dont... || yuyeon

don't miss me yet

( A/N: last chapter! will it be a happy ending or not..? anyways i'm thinking of writing a second book for this. should i?)

Yuqi gasps, air rushing to her lungs. Well, as much air as could rush to her lungs. She was trapped somewhere, like a toy in a box. The air was suffocating, it smelled.. dirty. She couldn't breathe well because of the smell, and she could barely move her arms or her head in the small space, so she began to scream.

"HELP!! SOMEONE HELP ME!!"

This must be some sort of evil punishment, she thinks, heart pounding in fear. What if I never get out of here? What if I never see Soyeon again? Did that woman send me to hell? She grunted, moving her arms up to hit the top of the box or whatever she was in. "Help!!" She yelled again, in Mandarin this time, because honestly, she had no idea where she was. She didn't even know which way was up and which way was down.

"Help," she cried feebly in English, banging again on the top of the container.

She could barely make out the sound of someone yelling back to her in Korean, so she sticks to that. "Yes! I'm here, help!!!"

Then it was silent. All she could hear was perhaps the sound of someone scraping something? She has no idea what it is, but she hopes it's them trying to get her out. Eventually, tired of waiting and the fact that there was barely any air here getting to her, she passes out.

~

Soyeon fiddles with the ring on her hand. "Yuqi-yah.." She turns over into the dirt so that her back is against the ground and she's facing the sky. "I wanted to do so many things with you." She allows herself to smile. "I.. I met your parents. They're as nice as you said they'd be." She didn't dwell on the fact that she'd met them at Yuqi's funeral.

"How.. how is it up there?" She asks, knowing she won't get a response. But she asks anyway, imagining Yuqi laying right here next to her. She can almost hear her voice. "I bet you're living your best life. I bet you have a million and one dogs like you always wished to own. I bet you can speak every language in the world now, can't you?"

She feels at the dirt like she would feel at Yuqi's skin. She treated it as if it was precious, running her fingers along the soil, not caring whatsoever if bugs crawled through her hair. "You're watching over me, aren't you? I.. I like that. I feel like you're still here."

Soyeon felt a tear slide down her cheek. "I know you don't like to see me cry, but I can't help it, Jagi. I miss you a lot, you know?" She sniffed, wiping the tear away. "I'll get better, I promise. I'm going to heal." A heavy breath falls from her lips. "Yeah. I'm not going to move on from you, but I'm going to stop trying to live in the past. What happened has happened, and I can't change it. No matter.. No matter how much I want to."

Memories of Yuqi cuddling into her at night flood her mind. Waiting up to see if she passed her interview. Buying snacks at the dollar store even though they had enough money for something fancier. Playing games to see who gets drunk first. Going on roadtrips together. Belting out songs at 3am because they both weren't tired. Getting noise complaints from neighbors when Yuqi got Soyeon a blender and she got a little obsessed with it. Those memories washed over her, and she found it hard to continue. "I wonder what you're doing right now.. Are you listening to me ramble on about you? Are you finding out that clouds in fact do taste like cotton candy?" Soyeon's smile got wider. "I hope you know that I was going to propose to you. You knew that already didn't you? You knew that a random person didn't give me this ring.." She took it off of her finger and placed it softly in the dirt. "Minnie helped me buy it for you, and–" her breath hitched, but she forced herself to continue, "and I wanted you to be my wife."

She chuckled. "That.. that can't happen now, can it? I mean.. You're dead." The words came out of her mouth sadly. "Maybe in another life, we can be together. I.. I'll find you. I promise." She turned on her side, cheek pressed against the soil. "I love you," she murmurs, drawing a heart in the ground with her finger.

But then, with her ear pressed against the Earth, she could faintly hear someone screaming. And the only person it could be...

"YUQI?!" she yells back, looking like a crazy person, yelling at the dirt.

"HELP!!"

Frantically, she starts digging as fast as she can with her hands, scooping the loose earth away and desperately trying to get to Yuqi's coffin. Some part of her told herself that she's being delusional and she's just going to find Yuqi's dead body in there. But.. another part of her could've sworn she'd heard Yuqi yell for help. "Jagi, I'm coming," she says, panting as she takes a small break. She'd barely dug a dent in the ground, but at least it was a start.

She pulled out her phone to call Minnie, but then thought about it. Her friend would bring Shuhua and Miyeon and those three would firmly drag her away from Yuqi's grave and insist that she was insane. No, she couldn't do that. She just needed a shovel. But I can't leave her.. She wonders how long someone alive can last trapped like how Yuqi is inside of a coffin, deep into the Earth without any oxygen.

Probably not long.

So, instead of digging she decides to roughly throw the dirt away behind her, sitting on all fours and scooping it. This proved to work quickly, because her hands suddenly hit a hard surface. Now all she needed to do was dig around the edges so that she could open it and get Yuqi out. But, because she was doubtful, she called, "Yuqi! Are you there?"

A bang against the coffin startled Soyeon. "Please! Get me out!"

That made her even more determined. She kept digging, dirt finding its way uncomfortably into her fingernails, and her shirt clinging to her body due to sweat. She felt as though she had swallowed or inhaled a fair amount of dirt at this point too. But she was so close. Soyeon scraped the sides of the coffin, searching hurriedly for the lock. Right, it's locked.. She wanted to bang her head against a wall for forgetting about that.

It doesn't matter, she convinced herself, smashing her hand repeatedly against the lock, and after a few angry smashes, it broke, unlocking the coffin. She pulled it over her head, pushing the top over to the side.

And there, inside the coffin, blinking like she hadn't seen light in years, was her girlfriend. Alive and well, breathing, right in front of her.

"Yuqi!" Soyeon crouched down in the hole that she had dug, holding Yuqi close. This.. Is this real? Is she real?

Mirroring Soyeon's thoughts, Yuqi murmurs, "This is a dream, isn't it?" She pulls back and moves her hands up to cup Soyeon's dirt and tear-stained cheeks. But she couldn't care less about how filthy she was. She was here, right here in the real world, in Soyeon's arms.

"I hope not," Soyeon cries, leaning forward into Yuqi's lap to kiss her. They try to kiss each other gently, but there's too much excitement. Both of them are so happy to be together again, their lips slot together messily, Yuqi's teeth almost painfully hitting against Soyeon's. But neither of them care. Nothing else matters except both of them here, right now. Alive.

Soyeon pulls away to catch her breath, her eyes never leaving Yuqi's. She sniffs, on the verge of happy tears as she slides the ring out of her pocket and holds it in front of her. "Song Yuqi, will you marry me?"

Yuqi thinks that Soyeon looks so beautiful. Her hair is sticking up randomly, her hands dirtier than one time washing them can fix, and a pajama shirt that belongs to Yuqi is barely hanging on to her shoulders due to how small she is.. But her eyes are shining with love, looking at her as if she is the only person in the world, hands tucked sweetly on Yuqi's waist.

"Yes," Yuqi says, nodding enthusiastically, almost hysterically because whatever she'd just experienced had been wild, and she can't wait to tell Soyeon all about it. But for now...

"Yes, Jeon Soyeon, a thousand times yes."