100 days
Title: 100 days
Pairing: 2min
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG-13
Summary: 100days for Minho to realize that love works better than morphine to soothe his pain.
“Is he waking up?”
I doubt so.
“I swear his eyelids just twitched.”
I doubt so.
“It must be the anesthetic.”
“I hope it wears off soon.”
That was the last thing I would ever want. I would be ripped away from the darkness that made me so secure into reality-something that I wish I could avoid forever.
“Minho yah…please wake up. I’m Onew.”
“I’m Jong Hyun Hyung, Minho.”
How I wish I could tell them how something as easy as this could be so difficult to accomplish. But all it took was just one touch. The moment he brushed his finger across my arm, it seemed like a key or a fault line that would lead me to all the suffering. I could feel the piercing pain on my rip cage whenever oxygen filled me lungs.
Morphine would not make me feel better.
I opened my eyes and screamed in pain.
… … …
“Are you alright, Minho?” Onew sat beside my bed and patted me gently by my shoulder.
“I feel terrible.” I tilted my head to look at the both of them and forced a smile between my lips, “and I look terrible, don’t I?”
“Don’t be an ass, Minho. You know you look better than any of us.” Jong Hyun replied curtly and folded his arms, “You idiot. You are NOT supposed to drink and drive in the first place. Has your intelligence gone down to zero?”
“Aish.” I frowned at Jong Hyun’s unfeeling statement and started to press the button with my right index finger for more morphine.
“Minho… “ Jong Hyun stood up and wiped my cold sweat away with a white towel, “Does it hurt a lot?”
“The morphine doesn’t really help. I feel f**king terrible now.”
“I will get a doctor.” Onew ran out of the hospital ward as I fidgeted on the bed in pain. Why did I survive, why do I have to go through such pain and torment? Was it meant to be a form of punishment? I grabbed hold to the rim of the blanket and bit my lips to stop myself from screaming.
It seemed like a vicious cycle every day, where I had to clench my teeth and get through the next 24 hours in discomfort. Jong Hyun and Onew stopped visiting me as often as they did in the first month when I was hospitalized, probably because the term break was over and they had to return to school. I did not blame them at all, but I could not help but feel disappointed. Neither did I tell them that their presence worked better than morphine at times.
58th day
The picturesque view at the hospital’s park was the only thing that made me happier this summer. I would sit on one of the benches facing the pond and start to think about things. I had no idea what I was thinking about actually; no definite topic or question worth remembering. But it made me feel better after being a useless bum for the past 21 years of my life.
“Hey.” I looked up and spotted a pale-looking boy smiling at me.
“Hey.” I greeted back. He ruffled his brown hair between his fingers and smiled.
“What are you doing?”
“Thinking.”
“Thinking of someone?” He curled his lips and started wiggling his legs in the air like a toddler. I shook my head and replied,
“No one in particular.” I took another glance of the boy and slivered my lips shyly. If I ever had a choice, I would never wish to meet someone like him in a place like this-Maybe a coffee shop, or near the Hans River in the evening. Anywhere else would be better than a hospital.
“What happened to you?”
“I met in an accident and broke my ribcage. My lungs were severely damaged.” His smile disappeared gradually while he shifted to look at my abdomen. Since the moment I had woken up after the surgery, almost everyone tried to comfort me and tell me “I know how you feel.” But no, I know they don’t. None of them would understand how much I had suffered every night; none of them would understand how it feels like when you scream in pain till your voice became coarse.
But I think he understood.
“Choi Minho! Mr. Choi!” It was terribly infuriating when someone tries to interrupt my conversation. Knitting my brows together, I smiled at the stranger and said, “Tomorrow at this bench?”
The stranger nodded his head and slivered his thin lips gently. As I stood up and walked away from the bench towards the lady in pink, he parted his lips and whispered my name gently under his breath,
“Bye, Minho.”
I never knew his name.
… … …
75th day
He never showed up the next day though; neither did he on the day after the next. I continued sitting on the same bench with my knees drawn up to my chest and I began wondering about things-this time, with a particular person in mind. Maybe it was because I was bored I thought, or maybe because taking a glimpse of him made me feel better.
His smile seemed to work better than the large amount of morphine I took every day. Throwing a pebble towards the surface of the water, I shifted my gaze to look at my distorted reflection. It was then when I finally saw him. The stranger.
“Minho.” He tapped my shoulders and reached his hand for the sleeve of my pajamas.
“Hey.”
“Feeling better?”
“Yes.” Thanks to you, I wanted to say, “What about you?”
“Still the same.” He pulled me towards the bench and sat down by my side.
“I never knew your name.” Curling up the sides of his lips, the boy lifted up my right hand and placed the tips of his index finger gently on my palm.
Lee Taemin
“It’s a secret, Minho.”
“Secret?” Taemin nodded his head and pressed his finger on his lips.
“There are some things worth keeping as a secret.” He smiled and interlocked his fingers with mine. I had never fallen in love with someone so badly before-Where his voice would make my heart stir, and by looking at him could make my stomach flutter as if there were hundreds of butterfly wings battering in it.
“I’ll be discharged at the end of the month. What about you, Taemin?” He looked at me in confusion for a moment and blinked his eyes for a couple of times.
“Soon, I guess.”
“Well… I was wondering, Taemin…if we can, you know…meet after we are discharged.”
“Meet?” I let out a cough and began to stammer.
