Heretofore

X

"Yeah, I noticed."

"What?"

"I'm watching you, Eunhae. I'm aware that he walks you home almost everyday and those telephone calls? Yeah, I'm absolutely aware."

"You're a creep." Eunhae tried to laugh. Her sister does know how to change a melancholic atmosphere.

"What? It's not my fault that you two will appear at the gate when I was just idly looking through the window! And catch you talking with him on the telephone whenever I fetch a glass of water."

"Alright alright," Eunhae nodded.

"That guy likes you, right?" Her sister asked. "I mean, ever since from day one, the way he looks at you is just...something."

Hearing her statement, Eunhae smiled as she remembered his dazzling hazel eyes. There were moments when Eunhae could imagine herself unraveling his stories that are full of possibilities just by staring at his brown orbs.

"Well uh, lately, he stopped communicating with me." She said. "As in he stopped."

Eunhae fiddled the blanket on her lap as she felt the heavy feeling in her heart rising once again. "Then, a while ago, I learned from his friend that...he's sick."

"Sick? What do you mean?"

Eunhae took a deep breath and looked up, blinking back her tears. "He...he has cancer."

"Oh Eunhae," Inna gasped. Despair was written on her eyes.

"I went to his house today, you see. And then we talked...he told me that he's sick and that he should stay away because I'll get hurt."

"What did you say?"

"I told him that I'll be there for him as he goes through his therapies. Because he's survived it two years ago...and that I'm willing to hope that he'll be well. "

"Then?"

"Then..." Eunhae sniffed as she recalled their conversation. She remembered full well the words that somehow seemed like daggers that pierced her heart. "H—he told me that I cannot...because there's no way he could be cured anymore."

"W—what? What do you mean?"

Eunhae looked at Inna as her vision started to get blurry because tears began to brim on her eyes again. With trembling lips, she stared at her sister. "He's—he's dying, Inna. Chanyeol's dying."

"Oh dear," Inna quickly wrapped her arms around Eunhae who began to weep. Her gasps were convulsive as if she's trying to let out an excruciating pain from her heart through her tears.

Being soft hearted, Inna started to cry too as if the pain that engulfed her sister's heart had embraced her too. She caressed Eunhae's hair and looked up, blinking back her tears yet she failed.

Removing her head from Inna's shoulder, Eunhae wiped her wet cheeks and tried to speak between her sobs. "I'm sorry. I thought I've already cried everything out a while ago."

"It's alright, Eunhae." Inna sniffed. "It's alright."

"You know, he confessed to me. I mean, he's always outspoken when it comes to his admiration but...today seemed so different."

"What did he say?"

"He told me that uh," Eunhae sighed as tears threatened to fall again, "that he has loved me so much he doesn't want me to get hurt."

Inna pursed her lips. She can't bring herself to imagine how Eunhae's conversation with Chanyeol went. It's too heart breaking.

Eunhae folded her knees and wrapped her arms around it as she let her tears flow. "But I love him too, sis. I...I love him."