Hands gripping the steering wheel, her face contorted in anguish as she heard the end of yet another love song. She hated the music these days. They were all about love, was there seriously nothing else to sing about? She was about to reach out to turn off the radio when another song started playing. The oddly light yet melancholic instrumental intrigued her and she decided to listen on. As she drove, tears started to fall, one by one.

"One two three, you left me, But I hear your breath from somewhere. Once again, four five six, red tears fall down, I miss your scent that embraced me."

The song spoke to her in a way that no other song had spoken before, it touched the deepest, darkest parts of her heart. According to the radio deejay, this was 2NE1's latest single, Come back Home.

Once she reached home, she mechanically the computer and searched for the video. As she watched, her blank expression melted away and a look of raw longing came into her eyes when she watched Dara and her on screen boyfriend. When it reached the part where Dara ripped the cord from her boyfriend, basically killing him, she hurriedly slammed the computer and looked away. But the image, and the idea that came along it, remained in her mind. Even though it was in the mid of summer, she still felt as cold as if it were winter. She shivered.

As was her normal routine, she made her way down the shiny white hallways and entered a small room, all the way at the end of the corridor. The nurse that was in the room smiled a little sadly when she saw her, and shook her head. With trembling fingers, she his comatose face, and his once silky hair. “It’s been too long, Oppa, it’s time to wake up. Please…please wake up and say something, I’m starting to give up on you. Oppa, today I heard a song that I really really liked. It’s funny isn’t it, how you used to love songs so much that you were dying to share them with me, and I just refused to listen. Play a song for me now, Oppa, I’ll listen to you, I promise.”

Come back home, can you come back home. Don’t leave me at the end of the cold world but come back to my side. I’m pushing back all the pain, I’m still waiting for you like this.

She finished softly, “Now can you please come back home?”

After a few hours, she finally made her decision. She summoned the doctor with a heavy heart, and pulled out the form that she had refused to sign for half a year now. Closing her eyes, she handed the form to him. Except for a soft sigh, the doctor made no comment. He asked her to leave the room for a few minutes before reappearing and gesturing for her to come in. The room seemed different already, even though it had only been a mere few minutes. The doctor was explaining something but she couldn’t hear anything. She was numb all over and she only tuned in when he pointed to the various switches on the machine. She nodded, even though she didn’t really understand, just to get him out of the room. As if he read her mind, he backed out, giving them privacy.

“They said that grief goes away with time, but I’ve tried that and they were lying. But they also said, that goodbyes are easier when it’s just a prelude to a hello. I’m sorry for doing this, Oppa, but I can’t wait any longer for you to come back home, I’m just going to have to look for you.” She took out a bottle of sleeping pills and stuffed them in . Swallowing them was difficult, bile kept rising out of but she forced it back. Her vision was increasingly blurring, both because of the overdose of pills and because of her own flood of tears. She painfully inched closer to the machine, then to the numerous switches. With every switch that she flipped close, she apologized to him. Finally, she reached the last one. “We had a good time together, didn’t we? Wait for me, Oppa, I’m going back home.” She flipped the switch and with her last ounce of strength, lay down on the bed next to him, and snuggled into his cold embrace. As the first bout of pain wracked her body, she closed her eyes and smiled, as a teardrop rolled down her face. 

2 Days later

The doctor knelt in front of the graves, tears in his eyes. He first put a bouquet of white flowers on his grave, sighing as he recalled the first time this patient had entered the hospital. He had been involved in a massive car crash, and after the emergency operation, he had been comatose. The doctor moved on to the grave beside it, and a tear slipped out when he saw the picture of the young woman. Ever since the man had been admitted, she had come every day without fail to take care of him, staying almost the whole day every time. She was the man’s girlfriend. The rumors that had been spread around the hospital was that she felt indebted to the man because he had saved her from getting hit by a truck, which resulted in his own accident. The doctor had tried numerous times to persuade the woman to turn off the man’s life support system, because he had been comatose for 7 years and showed no sign for recovery. The few times that the doctor had tried to bring it up, the woman had just kept silent and unresponsive. Finally, he gave up trying. It came as a surprise to him when the woman had finally decided to turn off the life support system, but it ended as a tragedy. When he had left the woman to turn off the system for privacy, he had never expected that she would commit suicide. He had left her alone longer than necessary, partially because he thought she would need it and also because he was busy at the hospital. That was the biggest mistake of his life. Had he come just a few minutes earlier, he could have saved her, but instead he came into the room too late, finding the couple in each other’s arms, and both dead.

He closed his eyes, shaking his head, how many times had he blamed himself over the past few days? He stood up and went into his car. Turning on the radio to break the silence, 2NE1’s new song played in the car.

Come back home, can you come back home?