❣ 13 ❣

January 1^st, 2028

            This wasn’t happening. This was all a dream. This wasn’t real.

            That was what Mikyung kept trying to convince herself as she numbly raced towards the local hospital, all rules of traffic dismissed from her mind.

            The hospital was too far for her; her car wasn’t moving fast enough for her. She could barely process anything that she heard around her, whether it was the honking of cars or screeching of wheels on the road.

            Just a few minutes ago, she had been in her bed, lying awake. Her mind was thinking of the onset of a new year that she didn’t know whether she’d be able to live through. And then her phone rang, shrilling and breaking the silence of her room.

            Mikyung had grabbed the cell phone off of her nightstand and even if she wanted to, she couldn’t conceal her surprise when the caller ID read “Suho”. The last time they had talked, she yelled at him to leave her alone. So why would he have called her?

            She hesitantly picked it up, and the voice that met her ears wasn’t what she had expected. It was a deeper voice, hoarse and emotionless, except for the urgency. And the first words she heard were, “Miss, we’ll need you to come down to the Guardian Hospital immediately. He’s in critical condition. You were the first contact on his most frequently contacted, so I must assume you are close enough to be willing to come immediately.”

            “W-What?”

            “Miss, if you are of close relations to Mr. Kim, we’ll need you to come now.”

            Without a second thought, she threw off her sheets, grabbed a jacket, and slipped on her shoes as she replied that she would be there. Hanging up, she quickly took her keys off the hook by the door and ran out to her car, ignoring her father’s sleepy calls for her and the frosty air that hit her.

            And now, she was in her car, speeding towards the hospital without a clear thought in her mind.

            As soon as she had arrived, she ran into the lobby of the hospital, ignoring the strange glances she received from others in the room.

            The nurse at the front desk was barely surprised when Mikyung, panicked and flustered, slammed her hands down on the counter and demanded for the conditions of Joonmyun.

            “Please calm down, miss. Are you a family member of his?” asked the nurse, searching through the files on the desk.

            “No. I… I’m his best friend,” she quickly said, nearly choking on her words.

            “I’m afraid I cannot give you any information unless you are one of his family members.”

            “But they called me first! They... They told me to come immediately and I need to know what’s wrong with him!” shouted Mikyung, panic causing her to begin to hyperventilate.

            “Miss, please calm down.” The nurse immediately stood up. “Hold on, please. I need you to call one of Mr. Kim’s family members to come, otherwise, I am not permitted to release any information to you.”

            She fumbled around in her pocket until her fingers wrapped around her cell phone, quickly pulling it out and dialing a number.

            “Hello? Mikyung? I can’t talk right now, Joonmyu—“

            “I know. He’s in the hospital. I’m already here, but please, please tell the nurse that it’s okay to tell me what happened to him,” said Mikyung, nearly sobbing as tears raced down her cheeks.

            “Alright. Put her on the phone right now. I won’t be there for another fifteen minutes, Mikyung. But don’t panic, okay?”

            “H-How can I not? Oh God, Mr. Kim—“

            “Remember, Mikyung, you called him Suho before. He’s a guardian angel, right? He’ll be alright. Now, put the nurse on the phone now.”

            Mikyung nearly shoved the phone into the nurse’s awaiting hand, allowing Mr. Kim to talk to her. After barely half a minute, she hung up and handed the phone back to Mikyung before saying, “Mr. Kim is currently in surgery.”

            “What happened?”

            “The sleet on the road gave him little to no friction, as reported. These accidents happen often during the winter season,” said the nurse, searching through a few files. “But he should be fine. Don’t worry too much, miss…”

            “Mikyung,” she said, fingers wrapping around the sleeves of her thin jacket. “Why did he have to go into surgery?”

            The nurse hesitated before replying, “There were some complications after he was transferred out of the vehicle. There may have been some internal bleeding and broken bones, but the surgeons have not given any more information on Mr. Kim’s condition.”

            The tears continued to fall from her eyes as she nodded. What was she going to do? She hadn’t expected anything like this to ever happen. Joonmyun was her guardian angel, and always, no matter what happened to him, he would stand right back up and seem alright. And despite not seeing or speaking to him for months, the pang in her heart was more painful than anything she had ever felt. The strongest person she had known was now in surgery, fighting for his life.

            “Would you like to take a seat? And I can also get you a blanket while you wait,” said the nurse, walking out from behind the desk.

