Chapter 9

“I don’t think you should be going out.”

I turned to the man who had his arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed. “Are you always frowning or is it just because of your Angry Birds’ eyebrows?”

“Aww. Look at you, trying to be funny,” he retorted flatly.

I chuckled, “The nurse said I could walk around if I want.”

Yifan panicked when I staggered with my crutches down a flight of stairs to the front garden of the hospital. He frowned, “We should really get back inside.”

I hummed back in response, enjoying the fresh scent of newly mowed grass.

“You should’ve at least asked that sunshine-nurse to tag along,” he murmured.

I bit back from grinning at his held-back concern, “What for? I have you to take care of me.”

He surprisingly kept silent and tailed after me until I sat on a bench facing a small lake. There were other patients taking walks around the garden. All of them had a companion with them – be it a family member, a friend, or even nurses.

I glanced over to Yifan who was focused on little ducklings in the lake. A smile unconsciously crept on my face seeing his fascinated expression. Judging by his outlooks, he could possibly be the definition of a grown man, but he rarely acts like one.

“I should probably start charging you for adoring my handsome face,” he said nonchalantly, not even turning to me.

I scoffed and turned to enjoy the gorgeous view. The weather was nice, the warm breeze felt comfortable against my face. For once in a long while, I felt at ease. “Jisoo was someone whom I looked up to very much. She was beautiful, gorgeous, and just extremely charming. She’s nice, kind, caring. She always knew what to say. She had a great sense of humour.

“She was strong-willed and talented. Her paintings were amazing – it reflected her unique creativity. She had always been a little different – she looked at things differently than others do – she had her own view of the world and never let anyone else bring her down.”

Yifan turned to me with a questioning look. I smiled in return before continuing, “I loved—no, I love her, and I will until forever. Our parents were always a little unsupportive of her passion towards arts, and at times like that, Jongdae was her strongest supporter. He was her friend, her lover, her everything. And she was all that to him, too.”

I wanted to lean against Yifan’s seemingly comforting broad shoulders then, but I knew better that I couldn’t. “She made a living out of that small art studio. She could barely feed herself with the money she got, but she still would always send some money to mom, dad and I. They told her to continue her studies, but she stubbornly refused to – she wanted to spend her life doing what she wanted.

“Some might look down unto a person like her, but she’s my role model. She’s perfect in every aspect to me,” I stared up at the clear sky with a burdened sigh, “it’s really unfair that her life was taken away at such a young age. She was barely 23 when it happened.”

Yifan cleared his throat, hesitating to ask. “What exactly happened?”

It had always been hard for me to talk about it, but somehow, at that moment, I felt like pouring it all out. Maybe it was because of the clear sky, maybe it was because of the nice weather, maybe it was because of the beautiful lake, maybe it was because of the flowers swaying gracefully – or maybe it was because of Yifan himself.

“Jongdae promised to pick her up at the studio that night. But he was caught up with some college work, so he was delayed. By the time he reached there, the place was crowded with police and firemen. Results of the autopsy concluded that there was a gas leak.”

I turned to Yifan and he encouraged me to continue, “She died of gas poisoning. The raging fire barely harmed her, luckily. But Jongdae couldn’t get over it. He kept on blaming himself. Truthfully, it’s not his fault at all. It was just...inevitable.”

I paused as an old lady in hospital clothing passed by with her son by her side. We exchanged smiles. I hope they didn’t realize I was, seemingly to others, talking alone. “So, anyways, you should’ve seen Jisoo’s face when I spoke to her yesterday,” I chuckled to lift up the dreaded atmosphere, “she was so shocked and started nagging because I got into that car accident for being so careless before.”

“So did you tell her to let go of Jongguy so she could crossover?”

I shook my head, “I told her to stop worrying over him. She was worried that he might harm himself if she’s gone forever.”

“So did she...move on?”

“Yeah,” I replied curtly, “I explained to Jongdae about the whole thing. I talked him into finally letting her go. Everything went better than expected.”

I turned back to Yifan, surprised to find him staring at me the whole time. He scooted closer, daringly not breaking eye-contact. He edged his face closer to mine, “Han Jihae, you—”

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