Under the sky in room 553 I discovered you and I

Part 2

"Miss nurse, why are there so many hearts in here?"

Fluorescent lights began to flood the room after she flipped the switch. Yeji had let the girl come in ahead of her before she slid the door close.

The room was exactly just as they'd left it three years ago; in which Yejinever let anyone, herself included, enter it since. Just being here alone made her body feel like it was being torn through a time warp. Inhaling a deep breath, her eyes finally flickered up to take in her surroundings.

It wasn't anything different from other hospital rooms. The bed was perfectly made.The sheets were white-so were the sheets, the floor, the ceiling, and just about anything else. Almost the entire room was adorned in white. Nothing unordinary.

Except for the masses and masses of origami hearts-all in different colours-filling the entire room to the brim everywhere one would look. Colours rippled in bright paper hues through his field of vision; left to right, up to down. It was taped on the wall, much so that there was barely room for the white paint to peek through. Strings and strings of it were hung up across the ceiling in multiple rows, criss-crossing like bedroom lights decoration.It was by the bed; on the nightstand, on the pillow, and carefully spread out on the sheets.

Yeji could perfectly recall how he was right there, taping the hearts onto the wall, tying the strings, scattering them on the sheets-three years ago, like it was just yesterday.

The little one carefully sat down on the chair right by the bed, but Yeji lifted her up and put her on the mattress. Her tiny frame was huddled by the sea of origami hearts on the sheet; the sight was oddly endearing, but heart-wrenching to her for reasons the female would rather not address.

The nurse sat herself down on the bedside chair, pulled it closer, and handed the child a random heart he picked up. "Have you ever heard about the origami hearts tradition in the hospital?"

Taking the heart, the child excitedly inspected it, nodding in glee. "Yes! My mama told me that when someone leaves the hospital to go to heaven, we all fold a paper heart for them!Like this, like this!"

"That's right," chuckled Yeji. The pure, innocent excitement of a child almost single-handedly brightened the morbid ambiance of this room, something that no one was able to accomplish for countless years to come. Yeji found it highly ironic. "But do you know how it started?"

The girl shook her head, handing her paper heart to the Peitero duck so they could inspect it together. This alone tugged at Yeji's heartstrings.

"Well, then. I'll tell you a story." she cleared her throat, and the child looked up at her with the brightest eyes in the world, waiting for her to go on with her lips shaped into a perfect 'o'.I wonder if you sent her into my path. As a sign.

"It started here, in this room. From a girl who used to fold a paper heart every day for her lost love, hoping each one she makes will take her closer to the day those eyes would open again."