blasted to life. "Hae? Have you seen Omi? I'm worried that she's out alone again." I asked.

I waited for her answer but fails mercilessly. "I'll try to call her friends, see if they knew where she is." Hae heart paces. My breathe gets shallow. My hands and feet are cold, I could feel them freezing. My conscious mind kept on praying.

"Please...Please...Not today." I made my way past the crowded hospital hallway, pushing everyone out of my way, with eyes fixed in my destination. Phone in hand, an old pendant in my left. When I got there, a doctor just came out from the patients room. "Are you a relative to Shin Seon Mi?" He asked, his voice was serious.

"Not in blood...But I was given a call..." I nervously answered, and took several glances to the room's see-through window. "I assume you're Khun? You're the only number that she has on her cellphone... So I thought you maybe someone important to her." The doctor flipped a file on the spot.

"You may or may not know that she's been found positive on all kinds of drugs known to human..." The doctor started, and I interupted him. "...I know. It almost killed her this time, didn't it?" I looked at the doctor. "She needs help, Khun. Fell free to stop by to my office to talk of a suitable approach, considering you're close to him..." he patted my shoulder and left.

I looked over to the window on Omi. She looks lifeless. With all those wires, and IVs, his heartbeat was relatively calm. So I got in, slowly as the door creeps close. The nurse written down some numbers on her pad. "She's on Paracetamol, a subtle painkiller..." The nurse said to me, then left the room. I grasp both of my hands on her left hand. Placing the pendant in her palm. My tears started to fall. "...What am I going to do with you, Omi..." I whispered. I was exhausted into constant thinking of what she's gonna do next, trying to make her realise that life is beautiful than she think it is.

But I'm just tossing a stone to a lake.

Seeing her this way, it saddens me. I may be the only one who understands her. She was always told that she was rotten, useless, and of a disgusted gene. To me, Omi was amazing and astonishing human. She is smart, intelectual and brilliant. She gave me a fresh breathe of air. She looks into the world in the perspective than I've never considered. My solely perfect home, a safety zone that I've created for myself, was just a scrape of Omi's life. She made me realise, that there is a bigger world out there.

She still had that smile, the desire to protect, but she seems depressed, and she's not telling me why. She's telling me how. By getting drunk. By consuming numerous number of prescripted drugs. By literally, commiting suicide, slowly.

And here we are again. In the hospital, for once too many time. She awakens, and tries to reach for a drink. I took a huge lumps of air. And run my hair back. "You're up..." She said. "You want drinks?" I asked with a freshly awaken voice, not that I was expecting for an answer. I stood up and pour her a drink. "How long have you been here?" She asked. "I'll get the doctor." I said, and walked out.

"Well~ she's doing great. Normal pulse rate. Intoxicated percentage got down by 35%... I think you might be dismissed by noon, today. You owe Khun..." The doctor smiled. He then looked at me. "I'll get the prescriptions." I nodded.

Omi gave me a smile. With her baby face, it looked so foolishly cute. But my heart was hurt, it made my smile fade. "...You seemed different. Could it be that Ms Frown took your smile mask away?" She joked. I flashed her a smile as I collected her sweaters and gave her a new clean cloth. "Come on, you can do better than that." She pleaded.

"I don't have time for this. Can you please change so that we can go over this quickly?" I handed her the bag. She took it reluctantly, and soon got changed. As I was driving, she leans in sleeping.

Then, she woke up. "Where are we heading? This is not the road to my house. Or yours." She muttered, and rubbed a pair of her sad eyes, that seems to bicker my heart everytime I had to leave, leaving her. "Khun?" She called my name. "Haneul Rehab centre." I answered. "What?" She said. "I'm sending you to rehab." I repeated.

"...No you can't, I haven't got my clothes, or toothbrushes, or my things..." She panicked. "...I did. I went back to your house when you were sleeping, I've packed your stuff before-hand. I want you to get well." I told her.

"Against my will??!" She shouted, slightly. I stopped in front of the rehab centre. "Please... I am begging you. I need you to see me, the way I see you. I need you to feel the way I feel for you." I pleaded. She grasped both of my hands. "This is me, Khun. This is who I am. I see you. I can feel..." Her eyes were so intense, sort-of begging me not to send her over. "No. No, its not. This is the drugs. Your addiction, Omi. You'd do anything to get them. You would do anything to stop me from making you well, again. For one more time, Omi. One more time." I said.

The sky darkens. She got out of the car. And I helped her with her luggage. Soon, it started to rain. It rained heavily. She suddenly turned back to the car and drove off. She turned around, and I stood in the middle of the street. The headlights shimmers, driving straight towards me, that I couldn't see anything else but the lights. She won't kill me. She couldn't. Would she?

"Get off the streets Khun!" She yelled. "No. I swear in the name of my father, that I will save a life. And you'll be my first, Omi." I yelled back. My flattens, drenched in the rain. The cold wind, and rainfalls, shivered my body. But I had a message to send across that thick head of hers.

"I'm tired. I'm tired of being worried about you, constantly! I'm tired of crying, tired of wondering, tired of trying to figure out how to stop you from destroying yourself. Omi, I just can't take it. It scares me of how much life means nothing to you... It upsets me, how much you think less of me. I know you don't need me to save you, because you don't want to be saved...But I do. I need saving now, Omi. If you can't live for you. Live life, for awhile, for me..." Khun cried. My voices amplified louder than I intend it to be. Hopefully, she understands.

"My father just died...Omi. I don't have anyone anymore..." Khun's eyes reddens. "I only have you..." Khun collapsed onto both knees, hitting the hard drenched concrete ground, with his hands covering his face, his hair wet from the heavy rain that hardly stops. He surrenders to his emotions, and let's himself be vulnerable.

She finally got out of the car. She gave me a hug. "I can't lose you. I can't." Khun chanted. For once, Khun knew for that one second right there...Omi was back. "I'm sorry...". Then she faced me, with both hands cupped on my face. "...I'll do it."

That three words made me smile.

*****

Khun walks over an empty alley, all to the end, he finds an abandoned shoplot. He meets a young man, who has cigarettes hanging on his thin lips, standing in front of him, and gave him a full blow punch in the face. "What the hell..." The man cursed. "If I see you with her one more time, you'd be sorry that I know where you live. off." Khun turns his heel and marched away, unaffected, cold.
 

This one is a bit short... I add colours so you won't get bored :)