Chapter Text
It is easy to love in the distance.
Distance is the tension of movement before a touch is felt. Distance is the grazing of eyes that worship, but never speak.
Distance is the shine that lights up and is gone by the next flickering breeze.
The only thing that speaks in the human world is your heart. The mouth is only its instrument. And it crosses every distance .
The only thing that shines in this world is his love and his body and face were only meant to contain it, but never trap it.
Hae-In felt her heart stop in the tension of reaching and almost- almost saying . She was trapped in those two words. It was easy for her to live her every breath like it was never enough to say what she wanted. She loses herself every time she feels it stop. The world fades before her eyes as easily as scars fade with time.
There is a crack of pain that bursts in every inhale and exhale. It leaves her too delicate and raw like never before. Frigid and lost in a forest alone.
It is then he crosses his hands over her hands and reaches for her. And distance melts away.
The summer heat was tough in this little village far away from the world. Her mind was the opposite, desolate and freezing. And yet his palms burned hotter than the rays of sunlight could ever be, grounding her and pulling her back to the world of both of them.
“Hyun woo…” She gasps out.
“Hyun Woo…” She says again- as though he never heard her before. Like she was a ghost that softly voiced something and caressed his ears. What that something was, he couldn’t comprehend. All he knew was that it caused him to shiver. And there was a want in that shiver. A cry in his movement. It said that she overcomes him with her voice. Her mouth. Her heart.
“I’m here, Hae-In.” I’m always here . It was a reassurance. A fact disguised as a promise. “I’m always here.”
A promise was for a future left unfulfilled, but was soon to be and manifested. A fact was just that. It happened, it will happen and has happened. To Hae-In, his words were past, present, and future . Yes, that last word meant the world to her. He was her world.
A future she wanted. A future she needed.
She pulled away from his hands and wrapped her arms around him. And it becomes a map that traces and marks itself in colors that read home .
She was home.
“I just wanted to hold you.” Her voice cracked a bit. In the distance, there were the soft murmurs of their two families getting by and by and speaking with each other unlike before. They were knowing each other and understanding each other. And loving each other. It would give eternal peace to her heart. A peace that renews hope.
“I am yours to hold.” He replied. Hyun Woo missed being held by her. But she missed being held by him even more, so he wrapped his arms around her as well. And it was all that mattered.
That was, until he heard her laugh. And he nudged into her neck, face pouting just a bit. Because he knew there was something she knew that could be used to tease him. Or something she planned that would fluster him. She was the bolder one of the two even when she relented in the past times .
Because that’s what every moment of their life was. The sound of the helicopter that led her to him again. The ice cream they shared. The hidden lights that broke through cracks. The lights that decided to burst forth to bring about reconciliation.
Those were all times. And this moment will be part of that time too. Time was their album when they didn’t take pictures. Time was their pain. Time was their comfort and now time was their happiness. And it satisfied them.
She kissed him on the neck. And she whispered the secret laughter in her heart. Because it was a laughter that needed to be shared even in life’s heart beat . And especially in death’s distance.
“I am yours.” It was enough to make him brighten up. It said she did not belong to her money. She did not belong to her sickness either. She did not belong to life. Nor did she belong to death or the tears she shed.
No, she gave herself freely to him, without needing to be anything else. She closed distance with her heart singing its instrument with her mouth.
“I am yours.” Hyun Woo whispered, flustered just as he had believed he would be. He caressed her cheeks gently as he pulled her in. For the words she said could only be harmonized and completed by his. Drawing near- closing and closing the space to complete each other.