Chapter Text
"I'm sorry," Love whispered as she lay on Milk's shoulder on the hospital bed.
Milk immediately frowned. "For what?"
"I waited too long before I told you that I love you." Love's voice took a break as her eyes welled up in tears. "I should've told you sooner."
"Don't worry about it," Milk assured Love and held her closer. "We still have forever to make up for it," Milk added and let Love bury her face against her neck.
"I'm scared, Milk," Love admitted as the tears slowly escaped her eyes kept falling on her face
Milk held Love tighter around her arms as if the small hospital bed wasn't small enough to cramp them together.
"Don't be. I'll make it out alive," Milk assured Love and wiped down the tear that fell into Love's eyes. "Phi is one of the best doctors out there."
Love nodded, full of hope. "If our paths never crossed, do you think we'd still end up together?"
"Yes." Milk lifted Love's head and looked straight into her eyes. "I know, we would."
"What if we didn't?" Love asked as if already halfway through that thought.
"We would, and I'd make sure of it," Milk said and kissed her forehead. "In every universe I will find you."
~~~
As requested by Milk, Love stood in the far corner of the operating room, watching the operation unfold before her eyes. Love was no stranger in this scene, as she is a neurosurgery resident. But to see the person you love go through the process felt unreal.
It didn't help when, in the middle of hours of operation, Milk's vitals suddenly crashed, and even the surgeons were startled as the trembling of alarms erupted around the room.
The room then went on with frantic orders, metallic clatter, and the kind of silence that coils in the throat. Through it all, Love kept calling Milk's name, voice breaking again and again. Milk had once told her, with a soft half-smile, that if anything ever went wrong, she should say she was there as if to remind Milk she had to live. To fight back. So she did. Again and again.
Earth, Milk's surgeon, was doing the same thing. They all knew Milk's will to survive is because of Love. Love is the reason why Milk agreed to the operation in the first place anyway.
"Milk, you better hold on. Love is here watching," Earth said, as he tried to make sure Milk's vitals stayed steady. "You don't want to let her down, do you?"
Milk must've heard their voices and somehow survived the storm of hands and wires and blood. She made it successfully through the removal of the brain tumor. Unfortunately, she did not wake up after the operation, going into a coma. Her body rested in a clean bed under steady lights, while her mind drifted somewhere unreachable.
Love refused to break down. Just like her promise to Milk before she underwent the surgery, Love will continue to live no matter what the results are.
Every day for almost a month, she returned to her life as a resident in the hospital. She'd be there as much as she could. She would sometimes bring flowers to Milk's room, and sometimes she'd sleep in the visitor's chair waiting for Milk to wake up, always with hope. On her rest days she'd sit by Milk's side and talk about anything that came to mind, convinced Milk could hear her.
Nurses whispered about her devotion, while doctors admired her steadiness. She waited, patient and unwavering, as though her presence alone could guide Milk back.
One morning, on her way to the hospital for work, Love took the same sketchy shortcut she always used. As a former Judo athlete, Love was never scared of anything really and took this path despite the numerous times Milk said she shouldn't.
Yet she must've been too tired or too confident. She didn't notice the attacker until it was too late.
The man was a bit older. He was tall, bulky, and unruly. A sharp shove sent her into the wall, pain blooming across her back, leaving her dizzy. The man shouted in demand for her to give him all her valued items, flashing her a bloodied knife he had in his hand.
Love fought back on instinct. Disarming a person was the most basic part of training, and Love displayed it easily. It wasn't until she had apprehended the attacker that Love noticed she was stabbed in the back. The pain then bloomed fast, and she felt it deep on her back.
People rushed to her, and with the hospital mere minutes away, she was soon sent to the emergency room.
By the time she arrived at the hospital, her pulse had slipped beyond saving. Love could barely keep her eyes open. Before she fully lost her consciousness, she whispered the only person in her mind, "Milk."
~~~
In another wing, around that same time, Milk's fingers twitched. A nurse noticed. Moments later, Milk's eyes opened, adjusting as she slowly realized she was looking at the pale ceiling with harsh room lights.
Namtan was the first to reach her, breath catching at the sight of Milk awake at last. Milk tried to speak, the words heavy and broken, but she managed one name, "Love."
Namtan flinched. "She's at work, Milk," she said too quickly.
Milk raised an eyebrow but had accepted it for that moment because she had no strength to doubt. Milk meekly nodded and fell back to sleep, smiling as she had survived the operation like she promised Love.
Three days passed.
Three days without Love's familiar voice and footsteps. While in a coma, Milk heard Love's stories and updates about the weather while her warm hands slipped into Milk's. Milk tried to be patient, but anxiousness sharpened inside her.
When Namtan arrived with dinner, Milk fixed her with a stare that trembled with exhaustion. She had been trying to regain her mobility through small walks around the room.
"Where's Love, Tan?" Milk asked Namtan, irritated, as she tried to sit on her hospital bed while holding on to the metal walking cane that was provided to her. "Shouldn't she be visiting me now?"
Namtan tried to speak and failed. Her throat tightened. Her eyes filled. She pressed her hands together as though bracing herself for impact.
Namtan helped Milk to sit on her bed and took a deep breath. "Love died, Milk." Her voice cracked. "The moment you woke up, she was pronounced dead."
Milk slid from the bed before her legs were ready, collapsing to the cold floor. Namtan rushed by Milk's side, who was now in a daze, and knelt beside her.
"You're lying," Milk said through gritted teeth, glaring at Namtan. "That's a bad joke, Tan."
"I wish I was joking," Namtan replied, eyes now filled with tears. "I really wish I were."
Milk's breath fractured into sobs so raw that Namtan pulled her into an embrace. Milk clung to Namtan like someone drowning, unable to understand how she had traded her return for Love's absence.
Hours had passed, and Milk was still in a daze. Her eyes felt sore from crying.
"Where is she?" Milk asked Namtan, who sat across the room from her.
"They're currently having a funeral for her," Namtan replied.
Milk could barely move, yet she gathered every ounce of strength she could to stand.
"Take me there," Milk demanded.
As soon as they entered the funeral hall, Milk could feel everyone had their eyes on her, but she only had her eyes forward. The room was filled with quiet voices and flowers that smelled too alive for such a place, while at the front stood the coffin, pale and still and impossibly real.
Milk approached it with shaking, slow steps as Namtan walked by her side, making sure she walked safely even though she had her walking cane. She stopped beside the coffin and touched the wood as though it were skin.
"I'm here, Love," she whispered. Her voice wavered, but she kept speaking, as if the words could cross the distance between them. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you wait for me to wake up."
Milk's tears hit the coffin one after another. She leaned forward, forehead resting gently against it. She could feel the cold glass and closed her eyes. Disbelief was still ringing inside of her.
"If I could do it once again, I'd wake up earlier and be with you." Her breath shuddered. "In another life I'll come find you. So, please meet me again."
Around her, the world continued its quiet rituals of grief. Inside her, a promise settled, fragile but unbroken.
Milk had returned to a world without Love, but in some hidden corner of her heart, she believed there would be another life, another chance, another path that crossed exactly when it should. Where the two of them lived happily in each other's arms, never letting death come in between them.