Chapter 12:

Seulmi’s POV

Wednesday.

Luhan is out of town for a few days. His older sister decided to visit all the way from Beijing to tell them some big news. She was getting married and invited Luhan and his aunt to her wedding in mid-February. Since she came all the way from Beijing, the two planned to show her around Seoul. The trip was planned to be 3 days, making Luhan absent from school.

Today was the second day. He’ll be back by tomorrow night.

No Luhan means no ride home so I had to take the public bus.

It was raining today, but it didn’t rain too hard. It wasn’t sprinkling, yet it wasn’t pouring. My umbrella almost kept me completely dry. I arrived at the public bus station that was only a block away from school. I wasn’t the only one taking that public bus back home from school after all. Some other students walked there as well, waiting for the bus just like I am.

When the bus arrived, we entered the slightly crowded bus. I took a seat beside the window and another female student sat beside me. I recognized her from the park. She was the one that participated in the fake snow fight on the day Luhan and I had our first kiss. Ugh, that sounds awkward.

“Hey, Seulmi.” She greeted as she took a seat beside me.

“Hey, I never got your name…” I informed her.

“You can call me Joy.” She answered with a grin.

“It’s nice to see you again, Joy.”

She smiled wider and we made small-talk.

“So where’s Luhan?” She asked, curiously.

“His older sister visited from China. He took her around town, but he’ll be back by tomorrow.”

Joy nodded wisely.

“What are you two planning to do for Christmas? It’s only a week away. Are you two doing anything special?”

I shrugged. “We haven’t talked about it yet.”

“Oh okay.”

Then Joy began to stare to the side of my face.

“I see your cheek is healing.” She pointed out.

I gently placed my hand on my almost-healed cheek and sent a tiny grin. It flashbacked me to when Jongin threw that punch and the time I vowed to try to forget about him. I promised myself to try letting new memories fill his empty spot in my heart.

Suddenly, I felt my cellphone vibrate in my pocket. Taking it out, I beamed at the name of the Caller ID. Luhan. I instantly answered.

“Han?”

“Annyeong~!” His adorable voice made my insides pounce.

“How are you? How’s your sister? Are you having fun? Is something wrong? Where are you?” Questions flooded out of my mouth and he just chuckled.

“We’re fine, Seul. We’ll be back tomorrow night. I was just checking in to see how you’re doing. So how is it over there?”

“I’m still in the bus. It’s raining but I’ll be fine-“

All of a sudden a loud shriek was heard from the front of the bus. An ahjumma shouted, facing the windshield of the bus.

I glanced outside the window, noticing that the rain got a lot harder since the last time I checked. Joy and I quickly leaned our faces against the window, seeing a trailer truck on the wrong lane, running towards our direction. I couldn’t see clearly due to the constant slams of raindrops hitting against the window and blocking my view. Headlights were all I could see.

Everybody was out of their seats, trying to witness what was happening.

Without warning, people from the other side were thrown to ours’ as the driver harshly tries to avoid the truck. We successfully avoided the trailer truck, but due to the imbalance of the bus and the sharp turn, the entire bus was flipped and tipped to one side. Unfortunately, the bus tipped to our side of the bus, causing me to be at the very bottom of the pile of people. Passengers piled upon me, all of us struggling to move. All I could hear were panicking passengers and screaming. I couldn’t move and I unexpectedly felt a piercing pain in the back of my head.

I could feel my sight slowly fading as the pain started getting stronger. I remembered that my phone was still in my hand and that Luhan was still on the phone. My arm stretched out almost all the way on top of broken glass. My phone still lay on top of my palm, but the more I attempted to move my arm, the more my head and back hurt. I tried calling for help just in case Luhan was still on the line.

“Han…” I whimpered in pain before slowly passing out. “H- h- help….”

It all went black after that.

~

“Seulmi? Yoboseyo? Seulmi!! Yaaahh~! Answer me! Yoboseyo?? Seulmi~! Gwaenchana? What happened?!”

“Seulmi???”

~

All I heard in those few seconds were screaming, panicking, and then a loud crash.

I panicked. What could’ve happened? Is she okay?

