Bright.

It’s bright.

Did the operation succeed?

You squint at the sudden whiteness that penetrates your vision. 

It was overly strange, but it gave you excitement.

For 15 whole years, all you saw was darkness.

And now, you see something different.

“Is it bright?” You hear the doctor say, and in response, you turn towards him.

It was blurry, but you see the faint outline of his face.  “Yes.  And very blurry,”

“It’ll fade eventually, in more or less, hm, 15 to 30 minutes,” He explains.  “Chen-ssi, I leave her to your care,” The doctor pats your shoulder, and just before he leaves he says, “I’ve told him the treatment you’ll be needing so you shouldn’t worry,” And you follow his retreating back, identify the sound of the door hinges and hear a click that indicated that the door was closed back.

“Jongdae, it’s blurry,” You repeat, fumbling around in your blanket to seek for his hand.  You find it, and you slightly pull away, before you turn your head towards it and use your fingers to trace the back of his hand.  “This is your hand,” It fascinates you.  The color of his skin, upon your bed, which comes into your vision in another color.  “Blue?” You ask him, earning an approving answer.  It’s pretty.  You keep tracing, onto his sleeve, the familiar fabric of his suit welcoming your fingers.  Up his arm, until you find his face.  “Jongdae,” You squint, trying to get a better look, but still, your vision was blurry.  His chin, his eyes, his lips, the one that sung to you, and his cheekbones.  You gently run your fingers across his cheekbones, feeling the unique, prominent structure it has.  You’re going to see it.  Soon.

“Take it easy, agasshi,” Jongdae says. 

“Jongdae-ah,” You call his name.  “When I can see properly, teach me things, okay? Colors, signs, letters, people, clothes, everything I’ll be encountering,”

You hear him chuckle and you, yourself, unconsciously smile.  “Absolutely, agasshi,”

You slowly look around the room, and notice the walls, the bed you’re on, the table by your bed, the sofa at the side of the room, the door, the curtains, all so new to you.  Seeing, is not the same as touching.  Seeing confirms things from afar, even without contact.  The bewildering situation when you realize that you no longer have to blindly feel anymore, because you’re going to be able to see later on.  It’s going to be strange, not personally engaging contact with the objects in your surroundings, but through adaptation and after time, you’ll surely get used to it. 

Chen notifies you that 30 minutes have passed, and of course, you notice the fact that your vision slowly clears itself.  He tells you that you have to use an eyedrop, which will finish the clarification process of the transplant’s aftereffect. 

Chen leans over you and you look up into his face, the tip of the eyedrop’s little bottle approaching your eye.  You almost flinch away in reflex, but Chen’s hand keeps you steady in position, as he lets the medicinal water meet your eyes, helping you keep your head tilted up as you blink repeatedly, letting the substance spread over your eye.

Straightening your head and looking ahead, 3 words escape your lips.

“I can see,”

***

“Careful,” Chen’s firm hold on your hand keeps you steady when you almost tripped in your casual heels.

“Sorry, thank you,” You sigh. 

It isn’t easy.  Not at all.  You had changed, with the help of the nurses in the hospital and you were discharged, and you decided to pay a visit to Rin’s apartment.  And when all you have to do to get to the car was walk out of your room, down the corridor, into the lift, and out the parking lot, it takes you a half an hour to make it halfway there.  Being able to see; many, many things enter your vision.  With that, your concentration is also broken.  Your mind is now filled with curiosity, and yet you have to focus on one activity when many objects come to disturb you. 

It’s like your imagination has just come to life, and it’s too much for you to take in all at the same time.

When you were blind, you rely on how your mind projects things into your understanding.  But now, your mind just acts as a media that processes the information your eyes receive instead of an active support in your way of comprehending different matters.

You finally make it into the lift and you almost fall completely backwards as the interior takes you aback.  The only thing that keeps you steady, is, as always, Chen’s arm.

“Agasshi, this is a mirror,” He explains, guiding your hand towards the strange object in front of you. 

“So, that is me?” You point to the person in front of you, who copies your actions exactly.

“Yes, that is you,” Chen answers.  “It reflects things, the mirror,”

“I see,” You incline your head to the side and blink, seeing the person, which is you, the one in the mirror, follow yourself. 

You hear the lift ding and you step out of it with Chen, letting him guide you to your car.  Now you see, that it’s sleek and shiny, the body polished until the paint sparkled.  “The car is nice,” You try to open the door by yourself and mind your head as you settled into your seat, the familiar backseat something friendly to you.

“It is,” You hear Chen chuckle as he starts the engine and pulls away from the lot. 

