Paper Cranes

Part 5

“Have you ever seen someone who’s ready to die?” Chaeyoung says it in the dead of the silence as she and Lisa loiter in the break room, drinking the horrid coffee again.

“Oh God, Chaeyoung.” Lisa’s already across the room, shaking Chaeyoung’s shoulders as she frantically speaks, “I know our job sucks, but trust me, it’s not worth it!”

Chaeyoung swaps her hands off of her, “Not me, you idiot.”

“Oh... Oh! Your new hospital friend?”

“Yeah.”

Lisa puts her hand on her chin, imitating a thinking pose.

“Can’t say I have… but isn’t it a good thing then? Or would you rather have her weeping and wailing about not being able to live longer?”

“True, but it just…” She swishes the coffee around in the styrofoam cup. “It’s sort of abnormal. Something I’m not used to?”

“That makes sense... Say, you gonna be okay in the future?”

Her hand stills as she stares into the dark pool of liquid within the cup. It was as if she was waiting for the answer to appear from the liquid.

“Ask me again when the time comes.”

-/-/-/-

When did it happen?

Was it the first time Jisoo smiled at her?

Was it when they naturally clicked and the conversations flowed so smoothly?

When exactly did she start to let Jisoo occupy a special place in her heart?

These questions swirl in her mind as she watches Nurse Lee change her IVs and tend to the ill girl.

When?

Why?

How?

Actually, the question of how it happened can easily be answered for Chaeyoung. How could she not fall for the sass and sarcasm? How could she not laugh at every little thing that came out of Jisoo’s mouth? How could she not fall for the personality that Jisoo emanated from her body?

How was easy to answer, but what happens now?

Her head started to pound as her mind screamed nope, nope, nope you cannot feel this way while her heart said can’t, can’t, can’t stop what has already begun.

‘Sorry Lisa’ is what she thinks (because Lisa detested the word ‘can’t’) as her eyes glaze over that frail body in that small bed.

What happens now?

Her fist balls up as anger swells in her chest.

She already knows what’s going to happen.

Jisoo is going to die and confessing her love for Jisoo will do no one any good.

So she says nothing for the sake of protecting Jisoo.

-/-/-/-

Sitting down at the usual chair, a rustling from her pocket distracts Chaeyoung as Jisoo folds very slowly. The crinkling in her pocket reminds her that she had picked up a fortune cookie from the take out earlier. She unwraps it, breaking it open.

Eyes swiftly reading it over, Chaeyoung crumples the tiny paper into her palm scoffing at the irony. Jisoo stops folding.

“What did your fortune cookie say?”

“Happiness creeps into you so quietly that you don’t notice, but misfortune arrives very abruptly.”

“That’s a pretty accurate fortune cookie.”