Seo MinRi
"The test results are out MinRi." He opened the brown envelope on his desk gingerly, biting on his lower lips nervously. "You've stage 3 Brain cancer and the tumor is malignant , we can't operate on it as it is in your cerebellum - we can't remove it without harming your other healthy brain cells."
My breathing halted momentarily; my fist unknowingly balled up by my sides, marking puce crescents in my pale white skin.
What? Brain cancer. Malignant tumor. Not operable.
Was I... going to die?
I blinked once, twice and thrice before parting my lips slowly. " How...how long more do I have left to live?" I asked voicelessly.
A crease appeared between his brows as he licked on his lower lip solicitously, running a hand through his impeccably styled brunette hair, messing it up. " I don't know MinRi, a day more? A week more? A month more? I don't have an answer, because the tumor may just burst at any time and you'll be gone. It's like a time bomb inside your head. "
" So I...I...I may die anytime? "
He nodded slightly with a sigh and that instantaneously sounded the crashing of my world. Death, my greatest fear, was literarily next to me with that time bomb planted inside my head- it was next on my repertoire. My tongue swiped across my lips, wetting it before pursing them tightly in a straight line; my face void of any emotion.
Nothing was processing in my head, everything was too surreal to be true.
I was only twenty-two, turning twenty-three this year, a healthy female who exercised and ate healthily, a mother of my three-year-old daughter.
This couldn't be true.
" You're lying right TaeMin?" I questioned quietly, praying fervently on the inside that it was a joke, a stupid prank. " It isn't true right?"
TaeMin got up from his seat and walked over to me, kneeling on the ground as his warm and brown orbs meet mine. " I'm sorry..." He lowers his head compunctiously, the teary choke evident in his throat.
" I'm sorry." He chanted repeatedly as he wiped the tears fallen on his face with the back of his hand. " I'm so sorry MinRi...I'm a doctor and I'm supposed to save lives but I can't even...I can't even save the life of my best friend! I'm...I'm useless...What kind of a doctor am I...? "
His hands drew around my neck as he pulled me into his embrace, my head pressed against his firm chest; his usual cool minty scent traveling to my nose but unlike the previous times, his scent didn't comfort me instead it aggravated the acrimonious feeling in me. I stayed motionless and limp in his embrace- my thoughts were too messed up, too petulant to process anything not to mention do anything.
The fact that I was dying clouded my mind, only that and nothing else mattered......
I let out a breathy sigh as I received the transparent bottle filled with the usual blue pills from TaeMin. The male sitting opposite me , fiddled with the porcelain cup filled with his usual and favorite drink- espresso, encircled in his hands; an undefinable expression- a mix between relief and melancholy, solidified his face.
" So how've you been?"
I bit on my lower lip, inhaling deeply. " I'm fine."I lied, with a smile tugging at the corners of my lips. My voice was shaky from the blatant lie that he failed to catch on.
" Are you sure?" TaeMin averts his gaze from his coffee cup, his eyes met mine as he raised his eyebrows questioningly. " I don't think so..."
Or not....
