Chapter 35

Alive

The drive to the cemetery was a quiet one.

The driver was to focused on the road up front while the one on the passenger seat was to busy looking outside the window.

The only connection between them was their held hands. From the window on the side, she turned to look at her intertwined fingers to his, enjoying the soft he was doing, letting herself feel the comfort and warmth she longed for so long. From there, she looked to the front, not recognizing this part of the neighborhood to which she wondered what did her boyfriend had up his sleeves. "Where are you taking me?"

"I want you to meet someone"

He gave her a gentle squeeze for himself, having all the courage brought up from the world for that one moment. He still didn't know if he was ready to open up, but he knew that no matter what happened, she was still going to be standing next to him, not going anywhere.

She smiled at him as she brought up their joint hands to place a soft peck on the top of his hand. She closed her eyes, remembering the feeling she had when she found out that he had woken up after four months of deep sleep, letting it flow across her veins.

A few minutes later and they arrived to their destination.

She stepped out of the car and carefully looked around to see endless amount of headstones, finally understanding that she was brought to the graveyard. "I want you to meet someone… What does he mean?"

"Doongha? Who are we visiting exactly?" She turns around to face him, a curious look spreading across her face as he went to hold her hand in his. "Someone very important to me." He kisses the top of her forehead and leads the way. As they got closer, the grip he had around her hand became tighter as well as the grip he had on a small bouquet of flowers on his other hand. She noticed it and gave him a light squeeze as she looked up to him with a reassuring smile on her face, making him a little bit more at ease.

The walk on the path was a quiet one, until they finally reached the place where lied a familiar tombstone. Reading the engraved words, her eyes open wide while he went to place the small bouquet, replacing the old and dried ones. "Doongha? What are you trying to tell me? Was she your -"

"My sister."

"Oh my god…" whispered words left her trembling mouth when sudden flashbacks crossed her mind. Her eyes landed on the date of the woman's death, suddenly remembering how that specific day went from great to horrible in just one split of a second. She slowly backed away and tightly shut her eyes as she brought her hands to each side of her head, hearing the frighten screams of the people around the street.

"Seonya?" He walks up to her and places both of his hands on her shoulders, making her open her eyes to look at him. "Cheondung-ah… What's your real name?"

"Hmm? I-it's Sanghyun, Park Sanghyun. Why?" He was taken aback by her sudden question, not really thinking that it was really important at the moment to have that kind interrogation. "What's wrong?" She lets her arms fall onto the side of her body as she found herself speechless, unable to properly speaking out what was on her mind right now. Her eyes never left him as she got closer and hugged him tight, bringing her arms around his waist. "I - I can't believe it."

"You're scaring me, what's going on?"

"I think… I knew your sister…" His eyes open wide in shock as he grasped every single world that just left , passing it through his brain. "W-what?" She backs away and turns to face the tombstone. She sat on the grass while he did the same and took a deep breath, trying to push the images far away from her mind.

"Four years ago, I met someone at a coffee shop I used to go to. Her name was Sandara. Both of us were regular customers and somehow we started to become friends. She was probably the most beautiful, sweet and nice person I've ever met in my whole life. Always so happy and care free. It's one of the reasons I started to see things like her." She lets a small chuckle at that last part, remembering the lively person that once lived. "I remember, she even started talking about a little brother she had, around my age, saying that I would really like him and stuff… She even gave me his phone number but then… the accident happened…"

She looked down, tightly shutting her eyes as she tried to hold the tears back. All this time, Cheondung was calmly listening to her, trying to place back in his mind the moment his sister was talking about a girl she just met and that she would fit greatly for him. He remembered insisting that he didn't want to, because of his dangerous lifestyle but she insisted as she was handing out a small piece of paper with a phone number on it. He gave in because he simply wanted to make her happy.

"I'm sorry for what happened…" He broke out of his gaze when he felt her hand placed above his, intertwining their fingers as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Can I ask you… what exactly happened?" Hearing his voice, she turned her head up to him, letting her gaze speak for itself as she showed him that she tried her best to push everything away, everything that happened to the point that this date never existed in the first place. "I saw it… everything… I got so traumatized, my parents sent me to see a therapist. That's why I started to paint. It helped me a lot. I always loved art and I used it so I can just let go, of everything…" He let go of her grip and placed his arm around her shoulders while she held onto his free hand. "It affected me so much, I had lost my memory for a short while… Just from that day though… I knew that something was missing since I couldn't remember much about your sister or even why she supposedly left or how I met her, but with time, I let it go… It was hurting me to much to think about that…"

"I guess you're aren't the only one that was broken…"

"I guess not…" She placed a soft peck on his cheek, making a small smile appear on his face. He looks down to her and reaches for her lips, placing the sweetest kiss as he tightly held onto her, bringing her closer to him.