I hung up and rushed over to my aunt and sister who were sitting together in a booth, waiting for the waiter. We’re at a Korean noodle restaurant at the moment, ready for lunch until I decided to check up on Seulmi with a quick phone call. I jogged over to the two who were debating on what we should eat. I came with a panicked and uneasy face.

“Oh? Han… do you want naengmyeon or jjajjangmyeon?” My aunt asked, holding up the menu.

I shook my head. “Auntie… I need to go.”

“What? But we haven’t even eaten.” She told me, confused.

“You and Mei can say here, but I need to go see Seulmi.”

“Han… don’t worry. I’m sure that she’s perfectly fine. You called her didn’t you?”

“I did, but she was cut off by screaming and loud crash. She didn’t respond after that and her phone was still on. She’s in trouble. I have to go see her.”

My aunt’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Okay, okay. Go ahead. We’ll see you back home tomorrow.”

I grinned at their approval and bid both of them a see-you-later with a kiss on the cheek. Then I jogged out of the restaurant, luring the nearest taxi.

*You have to be okay, Seulmi. You have to…*

~

Narrator’s POV

Groups of ambulances and police cars rushed over to the accident involving Seulmi’s bus. 20 passengers were stuck in the sideways bus, almost suffocating. Police had to break the windshield glass in order to help everyone get out since the bus door was on the side that hit the ground. Seulmi and 4 others were unconscious including Joy, who was also on the bottom with her. All passengers were quickly taken to the hospital shortly after they got out of the bus.

~

Jongin’s POV

I sat on my couch, in front of the TV, gaping and shocked at what I was just informed of. Public bus found lying on one of its sides only a block away from school. Students use the public bus to get home. I jumped in disbelief once I saw the camera wander towards one of the victims.

Seulmi.

*Seulmi was in the accident????*

No doubt, my eyes widened as big as ping pong balls. Quickly, I grabbed my jacket and drove to the nearest hospital.

*Please hold on, Seulmi… You have to be alright. Please…*

~

Narrator’s POV

Luhan sprinted into the entrance of the hospital, finding everyone in a white coat swarming madly around the hospital. The emergency room was filled with injured passengers from the bus and Luhan jogged towards the room. His eyes swept back and forth as he tried to find Seulmi in one of the patients’ beds. Finally, he found her being treated by 2 nurses, 1 of them writing in her clipboard, while the other was taping up Seulmi’s head with a long, white bandage. Luhan rushed over to them.

“What happened?” He quickly asked them.

The nurse who was writing on her clipboard turned to talk to him.

“These are patients from a mild bus accident.”

“How mild was it?”

“The bus seemed to have tipped over and fell onto its side in the rain, trapping everyone in it and leaving the unlucky ones on the bottom of piled people.”

“That doesn’t seem mild to me!” Luhan said sarcastically, but the nurse understood his concerned expression.

“Do you have a relationship with any one of these patients?” She asked.

He nodded and pointed over to Seulmi. “Is she okay? What were her injuries?”

“She suffered head and back injuries. She was one of the unlucky passengers that probably sat on the side that fell to the ground. Since her side of the bus fell, her head seemed to have clashed with the glass window, causing her head and back to be slightly stabbed with tiny shards of glass. She’s okay now. We removed the shards from her head and back. Bandages and other medicines were applied. She should be awake within a couple of days.”

Luhan felt a rush of guilt and sadness filled him. She covered his face to hide the sorrow and clutched his hair with one of his hands. “Okay… thank you.” He thanked the nurse.

The nurse nodded. “Please come with me to fill out some papers regarding the patient.

Luhan agreed and followed the nurse out of the hospital, after taking one last glance at Seulmi.

~

Jongin arrived soon after Luhan was lured over to the front desk. He jogged over to the same room, finding Seulmi in the same place. He covered his mouth to hide the huge frown and fell beside her, leaning his arms on the bed. He grabbed her hand and found a one of his tears land upon it. He looked back up to her face and the grip on her hand tightened as he felt the urge to punch himself in the stomach. He kneeled down beside her bed and slowly kissed the top of her hand because he knew that it as far as he could go.

“So many bad things are happening….” He quietly said to her sleeping figure. “I’m sorry I had to be one of them.”

He sniffed in his tears before they started flooding out.

