BTS HYYH Notes (Book 1, 2, BUS Game) // COMPLETE [Part 2]

2022, May 12 - Hoseok (I Saw My Eommeoni)

(A/N: Game version.)

[Place: Hospital]

Doctor: There aren't any huge issues we've noticed. You'll be able to be discharged soon. Do you have any discomfort still?

"Nope, I'm fine!" I answer energetically, even hitting a pose that exaggerates that I'm feeling fine. I feel like I have to.

"Okay. Please take care to avoid any future collapses. "

The doctor's comments...

🔴

(A/N: Loop #1: Make me recall the last time I collapsed.)

"Phew..." Imo's sick. Her diagnosis - colon cancer. Imo is like an eommeoni to me. Meeting her at the children's home helped me go on when I was left all alone.

"You can't sleep, Hoseok-ie? Imo will sing for you."

This song... Is a song eommeoni used to sing. She's always been by my side... But now she's about to leave. Leaving me alone. The thought sends me reeling, and my vision grows blurry.

🔴

(A/N: Loop #2: I think of the last moment I spent with eommeoni.)

"Hoseok-ah. Close your eyes and count to ten before you open them."

"One, two, three..."

When I count down and open my eyes, will eommeoni be standing there?

🔴

"Sir... Sir?"

"Yes- Yes?"

"Are you alright?"

"Ah, yes..." The doctor gives me a questioning look but doesn't press further.

I wanted to say hello to Jimin before I left, but his bed's been empty for a while now. He should be done with physician therapy by now. How come he's not back? I should go look for him. I'm worried...

I wait for the elevator to come to take me to the physical therapy floor, when a woman and her child pass me.

Mysterious Woman: Okay, it's time to go back to the room. You can be careful on the stairs, right?

... Eomma?

A long skirt and hat pressed low... It's definitely eommeoni. I quickly turn my head to see her. Eommeoni and the kid are heading towards the staircase. "Eomma!"

I push past people to follow her. My breathing grows ragged, my heart pounds in my ears. No... I'm going to lose her! What do I do?

🔴

(A/N: Loop #1: Yell out to her.)

"Eomma! Eomma!" I can hear my voice.

She doesn't seem to have heard me because she doesn't turn around. I yell loudly after eommeoni one more time, but she's already disappeared into the stairwell. No. I can't let her get away like this. Not now that things have turned out this way!

🔴

(A/N: Loop #2: Go to the stairs.)

It's over if I let her leave... I can't lose her!

🔴

I can't even stop and apologize to the people I've bumped into. I just keep running. I skip steps as I run down the stairs in my haste. My chest feels like it's going to burst. it's definitely eommeoni. I need to stop her! I run and run after her as she continues to walk further away from me. Eommeoni stops on the 3rd floor, and I take another step.

Eommeoni stops on the 3rd floor, and I take another step. "Eomma!" My foort suddenly slips, and my weight is thrown forward. "No!" I flail my arms but there's nothing there for me to grab. My eyes close subconsciously.

"Hyung?"

I don't feel the impact I expected. My arm is taut and sore where someone's grabbed it. I open my eyes. "Jimin? How are you here...?"

Jimin looks surprised. The woman I've seen isn't my eommeoni. It's obvious once you stop and think. It's been over a decade since she left. So it would be weird for her to be the same now as she is in my memory. I can't even really remember her face anymore, but I still can't let her go.

"Are you alright, hyung?" Jimin doesn't ask anything about what I was doing, whats going on, and why I did it. It's probably because he already knows.

I wonder if Jimin is like me. Living trapped in the past. If he's unable to get better and move on stuck inside the memories that bind him...

"Jimin-ah..."

"Yeah...?"

"Let's get out of here."

***

(A/N: Book version)

[Place: Hospital]

I opened the emergency exit and darted down the stairs. My heart was hammering in my chest. I definitely caught sight of eommeoni in the hallway. As soon as I looked back, the elevator door opened and a crowd of people poured out.

Eommeoni vanished from my view. I desperately jostled through the crowd and saw her going through the emergency exit in the distance. I followed her into the emergency staircase and ran down the stairs two at a time. I went down several flights without a break.

"Eomma!" Eommeoni stopped.

I took one more hurried step. She turned around. Another step down the staircase. Eommeoni's face gradually became visible. Then, my foot slipped and my entire body lurched forward. I swung my arms to keep my balance, but it was too late. I shut my eyes tightly, scared I'd tumble down the stairs. At that moment, someone grabbed my arm from behind. I narrowly avoided falling headlong down the stairs. When I turned my head, Jimin was standing there looking startled. I quickly looked again, too hurried to thank him.

I saw a woman. She looked perplexed. There was a little boy next to her. The woman kept blinking her big eyes. She wasn't eommeoni. She stepped back with the little boy hidden behind her back. I just stood on the staircase without a word, gazing at her face.

I couldn't remember what I said then to get out of that situation. I must've mumbled that I was sorry or that I mistook her for someone else. Come to think of it, I didn't even ask Jimin why he was there. My head was a mess and I couldn't process any of the details. She wasn't eommeoni. Maybe I knew that before I began chasing her. It'd been more than ten years since the day I was left alone in the amusement park. She must've aged and looked different from what I remembered. Even if I met her again, it wouldn't be easy to recognize her. Her face was almost completely erased from my memory.

I looked back. Jimin was just tagging along without a word. He said he'd stayed at this hospital since high school, since I last saw him in the emergency room. When I asked him if he wanted to get out, he just kept hanging back, looking confused. Maybe Jimin was also bound within a web of memories like me.

I took a step forward to him. "Jimin-ah, let's get out of here."