When your life is taken you are given a choice. You may move on and enjoy your paradise or you may give your life to some one else completely.  I was given that choice when my life was taken prematurely.

I remember the day so clearly.  My last day as a living being.  It was a warm, late spring day.  It was the weekend and we both were fortunate enough to no have homework. We were walking to the park to play soccer. We were standing at the light waiting for it to change when we heard the screeching of tires, and that’s when everything went black for me.  I only know now that when we were hit by the speeding car my head went through the passenger’s side window, it killed me instantly.  I didn’t feel pain, and I didn’t have to suffer. 

That was not the case for my Minho.  He was hit second.  The car pinned me against him and then both of us to the light post.  He had to hold me as he feared the worst.  His arm broke and several of his ribs, and suffered a several deep cuts.  He was taken to the hospital in a horrific frenzy.  He was rushed in to life saving surgery and fell into a coma.  When he woke up three days later he would be told that I had died in his arms that day. 

It was all very, very sad.  Watching him cry and suffer with his loss.  I only felt pity for him.  He would cry in bed or in the stall of a bathroom whenever he thought about me, which was the hardest part, seeing him sad and heart broken.  When I was given my choice I had thought he would be happy to be alive.  In the beginning I doubted if I had made the right decision. 

When I woke up I was in a garden. Similar to the park we were heading to but full of flowers and beautiful trees, the sun setting casting a twilight glow.  I looked for Minho before realizing I was alone.  It didn’t take long before the voice reached out to me. 

“Taemin, do you know why you are here?” I spun around looking for the owner of the voice. It was calm and warm.

“N, no, where am I? Who are you? What happened? Where’s Minho?”

“Don’t worry child, all your questions will be answered in time. Now, do you know why you are here?”

I thought a moment to myself, “I was hit by car, we both were. But I don’t know what happened after…am I…have I…died?” I waited for the answer.

“Yes, Taemin, your life has ended.” A strange feeling settled in my chest, not fear or sadness, but more like disappointment.  “And soon, Minho will be too.”

That was when I felt fear flooded me, “What, no! He can’t, I mean, why is this happening?” I felt tears falling down my cheeks and I put my hands in my hair.

“Dear boy, please calm down, crying will not solve anything.” I sniffed and tried to wipe tears off my face, this was cruel. I had died and my best friend was in danger and I was being told to calm down.  I sat on the ground near a small circle of flowers.

“Life, is predetermined at birth for every soul put on Earth, but changes can be made along the way by the will of the soul.  Sometimes outside forces create influence on the soul and in the worse case, end the life before it is over. This, Taemin, is what has happened to you.  The only lives that were meant to end today were that of the driver, and Minho. But actions outside of your control changed the course of your life.

Now, you have a choice. You may move on and enter your eternal paradise early, or, you give your life for Minho’s.” I stopped crying. Wiping my face with this time with my sleeve.

“What do you mean? How can I save him? I don’t understand.”

“Taemin, right now Minho is fighting for the life he is supposed to loose, but if you choose to stay with him, he may finish his life in the years that were stolen from you.”

“Okay, yes, please, save him,” I felt frantic.

“You will remain with him until he dies, you can not move on until he does, you will have to watch him live the life you can never have, this is a sever decision.” I took a moment to consider the options I was being given.  I knew in my heart there was only one option.  I loved Minho and would do anything to save his life.

“I will save Minho, I will stay by him until the end, I want to give him my life.”  I stood, tears falling freely down my face, I did not know the extent of my decision then but I never felt regret for the rest of our life. 

~*~*~

After my life was given to Minho I woke up next in his hospital room. I was standing by the window like I had just appeared there, the same warm twilight pouring in through the single window.  Minho was asleep hooked up to a lot of machines, and his mother was asleep in the chair next to him.  I took several steps into the room and stood beside his bed.  His face had several cuts and bruises and his arm was wrapped in a huge cast.  But he was alive.  I reached out to touch his hand; it was warm under my fingers. His hand stirred, his eyes fluttered open. He moaned and moved under his covers.  His mother woke and happily started fussing over him calling the doctor.