            Mikyung blindly nodded again as the nurse led her to a seat in the waiting room and left to get a blanket.

            The entire time, she didn’t think about wanting to hate Joonmyun or distance herself from him. She didn’t think about how long it had been since she said she wanted nothing to do with him. She didn’t think about the past few years that were torturous to her. She only thought of their friendship in high school.

            She remembered the smiles he would give her, despite his slow descent into depression. She remembered always going to his family coffee shop after school or on the weekends. She remembered the songs he wrote, his teasing for her to sing, his jokes, his laugh. She remembered everything about him that she loved and wished she had never lost.

            Mikyung leaned forward, and rested her forehead on the palms of her hands. She closed her eyes, but allowed the tears to fall from her eyes, wetting her skin and seeping into the sleeves of her jacket.

            She could feel someone lay a blanket over her shoulders, but didn’t bother to look up.

            Why? Why did she leave him? Why did she leave her guardian angel? And why did she never act on her regret? Why was it only now that she truly, completely wished she acted on her selfishness for once and kept Joonmyun by her side?

            Mikyung sat there, in a hospital waiting room, and sobbing her eyes out because of the possibility that she would loose Joonmyun and never be able to apologize, to take everything back, to be his friend again.

            “Excuse me?”

            She quickly wiped her eyes and looked up, only to see a surgeon standing in front of her.

            “Are you waiting for Mr. Kim Joonmyun?”

            Mikyung nodded and suddenly stood up, surprising the surgeon.

            “He is currently out of surgery and in a hospital room. We will be keeping him here for observation, but you’re welcome to go and see him.”

            “How is he doing?” asked Mikyung, wincing at her coarse voice.

            “He… Mr. Kim is currently stable, but just barely,” she said. “We’ll need to monitor his stability for a little while longer.”

            “Th-Thank you,” muttered Mikyung as she followed the surgeon further into the hospital.

            “This is his room. Visiting time will have to be limited, though. And he should wake up in a few minutes.” The surgeon opened a door slowly and what Mikyung saw inside caused her to feel searing pain across her entire body, externally and internally.

            It seemed as if his entire body was bandaged up. There seemed to be one cast on his leg, a support around his neck, and bandages were wrapped around one of his arms and around his head. It was like they tried to turn him into a mummy.

            “Please be careful to not shift his body, for it might cause a reopening of his wounds.” The surgeon paused before saying, “Visiting hours ended ages ago… so there’s no point in saying there’s an alternate restriction on time.” She smiled. “Feel free to stay here until whenever you feel comfortable leaving.”

            “Thank you.” Mikyung bowed before entering the room. The door was slowly closed behind her as she walked towards Joonmyun’s side and sat down. “Joonmyun…” She reached forward and pushed his hair away from his eyes. Her fingers brushed against a bandage on his forehead that had just staunched the blood from his wound. A few dots of blood could be seen, but he didn’t show any signs of continuing to bleed.

            Taking time to study his features, she realized just how much they had both changed in the time since they last had been on good terms.

            Both of them had grown out their hair, though his was quite obviously much shorter than hers. Their faces had lost their childish shape, and their features became sharper. And though they might have looked younger than they were, one look in their eyes would make someone think they were older.

            Now, his eyes were closed, and without a single wrinkle or discoloration in his skin, Joonmyun looked just as if he hadn’t aged since he was eighteen. There was now an innocence that she hadn’t seen in him in a long time.

            Tears slowly resurfaced from her eyes and dripped down, one falling onto Joonmyun’s cheek. Only then did she realize that she was leaning over him.

            “Joonmyun… please wake up soon.” Mikyung’s voice shook as she caressed the side of his face gently, careful not to press against any of his wounds. “You have to wake up soon. Don’t be such a lazy person, Joonmyun.”

            As her eyes traveled across all of his injuries, and at the monitor beside his bed, her tears only continued to cause her to tremble, with quiet sobs and whimpers leaving her lips. She knew she didn’t deserve to cry over him; she didn’t deserve to even be by his side. But she stayed anyways, unable to pull herself away.

            “M-Mikyung?”

            Opening her eyes, she found herself making direct eye contact with dark brown eyes, eyes that she recognized so well, and missed so much. And a sob left her lips as he smiled up at her.

