48 Years Later

               “I can’t believe it!” his wife yells.

She found out about the new charity foundation he’s organizing.

            “Aren’t you still satisfied with all the other charity organizations you’re sponsoring and now you’re going to add another one?!” she says furiously.

            “It’s what I like doing.” He says calmly. She’s often mad about him sponsoring charities and this is why he worked on this one secretly. She saw some of the document in his office as she snoops. Instead of apologizing for prying, she shamelessly confronts him about this.

            “Tell me, do you think you are some kind of a saint? Let me break this news to you darling…You’re not!”

            “If you hate it so much then how come you often attend those parties?” It’s not actually a question. He knows exactly why his wife attends those awarding and grandeur events related to his charity activities----to take credits. She likes engaging herself with showdowns of hypocrite wives. She’s an expert in bragging and making herself look like a great person when in fact, helping unfortunate people is not in her mind. Poor people disgust her. She doesn’t attend the actual charity activities but she won’t miss a charity high society gala.

He folded the newspaper neatly and sips his coffee.

            “Don’t sway the main subject here. You’re showering those filthy people with our money…Huh! That’s idiotic!” She continues to nag.

            “For Christ’s sake!” he cuts her off. “You’re not even apologetic for sneaking around my office yet, you have the audacity to confront me about my things? The money I’m using in sponsoring comes from my own pocket. I had never neglected you with money either so why do you have to make a big deal out of it?” He sighs and stands from his seat. He’s no longer interested in having breakfast.

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He rides the car.

            “Chairman, to Mr. Han’s shop or home now?” the driver asks.

            “Let’s go to Jung Yup’s.” he says.

Jung Yup is his longtime friend. He’s not from a rich family like him but it didn’t stop them from being good friends. He owns a small coffee shop downtown and he often comes there when not working.

He stares outside the window as the car drives away the hospital.

He’s now managing his family’s hospital as the chairman. He achieved a lot in his career as a doctor and he’s very happy that he could still do his passion….saving lives. However, his personal life was the complete opposite of it. He had never been truly happy…he’s miserable and empty inside.

He tried so hard to open his heart to the woman he married. He worked hard to be a good husband to her but still, their marriage is a failure. She’s a person who loves no one but herself. She’s egocentric and has a temper. She only sees him as a trophy husband that she could present to the high society.

He never once snaps at her though everyday with her is a huge challenge. He kept her even after they found out that her family deceived them into a merger. Her family is in the verge of bankruptcy when they got married. He’s their ticket of salvation and they used him. His parents were regretful for putting him in this situation but he didn’t blame them.

He never lays a hand on her no matter how many times she cheated on him with different men. Having a family….she had taken that chance of being a father to him when she aborted their child just because she doesn’t want to be a mother. The baby was already gone by the time he found out about the child for the first time. She’s really rotten to the core and his life with her is the bitter pill he needs to swallow every single day.

Maybe life couldn’t always be perfect for anyone—he thought.

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They arrive at the place. The alley is narrow and the car can’t fit so he usually walks from here to get to his friend’s coffee shop. He tells the driver to wait for him in the car. The sky is dusky and the rain is starting to pour. He opens an umbrella and walks in the alley.

As he reached the middle, he sees a man walking. He’s soaking wet and seems disturbed.

            “Youngman, what are you doing in the rain like that?” he says with concern.

 The man looks around with those uneasy eyes. He observes that he’s somehow trembling.

            “I’m on my way to this coffee shop here….Come with me, you need to have a hot drink.” He tells him.

However, the man suddenly pushes the old doctor to the wall.

            “G-give me your money old man!” he says to him. He brings out a knife. His hand is trembling but he threatens him.

            “Calm down…..” He says to him. He thinks that problems and desperation pushed this man to do this.

            “I’m serious old man! Hand me your wallet or I’ll kill you!”

He’s not afraid at all. He sees fear and anxiety in the man’s eyes.

            “Let me help you.” He says and places his hand on his shoulder. He’s trying to calm this pitiful man.

A sound coming from a police car in a distance threatens the man. The next thing the doctor knows is that the knife repeatedly sticks in his body. He falls to the ground wounded. The man takes his wallet and run away.

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Yeong Won’s POV

I walk along the chaotic emergency room. The doctors and nurses are too busy attending to the patients. There’s a bunch of food poisoning patients, a boy screaming in pain due to appendicitis, a young woman having a seizure, a mother crying in panic as she carries her sick infant, and two young men getting some stitches. It’s a typical hospital scenario….Not long after, an ambulance emerges within the rain. The medics brings out an old man and he’s bleeding.

            “Chairman!” the attending doctor exclaims. It seems like he knows the man. He turns to the medic guy. “What happened to him?” he asks him as they push his stretcher inside.

            “Multiple knife wounds to the torso.”

I follow and watch as the doctor immediately works on him. I look at his life clock….it is not yet time for him to go so he’d get through it.

I walk along the hospital corridor and I pass by this particular room. It’s the old man from the emergency room earlier. The doctor and a woman are inside. I step inside to check on the patient. I stand next to his bed and watch his steady breathing. There’s a small tube hose attached to his nose and a pulse monitor on the other side of the bed.

