The buzzing of the air conditioner was lingering yet like a soft murmur, continuously humming as if it was trying to compete with the mild buzz of the ventilator.

The first light of the morning was lighting up the inside of the room making the white room even more spacious.

Through the window beside the bed, the sun was looking like a chunk of gold made into a ball. The rising sun cast a rosy hue across the morning sky.
Few golden fingers of sunlight were seeping through the incompletely drawn white curtains and lit up the scene.

The just risen sun shone softly on the city streets, bringing it with a flurry of early morning activities down in the alleys and parks.

The room seemed like an unfathomable eternity, running longer and longer so far the sight goes.

It was tiring and boring.
But the sunlight was something else.

With the single arrow of sunlight falling on the bed, even the tiniest dust floating in the air was visible inside that beam.

The air pollution of Seoul was always remarkable. Even the dust in the air was here, high above on this floor, far from the street down.

It was hard to move the head as two pipes were going somewhere inside her body through her throat and her head was restrained in a position that was easy to connect with the ventilator machine.

She was weak.
She just woke up, but the never-ending white wall was already making her tired and sleepy.

She blinked a few times to drive away from the blurriness but after each try, the eyelids turned heavier, and not even before a minute passed, she again fell asleep.

She opened her eyes once again after tired tries for a few minutes.
And as if in a reflex, her eyes moved towards the skyline that was visible in her eyesight.

It was snowing.

The windowsill was heaped in snow.
The cotton-like snow fell like a flurry, making the scene outside of this room just like how it was inside.

White.

Cold.

And distant.

Her eyelids once again met each other as she sank deep into her slumber once again.

When she again woke up, it was cloudy outside and continuous patter on the windowsill was reminding her of something so familiar, but at the same time, so confusing.

Why it was raining?
In the middle of December?
Wait, was it December?

Where did the pipes go?
Nothing was going inside her mouth this time.
How much time has passed?
She closed her eyes.

The bee was buzzing continuously.
Or was it the air conditioner once again?
It was a bright day outside.
She again closed her eyes as the bright light stung her sight.

The bee was still buzzing.
She opened her eyes and her gaze fell on the tiny golden bee lazily changing the flowers in a spree of choosing the flower where the options were endless in that bouquet.

Her eyes picked up the curiosity as her gaze spotted the bunch of Delphinium with different shades of blue and purple with occasional whites here and there.

She tried to take a deep breath and a very light fragrance hit her smell sense and that mild stimulus was enough to wake her up even more.

The bee was still moving lazily from flower to flower and her eyes followed it slowly almost involuntarily ignoring the surroundings or questions in her head.

"Hey there!" A sweet voice spoke from beside her.

Arya almost jumped in surprise as her head moved towards the source of that voice.

Soojin.
Lee Soojin.

The girl who doesn't like her.
At all.

"You are awake finally!"

Why was her voice this friendly all of a sudden?
Was she tripping?

"Dr. Said you'll take time to function properly," smiled Soojin and touched her hand, "After all, it has been a long time!"

Arya tried to talk. But her voice was harsh and coarse and after a few tired and empty tries, she gave up on making any understandable human sound.

"Don't talk, now." Soojin shushed her and smiled at her, "let's take things slowly."

Arya didn't listen. After a few struggling minutes, a husky voice made out of her vocal chord. A sound that would make sense to her, "Jin?"

Soojin's smile was lovely as her eyes turned softer as if it was possible at all!

"You remember what happened to you?"

Arya slowly shook her head.
From left to right.

"Long story short, you died." Soojin cracked up.

Arya waited calmly to let her talk again.

"They said that losing too much blood was going to kill you.
But the depth of the sea downed your temperature so much that the metabolism of your cells went down so much so slowly that instead of sending you into an irreversible shock, you went into a suspended animation*. You are a nurse, you should know these words don't you?"

Arya slightly nodded.

"You are one god damn lucky bitch!" Soojin patted her shoulder encouragingly, "They suspected brain damage due to insufficient blood supply, but you are lucky that Jin gave you blood just in time!"

The words this time were a bit easier to speak compared to her last try, "Jin?"

Soojin again smiled and moved a bit away from Arya's line of vision.

There he was.
Sitting on a chair.
Head leaning against the headrest in an oddly imperfect manner compared to his usual perfect posture.

His eyes were close and his chest heaped in a rhythmic yet soft pattern with his slow breaths.

He was sleeping.

In the middle of a day, on a hospital chair, in a clumsy position.

She has never seen him this normal.
As if he was a typical tired man, taking a power nap in between his schedule.

A small smile crept up in Arya's lips seeing the stature of sleeping Jin.

"There you go." Soojin lowered her voice, "right in front of your eyes."

Arya's eyes turned soft.
That person in front of her was ethereal.
He can't be real.
She must be dreaming still.
Or worse, probably she was already dead and was going to come to sense that she was indeed in heaven.
Wait, did god forget to put her in hell already?

"He is here. All the time. For almost seven months now," Soojin smiled and wiped the single teardrop that left the corner of Arya's eyes and whispered as if she was revealing a secret, "and he said he won't go anywhere until you wake up."

Arya once again woke up from the irresistible slumber that was clouding her from time to time since she woke up.
But opening her eyes this time was different.

Just in front of her face, was the face of a sleeping Jin.
Sharing the same pillow with her in that narrow hospital bed.

In the wash of the new light, his face took an appearance of an old photograph, one of nostalgia, so beautiful.
She watched as it brings his skin into focus, not yet animated with the warmth of who he was, for she was still in the land of the dreams.

And since there were no better things to do but to bring her body close to his so that their heart synchronized, She'll embrace him till he wakes, when the light is so strong that he comes into the present with her, eyes open.

Feeling the warm body against hers, she felt a strong hand encircling her body in response and pulled closer.

His voice was sleepy, groggy,
"Don't go anywhere."

"I am not." Arya took the familiar scent of the body and smiled a little, nuzzling close to Jin's chest.

A soft kiss landed on her forehead and the pair of lips rested on the top of her head. His voice was calm and gentle, "I love you."

Arya's heart was exploding with all these soft moments they were sharing and she took in the scene lying in front of her and felt the steady heartbeats that were beating under her hand.

That heartbeat.
It was reminding her that they were still alive.

In front of one another.

Holding each other.

Loving.

She sighed a little and mumbled, "I know."

*Suspended animation:

Suspended animation or apparent death is a condition, wherein the vital functions of the body (heartbeat and respiration) are maintained at a low pitch reduced to a minimum for some time, that they cannot be detected by routine methods of clinical examination.
It may be reversible, or not based on the condition of the patient.

[Well, It isn't over.
Wait for a special chapter within this week as soon as I can write it down!
Until next time!]