First and foremost, I thank Bastille's Oblivion for the sudden idea forming inside my head.

You might want to hear to this beautiful song as a start :)

Happy reading!

***

It was three o'clock at dawn. There were no sound from inside the room, but from outside, the sound from the stereo was still blaring although he wasn't sure if any were still partying down there. He bet everyone else had crawled back to their respective homes or dorms, or was sprawling on random places inside the house like his room for instance, or right on the carpeted floor in the living room adjoined to the family room down there, wasted.

Meanwhile, he was laying in a room unfamiliar yet acknowledged just too well, sandwiched between the cool mattress covered in cotton sheet of dull color and a warm thick duvet.

The left part of his chest felt somewhat stiff and numb and it caused him discomfort that he was awoken from his slumber. His eyes fluttered opened as he grimly observed the room he was sleeping in.

It was dimly illuminated by a night lamp on the side table behind his back. It was a fluffy king sized bed he was laying on, not his usual single bed which he often fell off from when his sleep was too restless. The room itself was covered in warm terracotta wallpaper. Photographs of his family which only consist of his parents and himself-given that he was the only child-were hanging randomly in white frames on the wall he was facing at.

Those pictures brought back his consciousness and he realized that he was actually in his parents' room.

What's this? He wondered as once again, he felt a dull throb from his numb part of body. He tried to retract his arm, but it was immobilized.

Turning his head to the side, he found a heap of brunette hair, straight and long. Some locks fell messily onto a small face, slightly covering it.

He smiled a small smile as his memory vault was replaying the scene a few hours before.

That was the first night they slept together in each other's arms, although it started wildly, as wildly as a sophomore students could do with his freshman girlfriend when the house was empty for the night.

That night, his parents had to leave to attend a family event in another town. So, out of a spur decision, he invited his college pals and his girlfriend and threw an impromptu party in his house.

When they all arrived, the booze and chips were pooled collectively. So they started to party and it wouldn't stop until it was well past midnight.

With the many alcohol down their digestive systems, soon the couple find themselves lightheaded and their body temperatures rose. The only one way registered in their hot tipsy heads to cool down themselves was to take comfort in each others' arms. It was not an unconscious decision though. He remembered her saying "It's fine with me" when he asked her if it was okay for him to continue.

So, there he was, sleeping with his girlfriend in his arms, feeling an indescribable joy as he woke up. Not for the physical satisfaction, but for the mental satisfaction of being so much closer with someone he would do anything to spend the rest of his life with. He might be young and naïve at that moment, but he knew that he would trade everything in his life to be able to walk down the aisle with this lady's hand in his.

He looked down to watch her sleeping. Her soft steady breaths were apparent as her bare chest was heaving up and down while the air went in and out her system.

Upon seeing the sweet girl in his arms, he couldn't help but smile. He reached up to caress her pale white cheek. Her skin was so smooth, he found his hands were easy to glide on.

She, in the other hand, was feeling his touch on her cheek, yet it wasn't enough for her to wake her up. She stirred nonetheless, making the guy to the small of her back and hush her back into deep slumber.

He smiled again after knowing that his sweetheart has fallen back to sleep. Bowing his head a little, he kissed her forehead carefully as he was thinking, I can't wait to see us growing up and old together. Wonder if you will look as lovely as you are now, looking this beautiful as you never have let your problems get the best of you. Or will you surrender and let your problems swallow you eventually as time goes by and your aging self couldn't handle it.

He took a deep breath, taking in her sweet fragrant in the process.

But I doubt it could bring you down. You are too strong a soul that I believe any problems will buckle it's knees at the sight of you.

He her hair and said tenderly, "I love you, Sunny Lee."

Then, she stirred and squirmed again as she slurred incoherently in her sleep, "Lurvetoo...."

He wem. Unsure if she had been noticing his attention or not, but he would rather think the latter. Pulling up the cover a little higher to cover her better, he hugged her tighter and fell back into oblivion.

*

It was five o'clock in the morning. There were no sound from inside the house, nor from outside the house. It was calm and still, as the world was sleeping.

He stirred from his sleep and was trying to roll on the bed. However, he felt his body was immobile.

At this time, it didn't confuse him anymore. It had become a habit that they slept in each other's arms, and not letting go of each other unless it was morning already and they had to wake up.

How did they manage to sleep still was unknown to them both. All they knew, they loved each other's company and it disturbed them if they were separated even in their sleep.

