~Epilogue~

Aikagi

(The spare key)

"Minho!" The frog boy smiled as he was recognised by the head nurse. He bowed and let her pass by so they could walk together. "Are you not supposed to be in school?" She smiled. A nervous Minho just looked guilty. "Well something came up and I really wanted to talk to my hyung." The nurse nodded and said. "You should, he would like that." Minho's eyes saddened, "yeah, he would."
 
The nurse left him in front of the door he had to go to, but he didn't enter right away. He just stud there for a second, his hand resting on the handle as he sighed. Still he was able to put on a smile as he opened the door. "Hi hyung!" There was no answer, there never was; Just soft beeping and even softer breathing. "I know that it's too early for me to be here, I kind of skipped a lecture." Minho just pulled up a chair and sat himself down on it. He looked over his best friend. He didn't look so good, his skin was pale almost green, with sunken eyes. His arms were thin, they had lost all the muscles Jonghyun worked so hard to get.
 
"I-I broke up with Sulli today. For real this time." Minho looked up as if he was searching for a reaction. "I know that you wanted me to work out with her. I tried hyung." The boy laced his fingers together and placed his head on it. "I wasn't even sure when we started to date, who would have thought that we would actually last three years?" Minho let out a sadden chuckle. He couldn't really believe it himself.
 
Three years had he tried to love a girl he would never love. Three years Jonghyun lay here, not moving a muscle. "I don't know any more hyung, I think I'm lost. I don't even want to continue my study. I only want to travel, I feel like I'm looking for something, someone. Sulli found out. She flipped, it hasn't been good between us anyway. But she found one of the drawings of Taemin you drew, do you remember? Hyung, she ripped it apart. I just got so mad. I even cried. Hyung, she ruined a picture you drew. Why can’t you just wake up and draw me another one?" Minho's lips were shaking, his eyes blinking furiously as if that would keep the tears at bay.
 
But it didn't work. Minho looked up, out the window. "You know," the teary eyes fell on a second bed in the room. "You have a roommate. He has been here for a long time already. He was in a motorcycle accident and has been like this ever since. But the doctors told me that he woke up once, it was right after you fell into... a coma.” Minho petted the blankets his best friend was sleeping under. “They told me that he had the same thing as you. He could sleep really deep too.”  Minho frowned. “If you met Taemin in your dreams and I told you that I want to meet him would you take me with you?”

It was something Jonghyun would do, right? Even if it was wrong. Minho hated the truth, he hated that he had to do college without his best friend, he hated the smell of the hospital, he hated the sight of Jonghyun rotting away like this. Minho sighed again. “I’m sorry hyung.” He let a tear fall yet still he felt calm, the soft beeping and low breathing giving him securement. “Thank you for listening to me, hyung. Rest well.” Minho petted Jonghyun’s unresponsive cold hand before he zipped up his jacket.

As softly as he could he closed the door as if he didn’t want to wake them. Nothing was less true, though. He lingered for a while with his head against the door. His finger traced to the now permanent nameplates stuck to the door.

Kim Jonghyun

Kim Kibum