Everything Starts Where It Ends (Chapter 16)
I tried calling him a few times that night. But he didn't pick up my call. He didn't come to school the next day, or the next next day. Or the week after. School was hell seriously, especially when my table keep disappearing, and my bag somehow always end up in the rubbish bin after training. It's painful to hold on, but I knew that it'd be worse if I let go, so i barely survive each day praying that the next would be better. And there would be Siwon.
~~
Exactly sixteen days later, Siwon was waiting for me outside my house right before school.
"Where were you?"
"Out of town,"
"Why?"
"My , er uncle died,"
"Really?"
"Really."
"Then what's this," I held up his hand where there were several puncture marks a few centimetres above his wrist.
"Er, the dog bit me,"
I frowned. As much as I wanted to believe Siwon, I just couldn't . But I let it slip anyway, since it had nothing to do with me.
"You could have told me that you'd be away... I wouldn't have bothered coming to school," I whined.
"That's the point of not calling," he smiled and continued to walk ahead without me.I was almost breathless by the time I caught up with Siwon.
"Wa..wait for me you stupid cow," I said breathlessly and reached out my hand to pinch his arms really hard just because I felt like it.
He let out a yelp. I rolled my eyes.
"Don't do that~That will take a long time to disappear,"
I looked at him questioningly,
"er, it's only a small red mark Siwon, it'd be gone in three minutes, stop being a whimp,"
He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it back again. Before long, we already reached school.
~~
During science class, I was happy to see Siwon waiting for me at the lab. Maybe I'd keep awake during science for once and actually pass the subject.
I took a seat beside him. He turned to me and smiled, offering me some sweets but I declined. Didn't he know we can't eat in the lab? So much for being a harcore science freak. We sat in silence for a while until something caught my attention from the corner of my eye.
I pulled Siwon's arm, and lifted his sleeve up a bit. To my horror, the mark that was caused by my pinch were not only still there, it had swelled at least three times the original size. I was going to ask Siwon what happened, but just then, the stupid teacher walked in, and I had no choice but to pay attention in class.
When class ended, I didn't even have a chance to speak to him, because he quickly left right after the bell rang.
I sulked, something seriously was not right.
I quickly stood up and headed for his class. When I reached there, I realised that he wasn't there. I was getting annoyed with the cat-and-mouse game that we were playing. Obviously, something was not right with Siwon, and I was going to find out what. I wasn't going to find out the hard way, like I did with Donghae.
Donghae...
As I made my way to the office, I didn't realise I walked past the soccer clique until my face met the floor. I looked back, to see Sungmin sticking out his leg, where I had just walked a couple of minutes ago.
"Oops. Sorry about that. I happen to not be able to see losers when they walk past me," he said smugly.
I sighed. Just then, I felt a strong, familiar pair of arms lift me up. I brushed myself, and smiled knowing who it was that had helped me.
"Where were you Si.." I abruptly stopped when I realised who was behind me.To my horror, Donghae was standing there, still holding me. I quickly pulled myself away from him and walked away without even saying thank you.
I didn't miss the hurt look on his face. But why should I care? I don't even know who were and who weren't my friends anymore. Maybe, if I had made an effort to find out what they were like, before we became friends, I wouldn't get myself into a lot of trouble. I needed to know who my real friends were. I mean, friend. Siwon was beginning to act strange, like how Donghae had acted strange. I need to know why. I needed to know if he was another Donghae. I just needed to know something, anything.
~~
So I guess that's why I lied to the office staff, to get Siwon's adress. I know it was wrong, and I was invading his privacy, but what else could I do? I mean there's always an exception for everything right?
I stood in front of his door, afraid to press the doorbell. Like Donghae, Siwon's house was exceptionally big so I guess he must be pretty wealthy too. Was I the only average person in the school, I mentally asked myself.
Just as I was about to finally ring the doorbell, the door opened. A lady walked out of it and almost bumped into me.
"Sorry, are you looking for anyone?" she apologised and asked me politely. She was pleasant-looking, with the same eyes and same nose that Siwon had. Only, she was older. Much, much older. My first guess was that she was Siwon's mother.
"er..is this where Choi Siwon live?"
"Yes, and who are you?"
"I'm his friend. Lee hyukjae. Is he home?"
She sighed before replying me,
"Yes he is, but well he.. would you like to come in first?"
I nodded, and followed her into the house, wondering why she didn't want to answer my question.
