❣ 14 ❣

January 2^nd, 2028

            “He’s crashing!”

            Mikyung woke up, only to be shoved out of the room and into the hallway.

            Wide awake, she quickly tried to go back into the hospital room, only to be held back by a nurse and locked out of the room.

            Grabbing the arm of the nurse, she said, “What’s going on?”

            “His heart stopped beating and he couldn’t breath,” muttered the nurse, avoiding eye contact. “They’re trying to revive him.”

            Mikyung felt herself begin to grow lightheaded, and the world around her seemed to tilt as she crashed to the ground.

            “Hey! Hey, calm down,” said the nurse, kneeling down and picking her up. “Breathe. Come on, slow down and calm down. You’re hyperventilating.” He looked around and grabbed a bag off one of the carts in the hallway, holding it up to her lips to help her breathe.

            “B-But J-Joonmyun.” Mikyung gasped in air, struggling against the constricting muscles of . Dizziness swept over her entire body, and lightheadedness blurred everything else around her.

            “They’re trying to help. Calm down. Panicking won’t help your friend.” The nurse quickly sat her down on one of the chairs by the door and knelt down in front of her, keeping the bag in front of her lips. “Breathe slower. Come on, you’re gonna pass out. Breathe.”

            Her hand grabbed onto her other wrist and her nails sank into her skin as Mikyung tried to slow her breathing, eventually turning the gasps into loud breaths.

            “Good… Okay. I’m gonna go check on Joonmyun for you. Just keep breathing slowly, alright?”

            Mikyung nodded, her entire body now trembling as tears began to tumble down from her eyes again.

            The nurse stood up and quickly entered the hospital room. And for the second that the door was open, she could hear the doctors rushing, trying to revive her friend, and the long, ongoing beep that signaled the possible death of Joonmyun.

            “Mikyung, what happened?” asked Mrs. Kim as she ran down the hallway with Mr. Kim at her side. “What’s wrong with Joonmyun?”

            “H-His heart… it s-stopped.”

            There was a strangled sob before Mrs. Kim held a hand over and began to cry. Mr. Kim had his jaws clenched as he tried to support his wife as tears started to rack her small body.

            “What are they doing in there?” asked Mr. Kim, his voice rough and quiet.

            “They’re t-trying to r-revive him,” replied Mikyung, standing up. She tried to stop the tears that seemed endless and let Mrs. Kim sit down in the chair.

            “And we succeeded for now,” said a doctor, stepping out of the now calm room. “His heart is stabilized, and he’s breathing again.”

            “Then why did it stop?” asked Mr. Kim, expression full of grief and desperation for good news.

            The doctor shook his head. “The accident had caused quite a bit of damage to many of his organs, including his heart. We tried our best to repair everything, but I’m not sure whether this was caused by anything bleeding internally again or because of some other problem… After I examine him a bit more, I’ll have a better idea of what’s going on.” He paused, as if trying to let the information sink in. But no amount of time could help. “For now, I would say your goodbyes. We don’t know how much longer Joonmyun has. Only two people should be visiting him at a time, and I would give him a little while before you go in. His body has been exhausted quite a bit.”

            Mr. Kim nodded and shook hands with the doctor. As soon as the doctor left, the three of them sat in silence, with Mrs. Kim’s sobs filling the morbid air.

            “Mikyung.”

            She looked up and her eyes met with Mr. Kim’s.

            “Joonmyun… will you please spend as much time as you can with him?” asked Mr. Kim, almost as if he were pleading. “When you two had that falling out, he couldn’t stop blaming himself. I hadn’t seen him that upset in ages. And now that you’re here… I hope that you two can repair your friendship. Once you have, I think Joonmyun has something very important to tell you. So please, don’t leave him when he might just have minutes left of his life.”

            Mikyung realized she hadn’t told Mr. Kim that she and Joonmyun had just fixed everything last night. She didn’t tell him that they had become friends again right before he crashed. But she simply nodded in reply, with her hands clenched together. “Of course, Mr. Kim.”

            “Thank you.”

❣ ❣ ❣

            About an hour or so later, after Joonmyun’s parents had gone in to see him, they let Mikyung go inside to see him.

