Crestfallen • Jeonghan [2]

24

"You're not okay, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?"

Joshua walks out of the room to see Lia on one of the hospital seats out in the hallway, head hanging low as she holds her face in her hands. He couldn't exactly see her expression since she was covering it, but he tried his best not to take a guess.

"You were never okay in the first place," Lia says, her voice shaking, turning away from Jisoo as she tucks her hair behind her ear, "you knew it was there. Yet you never said anything."

Jisoo smiles, "What are you talking about-"

"It was still there, Jisoo! Why didn't you say anything earlier!" Lia got up from her seat and turned to face Jisoo in the eyes, and Jisoo couldn't tell how much time she'd spent crying, crying for him. Probably the entire check-up, "Those cancer cells were still there, Jisoo – you knew and you never said anything and now I don't know if you'll leave me or if you'll stay or I-"

"I'm okay, Lia, I promise." Jisoo takes her hand in his, slightly shocked at how cold her hand was.

"You can't promise that, Joshua, you said the exact same thing back then ; back when we were young," Lia mentions the past, the exact sentence the boy had said brought back memories "it was the exact same sentence, yet you almost lost your life."

Jisoo gently pulls her closer to him, now taking both her hands into his and entangling his fingers with hers. Honestly speaking, Jisoo's heart hurts so much seeing her like this, but he tries his best to smile, swallowing the pain away.

"It doesn't matter, time doesn't matter," Jisoo says, wiping her tears away "what matters now is that you put all of your trust into me and believe me, I'll always be there for you. I'll never leave you, Lia, trust me."

Lia looked like she wasn't convinced. Surely, she was traumatized from the previous events that had occurred towards Jisoo. She was so scared of losing him again, so scared to see him at the brink of death, so scared to hear him say goodbye. Lia's chest ached the more she looked at Jisoo, pulling him into a hug.

"You'll promise me, right?" She asks, burying herself into the crook of his neck as his hands traces soothing circles on her back "that you'll keep trying. That you'll never give up, that you'll keep believing that you can fight this. That you'll never lose hope. That you'll be strong and win this battle."

"I will, Lia, I will."

All Jisoo wanted was to be there for her.

Now, can't he do that too?