Chapter None
Dangerous Neuroma
As a 20 year old, Min Ji's body should've been able to handle the disease she carried. When she was diagnosed with Acoustic Neuroma, the doctors said that her immune system would be able to kill it, and that treatment is not urgent. However, it did not turn out that way. Her hearing became worse, and she began to have facial paralysis from time to time.
Her cousin Hee Jin was the most considerate about your disease. She communicated to Min Ji by writing down on a paper, instead of yelling at her. She was a SM employee, and she got things a normal fan wouldn't get. Hee Jin came to her holding some tickets. "I got VIP backstage passes to Exo's concert!~" Hee Jin wrote on the paper. Min Ji screamed in joy, and began jumping off the walls. She scribbled quickly "Really?! When?!". Hee Jin gave Min Ji a ticket and she read it. It would be tonight. But why would she give it so late?
She jotted down the question, only to see the answer she wanted beforehand. 'I wanted you to sleep in peace. I told your parents so it's ok. I'm taking you today before your surgery.'
Hee Jin always knew what was the right thing to do.
In the late afternoon, Hee Jin came to pick Min Ji up so she could meet Exo personally.
Upon arrival, there were already many fans waiting, and the concert started in hours. They glared at the two of them as Hee Jin swiftly moved into the entrance with Min Ji following. Her back shuddered with goosebumps, and Hee Jin took noticed and immediately patted her cousin's head, as if comforting her. Min Ji nodded, thanking Hee Jin for her consideration.
They stepped onto the stage, where Hee Jin greeted all with a simple hello. They all responded except for Baekhyun. Baekhyun nodded to her and continued to zone out into music.
"As you guys can tell," Hee Jin began, pulling Min Ji out of her shadow. "I have an accompaniment. This is my cousin, Min Ji. She's a fan of yours and I wanted to take her to your concert. You guys remember yesterday right?" Hee Jin, giving a demanding tone as she spoke. The boys nodded obediently, and Hee Jin smiled and left. Before she left, she mouthed 'Hwaiting' to her younger cousin.
Flustered, she waved to her saying goodbye. This was kind of... Different, she assumes. Being around 12 idols, all of them greeting her as if they were friends. It was nice, she thought, although Baekhyun paid no attention. Min Ji thought Baekhyun would be happily cheering and such, like the Beagle line she's heard of recently.
She individually got to meet all the members, and became close with Chanyeol obviously, due to his ambitious personality. They were both laughing, playing around and such.
Min Ji whipped out her phone to read a text message sent to her. It was from her mother, saying that she should have a good time. Min Ji smiled, but before she could even reply, Chanyeol snatched it and ran for it. "Yah! Chanyeol!" She yelled, running after him. When she caught up with him, Chanyeol had placed her phone on top of a high cabinet- too high for her to reach.
She knew her mom would be worried sick that she didn't reply quickly, so she attempted to reach it. "Chanyeol! Get my phone!" She said, whining. Chanyeol stuck his tongue out again to her, and rushed to the men's bathroom. That left her dumbfounded with what to do. Min Ji stood on her tip toes trying to reach for it, but failed. There were no boxes, stools or anything that would let her get up to that height.
With a poke on her shoulder, Min Ji turned around. Suho was there, and had written a question on a piece of paper. 'Do you need help?'
She nodded, pointing up at her phone that was so close yet so far away. "Up there. Chanyeol put my phone there and I need it." Min Ji said. Suho nodded, understanding her problem. He towered over her to reach for the phone. With his left hand pressing onto the door of the cabinet directly next to her, anyone could misinterpret the situation as him trying to seduce her.
Suho gave an embarrassed Min Ji her phone, and saw her red cheeks. He furiously wrote on another sheet of paper. 'Are you ok? You don't have a fever or anything, right?'
Min Ji shook her head, taking the pen from Suho and writing a response. 'I'm fine, don't worry about me.'
He gave her a worried look, but went along with Min Ji. 'Ok. Tell me if you need anything.' He wrote, patting her on the head before leaving her.
She didn't do much after that. Bored out of her mind, she decided to walk around the arena after loafing around on the stage for the past half hour. Min Ji walked down the stairs to ground level, and began to skip her way around the arena.
