solace | theboyz

epilogue

the person stumbles behind and hits her head on the receptionist desk, slowly sinking down to the floor while holding her head. she winces, trying to register the pain building up. rania staggered backwards, mentally cussing herself for being so careless. she never realised that she had pulled her too strong, until the person was already on the floor.

rania then gives out a hand, helping the latter to stand up as yeonha watches them, amused.

"do you wish to die early, rania ?"

rania sheepishly smiles at her, "i'm sorry, chief chae.. but i kind of in need of your help right now,"

sara glares at her, fixing herself as her eyes switches to the little person besides rania.

"my sweet boy yeonha ! sara misses you a lot..." she crouches infront of the boy, trying to engulf him in a hug but the boy runs to her mother's back, hiding from her.

"you see.. yeonha fell and scraped his knees earlier at school and technically i am off duty today so it would be illegal for me to rummage through those boxes of ointments to treat my son's cuts so... if you're free-"

"you're such a pain in the ass you know ?" sara cuts her off, straightens herself back up, towering rania. she rolls her eyes before gesturing rania to follow her to the clinical department. they walk together through the crowd and reach a room that was unoccupied.

sara takes all of the stuffs she needed for the wound dressings and walk to the family again. she sets her tray besides yeonha, then looks up to the kid and asks for his permission to touch his legs.

she rolls his shorts higher to get a better view of the wound, and assesses it shortly. rania stood by yeonha's side, watching sara dresses up his wound perfectly. it does not take too long, as it was not a major cuts but there's quite amount of blood dripping as she did her work, causing her to decide and patch up more cotton tissue to the wound.

after sara was done, she walk over the desk, taking out treats that she keeps inside a drawer for snacking purposes. she turns to yeonha and waves the lollipop.

"you did a good job handling the pain ! here's a little gift for our precious yeonha..."

yeonha squeals excitedly as he took the candy from her, waving it to his mother whom smiling all the way through. her heart suddenly feels full, looking at the two person infront of her, with the older attacking the little kid with hugs while the kid shouts in excitement. she has always loved kids. rania then found herself joining in the hugging session between those two, who both rather seems like her children.

sara breaks herself free from the hugs after a few minutes, keeping the smile on her face. she then ushered them out of the room, saying it's a bit suffocating inside. when they went out, rania glances back at the room, finally understanding why.

"sara, let's go get lunch together or something.. let me treat you today," rania suggests.

"that sounds go-" sara glances at her watch, almost tripping herself when she realised that she was late onto something. she looks at rania apologetically, mentally burying herself underground because she had been swayed by the time that she does not realised it was already late.

"it's okay. i know, i was just worried about you today. that's partly why i came to visit.. we can go together there if you want ?"

rania feels her heart aches at the change in sara's expression, because no matter how much she tried to hide it, sara was like an open book. emotions shows through her eyes, and she just knew that she had to be there with her every year, on the very same day.

upon seeing sara's approval, they walk to rania's car and the atmosphere during the journey rather seems quiet. yeonha fell asleep along the way in the back seat, hugging the candy that the doctor had given him, scared that his mom would take it away.

the journey filled with silence and without her even realising it, they already reached the graveyard. rania glances at sara gradually, and her heart feels heavy everytime she looked at her. the face that rather seems calm, but rania knows deep down she never was used to these visitings to lee jaehyun's grave every year. that was why rania promised herself to always be with sara on this very day, to ensure that she was grieving well. sara smiles lightly, as she looks at rania who is out of words herself.

"do you want to see him ? it's fine if you don't want to i can go-"

"we'll go together. i will ask the guard to watch over yeonha and the car," rania says, gesturing her to leave the car. eventually, they bring themselves to the grave that has a name carved onto the tombstone.

lee jaehyun (1986-2018)

"god it still feels unreal.." sara starts, taking her place beside rania. "it felt like yesterday," she chokes, failing to hide her tears as she broke down once again. rania sighs, patting her slowly as she tries to breathe better. holding up her own tears was hard enough, but after seeing sara losing it, she feels fresh tears rolls down her cheeks.

"how are you these days ? sorry i didn't come here sooner. sorry i can't visit you everyday.. it must've been lonely for you isn't it ? i'm sorry..."

hearing what sara had just said was too much for her; rania scrambles up quickly and make her way further from the grave. her heart can't handle how cruel destiny had been onto both of her friends, and the fact that she had been living a happy life sometimes made her think onto the what ifs for them.

"sara doesn't deserve that.." rania cries, choking onto her own tears. "they both never deserve that.."

her knees were about to give up but the silhouette of a man infront of her stopped her on tracks. she looks up, greeted by a very familiar face.

"juyeon.."

the brown haired bows, remotely not showing any emotions through his actions nor face. she was about to open her mouth when he speaks.

"i'm here to pay my respect," he says.

"so you knew ?"

he merely nods, before making his way to the grave, leaving her behind. rania watches as he walks over to sara who's still on her knees, seemingly has stopped crying.

juyeon stops his tracks a few steps behind sara, having no intention to bother the latter. he saw her turn around, facing him as she dusts her pants.

"say, lee juyeon, how is your heart ? have you been living well ?"

juyeon's head drops, as he sidesteps her and put a bouquet of flowers he was holding onto the grave beside hyunjae's picture. he kneeled down, offering his prayers silently. a tear dropped, but he quickly brush it away.

he then stands up, looking back at once was her doctor, along with the person in the picture on the grave. they were both his saviours, and without both of them he would never able to stand there by now.

"may i take your hand ?" he asks, still wearing the same expression.

she looks at him quizzically, but still gives her hand out. he slowly takes it, bringing it to his left chest. applying a slight pressure, he then see the person infront of him broke down with her tears.

"his heart is very healthy, and i am protecting it with all my might. i am using this second chance of life that he gave me 10 years ago as much as i can. i am also taking care of my health, so you don't need to worry. i am forever in debt to him, and i will, live on behalf of him." juyeon says, before letting her hand go.

he wipes his own tears as his eyes betrayed him, looking visibly much more worse than sara. he sniffs, trying to hold his emotions intact after losing it.

"that's good to hear.." she turns to the grave, "you see that jae ? destiny's might've been very cruel to us but you were our saviour, you saved our lives. we will live for you, so just wait a little. i will meet you again one day and when that day came, i'll tell how much of a warrior you were."

The End.