"When you get a new heart, will I still be in there?" She says, barely a whisper. "Will I still be in that heart?"
"You're not just in my heart," Jeongguk replies truthfully. "You're in the blood flowing through my veins, you're in my mind, you're u...
"I thought, briefly, that I would never feel as intensely connected to the world, to another human being, as I did at that moment."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
He suddenly remembers it all;
How each of his relatives left one by one. His grandparents grew old and senile, so slowly that Jeongguk feels every tick on the clock like a stab to his chest. They left him when he was 12.
His little cousin, brain tumor, left him when they were still both very young. His heart never trusted him to get closer with anyone else. She was like his best friend, his partner in tiny neighbourhood crimes. And she was gone just like that, in a blink of an eye.
The last place he saw his other relatives was at the hospital. On their deathbeds. All leaving with one thing in common; they always had smiles on their faces.
Which is why Jeongguk cannot fathom anything when he sees the elderly woman's curled lips as the nurses wheel her out of the room. She's unmoving, her eyes closed, face frozen and pale. His eyes don't leave the woman's figure until the nurses disappear into another room with her body. Only then can Jeongguk find himself able to breathe again.
And that is also when he realises that Yerim is beside him, her eyes wavering and her knuckles clenching and unclenching as she tries to stop her fingers from shaking.
"She was fine just a few days ago," she says softly. Jeongguk notices a tiny crack in her voice. "She looked so strong, I swear--"
Jeongguk doesn't know why he did it, but he's marching past Yerim and towards the emergency exit. She realises what he's doing and rushes after him, calling his name. He doesn't stop. He doesn't want to. All he wants is to get out of this suffocating place that's threatening to tie him down to his deathbed. He doesn't want to wait to rot here. He just...
He just wants to be normal.
Jeongguk stops in front of the staircase leading to the hospital rooftop. It's just two floors up, he can do this. He can be normal if he wants to. Taking a deep breath, he begins to climb.
I can do this. I can use these stairs like a normal person. I can walk. I can run. I'm not going to die. It's just two floors.
"--Jeon Jeongguk!" A hand grabs a hold of his wrist and pulls him back, but he stills himself on his ground.
Yerim looks up at him in disbelief. "Have you gone crazy? It's too risky for you to use the stairs!"
He lets out a bitter laugh and pries her fingers off of him. Yerim's eyes widen and she opens her mouth to say something else to stop him but Jeongguk just turn around again and takes another step up. And another. He's going at a faster speed and his heart is picking up it's pace.
Thud, thud, thud.
Yerim reaches for his arm this time, and he's quick to grab her hand and fling it away. She stumbles back at the sudden blow of heavy force and catches the railings just in time before she loses her footing.
