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Vickie did not sleep.

Thinking of sleep pained her just as she thought of how her treatment would go.  She remembered what she had learned about cancer and leukemia back in college in Seoul.  There were many ways to cure leukemia, but which one was for her?  Was it chemotherapy?  Surgery?  Bone-marrow transplant?  It scared her to think about her skin being torn open if surgery or transplant was the only cure for her.

Vickie knew that if she didn't sleep, her dark circles would give her away if her father asked.  She gave up and went to sleep, even when things were lurking in her head and were ready to burst once she snaps.

The clock ticked loudly on the wall above Jinki's bed.  It was the only sound in his apartment, but usually it wasn't like that.  Usually, even if it was late at night, Jinki would be laughing and smiling as he read Vickie's letters to him.  But now, no matter how much he longed to smile again, he couldn't bring himself to get out of his bed and reread Vickie's letters.  It would only hurt him.

“I remember tears streaming down your face— Goodness, Jinki, stop.”  He muttered to himself, his hands covering his face.

His heart began to drum loudly in his chest, pumping more blood than it should.  He put a hand over his chest where his heart was located, helplessly trying to calm it down.  Just like Vickie, he gave up and got out of bed, not to read letters, but to go get a drink.

“I don't understand how I'm alive,”  Jinki told himself as he opened the fridge that only contained jars of pickles and bottles of ketchup.  His hand roamed past the containers and was able to locate a bottle of cold water to which he opened and drank from.

Too many thoughts walked around in his head.  His nice but bossy boss appeared in his head, the meetings he didn't pay attention to throughout the day, his work mates that kept on stealing sticky notes from his table—they all entered Jinki's mind.  That ghastly lunch he ate that was supposed to be lasagna even resided in his head temporarily.  And, as much as he didn't want to, Vickie took an empty chair in his mind.

She sat there peacefully, looking around and waiting for the show to start.  But what was there to show?  Soon, the projector's light shone on the huge white tarpauline upfront and memories of Vickie in Jinki's head started playing.

Jinki retired to bed, not stopping the movie in his head from playing.

The sun shone through the yellow curtain covering the window in Vickie's hospital room.  Her eyes fluttered open slowly, adjusting to the light.  She turned to the other side and saw her dad sleeping on the couch.  There were two suitcases beside the couch.  A quiet groan escaped Vickie's lips as she lied straight on the bed, eyes staring at the ceiling.

Soon her dad woke up as well.  He sat up on his couch, groaning louder than Vickie as he rubbed his eyes.

“Good morning, sweetie,”  Wu Zheng said as he continued to adapt to the bright light in the hospital room.

Vickie slowly sat up on her bed as well.  “Good morning, dad.  How was your sleep?”

“Good,”  Wu Zheng said as he yawned.  “But I should be the one asking you that.  The circles under your eyes are really dark.”

Vickie chuckled for the first time she was checked in the hospital.  “I slept anyway.”

Wu Zheng chuckled also,  “Stay here; I'll go get breakfast.”

After folding up the blanket he used when he slept on the couch, Wu Zheng left Vickie to her own devices.  Tired of laying or sitting in bed every time, Vickie struggled to get out of bed.  She succeeded, fortunately, and wobbled her way to the window.

Vickie almost fell, but she caught ahold of the window frame and was able to regain her balance.  Her hair was a complete mess, for she hasn't taken a shower in two days straight.  Even so, the curly locks of her hair made her look normal.  The buildings outside stood tall and cars were beginning to line up behind each other in the highway below.  People who were walking looked like ants as they made their way to wherever it was.

“Vickie!  What are you doing?”

Vickie turned around to see her father rushing up to her.  He led her carefully back to bed while she sat there, confused of what was going on.

“What were you doing up?  What if something happened to you and I didn't know?”  Wu Zheng panicked.

“Dad, calm down.  Nothing happened, see?  I'm alive.”  Vickie said, reluctantly tucking her legs underneath her blanket again.

Wu Zheng sighed as he handed her her breakfast.  He watched her eat it slowly.  He also ate his breakfast seconds later.  It was dead quiet in the room, and Vickie was finished eating.

“Dad, can I go brush my teeth?”  Vickie asked, breaking the silence.

Wu Zheng put his food down and helped Vickie out of the bed.  He guided her to the restroom in the hospital room, then rushing to get her toothbrush out of a duffel bag on the couch.

