relationships

열넷 (final)

after seungyoon left, i was unable to fall back asleep. instead, i tossed and turned around in bed, my conscience feeling super duper guilty for treating him the way i did just now.

i felt light tapping on my shoulder and yelled annoyingly, "yah, can't you just leave me alone for awhile?"

"umm nam chaewon-ssi?" a female voice spoke softly.

i turned around and realised that it was the nurse.

"oh... mianhae." i apologised embarrassingly.

she smiled warmly and said, "ani, it's okay. ah, i just wanted to inform you that the test results are out and they show that you're perfectly fine, which means you may be discharged now."

i thanked her and changed out of the hospital gown into my own clothes. plugging in my earphones and shuffling my playlist, i headed to the bus stop to take a bus home. i sighed as i settled down on a seat, looking out of the window as i recollected the recent events. within a few months... just within a few months... and so much stuff happened in my life. 30 minutes passed by and i finally arrived at home. dumping my bag onto the sofa, i went to take a shower.

as i came out while drying my hair, my phone rang. i dragged my feet unwillingly and i went to pick it up. noticing that the caller was seungyoon, i sighed before picking up.

"what?"

"annyeonghaseyo, this is nam chaewon-ssi right?" a voice that wasn't seungyoon spoke.

"ne... nuguseyo?"

"ah, i'm seungyoon's friend, namjoon."

"i see... but why did you call though?"

"seungyoon... he... got hospitalised. he got into a car accident."

"m... m... mwo?"

"i know... he's such a careless brat... anyway, i need your help."

"how?"

"i need you to go to seungyoon's house and retrieve his identification card and birth certificate. the first one is in his wallet which should probably be somewhere in the living room and the second one is in the second last drawer in the cupboard in his room. don't find me weird though, i'm just a really really good friend of his so i literally know where everything is."

"oh okay..." you paused for a while before asking, "do you happen to know the passcode though?" as you recollected that the door was actually left unlocked the last time you went to his house.

"that, i'm not sure, but i think you would know."

"what do you mean?"

"seungyoon did mention to me before that the passcode is the birthday of someone important to him. i tried his parents' and my birthday before and they all didn't work, so i guess it's only yours then."

"okay then... i'll go over now."

i left the house, with my hair still slightly wet and my clothes still the comfy home wear. i arrived at seungyoon's house in about 20 minutes and as soon as i got there, i tried entering my own birthday as the passcode — 0831. the door beeped and i opened it. so indeed it was my birthday... am i really that important to him? i stepped inside and retrieved everything i needed from right where namjoon mentioned.

as i prepared to leave, i walked past what i guessed to be seungyoon's room and couldn't help but look inside. the interior was simple and cozy, with his bed in one corner and a table opposite of it. however, what caught my eye was a book laying open on top of the table. as i walked closer, i realised that it was actually a diary. curiously, i began flipping through the pages filled with his writings and even some illustrations. suddenly, a polaroid dropped out of one of the pages. it was the picture i took with him on the day we went on a date and became 'siblings'. i smiled slightly at the memory as i slotted the polaroid back to page where it dropped from. i accidentally read the date written on that page and i noticed it was the day when seungyoon first joined the cafe and we first met. i decided to read on.