Stay With Me - Yeongyu FF

Chapter 50

Beomgyu POV

Sooner than I thought, a week has already passed, and 'Ma asks me to pack my bags. I take about half an hour to decide on some outfits for our vacation, and pack with my usual beach stuff two newly-bought floaties so I can go swim with 'Ma. On Saturday morning, 8 AM, 'Ma and I are both ready to go. We chat a little bit while in the car, during which 'Ma asks where we're going, where we're staying, and what we're gonna do. I don't tell her anything, because she'll know soon enough and also because I want to keep the most of it a surprise as long as possible. But when I gave her her boat ticket-pass-thing, she knew instantly that we were going to Jeju Island. I smiled, pleased at myself that I managed to keep the secret for so long.

Once we were finally on the island, the car that would bring us to the hotel was the last thing we had to wait for, and in barely 20 mins, 'Ma and I were lying down on our respective temporary beds. I texted Yeonjun to tell him that we'd arrived, he just sent a thumbs up emoji. He might be a little, little bit jealous.

We take some time to cool down from all the travel before really starting to think about what to do. It was 10 AM, so still pretty early in the morning, so we decide to get ready to go to the beach. Because it's literally impossible to wheel a wheelchair in sand, 'Ma thinks I need to be carried from the wooden sidewalk to a place we could set ourselves down, but I find that way too embarrassing, considering that I'm so much taller than her. I suggest blowing up one floatie now and pushing me to a convenient place, plus it would be fun. 'Ma accepts, and we blow up my vehicle together. The floatie was really big, shaped like a full pizza. The box said it was 1m50 in diameter, which is pretty big, so we can put both me and the wheelchair on it while 'Ma pushes. I try to help her by pushing myself with my arms, but she says I'm just putting sand in her shoes and not helping much, so I keep pushing to bother her. Soon enough, she realises what I'm doing, and shakes her foot on my floatie, putting sand everywhere on my wheelchair and on me.

"Hey! I'm gonna sit on that after!" I complain.

"Yeah, and I'm gonna wear these shoes after" she answers, smiling.

"Yeah, but...." I say, trying to find another argument, but I can't, actually I even find arguments against myself, which are that it is easier to clean up a wheelchair cover than it is a shoe, and that I probably put more sand in her shoe than what she managed to take out.

But I choose to annoy her again, this time by lying down on the floatie and doing absolutely nothing, trying to add some weight to the floatie, but 'Ma says I need to get up, or else my only solution to go to the beach will break. Well, one of two of my solutions, the other being a donut floatie of about 1m in diameter with a hole in the center so I look like an infant but I can at least go in the water. We finally manage to find a place to put our stuff down, and we pump up the donut floatie. We also put down some sort of foldable beach chairs and towels before spending more time slapping each other than helping put on sunscreen. We then decide to go swimming, and 'Ma pushes me on my little donut floatie to the sea. As soon as the water is deep enough for me, I slide my legs into the hole in the middle of the floatie, struggling a little to fit my cake in it too.

Sorry, I meant my ass.

My mistake.

Once I finally manage to get the floatie to my waist, I waddle over to 'Ma like a baby in a pool. She laughs at me and pulls me to her.

"The water's nice" I say, noticing just now that having paralysed legs also meant that they can't feel anything. It definitely feels weird. I haven't been upright ever since I lost control of my legs, I've always been sitting or lying down, and although it's true that I don't feel the ground or my wheelchair's pedestal even when my feet are on it, and I don't feel the sheets below my legs in my bed, it feels weird to not feel water. I used to feel like I was weighless, almost flying, when I was completely underwater, but now, I feel like my legs are in the air, with no wind to bother them. Noticing after so long that my legs are numb also reminds me that one day, it all will be, and I will only feel the burning in my lungs as I take my final breath.

I shake these thoughts away. I'm on vacation at the beach with 'Ma, not at the hospital or funeral parlour. I'm here to have fun. To reassure 'Ma, I splash her with some sea water, which starts a water fight between us.

We fight for about an hour, until I feel too weak to push the water to 'Ma. I was trying to hide it for a good ten minutes, but in the end I could barely raise my arms. 'Ma pushes me back to the surface and helps me lie flat on the floatie to push me to our little spot. She carries me to my seat and dries me up. She helps me dress and pushes me on the floatie to the sidewalk to leave. We stretch out the wheelchair and I sit down. We decide to go to a restaurant early for lunch, and have something to drink before eating. We choose a place on the seaside and start looking at the menus, half reading, half commenting the drinks and dishes' names.

The problem of seaside restaurants is that there's quite a bit of seafood, but this one also had some seafood-less choices that seem pretty good. 'Ma not having the problem that I have with seafood, she chooses a plate of seafood pasta and cream, while I choose some sort of roasted pork, that I'm not too highly expectant of, because this is definitely supposed to be a seafood restaurant.

We then realise that it was only 11 AM, and a bit too early to order lunch, and that we had forgotten that we had just decided to drink a bit and cool down. We laugh at each other's forgetfulness and look together at the drinks list. As a 21-year-old, I wanted to take a drink with alcohol, but 'Ma says it's not a good idea in my condition, and I'm underrage anyway. I look down sadly to try to get her to accept, but she doesn't fall for it, so I decide to ask for a fruit smoothie instead. 'Ma smiles, seemingly delighted that I went along with it. I try to seem angry at 'Ma so that she'd let me at least have one glass of beer while eating, but she still shakes her head. We start talking about what we could do during our vacation. 'Ma suggests that we take some time after lunch to rest in the hotel room before going to the pool around 3 PM. I agree, saying that we could go back to the room when night sets to look for somewhere to eat dinner.

We eat up our lunch and decide to walk the long way round back to our room. We look around as we walk up a rock path. We pass by a wall with the words "Live life today - Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come" (pretty depressing but oh well) beside the lobby hut. We walk up past bungalows and a little pond with a swing. 'Ma carries me up to the swing and pushes me. The swing goes over the pond then back over the ground. We play around, laughing for about 30 minutes before we keep going. We passed by other bungalows, getting bigger as we walk up the little hill to ours. Once we arrive, I ask 'Ma to lie me down in my bed, tired of the beach swim this morning, and quite easily fell asleep.

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Hello hello

Are you happy that it's been only two weeks since I've updated?

The next chapter is already done, but I'll keep it for later, it's pretty important, even though it's short.

I won't tell you more hehe

Bye 👋👋