Only a faint sound was heard, and Min Ji turned her head to see where the voice was coming from. Before her eyes was Baekhyun, who had suddenly grabbed her wrist. He pulled Min Ji away from the arena, back closer to the stage.
"Do you know what you could've gotten yourself into?! A sasaeng could've gotten to you!" Baekhyun growled, holding her wrist tight. Min Ji only blinked. His voice wasn't loud enough for her to hear, and his sudden tightening made her flinch.
"What?" She asked, trying to comprehend what he said. Min Ji went to get the notebook full of conversations and flipped to a new page. 'I may be able to talk regularly, but I'm near deaf.' Min Ji wrote, showing it to Baekhyun. In response he looked at her in disgust, but immediately conversed to her in another language. A language people wouldn't normally know under certain circumstances.
Sign language.
His fingers moved swiftly, writing a sentence. 'You can speak sign language, right?'
Min Ji nodded, also talking to him via sign language. 'I do. What were you trying to tell me earlier?'
'The sasaeng fans could've gotten to you and that could've caused a controversy' Baekhyun immediately replied, looking at her with intense eyes. Min Ji could feel her back get goosebumps when she looked directly into his eyes.
'Ah, I'm sorry, I thought those kind of fans wouldn't be wandering around here...' She replied hastily. Baekhyun once again looked in disgust at her.
'Whatever. I'm going to get ready for the stage. Take care.' He ended the conversation just like that, and turned to enter the dress room to get ready for the first performance that Min Ji would ever see.
She was almost shaking, seeing her bias in front of her own eyes. Although he looked so unreal, so perfect in front of her eyes, she didn't see what she thought she would really see.
Min Ji had thought of a bubbly, laughing Baekhyun. Not a cold ice machine that doesn't respond with any feelings or facial expression whatsoever. It made her wonder why he was acting so much on stage.
Two hours before the concert would even start, fans would crowd around the stage until the very limit of surpassing. It shook Min Ji to see all these fans, even though it was only later would the performance start.
She encountered Suho, probably the one she was most comfortable with. Min Ji scribbled on the notebook before showing him the words. 'Can I have a good view of watching you guys out there?' She had written.
Suho took out a pen, smiling as if he knew this was bound to happen. He answered briskly, then flipping the notebook so she could read.
'Out where?'
Min Ji pointed out at the crowd, and Suho seemed mortified. Suho thought no one would ever ask that, especially because of the fact it was so crowded. He pondered over it, but then he answered her question, handing her the notebook and departing elsewhere. Min Ji read his answer. 'I'll go ask.'
Min Ji had one of those paralysis moments again. When she felt that she couldn't move her facial muscles, she could only depend on the items around her to tell where she was going. Min Ji eventually found a seat, and stayed still, hoping the paralysis would go away sooner or later.
Unfortunately, luck was certainly not on her side. She could only see things walking past by her without a care to make sure she was ok. This time the facial paralysis lasted much longer than last time before Min Ji broke out and could move her facial muscles. She stood up and felt her thighs get lighter. Min Ji looked down and saw her notebook fell on her lap. Strange, she didn't remember carrying the notebook to the chair. She had left it on the table. Min Ji checked to see if there was anything different and there certainly was.
In a messy handwriting, a brief sentence was written. It came to her mind who could've written it. It was different from Suho's, she could easily differentiate the two handwritings. 'You'll be escorted by an SM official to your seat.'
Shortly after, just as 'Mr. Terrible Handwriting' had said, (since she didn't know who it was, Min Ji will refer to the anonymous man as that.) a SM official had led her to a chair that was very close to the stage, in that small space between the fan's closest seating to the stage and the actual stage itself. It was highly guarded, and when Min Ji got there, they all greeted her formally. She could only bow back and take her seat, waiting for the performance to start. Min Ji felt glass sharp stares stab her back, and the thought felt really uneasy, but she pushed on through anyways.
Prior to the concert starting, she swore she saw one of the members smile at her, but before she could classify whose smile it was, yet another paralysis attack came up. Three long lasting facial paralysis was not good. Min Ji knew better that she should've been getting facial paralysis once a day, no more. It escalated to three, which meant something was up. While the paralysis seeped energy away from her, she could only feel the kind warmth of the smile given to her.
