“Blood pressure is stabilized, doctor.” A female voice said.

“Hmm.. That’s good. Good work Nurse Choi.” A male answered back.

“How is she Dr. Wu?” Mrs. Lee asked the doctor.

“She’s fine, no need to worry Mrs Lee. Her radiotherapy went well as always and she should be up any minute by now.” Dr. Wu answered and left the room.

“Don’t worry honey, she’s always strong. Our sweetie’s a strong girl. She made it this far haven’t she?” Mr Lee comforted his wife.

“I know she is.” She replied while squeezing her daughter’s small sized hands. “I’m just worried.. What if one day.. she..” Before Mrs Lee could finish her sentence, her husband had already stopped her.

“She’s going to be alright, don’t think too much. What would happen if she heard you talking like this? We must show her that we’re not scared so that she won’t be too. That’s one way for her to continue fighting her disease.” He said to her with sadness in his eyes. He too was scared, but if he showed that he was scared that his beloved daughter would one day not wake up, he knew too well that his wife would be more of a nervous wreck compared to now.

“Okay honey.”

Jangmi continued to pretend to sleep while listening to their conversation. She tried her best to hold back the tears and continued breathing steadily. After about ten minutes she opened her eyes slowly, trying her best to look like she had just woken up. “Hey there sweetie, how you feeling?” Her dad moved her fringe away from her eyes as he spoke.

“I’m feeling okay daddy.” She said as she faked yawn.

“Aigoo, my princess must have been really tired huh? You slept longer that you usually did. Let’s get you up and we can go home so you can rest, okay?” He said to her with a soft smile.

“Sure daddy.” She answered and looked around the room.

“Appa and omma will be right back okay sweetie? We’ll go sort out the paper work first then we’ll leave okay?” Her mom patted her head.

“Okay omma.” She answered with a smile.

As they finally left the room, she let out a loud sigh. She looked around the room. She has been in this room ever since she was thirteen. That was when her cancer cells started to spread. Her white blood cells were producing rapidly compared to others while her red blood cells which are supposed to be increasing, increased in very little number. She looked at the other patients in the room. Some were skin and bones while some were already bald from all the chemo and radio therapies. She too has very little hair. Ever since she started her chemo and radio therapies she has been losing a lot of weight and her hair began to fall.

She loved her hair so much before, she loved how it falls smoothly over her shoulders, but now she dreads it. She hated looking herself in the mirror. She hated how she looked like. It was okay before when only people in her school knew that she was sick and the people outside of school did not know she was sick because she looked perfectly fine. That all changed when her looks started to fail her too. Because of how she looks, people in public were either staring or pointing at her with soft whispers. 

She hated it. She hated her life. She hated how everyone treated her like a monster.

“How was your therapy?” A patient next to her asked. He looked pretty young; maybe a few years younger than her.

“Well, painful as always.” She answered bluntly, only taking a glance of his face.

“So what type of cancer do you have?” He asked her while looking at her.

“Blood.” She simply replied without even looking at him this time.

“Oh leukemia. I have lung cancer. I’m in my last stage. You know the funny thing? I only found out about a week ago because we were getting those shots in school then I out and was rushed to the hospital. When I woke up, ta-dah, fourth stage of lung cancer.”

She turned and looked at him “Oh. No wonder I’ve never seen you before. You are a newbie eh?”

“Yeap, today is my first day of chemo actually and it hurts so bad that I wanna just stop. The only reason why I’m doing this is because of my parents. If it’s not for them, I’ll rather just die.” He chuckled even though it was not funny. “So you must be my sunbaenim eh? How long have you been coming here?”

“Long enough.”

“Are you okay? Am I annoying you?” He studied her face, trying to find a hint of annoyance but there was not any.

“Yeah I’m okay, just tired. And no, you’re not annoying me.” She answered, without looking at him again.

In the therapy room, there was only Jangmi, the guys who talked to her and three more other patients. A girl opposite them who was reading a book looked at them. “Hey newbie. Just let her be. She doesn’t like talking much.” She said to the newbie.

He lifted a brow. “Oh I see. You must be my sunbaenim too, right? Well you can just call my name instead of newbie ya know. My name’s Sehun. What’s yours, sunbae? “

“My name’s Amber.” She murmured and shifted her attention back to her book.

The doors opened and came in Jangmi’s parents. “Hey sweetie, it’s time to go now.” Her mom told her. Her dad went to her and helped her get up, supporting her as she walked. She does not like relying on someone but she gets really weak after her therapies so she has no choice but to hold on her father’s hand as she walk. Amber stopped reading and watched Jangmi slowly walked from her bed to the door. As Jangmi left the room she gave a small nod to Amber and Amber returned it.

“So... What’s up with her?” Sehun asked Amber the moment the door closed.

“Hey newbie, don’t take it to heart. She’s just been through a lot.” Amber gave him a bitter smile.