~~
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" I practically screamed at the woman, who had introduced herself as Siwon's mother.
She shook her head, and just looked away, tears forming in her eyes.
~~
"Well can I see him?"
"I'm afraid not, he needs to rest,"
"Oh okay, but can you please do me a favour? Can you tell him to call me back once he feels better?"
"I guess so.."
~~
I walked through the empty street alone thinking. Thinking about everything. Thinking about Donghae. Thinking about Siwon. Thinking about Sungmin. Thinking about how unfair life is. Thinking about what would happen to Siwon.
When my grandmother died, I cried a lot. My mom tried to comfort me by saying that God would always take the good people first, so that they can go to heaven faster. But why? Why does god do that? I thought Siwon said that God loves me a lot, then why not me?
~~
The next day was a weekend. So I lay on my bed, still trying to find answers to my question. I couldn't understand why or how this could happen to someone so pure. My phone vibrated. I took a look at it and realise that I had a new text message.
From : Siwon !
Hey Hyukjae, I heard you stopped by yesterday. Sorry I couldn't get back to you immediately. Are you free to meet me today ? If you are, I want to bring you somewhere.I'll wait for you at the bus stop near your house in one hour time, okay?
I quickly stood up and got dressed.
~~
I arrived ten minutes late, but Siwon was still here, waiting for me. His face had significantly turned paler than it already was. It was heartbreaking to see someone like him, going through something like that.
"Hello Hyukjae! Er, you wore your shirt inside out..." he tried to contain his laughter. I looked down. He was right. I quickly lifted up my hands to cover myself.
"AHH shit oh shit. Cover me please!" I took his hands and pulled him to some bush, instructing him to stay still and cover me up while I adjusted my shirt behind it.
When I finished, he was still laughing at me. I was about to give him a hard playful slap for laughing at me, when I froze and pulled my hand away.
Immediately, his face fell.
"You found out, huh?"
I nodded weakly. He sighed.
Fortunately, the bus came. However, the whole bus ride was filled with silence, and I didn't dare break it. I just didn't know what to say.
~~
When we reached the place, I was puzzled. Why would he bring me to a hospital?
"I spent most of my late childhood here," he answered simply, as if reading my mind. I nodded and followed him into the building. He brought me up to the 8th level. I looked up at the sign.
Children's ward , it read.
We walked through the corridor, and Siwon greeted most of the people that walked pass him. I figured he must know all of them so I politely nodded at each of them.
We stopped in front a ward.Ward 857 to be exact. Slowly, he opened the door, revealing a room with six occupied beds. As soon as the children saw him, they started running to him and hugged him.
"SIWON HYUNG!"
"SIWON OPPA!"
"SIWON APPA!"
I awkwardly stood there, as he began taking out sweets from his bag and gave them to the little children. I counted , there were altogether five of them. Where was the last one?
"Where's Kibum?" Siwon bend down to ask one little girl
"I don't know, they covered his face with the blanket yesterday and they took him away. It was really weird. His parents were crying really really hard. I want to know where he went too, so I wouldn't go there and make my mummy cry too," she answered innocently.
Siwon sighed, and stood up straight. I watched him pray silently.
As if finally realising my presence, he turned to me, and then back to the kids and said,
"This is my friend Hyukjae. Say hi to him, will you?"
They waved enthusiatically at me, and I waved back, smiling until the same girl from just now shouted,
"YOU MEAN YOUR BOYFRIEND~"
I blushed and looked away, but Siwon just laughed and gave the little girl a pat on the head.
We spent about two hours there talking to and entertaining the kids. Well Siwon was entertaining them, while I just sat there and stared at them. They looked so happy around Siwon, despite having tubes stuck everywhere on their body. From their nose to their arms. I really felt my heart break looking at the sight of this innocent looking kids being under such circumstance.
After two hours, we decided to take a short break. We left the room, promising the kids that we'd be back after lunch.
~~
As soon as we left the room, I asked Siwon,
"were you like that too?"
"Not really, I.. Wait what happened?!" he suddenly abruptly stopped answering my question but turned to the nurse running pass us instead.
"Ward 857 bed 4!" she ignored Siwon and shouted across to the other nurse who was busy preparing some sort of medication.
I turned to my left and I noticed that Siwon had already left my side. I ran back to the ward where we came from and found him standing near a kid who looked like she was having some sort of seizure while the nurses tried to hold her still so they could give her medication.
