Thank you

Siwon looked up at the solitary finger drawing on his palm in wonderment. Just as the finger came to a stop, he raised his head to look at the owner of that finger. A soft smile met his gaze and he reciprocated easily.

“Hey, you two! Stop ignoring your well-wishers while you are whispering sweet nothings to each other!”

“Hyung!” Siwon groaned in embarrassment. From the corner of his eye he saw the person sitting next to him blush heavily.

He’s so beautiful.

When his father told him that he had accepted the match for him to a dumb boy from the next village, Siwon thought his world had imploded and smashed into smithereens.

“APPA! How could you!” Siwon screamed at his father who is calmly sitting at the dining table  having his usual cup of tea. “APPA!”

“Stop yelling, you delinquent.” Papa Choi said almost nonchalantly.

“This is my life we are talking about, Appa! How could you get me a dummy for a wife? How am I going to continue living?” Siwon almost felt like sobbing in despair.

“You are being melodramatic. Kyuhyun can’t speak, but he is otherwise perfectly healthy.”

“Kyuhyun? His name is Kyuhyun?” Siwon mutters softly to himself. His father chuckles softly at how easy it is to distract his son.

“But why now, Appa? I am only 19!” Siwon pled.

Suddenly Papa Choi straightens his back as he sat up to glare at his wayward son. Siwon swallowed nervously at how serious his father is.

“The war is coming. We need all the money we can gather to live past the hard times ahead. Kyuhyun’s parents have no other demands except to keep their young child safe from pilfering soldiers.”

Siwon’s eyes bulged. In his young mind, he only understood that young girls or females need to fear invading enemies during wartimes. Unless….

“Married men are not exempted from being drafted into the war.” Siwon argues.

“It’s not like that!” Papa Choi lashed out at his confused son.

“B-but….”

“Whatever it is, just get ready for your wedding ceremony tomorrow morning!”

“To-tomorrow?! But Appa!”

“Go to your room and get ready!”

16 year old Cho Kyuhyun was the only child of a middle-aged shopkeeper and his wife. He was born without a voice and kept away from teasing children. When Siwon came for his bride, under forced of his father and uncle, he saw a creature so serenely beautiful that his loud protest died on his lips.

“He’s beautiful, isn’t he?’ His uncle whispers digging his side with his elbow excitedly.

Siwon  stumbles forward clumsily when his father pushed him forward to meet his new spouse and Kyuhyun giggled silently. The light blush dusting his bubble cheeks, the slight tilt of his head as he lowered his head shyly, the soft slender fingers held elegantly over luscious lips as he smiled, Siwon is hopelessly mesmerized.

“Appa?”

“Yes, son?”

“What would Umma’s voice sound like if he could speak?”

Siwon smiled down at his son of 10 years. The boy has a wistful look in his eyes. It’s no secret that he loves his mother with all his heart and sometimes, he wishes he could hear his mother sing him a lullaby or whisper ‘I love you’ into his adolescent ear.

Despite his disability to speak, Kyuhyun was a very spirited youth. He has a lot to say and a lot to ask. Communicating by writing, the young couple banters for hours on end.

“I told you, Kyuhyun will ground that boy of mine!” Papa Choi announces proudly to his friends and family for Siwon no longer long to hang out with his misfit friends.

Born without a voice box, Kyuhyun could not utter even a groan. His mouth would hang wide opened and his brows tightly knitted in pain but only silence would pass his lips. Yet, his love for the younger is so intense that Siwon could almost hear the sweet voice that would have been Kyuhyun’s, velvety soft and melodious, calling out to him whenever their eyes meet.

“I know how your umma sounds like.” Siwon has his mysterious smile on his face as he looked faraway.

“How?” The boy looked at his father in confusion.

“I hear him singing to me in my dreams, every night.”

“I see.” The boy settles down again. He can’t help feeling a little jealous of his father, how he wished his mother would come into his dreams to sing to him too.

“Appa?”

“Yes, son?”

“Do you think Umma is happy?”

“Everyone who lives in Heaven is happy.” Siwon replied, eyes getting a little misty.

“B-but umma was happy when he was with us, wasn’t he?” The boy looked desperately to his father for confirmation.

“Yes, he was. He always told me how blissful he was to have you and me by his side.” A lone tear fell from Siwon’s eye.

“Then he’s not really happy now.” The boy reasoned. “Because we are not there with him.”

“But he is not unhappy either.” Siwon insists. It will break his heart if his beautiful spouse is sad wherever he is now.

Kyuhyun never shed a tear. He could be sad, he could be glad, but he never shed a tear. But on his deathbed, as he was breathing his last breaths, his feeble broken body held tightly by his weeping husband, he finally broke into tears.

Siwon his dying spouse’s clammy forehead heartbrokenly as he watches helplessly while Kyuhyun open and close his mouth repeatedly straining to speak, struggling to articulate his last words. His teary eyes beg for Siwon to understand his regrets, his reluctances, his grief.

“I understand.” That’s all Siwon had to say for Kyuhyun to stop struggling and his beautiful brown eyes once b with warmth and wit to close forever.

“I will always love you…” Siwon whispers tearfully, his voice hoarse with heartache as he felt the body in his arms sag against him for the final time.

“Maybe if we join him in heaven, umma will be happy again like he was before.”

“Y-yes, he would be.” Siwon agrees with his son, silently shaking with too many emotions.

“When can we see umma again, Appa?” The boy tilts his head slightly to look at the photo on the tombstone from another angle.

“I have no answer to that, son.” Siwon sighs sadly as he watches his son raised his little head to the skies above. The little boy scrunched his nose at the bright clouds floating by leisurely.

“But,” Siwon swallows painfully. “I know your umma will be watching over us from Heaven. Till the day we can meet him again.”