Chapter 25: Author’s POV

Ji Min had been pacing back and forth outside of the emergency room for the past two hours now. After Ga Eul had passed out in front of him, he quickly forgot about why he was crying or what was upsetting him; he took her to the hospital as quickly as possible and has been waiting for what seemed like forever to him. His heart was becoming heavier and heavier knowing that his best friend was in there and he couldn’t go in to check up on her. What made him feel even worse about the situation was that neither the doctor nor the nurses had come out to update him about everything that was going on. He felt like puking, but he couldn’t leave; he refused to move.

Ji Min felt guilty, as if he was the one who put too much onto her shoulders and that is what drove her to go under a heart attack. He wouldn’t forgive himself since he’s felt like he’s done this too many times. He couldn’t believe that he didn’t see that she was going under a heart attack throughout their talk and this made him want to punish himself in some way, but he didn’t know how to. He paced back and forth lifelessly, as if his life depended on it.

“JI MIN!”

It was Ga Eul’s father. He had got off work as soon as he could and ran straight to the hospital. Jae Kyung was right beside him since they had met in the lobby when they arrived; she seemed to be out of breath since she had been running too. Ji Min felt happy to see them, but at the same time, his heart became heavier seeing Ga Eul’s father. His eyes were filled with sadness and Ji Min could see right through him. He couldn’t forgive himself. He fell onto his knees and begged for forgiveness, as if this whole situation was truly his fault. Ga Eul’s father didn’t know what was going on and he couldn’t believe Ji Min’s actions. Jae Kyung was shocked as well.

“Stop it, Ji Min. What are you doing?” Ga Eul’s father gripped onto Ji Min’s shoulders and forced him to stand up. “Why are you apologizing?”

“I-I’m sorry.” Was all Ji Min could say because he couldn’t do anything.

“What’s going on?” Her father asked as he took a few deep breaths. “Is she okay? What ddi the doctors say?”

“T-they have come out…” Ji Min choked up because the tears that he had been holding back were now threatening to come out.

“What happened…?” Her father asked, as if he was afraid to even question the situation.

“S-she… I don’t know.” Ji Min broke down; the tears that he had been holding back finally came running down his warm, rosy cheeks. “I’m sorry I let this happen…”

Jae Kyung was wordless with how Ji Min was right now. For the first time, she couldn’t understand why Ji Min looked so hurt over something like this when this wasn’t the first time that it has happened. She felt horrible, as if she was part of this problem, but she couldn’t say anything. She felt her heart become heavy – she didn’t want to see Ji Min cry like this; he didn’t even cry like this over their break up, but it didn’t matter to her. What mattered to her was that he was truly hurt and she hated that she didn’t know how to comfort him or if she even had the right to do so.

“Ji Min, it’s going to be okay.” Ga Eul’s father wrapped his arms around Ji Min so he could hug him tightly to comfort him. “We all know how strong she is.”

“Is it already time…?” Ji Min uttered even though he was still crying his eyes out.

“Don’t say that.” Jae Kyung finally spoke after staying in silence for awhile. “Who cares what the doctors said earlier on. She will live.”

“Why wouldn’t she live…?” A different voice other than theirs spoke.

They all turned around and saw Chen standing there; he looked shocked, confused, as if he had just woken up from bed. Ji Min and Jae Kyung felt their heart drop – Chen didn’t know. They both looked at each other, feeling their faces fall because they didn’t know if they should tell Chen, just in case Ga Eul would wake up and be upset at them, but as of right now, Chen had to know, but they didn’t know how they would tell him. Her father, on the other hand, had no idea what was going on between the teenagers. He stepped back and let them have their space, as if he knew that something was going to happen and he knew he wouldn’t be in the right position to stand there.

“C-Chen…” Ji Min spoke first, knowing that Jae Kyung probably wouldn’t be able to say anything at all. “H-how did you know to come here?”

“Someone said that Ga Eul fainted at school…” Chen didn’t understand why Ji Min and Jae Kyung looked the way they did. Ji Min looked surprised while Jae Kyung looked hurt. “She fainted… Right?” He said it as if he was scared to actually know the truth.

“Wait…”

The three turned around upon hearing Ga Eul’s father interrupt their conversation.

“Jong Dae-, I mean, Chen doesn’t know?” He was shocked to see that these kids had kept this from Chen, especially since he could tell that he liked his daughter.

“We never said anything…” Jae Kyung whispered.

Ga Eul’s father looked at them with a shocked look on his face, but he couldn’t say anything. He would have loved to tell Chen about everything since he was Ga Eul’s father, but he turned back around and ignored them knowing that they probably had their own reasoning to why they never said anything to Chen.

“What is it?” Chen asked after hearing Ga Eul’s father and Jae Kyung speak, as if they were keeping a secret from them. He looked over at Ji Min with a stern look. “Ji Min, tell me what’s going on.”

“Ga Eul-“

“How is she doing?!” Ga Eul’s father spoke.

Ji Min turned around to see that the doctor finally came out from the emergency room. He wanted to finish his sentence and tell Chen about it, but he kept quiet after seeing that the doctor finally came out after a few hours. The doctor didn’t seem to have a good facial expression and this scared them all.

“Are you her father?” The doctor asked looking over at them.

Ga Eul’s father nodded his head. “I am. How is she doing?”

“You do know about her heart, am I correct?”

He nodded his head again, afraid to hear what the doctor was going to say next.

“Her heart is managing as of right now, but if this waits any longer, we don’t know if she’ll make it.” The doctor held his head down. “Dr. Jo Chang Hyuk is on his way over here from the other hospital. He said you two have already made an agreement about her heart, if I am correct.”

He nodded his head once again, still not saying a word.

