UNDERWATER

009

There was a rushing in your head. The darkness was supposed to be silent. It was supposed to be safe.

You heard waves.

Over the waves, you heard...beeps.

The sound of medical machinery.

You could see light through your eyelids, but you didn't want to open them.

Everything hurt.

You felt like you'd been torn apart limb by limb and then those limbs torn apart at the joints. You felt like when the massacre was done, you'd been raggedly pieced together until you resembled a creature of hurting.

You heard voices.

"Only her family can see her."

"Her family by blood isn't here! We are her family!" Sungmin yelled. The other voice, the doctor, seemed to be trying to keep a level head, "It's not allowed."

"Then who will see her?? Her dad is dead in some car accident, her sister's in college and her mom is alone at home with her own deal of health problems." Sungmin hissed. The doctor didn't seem to know what to say, "I- we can make a compromise."

"Please." Sungmin sounded tired.

"You and your group-"

"And enhypen."

"And enhypen can see her. One at a time, one a day. Not yet. Wait until she regains consciousness."

You heard that. You heard it all. I'm here! I'm conscious! You ached to say, but you still couldn't forced your eyes open.

It was an entire two more days before you were able to open them. You were surprisingly better than you'd thought. Only one of your legs was broken, your neck was sprained and the rest of your injuries were cuts and bruises. Most of all, you suffered from shock.

You were physically fine because of Siri's body blocking your fall, but mentally you could never erase what had happened.

Once you were awake and talking and your neck brace was gone, one by one they came to see you. One every day just like the doctor said.

Sunoo talked about the stars and held your hand. You were content just listening.

"When I looked into the sky last night I thought I saw some stars. For a split second I thought maybe they were only planes. One of them was. It went off across the sky, blinking, but the other two were real stars. They were so beautiful. Two lonely lights up in the sky. I think maybe those stars were friends. Don't you think?"

"Yeah." You murmured softly. Sunoo brushed his thumb across your knuckles and smiled. His eyes were sad.

"Looking at those stars sparkling all the way up there if not for the world to see, but for each other, I thought that maybe this world isn't so bad after all. You'll recover from this. We can look at the stars together. I want to see them shine in your eyes."

Jungwon sat and drew with you. He brought paper and colored pencils. You drew cats and each other until the sky grew dark.

"Hey, that doesn't look like me!" Jungwon eyed your paper but didn't let you see his. You scoffed, "Show me yours then."

"I'm not done." He turned back to his own drawing and continued on with his mechanical pencil.

You drew in silence mostly, but the air exploded with giggles when you saw each other's drawings. "What am I wearing?" You giggled, "Why not a hospital gown?"