I heard the doctors put your chest in pain

But then that could have been the medicine a nd now you're lying in the bed again

Either way I'll cry with the rest of them

Mingyu was there, right in front of Wonwoo's room. He just stood frozen, he didn't really do anything – even stepping inside was difficult. Mingyu honestly felt like his life had been lifted as soon as he heard the news that today Wonwoo had fallen into a coma. What he felt was hell, and Mingyu hated it because he felt hell even before he actually died.

Someone touched his shoulder and Mingyu turned to see Soonyoung right behind him – the man looked at him with sadness too. He felt sorry to have to see Mingyu go through this and sad because after all Wonwoo is his friend too.

"You wanna go inside?"

Mingyu really wanted to go inside, but he knew that even though he was in a coma, Wonwoo still didn't want to see him. Now was not the time. Wonwoo wanted to meet Kim Mingyu who had finished his medical studies. That's why Mingyu just shook his head and turned around from where his heart wanted him to be, leaving Soonyoung who watched his friend left with teary eyes.

One day, two days, ten days.

Jihoon said there was no progress whatsoever from Wonwoo's condition. He still lied in the same position every day. He's still breathing, Wonwoo's still here . Because Wonwoo is still here, Mingyu still felt that miracles could still happen. A miracle that could bring hope –as Wonwoo called it. Just like a miracle that had happened to that man.

While in a coma, Wonwoo got frequent visits. The nurses, doctors, other patients who knew him on the floor, Jihoon and Soonyoung – no Mingyu . Jihoon also often wondered if Wonwoo had a family because no family had ever visited him even though the child was at his limit. And Mingyu answered, yes, Wonwoo still had a father. The next day after Jihoon asked that, Wonwoo's father came alone. Mingyu knew that keeping a promise was one of the most difficult things in this world, and keeping a promise not to see Wonwoo was even more difficult. Jeon Seongwoo broke his promise not to see his son again and forgot about him. But Mingyu understood, after all, that man was his biological father. He should still have a heart. Seeing that person lying helplessly in a hospital bed should have meant something to him. That person wasn't just a stranger he knew just by name, that person was his own child. Jeon Seongwoo saw the child's every growth since he was born, grew into a smart child, and lived as a very special Jeon Wonwoo. Mingyu couldn't imagine how Jeon Seongwoo would feel seeing the child he had raised lying helplessly in that place. But Mingyu knew, maybe the man's regret was growing bigger. Regret that he had made the same mistake, twice . He was stupider than a donkey which didn't fall into the same hole twice.

Then what about Mingyu?

Every day Mingyu always appeared in front of Wonwoo's door. He was there for at least three hours. Just stood frozen and tried to imagine how Wonwoo's face would look beyond that door. Jihoon and Soonyoung had almost given up asking him to just go inside and see Wonwoo, because they knew what Mingyu was doing now was self-torture. But Mingyu was okay, he would rather torture himself than made Wonwoo disappointed in him. He was always waiting for Wonwoo and now Wonwoo is waiting for him. Wonwoo waited for Mingyu to appear in front of him the way he wanted. Mingyu couldn't let the boy down and broke their promise. Today, Mingyu turned his body again and walked away from the place where his heart wanted him to be.

Mingyu survived. It was the hardest month he had ever lived in his life and he was afraid that this month would be a year, ten years, until his time is over. His parents, Minji, even Jihoon and Soonyoung came to his graduation. Everyone seemed happy, Mingyu felt that if he hadn't heard that Wonwoo had been in a coma a month ago, maybe he would have been happy too. Happy that the wait was over. But everything felt different when reality whispered differently to him. Mingyu couldn't really be completely happy, he just smiled but the people closest to him knew that the smile would never reach his eyes. The graduation ceremony ended with the wearing of a doctor's scrub procession which was directly given by the dean of the Faculty. Mingyu swore he almost cried when the white gown clung to him. And maybe people would think of his tears as tears of joy, but then again... Kim Mingyu wasn't really happy right now.

After taking pictures with the family, Mr. Kim tapped him on the shoulder and told Mingyu to leave immediately. The middle-aged man knew where Mingyu really wanted to be right now. Mingyu just nodded and walked straight out of the room, he felt Jihoon and Soonyoung following him from behind but they kept their distance. Mingyu just ignored his two friends and immediately headed towards where his Volvo was parked, still wearing his doctor's gown.

Half an hour later he found himself again at the door of the familiar room. Mingyu knew he had to open the door because it was the time, but something whispered in his heart, if he opened the door something would happen. Mingyu was scared, Mingyu was really scared that all this time – for a whole month Wonwoo fell into a coma, actually he was waiting for Kim Mingyu. Mingyu was afraid that the man's time was running out and he was waiting inside for Mingyu, waiting for their promise to be fulfilled before he really left.