When you were unable to see, the car is only a way to get to your destination.  But now, with your new eyes, things flash by your window, zooming past you as you zoomed past them.  It was blurry and it made your head ache, so instead of feasting your eyes on the different objects outside your car, you choose to lean your head back and wait until you get to Rin’s apartment.

By the time you arrived, your surroundings were already shaded in a different color.  You squint to the distance and see something that shone so brightly your eyes hurt. 

“Ow,” You look away, meeting Chen’s worried eyes as he heard your quiet exclamation of pain.  “What is that?” You lift your hand to shade your eyes, a gesture Chen had taught you when you want to reduce the amount of light that enters your eyes.

“That?” He squints and looks to your back.  “That, agasshi, is the sun,” He smiles.  “It’s setting, which indicates that it’s going to be evening and dark soon,”

You intently look into Chen’s face and smile back at him.  “You look nice, Jongdae,” Your arms hook itself on his, as the both of you made your way into Rin’s apartment building.  “Do that again,”

He repeats his smile, but this time, wider.  And you follow suit, chuckling at his expression. 

Your eyes capture the design of the building, the carpeted floors, the lamps that dimly lights up the corridors and you see the bell, waiting for you to press it in front of your sister’s apartment door.

It rings with its familiar sound and you keep the smile on your face, as you realize that you don’t have to feel the wall to find it, but locate it immediately instead.

You hear the door click in front of you and you meet eyes with a beautiful woman.  A beautiful woman with hair that partly covered her eyes, the rest collected over one of her shoulder.  You reach forward to cup her face in your hands, and you grin.  “Unnie,”

She welcomes you with a great hug, and you hear her sniffle on your shoulder.  She was crying.  Your hand hovers behind her back before you hug her back, tightly, whispering into her ear.  “I can see, unnie,”

Slowly, Rin pulls away from you, looking into your eyes with her puffy ones.  You chuckle and wipe her tears away, but to no use, for it just keeps coming.  “Baekhyun! Kris!” She looks back into her apartment and calls out.

Two men trots into your vision.  One was shorter, with brown hair and a charming pair of eyes.  His mouth was slightly agape, which is what you could notice was similar with the taller guy beside him.  The other guy was blonde, much taller than you are, with small lips and thick eyebrows which are slightly lifted on his face.

“Baekhyun?” You look into the eyes of the brown-haired guy, who smiles at you and welcomes you in his arms.  Yes.  This is Baekhyun.  “Hey,” You smile as he pulls away.  “And Kris-ssi?” Your eyes go to those of the taller guy’s, which turns to lines with crinkled sides as he puts on what you presume was a delighted expression, as he, too, puts his arms around you.

“Heya, lil’ sis,”

The three takes turns in teaching you things, basic things, like how you can turn on and off lamps, water taps, open and close cupboards and drawers, make your bed, fold your clothes, many, many things you know the name to but never found out how to do, until now.

“Here’s a little something we thought you could use,” Kris says, pulling out something out of his bag. 

It was a box, with a ribbon on it.  “What is this?”

“Open it.  Pull at the ribbon and lift up the top part of the box, and you’ll see,” Rin explains.

You follow her instructions and find a round object in it, forming a circle with two slightly thick lines around the cushion inside.  You feel it and notice the familiar structure, as you find the name inside your head.  “It’s a watch,”

Everybody nods in approval and Chen takes the watch out of its box, unlocking the latch and wrapping your wrist in his hand as he pulls your hand towards his.  He gently sets the watch on your wrist and locks it with a click.  “The long needles tell you the minutes and the short ones tell you the hours,” He explains.

“Oh,” You look into it and read the time.  “It’s 7 hours and 15 minutes?”

“That’s right,” Chen nods.  “But just say ‘7.15’.  It’s commonly used,”

“Speaking of the time, mother and father are at home.  They want to see you, so you better go home before it gets too late,” Rin says, helping you up. 

You hug them again, altogether this time and leave the building, starting to get used to your ability.  But by the time you step outside, your feet stops by the building’s doors, refusing to take you further away.

“Agasshi?” Chen notices your hesitation. 

“It’s, um,” You look outside, and then to Chen.  “Dark,”

His hand goes into his pocket and he pulls something out.  “This’ll help,” He shows you his smile and he presses the side of the object, a stream of light suddenly pouring out of one of the object’s end.  “This, agasshi, is called a flashlight,”

It lit the way to the car and Chen switches the inner light for you before he helps you in, taking the turns that would lead the two of you home.

The dark scares you now.  Because it gives you the frightening possibility of having to lose your sight once more and not being able to retrieve it.  A simple explanation for a  wholly complicated mental situation you’re experiencing. 

“Can I get one of those?” You quietly say to Chen.  “The flashlights,”

He takes the object out of the car’s drawer and hands it to you.  “I’ll teach you how to use it when we get home,”

And you see that your home is more spacious than you think it was. 

