❝IJUSTWANTYOUTOKNOWWHATYOU'VEDONETOME❞

The two men talked in the cafeteria.  There were little to no people when had arrived there since it was already nighttime, so they were able to converse without worrying about anyone overhearing them.  It wasn't something that was private, but it definitely surprised Wu Zheng.  Jinki began his speech with "I'm sorry", and ended it with "please".

"I- I don't know, Jinki."  Wu Zheng turned his styrofoam cup around and around on the table.  "Don't you think this is a bit quick?"

"I've already made up my mind, Mister Song."  Jinki said with all his might.  "And I'm sure it'll work."

"Well, I guess I don't have any more to say, only because you insisted."  Wu Zheng sighed, standing up, followed by Jinki.  "The last answer is Vickie's, however.  I hope you keep that in mind."

"Yes, sir."  Jinki said.  "I will."

"When is this again?"  Wu Zheng asked, so he could keep a mental note.

"Tomorrow, sir.  Three in the afternoon is the time I planned."  Jinki said.  "You know, so Vickie could get some rest before it."

"Alright, then."  Wu Zheng was about to leave, when he remembered something.  "But if my daughter says otherwise, I can't do anything about that."

Jinki bit his bottom lip slightly.  That never crossed his mind, that Vickie would say otherwise.  He hoped it would never cross her mind, too.  "I know, Mister Song.  I know."

"Alright.  Just wanted to get that cleared out."  Wu Zheng his heel.  "Good luck."

The older man left.  Jinki stood there, encouraging himself in his head.  Nothing is going to go wrong, he thought.  I won't let that happen again.

The sun shone mildly brightly outisde as the next day came, and everybody in the hospital was suddenly busy.  Nurses came in and out of Vickie's room to check on her, and each time they checked, she was still asleep.  The eighth nurse came in, and that was when Vickie finally opened her eyes.

"Oh, you're awake!"  The nurse's eyes went bigger.  Vickie's eyes tried to adjust to the light as the nurse came hurrying out of the room, "Doctor Choi, she's awake!  Doctor Choi!"

Some fifteen seconds later and Doctor Choi came in with three more nurses, including the previous one.  They checked Vickie's vital signs and everything else that needed to be checked.  Doctor Choi wrote reports on the papers clipped to his clipboard.  The other three nurses were still moving around the room.  When Doctor Choi finished his reports, he asked Vickie several questions.

"How are you feeling now, Vickie?"  He asked her, waiting for her reply.

"N- Nothing much, really."  She said.  The mask connected by the cannula tubing to the oxygen tank was removed from Vickie's face, letting her breathe in natural oxygen air.  "Just a bit... dizzy, that's all."

"Say, do you feel any better than you did before?"  Doctor Choi asked.  "Before your treatment, that is."

Vickie struggled to sit up, so one of the nurses helped her.  She put a hand on her forehead and briefly closed her eyes, whimpering a little as she sat up.  "I- I guess so.  I don't feel so... empty, anymore, I guess that's the word to use."

"Alright, then."  Doctor Choi said, marking more things on the reports.  "After breakfast, which is especially picked out by your dietitian, your rehabilitation therapist will come and pick you up and start your personalized exercise program.  Sounds good?"

"Yes."  Vickie nodded her head, almost still half asleep.  She forced a smile.  "Thank you, doctor."

"You're welcome, Vickie.  We're glad you're feeling better."  Doctor Choi smiled.  When he left, the three other nurses left as well.

A couple of minutes later not exceeding ten minutes, Vickie's breakfast arrived.  She ate the food without hesitation, even if the food didn't look as presentable as the hospital was.  Each meal on her tray tasted better than they looked, however, and Vickie thought that that was the only thing that's important.

"Feeling better, darling?"  Wu Zheng arrived with a basket of fruits.

"Yes, dad."  Vickie nodded, full of rice.  "Their food is good."

"I'm glad to hear."  Wu Zheng said.  He sat on the chair by Vickie's bed.  "Did anybody come in before me?"

"Ah, yes.  Doctor Choi did.  He only wrote stuff on his clipboard, though, and asked me questions, then he left."  Vickie said, still eating her breakfast.

Wu Zheng expected somebody else, however.  Nevertheless, he thought Jinki would show up later in the afternoon.  "Speaking of Doctor Choi, I have good news for you."

"Really?"  Vickie said, her voice muffled since she it was full of food.  "What is it?"

Wu Zheng sighed.  "You're healed, Vickie!  You don't have leukemia anymore!"

