TAEYEON’S POV

[3 DAYS LATER…]

I watched as Dara-unnie just stood in the middle of my and Jiyong’s room that morning I called her. She just stood there, silent, her eyes wandering in the messy room. Of course, Jiyong wasn’t there. He went to work in the company. He seemed to be preoccupied lately with work and it was just a few days after we came back.

“Dara-unnie, sit here,” I told her, patting the bed Jiyong and I shared.

“Is it…okay?” she asked awkwardly.

I chuckled. “Why not?”

“So…” she trailed off as she sat on the bed and started folding some of my clothes on the bed. “You’re leaving today?”

I nodded, folding my clothes into my luggage. “We won’t be long though. We will only be gone for three to four days. Jiyong and I have to settle some things back at L.A. as we hadn’t done that when we left. One of my secretaries told me some employees even started labor unions.”

“Labor unions?” she gasped.

“Sadly, yes. They seemed to be against the permanent transfer of the company branch here in Seoul. I know it was a bad idea considering that Seoul is a thousand miles away from L.A. and that it was inevitable that they would lose their jobs, although we offered them to work here too. Most of them were really against it,” I explained. “Jiyong and I just wanted to work closer to Grandpa. You know how his health is.”

She nodded as I looked up. She was starting to help me with packing up my things.

“How about your wedding preparation?” she asked, stuffing some of my clothes in my luggage as I went on to pick some of my toiletries.

I came out of the bathroom and kneeled in front of the luggage, beside her. “Mom and Dad are here,” I said, cramming some of things. “Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask. Can you…” I trailed off and looked up at her. “…help us with my dress and Jiyong’s suit again?”

She was silent for a while and I was starting to think she didn’t want to because of her relationship with Jiyong, which I was planning to find out soon. I just couldn’t understand why they hated each other. I tried asking Jiyong a few times but he never really answered it, saying he just hated ladies who smoke and sleep with men whom she had never even gotten married to.

Wasn’t it weird though?

She answered after a while with a nod and a small smile.

My eyes widened. “Ah. Really?!” I gasped as I hugged her and then I leaned away. “Oh, one more thing. I remember Dami saying you knew how to play piano right? Can you also…”

She was silent for a while again, as if contemplating things, her mind wandering off. “You want me to play piano for your wedding?”

I nodded eagerly.

She breathed in. “It’s alright.”

I squealed and I was about to hug her when I remembered something. “How did Dami know that you know how to play piano though?”

“Oh, that? Well… she watched me before during one of my recitals back then. I never knew her really. She just told me that on the engagement night.”

I nodded, understanding things for the first time. I never knew that she had recitals back then. I lifted my eyes back to her as I noticed that she was just kneeling beside the luggage, not helping me anymore. I saw her eyes and traced back where she was staring at. Her eyes were on the ring that was dangling by the necklace on my neck.

“Are you looking at this?” I asked, lifting it up.

That was when she seemed to wake up from the trance. “Oh, what?”

I smiled. “It’s the engagement ring. I bought necklaces for both of us. I think it’s more romantic having it closer to our hearts than on our ring fingers right?” I said and smiled. “That night when you saw me and Jiyong outside of my room, I was putting the necklace around his neck.”

“You were putting the necklace around his neck?” she asked, looking confused.

I nodded. “The ring is gorgeous right? He wore it on me too, before I did to him.”

She nodded slowly too. “Ah… Taeyeon, I have a question about the wedding preparation…” she said, changing the topic. “I don’t really have a piano in my room. I have one but I left it in Japan. Do you happen to know a friend who own one? But not one in school, they might use it too.”

“Oh, didn’t you see the piano outside when you came in here?” I said, pointing outside the door. The piano was just visible, anyway. The moment you would enter the room, you would see it already.

“But you and Jiyong are leaving right? I can’t just come in here and practice,” she said.

“Aish, it’s alright, unnie. I trust you. It’s not like you’re going to rob things in here, right?” I said, joking. “Oh, unnie, can you please get those sandals under the bed. I almost forgot it.”

Dara-unnie stood up to pick it up while I was cramming more stuffs into my luggage. “Aish, Jiyong didn’t have this trouble last night. Why do girls need to bring this much, they ask? Well… we’re girls,” I said, talking to myself. “I should have not rejected Jiyong’s offer last night.”

My phone suddenly rang, interrupting my soliloquy.

“Hello?” I greeted with my usual cheerful voice. Dara unnie kneeled beside me then, handing me my sandals.

“Taeyeon?” it was Jiyong and then he sniffed.

“Are you crying, Ji?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Dami…” he weakly said.

My eyes widened and by the mention of Dami’s name, I already knew. “What hospital are you in? What room?”

After he said the information, I grabbed Dara-unnie’s wrist but not before she protested.

“We’re going to the hospital?” she asked. “Why? What’s wrong with Jiyong?” she asked, questions bombarding me.

“It’s not Jiyong, unnie. We’re going to the hospital because of Dami.”

“Dami?” her eyes widened.

“Yeah, let’s go,” I said, pulling her. But she seemed hesitating. So I looked back and asked her, “Unnie, you’re still scared of hospitals?” I asked, but she didn’t answer. “Okay. I’ll be going alone, then.”

I already turned away when Dara-unnie spoke again. “I’m coming with you.”

We arrived at the hospital room that Jiyong mentioned sweating from the running we did from the ground floor up to when we looked for the room. The moment I opened the door, I saw Jiyong sitting by the stool beside the bed, his hand clasping Dami’s, and his eyes pouring endless tears.

When he heard the door opening, his bloodshot eyes lifted to the door and the moment he saw me, more tears poured. I ran towards him, my arms open. I enveloped him in my embrace as he cried.

