“Would she really be okay?” Yonghwa lowers his voice, watching his girlfriend sleeping soundly.

The man in the white pristine coat drops his eyes to the floor; Yonghwa takes that as a no.

Yonghwa misses the older times, where both of them would be laughing over something stupid on television or cycling for hours and blaming each other when their legs ache the next day. Yonghwa always intertwines their hands together as they walk off. However, Joohyun could not even take three steps without falling, but she still smiles as if nothing bad had happened.

“I’ll be okay, Yonghwa.” No, it would not.

“Throw this out.” Joohyun informs the nurse, holding the newspaper for her to take it away. “Remove those too.” She points at the magazine rack sitting neatly beside her.

Magazines, newspapers, are all covering on her. There are people out there betting whether she would return or not, even whether she or this illness would win. Cruel, that is one word to describe all of them. How could they make a buzz out of someone’s misery?

“But, the doctor said it would b-“

“And I said it’s not helping me. Now get out.” Joohyun yells, throwing a plastic fork in the nurse’s direction as she runs out of the room.

“Oh, there isn’t any paper today?” Yonghwa asks, putting his guitar down before kissing Joohyun on her forehead. Joohyun straightens the white sheets, ignoring the question.

“You brought her?” She grins as he takes out his beloved guitar. “Listen, if anything ever happens to me, promise me you’ll never stop performing.”

“What are you talking about? You will get better, Joohyun. You will!” He takes her brittle fingers into his hands, abandoning his guitar as he sits closer to his girlfriend.

“Even if I will, I can never sing again, Yonghwa.”

Yonghwa already knows this, a few weeks back before they even broke the news to Joohyun. How could she accept it without breaking down? She was being forced out of the industry – a performer who could not either sing or dance anymore.

He notices it slowly, Joohyun would leave her sentences hanging, waiting for someone to finish it because she could not continue talking for long. She would always smile, letting out a sad chuckle to compliment the serene silence around them.

“You will be okay.”

“I will be okay.” She repeats after him.

Even though she says that, Yonghwa could not help but to feel that she is slipping away from him.

She is slipping from everything.

It is never easy but Yonghwa spends his days in Joohyun’s room more than usual nowadays. He refuses any offers because Joohyun needs him more than anything right now.

“Why are you refusing to perform?”

“Hm?” Yonghwa looks up from his music scores.

“Why are you here instead of performing with your band?” She takes a deep breath, her voice muffled by the oxygen mask.

He smiles, rubbing her pale hands, assuring her that he would be fine as long as she is still trying.

He cannot tell her that whenever he tries to perform, all he can think of is her feeble body lying on the hospital bed instead of performing with him and his band and it makes him lose interest in music day by day. Even his music scores are filled with nothing but sad melodies seeping into his head as the nurses stick various tubes into Joohyun’s forearm.

“We will be okay.” She tells him, closing her eyes because she is tired. Yonghwa glances at his watch; it is two minutes earlier than yesterday.

There were times where he wished he had not met Joohyun because the latter ruined his favorite shirt when they bumped into each other backstage five minutes before he was up. The girl apologised profusely but the damage had been done. As a result, he sweated buckets due to his stylist making him wear a jacket over his dirtied shirt to cover the coffee stain.

The girl stood in front of their waiting room, holding a cup of coffee as a peace offering to the other guy. Yonghwa contemplated on whether he should spill it over her head but he decided against it.

“We’re good.” He tells her, entering the room without another word.

“Do you remember my favorite song?” Yonghwa asks, watching Joohyun nods because she does not have the strength to do anything else.

“Now I cry without tears,” he starts singing as Joohyun closes her eyes, trying to hum along, “just like breathing, I cry again, the sadness that became a home.” He chokes, trying to keep his tears from falling. “Though I try to take a step out, I cry at the doorstep, I cry, without me knowing.”

She falls asleep as Yonghwa cries his heart out.

“I would probably die without you around.” He tells her. Joohyun smiles and shakes her head.

The tubes are no longer etched in her forearms, the oxygen mask is no longer around her nose and mouth, and the annoying beeping machines are all gone.

“We will be okay.” Yonghwa wraps his fingers around her bony arms, feeling helpless.

“Look at me, Yonghwa.” Her first words in a month, her voice sounds as fragile as glass.

“Yes?”

Joohyun raises her hand to his face to wipe the tears away.

“We will be okay.”

She smiles, hand dropping from Yonghwa’s face instantly like a rag doll.

He yells, breaking the silence as doctors rush forward the second they heard him, but it was too late. 

A/N: This is the song (x)