17.
I believe in you.Your's Pov:
I had just finished telling the taxi driver my destination when my handphone rang.
“Yoboseyo? Min Young?” the female voice on the other end sounded familiar. It was L.Joe’s omma. “I don’t know who else to call. You are the only one who knows everything now. L.Joe’s in trouble.”
My grip on the hand-phone tightened and I asked, “Bwoh? What’s wrong?”
“L.Joe's heart condition is getting worst. He needs an operation soon. Just… come.”
When she hung up, I got the taxi driver to stop. And for the next few minutes, I stared out of the window, saying nothing.
~
“Surgery is the only way now?” L.joe’s omma said.
The doctor nodded.
“Then what is the success rate?”
The doctor shrugged. Bad news. “Fifteen percent. It is very risky as his heart is getting weaker & weaker.
“What if he doesn’t take the surgery?”
“His heart condition will get more worse to the point his heart can't function properly anymore. And he might...."
“Who makes the decision?”
“He’s under eighteen, so the final decision still rests with you.” The doctor said. L.Joe’s omma’s expression was a fusion of confusion and depression.
“Great.” She said, and walked off without saying bye.
L.Joe’s dying within a few months. That thought whirled in my mind like a bad dream. Oh, please let me wake up from this nightmare.
I had just finished peeling an apple when L.Joe woke up. Actually, I had intended to eat the apple, but since L.Joe woke up exactly when I had finished peeling it, I passed him the apple. He held out his weakened hand to take the apple.
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away, eh?” he said, taking a bite. “Get me more apples. Then I’ll be discharged soon.”
He already knew the situation. His omma had agreed to the operation, and he was to undergo the surgery next Thursday. He knew the success rate was only fifteen percent, and he also knew the consequences if he did not undergo the surgery. Yet his trademark smile still lingered on his lips.
I wanted to say something, but when I opened my mouth, nothing came out. Talk to me, L.Joe.
“I may have a bandage here on my chest when the play comes around, so I may not be able to do the play. You make sure Min hyuk does a great job, eh?” he said. Min Hyuk, one of our classmates, was to take over him as Romeo.
“And yeah, I took up the role because I only needed to memorise two words and got to lie on a pretty girl’s back. But now it’s different. It’s free-style. That’s why I’m backing out.” He laughed. It sounded strange.
“Rest.” I whispered.
“I’m lying on the bed with a blanket over me. I’m resting. And I’m eating an apple!” With that, L.Joe dropped the apple. It rolled off the bed and hit the floor. I went towards it but he stopped me.
“No. I’ll do it.” He said, and slowly climbed out of the bed. With great effort, he lifted the apple up as if it weighed ten kilograms. I could not make out whether he was just joking or he was really suffering. “See? I can do it. I can get an apple from the floor. Why can’t I get a rock out from my heart? The rock is so much smaller than this apple!”
I stayed with him for a few more hours before I left. As I was on my way out, I saw Doctor Shin, my psychiatrist. I tried avoiding him by looking at the floor, covering my face with my hair. But my uniform gave me away.
“Hey, Min Young.” I heard his voice. “I’d really love it if you could come visit me some day.” He said, obviously trying to mock me. Go to your clinic and curse more people? I wondered.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
“I’m here to visit your best friend.” He stressed the word best. Actually, I wanted to ask him about Chorong. But before I could say anything, he was off into L.Joe’s ward.
How did he know of L.Joe’s condition?
I had come to a profound conclusion: I had the most complicated life in the world. Firstly, I had a fatal curse. Secondly, my long time best friend was imaginary. Thirdly, the guy whom I love so much is dying.
Everything in my world seemed to collapse all of a sudden. I skipped school one day and visited L.Joe. My classmates kept on asking me to go for the last full-dress rehearsal of the play but I declined. What good can a stupid play do now?
L.Joe, as usual, was snoring his head off in the morning. I refilled the water in the flask, bought fruits to top up the basket and dug out a book to read. It had been a long while since I had read a book. The book was entitled “Destiny’s Cries”, a romantic love story set in Korea, someone (I forgot who) introduced the book to me but I had refused to read it. Now, in this forlorn ward occupied only by L.Joe and me, I began reading the first page.
I spent my morning listening to L.Joe’s snores and reading the book. Amazingly, I finished the book within a few hours and was crying at the ending.
The story was about a guy, Hyunmin, who found a girl, Destiny, at a rooftop. Hyunmin went to the rooftop another day and saw Destiny again, and realised later in the story that Destiny had always been waiting for him there. But when they fell in love, trials and tribulations appeared and he was faced with a challenge that would test his love forever.
I began to peel an apple, hungry after all the reading. When I was done, L.Joe moved and opened his eyes. When he saw the apple in my hand, he reached for it.
“Great, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” He said. “You’re good. Whenever an apple is peeled, its colour will change within a few minutes. Yours, your apple’s colour is always so fresh.”
I shook my head weakly, saying nothing. My phone rang again but I rejected the call. “Those classmates of ours are asking me to go for the play.” I explained. Everyone knew of his condition by now. Most of them visited him during evenings as they had commitments in the afternoon.
“Go. Go and get a trophy for me.” L.Joe said.
“I don’t wanna-”
“I wanna see the trophy when I wake up.” He said. “Come back again when you’re done with the rehearsal, araso? Go.”
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