Mingyu walked backwards, he didn't want Wonwoo to really leave. He would rather torture himself any longer, he would rather break his own promise, than lose Wonwoo. He didn't want his imagination to come true because of him. Mingyu swore he would just go home if he didn't hear a heartbeat. Mingyu knew it was the sound of a heart rate monitoring machine installed in Wonwoo's room. It's the sound of Wonwoo's beating heart, trying to call him to come in and never leave again.

Mingyu cried and his body shook violently as he slowly opened the doorknob and went inside. After two years of not seeing Jeon Wonwoo, Mingyu finally saw the man again. His thin body looked even thinner and Mingyu was afraid that if in fact there were only bones covered with skin left. His face was even thinner and Wonwoo's hair was longer than he could remember. The man's face was tired but Mingyu faintly saw, Jeon Wonwoo looked calm and... happy in his sleep. Mingyu thought he was hallucinating when he saw the smile on that calm face.

With still trembling steps, Mingyu stepped towards Wonwoo little by little. He held his hand when he arrived and Mingyu cried again because Wonwoo's hand felt so cold and fragile. This body had been destroyed by the large amount of medicine consumption he had taken.

"Hey." Mingyu called softly even though he knew he wouldn't get a reply.

"You see, Jeon Wonwoo? I'm a doctor now." Mingyu didn't know why he flicked his gown in front of Wonwoo's body. He looked stupid, really. "You want to see this in me, right? You can see it if you open your eyes."

Mingyu's voice was nothing more than a whisper and he sounded very frustrated. Therefore, Mingyu deliberately forced himself to be more cheerful. He knew that comatose people could hear conversations around them even though they couldn't reply.

"Wonwoo, have you forgotten me? You promised to always remember me. I have kept my promise to see you again after I became a doctor, I hope you will also keep your promise to always remember me." Mingyu choked on his own tears and he looked down, he could no longer hide his sadness. He was really sad to the point where it was really hard to breathe.

"But it's okay if you forget me. Really. We can start over again like back then. You.. you can ignore me all the time and I will keep talking to you. We can get acquainted again and you will say I am a rude person for holding out my left hand when I want to shake hands." Mingyu was silent. What was he talking about, he felt like it was just like yesterday. "This time I will not argue with you anymore, we will do whatever you want. We can eat big mac again, we can ride those stupid pirate ships a hundred times. This time I will also buy another cat for you, and we can name it Another Minwoo."

"We can stay again at Soonyoung's house with Jihoon or those who will be staying here, we can laugh and talk until midnight and I won't tell you to sleep first. I promise. We can come back to Soonyoung's trial and stop by my house because you want to meet my family. If you're tired, we can just hang out in the garden and this time you can lean on my shoulder. We.. We can do many things, Jeon Wonwoo. We can do it..." Mingyu stopped because he felt his voice sounded like a sob, he tried to catch his breath because his heart ached as if there was no oxygen there. "We can do it as long as you open your eyes again."

Mingyu looked up and found nothing significant, he only saw Wonwoo's tears slowly falling from his closed eyes.

"My name is Kim Mingyu and it's okay if you don't answer my sentences with your name because you forgot about it. It's fine since I will remember it, I will always remember your name."

"This time you can forget everything because I will remember it for both of us, you don't have to remember me this time. You don't have to take the trouble to remember me because it will tire you out. This time I won't give you sticky notes ..."

Mingyu tried to get up to really see the side of the room he had long left. Wonwoo's whiteboard was still there. There was something inside Mingyu that made him want to look there. Something that Mingyu had told to do and the man wondered if it was Wonwoo who was telling him to look there.

Mingyu let go of Wonwoo's hand for a moment and he felt a loss. But the push made Mingyu go around the bed and turn over the whiteboard . Mingyu deliberately opened the photo board first, his eyes combed through the photos one by one and his heart was getting crushed by the memories printed on the back of the polaroid sheets. His last month with Wonwoo was there. Everything except their last day. The photo where only Mingyu and Wonwoo were in it wasn't there and Mingyu wondered where it had gone.

Moving to his side, he found a board filled with sticky notes and felt his tears spilling over because now he was actually reading them one by one – not like the last time. Reading Wonwoo's handwriting that was all about him under the heading "Things For Jeon Wonwoo To Be Remembered" brought Mingyu to his knees. He really didn't know what would happen to him if Wonwoo really left him, he couldn't imagine his life after that.