It had become a habit to that he woke up in the middle of the night just to watch her sleep, especially now that their house had been noisier. He enjoyed the silent moment shared with her unconscious figure.

It had been ninth year after their graduations and fourth year into their marriage. They had moved out of their hometown for better careers, leaving behind the quiet suburb and stepped into the bustling city of fast rhythm.

As he laid there thinking, he couldn't been happier that this woman was with him all these years. There should be high moments in their life when he was promoted a general manager. He remembered they shared the moment with a quiet dinner in the rooftop accompanied by a bottle of good wine. Or the low moment when his mother, her mother in law passed away because of heart failure.

He remembered the grieve he felt at that time. His mother, an angel on earth who taught him anything, who cared so much for him although he was a grown up with a family of his own, who had been his sole secret keeper since he was little, had suddenly been taken away from him. Like a room with only a single candle lit it up, he felt like the candle had been put off and the room had turned dark. His world turned dark.

However, she was standing strong. Whenever he felt so vulnerable,his wife was always there, supporting him. Sunny Lee was his pillar of strength.

He remembered a night when he felt so empty after his mother's death. How he broke down and cry in the bathroom, because he couldn't let anybody know his weakness state although he was drown in mourning. But she walked into the cramped room, sat down on the floor beside him, and hugged him tightly. No words of condolences, just a long tight hug. She let her action spoke louder than her words, and that was what he needed the most.

From that night on, she held a new position in his heart. If before, she was his equal partner, from that night on, she had been the light in his life, his anchor. That was what he felt as he held on unto her.

The woman in his arms moved a little in her sleep and his wandering mind was focused back on her. He noticed that a few wise lines started to form on the corner of her eyes, highlighting the spots in her face from which her smile came from.

She looked peaceful in her sleep and for him, she looked the best when she was sleeping. It was when one was sleeping that their pretenses were gone. No mask was put on, only simple innocence was there. It was when one was sleeping that one let their guards down. And he was more than happy knowing that he was the only one who was able to see her in that state. It made him want to protect her more.

He then remembered his own thought. A thought which wondered if she would age with grace or if she would surrender to the difficult situations ahead. However, as they shared almost a decade living together under one roof, she proved to him that she was the strongest woman he ever knew, and that made him fall deeper in his adoration for her.

"I love you more than ever, Sunny Lee. Thank you for keeping up with me all these years. It has been wonderful and I'll be waiting for the moment when our hair turns to white. I bet you'll look as beautiful as you are right now. As pretty as you were when we knew each other a little more than a decade ago," whispered Sungmin as he was leaning down to kiss the crown of her head tenderly.

All of a sudden, the door of their room was opened with a bang and right on the doorway, a little boy who were just around three years old came in while holding his green blanket in one hand and a teddy in the other.

"Mummy..." He snivelled.

The little boy's weep wasn't even loud, yet her mother instinct awoke her. She stirred and rolled over and away from her husband's embrace.

"Yes, sweetheart? What's wrong? Bad dream?" The fine woman in her early thirties asked as she blinked away the drowsiness and tried to get up and reach the little boy.

The little boy, their son, didn't answer her question. He kept weeping so sadly as she reached for his little hand and took him to their big bed.

"It's okay," she hushed him calm as she sat down on the bed and hug her baby. Their baby. "It's okay. You can sleep here with mum and dad tonight. Is that okay with you, daddy?" She asked him.

Sungmin, grinning happily at the treasures in front of him, said, "Of course I'm okay. Come, get under the cover, Tiger."

With that, the little boy crawled under the blanket and slept, squished between his loving mummy and daddy who hugged him tightly.

*

More decades had passed before them which seemed to happen only in a flash of time. However, habit remained, and only grew even stronger.

His body now, he realized, seemed to build its own alarm clock, that he would wake up at a certain time at dawn. But some things had changed. For instance, he would find himself pretending to be sleeping because his wife would occasionally wake up in her sleep lately, unlike in her younger, healthier days where she would sleep through the night.

The other change was the body in his arms felt smaller than ever. His wife was never big in the first place. She was tiny when they met decades ago. She was still tiny after she gave birth to their first and only son. She was still small after she went through her menopause while the other ladies got bigger. However, during these two past years, her small body was shrinking at an alarming rate.

He remembered the day when their son, his daughter in law and him received the news. It was like a thunder struck on them. After series of tests, the doctor delivered the news that Sunny, which was in her late fifties at that time, had a growing cancer.

