Meet Me Here

Chapter 17: A Prayer Heard

Song for the chapter, which is the inspiration behind Hyun Bin's prayer. A reader generously shared this song with me way back but I only got to weave the lyrics into this chapter now. Thank you mochibao for sharing this beautiful yet heart-wrenching masterpiece!

This chapter was surprisingly heart-breaking for me to write. So hugs to everyone in advance. You'll need it...

☼ ☼ ☼

Flashback to the past months

Morning came as a quiet burst of light rays, flitting through the window to provide some imitation of warmth to the cold, hard exterior of the blinding white hospital room. In such a room where a lone soul sat on the bed, a cocoon of love was very much needed to comfort the weary soul.

But alas, one couldn't get what they wanted in life, could they?

In that hospital room, the young man curled up in the center of his bed, could now understand why people gave flowers whenever they visited. Because against the pristine white walls of antiseptic cement, those pop of colours was immensely gratifying to a patient's eyes.

Already, his mind drifted back to his home. Away from the edges and white of the room he was in, he could still see the wood of his childhood home. The wooden stairs with its sixth step creaking because of age, the wooden table where the family sat for their warm hearty meals, and his wooden desk filled with light scratches of his pen.

Home, where he could pull apart the curtains to welcome the trees in his backyard. Where everywhere he turned, there was always soft, classical music playing because that was his father's favourite genre.

Home, where she lives. Those light scratches on his wooden desk were in fact, made by his studious girlfriend's pen. Whenever he would pull apart the curtains, that was where she was, in the backyard, waving up at him with her school bag swinging carefreely next to her. And in every corner of the street they lived in, was memories of Ye Jin.

Even now, he could taste the sweetness of the air when he was with her and feel the warmth of her hand in his.

It was pure torture when he had to open his eyes to embrace the stiff coldness of the heavily sterilised cotton sheets instead of her. This wasn't a bed. It was far from it. A bed was where he could stretch right next to his girlfriend, where it was soft, where their scents lingered during all their sleepovers.

Nothing about the room was comforting to Hyun Bin. If anything, he was desperate to get well soon so that he could return home.      

Instead of torturing himself by missing her, Hyun Bin sat up to write a letter, an intimate change from their usual exchange of emails that he hoped would reach her safely one day.

The gentle scratching of pen and paper filled the quiet air as Hyun Bin scribbled away, pouring his heart and soul into his letter to Ye Jin.

Occasionally, he would reach up to wipe the tears from his eyes, although some inevitably landed on the paper, becoming a smudge of blue ink. Still weakened after another round of nausea, Hyun Bin's hands were shaking even as he was writing, but he was determined to finish this letter to the love of his life.

So, he kept writing. Not once did he stop to take any breaks, nor did he stop when he became a distraught mess. As he was writing, his conversation with God every night circled the back of his mind, a desperate boy's plea, accusation and hope for her future.