“Dad, the hospital already has the stuff here,”  Vickie called up.  She raised a hospital toothbrush and toothpaste for her dad to see.

“Oh, alright,”  Wu Zheng said then zipped the duffel bag up.

While Vickie brushed her teeth, a nurse knocked on the room door.  Wu Zheng walked over the door and opened it, revealing a nurse holding their itinerary on one hand and a clipboard on the other.  Vickie could hear muffled voices outside over the running faucet water as she was finishing brushing her teeth.  She heard the door close just as she had put away the toothbrush and the toothpaste.

“Who was that?”  Vickie asked.  Wu Zheng was leading her back to her bed.

“A nurse.  She gave me the itinerary.  We'll be flying business class, but on a flight with less people.  The doctor told the nurse that riding the plane that is crowded might do something to your health.”  Wu Zheng said.

Vickie nodded her head.  “Do I have to wear a mask?”

“Sadly, yes, but once we get to the hospital in Seoul—”

“Seoul?  Doctor Chiu didn't say we were going to Seoul; he only said we were going to South Korea,”  Vicke was beginning to panic.

“Well, it says on the itinerary we'll be going to Seoul.”  Wu Zheng said.  He sensed Vickie was tensing up.  “Vickie, dear, I know what happened between you and Jinki, but I know you'll be able to put that off while we're there.”

Vickie gave her dad a straight face.  She didn't know what emotion to completely show him.  She turned to the window, only so that her dad wouldn't be able to see her eyes slowly being filled with tears again.  There's no way Jinki and her would meet, she thought.  But Seoul wasn't that big, but it was bigger than Taiwan.  Vickie knew there was a way Jinki and her would meet.

One of Jinki's office mates, Jonghyun, bombarded into his office.  He was carrying different folders in different colors,  “Jinki, do you have the documents for the 2004 demographics?”

Jinki briefly stopped typing.  “‘2004 demographics’?  That was five years ago.  Why are you asking for it?”

Jonghyun rolled his eyes.  “The director over at the art department wants it.  They're doing this thing, I don't know.”

It was Jinki's turn to roll his eyes.  He got out of his chair and began opening and closing his file cabinets.  He opened the fourth one and scanned through the years.  He found the “2004 — Demographics and Charts” section right after “2004 — Miscellaneous”.  He grabbed the folder and handed it to Jonghyun.  Jonghyun left and Jinki sat in his chair again.

His train of thought got lost all of a sudden.  The words on the monitor that he had typed appeared before him like a surprise.  He shook his head and went back to typing.

At the edge of the keyboard, a paper stuck out.  Jinki had the urge to get it, but a part of him told him to keep on typing the project his boss assigned him to do.  But what could a simple second do anyway?  Jinki lifted the keyboard up carefully and grabbed the paper underneath.  It was a photo paper.  He flipped it over, his eyes widening slowly.

“Vickie.”  That was all he could mutter.

A knock on his office door made him jump in his seat.  A deep voice seeped through the door's small opening in the side.  “Jinki, you better be typing that project up or you will not be returning to this company ever again!”

“Y- Yes, sir!”  Jinki slammed the picture on his desk face down.

“Just kidding, dude, it's Jonghyun.”

Jinki heard Jonghyun laugh outside, his loud and evil chuckles fading away slowly.  His heart was still beating loudly after that shock he had received, both from Jonghyun's mimicking of his boss's voice and the picture he had just discovered in his office.

“Dad?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Have you ever thought of remarrying?”

Wu Zheng paused arranging Vickie's clothes in the suitcase.  “What?”

“I said, have you ever thought of remarrying?  You know, since mom's gone and you're a single parent.”

“Honestly?”  Wu Zheng finished arranging Vickie's clothes.  “I've never thought of that.”

Vickie was surprised.  “Really?  Are you serious?”

“Yeah, really.  I've never thought of remarrying.”

“Dad, you're lying.”  Vickie said.

“No,”  Wu Zheng laughed.  “I really haven't thought about remarrying.  Well, now that you mentioned it, I'm thinking about it.  But I really don't want to marry anyone else other than Mei Lu.”

Vickie smiled,  “Why?”

“Well,”  Wu Zheng turned around and sighed.  He knew it was going to take some time to explain to Vickie how much he loved her mother, but he was willing to do that.  “I love your mother.”

“That's it?”