            Joonmyun’s eyes were closed as he lay on his back. It was almost as if he were sleeping if not for the occasional flutter of his eyelids.

            She walked over to his side and sat down in the chair, her hand ghosting over his before she wrapped her hand around his.

            He opened his eyes and the corners of his lips twitched upwards in a small smile.

            “You scared me a lot.”

            “I’m sorry.” His voice was strained and barely louder than a whisper. Had she had any hearing lost, she wouldn’t have been able to hear him.

            Mikyung shook her head and brought her other hand up to brush against his cheek. “You don’t have to talk, because it’s probably not that easy for you to do. Don’t feel sorry for anything, because nothing you do is a mistake or done wrong.”

            Joonmyun’s hand squeezed hers gently before he said, “Did you get the card?”

            “Card?” she muttered, trying to recall something.

            He didn’t reply and only waited for her to remember, or try to.

            Her mind wandered back to the flowers he had gotten her, with the small card tucked between the stems. “I haven’t read it yet,” whispered Mikyung as her grip on Joonmyun’s hand loosened.

            He held onto her hand tighter. “Read it. Please,” Joonmyun said. His brown eyes, though tired, were not dull as he looked into her eyes.

            And she smiled when she noticed, brushing her fingertips next to his eyes. Mikyung used her fingers to trace the features of his face, careful to skip over the bandages, and only chose to remember his pale skin, high nose, deep eyes, and the perfect smile that peacefully graced his lips.

            “What are you doing?” he muttered, closing his eyes.

            “Memorizing,” she said.

            “Why?”

            Mikyung shivered for a second without reason and with a quivering voice she answered, “I want to remember you forever. I want to commit your image, your voice to my mind.”

            “The doctors told you… what they told my parents.” It was more of a statement than a question.

            “Yes.”

            He didn’t speak again as she continued to trace his features.

            When she rested her hand against his cheek, he opened his eyes.

            “My dad gave me the card,” Mikyung whispered. “But I refused it.”

            “Promise me to read it eventually,” Joonmyun said, looking directly into her eyes.

            She nodded.

            “Do you remember… the first song we wrote?”

            “You mean the first song you wrote?” Mikyung smiled.

            Joonmyun laughed quietly, breathlessly. “Yeah.”

            “Yeah.”

            “Will you sing it with me?”

            “You shouldn’t be singing.”

            “Didn’t you say you wanted to remember my voice? I want you to remember it… as I sing for you, as we sing together. I want you to remember it interlaced with your voice.”

            “I can’t sing.”

            “You can. And you promised you would sing with me.”

            “Joonmyun, you shouldn’t over exert yourse—“

            “Just one stanza. Just a short part.”

            “Did you finish it?”

            He nodded, shuddering as he inhaled deeper.

            “O-Okay then…”

            “Do you remember how it starts?”

            She nodded and took a deep breath before waiting for Joonmyun to start.

            “Being born in the same country

            Talking in the same language…”

            Mikyung hesitantly joined him, nearly whispering the lyrics.

            “We’re so lucky, it’s such a relief

            Nothing is for certain in this world

            On a day that I wore nice clothes

            I met you, I was lucky

            It’s because I did good in the past

            Is the falling sunlight only shining on me?

            Can I be this happy?

            You call my name and you lean on my shoulder

            Is the sky’s sunlight only shining on you?

            Can you be that dazzling?

            So lucky…”

            She stopped, waiting for Joonmyun to sing the rest. Her eyes met his quickly as they slowly slid shut. And without realizing, her eyes began to water as her subconscious realized what was happening.

            His breathing became slightly more labored, but persisting, he whispered the last few lyrics to the stanza.

            “So lucky, my love

            So lucky to have you

            So lucky to be your love, I am.”

            A single tear ran down from her left eye.

            “Mikyung… More than a friend, more than a sibling,” whispered Joonmyun, his neck relaxing and his eyes shut. His lips barely moved. “I love you.”

            Her voice stuck in as the tear fell, landing on his arm. “I love you—“

            The constant, steady beeping drew itself into a long continuous beep as his heart, after twenty-three years, after years of bullying, after sixteen years of knowing Mikyung, after over ten years of friendship and love, finally… stopped.