The doctor and the woman are sitting on the couch in the corner of the room.

            “The knife had hit most of his internal organs. It’s a miracle that he survived that.” The doctor says. By the looks of it, the woman is the patient’s wife. My eyes are fixated with the patient but I can see in my peripheral vision how her body shines with all those jewelries she’s wearing. Who in the world would take the time to dress up like that before heading to a hospital? What more if your husband’s life is in danger? Well, it might be because she was in an event when she heard about the news….okay, let’s give her the benefit of the doubt.

            “When is he going to wake up?”

My forehead suddenly crest upon hearing her talk. There’s no trace of anxiousness nor concern in her voice….her tone is plain cold and flat.

The doctor sighs before answering.

            “Madam I’d be honest with you. It’s a relief that we managed to save him. The injuries he got are fatal. With the chairman’s age, recovery would definitely take long and we can’t give you an exact timeframe when he’d be awake from this coma.”

            “Alright then. I have to call for an immediate board meeting to discuss about the hospital’s management while my husband is in coma.”

The two exits the room. The woman doesn’t even take one last look before leaving. I sigh as I look at this man’s pale face.

I search his memory and watch it like a film in a fast forward motion. A selfless and giving person ended up being a victim of his own traits. He let other people take advantage of him…not that he’s an idiot because he knows what they’re doing behind his back but instead, with tightly closed eyes, he opted to just receive all the burden and pain. He didn’t even try to fight life and I hate the fact that he didn’t find any reason to fight for it.  

I shook my head lightly.

            “It’s tragic….You’re smarter than that.” I tell him.

It won’t be long and Death will come for him. When that happens, he’ll leave the land of the livings and brings nothing with him but a memory of a generic, dull, and empty life he had. He’s a rich man but don’t get me wrong. He has a successful career and absolutely a ‘somebody’ in the society but inside him…he’s a real ‘nobody’. He’s a living ghost. That’s why I’ll give him a chance in a heartbeat only if he’ll have a purpose to use the gift I could give.

I look over his heart…There must be something that he desires in the deepest part of his heart, something that he could use my gift for. A reason to give life a fair fight.

Just then I heard a whisper of a pale but unceasing desire…something that was buried in the farthest corner of his heart. An unfinished business…a search for a particular person. A promise he made to someone and to himself a long time ago. He failed because of the events that occurred in his life.

Thirty seven days…that’s all he got left. I take a deep breath.

            “You could do better….” I say to him. Given his current condition, his physical body won’t be able to do it. That’s why I’d be using his soul instead by giving it a temporary physical body to use then I could slip him through a crack in time. But the price of using a temporary body is that he won’t have any memory of his real life. He would have to go through this entire process under a false memory and identity that I could grant him. He won’t have a hard time searching because fate will eventually lead them to one another. I know that I made the right judgment. He needs this.

I lean down and whisper in his ear.

            “Jung Yonghwa….you’d walk the road to youth to fulfill a promise you made forty eight years ago. Go and do what your heart truly desires….find your reason to fight life.”

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While waiting for her laboratory test result, Seo Hyun sees a male nurse pushing an old man on a wheeled bed.

          “Where are you bringing the chairman?” One of the nurses in the station asks the male nurse.

They stop in front of them.

            “There’s an instruction to move him to the left wing.” He answers.

            “Left wing? What do you mean?”

            “It is Madam’s order.”

            “It has only been two weeks since he fell into a coma, right?”

            “Yes. But the madam wants to give his room to a VIP patient so she gave an instruction to move the chairman to one of the cheapest room.”

Seo Hyun glances at the old man whom they identified as the hospital director. He looks like in a critical condition.

            “Why? He owns the entire hospital so he deserves to be in that suite, right?”

            “That’s true but Madam told the chief doctor that having that room for him is just wasting money. She obviously doesn’t care.”

            “Really?!How could she do that to her own husband? That’s so mean…”

The male nurse shakes his head lightly while looking at his patient.

            “I feel sorry for our hospital director. He had always been a kind person…He doesn’t have kids and his wife is not interested to look after him or even visit him.” He says.

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Yeong Won’s POV

I stood in a corner and silently watch the two as they practice for a song number. I couldn’t help but smile just by observing them. They are being surrounded by a blossoming sweet and rosy aura and I know exactly what that is….Love.

            “Life is truly miraculous..” I whisper to myself.

Even a spirit like me finds this occurrence mesmerizing because it is unforeseen.

Once I realize the entire situation, even as a spirit, I still couldn’t help but be surprised. The two humans I granted with my gifts crossed paths and that is not a coincidence…it is written in their destiny. They’ve always been connected with each other. It was a fail for the two of them to be together in the past but they’re bound to meet and the time for them is the present…now.

***************

Within the misty view of rain, someone in black suit slowly walks and stops in front of Yonghwa. That person lift the black umbrella ne’s holding and reveal nir face. Yeong Won stares at Yonghwa.

            “Jung Yonghwa.” Ne calls his name.

Yonghwa looks up. Within his tears, he sees nem. Their gaze meets.

