Firstly, I would like to reccomend you guys to listen either of these songs first. To get into the mood, you know. Hehe.

Feel free to listen tho! :)

Enjoy!

^^

Hyosung fingers came to a stop on the piano keys when a sudden message popped in, startling her. A smile spread out on her face as she read it. Trust Joon to always know how to cheer her up.

Joon:

Ya pabo. Are you still alive?

Or ... am I texting a ghost?

ㅋㅋㅋ

Hyosung:

Pabo? Who’s the pabo? You, not me. Pabo!

I’m still alive, you pabo, or else I wouldn’t be replying.

Pabo pabo pabo.

Joon:

Aish, this girl.

Did you know calling someone pabo for 3 times will actually make it come true?!

Hyosung:

Really? Sorry!

Pabo.

ㅋㅋㅋ

Joon:

You ... Wait till we meet, I’ll do something to you!

Hyosung:

I’ll avoid you then, thanks for the warning!

ㅋㅋㅋ

Joon:

As if. You know I’ll always know where to find you.

Psh. ㅋㅋㅋ

Hyosung:

Really? Guess where I’m now then.

I’ll treat you if you guess it right, in which I doubt you will!

ㅋㅋㅋ

Joon:

Easy.

You’re right in front of me.

ㅋㅋㅋ

Hyosung turned around to see Joon leaning against the door, smiling as he dangled his phone in her direction. He crossed the practice room and stood next to her and grabbed on to the violin at the side, letting it rest snugly on his shoulder. They stared at each other in unspoken understanding, before Hyosung pressed her fingers once more on the keys and unison of both melodies into one as Yiruma’s River Flows in You filled the silence.

It had always been their fun daily routine in the past, but not tonight. It sounded off. It felt different too. Probably with all the things that had been going around lately. A heavy weight of sorrow emotion hung in the air, instead of the usual burst of happiness they felt when they played to this piece. Funny, why am I feeling like this? Joon thought. But the pain of knowing that she was someone else’s gloomed over Joon as he looked over at Hyosung, whom looked just as gloomy as he was. Weird, he thought. He stopped, but Hyosung continued on, not realizing it when he saw a tear rolled down from the corner of her eye.

“Hyosung-ah.” He whispered. Putting down his violin, he sat next to Hyosung as the piece came to an end. He tried again, “Hyosung-ah, what’s wrong?”

Hyosung lifted her fingers off the keys and wipe away the stray tears that fell and breathed in heavily. Joon got even more worried. Did something happen? He grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze. She was trembling hard.

“Life is so short, isn’t it? We’ll never know when we’ll die.” She said under her breathe, breaking the silence as she stared out to the distant. The deep melancholy in her voice caused him to get anxious. “Everyone will die sooner or later, right?”

Joon sat there, speechless. Booya? It’s unlike Hyosung to be acting this way, too out of character. He couldn’t seem to make out a reply as she continued on, and it worried him even more as another drop of tear spilled.

“What if ... it is full of regrets?”

“Maybe ... Maybe all one can do is hope to end it with the right regrets?” Joon finally found his voice to answer, his heart beating irregularly now. Why am I feeling uneasy? he thought. “Ya, pabo. What’s wrong with you? Did you run over a cat? Don’t freak me out like this.”

“Joon-ah,” Hyosung choked as she looked into Joon’s eyes, her voice shaky. “I ... I’m dying. At least I think I am. Ah, I don’t even know.”

“Mwo? Hyosung-ah, this is not funny you know,” He let out a shaky laughter, expecting her to burst out laughing but she didn’t. She just sat and stared, and it gave him chills seeing her like that. “Hyosung-ah, don’t play around like this!”

“I have ... c-cancer.” Joon had to strain his hearing to hear her reply, which was barely a whisper. “I have lung cancer. Those chest pains, coughing, fainting. Remember? All this while I thought it was nothing but ...”

Hyosung words disappeared slowly into the background when she explained her condition because all Joon could think of now is ... this is all a lie.

“When?” Joon threw a frantic glance, cutting her all at once as he stuttered in fear. “Andwae. How? Why? I-It can’t be. You’re kidding right? Right?!”

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I’m really really sorry.” Joon shook his head when Hyosung tried to console him. His heart inflated like it was going to crack right through his ribs, trying to register what Hyosung just said. Andwae, it can’t be. She’s lying. She’s lying! He fell down on the floor, knees first, and sobbed.

Tears were spilling freely now as she witnessed another of her loved ones crumbled upon knowing about her condition. She already did break the news to Zinger, Sunhwa and Jieun a couple of days ago and like Joon, they couldn’t believe her at first, thinking it was just a joke before the truth finally dawned on them. They cried and cried throughout the night until there seemed to be no more tears left to shed, and she almost fainted from crying so hard. She warned them not to tell a single soul since she wanted them to know from her and not others, so they agreed.

