This Day | Gyuhao (Threequel to Youth & The Aged)

- 20

| Chapter Twenty — Baekhyun |

Riki's not a fucking kid anymore.

Fuck— It's been over 4 years and he's still being babied.

He's a grown man who can do what he wants. He doesn't give a flying fuck if he's testing his luck with his sore heart, doesn't have a care in the world if he runs into a threat on the way to find Eunchae. He doesn't.

It's Eunchae. He'd do anything for her.

But something makes Riki stop in his tracks.

She thinks I'm dead — Is what rings through his mind.

How will she react?

What if I scare her just showing up like this?

Riki has so many questions that are piling up in his head, rattling against his skull like he's blackout drunk.

But before he can answer any of them, a hand's catching his wrist.

It's Chaewon. She stares at him with a frustrated expression, "We told you not to run off."

"I'm not a child."

"No you're not. But you're someone who can still get hurt." The girl sighs, Wonbin just agreeing with a small nod from his place next to her, "We all need to be careful. Especially here. We don't know what—"

"Let go of me, damn it." Riki rolls his eyes, pulling his arm away and turning in the other direction mid-conversation.

He's had it with all this bullshit.

"Yah! I said—"

Riki just shrugs Chaewon off again, Wonbin having to quite literally catch her before she hits the floor.

Riki doesn't care, doesn't even turn around to apologize, just bolts it down the hallway, peeking in every room and opening every door that blocked him from looking.

He doesn't know where she is.

"Fuck." Riki curses, leaning against the wall. He scratches at his hair, taking a deep breath, frustrated.

He's a good ways away from Chaewon and Wonbin now, having taken off so abruptly and quickly.

It's only the sound of a single piano note that makes his eyes widen, head flying up so fast in the direction of the noise it's surprising it doesn't pop right off.

And then he runs in that direction.

With every step he takes, each slam of his feet to the concrete, he hears another.... and another and another, so much to the point where it's a full song, one he recognizes.

Love Again by Baekhyun.

There's a door at the end of this dark hallway, a little soft light peeking through the underside of the wood, almost smiling at him, letting him know that's the place to go.

So he does.

Riki slows down amidst feeling his heart race, holding a hand to his chest and wrapping his fingers around the knob.

It feels like his skin is burning, much like his chest as his heart beats faster than ever, the thrill and honest excitement from seeing her after so long making him want to bounce off the walls like a kid on Christmas morning.

He hesitates, trembling slightly at the realization of what could really be behind this door, or who could be.

The music doesn't stop, just feels like it's getting even louder.

Riki can picture it.... Eunchae sitting at the piano and playing the keys effortlessly, stumbling upon a few notes due to her clumsiness, but getting up again and continuing to play just as beautifully as before.

He pushes the door open before he can stop himself.

And he was right.

There Eunchae is, sitting on a stool, fingertips halting on the keys upon hearing the door creak open.

"I told you, I don't want to talk about it." Riki doesn't know what she's talking about, decides that maybe she thinks he's somebody else. But he almost cries at the sound of her voice, vision immediately foggy, "Gunwook, if they sent you to check on me again, I—" Eunchae had just begun to turn around in her seat, before—

She freezes.

Riki lets his hand slip from the doorknob.

Eunchae's lips part and her eyes just but barely widen. It's like she's shocked but not really, not knowing quite how to react as she scans her eyes up and down his figure.

There's a bandage on one of her cheeks and Riki frowns, taking an aborted step forward, "Who did this to you?"

"Am I—" Eunchae's voice is so frail and weak, voice just barely above a whisper, "Am I dead?" She asks, shaking, "I died, didn't I?" She was seeing an angel.

Riki doesn't respond, settling for giving her a low shake of his head.

He walks over carefully, swallowing down the pile of nerves that crawl up his throat.

Eunchae struggles to blink, thinking that if she does this will all go away.

She comes to terms with the fact that she's just hallucinating, or maybe just imagining the image of someone she wishes she could talk to in a moment like this.

Riki crouches down before her, taking his lip between his teeth as he lets his eyes wander all around her face.

"You're so pretty." He tells her.

The bandage glides along the left side of Eunchae's face, but her beauty is so bright that it fails to cover it, Riki would be able to spot it from a mile away anyways.

Eunchae lets a tear fall down her face, gliding along the skin of her chin pathetically because all she can do is stare.

Her eyes have gotten wider, as if she's finally starting to believe.

"You're not dead, and neither am I." Riki tells her, frowning at her additional tears when he finally takes her hand in his own, squeezing it tightly, "I'm right here. I'm really here." He tells her, tone on the verge of desperation, "I'm real. I'm okay."

Eunchae's eyes are so watery Riki's surprised she can even see him.

"I'm okay." Riki takes her hand, placing it on his heart, "It's beating, Chae."

Eunchae chokes on a sob, staring at his chest so sharply it's like she's his very own x-ray, trying to zoom in on the organ that had failed him all those years ago.

She can't believe it.

Nonetheless, she springs forward to hug him, which causes them both to go crashing to the floor helplessly. Eunchae just sobs into the crook of Riki's neck, squeezing him tight from her spot on top of him.

Riki just smiles, relieved as he maneuvers them to sit upright, "I—" He takes a breath, holding her just as tight, "I missed you so much. So, so much."

Eunchae just cries, sniffling with a hiccup or two, "D-Don't let go. I'm begging you." She says when Riki tries to pull away to look at her face, "I don't want to risk this just being my imagination. If it is, I-I want this to last." She admits, "Don't let me go just yet."

Riki doesn't say anything for a moment, closing his eyes and snuggling closer.

"I'm here." He says, "Us maknaes—" Riki barely gets to say it before Eunchae's crying sharply, already knowing deep down that this wasn't a hallucination at all. He was really, truly before her right now.

She doesn't know how, doesn't know why...

But he's here.

Riki's back.

"I learned the piano for you."