“I believe if the two of you set out by the next week, or even better, this weekend, you two can make it to get the transplant.” The doctor said. “We have made sure she would be stable until then and if you guys don’t go, her heart might stop working.”

“W-what?” Chen spoke, making everyone turn their heads towards him.

His face told it all; he was in pain and Ji Min, Jae Kyung, and Ga Eul’s father couldn’t even explain how bad they felt about not saying a word to him or letting him know ahead of time. This news was all new to him and they were all sure that he was shocked and couldn’t focus right.

“Can we talk about this in your office?” Ga Eul’s father didn’t want to talk about this in front of the teenagers.

After they moved Ga Eul into a room, Ji Min, Jae Kyung, and Chen all sat outside in the hallway together, not saying a word. They’ve sat there for at least half an hour in silence, afraid that if one were to speak, someone else would speak as well and they didn’t want to interrupt one another. For Ji Min and Jae Kyung, the both of them didn’t know who was going to speak nor did they know what they wanted to say if they were to speak. Were they supposed to tell Chen about her heart and how she only had a few months left?

“If we tell you…” Jae Kyung spoke up first, breaking the long silence between the three of them. “Can you promise to pretend not to know about it?”

Ji Min looked over at her shocked. “What, Han Jae Kyung…”

“Knowing Ga Eul, she will never tell you about it and by the time that happens, who knows where we’ll all be.” Jae Kyung hated that she was the one saying it, but she and Ji Min both knew that it was the honest truth.

Chen didn’t understand anything that was happening. The person, who he fell for, was in the hospital and for what reason? He wanted to know, but he was afraid that if he found out, he was going to get hurt. He could already feel his heart beating right out of his chest; he’s never felt so nervous about something before until now.

“I’ll say it.” Ji Min said as he let out a long sigh.

“Ji Min…” Jae Kyung looked over at him concerned.

“Chen, Ga Eul has a heart disease and was diagnosed with this a couple of years ago, but just the beginning of this year, she was told that she wasn’t going to live past graduation.” Ji Min felt like breaking down hearing these words he hasn’t heard in so long; he hated the reality of it. “We don’t know how long it’s actually been, but she hasn’t shown any signs of it lately so we weren’t really worrying – we kind of forgot about it, if anything.”

Jae Kyung started crying.

“When she and Seung Ho started going out on dates, we thought it would be okay, thinking that she wouldn’t go that far with him, but who knew that Seung Ho was actually in love with her to the point where he was hurt?” Ji Min continued on. “He knows about her heart, if you were curious about that.”

In fact, Chen was just thinking about that and finally knowing the answer, he felt betrayed.

“She told him after she broke it off with him because she and Seung Ho had been friends for so long… But I guess I don’t know the real reason why she said something to him either.” Ji Min felt bad for saying this because Chen looked hurt from his words. “When she started talking about how she was hanging out with you, or how she had helped you from… from committing suicide, there was something about her that I knew she was going to do and for some reason, I couldn’t stop her… I knew she had some sort of feelings for you ever since she mentioned that she was hanging out with you or that she wanted to see who you really were…”

Chen felt tears forming on the corner of his eyes.

“But if you really want to know why she kept such a thing from you, you have to ask because even Jae Kyung and I don’t know the real reason.” Ji Min walked over and patted Chen on his shoulders lightly. “Chen, you know that she likes you, right? And that she would never want to hurt you… Ever…”

Ji Min grabbed Jae Kyung’s hand after he got up from Chen and pulled her away from the room, knowing that Chen probably wanted time alone and that Ga Eul would probably wake up soon.

Chen did just that. He stood up from his seat and went into the room. As soon as he walked in, he saw Ga Eul staring back at him. She was already sitting up in her bed. He wanted to cry seeing that she looked sick, but he had to hold it back.

“Chen? What are you doing here?” She felt her eyes widened into shock.

“I heard you fainted…” He felt his heart fall to the pit of his stomach as he inched closer and closer to her.

“O-oh. Yeah…” She awkwardly said, but little did she know, he already knew the truth. “When did you get here?”

“I just got here a few minutes ago.” He said as he finally sat down on the foot of her bed. “Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah, I am.” She sighed. “I’m sorry I didn’t have lunch with you.”

“No, it’s okay.” He hated that she was only thinking of him and not about her own situation, but he couldn’t say anything once again. “Lu Han made me forget about you since he was telling me a lot of jokes today.”

“You sound… You sound a little sad, Chen…” Ga Eul raised her eyebrow. “What’s wrong?”

“I was just worried.” He wasn’t lying.

“I’m fine.” She raised her hands up. “See?”

“Yeah. You are, huh?” He reached over and hugged her tightly, letting her warmth close in on his. “You won’t ever leave me, right?”

“Why would I?” Ga Eul was really confused with his sudden actions. He seemed to be acting differently, but she couldn’t understand what was going through his mind. “Are you sure you’re okay? Maybe you’re the one who needs a check up.”

“Maybe I do…” Chen said as he felt a tear escape, but he quickly wiped it before Ga Eul could see. “I-I have to go make a phone call… I’ll b-be right back, okay?”

“Oh… Okay?” Ga Eul questioned his tone, but she decided to ignore it.

Chen walked out of the room and as soon as he closed the door behind him, he broke into tears. He bent down towards his knees and started crying while he held his mouth, afraid that if he were to cry even more, she would hear it. Now he finally understood why she kept saying that she might leave one day and how that was how life had worked. He now understood everything she was saying before they became friends.

But he didn’t understand how she could pretend or keep this from him. He felt frustrated and hurt to the point where it felt like all of his energy had drained out from him.

“What am I going to do…?” Chen asked himself as he cried even more.

*A/N: Sorry for the late update! I will double update tomorrow! Please read and comment. I'd love to hear about your opinions, so please don't be a silent reader. Thank you and read with lots of love! Keke~! Muah