a few warnings before you start reading: i won't go into graphic descriptions, but if the mentions of death are triggering for you then it's probably better to not read this story as that's basically how it goes. also... i hope no one expects that the descriptions of a person who was brought back to life after being dead will be medically accurate ^^;; i tried to make it look believable, but since it's a fiction and nothing but an assumption of how it could be, i leave the right to describe it the way i do :) thank you in advance and i hope you'll like it~^^

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That pain was unbearable.

Or it only seemed so.

Maybe it wasn’t the worst thing a person could probably go through, but for some reason that pain, which probably wasn’t the greatest pain ever, embraced his whole body and refused to let him go. Instead of fading – that’s what usually happens with any kind of pain; it fades with time – it seemed to reach every curve of his, every cell. It engulfed him. It became unbearable. It pierced every centimeter of his flesh.

And then, it was gone.

Everything was gone.

Was it good? Was it bad? For whatever reasons, he couldn’t tell.

He… Who was he?

Was…

He only was.

There is no him anymore.

And he couldn’t even tell whom he used to be.

***

The pain was back as suddenly as it faded. This time it didn’t engulf his whole body, but concentrated in a very particular spot – his throat. For a second, it seemed like he simply caught a cold and needed to drink something warm for it to be gone, yet it didn’t take the guy long to realize – the pain wasn’t internal.

It was external. There was something else that made his throat hurt.

Slowly coming back to his senses, he managed to open his eyes only to see himself in a room… that wasn’t his.

Wasn’t his.

He was Donghae. Donghae, right! Ah, silly, what happened that he forgot his name? That was so funny and ridiculous, the guy wanted to smile and then… and then…

His face hurt and it made him both grimace and let out a whimper of pain, which attracted someone else’s attention.

Someone else’s attention? Who was there?

Donghae looked at a guy who was in the bed on the left, looking at him after hearing that sound, and saw that stranger smiling, then heard him saying, “Oh, you’re awake! I need to tell the nurse.”

The nurse? So he was…

Donghae looked around and almost hit himself for being so stupid – of course, what else would look this way if not the hospital? Plain white walls, a few beds around him with one being occupied by a person who was wearing something that looked like pajamas… There were so many hints since the moment he opened his eyes, he just ignored most of them…

The guy who saw him pushed the button above his bed to call the nurse for him, that’s when Donghae noticed the said guy didn’t look injured at all – on contrary, he seemed to be fine and healthy. Maybe he was here for long time and was about to get discharged?..

But then… why and how did Donghae end up here?

He tried to recall what was happening to him that caused him appearing here. Donghae was healthy… he felt totally fine that day, it was…

It was his birthday.

Ah, right, his birthday! Of course it was, what happened to his memory even… It was his birthday and everything felt so beautiful.

Donghae woke up early, all excited for that day. He had school, but hey, school seemed fun on your birthday because you had friends and classmates congratulating you… He remembered taking some extra time in the bathroom to style his hair, choosing one of his best outfits (bless his school for not having a uniform) and smiling at his phone once he noticed his besties have congratulated him already.

It was a beautiful day.

Being one of the favorite students, he’s been receiving congratulations from teachers even. Almost every lesson started with good words about Donghae and he even got an extra banana milk in the canteen as a birthday present…

Good, good day.

He and his friends went to eat some pizza after their classes. They were free pretty late that day because of the extracurricular activities that were mandatory, but Donghae’s parents allowed him to come home later since it was such a big day.

Wonderful day.

They stayed till the pizzeria was closed, which was really late – almost at midnight. Donghae remembered whining to his parents saying that everyone’s allowed to stay until this late, so it’ll be unfair if he won’t be able to keep being there with his friends on his birthday. They argued. Donghae complained his parents spoiled his mood.

He… he was an obedient boy. Maybe not a total A+ student, but his marks were very good. He’s been trying to not disappoint his parents and help them as long as he remembered… but he also was a teen. He just turned 17, after all. He was in his rebellious phase as well.

So, when his friends told him to just keep hanging out with them that day and think about the consequences later, he agreed. He was 17. Not a child anymore. And he’s been good enough to get at least one day of doing whatever he wanted.

He had a right for a perfect day.

That’s why he went home at midnight. He hoped to catch the latest bus, but what a luck – it left right before he managed to enter. There also was the subway… 20 minutes of walk away from him. Gladly, it closed later, so he only needed to reach it and try to get home that way.

20 minutes. Such a short walk, right? Donghae thought he’ll be there in no time.

Seconds passed, turning into minutes. And then, the time stopped.

It’s gotten slower the moment he noticed he was walking alone on the street with two figures following him. The student tried to shrug it off and convince himself he was simply being paranoid – the two were talking rather loudly and about…

What… what were they talking about?

