my first and last || renmin

N i n e - And Then This Happened

"Are you out of your mind?" Mrs. Huang folded laundry while Renjun pleaded his case.

"It's too much Junnie. We can't accept something like this from a stranger."

"He's not a stranger." Renjun deadpanned.

"Really?"

"Don't be gross mom."

"It's still 'no', I'm afraid." Mrs. Huang carried on folding clothes while Renjun was on the verge of tears.

"Can we at least ask Dr. Seo?" Renjun begged his mother.

***

Dr. Seo shook her head, Renjun wanted to burst into tears.

"You said the PET scan was encouraging!" Renjun raised his voice, tears threatening to fall.

"It is, we just don't know how long it'll stay that way. What if you get sick in a foreign country?"

"They have doctors in Amsterdam... And cancer. Someone will know what to do."

"Without someone familiar with your case, I can't-" Renjun turned to his mom.

"So you'll come."

"What?" Mrs. Huang scrunched her eyebrows.

"You've never been to Amsterdam, have you mom? The genies can hook it up, they're loaded." Judging from his mom's face, she seemed to like the idea.

Dr. Seo looked at Mrs. Huang and shrugged as in to say "He's got a point", Renjun smiled.

***

Renjun woke up screaming in the middle of the night, he was shaking as he held his head.

Mr. and Mrs. Huang bursted into his room.

Mrs. Huang grabbed her crying son, frightened beyond belief, she waved to her husband to call for help.

He left the room to do so and Mrs. Huang stayed behind, rocking with her son, promising him that it'd all be okay and that whatever this nightmare was, it was going to end.

Mr. Huang drove, trying to keep it together.

Mrs. Huang was in the back with Renjun's head on her lap.

Renjun continued to scream in pain and terror.

Mr. Huang carried Renjun into the chaotic emergency room, he was running.

The doctors rallied to assist a screaming and crying teen.

He was wheeled away from his family who could only watch.

People talk about the courage of cancer patients and Renjun did not deny that courage.

He had been poked, stabbed and poisoned for years and still, he lived on...

But in that very moment..

Renjun would've been more than happy to die.

***

The sound returned, the sound of a heart monitor.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

It was also the sound of a working heart.

Renjun made it through, his eyes softly fluttered open and he saw a nurse.

"Hello." The nurse greeted.

"Hi." Renjun greeted back.

"You're okay Renjun." Renjun seemed surprised by that.

"Do you want to see your parents?" Renjun nodded as the nurse left to go and get them.

They soon came bounding in, crying and kissing him repeatedly, they were relieved.

"They thought it was a brain tumour." Mrs. Huang said sitting down.

"It wasn't, thank god." Mr. Huang held his chest in relief.

"So what happened?"

"The usual, fluid in the lungs preventing oxygenation. They put that in." Mrs. Huang explained, pointing at the tube in Renjun's side, which drained fluid into a plastic bladder that hung off the side of his bed.

"Drained a liter and a half last night."

"The good news is... no new tumours in your body." Renjun nodded, that was a relief.

"We're all so relieved Junnie." Mr. Huang embraced his son.

"This is just a thing Renjun. It's a thing we can live with." Renjun nodded again.

Only in the world of Huang Renjun is something like this just a thing.