The Most Beautiful Moment in Life

Chapter 3: Expectation!

A/N: caution--long chapter ahead (jk, this isn't a warning but just to let you know...)

I stepped on the old doormat as I usually would, sending puffs of dust floating into the air. "Halmeoni-ah, I'm home! Should I make dinner now?" I called to her room before a pang of realisation hit me.

"Never mind then," I mumbled, embarrassed and saddened all over again. I made my grandmother's favourite porridge and ate it the way she would: slowly and peacefully, savouring the taste. It reminded me of how she would always smile at me for taking care of her.

Halmeoni, you took care of me first.

I finished the porridge with that thought and went to my room. It wasn't huge, just a lot of coarse wooden floorboards and peeling wallpaper. I made a beeline to the top drawer in my study table, then unlocked a hidden compartment with all the money I had earned from working.

Oh, right, I didn't go to work today. I didn't even tell my boss or anyone. I am so dead.

Irrelevant.

I shook my head, filtering out the random worries and started counting the money I had saved up. A sad smile crept up my face as I realised that was enough to have a relatively cheap funeral service for my grandmother. I brought some spare change along with the wad of cash and headed over to a payphone some distance away to call for a funeral service.

"Hello?" I spoke hesitantly into the payphone. The countdown clock showing me the time I had left made me even more uncomfortable and claustrophobic in the small space as if a bomb would go off at any moment there. I waited for a few seconds before hearing a reply.

"Hello, this is XXX Funeral Service. What can we do for you today?" a female voice spoke, calm and cool, somewhat unnatural. I thought picking up calls asking for funeral services as her job would at least knock some sympathy in her, but I guess professionalism always came first in any business.

"Well, my grandmother passed on today so I wanted to have a burial service for her..." I trailed off lamely, trying to collect my thoughts. "Is there such a service under--" I told her how much I have with me "--that you can help with?"

The voice on the other end paused for a second and said, " Sorry, there is no such service." Then the line went dead. Tears welled up in my eyes at her cold words. She didn't even say sorry? How can she not feel that when someone dies?

Time skip...

It was already late at night when I returned home. This time, I didn't even bother to call for my grandmother anymore but instead sat idly on the bed and started to cry myself to sleep.

Unknowingly, I drifted off to sleep.

The same setting, the same funeral, but I saw yet another unfamiliar memory. It was of a girl riding bicycles around a park, but the bicycles looked old. The whole memory itself looked faded and 19-somethings. Something didn't feel right. But then I saw the girl's eyes again. The cat-like eyes never glowed with the luminosity they did before.

But suddenly, everything changed.

The wind picked up speed and the dead leaves on the ground flew around in a frenzy. The shafts of light above seemed to filter through the clouds more than usual, like a waterfall of light gushing from the starry river in the sky. I heard a piercing scream leave my mouth as I was subject to the usual but still agonising pain. I felt like a drowning person in the deepest part of the ocean. But I couldn't propel myself upwards, I needed air--

I woke up.

I could see the sun peeking through the clouds like a shy child from the window. I had slept through the whole night.