A/N: Omo, I’m so sad that this is gonna be the second last chapter. *sniff* I hope you’ll enjoy this chapter. Behold, a lot of questions will be answered in this chapter. YeJin’s gonna open her secret for now. Keke. Happy reading :-)




Chapter 32: I Need to Find Him

“ChaeRin-ah, stay with me.”

That voice kept haunting me. I was hearing it all the time.

*I was carried to somewhere. Then, I was put on a bed*

“Doctor, please save her! I’ll do anything. Please. Make sure that she’s well again.”
“Calm down, Mr. Kang. We’ll definitely take good care of her.”
“If you don’t, I’ll sue this hospital. I’ll make sure this hospital goes down, you got me?”
“Yes, sir. We’ll take very good care of her.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise, Mr. Kang.”
“ChaeRin-ah, you’ll be fine. Just wake up, okay?”

*Some noise. It felt like I was being wheeled to somewhere.*

“Calm down. She’s gonna be fine, dude.”
“Hyuk, if only I was there sooner. It’s my entire fault. If you weren’t there to save her, she’d be gone by now.”
“Don’t ever blame yourself, Dae. It’s not your fault. Besides, she’ll be fine. Trust me.”

*Some noise. People talking to each other*

“Miss Lee ChaeRin, you’re so lucky to have a boyfriend like that,” a girl gushed.

It was all that I could hear before I was in a deep sleep; the longest sleep that I had in days. I thought it was just a weird dream.

I had another weird dream though. 

I dreamed that EunHyuk kept bragging to ChaeKyoung how he had saved me from the sea, that if not because of his ‘superb’ swimming skills, I’d be dead by now. I dreamed that ChaeKyoung laughed gleefully and kept telling him how awesome of a ‘man’ he was.

Heck, even in my dream, I felt a strong urge to puke right on their faces.

Then, I dreamed that MinHo and YeJin came to see me and kept telling me how sorry they were for not being there when HyeYeon pushed me off the cliff. YeJin in particular kept sobbing and apologizing while MinHo wiped her tears dry. When they left, MinHo invited YeJin to go to the temple again to pray for me.

Even in my dream, MinHo was always the thoughtful one.

The next persons that appear in my dream were my parents. Hitler had left the Hitler side of herself back at home apparently when she kept crying and asking the doctor to save me while Appa tried to calm her down. It was kinda weird, really, because when I was admitted during the SeungHyun Aftermath, she acted like she didn’t care at all about me.

This is a dream after all. They say that things happen in the total opposite in dreams.

Then, the weirdest part was when it was all quiet and suddenly I heard someone came near and caress my forehead ever so gently that it made my heart moved. This person, unlike the others in my dream, didn’t say a thing. He/She kept my hair and tucked my blanket before he/she held my hand warmly.

It was all just a dream, I was sure.

I tried to open my eyes but it still felt heavy, like there were some tapes gluing my eyes shut. Maybe a part of me didn’t want to get up, to keep feeling this person’s warmth. A part of me was afraid that if I ever got up, he/she would be gone and I would be feeling empty again.

Yes, I really believe that it was all just a dream.
A sweet dream.
A dream I didn’t ever want to end.

You want to know the real reason I didn’t want this dream to end? It was because I wanted to believe that the mysterious person was Kang DaeSung, the one who had captured my heart and left it broken to pieces.

I wished it was Kang DaeSung.

I prayed in my dreams, that it was Kang DaeSung.

That was the real reason why I didn’t want all of this to end. Because I knew, the moment that I wake up, he wouldn’t be there and I would be left with my broken heart again.

But as the popular saying goes, all good things must come to an end.

I woke up from my dream.
The mysterious person wasn’t there.
Instead, I was greeted by my parents’ ecstatic faces.

“ChaeRin! You’re awake? Oh, my baby!” Appa wailed as he held me in a tight embrace. I nearly suffocated. “Do you know who I am?”
I rolled my eyes. “Appa!!” I said weakly.
“Oh my baby, she remembers who I am. Thank God, she’s alive!!” Appa cried. “Now, how many fingers am I holding up?” he asked as he held up three fingers.
I figured it would be fun to mess with him. “Err, two?” I asked meekly, holding back my laughter.
“Oh my God, my daughter had gone stupid!!” he began to slap his head for about ten times, with tears in his eyes, “Oh, my poor baby!” Appa wailed and hugged me tight.
“Okay, okay, it’s three Appa. I was just kidding. Let go, I can’t breathe,” I said, gasping for air.
“Yah, you’re gonna kill her!” Umma said and slapped his hands away, coming to my rescue.
“Oh, sorry,” Appa said, giving me an apologetic smile as he wiped his eyes.

God, he was tearing up. Can my Appa be any more feminine?

I do believe that when it gets to the time for my wedding, Appa’s tears can flood the whole of Seoul. The perks of being an only child, you’ll get really emotional parents during your wedding.

“Do you need anything, ChaeRin?” Umma asked softly as she helped me to sit up straight.
“N-no,” I stammered as I put a hand to cover my eyes; light was blinding my eyes and my head was throbbing. I must have overslept. “Where is this? W-what time is it? For how long have I been sleeping, Umma?”

