• Title: Paper Cranes
• Author: nicorobin @ AFF / Tumblr
• Genre: Romance, well, what else
• Length: 1096 words
• Characters: Bomi, Yixing
• Picture credit: tumblr (I'm sorry I can't remember where I found the picture, if you know please tell me?)

Her slender fingers folded the paper in her hand into a messy, but still recognizable, paper crane. Her small lips mumbled, “Just 427 more...,” softly, and after she took a deep breath, she grabbed another folding paper to make the next paper crane. Still a long way to her goal, 1000 paper cranes. Between her works she glanced at the nearby bed, at the lying figure that slept peacefully there.

He had a soft brown hair, slightly curly on the edges, the locks fell into his forehead. His sleek jawline was getting sharper now that the owner’s getting thinner, and even though it couldn’t be seen right now, she knew that he had the kindest eyes she ever saw. But her favorite, the thing she missed the most, was the dimple on his cheek whenever he smiled.

Her lips curled up into a weak small voluntarily when she remembered that dimple she liked to poke. She would make him smile just to see that dimple, and he would furrow his eyebrows cutely when she poked her index finger right into his dimple.

“What are you doing?” he always asked.

I like you.

“I like your dimple,” she always answered.

He laughed, making the dimple even more visible.

“You’re weird,” he said.

You are perfect.

“You are weirder,” she retorted.

It’s been two months now – two months without his smile, his laugh, his voice. Why? He should be awake by now, the accident he had been wasn’t even that severe. His outside wounds were healing, but somehow he’s still in a deep slumber.

Are you waiting for a kiss to wake you up? I’ll kiss you, today, every day, for the rest of our lives, if only it can wake you up. But I know you’re a greedy kid, kisses won’t do, well I hope these paper cranes I made will change your mind.

Wake up, Zhang Yixing.  

I miss you.

***

Her eyes lightened up immediately when she reached the 999th paper crane – she counted the paper cranes about four times now, so she was pretty sure about the number. But then she frowned when she realized she ran out of papers.

She was just about to get up from her seat – a chair in the corner of the hospital’s room where she spent her days for the last two months, when she saw a small movement from the corner of her eyes. She turned her head so fast, staring with disbelief, but nothing happened. The sleeping prince still slept his dream away, undisturbed.

She swallowed down her disappointment.

But then she saw it again when she walked to the door, and this time, for sure, his fingers was twitching, and his eyes were fluttering.  

Her knees were about to give away, tears were already forming in her eyes and she choked on her own saliva, but somehow she managed to push the button to call the nurses. She stayed back when the doctor and the nurses came in a rush, her hand covered , trying to suppressed her feelings when she saw the man she loved came back to life.

Don’t ever leave again, Zhang Yixing.

I need you.

***

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and after she calmed herself, she walked into the room number 107 – like she always did for the last two months before she stopped a couple days ago, he needed to rest, he needed time to adjusted himself.

He’s not asleep; he looked up from a music magazine he read when she walked in. He’s still pale and looked weak, but he smiled when he saw her, and she almost burst into tears when she saw that dimple she missed so much.

“Yoon Bomi! I thought you’ll never come,” he said cheerily, his accent was thick despite the years he spent in Korea.

Bomi saw her paper cranes stored neatly on a jar above the table beside the bed – the colorful papers gave a nice change between the monotone white dominating the room. She smiled and took a chair – still the same chair – to sit near the bed. “I thought I will never see your dimple again,” she said, taking Yixing’s hand and squeezed it.

“That’s it? Two months and you only want to see my dimple?” Yixing laughed, squeezing Bomi’s hand back. “You can poke it all you want, I won’t complain ever again.”

“I will,” she managed to say, fighting the tears that ready to fell down anytime now.

“Bomi… I never said it, but now… Now I want to say everything that I’ve never said,” Yixing stared at Bomi, affection on his eyes, honesty on his smile, “… I’m so lucky for having you in my life. Thank you, for always staying by my side.”  

Bomi could only nod now that she’s crying for real.

They stayed like that, hand in hand, Bomi’s soft sobbing echoed in the room while Yixing rubbed Bomi’s hand on his, making comforting circles with his thumb.

Bomi looked up at Yixing, and Yixing tilted his head, smiling innocently, beautifully. 

“… Yixing, I—”

“Oh.”

Both of them turned their heads at the door, where a beautiful girl stood, staring at the two. “Unnie… You’re here,” she stepped in, and although she looked hesitant at first, she opened her arms to hug Bomi.

“Ah, yes,” Bomi stood up to hug the girl back. “I came to check up on Yixing… But now that I’ve already seen him, I’m glad, he looks better than I imagine… So I guess I will leave the two of you alone.”

“So soon?” Yixing frowned. “Promise that you’ll come again, okay?”

“I promise,” Bomi nodded and grabbed her bag. She threw a last look at Yixing before she walked out from the room, and Yixing waved at him while smiling. Bomi’s gaze fell into the jar behind Yixing; she smiled back.

Outside the room, she could hear Yixing’s voice, “… I forgot to ask you yesterday, are you the one who make these paper cranes…?”

Her reply was short, “… no…”     

Slowly, Bomi took out a crumpled paper crane from inside her bag, the thousandth one. She fixed the edges of the wings carefully, and put down the paper crane on the floor, right outside Yixing’s room.

Now that he’s awake and she returned to take back her place in his side, all that’s left was for Bomi to take the role as his best friend, again – as she always did for the last few years.  

Welcome back, Zhang Yixing.

I love you.

• I... actually... don't ship... Laymi? In my head they're always somewhat more like siblings or one-sided love... But I feel like Yixing fits the role... I wonder if there's anyone who ships them here?
• By the way, I've never made Bomi in a relationship with anyone, am I. Even with Kyungmi it's only the beginning. What is wrong with me.
• I really really really want to write Hanmi but fck ideas.