Why Donghae suddenly… remembered that he got scared because of their words? What did they… what…

That’s when the time stopped for him; suddenly his memories became messy – he tried to remember what exactly happened later, but all he managed to achieve was a headache and increased heartbeat. He, he…

He was going home, he simply needed to get home, he…

He wanted to see his mom. Oh God, did anyone call his mom? He had to tell her he was on his way home, he…

He…

“Donghae?”

The woman’s voice brought him back to this world, and the guy looked at the nurse who entered the room, feeling how the pain was slowly fading away once he stopped trying to remember what happened to him the other day.

Donghae opened his mouth and tried to say something, but whined again because of the pain in the right corner of his lips, and the nurse’s gaze softened as she said, “Don’t try to talk yet, sweetie. Your injury is pretty bad there – you’ll need some time to recover. Even more now that it heals so slowly. I’ll ask you some questions and you can nod or shake your head, then I’ll tell you more about your family and why you’re here. Do we have a deal?”

Since there was not much he could do anyway, the guy nodded.

The woman smiled, “Brilliant! First, does your body hurt much? No need to specify where it hurts for now, just let me know an overall feeling. So? Is the pain strong?” Donghae took some time to think, but shook his head eventually. It hurt, but not too much. The nurse nodded. “Good. Any inner pain, not only from the injuries outside? Nausea? Head spinning? Inability to move a certain part of your body?”

She kept asking more questions and Donghae kept shaking his head. He frowned once hearing a few questions – they were rather odd. What in the world happened to him?

However, there was one question that made him freeze, “Any memory failures?”

The guy held his breath. And nodded. Although asked not to do it, he still spoke, “Just a little…”

And started coughing because his throat felt as if it was on fire immediately. Out of instinct, he wanted to touch his throat with his hands, yet only noticed… that his arms were covered in bruises and he had a few nails broken almost to their lunulas.

What… just what happened to him?

“Sweetie, I told you to not try to talk yet!” The nurse got really worried and approached him immediately to have a look at his throat and other injuries. Noticing that everything seemed to be fine, she said, “I got you. Just a few memories seem to be blur, yes?” A nod from Donghae. “Okay. You do remember the basics, right? Like your name, family, how old you are and everything?” Another nod. “Okay, then… I assume the thing you struggle to remember is… what happened to you that led you to being here, right?”

Yup, another nod. He didn’t remember for real.

The nurse pursed her lips and sighed, “I really don’t understand why we don’t have psychologists for such things still… Maybe you want me to call your parents in first? So that you’ll be able to hug them and…”

What? Why was she so secretive? Okay, Donghae probably was beaten up or something, maybe those guys wanted to rob him, he got it… What was the fuss about? Why did he need to hug his parents?

The guy felt bad the moment he remembered about them. They probably were so worried… if only he wasn’t in his rebellious phase… Not only he wouldn’t end up here, but he’d also not make them so worried, he hated to cause troubles.

Maybe that was the reason, maybe he only was curious… But Donghae shook his head, indicating he didn’t need his parents with him and wanted to hear everything himself.

What could be worse than being robbed and beaten up to the point you ended up in the hospital, after all?

The nurse her lips out of nervousness and nodded, “I’ll go straight to the point. Probably it’s better to not remind you about the traumatic events of that night if you can’t remember everything now, but… You were admitted with several injuries that led to internal bleeding. Our doctors were doing everything they could, but the situation was… difficult. And they didn’t manage.” They looked into each other’s eyes. Donghae frowned, struggling to understand. The nurse sighed again. “I’m sorry to say this, but… Around 2 am on October 16th your heart stopped.” Donghae’s frown deepened and he suddenly felt like he was being pranked. “You died, Donghae.”

Apparently… there was something worse than being robbed and beaten up to the point you ended up in the hospital.

***

“Let me fix it… Yup, all good! You look amazing, sunshine.”

He looked just like he always did. Donghae glanced at his reflection in the mirror, seeing himself and his mom who was standing behind the guy and fixing his hair that didn’t get less messy no matter how hard she tried. Noticing his gaze, the woman smiled wider, however, her son couldn’t smile back.

Not only because he didn’t want to, but also because there were stitches on his right cheek. They still hurt sometimes, his ability to heal worsened significantly, and it wasn’t too easy to speak, not to mention to smile. But yeah. He also simply didn’t want to.

Donghae observed himself. Even with those stitches, he looked just like a usual boy who was getting ready for school. His skin became a bit paler, however, that could be explained by the fact he wasn’t eating well, nor sleeping. He’s gotten much thinner and looked… sick.

He felt sick, too.

Ever since he learned he actually… died. Somehow, he couldn’t even recall his reaction – he believed he laughed, thinking it’s just a prank. Remembered listening to what the nurse had to say. But he didn’t even remember how he felt.

There were some reports about how the scientists in their country found a way to ‘bring a person back to life’ if the body’s condition wasn’t critical and if not more than 1-2 hours passed since the moment of death. Basically, before some nasty and totally irreversible things started happening to the body. He even remembered how his biology teacher made them read a report about it, yet it wasn’t a mandatory thing to