Sweet Night (18+) || kth ||

Chapter 18

WARNING: Contains content that some readers might find disturbing

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I just wanted it all to end. I kept on telling myself that it was a dream, a nightmare, that I'll soon wake up and Sunny would still be alive. But it wasn't. One moment, she was happily planning the little stunt at the Palace, the next she was dead.

I finally got my legs to move and I was beside her when the ambulance arrived. I didn't care that people were pointing at me. I just kept asking Sunny to wake up because she still needs to buy those tickets. I wanted it all to be a bad joke, that I was on hidden camera. But I was there when they took her to the hospital. I was there when Mr. Cho arrived and asked me what was going on. I was there when Sujin arrived, looking lost, calling out Sunny's name over and over again, then breaking down in the middle of ER when the doctor told her that Sunny had passed away. DOA from extreme blood loss.

I was there. I was there. But I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even comfort Sujin as she cried on the floor. I can only watch as the nurses took her. They wouldn't let her see the body. I wish they wouldn't, no matter how much she begs them. I couldn't stop Mr. Cho as he led me away and took me home myself. The news was overflowing about the accident. Everyone wanted a statement. Who was the girl? What was my relationship to her? But as I sat alone in my apartment, I recalled the promise that Sunny asked me to make. That I would love her sister, that I will never break her heart, that I will stay by her side forever.

That was when I finally sobbed. I should have known something was going to happen. Sunny was entrusting her sister to me because she wouldn't be around to take care of her anymore. And she said so herself: she only wanted to return the favor to her sister.

So, I cried, and I cried. I raged and threw stuff around. It wasn't fair! Sunny was just starting out in her life. She hadn't even graduated high school yet. She still had that scholarship she won for the next school year! She had her whole life ahead of her, why did the universe have to take it away from her all too soon?

Later on, inquest would reveal that the driver was driving under the influence. He didn't see the lights change because he was busy trying to retrieve the phone he'd dropped. He didn't even know he ran over someone not until he felt the bump on the road. He was pronounced guilty beyond reasonable doubt and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Compared to the life he took, his sentence looked petty and mild.

The agency released an official statement that the victim Lee Sunny's family was a family friend of ours. Her sister worked in our agency until shortly before her death. We were waiting for her sister to meet us at the café that day, but she didn't show up, so we parted ways. None of it mattered to me though. I was inconsolable. She'd been like a little sister to me too. It was just all so unfair!

On the second day of the wake, I told Mr. Cho that I was going to attend. I could tell that he didn't want me to but seeing as they were "a close family friend", he relented. I hadn't been able to sleep properly as the memory of the accident kept on flashing in my head. My one consolation was that at least Sujin did not see it. I know it would kill her. If it was tormenting me, what more for her? Nor could I eat. The sight of so much blood – real blood, not the fake ones on set – took the appetite out of me. Sunny's life seeped out of my fingers and there was nothing I could do about it. So, I know I was a little worse for the wear when we went to the wake.

Because of their economic status, they could only afford a small prayer room for Sunny. They were at the same hospital where we took her but tucked away in a corner. They didn't even have a reception room. We were ushered past the dining hall, through a well-lit corridor and into a room that was just big enough for an altar and a praying area.