Sleeping Beauty Syndrome

17

For three days I just lay on the sofa or in bed and stared ahead of me... three days on which fortunately nothing happened, at least not in our little kingdom. We only saw the outside world through the TV and the windows. Each of us mourned in our own way and then there was Yunho and Jongho, who just lay there in silence. The global situation was getting worse and worse as the vaccine was still not enough to cover the whole world and people were still dying from the fever. Of the original 8 billion people, only 2 billion were still alive. There was a shortage of care workers, a lack of skilled workers and the infrastructure had completely collapsed. No more public transport, air travel only rarely and in exceptional cases, public life came to a standstill. Volunteers in the food industry made sure that as much food as possible was frozen so that we didn't let anything go to waste that might later save our lives. Water and power stations offered training so that survivors were not left in the dark and without water, but as there was also much less consumption, the situation remained relatively relaxed in this respect.

It was even possible to shut down nuclear power plants worldwide, as renewable energies were sufficient for the pitiful rest of humanity. The whole thing was certainly not bad for the planet and the environment and there would certainly be a recovery in the global climate, but that could not console us for the loss of all those people. The biggest dilemma, however, was that more and more people were now falling into comas, meaning that there would be even fewer workers available and at the same time the sleeping ones would have to be taken care of.

There were voices calling for them to simply be left to die, but fortunately there were voices of dissent that warned against this, as it could be fatal for us to lose even more people instead of waiting for them to wake up again. They were feverishly trying to find a reason for the coma, but no progress had yet been made. If they found the reason, they might be able to find a cure. All we could do was wait and see.

After these three days of lying around idly and crying for Juhee, with the boys worrying about me and trying to comfort me as much as possible, I felt guilty. I was letting them down by letting myself go like this, it was just... Juhee was all I had left, or so I thought, until I realized that wasn't true. I still had 8 boys who meant a lot to me. Whereas before we were just friends, now we were a family that had to look after each other because there was simply no one else left. Even the family members of the boys who hadn't died were unreachable as there was no way to get to them. At least they could keep in touch via the internet, but it just wasn't the same, there was no family support.

To feel more human again, I took a shower and put on some fresh clothes, then went into the kitchen to make breakfast. Seonghwa was already there, getting fresh infusion bags for Yunho and Jongho, and smiled at me happily when he noticed me.

"Good to see you back on your feet. Are you feeling better?" he wanted to know before feeling my temperature with his hand on my forehead. He did this three times a day, it had almost become a ritual.

"Yes, it must be... I don't think it will ever get better... You just have to cope somehow with the fact that this pain is there now." I replied quietly, I already knew that, losing my parents had been very bad for me back then. With the bags in one hand, he gave me a half hug with his other arm.

"Just take care of yourself, you have to stay healthy at all costs. That's the most important thing right now." he reminded me and I smiled at him reassuringly. His concern touched me and I thought of Juhee's words again. But as much as I had watched him over the last few days, I hadn't noticed anything, he was equally caring and nurturing towards all of us. She must have been mistaken. Wooyoung, however, was a different story. He kept seeking me out and cuddling me all the time. But I didn't mind, because I always felt a joyful tingling sensation when he touched me and his looks had almost made my heart skip a beat more than once. We hadn't yet had the conversation we wanted to have because our grief for Juhee had thwarted our plans, but I sensed that there was definitely something between us.

When he took my hand in a quiet minute in the afternoon and led me into his room, I didn't know if I was prepared for what he was going to tell me, I had a hunch what it was, but I wasn't sure. Or maybe I was just hoping that he would confess his feelings to me and then it was something completely different? My thoughts were a mess, but when he closed the door, he didn't say anything at first, but took my face in his hands and kissed me tenderly. The kiss was innocent and yet so full of emotion, leaving me with a warm feeling in my chest and an army of butterflies in my stomach. Feeling his soft lips on mine was the most beautiful feeling I had felt in a very long time and I savored every second until he gently pulled away from me to look into my eyes.

"I never thought I would dare to tell you this, because circumstances have always forbidden us to do so, but now... no one knows how much time we have left and I don't want to waste any more precious time procrastinating. That's why... I love you... I want so much for you to be mine."