Chapter 26: Author’s POV

The very next day, Ga Eul was excited, thinking that she was going to be able to leave, but the doctors had insisted that she would stay until Dr. Jo Chang Hyuk would come and check up on her. Her father already knew what was going to happen, but he decided that he would keep quiet until then. Ji Min and Jae Kyung were forced to go home by Ga Eul’s father, only because they had school and Chen, on the other hand, decided that he would skip school – he had to go train.

Chen’s mind wasn’t focused at all when he was training though. His heart was heavy, he felt tired, and his body felt kind of weak every time he would sing or dance. His trainer was confused; his trainer was always used to seeing a bright Chen, who would sing his soul out, but today, he looked rather gloomy and the trainer definitely could tell that there was something wrong with Chen. The trainer decided that they would take a rest for half an hour just so Chen could focus or get his mind back together.

Lu Han, Xiu Min, and Lay had been dancing all night long and luckily had a break so they came to visit Chen in the other practice room where he was practicing his vocals. When they walked into the practice room, they could already tell that something was wrong because Chen was sitting down on the ground, his back against the wall, with his eyes closed. They hadn’t seen this side of him for awhile and they never liked seeing him this way; he was the youngest out of them so they always worried about him a lot more.

“Yah.” Lu Han wrapped his arm around Chen’s neck as he sat down beside his friend. “Why do you look so tired?”

“Hi.” Chen said a little lifelessly.

“Okay. What’s wrong?” Xiu Min decided not to beat around the bush. “Did something happen?”

Chen looked at his friends and suddenly, he felt tears streaming down his cheeks before he could even stop them. Lay immediately gasped from seeing Chen cry.

“What? Are you stressed, Chen?” Lay crawled over to him and squeezed his shoulder. “Are you having a hard time training?”

Chen shook his head. He didn’t know how he would tell his friends; he didn’t want to worry them and he hated that he was crying since this worried them already.

“Yah, what’s wrong, Chen?” Lu Han shook him. “Talk to us. We’re your friends.”

“Ga Eul… G-Ga Eul… S-she…” Chen didn’t know how to tell them.

“Is she okay? She fainted last night… Right?” Xiu Min asked.

“There’s a slight chance she’ll make it next week unless she gets a transplant, which no one knows when will happen.” Chen broke down after recalling his memories of last night at the hospital. “This whole time… I thought that we were good… That this was the best thing that’s ever happened to me… But then just yesterday…” He sniffled while his friends waited for him to continue. “Ji Min and Jae Kyung told me that she has had a heart disease and if she doesn’t get it replaced… She’ll… She’ll die…”

Lu Han’s arm slowly fell off of Chen’s shoulders. Xiu Min’s eyes widened. Lay’s mouth dropped. The three of them were shocked and couldn’t believe what Chen had just said. They were all so happy to see that their friend had finally found someone who supported and understood up and made him so happy and now that this news came upon them, none of them knew how to react to it; they felt even worse because they didn’t know how to comfort Chen.

“Let me take you back home.” Lu Han said after a few minutes of silence. “You can’t focus on training if things are like this. I’ll talk to your trainer.”

Chen shook his head. “Don’t worry about me, hyung. I can’t always depend on you guys for comfort.”

“Don’t say that, Chen. We’re always going to be together.” Lay patted Chen’s back. “We’ll be there for each other; that’s all that matters.”

“But you need rest, Chen. You look like you’ve been up all night.” Xiu Min reached over and ruffled Chen’s hair playfully.

Chen stood up with all the strength he had left in his body. His friends all stood up and patted his back lightly. He was thankful that his friends were there for him even if they had little to say; they always reassured him in some way and it always made him feel better.

“She’s going to find a transplant, Chen. Don’t worry about it.” Lu Han said. “You have to think positive, okay? There’ll be a miracle.”

“Just because they said that she might not make it to next week, you never know what things might happen within one day.” Lay commented further. “Ga Eul will make it.”

