Butterfly

Forty

The air felt fresh.

New.

Inviting.

With Mom holding one of my arms, I walked into the school building.

I was wearing a brand new dress.

My hair almost long enough to go past my ears, my feet clad happily in new shoes.

With every step inside I could feel my heart jump with excitement.

I'm finally out of the hospital.

We walked into the makeshift art gallery, all sorts of different types of art around.

But only one stood out.

Directly in the middle of the far wall, was a watercolor painting.

It was a detailed landscape painting of a sunny field.

In the middle of the painting, was a girl. She wore a flowy, light blue dress, and had long, gorgeous brown hair.

She was angelic, with the sunlight gathering around her, and her graceful form was like that of a ballerina.

On the tip of her finger, was the tiniest, little butterfly.

I stopped and stared at it for a while.

Underneath the painting, was a little card with the Title and Artist name.

It read; Jung Hoseok, "Mina's Hope"

Nothing could have wiped that smile off my face that day.

Mom let go of my arm to go talk to some of the school administrators, while I kept looking around.

Then finally, I saw him.

He turned around at the exact right moment.

The absolute joy that spread across his face the moment he saw me, was so bright it was almost overwhelming.

I took a few steps towards him, legs shaking and hands sweaty.

He watched my feet slowly move towards him.

I walked until I was standing right in front of him.

And before I could react, he picked me up and twirled me in his arms right in the middle of the art gallery.

When he put me down he peppered kisses all over my face, out of his complete excitement.

"Oh, Mina"

I laughed at him as he would hug me then step back to look at me, before wrapping me tightly in his arms again.

Eventually he just grabbed my hand, and we walked around the room.

Every so often I would catch him smiling at me, not paying any attention to the art.

Anytime I lost my footing and started to fall, he would hold me up and steady me.

Finally he sat down on one of the benches, with me standing in front of him.

He took my hands in his.

"You're so tall!"

He laughed, his eyes closing with joy.

I could feel my legs starting to break beneath my weight, and quickly sat down next to Hobi.

We were directly next to each other for the first time.

Legs parallel, eyes seeing the same scene.

When I looked over at Hobi next to me, I felt my heart jump as if we just met.

I was surprised to see a pool of tears forming in his eyes.

"You made it."

He sniffled and intertwined our fingers.

"You're out of the hospital."

Though he stated the obvious the excitement was there all the same.

I brought my hand up and wiped away the tears that had escaped him.

"And I'm here."

"And you're here."

With a red face he smiled.

He smiled the brightest smile I had ever seen in my life.

Slowly closing the gap between us, he rested his forehead on mine.

"I love you Mina."

He whispered that.

"I love you too, Hoseok"

I whispered that.

With that he laughed lightly, moving his hand to run through my growing hair, and placed a soft kiss on my head.

I'm really happy I'm alive.

I'm really happy I could be with him.

My time in the hospital came to an end.

And with Hobi, I'm not afraid anymore.

I am not afraid of the end.

——
Don't leave just yet! The epilogue will be out sometime tomorrow or the next day. Haha

I just want to say thank you to all of you who stayed until the very end. I am sincerely so thankful. <3

This is the first big project I ever finished, and I'm honestly so proud of myself. But you guys were the ones that kept me going.

Ily all so much!! Please stay healthy and remember to smile~ ♡