Six months after he made his choice, his life had gradually returned to a kind of normalcy. Or at least a semblance thereof. Krystal was transferred to a nursing home run by a man named Ji Suk Jin, only a couple of blocks from the hospital. When Myungsoo visited her, he rolled the bed toward the window and let her listen to the nature singing. He imagined that she enjoyed the liveliness the earth is emanating, along with the sunlight.

            After placing her in the nursing home and spending most of another week with her while they both got acclimated to her new environment, he’d gone back to work. He took his sister’s suggestion and began working until early afternoon four days a week. His secretary cancels all his meetings, if any, after that. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed interacting with other people, and when he would attend family dinners, he found he was able to finish nearly all his meal. Of course, working regularly meant he had to juggle his schedule with Krystal. After work, he spent another hour with Krystal and then head back home to finish his company papers. On Fridays, he was there most of the day, and on weekends, he usually made it in for a few hours. Somehow, without the choice of whether Krystal would live or die hovering over him, everything seems perfect and in some ways, the perfection which used to be surreal turned to a reality that he could never have fathomed.