“Argh...”

I groaned. I slowly opened my eyes. I started to feel excruciating pain in my body. I couldn’t move my feet. I felt the muddy ground I laid on. It was already night time. I couldn't move my right arm. I raised my other arm and saw the bruises. I expected it would be the same with my entire body. I stared at the night sky and was thankful that I was still alive. I called and shouted for help. However, I must’ve wandered deep in the woods and might’ve wandered off trail. I felt hungry and thirsty. I prayed and hoped that someone would find me. It suddenly rained. I opened my mouth to drink some of the rain drops.

I don’t know how long I’ve lain on the ground. The pain on my body seemed to worsen. I wanted to scream out loud hoping it will ease part of the pain but I was too tired. I thought about my life and what had happened. I thought about my family and the possibility of losing their son. I thought about the good people that surrounded me for the past three months: Principal Yang, Seung-hyun, Bom, Mr. and Mrs. Park, Mr. & Mrs. Noh, the kids and Dara... I prayed... How my thoughts wandered onto my Dara? How I tried to remember her beautiful features? I closed my eyes and imagined her. I imagined tracing my fingers to her porcelain white face and softly ran my thumb on her plump pink lips. I imagined wrapping my arms around her small petite waist. How I felt her warm breath on my face. It felt so surreal. I got startled when I heard a bark. I hastily opened my eyes and looked around. I didn’t notice that the rain had stopped. I tried to move my head to look what was happening. I saw the flashes of light coming out of the dark forest. The Dog kept on barking and I heard voices shouting my name. Hope came. I saw Seung-hyun ran towards me and quickly crouched down and said something. People started to surround me and checked my wounds. Someone lifted my head and helped me drink water from a cannister. Afterwards, they lifted me up to a stretcher and I still could feel the excruciating pain on my body. I closed my eyes and I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up in a hospital bed and saw my legs and my right arm were casted. I felt a cast on my neck and felt the bandages on my head. I saw Seung-hyun came in with a worried expression. He took a chair and placed it beside my bed. He said, “I was so worried , Mr. Kwon. When you didn’t return right away, I felt something had happened to you...” He paused and he looked at my wounds. He softly said, “I thought...” he trailed off and became silent. “That doesn’t matter now, Seung-hyun the. The important thing is that I’m here now and you saved me... I owe you my life...” I thought it was such an understatement thinking my presence wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. He, suddenly, bursted into tears. I tried my best to comfort him but he kept on insisting that he should’ve insisted to come with me in the first place.

The doctor came in and informed us that I would need to stay in the hospital for a couple of weeks. He mentioned I would need to go thru rehabilitation to help me walk again since both of my feet were fractured from the fall. He told me that the ground that broke off helped me with my landing since it was still soft and thankfully my back landed on top of it. I knew, then, that I had to be on a wheelchair for several months. Though, I knew that at least I would still be able to present and work on my research but it would take time for me to travel again.

After a couple of days at the hospital my family arrived to visit. I told them what had happened. They were all worried after they heard the incident from Seung-hyun. My sister took the time off from work to help take care of me. My father made arrangements for my hospital bills but had to go back to the mainland to look for a good rehabilitation center and have my transfered back after I got out of the hospital. My mom stayed wi