“And you’ll make it as well.” Xiu Min said.

Ga Eul’s been sitting in her bed for over 24 hours now. She’s been dreading to get out since she felt kind of lonely and the room was cold; she wanted to see Chen and hang out with him. She was kind of sad that he couldn’t stay since her father kept urging everyone out. Her father’s been out talking in the hallway with Dr. Jo Chang Hyuk for the last two hours now and it was starting to make her curious. She was wondering what they were talking about for so long that they couldn’t just say it to her in person. Just when she was going to get out of the bed, the door to her room opened, making her freeze in place.

“What are you doing?” Her father asked as he walked into the room with Dr. Jo Chang Hyuk following behind him.

“You two were taking so long; I was getting bored.” She shrugged as she put her legs back onto the bed.

“We have a few things to discuss with you, Ga Eul.” Dr. Jo Chang Hyuk said as he pulled a chair up for both himself and Ga Eul’s father.

“What is it?” Ga Eul felt her heart start beating quickly from anticipation.

“Remember when I said I had a surprise for you?” Her father asked.

Ga Eul nodded her head slowly. “Why?”

“The surprise is that we found a heart transplant for you.” Dr. Jo said. “We thought about telling you a little later, but after seeing the results from last night’s procedure, you almost didn’t make it.”

Ga Eul looked over at her father and saw that he was already crying; she couldn’t understand what happened last night since all she knew was that she went under a heart attack.

“This was the worst heart attack you’ve been through; it could have killed you if Ji Min didn’t take immediate action.” Dr. Jo said as he let out a sigh. “The doctors here were lucky to help you maintain your heart; they almost lost you.”

Ga Eul choked on her cry. “W-what?”

“Ga Eul, we need to move you and your father to a hospital in America as soon as possible. They have a heart there for you and their doctor that will be providing the surgery is an amazing doctor.” Dr. Jo commented. “If you leave in two days and get there in time for your appointment, you’ll –.”

“What do you mean leave in two days? What are the chances that I’ll survive that surgery if my heart is already this weak?” Ga Eul asked as her anger started to rise rapidly. “And what about my friends? Do they know about this too? Or what about Chen? I don’t want him to know and if I leave… What are the chances of me coming back to see him?”

“Your chances are at about a 25% rate, Ga Eul, but it’s a chance we have to take.” Dr. Jo informed. “If we wait any longer, your heart could fail on us and the chances of it being replaced will decrease each day.”

“So either way, I could die, right?” She scoffed hearing this news. She thought this was more than ridiculous because if she were to stay and not get the surgery, she’d probably get a few more days to live, but if she were to get the surgery, there’s a slight chance it might not even work and she’ll die anyway. “What am I supposed to do?” She cried as she started to cry even harder.

“Ga Eul, if this procedure works, that means you can live fifty years longer!” Her father was trying to find ways to convince her. “Come on. We have to take this chance.”

“A chance where I’ll have 25% chance of living and a 75% of dying?” She shook her head as she laughed through her tears sadly. “Either way, I could die, right? If I don’t get the procedure, I have at least one week left, but if I get the procedure, it’s either I die right then or there, or I’m freaking lucky enough to live even at all.”

“Please, don’t stress yourself out over this too much.” Dr. Jo knew better to say this. “Your heart becoming stress won’t do you any good. You might go under a heart attack.”

“I feel like everything is a heart attack nowadays. I can’t do anything I want to do anymore; I can’t even live like a normal teenager!” She cupped her face and felt her tears seeping through her fingers. “How can I even decide something like this? What kind of teen like me thinks of things like this at their age?”

“I’m sorry, honey.” Dr. Jo reached over and patted her hair down. “But we have to make a decision as soon as possible.”

