— Chapter 8 —

Love, Me

Oh no. This is bad. This is very bad.

"What do we do?" Jessica sobbed.

"Jess, calm down. Let's just go and check on Taeyeon before anything worse happens." Jinki frowned. She must have fainted in the washroom...

He held Jessica's hand and pulled her to the female washroom. He pushed the door slightly and the first thing he saw was crimson. He was not prepared for what he saw next as he pushed the door open.

Taeyeon was on the floor, unconscious with her head in a pool of blood. Her nose was bleeding. As soon as she saw Taeyeon again, Jessica broke down in tears, on the verge of hyperventilating. Jinki on the other hand, whipped out his phone to call for an ambulance. He carefully stepped in to squat beside his girlfriend and hesitantly lifted her head slightly to try stabilize it while his phone was pressed between his ear and shoulder.

"Come on... Taeyeon you have to stay strong alright?" he started tearing up. He was going crazy inside. This is all my fault, I shouldn't have joked around beforehand. How could I be so insensitive? What am I supposed to do?

He gagged slightly when he felt the sticky liquid come into contact with his hand. He was never good at handling the sight of blood in quantities larger than a drop, let alone touch it.

After a few rings, the operator picked up the phone.

H-
"You have to help me! My girlfriend's unconscious a-and bleeding from her nose and head and there's no one else around apart from one of my friends!" his voice was brittle as he spoke the moment the call started.
Sir, calm down. I can only help you if you can calm down. Where are you right now?
"I'm at -- Café House! Um... It's somewhere down Garosu-gil Road, the one closest to Sinsa Station..."
Alright, sir, the ambulance is on the way. Do you know what happened to your girlfriend?

Jinki continued to explain that he nor Jessica knew what happened apart from the fact that Taeyeon fainted, and that she had just found her on the floor, motionless. The operator had to struggle a few times with trying to calm Jinki down as she tried giving him instructions to apply first aid.

"Sica," he said to the crying brunette. No reponse, she just continued sobbing.

"Sica! I need your help," he repeated, his voice a bit louder, causing Jessica to jump a little. She raised her head to look at him with tear-filled eyes.

"Do you have a handkerchief or something?"

Jessica nodded and slowly pulled her white handkerchief from her jacket pocket and lifted it with shaking hands. Jinki immediately snatched the cloth from her hands. He didn't mean to be mean, it was just that he wanted to follow the operator's instructions as fast as he could to save Taeyeon before anything else happened.

Minutes passed and sirens were soon heard, and a wave of relief washed over him. Everything else became a blur to him, the paramedics rushing in, Taeyeon being carried on a stretcher...

In the ambulance, Jinki held on tight to her hand while Jessica sat beside him, stiff, shaken and pale. Just as the vehicle went over a speed hump, he saw a small bit of light blue against Taeyeon's dark sweater. It was her letter for him. He carefully tore off the top and started reading.

It wasn't as long as her usual ones, but as he read further, more and more tears started forming and rolling down his cheeks. And when he reached the last two words, Taeyeon's signature "Love, Me", he couldn't hold back and started crying his heart out. Jessica wrapped her arms around him and tried to provide some comfort.

***

The two friends sat outside the operating theatre, silent. Jinki was emotionless, empty, drained by all the tears he cried on the way. He stared into blank space, clutching the box he had so happily prepared for his love earlier. Jessica was still trembling slightly, panicking and worrying that she may lose one of her closest friends.

Taeyeon's father came running down the corridor, his eyes wide and filled with worry.

"Is my girl okay?"

"I don't know..." Jinki replied quietly, burying his face in his hands.

The air felt heavy outside the operating theatre. Taeyeon's father was trying to hold back his tears as he waited. When the doctor finally came out of the theatre, he immediately rushed up.

"How's my daughter? Is she going to be okay?"

The doctor could only look at him with a grim expression.

"My deepest condolences, sir. We tried all we could but there was no hope for her. She had a serious head injury and she lost too much blood. I'm sorry," he sighed.

The moment the three saw Taeyeon on the bed, they felt like their heart was ripped into pieces. Taeyeon lay there, unmoving. Her face was drained of all colour. Her father started wailing as he knelt down beside her.

"How could you do this, Taeyeon? I was supposed to go before you! You can't be dead yet!"

Jinki walked over to the other side and held her hand for the last time as he recalled the words from her letter. He bent down and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead, but he couldn't cry. Every last drop in him had dried up.

"If you get there before I do, don't give up on me"

I'm so sorry Taeyeon, I never should have been so playful.

"I'll meet you when my chores are through, I don't know how long I'll be."

But I promise, I'll be a better person.. Please forgive me. This is all my fault.

"But I'm not gonna let you down, darling wait and see."

I'll do everything that I promised you, I swear.

"And between now and then, till I see you again, I'll be loving you."

I'll always love you, don't forget that. Watch over your dad and the rest of us. Trust me, you'll always be in our hearts.

"Love, Me."

I love you.

A/N: So hey! This is the last chapter of Love, Me. I have no experience with everything that happened in this whole chapter, so this chapter may not be as good as the ones before. A for effort? e w eb

Thank you to nurulpn and ColdTowardsYou for subscribing (in time) for the final chapter!

It's been a lot of fun writing this story and replying to all of you guys who commented! Speaking of commenting, I'd like to give a shoutout to shazwanibms, itsrj90 and 138Jin for being so active in the comment section and motivating me! And of course, not to mention thes9ne for helping me out a little with the storyline, and also littlemisshappyify for her review, awesome poster and great comments! Not to forget the rest of the reader/subscriber population, I love you guys.