Neither of them noticed me. 

When the doctors came in they walked right past me.  I couldn’t clearly hear what was being said, it sounded like they were all speaking under water, then, one question cut through the chatter, “where is Taemin?”

All movement froze.

“I’m sorry, but your friend, he, didn’t make it.  The beeping of Minho’s heart machine began to speed up, everybody tried to calm him, but the first of many painful screams tore from Minho’s throat. It was filled with agony.  I wanted to tell him it was okay, I wanted to let him know I hadn’t suffered, that he was alive and that’s what mattered now, but I was a ghost, with no way to break the barrier anymore.  All I could do was watch him cry, and suffer, alone. He ignored everyone that comforted him; their words were hollow to him.  It was hard to watch him suffer like he did, but in some sick way, it reassured me that I made the right decision. He loved me as much as I loved him; his pain ran as deep as my love. 

Eventually I got used o the fact it was always twilight.  I was walking in between worlds caught in the transition of light to dark.  I began to tell time by he things Minho did, but it took a long time for him to even return to a normal schedule.  He would break down a lot and time for him seemed to stand still. 

It went on like this for months; Minho seemed to loose touch with every one around him, he was distant and cold at times. All I could do was watch. This wasn’t what I had wanted for him.  He was alive but he was no longer living.  One night he was laying in bed, I had watched him cry himself almost to sleep. He was staring at his ceiling I was sitting on his floor next to his dresser.

“Taemin,” he whispered. My eyes shot open and my head snapped up to look at him.  It was the first time he had said my name since he had been out of the hospital. His eyes were open but he was still staring at the ceiling, “Taemin, are you in heaven?” He paused again, a small smile touching the corners of his mouth. “Of course you’re in heaven, someone as pure as you, you belong in paradise. I’m sure it’s nice there, I…” his voice cracked, “I wish I could be there with you.” I crawled through the darkness towards his bed.  I had spoken to him many times, yelling at him, and telling him all the things I had wanted to, but never getting through.

 How could he say that, he was given what had been taken from me, he was taking this for granted. Kneeling on the floor, I pressed my lips to his ear, I had to get thought to him somehow, “Not yet, your time to live is now, I will be waiting for you when it’s over, but now Minho, you must live.” Minho shot up off the bed. “Tae! Taemin are you there?” Had he heard me? He never heard me even when I yelled my loudest, “Minho?”

There was silence, “Taemin say something else if you are here.”

“Minho, I am here.” More silence, he was back to not hearing me.  He sat in the middle of his bed fully alert. After a while he hung his head tears falling again, “okay, I heard you buddy, I understand.”

After that night Minho changed, not slowly like last time, over night. He woke the next day and smiled, he was back to himself. He was happy and out going just like he had been when we were alive together.  He played sports, made friends and finished high school in what felt like just a few days.  Years of watching him grow seemed to pass like scenes of a movie.  I watched him go to dances, fail tests, win games, he even had a girl friend for a while. 

She was a lovely girl with bright eyes and a genuine smile.  When they shared their first kiss, after a date by the lake, I closed my eyes with embarrassment.  I never felt jealous; their relationship was young and never ventured far after those small kisses.  I liked when they would spend time together and I would get excited when they made plans.  I loved seeing Minho be romantic, even if it wasn’t towards me. 

When it ended they just went back to being friends, and they stayed friends well into collage.  Eventually, she got married and had a few kids, a beautiful family, Minho went to the wedding.  In collage, Minho played sports more seriously and made a lot of new friends.  I always felt happy when he would tell them about me and how special I had I had been to him, it was rare but those moments meant everything to me.  When he graduated a lot of people came to see him, it was a very happy day. I followed at his heels as he walked across the stage and accepted his diploma. He smiled and posed for pictures with family and friends.  I stood in a few, I knew I would show up as a little floating bubble, when Minho noticed these he would smile and put the picture in a box with the others I was in.  He kept every single one.   