She was the little girl from just now! Her mouth was foaming, and I couldn't even see her pupil as it was pushed all the way to the back of her eye. She vomitted out weird greenish liquid from her mouth, and soon, she finally stayed still. One of the nurse turned to Siwon and nodded to him, and he let out a sigh of relief.
"Are you okay?You look.. sick" Siwon looked at me worriedly. I guess I had a low level of tolerance for this sort of things because the next moment, I found myself vomitting into the toilet bowl, with Siwon worriedly trying to calm me down.
Finally, when I managed to calm myself down, Siwon brought me to the hospital canteen.
~~
"Do you know why I didn't want you to find out?"
I nodded.
"Well I guess you could say that that girl's case was pretty extreme. I don't remember going through that except for one time. Maybe it's because she has seizures, which I thankfully don't have," he continued
"Will you die?"
He laughed,
"Eventually, everyone will die Hyukjae. It's just a matter of time,"
"I can give you my bone marrow,"
"It's not that simple Hyukjae,"
"I can give you my blood,"
"There's something called the blood bank,"
"THEN WHAT SIWON? YOU THINK I WILL LET YOU DIE JUST LIKE THAT? YOU THINK I WILL JUST SIT HERE AND WATCH YOU SUFFER WITH LEUKEMIA? NO SIWON, I WON'T. I'LL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO MAKE SURE YOU LIVE,"
Siwon sighed and looked down,
"It's not that simple Hyukjae, even my parents' bone marrow are not a match,"
"I DON'T CARE I'M GOING TO GET MYSELF TESTED NOW!"
"NO DON'T HYUKJAE!"
I ignored his protest and went straight to the information counter to find out where I could get my testing done. Seeing that he couldn't stop me, he reluctantly followed me.
~~
"We'll call you to tell you the results by the next two days,"
"Thank you.." I said and I stood up to leave. Just then, I stopped and looked to the doctor,
"If, just IF, siwon doesn't get a donor, how much longer does he have?"
"Three months"
~~
I anxiously waited for that one phonecall, every minute.
Ring ring...
"Hello?"
"Hello Mr Lee Hyukjae? I'm calling to tell you that we're sorry but your bone marrow does not match Mr Choi Siwon's.. We really are sorry..."
---
AHHH OKAY I THINK THIS STORY WILL FINISH SOON.
in 2-3 chapters(:
YAYYYYYY
~~
Exactly sixteen days later, Siwon was waiting for me outside my house right before school.
"Where were you?"
"Out of town,"
"Why?"
"My , er uncle died,"
"Really?"
"Really."
"Then what's this," I held up his hand where there were several puncture marks a few centimetres above his wrist.
"Er, the dog bit me,"
I frowned. As much as I wanted to believe Siwon, I just couldn't . But I let it slip anyway, since it had nothing to do with me.
"You could have told me that you'd be away... I wouldn't have bothered coming to school," I whined.
"That's the point of not calling," he smiled and continued to walk ahead without me.I was almost breathless by the time I caught up with Siwon.
"Wa..wait for me you stupid cow," I said breathlessly and reached out my hand to pinch his arms really hard just because I felt like it.
He let out a yelp. I rolled my eyes.
"Don't do that~That will take a long time to disappear,"
I looked at him questioningly,
"er, it's only a small red mark Siwon, it'd be gone in three minutes, stop being a whimp,"
He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it back again. Before long, we already reached school.
~~
During science class, I was happy to see Siwon waiting for me at the lab. Maybe I'd keep awake during science for once and actually pass the subject.
I took a seat beside him. He turned to me and smiled, offering me some sweets but I declined. Didn't he know we can't eat in the lab? So much for being a harcore science freak. We sat in silence for a while until something caught my attention from the corner of my eye.
I pulled Siwon's arm, and lifted his sleeve up a bit. To my horror, the mark that was caused by my pinch were not only still there, it had swelled at least three times the original size. I was going to ask Siwon what happened, but just then, the stupid teacher walked in, and I had no choice but to pay attention in class.
When class ended, I didn't even have a chance to speak to him, because he quickly left right after the bell rang.
I sulked, something seriously was not right.
I quickly stood up and headed for his class. When I reached there, I realised that he wasn't there. I was getting annoyed with the cat-and-mouse game that we were playing. Obviously, something was not right with Siwon, and I was going to find out what. I wasn't going to find out the hard way, like I did with Donghae.