Umma looked down to the watch around her wrist. “Obviously, you’re in a hospital and it’s 2.30 pm now,” she looked up to do the calculation in her head. Just like me, Umma at Maths. “Uhmm, you’ve been sleeping for nearly 10 hours. That’s not so bad, right?”

10 hours?
Wow! I never had the luxury to sleep that long. It was definitely a blessing in disguise.

“Err, ChaeRin honey? There’s someone here to see you,” Appa said suddenly, breaking my train of thoughts. 

My heart pounded loudly in my chest.
Could it be…. Kang DaeSung?

My eyes averted towards the door and when I saw her, my face fell.

HyeYeon walked in slowly, her eyes were red and she was sobbing uncontrollably upon seeing me. 

“She said she’s really sorry for what she did, ChaeRin,” Umma said, giving me a look; a look that says ‘you better forgive her and be the bigger person’.

Well, what if I didn’t want to be the bigger person? What if I would only forgive her by pushing her off the cliff too?

Umma was still giving me a look.

Well, the bigger person it is.
“Uh, hi HyeYeon,” I said cheerfully.

Bad move.
HyeYeon began to cry out loudly like a hungry cat.

“ChaeRin!!” she wailed as she ran to hug me. I was taken by surprise by her gesture. I mean, this is coming from the girl who was responsible for getting me here in the first place. “I’m so glad you’re alright. I can’t live with myself if you aren’t. Oh, I’m sorry Lee ChaeRin. I really am. I didn’t mean to push you down the cliff.”

I looked at Umma. She was still giving me the look. I sighed deeply before putting a hand on her back. “I-I forgive you, HyeYeon.”

HyeYeon began to cry even more loudly, sniffing on my shoulders. “You-you-you’re *sniff sniff* t-to-too k-k-kind ChaeRin-ahhhhhh,” she sobbed.

This girl really has mental issues. I think Orange Baboon really attracted mental girls.
Hmm.. Orange Baboon. 
I wonder how he had been. I hoped he had been well. We hadn’t really contacted each other after that night.

I guess, he figured that it’d be better off that way.

“Oppa’s here to see you too.”

As if listening to my thoughts, Choi SeungHyun walked in awkwardly with a hand stuffed in the pocket of his jeans.

“Uh,” Appa decided that it was the perfect time for him to clear his throat, “We’ll leave you three alone,” he said and pulled Umma by the elbow out of the room.

HyeYeon had stopped crying by now and was wiping the tears away with a handkerchief. SeungHyun walked closer towards the foot of the bed, just staring at me.

I waited for him to say something.

“Are you okay?” finally, he asked.

I nodded and smile. “I’m a tough girl, after all.”

SeungHyun flashed me his famous smirk.

“I’ll leave you two alone. I have to talk with your parents and Mrs. Choi. Again, I’m sorry, ChaeRin,” HyeYeon said. I gave her a reassuring smile, my way of telling her that it was all forgiven and forgotten. HyeYeon smiled of relief and went out of the room.

It was back to awkward silence between me and SeungHyun. I looked at him, he looked at me. But both of us didn’t say anything.

“So how are you?” “Are you okay?”
We both had said in unison.

Then, we laughed, when we realized how silly it was.

“Okay, you first,” I said.

SeungHyun flashed me a lopsided grin. “So, you dump me and then go and get yourself pushed off a cliff, huh? Smart move, Lee ChaeRin.”

I stuck out my tongue. “First of all, I didn’t dump you and second of all, it’s not like I went and asked HyeYeon to push me off. It was your entire fault, anyways. You always attract mental girls who think that it’s best to ruin my life,” I said.

SeungHyun chuckled. “Glad to see that tiny brain of yours is still working. I was afraid that you’re gonna go crazy and like me now,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. In a way, I was relieved that we could talk like this again. I was afraid that he was gonna avoid me for the rest of his life. “Thank you, SeungHyun,” I said warmly.

His face changed. “For what?” he asked in confusion.
“For visiting me,” I said.
“Who said that I am visiting you? I only come for the free fruits,” he said, reaching for an apple from the fruit basket on the table.
“Yah! That’s meant for me,” I protested.
“Not anymore,” he smirked as he took a huge bite of the apple. “Hmm.. delicious.”

I rolled my eyes.

“By the way, Lee ChaeRin, I think I have found someone more interesting than you,” he said, taking another huge bite of the apple.
I raised my eyebrows. “Wah, so fast eh?” I . “So tell me, how she’s like?”
SeungHyun shrugged nonchalantly. “For starters, she’s weirder and stupider than you.”
I laughed. “And that’s a good thing?”
“Let’s just say that she is some corny girl. It’s gonna be fun,” he said, taking another huge bite of the apple.
“Well, good luck, SeungHyun,” I said in all honesty. I really wished him happiness.
“You know very well that I don’t need luck, Lee ChaeRin,” he said smugly as he threw the half-eaten apple perfectly into the dust bin.

I rolled my eyes. That was him, always bragging to me. “I wish for your happiness