Dream Wandering • Yunsang

Let Me Heal What's Broken

"I remember mum and dad trying to contact Aunty and Uncle Kang, when they hadn't arrived at the BBQ place. We were sitting there so long none the wiser to what was happening, my parents and grandparents began to wonder what was holding them up. Grandma kept saying how the rain was a bad omen but nobody paid mind to her babbling"

"Suddenly we could here sirens getting louder and louder, we didn't know what was happening, but Grandma was passing worried glances at the door, it was like she knew something bad was going to happen . . was happening. Then someone came into the BBQ place and they began to explain how the roads were all being diverted because a car had fallen off the side of the mountain"

"I recall mum and dad looking at each other and then at grandma, something flashed in their eyes although I didn't understand what, I was only 8. They didn't tell me what was happening at the time, and I didn't truly find out what had happened until later but my family learnt that it was my aunt, uncle and Yeosang who had gone over the cliff face"

"Yeosang's father, my uncle, died from the fall, both Yeosang and my aunt were unconscious, their bodies broken, but still alive, barely. My aunt passed away in the ambulance, yet somehow Yeosang held on. He's always been a fighter and it was no more clear than when his body was fighting to keep him alive. The doctors believe that Yeosang was able to hold on so long because his mother had the soulmate ability of healing. Even though the strength she passed to him wasn't as effective as it would have been on her husband, that tiny ounce of power was what kept his weakened and frail body alive long enough for the ambulance to arrive, and giving him the strength to survive the trip to the hospital"

"Yeosang went into a coma, and he stayed that way for a whole 2 years. His body needed time to heal his broken bones; his legs, his ribs, his spine and the worst, his skull. His injuries had his body painted in purple, yellowy-green and red. I remember dad taking me to see him and he was coddled so tightly in bandages, tubes and wires coming out everywhere to keep him alive. Yeosang looked unrecognisable, it was hard to look at him without feeling pain in your chest. Seeing him so small and weak broke my heart"

"When Yeosang finally did wake he was never the same. He was completely paralysed, vegetative, his ability to speak gone, his once bubbly former self swept away like sand. He was no longer in control of his own body, completely unresponsive. Mum and dad took him in since he was now an orphan. But he obviously couldn't do anything himself, he was like a doll that my mum had to feed through a tube in his stomach, wash and change. We moved into the country manor, Yeosang's home. Mum liked to think that Yeosang would like to be in a place that was familiar for him since he had only ever been to our house rarely twice a year. It was usually our family that drove out to see them"

"We prayed every day that Yeosang would suddenly come to life again. We even employed a bunch of people with the soulmate ability to heal, to try and mend him, although as expected their efforts achieved nothing"

"Mum and dad now live a little ways down the road and I live here with Taeyeon and our daughter Chaewon. We always thought of you, his soulmate. We always wondered whether you would ever be able to find Yeosang while he was like this. I'm sorry Yunho . . I'm so sorry"

Broken bones, spinal injury, fatal impact to the brain, Yunho was suddenly understanding why Yeosang didn't know a thing. It was a wonder Yeosang was alive at all after going through all that, and to lose your parents in such a tragic way, that loss would cut deep.

Maybe it was better that he didn't recall the moment his whole life changed. It would be so traumatic if he remembered the fall, and Yeosang would be a very different person if he could. Yunho couldn't even begin to imagine the feelings and emotions he must have felt, the things he saw when the car was falling.