The automatic controlled gates begin its sophisticated glamour.  The entrance, which was a pair of large wooden doors with expensive looking handles, further explained why the click of your heels would nearly echo whenever you enter your own house.  Men in suits and maids welcome your entry by the door, as you made your way through the front hall of your house.  You look up and see a bunch of crystals hanging in midair, connected by metal curves.

“That’s a chandelier, agasshi,” Chen quietly says. 

“Oh,”

You make a turn and enter a room in the hall, which was filled with 3 sofas around one glass table.  The sides of the rooms had shelves, books in them, and a big ceiling-to-floor window was at the opposite wall, half covered by the curtains.  That’s the family room.

“Director,” Chen deeply bows at a man facing the window.  “Your daughter is here,”

The man turns around and meets your eyes.  This man, is your father. 

“Father,” You call out, the tears just suddenly streaming down your face.  “Father,” You walk forward and into his arms. 

“My daughter,” He whispers as he embraces you, his voice shaky.  “My dear, daughter,”

You hear the door click behind you and you look back, seeing that Chen was gone but, in his place, was your mother.

“Sweetheart,” She comes to you and caresses your head in her arms.   You hear her sniffle and bury your head into her shoulder. 

They are your parents, and they are right in front of your eyes, now having the ability to see.

You sit at the sofa, facing both of them as they explained their joy to the situation.  Your father had taken care of the hospital expenses and he had called the best eye surgeon to work on your eyes along with the best ophthalmologist to examine and provide treatment to you.  They apologized for their absence when you first opened your eyes, but you shook your head at their apologies and stood to plant a kiss on each of their cheeks as you expressed your undefinable gratitude. 

“I love you both,” You bow and exit the room, Chen meeting you by the door.

You take the stairs and almost trip because of your sight (which doesn’t make any sense but happens to you anyway) and you see your room.  A comfortable, perfectly sized space, with a bed, a dressing table, and a huge walk-in closet hidden by a pair of doors at one side of the room. 

It was familiar enough to you, and you see a maid in your closet.

“Lena?” You call out.

The maid looks to your eyes and runs to you, tightly enveloping you in an embrace.

The similar exchange of conversation is made and she jokingly adds; “You can pick out your costumes by yourself now.  Hairstyles and makeups and jewelries too,” The two of you laughs at her sentence. 

Lena teaches you the basic women necessities, so effectively and efficiently it didn’t even take half an hour to completely get done with everything.  You’re now in your nightgown with your favorite wrap around your shoulders.

“I’ll leave you to yourself, then,” She smiles at you before she leaves your room.  “You can ask me for help if you need anything,”

You nod and and smile back, waiting for the sound of her footsteps to fade away before you peek out and whisper.  “Jongdae?”

“Here, agasshi,” He comes out of the room across from yours, now in normal clothes.  A long-sleeved, comfortable looking shirt and pants.

You walk into your balcony with him and scan your garden.  It was generally lit by the lamps implanted on the ground, prettily making the pond sparkle in the night.  Your house; it’s really pretty, now that you’ve gotten around to seeing it.

You take a seat on the metal bench with Chen and look at the watch Rin, Kris and Baekhyun had given you.

“It’s 10.30,” You tell the time, now using the proper way of saying it.

“10.32, actually,” He leans closer downwards and gently taps the face of your watch.

“You’re too meticulous ,” You lower your hand and set your head on his shoulder.  It was as comfortable as ever.

“It’s important to be meticulous,” Chen chuckles, taking your wrist in his hand once more.  “See here, agasshi.  The sides of the watch’s strap are lined with gold, but the line at the center is silver.  The center point in the face is embedded with a diamond, along with the end of each needle,” He tells you.

“So this is gold, and this is silver,” You point at the new entry of information, recording it in your head.  “And this sparkly object is called a diamond,”

“That’s right,”

“Do diamonds come in colors?”

“Yes, there are other precious stones.  Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, I’ll take you to the family’s regular jewelry shop and introduce you to these pretty sparkly things,” He copies your way of naming.

The two of you let the sound of your laughter fill the quiet air of the night. 

“I still can’t believe that I can see, you know,” You quietly say.

Chen pulls your wrap higher up your shoulder, preventing the night air from chilling your skin.  You straighten up and look to his face.

“What?” He looks back into your eyes, a smile playing on his lips.

“Smile for me, Jongdae-ah,”

He smiles, hesitantly at first.

“Wider,” You say.

And he laughs at your request, showing you what you wanted to see.

“Much better,” Your lips spreaded into a grin.  “Have I told you that you look really nice when you smile?”

“Yes you have, agasshi,” Chen smiles down at you as you return to the crook of his neck.  “And so do you,”