Decoupled • KTH ✔

Chapter 15

Maya

"I was married, Taehyung," I reply, nodding in confirmation when I sense that he's confused by my response.

"What do you mean?" His hand quickly leaves my arm and returns to his side, his face still aghast and devoid of any color at this sudden and unexpected revelation.

"Yeah, I was married to my boyfriend of three years from college. But we really didn't get to live our happily forever," I smile sadly. "It all ended like an illusion," my words are punctuated by a few seconds of profound silence.

"I'm sorry. But what happened? Tell me more only if you're comfortable talking about it," Taehyung breaks the short silence, his tone grows deeper, and it oozes concern and warmth.

"I can talk, hold on," I sit up and pull open the drawer on my nightstand and dig through it to fetch the framed photo of Richard and I taken on the day of our wedding.

I take a moment to look at the picture as the fond memories of Richard and me, and us invade my mind. In the photo, Richard towers over me, dressed in a wedding tuxedo and looking effortlessly handsome as always. I'm standing on his right, literally throwing myself on him and flashing such a big smile—something that I have almost forgotten how to do.

Smiling a little to myself, I turn to look at Taehyung who is now sitting up cross-legged on the bed and combing his hair with his fingers.

"This is Richard" I hand over the photo to Taehyung, and he takes it from my hand, keenly studying the image with his sharp eyes.

"We met at a swimming tournament during my first year of college, and soon we were madly in love with each other, and he was three years older than me. We got married while I was still in college because we just couldn't wait," I laugh softly, folding my legs to sit in a cross-legged position.

Taehyung's eyes lift to look at my face as I continue speaking.

"We lived as a happily married couple only for a week, and then he suddenly started experiencing severe pain in various joints in his body, accompanied with swelling of some joints. On the first few days we assumed that it could be because we got too wild in bed, and probably his body got all worked up. But it just didn't seem to get better even with abundant rest, and no medicine was giving him relief from his pain," I look down at my joined hands that are resting on my lap.

"What was it?" Taehyung's question is laced with worry and more confusion.

"We met a doctor after a few days, and then after numerous painful tests and long hours of waiting at the hospital corridors, Richie was diagnosed with stage three osteosarcoma, which is bone cancer," I inform him in a tone so deep and grave with grief.

"Oh my God," Taehyung's voice shakes, and I nod a few times, keeping my eyes still glued to my hands.

"Yeah... it was shocking, unacceptable and terrifying for us. We just couldn't come to terms with the fact that he was living with a cancer that was rapidly growing and spreading over all of his bones. And he was only twenty-four at that time. It was pure devastation not just for us, but also for his father. His mother died when Richie was still little," my eyes grow moist, and I quickly raise my head and look up at the ceiling to stop the tears from falling down.

"I'm sorry, Maya. I didn't mean to trigger you. I'm really sorry," Taehyung apologizes, taking my right hand in his and holding it with both his hands while I dismiss the tears in my eyes with my other hand.

"No, no, that's okay, Taehyung," I reassure him. "We had to choose to go in for chemotherapy, which literally shrunk him down to nothing. He was just a heap of bones, and I felt horrible seeing him that way. And then he underwent a surgery to get his left leg amputated when he was literally nothing but bones and skin. He was a swimming champion with such a fit body, and I literally shed tears of blood every day seeing his shriveled form," more tears fall from my eyes, and this time, I don't try to stop them.