invisible string | park wonbin

11

Yuljin's POV

I laid in bed, as I stared into space.

I couldn't sleep the entire night because of the accident.

My friends are gone.

Tears welled up in my eyes again, as I hugged tightly onto my teddy bear. "I'm sorry." I said repeatedly while burying my face into my teddy.

I heard a knock on my door before it opened. "Yuljin, I cooked some congee. Do you want to eat?" I shook my head, as she gently touched my arm.

"Yuljin, I-" I sat up as I looked at the bowl of congee, before looking over at my mom. "'Mom, they were all so young."

"Why did I, " I started to breathe hard, as my heart started racing faster, and I could feel my head getting dizzy.

She pulled me into a hug, "It's not your fault honey, no one wanted the accident to happen."

I pulled away from the hug, as I laid back down on my bed. "I need some time alone." She nodded, before leaving the room.

I stayed in the same position for a while, a long while.

I just felt dead inside.

Why didn't they survive? Why did I survive? They are probably great people, they were probably so much better than I was, why do I deserve to live and yet they can't?

Even though I did survive, and even though I don't remember much about them but I have this sense of guilt.

I wish I could've swapped places with them.

Wonbin's POV

I felt a nudge, and I came back to reality. "Wonbin, what's the answer for part a?" I looked down at my worksheet, "26." And she nodded, satisfied with my answer.

The entire time, I couldn't focus in class because I was too caught up with how Yuljin was doing.

The minute the bell rang, I stormed out of class. I rushed over to Sungchan's class, and I found him sitting by his seat.

I ran in, and stopped right by his desk. "How's Yuljin?" He shook his head, "She's not coping well with it."

I sighed, as I sat on the desk next to his. "I thought if I removed everything relating to the accident, like guitars and myself, she wouldn't recall the accident."

Sungchan stood up, "We all thought so too, but it could be a good thing that she remembers." He patted my arm lightly.

"Did she come to school?" he shook his head.

"She couldn't sleep the entire night, and she kept experiencing panic attacks." I pursed my lips while staring at the ground, knowing there's nothing I can do but to see her suffer.

I looked up at Sungchan, "Should I just transfer out of the school?" He furrowed his brows, "Are you crazy? She didn't get reminded because of you. She got reminded because a car had to do an emergency break."

He let out a long sigh, "And the doctor did say that her memories could come back anytime."

"But did you see how she reacted when she first saw me?" I sniffed as I looked down at my fingers, "She was screaming and bawling, while asking me to leave because I reminded her of the rest."

"It could be different now." I shook my head as I smiled slightly, "I'm honestly scared to experience that again."

Sungchan nudged me, "You did the best you could, and you literally saved her life. Imagine if she was alone yesterday."

He searched through his bag before tossing a packet of milk to me, "Is it spoiled? it's warm." I joked, and he wanted to take it back from me.

"I'm kidding." I chuckled lightly.

"Are you still looking after the Han-over or whatever you guys called it?" I nodded as I pouted, "I think I just lack the cat instinct, the cats still bites me after so many feedings so I just wear rubber gloves now."

Sungchan looked over at the clock, "Hey, lunch is almost over. Let's go for lunch." He nudged me, and I nodded.

A few weeks went by, and I continued avoiding Yuljin as much as I could while getting updates through Sungchan.

After school, I went to the convenience store near the school to get some food for the strays and a pair of rubber gloves.

I walked over to where the Han-out is at, and I put on my gloves like a professional before bending down to match their height.

There's some usual tenants living there, but they still bite me every time they get the chance too. "Hey, hey!" One of them bit my glove off.

"I just want to give you guys food. Don't you want food? It's yummy." I said, and they just stared at me, uninterested and unbothered.

"Okay, but I'm still going to put it here because I am a busy man. Busy man have busy schedule." I said, as I opened the canned food, placing it in the house.

I sighed, "Don't you guys missed Yuljin? She's going through a tough time right now." I placed another can into the house.

The strays were rushing to eat the food, and I stared at them as they ate them up. I pouted as I rest my arms on my thighs, "She's gaining her memory from that day back, and I don't know if it's necessarily a good thing."

"Any advice?" After they're done eating, they just left, which made me laughed.

"Hey! I bought food for you guys and you guys just left without a meow or a woof!" As expected, they continued walking off.

I shook my head while chuckling, as I packed up the empty food cans and opened new ones for the new set of tenants.

I shoved everything into the bag. I stood up and was about to leave when I saw a figure standing in front of me.

"Wonbin?"

6 December 2023

Just to let you guys know, the last chapter for this book will be chapter 16 :)