Ga Eul couldn’t even speak anymore. She was bawling her eyes out that her breathing became a little harder for her and her chest was in pain – not because of a heart attack. She felt like she was suffocating with all this coming at her at once. She wasn’t ready for it. She didn’t know what she would do if she were to leave Chen and not be able to see him the next day because something went wrong, but she wouldn’t know how to leave the world within just a week and not know the chances of her living. She didn’t know what she was going to do anymore. She felt like her world was collapsing in on her.

Throughout class, Jae Kyung was crying, but she had to keep her head down most of the time; she didn’t want anyone to see her cry, but it was getting harder for her to hide it when she had to sniffle from time to time. Not only that, her paper under her was starting to get damped from all the crying she was doing and the things that she had wrote earlier on there was now unable to be read, but she couldn’t help herself. Her best friend had a slight chance of living and she didn’t know what she was going to do.

“I’m sorry.” Jae Kyung said as she stood up from her seat and bowed towards her teacher before sprinting out of class.

She ran down to Ji Min’s class and saw him sitting there lifeless. Jae Kyung didn’t know if she even had the right to say anything or cry to him. Thinking about all of these things made her hate herself even more; why would she even think about crying in his arms and asking for comfort when she hurt him? She bent down and cried her eyes out; it was all too much for her and she didn’t know what she was going to do.

“Why is this happening…?” Jae Kyung choked. “Why?”

“J-Jae Kyung?”

Jae Kyung looked up and froze; Ji Min was standing over her, looking down at her with tears streaming down his cheeks as well. She quickly stood up and wiped her tears, but it was no use; she was still crying. Without even say a word to him, she felt Ji Min wrap his arms around her and hugged her tightly as the both of them cried. The class was staring at them, but instead of saying anything, they stood in silence, wondering what was going on between the two of them.

After calming their selves down, they made their way to the front of the school, and walked together until they passed the gates and left school. They had been walking side by side in silence, afraid that if any of them were to speak, they would break down right away because they both knew very well why they were like this.

Ga Eul was sitting in her room. She had the Polaroid pictures sprawled on her bed; she looked at each and everyone and cried after thinking about that day.

The first one she looked at was with Ji Min; they were throwing water balloons at each other. She remembered that day clearly; he hit her with a water balloon, straight in the face on accident, but she wanted to get him back so she hosed him with water until he got down on his knees to apologize. She chuckled while crying.

The second one was of her and Jae Kyung; they were holding hands and were on the swing sets together. This was the place where she and Jae Kyung first met and how they became best friends. They would always come to the park and play. They always vowed to each other that they’d never leave each other’s side. She laughed at this one too; she loved the memory of her and Jae Kyung.

The third one was of her, Ji Min, and Jae Kyung; they were all smiling happily at the camera with cotton candy, a lollipop, and an ice cream cone in one of their hands. They had all skipped school that day together and had gone to the fair. That day was long and tiring; Ji Min was supposed to go home early that night, but he lied to his parents and said that he had to study for school, which never happened and he ended up getting into trouble because his parents tried to pick him up from the library, but he wasn’t there.

The rest of the pictures that she looked at were of Chen. She felt her heart hurting from seeing the pictures of him; she cried and cried, making her vision so blurry, she couldn’t even see the pictures clearly anymore. It was as if reality was hitting her every time she was reminded of Chen. She didn’t know what to do; she wants to tell him, but she didn’t want to hurt him. It was already too late though; she knew that he was going to get hurt and it was going to be her fault for keeping a secret like this from him, as if it could be hidden forever.

“Honey?” Her father had knocked on the door and walked in seeing her cry.

Ga Eul cried a little harder. “Is it even fair that when I suddenly became so happy, all this crap gets thrown back at me, telling me that I’ll never be as happy as I thought I could be?”

Her father was wordless; he cried. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Choi Ga Eul. I’m sorry…”

*A/N: Next update will be in a few hours! Please read and comment. I'd love to hear about your opinions, so please don't be a silent reader. Thank you and read with lots of love! Keke~! Muah