She was so fortunate that the paralysis went away after 30 minutes too many. The show was already half done, and she had missed out. Her hearing became relatively worse as well, barely hearing the screaming from the fans around her and Exo singing. She couldn't hear them, but watching them sing and dance on stage really made Min Ji overjoyed. She closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on the sound of the music. But yet another sudden paralysis would happen. Even after the concert ended, the screaming fans died off, there would still be Min Ji walking around clumsily, trying to find out where she was going. It was only then when she felt someone hold onto her arm would she actually feel safe. But who was it? A sasaeng? She hoped not.
Min Ji blinked. The lights were dim, and there was no members around, except for the one close to her, holding her notebook. She seemed flabbergasted by the thought Baekhyun was there. He had fallen asleep next to her, leaning his head against the cold wall. Min Ji assumed it would've been Suho.
'Are you ok? You've been blanking out recently... Or is it brain rumors?' He had written.
Min Ji could now hassume accurately the messy handwriting from earlier was Baekhyun's, since the same writing was used to write the sentence. She wrote back honestly, before shaking Baekhyun up. 'It's the brain tumors...'
It took her more than just awhile, but he got up eventually, just longer than she had expected. Baekhyun had yawned before reading the notebook in her hand.
Baekhyun's eyes widened and immediately grabbed Min Ji's hand and ran to the outside world, away from the arena. He had called someone, who knows who, and by the time they got to the location Min Ji knew what was bound to happen.
They were at the hospital.
There would be two outcomes, she knew very well. One, the doctors would immediately go into surgery or two, they would send her home.
After the other 11 members arrived, the doctors told them what was going to happen. They had such calm but frightened faces in response to the action the doctors would take. Looking around wildly for an answer to what would be happening, Min Ji quickly scrambled for her notebook and asked what in the world was going on.
The answer killed her more than anything.
'Surgery. The problems with your hearing and facial paralysis wasn't just Acoustic Neuroma, but also Bell's palsy as well. It was almost too late to cure both diseases, since the doctors thought it was only Acoustic Neuroma. Wish you luck.'
Min Ji knew far too well it was Baekhyun. Suho looked like he was going to die in the corner crying his eyes out. They laid her on a stretcher, ready to take her into the ER.
Min Ji heard the screams of a man, but not too well. At this state, it was almost impossible for her to tell who it was. The last thing she heard before she was pushed into the ER and given sleeping pills was 'I love you.' But from who?
She found herself standing somewhere that was very green. All the members of Exo were circled around something, but it wasn't clear to what it was. Min Ji walked towards the direction of them, and surprisingly could hear everything perfectly. She couldn't believe she could hear without a problem. But what she heard didn't please her.
"What's wrong with you?! Did you really think she would've ended up with you in the end anyways? You gave her the cold shoulder like you did to everyone else, and I treated her with my life in the one day I got to know her!" One voice yelled.
Another voice yelled over that one. "Well excuse you, Suho! I'm sorry I can't always act like how I act on stage! She's lucky enough to actually have my consideration! I liked her too! Can't I show that?"
Upon closer inspection, you saw it was Suho and Baekhyun yelling. But why would they be yelling during the silence?
Min Ji ran to them. "Stop it!" She yelled loudly. But they didn't turn to her direction. She reached for Suho. Her arm went through. She reached for Baekhyun. The same outcome. What was with her body? She's not a ghost.
Suho grabbed Baekhyun's collar and lowered his voice. "Listen Baek, you should apologize to her, for not letting her love you fully. It was always me who was there for her then, not you. It was me when she needed help with communicating or walking. Now she's dead. I bet she doesn't even know I was the one who yelled my heart out that I loved her! Because in the end, I'm still the one that's alone!" Suho's voice beckoned louder from that low, husky voice beginning to shake Baekhyun uncondinitionally, letting the tears escape.
Was she dead? How was she still able to see the environment, the people, everything? Was this the afterlife? How she would really live until the end? Only able to watch Suho from afar?
The tear that trickled down her dry cheek not too long ago made her sure she had always been in love with Suho, but only thought of Baekhyun.
She collapsed, even if no one would see her. Min Ji began to cry even harder. The thought of showing unrequited love to Suho, watching him so close but yet so far, and not being able to communicate with him killed her heart. If this was truly how you lived the end, Min Ji didn't want to live like this anymore. She attempts to hug him but only feels nothing but herself, passing through Suho.
"S-Suho, I-I... I love you..."
ㅡend
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