- twenty three

53 1 0
                                    

"Hello?" Mark answered the phone.

He was on a date with Donghyuck when suddenly it got interrupted by the buzzing phone. It was from an unknown caller.

"Mark it's father,"

"Oh, what do you want?"

The caller went silent and was killed by a distant sound of a person sobbing. "Dad?" Mark called him out.

Donghyuck was eating his food and minding his own business but he couldn't help but to look at the older guy. His face was washed with worry, a look he had never seen before. "Can you come to Seoul National University Hospital now?" He said with a calm tone.

Mark didn't understand why he needed to rush there. "I'm busy,"

"Your grandmother,"

Mark hung up immediately and stood up from the chair. The other customers had their eyes on him, so was Donghyuck. The younger male had no idea why his loving boyfriend was suddenly worried in a split second. He was sure something had happened but he didn't want to interrupt anything. "I'm sorry I have to go,"

Mark picked up his bag and ran off without letting Donghyuck say a word. The younger boy's gaze went down to his shoe, feeling embarrassed by the fact that everyone just witnessed his boyfriend leaving him in the middle of a date.

--

"I'm here to see Lee Hei Ran, 66 years old," Mark said to the lady at the counter.

She went through a few pages of paper before stopping on one of them. "She's on the fifth floor, room 510," she said.

Mark ran to the elevator but there were many people there. He had no patience left so he went up using the stairs. He was getting tired every step up but he didn't stop. The boy had thought his grandmother was out to run errands or maybe just to have a short getaway but he was wrong all along.

All this time he had not receive any calls from his grandmother was because she was at the hospital, hurting. The woman who had actually cared for him was sick in bed and he wasn't there to help her. He was helpless after all.

As soon as he arrived at the said room, he opened the door without any hesitation. His father was sitting next to the old lady, feeding her porridge slowly and gently. "Nana," the two syllable word came out of his mouth softly.

There were needles sticking up in her body, connected to whatever machine that was surrounding her. Yet, she still had the energy to smile despite all of that. "Oh Mark my boy," she tried to move her body but fell back down due to her weakness.

Mark sat next to her and hugged the old woman. His father sat there looking at two of the people hugging one another. He had regrets right after getting a call from the hospital. His heart dropped to the floor upon hearing his mother's condition he had to fly to Korea immediately.

"What happened to you?" Mark pulled away from the hug to ask her the question. "Oh you don't have to worry about anything. I'm okay now!" She smiled again. Mark love her smile, don't get him wrong, but at a moment like this, he didn't.

Mark is not young and naive anymore, he knows the human emotion all too well. She was hiding it and Mark couldn't help but to hate it. "You're not Nana, you're lying down on this stupid bed sick!" His tone raised.

"Mark your grandmother is sick! Watch your tone," the father said. Mark looked at him as he puts down the bowl on a table next to her bed and left the room. "I'm sorry," he whispered to her.

"I know you care about me Mark but you can't deny that this was bound to happen after all," her voice, it was monotone. There was no life to it, she was sad. Maybe beyond that.

your rhythm - MarkHyuckWhere stories live. Discover now