When returned to his little apartment that night after a few drinks, he laid on his bed and stared at his ceiling like he had years before. “Did you see Taemin? We did it buddy.” He closed his eyes and smiled into the darkness. He talked to me a lot after that first night.  Some people pray, Minho talked to me.  I would listen and sometimes answer even though my words never reached him I’d like to think he knew I would talk back.  “I’m happy Taemin, I hope you are proud of me.” I was sitting the foot of his bed staring at him as he fell asleep, “more than you’ll ever know, Minho.”

He took some time off and traveled right after collage, and then got a job at his uncle’s company within the same year.  He worked hard and moved up through the company fast.  Questions about marriage and a family seemed to be asked of him more and more as all his friends took that step in their lives.  He never really answered. 

I wondered sometimes if he was lonely, but he never acted that way.  He always kept lots of friends of both genders and loved playing with the children his friends had, but never showed serious interest in anyone.  As he got older he talked to me less, and when his hair started to show signs of grey he had all but stopped completely. 

He got a dog, a small lab, and named her Daisy.  She was a good girl, sometimes she would stare at me and bark when I yelled at Minho, but she was a good companion to him.  She lived a long time, until they both had a bad hip.  When Daisy fell down some stairs Minho had to take her to the vet for the last time.  We both cried for Daisy that night. 

He lived alone after that, staying in contact with a few of his friends, and retiring to a small home in a good part of the city.  He was very handsome through out his life, even wrinkled and grey he was stunning.  He hired someone to come by once a week to help him do things like shop and sometimes cook, they would even play cards which made Minho happy.  His days became slow and he was very quiet. 

One day as we sat on his porch swing together he spoke to me for the first time in years. “Taemin, are you there? Are you still in your heaven? Or have you forgotten about me?”

“I never forgot about you Minho”

 “I know it’s been a long time since we spoke, but I wanted you to know,” he paused and looked at his face, through all the years and marks on his skin I still saw the same Minho I had always seen. “I just wanted you to know I still love you.” It was a quiet confession but it meant the world to me.  We watched the sunset together, casting its lovely orange glow over the city, it was so warm like the first evening I spent in his hospital so many years ago. 

That night Minho’s heart stopped.  The thing the doctors had attached to his chest when he started having chest pains signaled the doctors to send an ambulance.  I watched as they took him from his little home and put him in the vehicle to go to the hospital.  They shocked him to try and start his heart again, but it never worked.  They had signed the paper pronouncing his life over before they even reached the front doors. I sat in the vehicle staring at the body of my Minho. I did cry, just a little, and when I closed my eyes I felt a familiar warmth creep around me. 

I opened my eyes and saw the garden.  It looked the same as before, full of flowers and trees, so beautiful.  I got up off the ground and dusted the seat of my pants. I waited to hear the voice. Instead, I felt something bump up against my foot.  I looked down to see a soccer ball, “You must have waited a long time to play this game of soccer Tae?” The familiar voice sent happiness to every part of me.  I looked up and saw my Minho, just as I remembered him standing just a few feet away from me. I ran to him throwing my arms around his neck and laughing when I felt his arms hold me back, I nuzzled my face into his shoulder and squeezed tighter, “I told you I would wait, my love.” 

(A/N: First off, I hope you enjoyed the story and were able to smile at the end.  This was very fun to write and seemed to fly by. 

Secondly, I was not able to give this story the time I had expected to edit it, so I’m sorry if there are tense and consistency errors, some may have been looked over.  I was tending to my boo’s broken foot L But I wanted to post, so….I’m sorry.

Anyways, despite not being able to edit as much as I wanted I am still really hoping for comments on this story, of course I would love to hear if you enjoyed and how it made you feel but also, I worked hard to keep a consistent flow of time and flowing transitions, but it was hard, so please let me know what you thought and if there were certain parts that you seemed to be caught off guard.

Thank you for reading.) ~j