CALL ME • MYUNG JAEHYUN - Chapter 13: Chapter 13

The next morning.
The room was silent except for the faint humming of the IV and the occasional beep of the heart monitor. I awoke to that sound. It had become my alarm clock recently. Cold and sterile.
I blinked.
And blinked again.
And again.
But something wasn't right.
I sat up slowly, fingers gripping the blanket as panic coursed through my chest.
It was blurry. Everything.
Not just blurry-faded.
As if someone had grabbed an eraser and begun smudging out the world. The wall before me appeared to be fog. The clock was but a gray blob. I moved my hand in front of my face, and even that-even that-was a phantom of movement.
My breath hitched in my throat.
No, no, no...
Not now.
Not yet.
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood up too quickly, holding onto the pole of the IV stand to keep from crashing. My knees trembled. I staggered, barely reaching the door.
"Hello?" I yelled, my voice breaking. "Hello?!"
A nurse down the hallway turned her head-most likely Nurse Hyejin. I knew her shape. Her smell. Her gentle voice, always soothing me.
She came running.
"Eunhye? Are you alright? Why are you out of bed?"
I groped in the dark and clutched her uniform. My fingers trembled as they closed around the fabric, desperate for something-anything-real.
"Hyejin... I can't..."
My voice cracked once more.
"I can't see."
She stilled.
"Hyejin, I can't see!" My voice broke, high and frantic. "Please-please tell me this is temporary. Just another side effect. Tell me-"
"Shh, shh, come on, come on-let's get you back to bed, okay?"
But I didn't budge.
I was immobile.
Teardrops streamed from my eyes, scalding and embarrassing.
"I didn't even get to say goodbye to him," I croaked, my throat shutting. "I didn't even get to see him. And now I-now I can't even see the world anymore."
She led me back to the bed gently, sitting next to me, her hand on my back as I wept-no, bawled-until my chest ached from it.
"I was going to tell him," I said, gasping. "I was going to tell him finally. I was going to tell him why I left, why I disappeared, why I couldn't make it. But I didn't. And now he doesn't love me anymore. And now-now that it's too late-"
Hyejin pulled me into a tight hug. She didn't say anything for a second, just let me break down in her arms.
"You're still here," she whispered at last. "You're still fighting. You're not gone yet, Eunhye. You still have time."
"But for what?" I whispered back.
"For what, Hyejin?"
There was silence.
She didn't have an answer.
And maybe... maybe there wasn't one.
Because what do you say to someone who's slowly vanishing, piece by piece, when all they ever wanted was to be seen?
And now-
even the light was gone.
Of course. And here's the next scene - gentle and peaceful, like the sort of calm that follows a storm, but still burdened with grief:
Later that afternoon.
The crying had stopped, but the hurt in my chest remained like a dull ache, like an open wound that won't heal.
I sat up straight, resting against the pillows. Nurse Hyejin had pushed the window open a crack, admitting a gentle breeze that smelled faintly of blooming flowers from the garden outside the hospital on the next floor down. I couldn't see them, naturally. But I could feel the heat on my skin. I could hear the world continuing on without me.
She came back quietly, setting a cup of hot tea on my bedside table, the smell familiar-chamomile. My favorite.
"You okay now?" she asked softly.
I nodded weakly.
"Yeah," I whispered. "I'm okay now."
It wasn't true, not exactly. But sometimes if I said it out loud, I could convince myself for a little while.
Hyejin sat down next to me, her warmth and familiarity like a blanket thrown over a tired soul.
She waited for a moment, then said slowly, "Do you... do you want me to assist you in speaking to him? Jaehyun, I mean."
I didn't answer immediately. I ran my fingers over the rim of the cup, the silence between us taut as a thin wire.
"I could try," she went on. "I have someone I know who might have access to him, and if he were to find out-"
"No."
I stopped her, softly but firmly.
She stopped. "You're sure? You don't have to say anything, I could just-"
"I already bothered him enough."
My voice caught a little at the end, and I hated that. Hated the way I still sounded like I was waiting for him to be proved wrong.
"I sent him so many messages," I continued, trying to laugh weakly. "So many things I never dared to say aloud. And he didn't even read them. I knew it he changed his number, Hyejin."
She didn't speak.
And maybe he was right to do that," I said after a while. "Why should he care? I left. I ran away. I dropped out. I messed everything up. Even if I wanted to tell him, would it make any difference now?"
Hyejin squeezed my hand gently. "It might."
"No," I said, shaking my head. "I think he's better off not knowing. And I. I think I need to be able to accept that.
The tea had by then gone cold, untouched.
And I just sat there, in the hospital room, which was so still, wondering how long it would be before he even remembered I existed.
Day 1
I woke up, and the world had disappeared.
It was just... black.
I could hear the rattling of breakfast trays, feel the gentle pressure of a blanket draped over my legs, smell the antiseptic in the air - but I couldn't see anything. I blinked and blinked, thinking perhaps my eyes simply hadn't adjusted. But minutes ticked by. Hours. Nothing changed.
That's when I snapped.
I screamed. I wept. I ripped my sheets with my fingernails until Hyejin burst into the room and clutched me. I believe I implored her to say that I was dreaming. I do not recall much other than the soft manner she whispered, "I'm here. I've got you."
I slept last night due to fatigue, not tranquility.
Day 2
Today, I didn't cry. But I did not talk very much either.
I just heard. I heard the way footfalls resonated beyond my door, the way sunlight tickled my cheek through the window I couldn't see anymore. I ticked seconds, then forgot.
Hyejin did my hair and shared tales of her bumbling cat at home. I chuckled a little. Faked a little. But inside, I just needed silence. Silence, or someone who would possibly get it.
A person I could no longer call.
Day 3
Hospital routine became a routine- blood pressure, meds, questions I could reply to only halfway.
But messages never came. Calls. Any news from him.
I never expected any.
I just couldn't stop recalling the last words I said to him in my head... and all the unspoken ones.
Day 4
The day was heavier. My head throbbed again, and I lay in bed for most of it. Hyejin instructed me to rest, that I didn't have to keep up the act of being strong all the time. But I had no idea what else to be anymore. If I wasn't pretending, I'd fall apart.
And then, later in the afternoon, she returned.
Her voice was cautious, as though she was afraid to wake me up.
"Eunhye," she said, gently touching my arm. "You have a visitor."
I froze. My breath caught.
For a moment I thought I misheard.
"Who?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
There was a pause. Then:
"It's Jaehyun."
My heart stopped. Or at least, it felt like it.
I didn't know what to say. What to do. What expression to wear - and then I remembered, he wouldn't see it anyway.
The door creaked open.
And I knew it was him by the way my lungs forgot how to breathe.
Later
"I waited," he said.
His voice - lower than I had remembered. Weary. Frigid. "I waited for you."
I clutched the blanket harder. "I was going to come. I tried."
"You should've called me," he snapped.
"I did."
There was silence.
"I called you so many times, Jaehyun. I messaged you, every night. Even the night before I couldn't see anymore, I was still at it."
Silence again. Then.
"I never received them."
"Because you changed your number."
That stopped him talking.
And in the silence, I heard him gasp. Just barely.
I wanted to know why he was here today. Why it took so long. But perhaps I already knew the answer.
Because sometimes, regret is perfectly timed. Just not the kind you're looking for.