AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart
Chapter 176
written by LoveCR2 -- 2005
edited by All-About-AAE -- 2018
"Director Yoon, you're the only one who can reach out to Sun-Mi now ... Don't fail her again." -- Min-Cho Atwater
CAFETERIA, MUN-YUNG HOSPITAL ...
"I may have I jumped the gun last night..."
Min-Cho makes a conciliatory gesture to Hyung-Chul as they face off across the cafeteria table...
After a restless overnight in the hospital, awaiting word about Sun-Mi's condition, the two men had agreed to set aside their business and personal rivalries and call a temporary truce.
"Still, you had every right," Hyung-Chul admits. "If it wasn't for my inaction, this never would've happened. There's no excuse. Once again, I've failed Sun-Mi...."
Min-Cho sips his coffee, scrutinizing Hyung-Chul with visible annoyance...
"I'm going to say to you what Sun-Mi said to me," he replies, then paraphrases her admonition: "Why are you moping around uselessly, when there's something you can do to help?"
"Help?" Hyung-Chul is perplexed. "How?"
Min-Cho exhales a long sigh... then goes right to the point...
"Director, do you love Sun-Mi?"
"Of course. I'd do anything for her."
"Do you think Sun-Mi loves you as much?"
At Hyung-Chul's hesitation, Min-Cho chastises him critically, "If you can't answer that immediately, then you don't really know Sun-Mi..."
Shamed, Hyung-Chul averts his eyes. "I'd have to agree with you. I'm not sure I ever understood her."
"Yet, you wanted to marry her?" Min-Cho comments disparagingly.
"When I met Sun-Mi, she was truly a breath of fresh air, to use the tired adage," Hyung-Chul attempts to explain. "After my parent's divorce, and their pressure for an arranged marriage, I was a cynic when it came to love. But Sun-Mi changed all that.."
"Let me guess... From the first moment, she was the angel who gave you the reason to believe in love again, right?" Min-Cho chimes in with a hint of sarcasm.
Hyung-Chul grudgingly admits he'd hit the spot. "Something like that..."
"I thought love could overcome whatever challenges we faced," he goes on. "That if we accepted things as they were, it was enough for now, and we'd come to understand each other, eventually..."
He stops to ponder what he wants to say next as he takes a sip of coffee, then continues...
"I'm supposed to be the realistic one between us, but now I think Sun-Mi saw reality more clearly... 'being so different, can we ever truly know the other's heart and mind?' ... that's what she told me."
"Yet despite everything that's happened, you could never give up, because you feel this special bond of fate, right?" Min-Cho remarks.
Hyung-Chul looks up. "How did you know?"
"It's nothing I deduced. Sun-Mi told me herself that was how she felt," Min-Cho recalls, remembering her expressed reason for returning to Seoul before going on to New York ...
... 'It seems our fate is to be one in heart, but never together ... I have to go ... Senior's fate is in the balance, perhaps my fate, too' ...
"But she never said that to me! Only that we were just good friends," Hyung-Chul is surprised at hearing this.
"What else could she say, once she learned you'd given your promise to Young-Mi, and a child was involved?" Min-Cho's tone is scathing. "You put her into a situation where, because she loved you, she had to give up her own happiness, for you to be happy..."
Hyung-Chul recalls the scene at Yuldong Lake Sun-Mi asked him to remember for her, when she declared that for Woo-Jin...
... 'You have to be happy � Be happy, Woo-Jin. You really have to be happy' ...
"I see that, now," he agrees dispiritedly. "But it doesn't explain why Sun-Mi acted so recklessly, risking her own life for Young-Mi after she heard Bae In-Soo's claim to be the father."
"How would she know if it was true or not? Protecting the happiness of the man she loved became more important than her own life," Min-Cho contends, "and that's why it's you who has to act now."
"But what can I do?" Hyung-Chul despairs. "It's too late..."
"It's not too late to tell her that you love her, that you're waiting for her to wake up," Min-Cho states emphatically.
"But how can I, she's unconscious!"
"Why not try using this, for once?" Min-Cho puts a finger to his temple and taps it several times.
"Huh?"
"Telepathy..."
The reminder triggers Hyung-Chul's memory of what Sun-Mi had said to him one night, outside her gate...
... 'You know, they say telepathy only works if two people truly care for each other' ...
"You love Sun-Mi, she loves you," Min-Cho points out the facts. "What more do you need?"
"But telepathy has never worked for me. I've never gotten through to her," Hyung-Chul acknowledges his abject failure at it.
"Maybe that's because you never really thought it's possible," Min-Cho speculates derisively. "You make it too complicated. To connect with Sun-Mi, you only need to think like she does, believe in the things she believes in. That's all..."
Tired of being condescended to, Hyung-Chul argues back, "Things like what?"
"Dreams... True Love... Cinderellas... Angels in this world without wings, for just a few," Min-Cho counts off the short list with his fingers. "So believing in telepathy is reasonable for Sun-Mi, because it's another connection to a person she loves..."
"But you love Sun-Mi, too," Hyung-Chul points out. "Why are you stepping back for me?"
"Don't be mistaken, I'm not doing this because I want to. I'm a man, too... but first, I'm a friend," Min-Cho clarifies his intent. "If Sun-Mi doesn't recover, I lose her, and I'd rather not if I can do anything to prevent it."
He pauses to take a sip of coffee and let his words sink in, before continuing...
"Director Yoon, you're the only one who can reach out to Sun-Mi now, and give her a reason to live," Min-Cho says earnestly. "Use this chance to redeem yourself... Don't fail her again..."
Hyung-Chul thinks back on all his failures... pondering if he can live with the outcome if he fails again...
"All right, I'll try to believe, and give it another try," he offers. "But don't expect a miracle."
"Why not?" Min-Cho is quick to disagree. "Sun-Mi believes in miracles, too..."