Donghae...
As I made my way to the office, I didn't realise I walked past the soccer clique until my face met the floor. I looked back, to see Sungmin sticking out his leg, where I had just walked a couple of minutes ago.
"Oops. Sorry about that. I happen to not be able to see losers when they walk past me," he said smugly.
I sighed. Just then, I felt a strong, familiar pair of arms lift me up. I brushed myself, and smiled knowing who it was that had helped me.
"Where were you Si.." I abruptly stopped when I realised who was behind me.To my horror, Donghae was standing there, still holding me. I quickly pulled myself away from him and walked away without even saying thank you.
I didn't miss the hurt look on his face. But why should I care? I don't even know who were and who weren't my friends anymore. Maybe, if I had made an effort to find out what they were like, before we became friends, I wouldn't get myself into a lot of trouble. I needed to know who my real friends were. I mean, friend. Siwon was beginning to act strange, like how Donghae had acted strange. I need to know why. I needed to know if he was another Donghae. I just needed to know something, anything.
~~
So I guess that's why I lied to the office staff, to get Siwon's adress. I know it was wrong, and I was invading his privacy, but what else could I do? I mean there's always an exception for everything right?
I stood in front of his door, afraid to press the doorbell. Like Donghae, Siwon's house was exceptionally big so I guess he must be pretty wealthy too. Was I the only average person in the school, I mentally asked myself.
Just as I was about to finally ring the doorbell, the door opened. A lady walked out of it and almost bumped into me.
"Sorry, are you looking for anyone?" she apologised and asked me politely. She was pleasant-looking, with the same eyes and same nose that Siwon had. Only, she was older. Much, much older. My first guess was that she was Siwon's mother.
"er..is this where Choi Siwon live?"
"Yes, and who are you?"
"I'm his friend. Lee hyukjae. Is he home?"
She sighed before replying me,
"Yes he is, but well he.. would you like to come in first?"
I nodded, and followed her into the house, wondering why she didn't want to answer my question.
~~
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" I practically screamed at the woman, who had introduced herself as Siwon's mother.
She shook her head, and just looked away, tears forming in her eyes.
~~
"Well can I see him?"
"I'm afraid not, he needs to rest,"
"Oh okay, but can you please do me a favour? Can you tell him to call me back once he feels better?"
"I guess so.."
~~
I walked through the empty street alone thinking. Thinking about everything. Thinking about Donghae. Thinking about Siwon. Thinking about Sungmin. Thinking about how unfair life is. Thinking about what would happen to Siwon.
When my grandmother died, I cried a lot. My mom tried to comfort me by saying that God would always take the good people first, so that they can go to heaven faster. But why? Why does god do that? I thought Siwon said that God loves me a lot, then why not me?
~~
The next day was a weekend. So I lay on my bed, still trying to find answers to my question. I couldn't understand why or how this could happen to someone so pure. My phone vibrated. I took a look at it and realise that I had a new text message.
From : Siwon !
Hey Hyukjae, I heard you stopped by yesterday. Sorry I couldn't get back to you immediately. Are you free to meet me today ? If you are, I want to bring you somewhere.I'll wait for you at the bus stop near your house in one hour time, okay?
I quickly stood up and got dressed.
~~
I arrived ten minutes late, but Siwon was still here, waiting for me. His face had significantly turned paler than it already was. It was heartbreaking to see someone like him, going through something like that.
"Hello Hyukjae! Er, you wore your shirt inside out..." he tried to contain his laughter. I looked down. He was right. I quickly lifted up my hands to cover myself.
"AHH shit oh shit. Cover me please!" I took his hands and pulled him to some bush, instructing him to stay still and cover me up while I adjusted my shirt behind it.
When I finished, he was still laughing at me. I was about to give him a hard playful slap for laughing at me, when I froze and pulled my hand away.
Immediately, his face fell.
"You found out, huh?"
I nodded weakly. He sighed.
Fortunately, the bus came. However, the whole bus ride was filled with silence, and I didn't dare break it. I just didn't know what to say.
~~
When we reached the place, I was puzzled. Why would he bring me to a hospital?
"I spent most of my late childhood here," he answered simply, as if reading my mind. I nodded and followed him into the building. He brought me up to the 8th level. I looked up at the sign.
Children's ward , it read.
We walked through the corridor, and Siwon greeted most of the people that walked pass him. I figured he must know all of them so I politely nodded at each of them.