“How could you hide this from us, onnie? Why are you trying to suffer alone?”

“You’re so bad, onnie! This isn’t something you should keep to yourself!”

“Onnie, you’ll be okay right? Nothing’s going to happen right? Please tell me it is, onnie!”

These desperate words of hope crushed her.

The past days was so gloomy, she swear she was living in darkness. Is this how it’ll always be after telling them? Dear God, this is so hard. Give me strength to face this ... She just stared helplessly at Joon who now sat so still on the floor it scared her.

“Andwae!” He cried suddenly in anguish, his voice echoed in the empty practice room, thumping his fists on the floor so hard she could almost feel the vibrations throughout her body. “Why does it have to be you ...? Why ... didn’t you tell me? Why?!”

“I’m sorry ...” Was all Hyosung could mutter repeatedly before she flopped down next to Joon and hugged his quivering body. Joon hugged her back, hard, as he sobbed on. For an instance, she felt warm. She always had whenever Joon hugged her, she felt as if a ton of burden was lifted off her shoulder for just that short while. She had always treated Joon as her older brother, seeing that she had none and funny how his embrace felt like her father’s at times.

“There, there. Don’t cry. It wouldn’t change a thing, will it? I'll be all right.” Her voice trembled as she fought back her tears. She took a deep breath while patting Joon’s back continuously, consoling him.

It broke her heart that she was breaking others. How she wished she would just disappear, or never existed. It shocked her how pessimistic she was being nowadays, she could barely recognize herself. No matter how hard she tried to be happy, thoughts about her condition would flew right instance, causing her to gloom again.

“So what happens now ...?” Joon asked in between hiccups, breaking her trails of thoughts.

“Promise me, you won’t tell a soul. Okay?”

“Hyosung-ah.”

“Please, just promise me.”

“This is not a matter of me telling anybody. This is a matter between life and death! And here you’re expecting me to not tell anyone? Are you crazy, Hyosung-ah?!” Joon blasted furiously at Hyosung who just sat there, emotionless. She then let out a shaky laugh before glaring at him, expression taut.

“Crazy? Yes, I guess I’m crazy. Having cancer does that to you, I guess. Oh wait, I forgot I have cancer. Isn’t that crazy? Huh, Joon? I, the Jun Hyosung, have cancer. Can you believe that?” Hyosung’s almost in hysteric now as she stood up and walked away from Joon, her breathing heavy. I’m so tired. Funny. Her visions seemed blurry, but she continued on.

“I, Jun Hyosung ... have tumour in my body. Having to grasp the bitter reality of me having cancer ... won’t that make you crazy? Oh? I’m sorry I’m crazy enough not to tell my loved ones about this, thinking how crazy it’ll be for them to not suffer like I do! YES, I’M CRAZY!”

*prick*

Hyosung’s breath shortened suddenly when she felt a strong stab on her chest. Grabbing to it, she instantly fell down knee first to the floor, before curling up as another wave of strong pain hit her. Her breath hitched again, and this time it seems like her air passage was blocked, and she tried in vain to breathe in but fail. I can’t breathe! She tried to voice it out, but only a croak came out.

“Hyosung!” She heard Joon’s voice cried in horror.

“Hyosung!” Another familiar voice bellowed not far away as she fell deeper into the darkness, and in an instant she felt strong familiar arms cradling her. Kikwang...? “Hyosung-ah, wake up! Please! Please! Please! Wake up!”

It all happened in a matter of seconds as her vision started to black out, and she went in and out of conscious. Through the dizziness, a blurry image of Kikwang’s concern face was just a mere inches away from hers. Kwangie, help ...

“You’ll be all right, okay? Stay with me, Hyosung-ah. Stay with me!”

She tried to answer him, to tell him everything was fine, but the pain was too immense that she slipped back out of conscious. All the while she was floating in the darkness, she could hear various deafening sounds around her. The sirens shrieking, unfamiliar voices surrounding her, people crying ...? Who? It was so deafening she just wanted it to stop! She tried to crack her eyes open, but it felt like as if there was a ton of weight on her eyelids that prevented her from doing so. But then she heard a voice that was so soothing, it cancelled out all the noises. Kiki. She realized she was in Kikwang’s arms, cradled against his chest perhaps.

“Stay with me, please. Can you hear me? Stay with me ... please. Please.” Were the last words she heard.

Anyeong, my lovely readers!

I'm guessing it'll be around 4 more chapters before this story come to a complete end. *cries.

I know, why so fast? Hmmm, probably because I'm working on a new fanfic? Hehe.

But yeah, hope you'll enjoy reading this!

<3