Two.
A Rush of Blood To the HeadLung Cancer.
When she left South Korea, Lee Chaerin had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Everyone thought Chaerin was going to die not matter what, but her mother still sent her to Mayo Clinic in hopes that the cancer would be cured. Right before she left, her mother made her promise to call everyday.
Suddenly, the calls just stopped.
She honestly didn't intend to stop calling what makeshift home she had, life just sort of happens. Cancer just sort of happens.
Her car rode smoothly down the colorful, autumn road, leaves falling as she drove, her Pruis delivering a quiet swish to the silent forest trail. By now, her disk was on "Everything's Not Lost". The moment her ears first recognize that song, Chaerin slammed on the brakes and exited the vehicle.
Chaerin had stopped right in the middle of a of road completely enclosed by the forest tree tops. Their colors were bright, everything is usually its brightest when it's about to die.
It's called the 'Death Sprint' at hospitals. When your body knows that it can't heal itself, so it begins to trick the brain into thinking that it's getting better. It's convinces the rest of the body that the injuries are as bad as they same.
Chaerin knew what it was in full detail, and she had seen it happen day by day right before her eyes because it happened to Ji Yong.
It doesn't happen to everyone, but it was so obvious that it was happening Ji Yong in the two and a half weeks before his "scheduled" death. It was so sudden that Chaerin thought it was some odd magic that made him switch bodies with the healthy person. The "Death Sprint" made it seem like her love wasn't suffering from a stage four butterfly tumor that had made its home in his beautiful head. And as much has Chaerin wanted to believe that, she knew she couldn't get anymore attached to him than she already was (if that was humanly possible).
Three weeks passed, and just as everyone had been telling her for months and months, he died.
Lee Chaerin had been expecting this, only when it happened she still felt like someone had dug into her heart without her permission and planted a grenade. And then when that grenade went off (Ji Yong's death), it turned into feeling like someone had schooled up the remains of her mangled heart, locked them in a jar, and set it right in plain sight for her to view every waking moment to remind of that day.
To remind her of her losses.
Everywhere she looked, Death stared at her with a menacing smirk waiting to take her along with every other person she ever loved. Her father, her sister, her best friend, even her childhood pet.
All were dead. And now she could add the love of her life to that list. It was really only a matter of time before she was added to that too.
Lee Chaerin's life was always lacking in some way, but oddly enough it always left somewhat full. A family that was around for her childhood, but died when she turned sixteen. A stable job that she would have taken over if it wasn't for the cancer. And a fiancé that loved her, no, pretended to love her. And pretended to make her happy.
Happiness.
What a fake and pointless emotion. The last time she was genuinely happy must've been in middle school. Back when life was so simple and she had no worries.
Then again, what really is happiness? And could it be attained alone?
That, Chaerin really didn't know.
She hoped it was true, for now that her disposition.
Comments