We stopped in front a ward.Ward 857 to be exact. Slowly, he opened the door, revealing a room with six occupied beds. As soon as the children saw him, they started running to him and hugged him.
"SIWON HYUNG!"
"SIWON OPPA!"
"SIWON APPA!"
I awkwardly stood there, as he began taking out sweets from his bag and gave them to the little children. I counted , there were altogether five of them. Where was the last one?
"Where's Kibum?" Siwon bend down to ask one little girl
"I don't know, they covered his face with the blanket yesterday and they took him away. It was really weird. His parents were crying really really hard. I want to know where he went too, so I wouldn't go there and make my mummy cry too," she answered innocently.
Siwon sighed, and stood up straight. I watched him pray silently.
As if finally realising my presence, he turned to me, and then back to the kids and said,
"This is my friend Hyukjae. Say hi to him, will you?"
They waved enthusiatically at me, and I waved back, smiling until the same girl from just now shouted,
"YOU MEAN YOUR BOYFRIEND~"
I blushed and looked away, but Siwon just laughed and gave the little girl a pat on the head.
We spent about two hours there talking to and entertaining the kids. Well Siwon was entertaining them, while I just sat there and stared at them. They looked so happy around Siwon, despite having tubes stuck everywhere on their body. From their nose to their arms. I really felt my heart break looking at the sight of this innocent looking kids being under such circumstance.
After two hours, we decided to take a short break. We left the room, promising the kids that we'd be back after lunch.
~~
As soon as we left the room, I asked Siwon,
"were you like that too?"
"Not really, I.. Wait what happened?!" he suddenly abruptly stopped answering my question but turned to the nurse running pass us instead.
"Ward 857 bed 4!" she ignored Siwon and shouted across to the other nurse who was busy preparing some sort of medication.
I turned to my left and I noticed that Siwon had already left my side. I ran back to the ward where we came from and found him standing near a kid who looked like she was having some sort of seizure while the nurses tried to hold her still so they could give her medication.
She was the little girl from just now! Her mouth was foaming, and I couldn't even see her pupil as it was pushed all the way to the back of her eye. She vomitted out weird greenish liquid from her mouth, and soon, she finally stayed still. One of the nurse turned to Siwon and nodded to him, and he let out a sigh of relief.
"Are you okay?You look.. sick" Siwon looked at me worriedly. I guess I had a low level of tolerance for this sort of things because the next moment, I found myself vomitting into the toilet bowl, with Siwon worriedly trying to calm me down.
Finally, when I managed to calm myself down, Siwon brought me to the hospital canteen.
~~
"Do you know why I didn't want you to find out?"
I nodded.
"Well I guess you could say that that girl's case was pretty extreme. I don't remember going through that except for one time. Maybe it's because she has seizures, which I thankfully don't have," he continued
"Will you die?"
He laughed,
"Eventually, everyone will die Hyukjae. It's just a matter of time,"
"I can give you my bone marrow,"
"It's not that simple Hyukjae,"
"I can give you my blood,"
"There's something called the blood bank,"
"THEN WHAT SIWON? YOU THINK I WILL LET YOU DIE JUST LIKE THAT? YOU THINK I WILL JUST SIT HERE AND WATCH YOU SUFFER WITH LEUKEMIA? NO SIWON, I WON'T. I'LL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO MAKE SURE YOU LIVE,"
Siwon sighed and looked down,
"It's not that simple Hyukjae, even my parents' bone marrow are not a match,"
"I DON'T CARE I'M GOING TO GET MYSELF TESTED NOW!"
"NO DON'T HYUKJAE!"
I ignored his protest and went straight to the information counter to find out where I could get my testing done. Seeing that he couldn't stop me, he reluctantly followed me.
~~
"We'll call you to tell you the results by the next two days,"
"Thank you.." I said and I stood up to leave. Just then, I stopped and looked to the doctor,
"If, just IF, siwon doesn't get a donor, how much longer does he have?"
"Three months"
~~
I anxiously waited for that one phonecall, every minute.
Ring ring...
"Hello?"
"Hello Mr Lee Hyukjae? I'm calling to tell you that we're sorry but your bone marrow does not match Mr Choi Siwon's.. We really are sorry..."
---
AHHH OKAY I THINK THIS STORY WILL FINISH SOON.
in 2-3 chapters(:
YAYYYYYY