Vickie choked on the food she was eating.  She held up a finger, telling her dad to give her a minute.  Wu Zheng handed her the cup of water from her tray.  "What did you say?!"

"You don't have cancer anymore, sweetie,"  Wu Zheng said, smiling sweetly at his daughter.  "Sure, there's still a chance of a relapse.  But it's little!  You're healed, darling."

Vickie stared at her food.  She grinned, even when she knew that there really was a chance of a relapse to happen.  She had finished her food, giddy on the inside that when her rehabilitation therapist came to pick her up, she was sitting on the bed with a creepily huge smile on her face.  The therapist had to make sure if she was in the right hospital room or not.

As Vickie was doing the activities her therapist specially set up for her, she felt like there was a sudden turn in her.  Like a doorknob unlocking once the right key has opened it.  She felt good.  She felt better, actually, before she even discovered she had leukemia.

"And for our last activity,"  her therapist smiled.  There was something behind it, like a secret that something good was about to happen.  "We will be going to the hospital's mini gymnasium."

Even when Vickie refused, she was still brought to the gymnasium in a wheelchair.  As they were nearing that certain area of the hospital, Vickie suddenly had a weird feeling.  She told her therapist a couple of times that she was suddenly feeling weird, that maybe they shouldn't go anymore.  Her therapist insisted that they must, for that was what the hospital told her to do.  Vickie kept quiet the rest of the way.  When they finally stopped in front of the gymnasium, her therapist opened the doors.  It was dark inside.  Vickie's therapist pushed her inside the gymnasium, then she the lights.

Vickie gasped.

The gymnasium was filled with balloons of all sorts.  There were hearts, circles, even cube ones.  There were also balloons that were in the shape of cartoon characters.  Those who floated were high up on the ceiling, black ribbons serving as their strings, while the others filled the entire gymnasium floor.  

There were black, white, gray, and purple streamers hanging above on the ceiling, going around the gymnasium.  Vickie's therapist pushed Vickie in the room and helped her out of the wheelchair to let her freely marvel around the building.

She started on the first wall, where pictures of her back when she was a baby were in black picture frames, and red roses taped in the gaps.  There were pictures that were five feet by five feet large, and some were the normal letter size.  There were even pictures that were so little Vickie had to put her face closer to see what it had.  It was nostalgic to her to look at the younger version of her, the same person in the picture.  The only difference was the baby in the picture didn't know she would be having leukemia when she grows up.

The second wall were also filled with framed pictures in the color white and roses, but this time they were photos of the elementary and middle schooler version of her.  Vickie laughed at one picture where rocky road ice cream was smothered all over her face.  She didn't notice her therapist wasn't in the gymnasium with her anymore.

Vickie arrived at the third wall, where an older, much recent pictures of her when she was in college were framed in gray and bigger red roses were taped.  This time, the pictures were not colored anymore.  Instead they were either black-and-white or sepia-toned.  She chuckled at the sight of her back when she was a struggling musician.  She teared a little when she saw a picture of her and Jooyoung.  She hasn't seen that crazy girl in a long time, and she was determined to meet her after she gets out of the hospital.

The last wall were filled with photos, all in the same two-feet-by-three-feet size, framed in purple.  There were no more red roses, but white daisies instead.  Vickie just noticed then that the colors of the streamers were also the colors of the frames the photos were in.  The pictures on the fourth wall weren't just her alone, but with someone else.  She couldn't help but smile when she saw all the photos she had taken back then with Jinki.

"I wanna make you smile, whenever you're sad..."

Vickie turned around to look at the door to see where the sound was coming from.  Nobody was there, until the person sang the next line.

"...Carry you around when your arthritis is bad..."

The world suddenly stopped spinning, and it was only the both of them in the gymnasium.  Vickie covered with her hand, her eyes b with tears as Jinki continued to sing the song.

"...All I wanna do, is grow old with you."  Jinki laughed into the microphone in his hand, embarrassed of what he was doing.  He had rehearsed this almost a million times, but the actual performance was harder to perform.

Vickie laughed, wiping her eyes with the side of her index finger.  "What are you doing, oh my goodness."

Jinki chuckled, bringing the microphone away from his face.  He began to walk to where Vickie was standing.  "I'll get you medicine, when your tummy aches.  Build you fire if the furnace breaks..."

"Oh, my gosh."  Vickie was now really crying.   was starting to hurt, but she kept on smiling.  Soon there were nurses piling right outside the gym.

