Echoes of the Rain

waiting

After a few hours, I finally calm myself, my breathing steadier, but the heaviness in my chest is still there. I glance at the clock—it's been over two hours since Yohan left. Guilt washes over me. I reach for my phone, fumbling with it as I try to call him, ready to apologize, to take back every hurtful word.

As I press his number, my phone rings suddenly. It’s his number. Relief floods me—he must be calling me back.

“Hello…” I answer quickly.

But the voice on the other end is not his.

“Hello… who is this?” I ask, my voice shaky with confusion.

A stranger's voice, tense and urgent, responds, "The person whose phone this is… his car crashed and fell into the ABC River… Hello?”

The words hit me like a punch to the gut, knocking the air out of my lungs.

“Wha…what?” I stammer, disbelief choking my voice.

The news strikes straight into my heart, like a shard of ice freezing everything inside me. I feel the ground beneath me vanish, as if the whole world has collapsed into a void. My hands start to tremble, and I clutch the phone tighter, hoping it will somehow make this unreal nightmare disappear.

Time seems to slow, the room spinning around me, my heartbeat thundering in my ears. My mind races, trying to make sense of the words I just heard. I can't breathe. Panic claws at my throat as my legs give way beneath me. It feels like I've been torn open from the inside, my world shattered with a single sentence.

I ran through the relentless rain, its cold, sharp drops beating against my skin. My mind was numb, my senses overwhelmed. I didn't even think to put on proper clothes or shoes. I just ran, barefoot on the wet pavement, my feet stinging with each step, the icy puddles splashing up against my legs. My hair clung to my face, rain pouring down in sheets, blurring my vision. I didn't care. I needed to get to him. I needed to see Yohan.

Reaching the taxi stand, I waved frantically at a cab. "To the ABC River, hurry!" I shouted, my voice breaking.

The drive felt like a lifetime, each second an eternity, my heart pounding louder than the rain against the car window. When I finally arrived, the scene was chaotic—red and blue lights flashing, a crowd of onlookers gathering, police and rescue workers moving with purpose. I stumbled out of the taxi, still barefoot, my clothes drenched, my breaths coming out in ragged gasps.

I had no idea where to go, where to look. My eyes darted around frantically until a policeman approached me.

“Are you?” he began, his expression somber and professional.

“A…am his wife…” I managed to choke out, barely recognizing my own voice.

The policeman nodded, his eyes softened with sympathy. “Ma’am, please calm down. It looks like your… you should call other family members as well.”

“Wh…where is he?” I stammered, my voice thin, barely audible over the rain.

He hesitated, glancing towards the riverbank where the searchlights focused. “They’re still looking, ma’am. The car… it went into the water. The rescue team is doing their best, but…” he trailed off.

His words cut through me like shards of glass. I stood there, my entire body trembling, the cold seeping into my bones. The rain didn’t matter. The cold didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except Yohan. I needed to see him. To find him. To hold onto the hope that somehow, he would be okay.

Policeman: "His car crashed and broke through the barrier. It must have been the rain... We found the car, but not him. His phone was found under the car."

The words hung in the air, echoing in my mind as my body began to tremble uncontrollably. I couldn't feel anything except a numbing cold spreading through my limbs, a void opening up in my chest. The rain kept pouring, and everything around me seemed to blur into a single, relentless grey.

The policeman handed me a towel, but I barely felt it in my shaking hands. "We called the last number he dialed," he continued, "a Mr. Park his brother."

Just then, yoonsoo came running through the rain, his face filled with worry and panic. His eyes met mine, and I saw the same fear mirrored in them, the same desperate hope fighting against the dark reality that threatened to swallow us both.

"Yuri!" Yoonsoo shouted, skidding to a halt beside me, breathless. "What happened? They called me… Is it true? Where is he?"

I could barely find my voice, my lips quivering. "They… they haven’t found him yet," I whispered, the words barely escaping my lips. "Just the car… just the car, yoonsoo…"

Yoonsoo put his arm around me, trying to steady my trembling form. "He’ll be okay, Yuri… He has to be," he murmured, but his voice wavered with uncertainty. We both turned our gaze back to the water, searching, hoping for any sign of him in the churning, merciless waves.

The search dragged on through the night, every minute feeling like an eternity. The cold seeped into my bones, the rain never stopping, a relentless drumbeat on the pavement. I held onto the hope that maybe, just maybe, they would find him alive… that this was all just a nightmare I’d wake up from.

Finally, a policeman approached us, his expression grim. "Ma’am," he said softly, "we found him."

My heart stopped. "Where… where is he?" Yoonsoo asked, his voice tight with anxiety.

"Come with us," the policeman replied.

My entire body was trembling, my knees threatening to give way beneath me. Yoonsoo wrapped an arm around my shoulders, trying to support me. "Yuri, maybe you should stay here," he suggested, concern etched across his face.

"No," I whispered, my voice barely more than a breath. "No… I need to see him."

I felt like I was walking through a fog, each step heavy and slow as if my feet were made of lead. Yoonsoo kept his arm around me, guiding me forward, his own face pale and drawn. I stumbled through the mud and rain, barely aware of anything around me except the thundering of my heartbeat in my ears.

When we reached the spot, I saw him… lying there on the ground, his body pale and lifeless. Yohan, my Yohan. The water had soaked his clothes, and his hair was matted to his forehead. His eyes were closed, his face so still. Too still.

"No… no, no, no," I muttered, my voice breaking as I fell to my knees beside him. My hands reached out, touching his cold skin, willing him to open his eyes, to smile, to tell me this was just another one of his jokes. "Yohan… please… wake up…"

But there was nothing. No response. No breath. Just silence.

The world around me seemed to collapse in on itself. My chest tightened, my breath caught in my throat, and the tears that I had been holding back burst forth like a dam breaking. "Yohan!" I screamed, my voice raw and broken. "Please… don’t leave me… not like this…"

Yoonsoo knelt beside me, trying to hold me up as I shook uncontrollably. "Yuri, please… you need to breathe… please," he urged, his own eyes wet with tears.

But I couldn’t hear him. All I could see was Yohan, the love of my life, lying there, gone. The pain was unbearable, a searing fire that consumed me from the inside. My vision blurred, the edges of my consciousness dimming, and then… everything went black.

I passed out, collapsing into yoonsoo’s arms, unable to bear the weight of a world without Yohan in it.