As a couple of years gone by and chemotherapy was taken, they had her with a very short hair of only two centimeters for it finally grew back. She often hide it with a beanie, yet he still found her pretty. However, her aging self couldn't hide her failing stamina. Her weakened state from the battle against her cancer was apparent in her wrinkled body.

It saddened him to see his wife in pain, yet she didn't allow him or anyone else to be sad for her. He remembered what she told him one afternoon when they were spending their time in the little garden behind their house that she used to tend to when she was healthier.

"Look at me, dear," she said to him as she held his chin in her bony fingers.

At that time, his mind was playing a dirty trick where he imagine her disappeared before him, and he had to bury her. His disrraught face couldn't fail to catch her attention despite his effort to smiling in front of her.

I turned my head as her hand suggested, and I looked into her twinkling eyes. At that moment, I realize that never in those two suffering years that she let her beautiful orbs lost its sparkle.

"Now you tell me what's in your mind."

The order itself had left him baffled. How on earth would he tell her that he was thinking about her death?

"Nothing," I answered.

"You can't fool me, dear," she said as she reached out to the side of his head. "What is it? Are you afraid?"

He stared at her. "I can't never fathom, even until now, how you are always able to get through me."

She just smile upon his remark, "Now let me tell you. I am probably as afraid as you are about this ordeal. But having you beside me, having our son and his wife, our grandkids, and close friends, then I realize that I lack nothing in my life. You and our family complete me, and I have nothing to lose."

"But..." He tried to interject when she quickly put her index finger on his lips and shushed him.

"But I am well aware that death was not about the one who die. It is about those who are left behind," said Sunny. "So, through what is happening to me, I want us-you and I and the kids-learn how to be braver and stronger than we already are."

"I know. But it gets harder, especially when I see how you are suffering. I feel helpless knowing that I can't do anything for you."

"Rubbish! Being there next to me, whispering into my ear that the pain will subside very soon is the best thing I could ever ask for you," answered the lady. "Knowing that you are here next to me through all this makes me feel so much loved and yes, it lightened the pain. You make me the luckiest woman in this world to have a husband like you."

Sungmin stared into his wife's eyes that afternoon and wondered how this woman, despite being in a cute size, was so strong. He couldn't remember her crying because of this illness. Never. All she did was smiling at them, letting them know that she was alright.

Bobbing his head down, he looked at the sleeping lady, the only woman he loved the most in this entire world.

You know what, Lee Soonkyu, he talked to himself, you are the one who make me the luckiest guy in this world to know you and to have the honor to get married to you. I love you more than the world itself.

He bent down to give her forehead a kiss. Her skin was sagging against his lips, but he knew just well that her aging self reflected his own. And although he knew that they had to separate sooner than they wanted to, they had no regret, knowing that they had shared their time together like none other.

"I will never get bored saying this to you over and over again," whispered Sungmin as he hugged her fragile body even tighter. "I love you, Sunny Lee. Always and forever."

*

It was at dawn again when he stirred from his sleep. He blinked twice as he laid on his side, slowly got himself adjusted to the darkness of his room. Their room. Was.

Just like previous years, he reached out to hold his wife better. An act that was already instinctive, only now his arms met with empty air.

He sighed long and low.

I miss you, Sunny Lee. I miss you so much.

His mind was slowly going back to the previous year. Sunny had have two sets of chemotherapies done on her to fight her recurring evil cancer. She pulled it through until the therapy was complete. However, her withering body couldn't take the after effect well. She couldn't get fit again, no matter how hard they tried.

Sad was the day they had to let go off her. She was laying still in her hospital bed with many tubes going into her ever so fragile body, many machines beeping around her.

She had been in the comatose state for two weeks, and all her family and friends hoped that either she was magically cured or her suffering wouldn't prolonged, although they knew what consequences it had if the suffering ended. They would lose her. Forever.

Two days later when Sungmin walked into her room, bringing her three stalks of big, round and fresh sunflowers, he saw his wife was sitting on her bed. Her face was as bright as the sunflowers in his hands.

He ran to her, almost launched himself into her exactly, despite his withering body. He put the sunflowers into the vase on her bedside table and started to call everyone he knew about the news. Sunny was smiling upon seeing her ecstatic husband, but there was a glint of sadness in her eyes.

That afternoon, almost all their best friends, their families were there to celebrate. They chatted, joked and laughed together so loud that their voices rang through the solemn corridor of the hospital, despite the closed door.

