Work Text:
After
Bothered by the bright morning rays flooding in through the open windows, Mun-Yeong stirred to seek the warm embrace of her lover.
She was met with emptiness and cold sheets that barely smelt of him.
‘Aish I can’t believe he left without saying good bye’ she comments
Fully awake and miffed at the fact that she wouldn’t get to see him until later that night, she threw off the heavy covers and leaves the bed.
She somehow ends up at Ok hospital, although she doesn’t remember driving there.
‘Ya’ she calls out to nurse Sun Byeol who jumps at her voice
‘Where’s Moon Kang-Tae, I bought him his phone, he left it home’ she says
Byeol looks like a deer caught in headlights and stutters something about him having gone to the city plaza
‘Fine’ Mun-Yeong says ‘I’ll just wait for him then’
She wanders aimlessly and sits on one of the many benches in the hospital garden, overlooking the sea.
It’s a warm day and there’s a soft breeze rustling her hair, she smiles closing her eyes
Memories of him running to her and the impromptu trip that followed floods her mind.
Lunch time finds her in the mostly empty cafeteria, with Juri and her mom. She eats happily, gobbling up the food in seconds.
She’s chatty today, going on about their upcoming trip to Serengeti
Juri glances at her mother occasionally but urges Mun-Yeong on, smiling at her enthusiasm
‘Wonder if Kang-Tae already eaten’ she says glancing at her watch absently
‘Yeah, he grabbed a bite earlier, he told me to save these for you’ Sun Deok says, pushing a plate of quail eggs towards her, her smile is a little sad and doesn’t reach her eyes but Mun-Yeong doesn’t notice.
It was the drizzle that brought her lack inside the lobby of the hospital. She was cold, she rubbed her arms and tried to warm up, bored and slightly mad that her lover hadn’t made time to visit her although she waited around for him the whole day.
‘I should just go home’ she mumbles to none in particular, walking towards the exit.
That is when she notices, she doesn’t have her purse on and she doesn’t remember bringing one along.
She runs out to the carpark, unsurprisingly the car is not there either.
She checks for her phone and keys only to come up empty handed.
The drizzle had progressed into a downpour and she stood in the darkened carpark, fully drenched.
Its Juri who finds her, laying on the ground, completely soaked and uncaring, tears flowing and mixing with the rains
‘Mun-Yeong, come on let’s go inside, you’re all wet, come on’ Juri says, kneeling down, trying to pull her up by grabbing her arm
‘What'll Kang-Tae say if you got sick on my watch hmmm…?’She prods
His name gets her attention, Mun-Yeong turns her head slightly to look at her, corner of her mouth lifting up, something caught between a smile and a grimace
‘You know he won’t say anything Juri, he can’t’ MunYeong says in a hollow voice, Juri drops her hand in shock
‘I remember now’ she whispers brokenly, looking up at the sky
Before
Mun- Yong had ran up the winding mountain roads as fast as she can, uncaring of her bleeding feet.
Throwing the doors of her mothers’ study open, she was met with her worst nightmare
Sang-Tae laid on the couch and her mother sat behind her majestic desk, but Mun-Yeong had eyes only for him.
Kang-Tae lay on the floor, eyes half closed and lips parted, staring up at the ceiling.
She falls to the ground next to him, lifting his limp body and cradling it against her, his head lolling on her shoulder,
‘Wake up Moon Kang-Tae, please just wake up’ she repeats, her pleas falling to deaf ears, he doesn’t move no matter how many times she calls her, her desperate, frantic hand patting his face.
It takes several minutes for her to notice that he isn’t breathing either, she pulls her hand away from his head, it comes apart with the squelching sound of half clotted blood.
She lets go and he falls lifelessly to the floor, head smacking against the half-dried pool of his own blood.
He mothers joyful peal of laughter fills the air. She runs.
It rains nonstop the following days, a landslide blocking the road to the cursed palace.
It takes them three days, but a rescue team finds her in the woods, muttering to herself clutching at a dried bunch of wildflowers. She sits dangling her feet in a pool of dirty water, her nails still stained with his blood, tear tracks marking her dirtied face, eyes crazed and hollow.
She fights them screaming and thrashing before passing out from sheer exhaustion.
Later, waking up in a hospital bed, she does not remember anything
She wakes up every day looking for him, but it a different story every day.
Any attempt in correcting her turned her stare blank and would either make her throw a fit or laugh hysterically.
She eventually ends up finding a newspaper clipping and had to be sedated, and when she awakes again, she’s blissfully unaware.
They let her live in the bubble she creates, the hospital becoming her new home.
fin.