A novella about Kim Taehyung's outer body experiences.
Through sleep and dreams, a meeting - that is turned into a friendship - breaks from the pressure and consequences of an innocent love not meant to be.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names...
It was a beautiful abandonment that day. The feeling of truth, loss, and love all in a single night. It was the epiphany of self-discovery; a revelation of realising who I was; a breakthrough in everything I believed was false. It was in that moment of reality that I figured out love was not as complex as I percieved it to be, and nothing could have ever prepared me better than meeting Choi Hani.
She was my faith, my hope, and what kept me alive, though she was not...She was a somber day of rain; a poem soaked in ink that forever tainted its pages; a word by the name of happiness that could shake a thousand worlds; and a soul taken from her life too soon than she imagined.
But it was not her regret that caused me to wonder in curiosity of an infinite matter of things; It was rather her willingness to move on, than to dwell on what she never had before, that gave rise to thoughts I never had - thoughts of appreciation and gratuity.
That day had marked the thirtieth of December, the last night before the new year yet the first day of the rest of my life...It was my birthday, I remembered, awaking from a dream of déjà vu, a dream of something much less than a whisper, soft and faint, until the sound similar to the cry of a newborn's vibrated within my ears.
I remember waking up to a brutal storm that day, harsh winds scratching against the glass pane of my window, threatening to break in as they howled. Chills formed upon my skin and I embraced myself, meeting the old planks of wood with my bare feet as I followed the sound of a typhoon stirring just outside the fenestra.
It was like the first night I witnessed the luminosity of her light and how it beckoned me towards her. The way a bokeh of glowing splendor had begun to spin their web around me and I was in awe. I had fallen into the brilliance of daylight from my window into the world I had come to know as Choi Hani and she was breathtaking.
I remembered it all too vividly, and I felt as if everything had happened not too long ago, but staring out to the snow that fell as it did each Winter, with my palms pressed against the icy glass, I wished upon the stars blurred above the gloomy sky.
"I hope you laugh a lot, Hani."
• • •
It was nearly ten years ago since that night, and yet the memories remained too well in tact. Daegu was now in blossoms, blanketed under the blue sky Taehyung had grown far too in love with as he was with the warmth of the white sun.
It was an hour into the spring afternoon and inside a white lobby, Taehyung waited nervously, his knees bouncing to the thumps of his heart beating in anticipation as he bit his nails.
His palms were clammy and his forehead sweat bullets, but somehow, someway, he managed to remain calm in all of this hectic mess.
Then, suddenly, from the far east wall, a woman in an azul coloured uniform appeared and she called to Taehyung.
"Mr. Kim?"
Taehyung's eyes glimmered as he peered up to find the familiar face he had met five long hours ago. He didn't dare speak and instead, simply nodded his head as he followed the nurse into a maze of hallways.
It seemed too long when the two had approached a room, doors open with the curtains hiding something valuable behind and Taehyung held his breath...
"Taehyung?" A feminine voice called and Taehyung's facial expression had softened to the face of the woman he had proclaimed his love to four years ago. "Come look."
And Taehyung, horrified but astonished, gazed down to find, in his wife's arms, a child; their child. She was beautiful, and she was his, her eyes doe-shaped like a familiar someone. Her hair had yet to grow but nonetheless, in his eyes, his daughter was angelic and she was innocent.
He studied her in awe at the beauty he had created with someone he loved wholeheartedly. Unconsciously, from her arms, Taehyung reached over to his wife and wrapped his arms around the newborn, pulling her into his embrace as he cradled her frail body.
Quietly, she began to whimper, her eyes squinting closed as she was brought into unfamiliar arms. Hushing her to sleep, Taehyung began to rock her in slow and smooth motions until the whimpering had come to a stop.
"Isn't she gorgeous?" His wife, Hong Aeyoung, had cooed and Taehyung met her eyes in agreement.
"She's perfect," he grinned.
Gently, he leaned down to his daughter's cheeks, and soft as they were, he left a small peck on her skin, meeting his forehead with her small one.
"I'm going to protect you, Byunghee,"
"Kim Hani Byunghee," Aeyoung corrected as she sighed and rested her head upon the pillows she slept on.
Taehyung smiled then, overwhelmed with happiness as he glanced over from Aeyoung to the newborn child in his arms. "That's right. Kim Hani Byunghee."
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Final ending, 5:11 PM; July 12, 2017.
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