Seoul Hospital

Seoul, South Korea

    You are the endowed one…

      …It must have felt beautiful

        I’ll make this last…

          ...I’d rather stay in a countryside- anywhere, as long as you’re there

                                                                                   Tell me what you’re thinking...

                                                                                       …Because no one was listening

                                                                                     You deserve better than this…

                                                             …I promise, I’ll never leave you ever again

                                                      Your eyes are lovely…

                  …Did you know that you are so beautiful?

              Dance with me…

                                            …I feel thankful that I was able to meet you

                                        You have a beautiful smile…

                                                          …I will look after you

I wish you would be able to behold a sight as beautiful as where we are now and see the stars for yourself…    

                                                                                               …Because you’re all that I’ve got

               Lee... Teuk...

“Leeteuk...” she muttered as she opened her eyes slowly. She scanned the room, it was the hospital and she saw Dong Wook beside her.

“Taeyeon, are you okay?”

It was silent as she recalled what happened. Oh.

“Please, I need to see him. Please bring me to him.”

Dong Wook gave a tearful smile and nodded as he wiped her tears.

“Could you believe,” she sulked. “I had known him for nine years. I waited for so so long,” she choked. “Could you imagine what he goes through?!”

Because of her, he stayed at the ward for years away from his family.

Because of her, he sought to die for her and send himself as a soldier.

Because of her, he let her marry someone else.

Because of her, he stayed silent and never told anyone of his feelings.

         Dong Wook gripped tighter into the steering wheel as the woman beside her stared blankly onto the road, her hands holding tight onto her seat. He cleared his throat and led out a tear.

“A year after you said he left, I had met him. My father told me he rescued him. For every single night, he spend some time away from sleep to write a letter,” he chuckled and bit his lip. “It was ensigned to his pastor but he always told me of a woman. He told me of how beautiful she was, how kind, how patient, and how unconditional his love was. It was me, I had delivered them for him, I didn’t know…”

Taeyeon buried her face onto her hands and cried. Dong Wook looked at her, tears pouring out of his eyes told her, “Jung Su loves you so much, Taeyeon. For so long.” He looked away and cringed.

“Stupidly enough, when he came back I asked him what he thought of you. He told me you were beautiful. What a fool,” he hit his steering wheel. “How could I not tell that he was in pain, he never looks me in the eye, he hesistates and he told me all your favourites. I was so selfish with my own happiness I hadn't seen it. Everything, he remembers everything—“ he choked on his tears.

“Enough, please. Please,” Taeyeon muttered weeping clutching onto her heart.

Incheon

         They had spent four years together. She patiently asked the man for Leeteuk's dormitory room, there was no rush, not after all these years. As she lay on his bed, waiting, a minute felt like an hour and an hour felt like forever. The only unit of time that she counted was in heartbeats. She overheard the men outside ordered to pick him up and couldn't help but to follow. Her heart stirred and she felt uneasy. The emptiness in the room suffocated her and she needed to feel him near her.

♦♦♦

         He fell, before her and his voice was caught in the middle of calling her name. The pain that just struck him was indescribable. More shots rang through until the enemies were completely wiped. She had trouble conceiving the situation and ran towards Leeteuk. There was blood and dirt everywhere and he was crying. The sorrow in his eyes tormented her as her heart ached to hold him in her arms. She pecked his lips but they still quivered. His voice trembled as he reached out towards her hands.

"Taeyeon. Taeyeon. Taeyeon," he whimpered like a chant.

With swollen eyes and shaking hands, she hushed him and opened his shirt. His chest was bruised and she placed a hand on his heart. Merely inches away were where the blood was pouring. Taeyeon took off her scarf and wrapped it around him, tying a knot at where the bullet shot through.

The other men carried Leeteuk and she tried to calm him, by touching his face. If only she could lean on something, to keep him alive. She wanted to be with him. She wouldn't let him fall into unconsciousness. Taeyeon pressed her hand on his heart and hears his deep breathing and cries. Please don’t leave me, she moved her lips against his chest. She could ever recall the last time she has heard the beating of his heart against her ears and could not stop crying.

Be strong for me and like how you’ve fought for me, for our love this entire time. I need you, Leeteuk. He is his semi-conscious state tried to reach out towards Taeyeon. She had called him Leeteuk. After all these years. He held her hand that was placed on his chest. Even during the journey, he cared about her. He knows how uneasy Taeyeon was in taking car rides, especially because of her tragic past. She ran her hand through his hair, there was never a moment where any other man sought to care for her like he do. How did he have such a heart to think of her the entire time when his own life is at stake?

          As they arrived back towards the tents, Dong Wook had a horrified expression seeing his godbrother screaming in vain. They closed the room and left Taeyeon to take care of Leeteuk. She wiped his sweat and tears, as he gripped tightly onto her shirt and the bedsheets. As she was treating him, she told him with silent gestures to hold on and never let go.

He gave out an agonizing cry as she tried to remove the bullet in his ribcage. The process was painful, Taeyeon tried hard to maintain her tears but she couldn't bear hearing his harrowing cries and calling only her name again and again. She had to save him, but she had hurt him more each time she reached into his skin. His eyes pleaded to stop the pain, but at the same time he knew she couldn't. He trusts her, she can tell. Leeteuk cried and cried his asthmatic rhythm grew more intense and he squirmed back and forth.

"Shhh, just a little more," she cooed, but she wasn't anywhere near just yet. It would take a while, to ensure she doesn't harm his organs, especially since they are terribly close. With much difficulty, Taeyeon removed the bullet from his skin and dabbed a cloth over it. She pressed and he yelled, until finally calming down and breathed normally. Taeyeon herself was panting, and then wiping away the tears on her cheeks. She placed a bandage over his ribcage and fixed his hair that was covering his face. She let him drink a glass of water and cleaned the medical materials she had used.

"You remember," he muttered, eyes closed. Taeyeon came close to the bed, near Leeteuk and held his hand. She places her hand on his chest. She saw a tear fell from his eyes and pressed her cardigan against it. Through his shirt, through his skin, she feels his heart beating.

After resisting as much, she finally placed herself beside him on the bed, her hands above his chest and closed her eyes.

“My name is not Leeteuk,” he whispers. “It is Park Jung Su.” She listened and wiped a tear away replying, “I know.”

I knew that you were special, she remembers herself say.

Her hand is still on Leeteuk's beating heart. He does not say a word.