Under the sky in room 553 I discovered you and I

Part 14

"Is that the end?" The child asked, stifling a small yawn. Evening was drawing in, and the sky outside their window began to gradually give its light away to darkness.

"Not really, but yes. For a while, she was happy." Yeji bit back a small smile. We were happy, was what she omitted from the child.

But it was like she knew, because immediately after, she asked. "With you, miss nurse?"

A hint of colour washed over Yeji's face at being put on the spot; by a somewhat three year old child, no less. "You can say so."

The child sat up from her sleeping position now, visibly excited. "Then, where is he now?"

The smile on Yeji's face dimmed. "She's with her happily ever after." This made the little girl frown in confusion, like she wasn't expecting the story to take that turn. "She's with the angel girl"

Sighing, Yeji reached in to mess up the girl's hair. "She's not just with the angels. She's now one of them."

The child shrieked, displeased. "But how?"

But how?

Yeji can vividly recall asking herself the same exact question when it just happened. She remembered rushing to the park as soon as she saw the headlines that the alarming rate of autumn wildfire had reached the city. She prayed and prayed that Jimin wouldn't be there as her long legs took her to the location she dreaded, two steps at a time.

Yeji had never run this fast in her life.She was hoping that she'd be proven wrong, and that the older girl was just in the shower or something when she didn't pick up her phone thrice in a row.

She could barely catch her breaths when she finally halted to a stop, holding onto a street light pole to steady herself.

The only thing she saw was red. Red filled his vision. Red was reflected in the panicked gaze of his eyes. Red, angry as it rapidly consumed everything it touched, spreading like a pool of venomous blood. It painted everything crimson—the trees, the grass, the Ferris wheel he saw from afar, the clock tower—as piles of thick, black smoke pummeled into the sky.

Pedestrians were yelling, scattered about as they tried to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the burning park. Yeji was the only person doing the complete opposite.

The scene was awfully horrific, yet nothing felt nearly as terrifying as the way her guts sank into the pit of his stomach.

It was barely dusk, and sunlight was escaping them. Yet, the whole park was set alight, as bright as the sun itself; the wildfire sparing nothing in its destructive wake. As she desperately tried to peek through the gates that were now consumed in flames as well, she prayed and prayed.

Please, do not let her be under that maple tree.

Yeji's heart almost failed her when she successfully rounded the property, stopping at a spot that earned her a vague view of the giant maple tree inside. Perhaps she should work out more in the future.

Yet, in the next second, all thoughts were wiped clean in her head when she caught sight of a familiar dark-haired female, standing exactly where Yeji wished she wouldn't be.

There, Jiminstood, phone in hand as she stared at Yeji's last call going straight into her voicemail. How long had it been? Jimin was never good at keeping up with the time.

She only remembered coming to the park after finishing her last dance class of her shift at the academy, a guitar strung to her back as she walked the familiar route to her favourite spot. She'd only planned to spend some time in solidarity, playing a song to herself, and maybe watch the sunset for a bit before going out for dinner with Yeji.