Broken String

Chapter 2

 Byun Baekhyun:

Words of goodbye escaped my mouth when I heard a rustle of leaves on the ground. Footsteps, I thought, and so I turned around to see a view of a young lady who was just about to sprint away. Minyeong . . . An image of her in dismay as she walked backwards shoot a bullet through my brain. She misunderstood everything. A minute ago, I was embracing a relative who knowingly was unfamiliar to her. I followed her tracks, and in an instant, voices of quarrels bombarded in a blast. I tried to let out a sound and speak of the truth, but her indignant voice never gave me a chance to. Her irate expression zipped my lips shut, trapping the opinions pleading to escape and clumping it into a burning lump down my throat. It gave me the urge to cry, but was I surprised when her own silver beads came out before mine. A drop of agony hit the ground and splashed the roots on my feet, locking them both on the ground. I reached out a hand as she paused from rambling. A hand in its extent, trying to wipe away the pain, met nothing but the humid afternoon breeze as she looked away. And there I stood frozen while she cut a string of a powerful bond. The only passionate string which kept us connected was now gone.

I looked past the gray pavement where she walked by. I stood there dumbfounded, pondering about how all these things happened so fast. Until then, a loud screech awakened me from my thoughts. A mob of bystanders clustered in a flash. I squeezed through the crowd and saw the most heart-breaking scenery I had never expected to see in my entire life. She lay there, blood smothered all over her body. I screamed her name and ran to her as I cupped the back of her head.

“Everything will be alright,” I whispered. “What are you all standing there? Someone call the ambulance!” I yelled at the mob in panic. Soon after, warning lights and sirens blew off. I watched as men in dark blue uniforms carried her to a stretcher and board before I hopped in the vehicle with them. I held her hand all the while as tears streamed down my face. I prayed and prayed and prayed, and the next thing I knew, we arrived at the hospital.

They didn’t allow me in the emergency room, so I sat on the bench on the hall, elbows rested on my knees and face buried on my blood-stained palms. With my head down I prayed, I asked the almighty one above to let her be safe. I dialed her parents’ number, and as soon as a delightful female voice answered, I stuttered finding the right words to say without overwhelming her. “Sweetie, what’s wrong?” she asked. It took me a while to catch my breath from sobbing before uttering a word.

“Mrs. Kim,” I said, “Minyeong . . . she—” that was all I managed to say before weeping again.

“Honey, please calm down. What’s happening?” In a very watchful manner, I told her about the heart-breaking catastrophe. And after a very long pause followed a repetitive whimper.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “Please, come here soon.”

A few hours have passed, and the operation was done. I entered the pure white room and saw her lying on a bed, her head and arm all wrapped with a bandage. I took a seat next to her lying figure and admired how she still looked beautiful in spite of all the bruises she had. Her eyelashes stood out with her eyes calmly closed. Her cheeks speckled with crimson from the heat brightened up her pale face. Her soft, thin lips were chipped and dull, but they never failed tempting me to place my own against them. I stayed there for hours. I sat there staring at her without moving, expecting that she’d wake up any moment. I looked at her in regret, thinking that I shouldn’t have let her go. I should have held her wrist when she walked away instead of just standing in bafflement, and I should’ve wrapped her in my arms as she turned around. I should’ve done all that, and none of these could’ve happened. I should’ve done all that, and the broken string could’ve been replaced with a ribbon tying us together. But it was too late. I stared at her, not wanting to shift my gaze away from her weak body. But as the evening came and the darkness devoured the sky, my already droopy lids slowly felt heavy and covered up the pupils that never wanted to stop looking at that particular being in front of it.