“I’m sorry for the pain. I’m sorry for everything. I’m a complete failure.” He admitted to himself and apologized to Seulmi. “After you wake up, I promise that I’ll leave you alone. You don’t need any more pain and I can’t stand you lie there in pain. I’ll leave you alone from now on. You don’t have to understand me. You don’t have to know how much I love you. Because you’re better off without me in your life. You’re happier without me.”

He kissed the top of her hand one more time, before he stood up. Jongin combed through some of her hair and caressed her cheek before leaving one last tear behind.

“I love you, Seulmi. Take care…”

He left with just one last glance at her, feeling sorrowful, but satisfied with his decision.

*You’ll be happier this way.*

~

Luhan called Seulmi’s tearful mother to the hospital. After finishing filling up the papers, she sobbed nonstop beside Seulmi, but no one could blame her. She is her mother after all.

“Luhan! Thank you so so so much for calling me and coming back. I don’t know how I would ever react if Seulmi didn’t have such a caring and amazing best friend like you.” Mrs. Han told  him in tears.

“It’s no problem, Eumoni. I would never leave her alone even if she was in the middle of the pacific ocean.”

~

2 days later.

Luhan visited Seulmi at all the times he could. He would visit her before and after school. If he even had to sleep and eat there, he would.

Saturday Morning.

Luhan’s POV

I calmly sat in a chair beside her in her hospital room beside her hospital bed. We paid for a separate room for her until she woke up. I also heard that Joy was unconscious too. Both of them should wake up today.

I took a bite of my sandwich that I packed for breakfast as still waited for Seulmi to wake up.

“Seulmi… are you that sleepy? Don’t you miss us? Don’t you want to wake up now?”

No answer, of course.

“Don’t you want some of my sandwich? Yum yum! You must be jealous. I like this sandwich. Mmm… yum~!” I was acting weird, but that’s how I usually am when talking to a sleeping person.

I took another bite of my sandwich, chewing it until I saw a movement.

Her eyelids were slowly prying open, catching my attention and causing me to almost choke on the food in my mouth.

He eyes fluttered open. I stood closer to her face.

“Seulmi? You’re awake!” I noticed.

She looked over to me.

“Luhan?” She faintly called.

Without any hesitation, I gently hugged her, happiness and relief filled my insides and I could only embrace her, since that was all I’ve wanted to do the entire time she was asleep.

“I’m so glad you’re awake…” I told her happily before letting go again.

I caressed her cheek and smiled meaningfully. She smiled back beautifully, making my heart skip a beat.

“What happened?” She asked weakly.

“You were in a bus accident on a rainy day. You’re head landed on broken glass, but you’ll be fine.”

“How long was I asleep?”

“Just a few days.”

Seulmi nodded wisely.

“Joy was with me, wasn’t she? How is she? Is she okay?”

I nodded. “She has the same condition as you.”

I saw the relief in her expression.

“Who else came to visit?” She asked.

“It’s just me and your mom.”

She made an unsure face. “Are you sure? Because I heard another male voice while I was asleep.”

“It was probably mine. I’m a boy.”

“No. It’s deeper than yours.”

I nodded wisely.

“Kai must’ve found out about the accident and visited you too.”

“Kai?”

“Oh… right. You call him Jongin. Jongin must have visited you too.

“Jongin?”

“Yes.”

“Who’s Jongin?”

~

This was another SUPER LOOOOONNNNGGG one.... I'm sorry. I can't split it in half again, or else it will just end up to be 2 super tiny chapters. Suspense starts in the nex few chapters, but it won't be SUPER suspenseful. But it might keep you wanting me to update faster. I probably will^^ Hooray.

She lost her memory???? OMG.... gaahhkkk. We'll just have to wait a bit longer^^ Kya kya...

Sorry for the cliff hanger guys... so sorry.

New Subscriber:

ExoticShawolinSpirit
 

Thank you soooo very much for reading! I hope you enjoy! Kya Kya Kya I also can't stop staring at your profile picture... idk... I'm wierd. Kai isn't even my ultimate bias, but that giffy makes me smile. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! Please also comment you opnions, or even feels^^,  down below. And upvote if you are liking the story so far.^^ Thank you chingu~!