“That's it.  I love your mother, and that's the only reason why I'm not going to marry anybody else.  No matter how beautiful or smart this person is, I'm never going to replace your mother.  Mei Lu is Mei Lu, and nobody else can make me happy like she did.”

“How do you know that?”  Vickie was enjoying Wu Zheng's story about her mother.  Each time, she felt as though Mei Lu was in the room with them, watching her and chuckling at each word Wu Zheng utters.

“Mei Lu was my first love, Vickie.  And I know you know that saying, ‘First love never dies’.  It doesn't.  Even if the person you first loved did, the love stays.  It doesn't go away.  And the happiness I felt when I first saw your mother can't be compared to anything else.  Well, when you were born, that kind of got to the same level of happiness, but not close to when I saw Mei Lu.”

Vickie threw a pillow at her dad.  “Dad, you're a loser.”

“Okay, fine, when you were born, it made me happy just like when I first saw your mother.”  Wu Zheng and Vickie laughed.  They quieted down then Wu Zheng resumed to explaining.  “I've seen some really beautiful ladies, but no matter how beautiful they were, they just couldn't get to your mother's beauty.  I didn't know it at that time, but later on I realized I really was in love with your mother.  What crazy person would think of a nerdy-looking girl as beautiful?  Me.”

Vickie smiled again.  She had read many romantic stories of couples, but none of them could compare to what she was hearing right now.  She really wished her mother was with them right now.  She imagined Mei Lu sitting beside her on the bed, watching Wu Zheng explain to Vickie his majestic love for her mother while they both laughed at the geekiness of her father.

Wu Zheng sighed,  “Ah, I remember our first date.”

Vickie's eyes widened her surprise.  “How'd it go?”

“It was still during my internship.  I asked one of my friends to tell Mei Lu to go to this old building near the beach in Kenting.  I told my friend to tell her to go there seven in the evening, sharp.  She didn't know I was there, waiting for her in one of the rooms I decorated earlier.  The lights went around the room and balloons filled the floor.  There was a balcony there, so I set up a table there.  I couldn't afford any good meals, so I bought street food that I knew Mei Lu loved.”

“Dad, you're lacking romanticism.  If you really did love mom, you should have bought her an expensive meal.”  Vickie said jokingly.

“It's the thought that counts, okay?”  They laughed.  “I remember the dress she wore.  It was teal green, and she was wearing a black backpack on her back and still wearing her glasses.  She kept on calling out ‘Hello? Hello?’ until she reached the end of the hallway where I was.  I thought she saw the light coming from the room.  I was in the balcony, facing the beach, when she got in the room.  I turned around and said ‘Hi’.”

Vickie began laughing.  “What?!  You just said ‘Hi’?!  Oh my gosh, dad!  You're bad at this!”

“Do you want the story or not?”  Wu Zheng asked seriously.

Slowly, Vickie's laugh was quieting down.  “Okay, continue.”

“Okay.”  Wu Zheng said.  “Well, Mei Lu was surprised to see me there.  She was even more surprised when I gave her three pink roses.  I led her to the balcony, and it became cold.  I put my jacket over her shoulders and sat her down on the other side of the table.  We talked and then we ate.  And then...”

“And then...?”

“And then I asked if she wanted to be my girlfriend.”

Vickie squealed.  “What did mom say?”

Wu Zheng sighed.  “She said no.”

“What?!”

“I courted her for almost a year before she said yes.  Her father didn't like me, see, but that didn't stop me.  I continued to pursue her, send her letters even when I left Kenting to go back to Taipei.  When I went back to Kenting, she told me her parents gave her permission to say yes to me.  That was the happiest day of my life.  But—”

“There's a ‘but’?”  Vickie interrupted.

“If you would let me talk.”  Wu Zheng said.  Vickie raised her arms in defeat, then Wu Zheng continued.  “When she said yes, I was happy.  But after five years, when I finally gathered the courage to ask for her hand in marriage, I was happier.”

Vickie squealed again.  “You should write a story about this, dad.”

“I have a diary.”

“What?!”  The thought of her father having a diary shocked Vickie very much.  “Where?”

“Here—”

“Mister Song?”  A nurse knocked on the slightly parted door.

Wu Zheng went ahead and opened it wider.  “Yes?”

The nurse had a plastic ziplock bag with a mask inside in her hand.  “You and Vickie will now be going to the airport.”

A LITTLE ADORABLENESS COURTESY OF WU ZHENG SONG!

LOL

THANK YOU GUYS FOR READING!