She walks up the corridor which is all too familiar to her; the bare white walls (only now they’ve painted it with minimal decorations), the antiseptic smell which she inhales as soon as she takes the first step in, the nurses who greet her without fail every day with warm smiles – all the little things she remembers about this hospital, this particular ward.

She keeps on walking, too tired to return any of their smiles today, too drained to even nod her head – until she reaches the last room situated at the farthest end of ward 71.

Slowly, with a heart heavier than other days, she pushes open the door and enters the room where her prince charming still remains sound asleep.

A fairly young girl clad in a nurse’s uniform is finishing up with her routine check on him. At the sound of the new footsteps approaching, she looks up and smiles politely.

Chorong manages a tired smile as she nears his bed and drop a soft kiss on top of his head, before taking his left hand and pressing her lips gently against it – something she does each time she visits him.

Perhaps, it’s a symbol of hope. Perhaps, she believes he can actually feel it. Perhaps, she wants him to remember. Or perhaps, she just misses him too much.

“He’s okay,” the earlier nurse finally speaks up, after being a silent observer. “Nothing seems out of the ordinary. He’s still the same.”

Still the same. Not better. Not worse. Not improving.

Just the same.

“Thank you,” Chorong replies softly. “Are you new here, by the way? I don’t think I’ve seen you around.”

“Oh,” the nurse seems a little surprise at her question. Probably because she hadn’t expected for Chorong to be paying attention to anything else, other than her sickly fiancé.

“Yes,” she continues in a friendly tone. “My name’s Joohee. I just transferred here a few days ago. Today is my first morning shift.”

Chorong nods. “Are you going to be the one assisting Dr Lee now?”

“Yeah,” Joohee answers. “I’ll be the nurse in-charge for Nam Woohyun-ssi from now on.”

She hasn’t gotten the chance to fully grasp the whole situation surrounding her new patient. Based on the information she had gathered from the previous nurse, Nam Woohyun was involved in a horrific car accident which nearly took away his life. It was a very close call, but they managed to stop the internal bleeding and prevent more blood loss. Even though his punctured lung was in a pretty bad condition and he’s broken a couple of bones, they still managed to save him.

Nam Woohyun survived his battle with death, but he hadn’t woken up since.

This lady, who is sitting by his bed now, holding onto his hand tightly, must be the fiancée the hospital had contacted then when there was no other relative they could get in touch with. His parents had been instantly killed in the car crash, pronounced dead at the scene.

From what she understood, ever since the day Woohyun had been brought into this hospital, Chorong has never failed to visit him; even if it was already late at night. Sometimes she would be accompanied by her family, a friend or her brother – but most of the time she came alone.

Ahyoung, the previous nurse in-charge also told her that Chorong would sometimes stay overnight in the hospital, telling him stories without getting bored, sings to him while she cleans him up, shows him pictures even though she knows he isn’t able to see; and on some nights, she would lie her head on his chest with tears trickling down her face.

The woman she sees in front of her now seems so small and fragile. It’s like she is capable of breaking with just a mere flick of a finger and Joohee’s heart completely goes out to her. All the time spent waiting, all the days covered with nothing but endless hope must’ve taken quite a toll on her.

“Thank you,” she says again in that soft tone of hers, snapping Joohee out of her trance. “Please take care of him well.”

Joohee could only smile. “I will. It’s my job.”

: :

After the nurse left, Chorong turns her attention back towards Woohyun and lets out a sigh. Absentmindedly, she starts to ruffle his fringe (which had started to get a little long) and says, “You need a haircut.”

She bends down to open the third drawer and takes out a pair of comb and scissors. After making herself comfortable on the side of the bed, carefully she combs his hair and begins to cut bits of it.

“I fought with oppa again today. And before you say ‘Park Chorong, you only have one brother –‘ you should know what we argued about.”

Snip, snip.

“Oppa wants me to marry his best friend. Can you believe it?”

Snip.

“To make it worse, mum and dad agree with him. How could they?”

“It’s mean of them, right?” Sniffs. “Of course I told them no – that it will never happen. Because I’m already engaged to somebody else and he is the only person I would marry.”

Snip.

“Do you know what they said? They said that it is time for me to move on because it’s already been two whole years.”

The tears are starting to sting her eyes.

“Two years…you’ve been sleeping for 24 months. Aren’t you tired?”

Her vision is getting blurry.

“You know that new restaurant you’ve been dying to try? It has opened up two additional branches now. I went in once. I don’t know what you were so excited about.”

She feels a sudden, piercing pain on her index finger. She had accidentally cut herself.

“The sequel to your favourite movie has just started showing yesterday. You missed the second part, but we can always rent it on DVD.”

Chorong carelessly wipes her cut with a tissue before continuing to cut his hair.

“I just found this new recipe on the internet last week. You still owe me a promise because you lost that dare, remember? You promised to finish up everything I feed you with – no matter how awful it may taste.”

A few silent seconds passed between them. The only thing that could be heard is Chorong’s quiet sniffles as she tries to fight back her tears.

“I’m sorry. I cut it a little too short to your liking. If you want to complain, you have to open your eyes and look at the mirror yourself.”

Her brother seemed really determined with his decision this time in marrying her off to his best friend. Even when she pleaded, even when she tried to compromise, he wouldn’t budge even an inch. It’s bad enough  that their parents seem to agree with him. With the excuse, they just want to see her move on.

What if she doesn’t want to? What if she is willing to wait for another more year? Two more years? What if he wakes up after she leaves? What if he opens his eyes after she’s decided to walk away?

But then, there’s this small voice in her head that says “What if he never wakes up at all? What if the next time you see him, it’s already time for goodbye? What if, all that’s left are empty promises and haunting memories?”

“You have to wake up, okay?” she whispers hoarsely. “You have to open your eyes and say that you will never let me go. You have to wake up and fight for us.”

“Because I can’t do this alone anymore…”