            “It’s been a while.” He slowly moved his uninjured arm up so that his hand could wipe away a few of her tears. “And you’re already crying.” Suddenly, he gasped in pain, and his eyes closed tightly. He grabbed onto Mikyung’s hand and quickly said, “Call a nurse. Pain meds wearing off.”

            She darted out of the room and called a nurse, her heart up in , but whether it was from the fear of him being in pain, or the happiness of him waking up, she didn’t know.

            The nurse immediately administered medication to dull the pain for Joonmyun before leaving the two alone again. But once she was out of the room, she was surprised to see two adults outside of the room, and the male looked like an older version of Joonmyun. He smiled before holding his finger up to his lips, as if telling her to not let the two inside the hospital room know that he and his wife were there. The nurse smiled before nodding, leaving the two adults to wait outside of the room of their son.

            Mikyung felt speechless, and even more impaired by the constricting feeling in . And Joonmyun simply lay there, eyes calmly meeting hers every few seconds.

            He was taking in as much of her image as he could. It had been torturous pain for him the past few months. After their fight, he couldn’t forget the image of her shouting at him, the words she had said. But he kept trying to convince himself that she was lying to him, that everything she said had been a lie.

            And as he lay there, with Mikyung’s hand gripping his tightly, there was a sense of relief that washed over him, as if confirming his belief.

            With what little strength he had, he squeezed her hand gently, causing her to look towards him quickly, tears just beginning to settle.

            “Mikyung…”

            “I… I’m sorry, Joonmyun.” Her voice came out in a whisper that nearly took his breath away. It was something that he missed about her, her voice, along with every single one of her other qualities, aspects.

            “For what?”

            “For regretting that I left you.”

            “Why would you be sorry for that?” he muttered.

            “Because… because you were supposed to have a better life without me… Didn’t my dad tell you why I stopped talking to you in the first place?” Mikyung smiled bitterly as she slipped her hand away from his.

            “And didn’t I tell you… that other day that I didn’t… want you to leave me? That my life… wouldn’t be better without you… in any way?” Joonmyun gasped for breath every few words, the pain just beginning to ease away.

            Mikyung didn’t react for a few minutes, leaving an empty silence to fill them until she said, “I’m sorry, Joonmyun…”

            “What happened to… calling me Suho?” he asked, smiling. He reached up again to brush one more stray tear from her cheek before pushing one of the corners of her lips up. “Shouldn’t you be… smiling to make me feel better?”

            She smiled, albeit stiffly. “Is the pain going away yet… Suho?”

            Joonmyun then slowly took her hand in his and held it there, with no signs of letting go. “Yeah.”

            Mikyung sighed before slowly asking, “You’re not mad at me?”

            “No.”

            “Why…?”

            He tried to shift his body before Mikyung quickly pushed down on his shoulder gently.

            “The doctor said you might reopen a wound if you move,” she muttered before releasing his shoulder.

            Joonmyun nodded and said, “I’m not mad… because you did it with good intentions in mind. You’re my best friend, Mikyung… I’ve never been truly mad at you.”

            “But I avoided you for so many years,” she whispered.

            “And we’ve been friends for even longer and will be for a long time, Mikyung. Don’t think you can get rid of me again,” Joonmyun said.

            She leaned down to hug him, and though it was in an awkward position, Joonmyun smiled and hugged her back.

            “I missed you, Mikyung.”

            “I missed you, too.”

            “Are you crying again, Jung Mikyung?”

            “No, in your dreams, Kim Joonmyun.” She sniffed before pulling away and quickly rubbing away her new tears.

            “Do you ever run out of tears?”

            “Shut up.”

            Joonmyun laughed before his smile gradually fell into a serious expression. “Mikyung… will you promise to never leave me again?”

            “I promise.”

            “Let’s not break promises again.”

            “I won’t. You better not.”

            “I won’t.”

            And for the first time in years, there was a genuine smile on Mikyung’s face. It may have taken a near-death experience for Joonmyun, but she realized that she couldn’t take being away from him. She knew that her love for him was too strong for her to pull away from him. There was no way she would ever dream of leaving him again. Mikyung was still in love with Joonmyun, and far too deep in to be pulled out.

            Little did she know that Joonmyun hadn’t truly smiled again since that day months ago. The day he left her house, he stopped smiling. And just like that, she had brought the happiness back into his life the moment he woke up from his surgery. He was, also, just as much in love with her as she was with him. And as he gazed up into her tearful eyes, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to live without her, figuratively and literally.