Come Rain or Shine

Over the hill

It's a busy day for Mina on Wednesday. First, she had a class at Hanyang, she taught Sight Singing and Ear Training for the Voice Department, College of Music. Then she went to JYPE for a weekly meeting, and after that she met the new trainees. By 4 pm, she was done with her things, and feels like today she got no break at all since 8 in the morning. After saying goodbye and finishing her training with the new trainees, she checked her phone, hours since the last time she touched her phone.

There are 10 missed calls from an unknown number. Mina doesn't recognize the number.

She then checked her messenger app, Chaeyoung left her a message.

Wednesday, October 23.

The skies were so clear, even though the cold breeze greeted the moment I opened the window, but the sun still rose above my head. Last night was crazy, it feels like 24 hours wasn't enough to end the day. I showed my mother my piano skills and Jisung was there to sing us a song. It was always the two of us back then, Jisung always helped me whenever I wrote new music, I asked him to sing the guide. Now we performed in front of our family.

Family.

It's funny Minari that I get to pronounce that word and understand it now. I said to you yesterday, that I was afraid that Jisung would lose himself upon seeing our mother, plus I didn't tell him in advance, I told him when he arrived here. But Jisung, he was way more mature than me in responding to this matter. Jisung was 4 years old when our mother left, perhaps he didn't recall anything about her. But Jisung took her with a warm welcome. It was nice to see that Jisung got along with his mother that fast.

This morning I woke up with a happy feeling, everything is good. The weather, the ambiance, the smell of the sea, as the season changed the flowers withered overnight, cause I am pretty sure that I was still seeing them bloom yesterday.

Something was missing. The past 3 days, when I woke up at this hour my mother would greet me, sitting there with her wheelchair looking to the garden from her big window. But she's not there. I saw no sign of my uncle and my aunt as well. We were all drunk after sending mom to the bed last night. It was late at night, mom had enough laughter and she then wanted us to continue, I tucked her in and continued to talk with Jisung, my aunt and my uncle.

I checked her room. The one located just near the living room.

"There she is," I thought. She's still laying down on her bed, sleeping peacefully.

I approached closer and tried to wake her up.

I touched her, tried to wake her up. She never wakes up.

Mina's heart dropped after reading the sentence. She's now hurries up to the parking lot, started the engine.

She's smiling, Minari. She sleeps so peacefully, and she's smiling in her sleep. Did I tell you right? That I remember that my mom was so beautiful, but the day I saw her again I almost didn't recognize her because she was in a very bad condition. But I could see her smile in her sleep, she's so beautiful Mina. She became the mom that I remember. The one that held me tight when I cried, the one that put me to sleep with her piano tunes, the one that laughed with me and played with me.

Today, on 23 October morning, Fall at 17 degrees celsius, my mom died happily and peacefully, with Jisung and me beside her.

Please pray for her, Minari.

Mina is crying in her way thinking about Chaeyoung's last sentence. She's been busy with her work, she didn't even check her phone. Mina drove to the funeral home at Gangneung all by herself.