From there, they haven't let another word out. Still embraced in his arms, she let the warmth creep up to her system, making her heart beat comfortably and lovingly at his presence. She could feel his heart beat which made her smile, content of the effect she made on him. To his surprise, she placed another soft kiss right on that spot, hinting a little blush along his cheeks while she took the chance to place herself between his legs, her back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and placed his chin on her shoulder, leaving a peck right behind her ear. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"What happened to the phone number she  gave you? Why didn't you call me?"

"Actually I lost it… I took it as a sign that maybe it simply wasn't meant to be, or that it wasn't right that we should meet… Why didn't you ever call me?"

"I died…" His gloomy words left a tug in her heart, understanding what he meant by that. She didn't say anything since she didn't know how to respond to this. She simply let the silence speak for itself as it came back, surrounding their little bubble. "What if we did? Call each other I mean… What if we met four years ago like she wanted us to?"

"I don't know Doongha… that one moment pushed us even further apart before we even got the chance to meet and if it took us four years to finally see each other, I guess it simply means that it wasn't supposed to have worked out in the past, maybe that it meant that back then, it wasn't the right time?"

"What about now?"

"We found each other… that should mean something, don't you think?"

Just then, a familiar little creature made its way towards them, slowly walking up to the stone, its fur against the rock as it lets out a purr, purely content about the little sensation it was feeling up its skin.

"Oh! Did you follow me here little one?" Seonyul approached the cat and picked it up, placing it on her lap while gently his back. She was giving her attention to the little pet while Cheondung simply watched her with a gentle smile until it disappeared as his eyes landed on the animal. When the cat looked straight into his eyes, his jaw dropped, completely taken aback.

Something inside struck him, as if he knew who the cat was. "Da - Dadoong?" The cat was meowing at his voice taking him, once again, by surprise while she turned her head, surprised as well. "Wait… You know that cat?"

"Y-yea… It was ours. My sister's and mines… He ran away the day she died…"

"Oh"

"How do you know him?" She turned around to face him, while she was still holding onto the pet on her lap, continuing to his back. "I always see him whenever I was at school, during my break. I didn't see a collar so I thought he was a stray cat or something…" He picked up the cat and looked at him. From there, his gaze shifted to the grave in front of him and back to the cat, the corner of his lips lifting up. "What's wrong?" She looked at him with a curious mind as she looked behind her, following his direction. She saw the tombstone and turned back to him and the pet.

"Four years later and she's still watching over us…"

"Huh?"

"I guess she really isn't going to let go…" He chuckles as he shook his head, leaving his girlfriend still confused about what he was trying to say. "I still don't get what you're trying to say to me."

"I saw her, when I was in my coma"

"How was it?"

"To tell you the truth, I wanted to stay. I didn't want to wake up but then she reminded me that I had a life to go back to and even though I didn't want  to leave her, she told me that I had someone waiting for me and that's when I thought about you." He took a moment to breathe in deeply, not wanting to break down right now even though a part of him still wanted to. "We've already lost our parents when we were only kids and she's been there for me ever since… She was the only family I had left and now that she is gone I don't… I don't even know what to do anymore. I tried to move on, but it hurts so much that I couldn't even smile anymore because it felt like I've lost everything. But then you came along and… everything changed"

She wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him close and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. He pulled away and cupped her face, softly her cheeks while he looked straight in her eyes, thankful to have been pulled out of the pain he's been in for the past years.

"Thank you, for not giving up -"

She cuts him off by placing her lips on his and gave him a sweet kiss, taking him by surprise but quickly adjusts to the situation. She pulls away and smiles at him. His heart skipped a beat as she spoke out three words that would make him feel warm coming from the soothing tone of her voice.

"I love you"

He looks down for a second and looks back up at her, gently tugging strands of hair behind her ear and closes the distance between them by leaning his face closer to hers, placing his forehead against hers. "I love you too"

"Everything is going to be okay now. I'm here, with you, and I don't plan on leaving you. Even if you push me away, you know I'll always come back, because now that we found each other, I don't plan on letting you go that easily. I'm not leaving you alone. You have me and you also have your brothers, don't ever forget that, okay?"

"You promise?"

"I promise, Sanghyun-ah"

A last kiss to seal her promise, making him longing for a better future as he found himself slowly ready to let go of the past, wanting to focus on the one person who was able to bring him despite the loss of the vivid colors that were washed away by the storm so long ago.

And today, they were flowing back, adding a flavor of affection and love in his world, changing his own shade of colors to more bright ones.

"If I have you to come back to at the end of the day, then I'm not afraid anymore"

A/N:

And here is the end!

A big thank you for the comments, the subscription and for those who upvoted my story <3

Like I said, there will be three versions of the series left, I just haven't decided with which one to go first.

The general ideas are there, it's just the planning that hasn't been done, but either way it's not my priority right now since I'll be finishing up my Mir short story and I'll be starting on my Seungho sequel right after that :)

Thank you again <3

Lots of love

BLAQdreaMerinAQ,

xo