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The hospital’s white ceiling is the first thing Yonghwa sees when he opens his eyes. He looks around…he’s in a small ward room. He refresh his memory as to why he’s here….It was raining that day….He’s on his way to his friend’s coffee shop when he met this troubled young man. He mugged him and left him dying in that alley.

            “Jung Yonghwa.”

He turns to find the person who called his name. A tall silver-haired man is standing by the side of his bed. He doesn’t know him but his voice sounds familiar.

            “Welcome back to your real self.” He says.

W..what is this person is saying?—his mind asks. He closes his eyes tightly for a moment before opening them again. His head is still a bit heavy. He looks at the apparatuses attached to him…Did he fall into a coma? He’s a bit confused.

Yeong Won grabs Yonghwa’s wrinkled arm and everything that happened the last thirty six days flashes in the mind. His returning to youth and meeting the person he’s been searching for. Falling in love with her and having her in his arms as she heaves her final breath. Seo Hyun….he remembers everything now.

Tears starts showing in his eyes. He looks at Yeong Won. He now know who he is…

            “Thank you very much. It is a wonderful gift…” he says.

Yeong Won gives him a serene smile.

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Yonghwa finally reached the place. He let go of his cane and slowly puts down the fresh white flowers he brought to Seo Hyun’s grave.

            “Seo Joohyun, finally I found you. I’m here to give the sad news of Kim Taehun’s passing. I was in the same bus as him the day that the two of you were supposed to elope. We met an accident and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to save his life.” His tears falls down. “He really loves you…” he brings out the pair of rings from his pocket and puts it down there too. After so many years, he finally get to deliver this to her. “I’m truly sorry…I’m sorry for failing to save him…I’m sorry that I came late to tell you this.” He cries.

After a few moments of crying, he wipes his tears and touches Seo Hyun’s marble tombstone. His lips pulls up for a slight smile. The place where they laid her body is a great one. There’s a lot of flowers and her grave faces the sun.

            “I already accomplished my last task here…now it’s time for me to go to where you are now. I couldn’t live one more day without you Seo Hyun….See you soon, my love….”

Death and Yeong Won are standing in a distance watching as Yonghwa slowly collapse to the ground next to Seo Hyun’s grave.

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Seo Hyun couldn’t put a name on what she’s feeling right now after seeing everything. She couldn’t believe what she just found out. From the very start, it has always been her and Yonghwa who are meant for each other. Their paths crossed once but moved into separate directions, there were twists and turns along the way but ends up meeting again at last.

Her cheeks are wet with tears. A breath escapes her lips as if a thorn has been pulled out of her chest.

            “What a twisted fate, isn’t it?” she says to Yonghwa with a slight smile on her lips.

            “Yes indeed.” He answers.

Yonghwa walks to her. He cups her face and wipes her tears with his thumbs.

            “I’m so happy to see your face again. Being apart from you like that….it .” He says.

Seo Hyun smiles wide between her tears.

            “I loved you in that lifetime and I will continue to love you here in the afterlife.” He utters.

            “Me too…I love you so much.” She tells him.

They kiss passionately and embrace tightly for a moment. When they pull out from each other, Seo Hyun and Yonghwa looks at Yeong Won.

            “Thank you.” They both say.

Ne waves nir hand in a dismissing gesture.

            “Don’t mention it. Go ahead and enjoy your happy ending.”

Yonghwa offers his hand and Seo Hyun gladly takes it. They both feel an overwhelming happiness. Following Death, they climb the stairway together. The gate of heaven opens and a breath-taking scenery appears in front of them.

Seo Hyun looks at Yonghwa and sees her reflection in his eyes. Like him, she’s her eighteen-year old self.

            “Shall we?” Yonghwa asks her with a gentle smile on his handsome face.

She smiles brightly at him.

            “Hm.”

Yeong Won watches as they enter heaven. Yonghwa and Seo Hyun will start a new life together there in the most beautiful place anyone could imagine. Ne think ne’s lucky to be a witness of such a wonderful love story.

            “Well done, you guys.” Ne says with a smile.

***End***

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[Author’s note]

This is how the story goes in my head from the very moment I typed down the first word. As you know now, Yonghwa returned to youth two weeks early than Seo Hyun. He had this false memory so he thought that he’s just an ordinary student when in fact he just started attending that school two weeks ago. Because they’re fated to find each other, in his false reality he became Seo Hyun’s neighbor. He has this strong concern for that old lady next door because she is his reason for going back to youth…she’s the one he’s searching for while Yonghwa is the person Seo Hyun has been waiting for all along. Well, Yeong Won found out about it when ne sees them together but it is not for nem to tell them.

I want to acknowledge everyone for reading this story. Every subscriber or even those who are not subscribers but passed by and took the time to read it. A shout out to those who comments regularly…you know who you are and for that, I want to extend my gratitude. You guys are the coolest…you are my inspiration. Thank you for subscribing, upvoting, and commenting.

I want to thank you all for going through Seo Hyun and Yonghwa’s journey of love with me. I truly hope you enjoyed the ride. Hope to meet you all again once I return with a new story.  As for now, good luck to each one of you. Always be healthy and bless you!