It took Mingyu quite a while to read all the things Wonwoo wanted to remember because many times the tears made his vision blurry. But when Mingyu stopped at the last sheet of sticky notes, his brain was busy looking for something in the room.

The Seventh Day

Three times Mingyu almost tripped over his own feet to find the whereabouts of the book. The book was lying in the desk drawer beside Wonwoo's bed. Mingyu didn't know what to look for in this book until a piece of paper slipped from the middle of the book. Mingyu opened the sheet and he knew his heart and himself would break reading every single word written on this paper.

Kim Mingyu, if you are reading this letter it means that something happened to me so I let you flip my board. Well, sometimes life doesn't always go according to your plan, right? But it's okay, the fact that you can still read this letter is good enough for me. I am writing this letter in my last moments before I completely lost my ability to write and you can see that right? I kept my promise, Kim. I still remember you even though sometimes I even forget my own name. Silly, isn't it?

First of all I want to apologize because I have a bad memory and often trouble you. But I believe that you are not like me, you can definitely remember everything I'm going to tell you. So, listen to me carefully.

Mingyu, you should know that I'm really proud of you. You are the kindest and most sincere person I have ever met in my short life. Maybe you can change this world with your kindness, believe in my words on this one - don't argue. Mingyu.. do you know that meeting you is the best thing that ever happened in my life? Maybe not for you. But to me you are like my world. I had felt it long before I knew I had dementia. The day when little Mingyu wanted to meet me at the priest's garden, that day I knew that you would be someone who meant a lot to me.

When you came back to my dark life, actually at that time I had given up, Gyu. I didn't want to live anymore, I didn't want to always get stuck in the frustration of always forgetting things. But over time I changed. It's all because of you. Because you made miracles, you reached out your hand to me and showed me that even though I'm a sucker for not being able to remember things well, I still can be happy. Therefore I want to say thank you.

Thank you for coming into my life, thank you for always being by my side so I don't feel lonely anymore, thank you for always waiting for me – you just stay there, waiting for me to open myself up. You have no idea how much I truly appreciate your patience. I admit that remembering you is a difficult thing for me but thank you for being so meaningful that I want to fight to always remember you. Thank you very much.

I also want to apologize for letting you know me. Someone with an incurable disease. Someone who is so pitiful and doesn't deserve any bit of your attention. You know what my biggest regret is?

My biggest regret is letting you like me so much that you cried when I asked you to leave.

I like you too, Kim Mingyu.

I really like you – long before these hard times.

I've always liked you.

I'm sorry because even though I really like you, I can't do anything but to leave you. It's not my will. The truth is I still want to be with you and even though we will be friends for the rest of my life, I don't have the slightest problem. Because being with you and liking you are a very extraordinary thing for me.

When I leave, I know you can get on with your life.

Be a cool doctor and make miracles for your patients.

Another time and another opportunity, maybe we will meet again. And I hope that when that time comes, I'm a healthy person so I can have a little more time to be with you.

Hmmm...

You know... goodbye is not the end of everything, actually goodbye is something simple. Our goodbye means that I will miss you, until the time when we will meet again.

So until that time comes, you can forget about me and move on with your life.

Always be healthy, Kim Mingyu.

See you later.

Jeon Wonwoo

Five hours, twenty-one minutes, at the forty-third second after Mingyu finished reading the letter, Wonwoo left him... forever .

Leaving Mingyu who was scared to death to hear the heartbeat monitor ringing loudly in the same monotonous tone.

End .

The story with Jeon Wonwoo ended. It's too late for Mingyu to realize that he's liked the boy all along, more than Wonwoo could have ever imagined. And Wonwoo was wrong about one thing.

Kim Mingyu couldn't continue his life properly without Jeon Wonwoo in it. He didn't know what would happen to his life after this, but he knew one thing for sure.

Kim Mingyu will never forget Jeon Wonwoo.

Just like Jeon Wonwoo who only remembered Kim Mingyu at the end of his life.

They will no longer forget each other, because even though their bodies have been separated by different dimensions. The memory of one another's existence will always be embedded in their hearts.

It's that simple, yes... the story of Kim Mingyu and Jeon Wonwoo is that simple .

***

Wonwoo, we never knew that we would make such a big power all of these time.

We set alight, we are an afire love. –Kim Mingyu

***

Things were all good yesterday

Then the devil took your breath away

Now we're left here in the pain

And if you fell to your death today

I hope that heaven is your resting place

The End.

***

Okay it's the end :')
what do you think about this story? Please kindly wait for the epilogue.
I know this story is kind of the angst and sad one, but I hope this story can somehow warm someone's heart. Thank you for reading this even though the story might lack in so many aspects, but i liked writing this story, hope you like it too.