Sungmin tended to his wife like a king to his queen. Whatever she needed, he was the first to react. He fed her her meals, holding the glass while she was seeping her water with white straw, carry her to the bathroom when she needed to release herself. And he was more than willing to do it for her.

It was when everybody had gone home and they were all alone did she say, "I won't be here for long."

Sungmin who was sitting on the chair beside her bed raised his head from the newspaper the hospital provided. "What nonsense are you talking about?" He asked.

"Today is the last chance for me to say goodbye to you all," she answered with a smile.

"But you are fine now," He persisted. He got up from his seat and sat in front of her on the bed.

"Don't look at me like that, Sungmin," she said when she saw his broken face. "I know my body better than anybody else."

"I don't want to lose you," said Sungmin.

"You won't lose me. I'll be right here with you," She said as she put her wrinkled hand on his chest.

"I don't like the thought of not seeing you anymore," He said stubbornly.

Sunny smiled, "You are so much like a child now. Nobody likes not being able to see their loved one. But it has to happen. It's a life cycle. One is born, one is dead."

He winced at the word.

"It will soon be another journey for me. I know it," she said with a smile. Her hand entwined with him on her lap. "And by the time my journey finishes, I'll be waiting for you, and we will be together again. Just like now."

He stared into her eyes and he marveled at what he saw. Her eyes, no matter how much pain she felt or how much difficulties she faced, never lost its light. It was always twinkling with kindness, compassion, wittiness, and purity.

It was one look that made him fell in love for her all over again. It was one look that made him believe that such day would come one day. The day when they would be together again, although they had to be separated for some time.

He brought her palm to his lips and kissed it softly, "I'm gonna miss you."

Sunny beamed at the only one guy that occupied his heart and mind for all these years. She pulled her hands of his and placed it on his cheeks, drawing his face closer. "Me too. And I love you," She said, closing the gap between their faces.

Snapped back from his wandering thought, he adjusted his legs. When he found the comfortable position for his now stiffened old body, he reached under his pillow to extract a letter. It was now rather crumpled and shabby.

Dear my lovely husband,

By the time you read this, I bet you are snuggled comfortably in our bed, awake in the ungodly hour.

Yes. Do you think I don't know your habit all this time? I just happen to pretend sleeping most of the time, but I do enjoy your blatant admiration on me. Haha... Pompous I am, am I not?

This is your first night without me. Do you miss me already? I think I do, but relax. I will never leave your side, as I had promised.

Now, if you just turn your body to the bedside table, you'll see me standing and smiling brightly. Yep, I asked our son a favor to put me beside you every night, so you won't feel alone.

Now, now, don't crush it with your big bear hug. We don't want to see its stalk broken, do we? :)

I love you, always and forever.

Kiss and hug,

Your wife

It always amused him how he was an open book to his wife. Even when she wasn't there to scrutinize his every act, she knew already, like what she had shown in the letter that she wrote with her shaky hands. The squiggly handwriting told him how weak her writing hand had become, yet the message written in the letter left a strong support for him to go on living.

His mind traveled back from the memory lane as he rolled on his bed to lie on his back. As his mind replaying each moment when they were together, he remembered the question he asked to himself the first night they had each other in their sleep. He smiled now that he knew the answer.

You aged with grace, Sunny Lee. When I thought you will lose it, you just had to take it further. You're strong, you're beautiful in any ways, you inspire us, and you never cease to amaze me. I'm happy to know you. I'm happy to be a part of your life.

With his left hand, he reached over the bedside table to take a lone stalk of big sunflower which was put by their son as her representative. Her promise to him. And he let his right arm wander to her side of the bed, her territory, and caressed it unconsciously.

"This room feels empty without you," He murmured. "But I will soon feel lonely no more."

It was 4.25 in the morning when he clutched his hand to his chest, experiencing a terrible pain below his ribcage. However, he strangely felt calm, for he saw the most beautiful lady, the only lady he loved in his entire lifetime, smiling at him at the foot of his bed, her hands welcoming.

"You are right," He whispered, as he smiled at her shadow, remembering what she had told him when they were in the hospital, prior her parting. "You are always right. From now on, we'll be together again."

He smiled. And with that smile attached on his face, he fell to the eternal oblivion.

***

How's the story?

Did I make the details clear enough?

Now, now, if you let some comments about it below, it would make me the happiest :))

I'll come back with the 4th chapter of Twister some time latter. So, see you around!