Chapter Text
‘The weather has been getting cooler,’ Dahyun thinks as she made her way towards a flower shop nearby the hospital. Lately, smiling to people other than Chaeyoung or Sana has been hard, but Dahyun finds herself smiling softly at everyone she passed along her way.
“Oh, Dahyun, what a surprise! Nice to see you again,” Hansol, and old elementary school classmate of Dahyun’s greeted her cheerfully. Dahyun smiled back at him and reciprocated his greeting before moving towards the flowers that she knew were Mina’s favorites. She brought them back up to the counter, and Hansol smiled fondly.
“Mina, right? She sure is lucky, considering it took me forever to get you to even play with me in elementary school,” Hansol laughed softly while ringing up the flowers, handling them with gentle ease as always. Dahyun doesn’t lose her smile, admiring how soft the male is himself. He had curly brown hair and brown eyes that absolutely shined at any given time, and Dahyun thinks that if this were another universe, she might’ve fallen in love. If a Myoui Mina didn’t exist in that one, either. “Alright, well, since the occasion is a bit different today, the flowers are on me. And, as always, do you want a card?” Hansol was always stuck on Dahyun buying a card for Mina, but she never gave in; however, Hansol’s gentle, almost pitiful look had her giving in this one time.
With a deep breath, Hansol was already beaming. “Sure, I’ll take a card,” Hansol smiles at his hollow victory and goes to get one of their better ones. After writing out a short note, Dahyun and Hansol promised to catch up sometime, and then she was off.
Dahyun made her way to the hospital slowly she thought that she should have taken her time today—should have performed more encores in the shower, should have mulled over what to wear a bit longer, should have tried to mess with her hair, should have took her time eating breakfast, should have talked with Hansol a bit longer—there were so many things she could have done much slower, and she regretted it all as she looked up at the red sign of the hospital taunting her, almost.
The nurse at the counter was one Dahyun knew very well by now, and when the woman looked up, she smiled warmly. “Dahyun, it’s nice to see you,” She got up and made her way out of her station to hug Dahyun, pulling back and patting her cheeks lightly. She spared Dahyun the small talk, knowing exactly why Dahyun was there today, and motioned for the younger to make her way to Mina’s room.
Dahyun hesitated as she stood in front of the room. She wasn’t ready.
Dahyun took a deep breath and slapped her cheeks repeatedly. “Come on, Dahyun, just get on with it. It was only two and a half months, you can get over this like you got over Chaeyoung,” Dahyun shook her anxiety out (or attempted to, at least) before opening Mina’s door. The sight was breathtaking, but in all of the wrong ways.
Mina’s tanned skin, sparkling eyes, and pretty pink lips were devoid of life; she had become as still and pale as the room around her.
Their last meeting was too comfortable for Dahyun’s liking. The cold weather tried to shake her, but Dahyun knew it couldn’t get any colder than this. She sits next to Mina as she always did, way past her time, way past Mina’s. ‘Stagnant, I think it was...just as always, huh?’ Dahyun thought to herself, and she tried to smile the tears away, but they came regardless.
Dahyun fixed the Baby’s Breath into the vase resting on the bedside table next to Mina, knowing they won’t be there for long, and then she takes out the card she got and opened it with shaky hands.
“Dear, M-Mina,” Dahyun chastised herself for the stuttering, for the excessive tears, and she does her best to get a hold of herself so she could continue. “To be honest, when I heard about this project, I was less than excited. I liked my Health Science class even less than Chemistry, and this experience seemed pointless to me since I wasn’t going into the medical field. I was originally planning to skip it, but my teacher immediately shut that idea down by confirming it as a huge part of our grade.” Dahyun laughed at this through her tears, imagining her and Chaeyoung’s look across the room when they heard that.
“And then, after receiving the information about my patient, I was less than excited about spending two months with someone who couldn’t move, someone who didn’t sound as interesting as Chaeyoung’s patient. I’m sorry, by the way.” Another laugh laced with sobs. Dahyun thinks that she might look insane right now, talking to a dead body while laughing and crying at the same time. She didn’t care, though, and kept on until the end. “Even though I complained a lot to myself, meeting you was still the best thing to ever happen to me. Two months didn’t seem like long enough with someone as beautiful as you, on the outside and the inside. It took me a day to adore you, a month to fall in love, and it’ll probably take the rest of my life to fall out of love, honestly. It wasn’t long, but I love you Mina...Myoui Mina. See you later,”
Dahyun is only able to take one last look at Mina before she is finally taken away, and even after she was long gone, Dahyun sat next to where she used to be and cried until she couldn’t anymore. Chaeyoung and Sana entered after Dahyun was reduced to simply sniffling and staring blankly into the empty space that Mina once occupied. Chaeyoung isn’t teasing, and Sana is unnaturally calmed, and they both help Dahyun finally move out of the hospital.
Dahyun isn’t able to sleep that night—or any of the nights after for weeks on end—as she can only dream about a perfectly tanned ballerina, with a bright, gummy smile, and sparkling eyes that could say it all.