“Okay.. like what? Just because she has leukemia she doesn’t have to act like it’s the end of the world. Look at me, I’m already in my last stage but I still act as if nothing’s wrong.” Sehun crossed his arms over his chest and puffed his cheeks.

Amber looked at the other two patients, one male and the other a female. Amber seemed to be the oldest in the room. The other male seemed to be around her age and the female slightly younger. “Well, honestly among all of us in this room, she has been through a hell lot more than what we’ve been through.” The male softly said.

Sehun looked at him and sighed. “So what’s your name sunbae? “

“My name is Lay and this is Minzy.” He introduced themselves and Minzy smiled with a slight nod.

“Nice to meet you Lay hyung, Minzy noona. I think you guys are older than me, so is it alright for me to call you guys hyung and noona? I’m 15 years old this year. What about you guys?” Sehun asked.

“Yeah it’s fine. I’m 23 this year while Amber and Lay is 24. As for Jangmi, she’s 15.” Minzy answered.

“Jangmi? You mean the girl who just left?”

“Yeah, that was Jangmi.” Minzy confirmed.

“So I guess I’m the maknae here. So what’s up with Jangmi noona? Why is she so cold?” Sehun asked, eyes full of curiousity.

Amber turned to look at Lay and Minzy before she let out a sigh and answered. “It all happened around three years ago, when Jangmi was just 18.”

“Yah Jangmi, do you think I’ll ever get to fly a plane?” A male with a pair of doe eyes asked her as he held a paper plane.

“Who knows? It might happen so just keep on believing oppa. I’m sure you can make your dreams come true.” Jangmi encouraged, giving him the beautiful, sweet smile that everyone loved. Although Jangmi was really ill, going through hell at school with only one best friend to talk to in school, she still was her happy-go-lucky self. Yes she was hurting inside, but she still has the love from her parents, her best friend Sooji and her hospital buddy Luhan, so she held in whatever pain and hurt she was holding on and put on her best smile as each day goes by.

Luhan let out a sigh “I wished I didn’t have cancer you know. I hate the therapies, I hate the stares, I hate the talking. You of all people I know definitely know how I feel. If only I don’t have cancer, then my chances of being a pilot will come true.” He let out another sigh.

“Yah oppa, you know I hate it too but this is what life has given us. You can still do it. You’re only in the early stages of your kidney cancer, so you still can fight it.”

“I agree with Jangmi, Luhan. Just fight cancer and get out of here so you can continue your flying academy.” Amber said while reading her book. Luhan was the oldest in the room, he was in the flying academy but he stopped recently when he found out he was diagnosed with kidney cancer.

“Agree.” Lay and Minzy answered the same time.

“Thanks for the support guys. I’ll definitely kick cancer’s !” He said with a laugh and the others laughed too. “But you guys should too alright? Here’s to us! Let’s kick cancer’s !” Luhan lifted his cup of water as a toast to their new goal in life. They all lifted their cups and toasted, promising themselves to fight cancer.

* Three months later *

“Eonni! Call the doctor! Hurry! Luhan oppa is vomiting blood!” Jangmi shouted as she held a pail for Luhan and patted his back lightly. Amber pressed the button for calling in the doctor then she, Lay and Minzy held onto their poles where their drips were hung and walked towards Luhan’s bed. He was already lying down, unconscious with stains of blood around his lips.

“He was fine just a while ago, what happen?” Lay asked Jangmi and she just shook her head continuously.

“I..I don’t know. He suddenly looked sick then I held out the pail for him and he vomited blood.” She cried, still holding onto the pail filled around a quarter of Luhan vomited blood.

“Move aside Jangmi.” Dr Wu came running in with a nurse behind and Jangmi stood up from Luhan’s bed. “What happened to him?” Dr Wu asked while flashing a torch light into Luhan’s eyes.

“I...I...d...dd....” Jangmi tried to answered but kept on crying thus causing her stuttering .

“He was fine a while ago, but suddenly he looked sick and Jangmi held out the pail for him thinking it was just those normal vomits you get from chemo but he end up vomiting a lot of blood.” Minzy answered.

“Get ready nurse Choi. We need to get him to the ER.” Dr Wu said.

“Yes doc.” She hastily answered and ran out of the room.

“Wha..what’s..” Jangmi tried to speak up but could not. She was crying like crazy until she was having trouble breathing.

“Dr. Wu, what’s wrong? Why do you need to bring him to the emergency room?” Minzy asked.

“He needs an operation. His kidney is failing him.” Dr Wu simply answered and left as a few male nurses came in to push Luhan’s bed to the ER.

Jangmi started screaming and running out of the room to his bed “Oppa!” She screamed.

“Inject her.” Dr Wu said and one male nurse held her tightly and brought her back to the room. All that kicking and screaming could not even make the nurse let her go. Moments later, another male nurse came in. Inject her with something, and the next thing she knew, she out.