21.
I believe in you.Your's Pov:
I did not pick up my hand-phone nor did I pick up the piece of paper on the floor. I was rooted to my seat, and when I examined my hand. At my tenth teardrop, the door opened, and almost everyone stood up except me. I dragged my head up slowly, and stared at the scene in front of me. This was the moment I had been waiting for, yet I suddenly did not feel like knowing the truth.
The doctor came out first. There were dark rings around his eyes, as if a victim of lack of sleep. As he talked to L.Joe's omma, he shook his head once. Then L.Joe's omma cupped her face with her hands, and the doctor tapped her shoulder softly. I dropped my head backwards and felt a sharp pain on my skull.
.
The doctor whisper something to her, and then pointed to the ward. I was trying to read his lips but he was too fast. L.Joe's omma uncapped her face and stared at the doctor, then shook her head softly, mumbling something. A few minutes late, the doctor pointed to a nurse and walked off.
The nurse said something to L.Joe's omma. My classmates all crowded around, their expressions a fusion of fear. I ruffled my hair and snored aloud.
"L.Joe." I whispered, so soft that I wondered if anything came out from my mouth.
"L.Joe's not only a classmate, not only a friend. He's a role model, a leader's leader, a mediator and the best person I've ever seen in my life," Sungyeol was saying. He put the piece of paper he had been reading into his pocket and continued;
"I've only remember myself crying twice. Once was when I watched the movie Titanic. And the second time..."
The audience was so quiet that no one dared to cough. Sungyeol finally squeezed a tear out from his left eye, and he muttered softly into the mic, "This is the third time."
When I saw Sungyeol stepping back, plunging onto the nearest seat, I knew it was something really bad.
He enveloped his face with his large hands, and when he jerked a few times, I knew he was crying. I confirmed it when drops of water seeped down his wrist. Sungyeol was crying.
L.Joe's omma was crying as well. All my classmates started to cry as well.
Everyone was crying. I glanced at the piece of paper. Not only had it been dampened, the entire floor beneath me was a pool of tears.
Is this how death looks like?
"But." Sungyeol cut in. Most of the girls in the audience were crying, including those in other classes who did not know who L.Joe was. "But L.Joe once told me, boys shall not cry.
We're born with boarder shoulders to let girls cry on our shoulder. So," he wiped off his tears. Well, he failed. They kept on coming. "Let's go with L.Joe advice. This is for you L.Joe." He smiled, and walked away from the mic.
There should have been two hosts, a boy and a girl. But the girl was nowhere to be seen. The boy went to the stage and announced, "Let's welcome L.Joe's best friend, Min Young, to dedicate a message to L.Joe."
A round of weak applause greeted me. I stepped forward to the mic and adjusted it to my height. Then I pulled out a piece of paper from my pocket and stared at it. It was a page long, and i had spent two hours penning it.
I started to read it. "Lee ByungHun AKA L.Joe is a very-" I paused. Then I crushed the paper into a ball and dropped it. Looking at the audience with my earnest eyes, I said, "there was once a matchstick who scratched its head, then it died."
There was no response from the audience.
"That boy didn’t laugh." I said, pointing to an empty space in the hall. "The guy with glasses and short hair, yeah, that's the one. He never laughs!"
I closed my eyes. It was too hard. I imagined myself in the audience, showing him an angry face look. "L.Joe," I started, my eyes still closed. "Can you please........ wake up from your dreams and laugh at my joke? I beg you. Jebalyo"
I was still immobilised by the shock when I heard a voice.
"You must be Min Young." I looked up. It was the doctor. Upon closer examination, I realised he could be less than forty-years-old. I nodded, waiting anxiously for what he was about to say.
"Before Mr. Lee went into the operating room, he said these to me: "Doctor, I've got a stupid weak heart. Cure it, because I wanna marry a girl call Lee Min Young. Araso? I'll invite you to our wedding. So you'll better cure my heart in order to attend our wedding."
He paused, and then continued, "Mianhae, I am sorry things turned out this way."
I took in a deep breath but I did not exhale. My hands were glued to the sides of the chair.
"Well, Min Young, I don't know whether you're the luckiest, or the most unlucky girl in the world." The doctor said.
I cried, and I forgot when I stopped crying.
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