“Yea… meet…date…”
“Date?”
“Yes-we can have dinner together, then take a stroll at the Hans River or something.” Taemin began to snigger, his hands covering his mouth briefly.
“Sure, Minho.” He looked at me in the eye and continued, “I would love to.”
96th day
I spent the rest of my days at the hospital in the park with Taemin- and we eventually claimed that particular bench as ours. Taemin was the listener and I was the talker; he would listen to me enthusiastically even if I talked to him about the most meaningless things-my dreams, my future, my past, my family.
‘Mine’, ‘My’, ‘I’, was all that I talked about.
Taemin never talked about himself; or maybe just a little. I learnt that he had an older brother. I learnt about how much he loved ice cream, and how incessant his love for dancing was. He told me how much he regretted about the things he had done, but he never told me what went wrong.
But there was something that he said that I would never forget-I remember how he leaned towards me and placed his lips just an inch away from my right ear. And he caught me off guard when he whispered, “I think I like you much more than expected. I think I love you.”
That was the day where our lips met, and where I finally found the courage to wrap my arms around him and caress his brown hair between my fingers.
I think I love him much more than I’ve expected.
100th day
Sitting at the edge of the hospital bed, I slipped my feet into the new pair of sneakers that Onew and Jong Hyun bought for me. The older boy looked at me guiltily and reached out for my cellphone from his bag.
“Minho ah.”
“Yes, Onew?” I took cell phone from him and stuffed it back into my pocket. There was something else far more important than checking my missed calls and unread messages.
“Are you angry? We have not visited you in a fortnight.” I shook my head and grinned at him.
“No! Not at all.” Their absence during the period that I was hospitalized just meant that I could spend more time with Taemin behind their backs. Of course, they did not know anything about our relationship and my love life was much more active than what they had expected.
“You look happier than I’ve expected, Minho.” Jong Hyun sniggered and folded his arms.
“I just got used to your absence, my Hyungs.” I tapped my feet on the ground and ruffled my hair between my fingers, “I’ll be right back.”
Before they could even stop me, I ran out of the hospital ward towards the park.
I guess it would be a pretty long time before I could meet him again. It was only last night when I realized that there were loads of things that I didn’t tell Taemin- I didn’t have the chance to admit that I used to live without a dream until I met him.
Neither have I told Taemin that I loved him so, so much.
But as I approached the empty bench at the park, I began to wonder if it was all my wishful thinking. Maybe Taemin was just afraid-Was it because he couldn’t bear to see me off? Or was it because Taemin wasn’t ready to commit just like how I’m willing to?
I waited.
And waited
And waited
But he never showed up. I left without an answer.
… …. ….
105th day
The nurse stared at me in confusion as I repeated his name.
“Taemin. Lee Taemin.” I tapped my fingers on the counter impatiently as she checked her system for his name again, “Sir…I’m telling you there’s no patient by the name of ‘Lee Taemin’.”
“You must have made a mistake, I’m sure.”
“But… There’s a name of….” She frowned at me and bit her lips.
“Of what?”
“There’s a person by that name on the day you were admitted into the hospital, Mr. Choi. But don’t you know about this?”
“About what?”
“Lee Taemin’s family signed for a lung transplant to save you. Mr. Lee was suffering from heart failure when he was admitted into the hospital; there wasn’t a chance he could survive through the night.”
“Lee…Lee Taemin’s dead?”
“He was killed in the same car accident that you were involved in.”
My mind went blank; my lips began to tremble as I tried to hold back my tears. Without saying a single word, I walked away from the counter towards the opposite direction. But I had no idea where I was going-I just continued walking….or maybe I was running… or…..
Or…..
But my feet brought me to a place I had been yearning to go to. Even that gentle breeze carried his scent and every fond memory that I did not wish to remember at this moment. Sitting at one end of the bench with my knees drawn up to my chest, I tilted my head to the side and ran my fingers down the wooden edges.
I thought I would freak out-who wouldn’t when you fell in love with ‘something’ that once existed? But instead, I felt frustrated and betrayed. Why didn’t Taemin tell me anything?
“Choi Minho.” He was there, less than a meter away from me, “You freaked out, didn’t you?”
“What the f**k are you, Lee Taemin?!”
He took a few steps towards me.
“A memory.”
“No. You are not a memory. You are trying to haunt me.” When Taemin took another step forward, I took another two steps backwards.
“I’m sorry, Minho.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Would you look at me again if I have told you so?” Taemin seemed to have seen me through and noticed that he had rendered me speechless when our gazes met.
“Why did you come back for me?”
“I just wanted to make sure that I didn’t make the wrong decision, Minho. You may not remember me, but I can remember you when you collapsed in the middle of the road right in front of me.” Taemin slivered his lips weakly and continued, “Does love work better than morphine?”
“Maybe….but it hurts even more right now.”
“I’m sorry, Minho.” I no longer backed away when Taemin approached me. Wrapping his arms around me gently, I blinked my eyes nervously for a couple a times before doing the same.
“Taemin….let’s not meet like this ever again, shall we?”
“Promise.” Taemin buried himself into my arms and tightened his grip around me.
“You made up the best 100days of my life.”
“Then….remember it, Minho. Remember that I love you.”
“I love you Taemin. I love you….I love you….”
The gentle breeze brought Taemin away the moment the opened my eyes.
A/N: Does it make sense?