November 11th, 2009

Hand in hand, the two of them enjoyed the comfortable silence as they made their way back home. The silence they needed to sink in every little things that had happened to both of them, the silence they needed to remind themselves of the moment they were back in each other's arms, the silence they needed to gather up their courage to speak only truths, to speak their minds, to speak their hearts.

“To think of it, I’ve been living in your lies all the way long” said Yong Hwa while keeping his stare straight ahead the grey stone pavement lying before them.

“Eh?” Shin Hye didn't see that coming.

“Do you remember our first encounter in the library?”

“En,” Shin Hye nodded. 

“You tried to lie to me when I asked why you were late.” They stopped walking. He turned to look at her in her eyes as she turned to look at him as well. Shin Hye’s was holding her breath,her eyes widened and blinked repeatedly, her lips were pressed together as she waited Yong Hwa to say the next sentence.

Yong Hwa continued, “What actually happened that day?” 

"I was late because of the pain that I felt on my rib earlier that morning. I had the intuition that it was not an ordinary pain but I tried to shake the thoughts off my mind. Instead I just went to pharmacy to buy medicinal cream and herbal pad."

“One truth revealed.” Yong Hwa turned away from looking at her and continued walking, grabbing Shin Hye's hand and pulled her along.

“Eh?” They continued walking side by side, now that they were nearly reach Shin Hye's neighbourhood.

“Then you said you don’t really sing but you performed beautifully in the festival’s play.” 

“Oho! That’s because I’ve been practising singing the same songs over and over again. Trust me. If you ask me to sing any song straight away, I don’t think I’ll get the tune right.” She said, slightly embarrassed at the acknowledgement. “And come to think of it, I am grateful to Eun Jung-eonni. She gave me the opportunity to shine on the stage.”

“Shall we tell her then? About your condition?” He squeezed her hand a bit at the mention of Eun Jung's name.

Shin Hye shook her head. “Let’s just not tell her first. I don’t want her to worry much about me. Plus she’ll be in her final year and I don’t want to be a burden to her.” Shin Hye reasoned.

“If that's what you think best. Two truths revealed.” Yong Hwa said, keeping track of the revelation. He continued, “You told me your ribs hurt due to an impact of accident you had earlier but it was because of the illness you have.” 

“I didn’t know really. I thought it was a normal pain as I hope it’s not the tumor. I went through a tiring series of treatments before and I really hope it wasn’t cancer. But I guess I’m not the one to determine my fate.” Again, they came to a halt. Yong Hwa held her shoulders this time.

“Shin Hye-ya...Don’t be afraid...last time I was not able to be there for you because we haven’t met yet...but this time we’ll go through this together...alright?” Yong Hwa said assertively. 

Shin Hye nodded slightly. “Bytheway, there is another lie I told you. Remember the doctor we bumped into at the hospital..he was the one who treated me. And I lied about him forgotten that I have been discharged. When I suspected that I had tumor again, I did go to see him and ask him to keep a secret from my parents. So my parents only knew on the day you brought me home.” 

"Yong Hwa, I'm really sorry for not being honest to you," Shin Hye sincerely apologised. "I didn't know we would come this far. I thought we would just be friends." 

For the second time on that day, Yong Hwa locked her in his loving embrace. "Let's not say the word "sorry" whenever we're together. There's no right and wrong in whatever we have done or will do in future." They remained like that for a while to let the physical connection said it all, before Yong Hwa let her go inside her house. 

.......................................

November 12th, 2009

Shin Hye woke with a lurch when her alarm went off at 6.00am that morning. Unlike any other days, that morning she could remember what happened the day before vividly. She drew the curtains aside to open the window. She could smell the fresh, gentle, and invigorating morning breeze that she really liked as it made her think she had been healthy all the while. She the radio on her white dressing table before grabbing her towel and walked into the shower. Listening to music while showering is one of her favourite moment as it helped her to relax her mind and also to tell her how long she had been in the shower. After showering, she dressed herself in an Ivory midi dress with a peach cardigan. And somehow, that day she felt like curling her hair into big, soft curls that would look a bit springy and ebullient at the same time. For it was a brand new day for her.

7.00 am and she's already downstairs, preparing breakfast for herself as well as for the rest of the family. Nothing much special, just eggs, baked beans and mushroom soup with bread to toast. Her mom was the first to come downstairs and she heard the rustling sound of Shin Hye's suede slippers against the floor together with the sound of her preparing the breakfast. 

8.00 am and she's ready to go to college. She slipped her feet into her burgundy kirby boat flat shoes. Outside, the weather was cold and crisp and the day became brighter. She opened the door and...

There was Yong Hwa. Waiting by his bicycle at the front gate of her house. He waved at her and let out a broad grin. She smiled back.

"What brings you here at this time in the morning?" Shin Hye asked.

Yong Hwa tapped on his bicycle, "Let's go to college together."

"But I can still walk." Shin Hye insisted.

"It's best for you to avoid any activity that can make you tired easily. You'll need the energy in the class later." Yong Hwa said. As a matter-of-fact, he did a research on the internet on the side effect of chemotherapy and how to cope with it. Anaemia is one of them and Yong Hwa knew that he would not want Shin Hye to feel dizzy or faint during the class. But he didn't tell that to Shin Hye. Instead he just grabbed her hand and brought her to sit on the back carrier of the bicycle.

And the first thing Shin Hye saw when she came into her lecture room was a small notebook with a cover in pastel blue. Even without seeing the contents of the book, she knew from whom it was. And her face wreathed in smile as she thought of how sweet he can be. She could hear his melody in her heart and he has become the reason she would fight for her life.

Being afraid of the uncertain future
Or being tired, even of yourself
Let's not do those things anymore
You said things would be fine, too
Those things are always close to us
But we always lose sight of them
But I can do it now
Though it's a little scary
Let’s try our best and move forward
Melody
The one thing I can hear from whoever’s next to me
Is the melody
It’s inside of you too
Ah, melody
It’s all inside of us
Melodic message

......................................

A/N: Dear readers, presenting to you the tenth instalment to Separation Anxiety. Forgive me for taking quite long on writing this chapter as I was busy packing my stuffs to be stored over the summer. And I'm sorry as well to announce that I will take awhile to update with Chapter 11 as I will be flying back to Malaysia on this coming Monday and will land on the next day. I hope I will be able to update in Malaysia as swift as I could in the UK. Oh bytheway, the song above was taken from the ending of an anime series "Tokyo Magnitude 8.0". The translation is from the Japanese version whereas the embedded one is in Korean version. I love them both as it kinda gives me hope to continue my journey in writing. Hope this chapter could mend your broken heart due to the previous chapter ^_^ Thank you for reading this perfunctory work of mine.