Jinki looked back at them.  In the crowd he saw Wu Zheng giving him a thumbs up.  He continued singing, "...Oh, it could be so nice, growing old with you."

"What is going on, seriously!"  Vickie turned around briefly, wiping her eyes again with her hand.  Jinki was only six feet away from her.  She felt her heart race fast even when it wasn't the first time she would have to face Jinki close up.

"I'll miss you, kiss you..."  Jinki had to stop to let out a nervous chuckle, accompanied by tears of joy.  He couldn't help it, he was actually crying although he told himself that he wouldn't cry when he was about to do what he was doing now,  "...Give you my coat when you are cold."

They were now only three feet away from each other.  Vickie was definitely bawling by now, not knowing what to feel.  She was happy, that was for sure, but she was also a mixture of surprised and everything else positive.  This is a nice gift, she thought, giddy on the inside.

"I need you, feed you, even let you hold the remote control."  Jinki sang.  People were now in the gymnasium with the both of them, all stuffed in one corner so as not to occupy the space all around the couple.  They swooned over them with the video-cameras in their hands, the girls wishing somebody would do that to them soon as well.

Vickie saw Wu Zheng just about two feet away from the growing, surprisingly quiet crowd.  She laughed again, her vision blurred with hot tears, "Dad?!"

"So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink, put you to bed when you've had too much to drink..."  Jinki sang the line wholeheartedly.  He was two feet away from Vickie now, who was covering with her arm.  "...Oh, I could be the man, who grows old with you..."

Jinki had successfully reached Vickie just by the end of the song.  "...I wanna grow old with you."

Vickie continued to cry, laughing in between tears.  "Why are you doing this, seriously."  She was pulled into Jinki's chest by himself, encircling her back and rubbing her arm.  Vickie made his chest damp.

Jinki rose Vickie's chin up to look into her eyes.  If there was even such a thing as the best crying, Vickie was doing it.  "Because, I want to grow old with you."

"But this is too much!"  Vickie whined, her voice shaking with happiness and mini sobbing.

"It's never too much, Vickie."  Jinki said, smiling in between tears.

"But you could have just went to my room and—"

"You're worth more."  Jinki smiled, shushing Vickie.  The latter's cheeks flushed madly.  Certainly nobody's told her that before.  Vickie just nodded, resuming her sobbing.

Jinki had to let go of her for a minute, searching for something in his pocket.  When he had found it, he pulled it out and admired it for some seconds.  Vickie bawled at the sight of the small purple box in Jinki's hand.

The people in the gym were screaming now, camera flashing everywhere.  Somebody else stood beside Wu Zheng—it was Jooyoung.

"What's going on?"  Jooyoung asked.

Wu Zheng was surprised to see her there.  He had met her before, and he thought nothing much had changed since the last time he saw Vickie's other best friend.  "You'll see."

Jinki kneeled, sending louder screams from all the people in the gymnasium.  He held up the now opened box, revealing a silver ring in the middle of the white cushion.  "Vickie Song,—"

He was cut off by the screams of the almost dying speculators.  Vickie laughed at them, her eyes turning into thin slits, lined with shimmering tears.  Jinki thought she looked beautiful even in the state she was in.

"Vickie Song," Jinki said into the microphone again, "will you let me be the man who will grow old with you?"

The people screamed and cried and melted at Jinki's question.  There was surely somebody else who has said that line, but nobody really cared about it at the moment.  There was a proposal going on in front of their eyes, and that's what they cared about.

Vickie couldn't speak.  There were no words needed.  She nodded her head then Jinki stood up and embraced her tightly.  It was his turn to cry his heart out, but he didn't mind.  He was happy.  She, too, was happy.  Everybody else was happy as well.

The silver ring fitted perfectly in Vickie's ring finger.  It was the prettiest she has seen, only because she has never worn a ring before apart from those cheap plastic rings she bought just for fun, then threw away the next day.

Vickie tiptoed and pecked Jinki on the lips.  "I love you."

Jinki kissed her back, but longer.  "I love you more."

OH MY GAWD

LEMME DIE NOW OMG

CAN I BE VICKIE SOBS

DO I HAVE TIME TO CHANGE HER NAME TO JUHAN OMG

I LACK ROMANTICISM SINCE I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE SO I'M SORRY IF THE PROPOSAL OMG BUT OMG I'M DYING

I NEED AIR

THANK Y'ALL FOR READING

OMG I NEED AIR