Poignant

Chapter Twenty Two

Miyeon's POV

I knocked gently on the door, waiting for it to be opened. On the other side, I heard some shuffling, the creak of a chair, and then footsteps began to approach the door. It was opened to reveal Soyeon, a small smile resting on her face.

"Hi Soyeon, how are you?" I asked, replicating her smile as she gladly let me in.

"I'm doing quite well, Miyeon," she replied, her voice unusually happy. "How are you?"

"I'm doing quite well," I answered honestly, sitting down in the chair next to hers. "So, what did you call me here for?"

I had received a call from Soyeon at six in the morning, asking me to come down to Yuqi's room. Which is odd on so many levels. For one, Soyeon doesn't particularly like to be disturbed when she is with Yuqi, even if one of them isn't conscious. For two, Soyeon is never up this early. The only time she is up super early is if she is working working, which, by the look of her tidied desk, she wasn't.

Soyeon went quiet for a moment, sitting down in the chair next to me before taking my hands into hers.

This was unusual. Soyeon hates skin ships. She only ever tolerates them from Yuqi.

"Listen, I need you to fully hear me out before speaking, okay?"

I furrowed my brows in confusion, wondering why she would ask such a thing of me, but I agreed with a nod anyway.

"I want you to examine my eyes and see if one of them is compatible enough to give to Yuqi," she stated, her face completely serious. Not in the intimidating way, but in the way that told me she most likely wasn't joking around.

"Soyeon, you can't just—"

"You promised you would hear me out completely before you began to speak!" she interrupted, her face flushed red and her voice raised.

I could tell that she wasn't mad or frustrated. Me listening simply meant a lot to her. So, I sighed and refrained from saying anything else, clasping my hands together with hers and making sure she was aware that she had my full attention.

"You must understand that when Yuqi wakes up, everything is going to be different," she said woefully, gently caressing Yuqi's now forever scarred cheek with her fingertips. "She is going to look different, and if she doesn't get a donation, she isn't going to be able to see. Do you know how scary that would be? For anyone?"

I nodded. I do know. My grandfather began to lose his vision before he died. Every day in his hospital room, he would tell me how scared he was to wake up one day and no longer be able to see his granddaughter's face. He had passed away two days after he fully lost his vision. He loved looking at pictures as they were small windows into the past, and when he wasn't able to see anymore, he no longer felt the reason to hang on.

"Miyeon, if she can never see again, she is going to be losing a lot. She will never be able to work alongside us. She'll never be able to fight again. She'll feel alone. So left out and unwanted. She's felt too much of that in the past, trust me. I don't want her to feel any of those things again," she paused, regaining her composure so as not to let any tears fall. "And it may be selfish, but I want her to be able to see me, Miyeon. Even if she does end up being blind for the rest of her life, I'll obviously still be there for her, but if I can prevent that, I want to."

I nodded once more. I could understand that. Anyone could. Going through such a thing with your lover would be horrible.

"She would also feel a lot less weird if she wasn't the only person with one eye in our team, you know," she smiled ruefully. "Alright, I'm done now. You can talk."