“Taeyeon…” he cried. “Dami is…”

“Sssh…” I shushed him, his hair and whispering that everything will be alright.

When Jiyong fell asleep on the couch, I stood up and went towards Dami’s bed. She was still unconscious but I held her hand and kissed it.

“Wake up soon, Dami,” I whispered before I let go.

I silently opened the door and walked out, looking for Dara-unnie. While I was reassuring Jiyong about Dami’s safety a while ago, when I looked up, she wasn’t already on the doorway. I wasn’t even sure if she stepped inside, but I was pretty sure that she was with me when we arrived in front of the door. I wasn’t really sure what happened next because I was too concerned of Jiyong.

After a while of trying to call her unattended phone and looking for her around the hospital, I spotted her by the cafeteria, her back on me.

I sat beside her. “Unnie…” I said, waking her up from her trance. She was holding a cup of coffee but it seemed that it lost its warmth as there were no steams anymore. It also looked like she hadn’t drunk it.

She stared at me. “What?” she asked like it’s the most normal response right now.

“Where’d you run off to? Didn’t you want to see Dami?” I asked.

“How’s Dami?” she asked back.

I sighed before answering. “The doctor said it was just another attack of her asthma.”

“Asthma?!” she gasped. “Since when?”

“I’m not entirely sure. But two months ago, while Jiyong and I were strolling by a park, I remembered how his father called him and then he blanched in fear. He never told me where we would go. So when we arrived at the hospital, Dami on her bed, I was surprised. Apparently, she had asthma and it attacked her often times. Jiyong didn’t even mention to me when she got it because he kept on crying. He looked too scared. His father crying was no help to ease the tension so I was the one who comforted him. Too bad Mister Kwon just left for his province a while ago that’s why Jiyong was alone today,” I sighed. “I understood how scared he looked like that time though. Dami’s asthma was in a stage where it was almost incurable. Jiyong was afraid she would leave them.”

“Will she be alright?” she asked.

“I hope so. I thought she was completely cured before, though, when they discharged her after a week from the hospital.”

There was silence that enveloped both of us.

“I guess I’m going back to L.A. alone now.”

She whipped her head to look at me. “Alone?”

I nodded. “I can’t let Jiyong come with me. Just look at him. Although I would want to stay with him, I couldn’t just let the employees back in L.A. be protesting against the company forever. I will return the moment I will settle it, anyway. So, I guess, it’s alright?”

She was silent.

“I’ll leave him to you, alright?”

She whipped her head towards me again. “What do you mean?”

“You’re my cousin, unnie. I trust you. I’ll leave him to you. Please take care of him and don’t let any girl touch even a strand of his hair,” I joked and then I turned serious. “I don’t think that you’ll let that happen, right, unnie?” I asked, holding her hand and squeezing it. Somehow, a lump was forming in my throat. What was this? Was I being uncertain?

She looked down on our hands and looked up to meet my gaze. She smiled and nodded.

I smiled too. “Don’t fight anymore, arasso? For me, unnie?”

She nodded again.

Why was the other side of my mind against this idea though? It wasn’t like Dara-unnie would be… stealing Jiyong from me, right? They hate each other. It wasn’t possible right?

Did I make the right decision though?

DARA’S POV

Yesterday, Taeyeon left for L.A. and I had to ‘take care’ of Jiyong for her. Although I didn’t like the idea, I couldn’t just say no to her. I couldn’t let her down, especially now that she trusted me that much, even asking me to take care of her husband-to-be.

However, I was really scared. I hope Taeyeon would come home soon. I don’t want my selfish side to take over me. No, I wouldn’t let that happen. Taeyeon trusted me and I wouldn’t break her trust.

And the fact that even Taeyeon’s dad and mom followed Taeyeon just this morning didn’t really help. I thought they would be going after the preparation of the wedding. It turned out that they hired an organizer and I had to coordinate with them too, because they would be organizing the event minus the music and attires.

Now, leaving me and Jiyong wasn’t much of a good idea.

I carefully turned the knob. Actually, I had been having inner battles whether I would really come to the hospital today. Hospitals were a big NO to me since then. Hospitals never gave me good memories, like someone having their lives saved or something. I didn’t even visit the old geezer in the past every time he was admitted. I always stayed at the cafeteria. The doorway I reached yesterday was the farthest I had gone. I could have taken another step inside, completely prepared to take over my fear of hospitals.

The reason why I hated hospitals was pretty valid, by the way. Two lives were taken away and I had to witness it. Imagine witnessing your mother’s bloody body being covered with a white cloth and your father already covered with the cloth the moment you arrive, surprising the soul out of you because it was unexpected. Another life was almost taken away and it was too heartbreaking to remember. I’d rather not recall it, though it was hard since I would spend my time right now with the person involved in one room.

Jiyong’s eyes widened upon seeing me and I bowed in greeting. My eyes went to Dami who was still sleeping and then back to Jiyong. He was looking haggard, his hair disheveled and dark circles around his eyes.

“I just dropped by to bring you breakfast,” I said placing the containers on the side table.

I was about to turn my back to leave when he spoke. “Why don’t you stay for a while?”

A part of me wanted to leave already. And I didn’t know what came into me when I immediately agreed and took the stool beside the bed. I didn’t know what came into me why I didn’t protest like I usually did or like what I should have done.

I wasn’t sure though, but it seemed like a small smile curved on Jiyong’s lips as he took one of the containers and took a seat on the couch.

I watched him as he took a bite on the Toast I prepared. As he swallowed, he lifted his eyes to meet mine. He, then, smiled, his eyes gone from the way the smile reached his eyes. It was the first smile I saw on his lips after seven years. “It’s delicious.”

And it took me all the effort not to break a smile on my lips.