The next day I did my usual morning routine – eating breakfast and being lazy until the clock strike ten; the perfect time to visit Naeun.

I told mom that I would go visit Naeun. Mom knew about her condition long before I did, obviously. Naeun was the one that told mom about her condition and since she had nothing to do, she always come to the house and helping mom with every possible chores she can do.

Guess that’s why she was here when I came home, I thought.

With a bouquet of flowers in my hand, I walked into her room.

Two pairs of beautiful hazel eyes looked at me, eyes widen.

She’s awake.

 Naeun was already awake.

I have this urge to just go and crushed her body against mine but I didn’t do it.

I don’t want to surprise her.

Instead, I slowly walked to her bed and smiled at her. She smiled too, a weak one.

She looked tired. Her eyes were swollen, her lips looked dried and her face was still pale like yesterday.

“How are you?” I asked, the cliché question people will asked every time they were visiting a sick person.

“Feeling much better than yesterday,” she replied, still with a smile plastered on her face.

“That’s good,” I said and handed her the bouquet. “Here,” sheepishly, I said.

I could feel a tint of red coloured my cheeks.

Her smile grew and with her usual enthusiasm, she said “Thank you!” as she took the bouquet.

God, how I miss seeing her being like that.

I sat on the chair besides her bed.

Silent.

Naeun was looking outside of the window – the mountain we once climbed a few days back could be seen.

“How do you know I was here – in the hospital?” she asked all of the sudden but her gazed still glued at the view outside of the window.

“Yesterday. I went to your house and your grandmother told me about you and I followed her to the hospital.”

“I thought only family members are allowed to be in this room,”

“Yes but your grandmother already asked for the nurse permission to let me in.”

Quiet.

She then, turned her gazed towards me and with a sad smile she said “I’m dying, Myungsoo…”

I felt like a big lump in my throat that refrain me from swallowing.

It’s hard to swallow the words she just said. It was just….

Painful.

Hurtful.

And I was scared.

Seeing that I was speechless, she continued “the ‘thing’ on my lungs unexpectedly has beginning to grow. When the ‘thing’ dominates my whole lungs, that’s the day I will die, Myungsoo.”

“You won’t.” I said, sternly; managed to get my voice back.

She looked at me, eyebrows furrowed.

“I will not let that ‘thing’ kills you. I will not let you die just like that.”

Her eyes were b with water and soon, a drop of crystal-like tear fell and ran across her cheek.

Then, her lips formed a smile – she was smiling and crying at the same time.

“T-Thank you…for coming here,”

I spent the whole day with her in the room. Her grandmother came between those times and she was glad that I could keep her accompanied since she was busy with things she had to do.

Apparently, Naeun have this small notebook that contained things that she wanted to do before she ‘go away’.

She gave me her black-covered small notebook and told me to take a look at it.

And so, I did.

The moment I opened the first page, my heart was clenched in pain. In bold and cursive letters, it was written:

Things to Do Before Dying

I tried to ignore the disturbing title and moving on to the next page.

To see the sunset at the beach.

Well, I think we could sneak out from the hospital; it wouldn’t be a problem, I already thought of the plan.

I turned the next page.

To see the whole town at the highest place (prefer on winter <33).

In a small box at the bottom of the page, a tick had been put inside.

Guess that’s why she wanted to go to the mountain, I thought and a small smiled appeared on my lips, reminisced that day.

Pages to pages, the list kept coming. Most of them had been ticked off from the list and there were only two things that had not been tick yet; to see the sunset at the beach and lying on the ground while watching the stars all night.

“You’re watching too many dramas, Naeun.” I commented once I had finished took a look at her bucket list.

She just shrugged and childishly grinned at me. I scoffed and shook my head; adorkable Naeun.

But, there’s one thing that bothered me about her notebook. “Why the last page had been torn off?” I asked.

Naeun looked flustered. “T-The last page had a food stain, that’s why I tore it off,”

I lifted one eyebrow and said “Oh, really?” sceptically.

Then, she scoffed and pouted. “I don’t care if you believe me or not,” she murmured.

I chuckled seeing her like that. Cute.

 Ruffling her hair, I said “Okay then, I believe you little kid,”

Once the clock strikes eight in the evening, I was asked to leave by her nurse as the visiting hour was almost over.

Before I left her room, I told her that I would come by tomorrow and she gave me a nod with that sweet smile of hers.

I was walking at the hospital hallway, heading towards the exit when my phone suddenly vibrating in my pants’ pocket. I fished out the phone and slide the green button across the screen, saying “Hello” in a soft tone.

“L-ah, how’s your break?”

It was my manager – Jaewon hyung.

“Fine, why did you call me? Something’s up?”

I spoke as I pushed the glass door and led me to the outside of the building.

“I just want to tell you that I’ll fetch you at noon tomorrow so, be ready before then.”

…..

….

Wait, what?

I stopped on my track, my body felt paralyzed when I just remembered that…

Today’s my last day here.

And I have to go back to Seoul tomorrow.

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a/n: yes, it's not a weekend but i've got no school till tomorrow so i decided to update :p