De Novo

Chapter 24

A movie was playing on the television as two bodies lounged on the couch, legs tangled together and hands full of chips. Wheein and Hyejin decided to watch a movie after a long day of cleaning the house and taking care of yongsun. Yes, taking care. Because up until now, the woman is still not in the right sense to come out of her shell. She still refuses to live her life and acts as if the world is scheming against her.

Her friends always console her and remind her how she needs to move on from the death of her daughter, but yongsun always ends the conversation before her friends can even express themselves further. It comes to the point that hyejin gave up and just let yongsun heal herself. Time will come she will accept the truth, the trauma, and the pain. Time will come and she'll eventually mend her broken heart.

The last few weeks have gone well. She's been eating the food wheein bought in her room and occasionally speaking when she feels like it The two would use the opportunity to inquire about the dream that Yongsun had mentioned in the hospital, but the atmosphere would shift every time that topic was brought up. Yongsun would freeze and dismiss them, kicking them out of the room before they could understand what was going on. That's why after numerous attempts, they decided not to inquire about specific topics related to it. They'll just gonna wait until yongsun gathers the courage to express herself. She will eventually share it with them someday. But for the time being, all they can do is wait.

"Do you think she's already sleeping?" Wheein asked as she sat down beside Hyejin. The latter quickly encircled her leg around wheein's body, drawing her in even closer.

"The last time I went into her room, she was already wrapped in her blanket, so I'm guessing she's sleeping." Wheein nodded and opened the chips she was holding.

Yongsun has been the same up to this day, excluding the 'always crying' part. She's been strong for quite a few months, keeping her tears and depressing emotional states to herself. Though still locks herself into her room and never steps out of the door even just for a second. Fortunately, she began to pick up her pen and write novels again. That's a good sign she's getting back to her normal routine.

"I miss her. I miss her laugh and her high-octave voice. I miss the old yongsun,"

Wheein says, melting in the arms of hyejin, who sighs in response. They both miss their friend's upbeat demeanor, and seeing her like this—fighting with her happiness and losing her will to live—breaks their hearts.

"I miss her too, whee, but there's nothing we can do to hasten her recovery; we're not healing her physically, we're healing her mentally; it's her heart that needs to be cured.. her life, and that's the most difficult part of this."

"She divorced her husband, the person she loves vanished, she nearly died in a car accident, and her daughter died; it's not easy to deal with all of that dreadful events. We have to understand her situation for as long as we can," Hyejin explained.

Wheein remained silent, her gaze fixed on the movie playing in front of them. Hyejin proves her point and clearly understands it. Yongsun needs more time to heal from her past heartbreaks before she can move on with her life. The first step in everything is to accept—accept that Moonbyul is gone and that Luna is no longer alive.

"Did you believe it when she said she lived in another world in her dream and had been with us for 9 years with her daughter?" Wheein broke the silence after a second, slightly twisting her head to the side to look at Hyejin. She noticed the woman staring at the ceiling as if she was deep in thought, sighing deeply as if something was bothering her.