It started with a photo.
Not a glamorous one.
Not the kind fans printed and taped to their bedroom walls.
Not the kind the media polished until it gleamed.
Just a blurry shot, taken from behind a curtain in a hospital corridor.
Harsh fluorescent lights washed out his skin.
A wheelchair swallowed his frame.
Joon-ha
Thinner than anyone remembered.
Paler than his worst days.
A ghost wearing the shell of a man who once lit up continents.
The caption was cruel in its simplicity:
"Is this really Joon-ha? Sources say he's dying."
The internet didn't pause to breathe.
It consumed.
In under an hour, the photo spiraled across platforms, screenshots, reposts, fan edits, threads dissecting every pixel.
His sunken cheeks.
His trembling hands.
The hospital tag around his wrist.
People enlarged the image just to see how close to death he looked.
By sunrise, paparazzi swarmed the hospital like vultures circling a wounded animal.
Reporters screamed questions at nurses.
Fans held signs outside the main entrance
"FIGHT, JOON-HA!"
"DON'T LEAVE US!"
Anchors spoke with hushed voices on national broadcasts, as if mourning someone already gone.
And then came the leak.
A nurse, young, overwhelmed, unpaid, unnoticed, took a photo of the medical file.
One click.
One upload.
A confession she could never take back.
"Stage IV pancreatic cancer."
"Terminal."
"Five months left, at best."
It exploded.
Headlines screamed across every platform:
"Joon-ha's Final Days?"
"Nation Mourns Fallen Idol"
"Did His Agency Hide the Truth?"
"Where Is His Family?"
The same world that had once turned its back on him now begged for updates, for miracles, for explanations.
But in a small hospital room on the 12th floor, with curtains pulled tight and machines humming softly, Joon-ha did not respond.
He turned off his phone.
Turned away from the window.
Turned inward.
His silence became its own headline.
____________________
Areum was asleep when her phone buzzed.
3:12 a.m.
One notification.
One article link sent by a friend who didn't even write a message, didn't need to.
She tapped the screen.
The photo filled her world.
She didn't finish the article.
Didn't breathe for nearly ten seconds.
Then she stood, grabbed her bag, and began to pack.
Her hands shook so badly she couldn't zip her suitcase at first.
She didn't bother turning off the lights.
Didn't cancel her morning class at the art school.
Didn't think.
She moved like someone following an invisible thread.
At the airport, she stood in line with her heart pounding as if trying to escape her chest.
The world around her was loud.
Boarding calls.
Suitcases clattering.
Children crying.
Planes roaring.
But inside her, there was only one sound
Joon-ha's voice.
Laughing.
Soft.
Once hers.
She boarded the first flight to Seoul without checking the price.
She didn't care.
When love calls
You answer.
Even when the door may never open again.
When she arrived at the hospital, exhaustion clung to her like wet clothing.
Her hair was a mess.
Her eyes were red.
Her clothes smelled like recycled airplane air and fear.
She approached the desk.
"Room?" she whispered, giving his name.
The nurse paused.
Hesitated.
Her eyes softened with something like pity.
"I'm… I'm sorry. He asked not to see visitors."
Areum felt her stomach twist.
"Not even close friends?" she asked.
The nurse shook her head.
Then, with a reluctant breath, added:
"Especially you."
The floor tilted beneath her.
"Did he say why?"
The nurse's voice dropped to a whisper.
"He said, 'Tell her I'm not angry. I just can't let her see me like this.'"
Areum felt something inside her crack
Quietly.
Softly.
Fatally.
Not anger.
Not heartbreak.
But the kind of grief that felt like sinking in slow motion.
She waited in the lobby for hours.
Maybe hope would dissolve his resolve.
Maybe he would ask for her.
Maybe he would change his mind.
But the automatic sliding doors kept opening and closing, and he did not appear.
Min Joon walked by once, carrying a tray of soup and medication.
When he saw her, he froze.
His face softened instantly.
He sat beside her, exhausted dark circles beneath his eyes.
"I heard," she whispered.
He nodded.
"He's not trying to hurt you," Min Joon said softly.
"He's trying to protect the image you still have of him."
"I don't care what he looks like," Areum whispered, voice trembling.
"I just want to be there."
Min Joon closed his eyes for a moment.
When he opened them, they were wet.
"He does care.
That's the difference."
Then he stood and walked away.
With every step he took up the stairs, her hope dimmed.
Upstairs, behind a closed door, Joon-ha lay curled on his side.
A blanket wrapped around him like fragile armor.
IV lines running into his arm.
His face hollow, his breaths shallow.
He stared at the ceiling, eyes unfocused, mind far away.
He could hear the chaos outside.
The fans.
The reporters.
The country buzzing with concern.
But none of it mattered.
Only one thing did.
Only one person.
And she was downstairs, sitting in a lobby chair that probably hurt her back, waiting like she always used to wait when he came late to rehearsals.
He pressed his fist against his chest, as if that could stop the ache.
"Don't come up," he whispered into the quiet room.
"Please… not like this."
Not with the tubes.
Not with the bruises.
Not with the weight of death clinging to his skin.
He wanted her to remember him laughing.
Alive.
Warm.
Not unraveling.
Never unraveling.
Outside, the sky cracked open.
Rain fell in sheets, heavy, cold, merciless.
Areum stepped into it without opening an umbrella.
Her hair plastered to her scalp.
Her clothes soaked through.
Her breaths visible in the air.
She didn't cry.
She didn't scream at the sky, or the hospital, or fate.
She just stood there, letting the rain wash over her.
Letting it numb her.
Letting it hide the tears she refused to shed.
Because sometimes, love isn't about being let in.
Sometimes, love is standing outside a door that will not open
And waiting anyway.
Waiting without guarantees.
Waiting without promises.
Waiting without hope, even.
Because love is not always a reunion.
Sometimes, love is simply staying.
Even when the other person asks you not to.
Chapter 42/47
Note: My new novel "velvet devotion" is coming out on 17th November 2025
It's not the book 2 of this novel but it includes some characters from this novel which are, Kim Ara and Detective Choi.